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wb4syth

04/27/2012 08:02AM

Maybe this subject has been brought up but have you had times you were worried or scared out in the BW/Quetico?

First time for me was not being able to find my dog for an hour on a portage. We had him leashed the whole trip but he was doing very well and there were no other people around so I let him free near the end of our trip. I picked the wrong portage as it crossed the Border Route Trail which he decided to investigate. I had visions of him being some wolf pack's dinner. After a while he came trotting down the trail to us - idiot dog (he was leashed every time after that).

The only other time was when I temporarily misplaced myself and (then) fiance (her first trip) in the middle of the woods while trying to find a trail on the map. We finally found our way back to the lake and were not even close to where I thought we would be. Compass and better observations from now on!

"I'm not superstitious. I'm a little stitious" - Michael Scott

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brp

04/27/2012 09:42AM

I was hiking the Sioux Hustler with my dog. We were just lying down to sleep the first night and I hear footsteps, clear as day, somebody is walking into our site.

The steps sound totally human, bipedal, the cadence and the noise, animals move quietly.

Anyway, we had to bushwack to the site because we were hiking and this is a canoe campsite.
The person is coming from the wooded side, not the lake side. Really odd, it was a decent bushwack, there can't be many people doing it at dusk in September.

My dog hears it and lifts her head and perks her ears, it is getting close, so I say, "Hello." from the tent. The noise stops.

Now I am a little freaked. I wait about 2 minutes then I get out of my tent and look around.

Nothing, except rattled nerves.

Still don't know what to make of it.

The weird thing is, the sound was totally clear, and I was not in a scared mood or anything, the kind of mood where you could "hear" things or your imagination could trick you.

Looking back, it must have been a drunk moose.

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housty9

04/27/2012 10:33AM

Second trip a little worried in lake one when fog rolled in and couldn't see the front of the canoe hardly, made first hour interesting. Got lost 2 times on way to portage but got to see a calf moose, only moose i've seen in bdub.

our we there yet

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BWPaddler

04/27/2012 10:51AM

quote brp: "I was hiking the Sioux Hustler with my dog. We were just lying down to sleep the first night and I hear footsteps, clear as day, somebody is walking into our site.

The steps sound totally human, bipedal, the cadence and the noise, animals move quietly.

Anyway, we had to bushwack to the site because we were hiking and this is a canoe campsite.
The person is coming from the wooded side, not the lake side. Really odd, it was a decent bushwack, there can't be many people doing it at dusk in September.

My dog hears it and lifts her head and perks her ears, it is getting close, so I say, "Hello." from the tent. The noise stops.

Now I am a little freaked. I wait about 2 minutes then I get out of my tent and look around.

Nothing, except rattled nerves.

Still don't know what to make of it.

The weird thing is, the sound was totally clear, and I was not in a scared mood or anything, the kind of mood where you could "hear" things or your imagination could trick you.

Looking back, it must have been a drunk moose. "
That is EXACTLY what would freak me out. Animal sounds, no problem. Something like a human? I'd be completely off my rocker and not sleep a wink. Good on you if you ever went back in again!

Wherever there is a channel for water, there is a road for the canoe. -Thoreau

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karola

04/27/2012 10:54AM

Several winters ago I was on a week long solo winter-camping trip. It was the 6th day and was putting stuff together and couldn't find my car keys! I searched and even started chipping away in the snow where I was camping. I didn't get too much sleep that night because I kept worrying about how I would have to hike down the Echo, hopefully find someone to get a lift into town. The next morning I ended up finding them tucked away in my pack, what a relief! Now I have a spare key on my car in case I ever do end up losing them.

Also on one evening of that same trip a pack of 5 wolves came out onto the ice about 400 yards away and stayed there for about 30 minutes. The second I saw them I grabbed the dog and put him on his leash so he wouldn't run out to them.

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GSP

04/27/2012 11:16AM

For a minute or so while adjusting to cold water in May on Pickrel Lake and knowing a long swim to shore was the only option.

German Shorthair Pointers Rule Serenity is found in your mind, not somewhere you seek.

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Canoearoo

04/27/2012 11:20AM

once in a tornado in the bw I was scared and worried

the other time There was some one whistling from behind our campsite in the woods when to invicate and found no one

Life jackets float, you don't!

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yellowcanoe

04/27/2012 11:49AM

I too have car key and wallet panic when I have not seen them for days.

The other bad stuff..tornadoes are bad but thankfully don't happen every day. Once a microburst brought down a big pine between our kids tent and our tent. Happened so fast there was no time to be scared before but lots of time to be scared after.

Once I lost my partner..but not in the BWCA/Q. There was a fork in the portage and having the canoe on his head he followed the wrong fork. It took a couple of hours to get reunited. Ever since we dont let the canoe person go alone.

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mooseplums

04/27/2012 11:59AM

quote BWPaddler: "quote brp: "I was hiking the Sioux Hustler with my dog. We were just lying down to sleep the first night and I hear footsteps, clear as day, somebody is walking into our site.

The steps sound totally human, bipedal, the cadence and the noise, animals move quietly.

Anyway, we had to bushwack to the site because we were hiking and this is a canoe campsite.
The person is coming from the wooded side, not the lake side. Really odd, it was a decent bushwack, there can't be many people doing it at dusk in September.

My dog hears it and lifts her head and perks her ears, it is getting close, so I say, "Hello." from the tent. The noise stops.

Now I am a little freaked. I wait about 2 minutes then I get out of my tent and look around.

Nothing, except rattled nerves.

Still don't know what to make of it.

The weird thing is, the sound was totally clear, and I was not in a scared mood or anything, the kind of mood where you could "hear" things or your imagination could trick you.

Looking back, it must have been a drunk moose. "
That is EXACTLY what would freak me out. Animal sounds, no problem. Something like a human? I'd be completely off my rocker and not sleep a wink. Good on you if you ever went back in again!"
Sasquatch?

"I am haunted by waters"~Norman Maclean "A River Runs Through It"

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salukiguy

04/27/2012 12:06PM

Yes, very scared after making a wind blown crossing across a bay in Quetico lake in a solo canoe. I lost sight of my 2 friends who were in a tandem. Once I made it to shore I scanned everywhere with my binoculars all the while wondering how I was going to tell their parents (We were around 20yo at the time). I finally spotted them on the opposite shore of the long arm of the lake and they were looking at me through their binoculars.

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Basspro69

04/27/2012 12:45PM

Only once, my buddy had eaten some sauerkraut he packed in with him the first night, and I made some chorizo chili. Theres a name for a limited range nuclear weapon called a dirty bomb I think, I was very worried about one happening in my camp.

" I want to know Gods thoughts , The rest are details " Albert Einstein.

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yellowcanoe

04/27/2012 01:04PM

Another scaredy time. The wind was up on Agnes all night. That is never good. Having spent two nights already at the campsite I was scheduled to move north. I ferried across the SW arm before the waves got too high. I was solo.

There was a tiny wind shadow on the west shore. I could see waves breaking high up on the east shore. Yet I was able to make the thirteen miles quite easily in the windshadow. Then it came time to go out into the fray to make the island campsite I was foolishly determined to go to. It was probably only half an mile but I just braced and held on and surfed to the island..absolutely petrified and wondering why the heck I did that.

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Zulu

04/27/2012 01:07PM

I was really scared crossing Lake Three on Sept. 11, 2011.

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2K10

04/27/2012 01:13PM

quote Basspro69: "Only once, my buddy had eaten some sauerkraut he packed in with him the first night, and I made some chorizo chili. Theres a name for a limited range nuclear weapon called a dirty bomb I think, I was very worried about one happening in my camp."

LMAO!

"Live in the Moment: You can't change yesterday, but you can ruin today worrying about tomorrow"

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2K10

04/27/2012 01:14PM

2nd trip to BWCA and we were in the middle of a lake fishing several portages away from camp when the 1999 storm blew in. Scariest thing I have ever experienced in my life, and was equally as nervous when the storm picked up again later that night. My guy jokes and says I have PTSD from that event because now I don't do so well about dealing with storms.

1st trip to Quetico few years ago started out dealing with 30+mph winds & about 3 foot rollers on Bayley Bay.....with 2 big dogs who had never even been in a canoe until then. Luckily the dogs hunkered down like pros & adreneline kicked in, so my fears were quickly set aside until we got to the North Portage and I realized what we just paddled through.

"Live in the Moment: You can't change yesterday, but you can ruin today worrying about tomorrow"

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toddhunter

04/27/2012 01:37PM

Huge thunderstorm overhead for about a half hour. Terrifying, but just had to say, whatever. We had been watching it arrive for about 2 hours, enjoying the show and debating whether it was the Northern Lights. The other time was when I looked up on a portage trail to see a cow moose standing in the middle of the path, for all the world as strange to me as if it were an elephant. I stopped, ushered my friends over to see, then realized I didn't know what to do if the moose charged. I asked my friends, who also had no clue. Well, the moose ambled off eventually, leaving us with a hightlight of the trip.
Scary stuff, but great memories.

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cinna

04/27/2012 02:34PM

I'll tell you what makes me a tad nervous.......visting the throne in the middle on the night. No mai gusta!

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gutmon

04/27/2012 02:50PM

Lake Isabella last summer with a friend and our daughters. On the first night just as it was getting dark, Bob and I heard a "Woof" and a heavy stomp in the woods just behind our camp. We both looked at each other with "that look" and just listened. The girls didn't hear it and we didn't say anything, but were ready for some action that night after we went to bed. Never happened.

"The trouble with the world isn't that people know too little, but that they know so much that just ain't so." Mark Twain

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YaMarVa

04/27/2012 03:06PM

A few years ago on Gaskin Lake I awoke in the middle of the night, about 2am, to people landing their canoes at our site. I said "hello", but there was no reply. So I got up, grabbed my ax (it always sleeps in my tent next to me), and stepped out of my tent. When I got out I saw four people walking around our site. I said "hello" again and all four of them hurried back to there two canoes. I asked if they needed a site, but they just mubbled things like "get out of here" and just quickly left. I have always wondered what they were doing.

"Miller owns that field, Locke that, and the Mannings the woodland beyond. But none of them owns the landscape." - R.W.Emmerson.

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Spartan2

04/27/2012 03:11PM

A "woof" and a stomp is probably a whitetail deer, right?

The only time I am usually scared is during a thunderstorm when the flash and the boom are simultaneous or nearly so. Seems like it happens a lot up there, and I always scares the bejeepers out of me!

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RaisedByBears99

04/27/2012 03:16PM

quote Canoearoo: "once in a tornado in the bw I was scared and worried

the other time There was some one whistling from behind our campsite in the woods when to invicate and found no one"

Whistling? Hate to say it. First thing comes to mind - cougar. Heard one in Boulder Bay of LLC years back, whistling, crying like a baby, and screaming like a woman. Had me a bit anxious.

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RaisedByBears99

04/27/2012 03:23PM

quote gutmon: "Lake Isabella last summer with a friend and our daughters. On the first night just as it was getting dark, Bob and I heard a "Woof" and a heavy stomp in the woods just behind our camp. We both looked at each other with "that look" and just listened. The girls didn't hear it and we didn't say anything, but were ready for some action that night after we went to bed. Never happened."

"Woof!" Can be
Bear talk for, "You are too close!"

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gutmon

04/27/2012 03:28PM

quote RaisedByBears99: "quote gutmon: "Lake Isabella last summer with a friend and our daughters. On the first night just as it was getting dark, Bob and I heard a "Woof" and a heavy stomp in the woods just behind our camp. We both looked at each other with "that look" and just listened. The girls didn't hear it and we didn't say anything, but were ready for some action that night after we went to bed. Never happened."

"Woof!" Can be
Bear talk for, "You are too close!"" That's how we interpreted it.

"The trouble with the world isn't that people know too little, but that they know so much that just ain't so." Mark Twain

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gutmon

04/27/2012 03:29PM

quote Spartan2: "A "woof" and a stomp is probably a whitetail deer, right?

The only time I am usually scared is during a thunderstorm when the flash and the boom are simultaneous or nearly so. Seems like it happens a lot up there, and I always scares the bejeepers out of me!"

Definitely wasn't a deer- we're both very familiar with their snorts and this wasn't that. The stomp had some definite weight behind it.

"The trouble with the world isn't that people know too little, but that they know so much that just ain't so." Mark Twain

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tonyyarusso

04/27/2012 06:56PM

quote toddhunter: "The other time was when I looked up on a portage trail to see a cow moose standing in the middle of the path, for all the world as strange to me as if it were an elephant. I stopped, ushered my friends over to see, then realized I didn't know what to do if the moose charged. I asked my friends, who also had no clue. Well, the moose ambled off eventually, leaving us with a hightlight of the trip.
Scary stuff, but great memories."
This happened to me on Isle Royale. Except, we were between her and her calf, so she did charge. The answer is ditch your pack and aim for trees spaced closer together than a moose is wide. Thankfully she veered off and gave us time to get out of there.

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Ozarker

04/27/2012 07:53PM

Our last night we camped at Fenske Lake campground before leaving early the next morning. It was a nice night so I just slept outside on a cot, didn't want to put up the tent. We had steaks for dinner that evening and my son and his friend just threw their bones out into the woods. About midnight I heard something crunching on some big bones about 20 yards from me. It was strong enough that I could hear it breaking those T-bones and sirloin bones in half. Next morning all the trash cans in the campground were all torn up.

"Paddle faster, I hear banjo music!"

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TomT

04/27/2012 11:07PM

My first solo trip I was 23 and saw a very dark line of clouds approaching. It was calm but soon all hell broke loose. Foolishly I went inside the tent to ride it out but soon I could hear branches snapping in the trees as the rain and wind howled.

I stayed in the tent scared that a tree or big limb would land on me. Ever since then I will go to a clearing or someplace safer than in a tent or hammock during a big storm.

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analyzer

04/28/2012 12:12AM

Blowdown, July 4th 1999.

and another trip with an electrical storm that lasted hours. Next campsite down from us had a very near miss with a widowmaker. 15 foot long piece of tree, well over a foot in diameter, took out the opposite end of their tent from where they slept. They packed up and left in the morning. It was 70 the day before, and dropped to low 40's with lows in the high 20's the next day.

A couple trips across sag, in awful waves.

One of my scariest boat trips was actually in Stillwater on the 4th of July. A hundred boats or so, sit down river of the stillwater bridge for the fire works. When the show is over, it's nascar, boat style, down the river. Picture the start of a triathalon in the water, but everyone is in boats going 35-45 mph.

You know how waves get when opposing wakes slam into each other. There's 6 of us in an 1850 crestliner, and I've never been so scared. The waves were nearly as high as my windshield, and with so many boats around us, IN THE DARK, i knew if we went down, we would perish. We got in behind a big 30 footer, and sat right in their prop wash. It was better having them break the waves for us. I will NEVER be in that situation again.

I don't think any of this compares to the poster and his father who got knocked from their fishing boat on millelacs, in cold water, at 9:30 pm, and watched as the drunken boaters, tangled in their anchor rope, pulled their boat a long ways away. One life jacket between them.

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Sides

04/28/2012 08:08AM

On my first trip to the BW. My wife and I got a little confused. We got turned around in between a group of islands. I knew the exact area we were in. We just couldn't find the portage we wanted. After about 30 minutes we saw another canoe. So I swallowed my pride and asked if they could show our exact position on the map. Luckily for them I at least what lake we were on, they did not. They thought they were two lakes over, on Crooked Lake. So now they were following me wondering where they got lost. After about another 20 minutes I found where we were on the map, by a creek that flowed into the lake. That was the only time I got confused in the BW.

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bhouse46

04/28/2012 08:32AM

Like others have said it is the scary times that stick out along with the "ohh" and "ahh" moments. Being washed against and rolling at a log across the Middle River out of Agnes in Quetico in mid May was the first and on my second morning of my first trip to the area. The last was sitting on the island campsite on Insula 9/12 watching the fire spread and planes fly around and then the evacuation with high wind. Late the 13th sitting behind the point on the north side of New Found Lake the wind had picked up again and temps were dropping rapidly. Paddling all the way to Moose seemed unlikely. I was responsible for my nephew and we both joked we were more afraid of his mother and sister than swamping. Thanks again to Ed for showing up and towing us out, hypothermia was setting in and it was not good.
I truly believe in spirits and helpful ones that have saved my a$$ more than once. Perhaps the sounds some of you hear are spirits stopping by to check you out, make sure you are okay.

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forestmaven

04/28/2012 08:38AM

Scared witless.

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eagle93

04/28/2012 09:30AM

Only once in the BW have I been scared by people. Our two sons and myself were visiting Rose Falls on a daytrip. There was a group of six already there. My "radar" told me something was very wrong, I felt very threatened even though the guys were seemingly friendly. We snapped a picture and left. I asked my sons when far enough away if they had felt any bad vibes. Younger son said, "It was like I was in the movie Deliverance." Older son, on leave after the first of three tours in the sand, simply slide his special forces knife out of his shirtsleeve were he had secreted it as soon as he had seen the guys. I slept with my knife and hatchet next to me that night. To this day, we can't pinpoint what gave us the feeling, but we all had it.

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pokychief

04/28/2012 11:16AM

I was 13 years old in 1974. My first trip to the BWCA. Up on knife lake, camping after getting root beer from Dorthy. I woke up inthe middle of the night to hear someone yelling. Looked out and our scoutmaster was chasing a bear around the camp, beating on a pan with a stick. He told us to wake up and make some noise. Shortly after the bear was running and ran over a corner of our tent breaking the poles. This was before we hung bear bags,etc. So we were asking for trouble. Been to the BWCA many times since. It makes a good story for the kids around a campfire.

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walllee

04/28/2012 08:35PM

Last summer, watching my 2 friends trying to get to shore during a very sudden storm. Thought they were not going to make it. Fully loaded canoe in 3 to 4 foot rollers and heavy rain. One of the guys had never been in a canoe before this trip. Very scary.

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TriTodd

04/28/2012 08:51PM

I would have to agree with unidentified sounds in the night are the most nerve racking. But, I have my dog that chases things away. She's chased mice, squirrels, rabbits, deer, and people away. Who knows what else that we didn't see.

An interesting thing happened when I was awoken by a mouse sniffing around my day pack under my tent vestibule. He wouldn't go away, I couldn't get to sleep. After numerous times shooing it away, I heard it screeching right outside my tent and ruffling of feathers. Must have been an owl that got it. I like owls. They help me sleep...

Life is about being outside enjoying God's world...

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SINCE1975

04/29/2012 10:14PM

quote YaMarVa: "A few years ago on Gaskin Lake I awoke in the middle of the night, about 2am, to people landing their canoes at our site. I said "hello", but there was no reply. So I got up, grabbed my ax (it always sleeps in my tent next to me), and stepped out of my tent. When I got out I saw four people walking around our site. I said "hello" again and all four of them hurried back to there two canoes. I asked if they needed a site, but they just mubbled things like "get out of here" and just quickly left. I have always wondered what they were doing."
what is wrong with some people,at least acknowledge the folks already in camp with a "sorry about that". I guess they weren't worth meeting YaMaVa, especially on vacation! lol

"I am happiest here"

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Canoearoo

04/29/2012 10:40PM

quote RaisedByBears99: "quote Canoearoo: "once in a tornado in the bw I was scared and worried

the other time There was some one whistling from behind our campsite in the woods when to invicate and found no one"

Whistling? Hate to say it. First thing comes to mind - cougar. Heard one in Boulder Bay of LLC years back, whistling, crying like a baby, and screaming like a woman. Had me a bit anxious."

No they were whistling some kind of tune. It was eerie

Life jackets float, you don't!

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bruceye

04/29/2012 11:37PM

Nothing comparable to most of the ones I've read here so far. Just the premonition of explaining to my friend's wive's and families that the reason the Ely fire dpt. is dragging Snowbank Lake, is because I made the decision to cross when I should have waited.

It's funny how when faced with death, it's the repercussions that we fear the most.

Bruceye

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missmolly

04/30/2012 06:51AM

Good thread and good stories. Been scared lots of times. Once I was fishing just off the shore and something big was coming through the woods, snapping branches. I scooted. It was likely a moose or a bigfoot.

Say, this is my week for meeting some of you...FINALLY! Met one bwca person last week, one last night, and will meet another this Friday. I had to visit three states to do it though!

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nofish

04/30/2012 11:17AM

I was afraid that I was going to kill a trip leader once after a week long trip full of bad decisions on his part. He was a BWCA vet and I was a rookie so I deferred to him on everything thinking that he surely must know what he was doing. I thought wrong and I will never trip with him again because I'm afraid he wouldn't survive.

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Freddy

04/30/2012 02:36PM

First trip in the BW we encountered some strong winds and waves much larger than we have ever paddled. I was very worried/unnerved about possibly capsizing and losing our gear. Fortunately there was a nearby campsite which was open and we were able to relax and enjoy the rest of the trip.

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul" John Muir

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wb4syth

04/30/2012 04:19PM

I forgot about one split second of sheer terror.
My dad and I were sleeping and I was awoken by some lightning/thunder. Right after I woke up the entire world turned white as a bolt hit a tree very nearby. Both my dad and I screamed like teenage girls at a Justin Bieber concert and grabbed onto each other.

"I'm not superstitious. I'm a little stitious" - Michael Scott

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ozarkpaddler

04/30/2012 06:37PM

quote wb4syth: "screamed like teenage girls at a Justin Bieber concert."

I'm going to have to remember that expression, LMAO!

"Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." Mark Twain

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fitgers1

04/30/2012 07:36PM

Thanks all for sharing your stories.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” Ralph Waldo Emerson...and...“Peace is that brief glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading".

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WhiteWolf

05/01/2012 04:11AM

quote brp: "I was hiking the Sioux Hustler with my dog. We were just lying down to sleep the first night and I hear footsteps, clear as day, somebody is walking into our site.

The steps sound totally human, bipedal, the cadence and the noise, animals move quietly.

Anyway, we had to bushwack to the site because we were hiking and this is a canoe campsite.
The person is coming from the wooded side, not the lake side. Really odd, it was a decent bushwack, there can't be many people doing it at dusk in September.

My dog hears it and lifts her head and perks her ears, it is getting close, so I say, "Hello." from the tent. The noise stops.

Now I am a little freaked. I wait about 2 minutes then I get out of my tent and look around.

Nothing, except rattled nerves.

Still don't know what to make of it.

The weird thing is, the sound was totally clear, and I was not in a scared mood or anything, the kind of mood where you could "hear" things or your imagination could trick you.

Looking back, it must have been a drunk moose.

"

I've had very similar experiences in the bush,,, one solo and one with a group of 4 strong dudes. After much thought (and experience both before and later with owls',, we think it was some kind of owl. Great Horned or Barred. If you have ever witnessed these creatures at night,,,it's something to behold. They can make sounds very similar to the above. Think of a grouse 5-6 times the size making that whap- whap- WHAP sounds,,, then you say "Hello" of course it's going to stop. Don't want to sound like a skeptic,, but as a veteren tent sleeper,, we all wake up to sounds in a tent that on first call assume to be the worst,, then the mind games work in. Owls make the best answer for the above.

"What good fortune for governments that the people do not think." — Adolf Hitler

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oldgentleman

05/01/2012 05:23AM

I never had a real scare in the BW. Once while hiking in Colorado I was trying to get to the top of the mountain before noon, but an unusual early morning thunder storm came rolling in. I saw it coming and tried to get off the mountain before it arrived but was still pretty high up when it hit. I was running down the switchbacks on a steep slope. It's the first time I've ever seen lightening below me. Lots of it.

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missmolly

05/01/2012 06:59AM

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Freddy

05/01/2012 08:45AM

quote oldgentleman: "I never had a real scare in the BW. Once while hiking in Colorado I was trying to get to the top of the mountain before noon, but an unusual early morning thunder storm came rolling in. I saw it coming and tried to get off the mountain before it arrived but was still pretty high up when it hit. I was running down the switchbacks on a steep slope. It's the first time I've ever seen lightening below me. Lots of it."

This triggered a memory when I was fishing a local lake while a storm was approaching. I should have headed for shore but the fishing was insane. When I made another cast, my lure hit the water but my line stayed suspended in the air and I could feel my hair standing straight up. In that brief moment all I could think is something very bad is about to happen. All that did happen was that I got very wet in a brutal downpour with some of the most spectacular thunder and lightening I have ever experienced. I now stay near shore any time the weather looks threatening.

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul" John Muir

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buz

05/01/2012 09:55AM

Late high school, guided trip with my dad to the big Crooked lake. Come thru basswood river, pick up stashed motor. We get on basswood, heading for prairie portage, wind is blowing pretty strong, from straight west. 2 canoes, bridle arrangement, powered canoe towing us, maybe 50' bridle. Make it around American point, down to Washington island. Now got to go length of Basswood to get to Prairie Portage, with big west wind, that had been blowing a while. Looks pretty rough to me, but guide is in charge, discusses with the adults, we are going. Famous last words from guide as we take off from wind shadow of Washington Island, "use your paddles as rudders, make sure you stay right behind me" His boat, big 19' square stern grumman, 10 hp motor. Not more than 10 minutes into the ride, the waves are 3 footers, luckily we are going straight down wind. Beginning about 1/2 of the way back, about, I can no longer see the lead canoe when it goes over a wave and down into the trough ahead of us, only a line pulling our canoe thru some giant wave, so you figure out how big those waves were. This goes on for like 45 minutes, because we had to go slow. Crazy, if we had tipped, who knows. By bailey bay, the swells were at least 6', IMO, giant rollers thou, mostly not breakers. My vision of seeing only a tow rope pulling us thru and over a green wall of water was one I never want to repeat. Bad choice, lucky to have not spilled.

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nctry

05/01/2012 10:13AM

This thread reminds me of a time at "the cabin", where I live now. I was about 14 and lived in the cities growing up. My cousin Tom who lived up here would always have to camp with me and we decided to row across our little lake in my families row boat. We'd set up camp and Tom always thought he could scare me with stories and noises he did a lousy job of making. This year he'd told me of a bear being shot and wounded a week earlier at the beach next to our cabin... And how when wounded they could be very dangerous. He did his normal stupid noises and dumb stories and we just sat by the fire outside the tent and dozed. About 1AM there was a huge crack of a branch just outside the light of our fire. We never touched the ground... Next thing we were rowing back across the lake and I think you could have waterskiied behind us easily. :) We could have swore we saw something pass in front of our fire as we were leaving.

Nctry Ben

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4keys

05/04/2012 02:04PM

Not in BWCA, but in Porquipine Mts many years ago. My husband and I had a last minute idea to go backpacking. Threw a few things together, did not let anyone know we were leaving (mistake #1),
jumped in the car, drove 3 hours, parked, and started hiking. Come night, we found a spot off the trail (no designated sites back them) and set up the tent. Saw no one all day. It was spring, new brush was high, trails not worn down. Could not see the tent from the trail. Over night a storm blew in, knocked down a large tree only 10 feet from our heads. We did not sleep the rest of the night. If it would have landed on us, maybe someone would have looked for us after the car sat in the lot for a few weeks, or maybe when the leave fell off in the fall!
Natural happenings worry me, and can scare me, but the real nightmares are some of the people who are out there! We never watch Deliverance before a trip!

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oldtown

05/04/2012 09:09PM

My buddy and I were on Brule lake back in the mid 90's. It had just got dark when a storm rolled in. We headed to our tent and within seconds it was done. A giant tree had fallen over the spot we were going to put our tent and crushed the fire pit area. Good thing I had the Doctor in me that night to sort things out. Scary to see all the little sticks in the ground from the tree that could have impaled me. Word to the wise: Never put your tent near a dead tree, lesson learned!

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oldtown

05/04/2012 09:20PM

Another time I was on East Pike Lake. We had just come from John lake and everything was calm. As soon and we got to east pike the wind was ragging. We had to rookies along at the time and they dumped their canoe twice in five minutes right next to shore. It was cold out as well. Thankfully two nice people let us stay at their campsite for five hours to ride to ride out the wind. We then made the choice to back track back the way we came with the wind. Some of the winds were sustained at 40 - 50 miles per hour. Never seen anything like it, never want to again. These people let us bust a window in their old car in exchange for vodka. Bless their harts. then we drove back to our car at clearwater. We left them money and duct taped their window.

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