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Author
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Topic: Something to talk about - getting lost
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Locohead
World Famous Smoke Dancer
Member # 15
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posted August 10, 2005 10:27 PM
I got lost up above timberline one time too...in the dark, with no light...YIKES!!!! I was so out of breath I could hardly walk 20 yards without having to stop to calm my heart and lungs back down. I was scoping out a super thick patch of scrub oak to zonk out in, when my buddy began honking the horn and flashing the lights on my pick-up half a mile away. Man o man did I feel like a new man! I quickly admitted my ineptedness and got myself a GPS. The following year, I used it to find my tent in the dark. They are very great tools, atleast for an outdoor and back-country loving city boy like me!
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I love my critters and chick!!!! :)
Posts: 2219 | From: CO | Registered: Jan 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted August 11, 2005 12:15 AM
Lost, eh?
I wasn't lost for more than half a night, but it was memorable because it involved one of only two times I killed three bobcats, on one stand.
"It was a dark and stormy night" (I love that line) and we were hunting a high plateu. Had some eyes out there but he wouldn't come in so we went after him. Pat had the light and battery pack and I had a rifle.
As we caught glimpses and flashes, he sort of tolled us on, until I got a decent shot and got "her". next thing you know there were more flashes, and the reason for our confusion, two darn near full grown kittens, and managed to get both after some maneuvering and coaxing. No wonder we were seeing so many eyes, mixed with the sparkle of the raindrops.
Hey, great; but now there we were, rain coming down in buckets and we were surounded by pinion pines, all the same, everywhere we turned. I couldn't say how many times we backtracked?
A very dark night, every tree evenly spaced, all the same size, terrain was flat, a perfect maze.
So, there we were, Pat has the light, my rifle and a heavy automotive battery and I was dragging three slippery cats.
We cut a fence and made a right turn and wound up on the road...another lucky decision, turned right again and shortly we spotted the truck against the skyline.
If we had not made those two right turns, we would have been out there all night. It was a relief, I promise.
This was total wilderness, every little gully had turned into a creek two feet deep and I had to use my chains. We decided that the road ahead was impassable and turned around and forded those creeks again that were now three feet deep and I worried about soaking the ignition.
But, we got down to the valley floor. The rain had stopped, but a flash flood had swept across the road and there was nothing but four inches of muddy silt covering the road for two hundred yards, no traction whatsoever.
I almost always have a shovel on board, and that is the only thing that got us out of there. We took turns digging two rows of mud, block by block, from the road bed. You know, the kind that is like lifting fudge from a cake pan?
Eventually, we got a decent road under us. We were soaked and sweaty, but felt good.
I liked the spot and returned later that season with my cousin, Mike. Three cats, two of them nice toms. Have not been back since. ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
Good hunting. LB
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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R.Shaw
Peanut Butter Man, da da da da DAH!
Member # 73
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posted August 11, 2005 05:38 AM
Daniel Boone was asked if he had ever been lost. He replied no, but he had been a might confused once for 3 1/2 days. I have been confused several times in my life and it almost always involved hounds,coons, overcast nights, and fog.
Most of the time I hunted by myself and always carried two compasses. Seems like one of them would lie to me once in a while until I checked it against the other. Then suddenly it would be telling the truth.
Everyone has been writing stories lately. I will give it a try even though I am not very good at it.
My dad and grandpa decided they wanted to go hunting with me one night. I was sixteen at the time and drove the truck about a half mile off the road down a long ridge. We were parked, by farmer standards, in my grandpas back yard. The night was overcast with a mist that just hung in the air never really falling as rain. This night I had loaded only 2 dogs. One cur and one hound. I opened the dog box and we headed towards a 5 acre patch of corn that was located a half mile due south of us. Between were several cottonwood ditches, hills and pastuer ground.
We managed to kill 4 or 5 coons around that patch of corn and the last coon required a lot of effort to spot. We had all circled the tree 5 or 6 times with our heads up doing that sidestep thing. Finally someone saw the coon and I killed it. After skinning it, I dropped it in the pouch on my jacket and waited for the fleas to start up my neck.
Dad and grandpa both said they were ready to head back to the truck. I just fell in behind them and about a quarter mile later something just didn't seem right. I checked my compass and we were walking straight south. The exact opposite direction we needed to be walking. I hollered at dad and told him my compass said we were going due south. Both men were quick to inform that both me and my compass were wrong. I told dad I was turning around and they didn't even look back or break stride.
By this time both dogs had checked in and they were happy to go with me. We hot-footed it north with me checking the compass ever so often. I was 200 yards from the truck before I finally got my bearings. If you have ever been confused, you know what I mean. It is when north really is north again.
I found the truck, loaded the dogs, and looked to the south. The weather had cleared by now and I could see two lights about to top over a ridge. I laid on the horn and flashed the headlights a few times. The lights stopped and seemed to be looking at one another. In fact they looked so long, that I begin to wonder if they would head my direction or continue south. Finally the lights turned and headed towards me. I was able to find a couple of ditch crossing with the truck which reduced their walk considerably.
It was pretty quiet after they climbed in the truck.They complained about legs hurting, but for the most part it was silent while two grown men pondered on how they got lost in their back yard. The phrase " I told you so" never entered my mind.
The next day my grandpa called and asked me to take him back to the corn patch. During daylight, it was easy to see how we had got turned around. We had a big laugh and I was sworn to secrecy.
Randy
Posts: 545 | From: Nebraska | Registered: Jan 2003
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