Woke up one morning at summer camp with a rattlesnake curled up on my sleeping bag. I did not move until late afternoon.
Turned around on a hiking trail to see a large tusked boar a few feet away staring me down and huffing at me. All the trees around me too small or too big to climb. I backed away reeeeeeally slow and it went the other way.
Got ejected from and then trapped underneath a 12-person whitewater raft that was also stuck on rocks in a shallow section between rapids. I don’t know how I ended up back in the raft, I just remember silently saying goodbye to the world and blacking out. Then went down the same river again the next day, cause apparently I killed some brain cells the first time.
This was before the modern age of cell phones, there was one pay phone for the whole camp. I was camped farther away from everyone else in my group and didn’t dare yell for anyone because it was on my stomach. I was barely breathing to not piss it off. It was a large group so my absence wasn’t noticed right away. Someone eventually came to see if I was sleeping in or sick, saw the snake and went running to find the nature lodge people, who saved me.
edit: should add that it took them a while to find the nature lodge people who were out and about (again, no phones.) And then it took more time for them to agree on the best way to come in, protect my face and get it into a bag. It felt like eternity.
Yeah I’m gonna plead the 5th on that one. First year camper, first time away from home, first time seeing a rattlesnake. Like that? Scared out of my mind. Just proud I didn’t have a heart attack.
Woke up one morning at summer camp with a rattlesnake curled up on my sleeping bag. I did not move until late afternoon.
Turned around on a hiking trail to see a large tusked boar a few feet away staring me down and huffing at me. All the trees around me too small or too big to climb. I backed away reeeeeeally slow and it went the other way.
Got ejected from and then trapped underneath a 12-person whitewater raft that was also stuck on rocks in a shallow section between rapids. I don’t know how I ended up back in the raft, I just remember silently saying goodbye to the world and blacking out. Then went down the same river again the next day, cause apparently I killed some brain cells the first time.
(etc)
I need more info on the rattlesnake story. Did you have your phone with you? Did you call someone to help you? What happened?
This was before the modern age of cell phones, there was one pay phone for the whole camp. I was camped farther away from everyone else in my group and didn’t dare yell for anyone because it was on my stomach. I was barely breathing to not piss it off. It was a large group so my absence wasn’t noticed right away. Someone eventually came to see if I was sleeping in or sick, saw the snake and went running to find the nature lodge people, who saved me.
edit: should add that it took them a while to find the nature lodge people who were out and about (again, no phones.) And then it took more time for them to agree on the best way to come in, protect my face and get it into a bag. It felt like eternity.
I would’ve browned my pants.
Yeah I’m gonna plead the 5th on that one. First year camper, first time away from home, first time seeing a rattlesnake. Like that? Scared out of my mind. Just proud I didn’t have a heart attack.
That’s insane. It was a crash course into how fucked a camping trip can potentially go.