Boundary Waters Quetico Forum :: Listening Point - General Discussion :: We all take risks
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Stumpy |
Duff: "Mt Rainier national park, 19 and I was with my folks on a three week tour of the West. WOW !!!! |
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missmolly |
Duff: "Mt Rainier national park, 19 and I was with my folks on a three week tour of the West. Holy avalanche, Batman! Your story scares me the most. So many ways to die that day. |
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bwcadan |
For me, in 30 or so trips from St. Louis, Our crew had one near collision and I drove into the back end of a car for a minor fender bender at a traffic light less than 2 miles from home. |
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bhouse46 |
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TreeBear |
My worst: one uncontrolled slide towards a 150 ft drop. Caught myself on a silver dollar sized rock. A bad water one, two full breaths of water and then a hard time getting out. Coughed water for half a day after and had a hard time swimming again. Another fall through a swamp into swimming conditions and had A tough time getting out onto continuously collapsing banks. Eventually found something solid. Also stepping over fresh mountain lion scat out west solo backpacking in the dark really made the hair stand up. In the BW, the worst was probably some really close lightning strikes while paddling an aluminum canoe in a swampy stretch with no out. 3 strikes inside a mile had the heart racing a bit. Like I said though, despite some close ones, I am so blessed for all the memories and that I still get to do the activities I love. |
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afromaniac |
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Banksiana |
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YetiJedi |
My biggest fear is losing my mind and not knowing it's gone - my wife says that happened long ago! So many situations go from bad to worse because people are not able to gather themselves and think. We have one rule in the wilderness: Don't Panic. What happens if you don't even know what that means? Anyway, I try to be safer now, more patient, and as prepared as possible. |
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analyzer |
Banksiana: "Last night of a 12 day solo in April (early ice out) on Argo lake. All day rain was finally quiet against the tent. Woke to claustrophobic tent sagging towards me- when I pushed against the sides I felt weight, real weight- my thought was oh-oh. Dawn showed 18" of snow and strong cold winds from the north. Portages were brutal, paddling Crooked and Friday Bay was terrifying. Mudro exit in a day simply not possible. Portage from Argo to Crooked took almost three hours. Day time temp never rose above twenty, ice an snow adhered to the canoe. Not much left to eat. Plenty of whiskey. " Jeez that sounds dreadful. |
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analyzer |
I was also in the 99 4th of July blow down. I had a bear encounter in camp, but don't really consider that life threatening. The worst may have been I think maybe 1995. If my memory serves, the year of the sag corridor fire, we were suppose to go to sag in August, but the fire killed the trip, so we went like the 7th ish of September. We crossed sag, and stayed in the 3rd bay campsite. The first couple days were beautiful, and in the 70's. Then we had an a lightning storm that seemed to last forever. It just went on and on and on. One lightning strike after another. Many were to the ground and seemed close by. I've camped all my life, have been in hail storms, the 99 blowdown, all sorts of torrential rain, but nothing scared me like that storm. Some strikes were close enough, that I could make out the outlines of the bushes through the walls of my tent. As I recall there were strikes every couple minutes, and it seemed endless. We normally camp in Zephyr, that was our destination, but someone had already taken the site. When we woke up, all 3 of us were thinking the same thing..... what happened to those people in Zephyr with those giant pine trees (note, those pine trees aren't there anymore, well at least not 4 of them, one fell in the 99 blowdown, which didn't hardly hit zephyr, and 2 of them fell in like 2016 ish...Zephyr 2016 storm damage ... ) Regardless, we were very concerned, because at the time, Zephyr had like 5 or 6 of these giant pines (I don't know if they're red's or white's), but we knew they were higher than the surrounding trees. So we decided to paddle down and check on them. When we got to the portage, that couple was portaging out. Their trip was over. Their tent had been damaged by a huge chuck of one of those trees, that had been hit by lightning, and it fell on the one end of their tent. Fortunately it didn't hurt either of them. Had we been camping there, that's right where I usually set up my tent, so who knows how close I was to avoiding death. Last time I was in Z, those two big pines, that fell, still bisect the campsite, and where I usually put my tent, is what's left of a big widow maker. I also recall the temps the rest of the trip, were in the mid 30's degrees. It had dropped 40 degrees from the previous day. Cloudy, rainy, windy, and cold. It was awful. Makes for nice stories later, but I can tell you if I'm never in another lightning storm like that, it'll be too soon. |
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Savage Voyageur |
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Captn Tony |
I wrecked a motorcycle once and have never got one since as I decided that day that I didn't enjoy it enough to die or be incapacitated doing it. My fun activities are paddling, ice fishing, hiking, skiing, and a few others and I can honestly say that if I died doing them I would die happy. God and Gunsmoke know I've taken some risks doing those activities. Of course the most risky activity is driving to and from the activity! |
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yellowcanoe |
Close friends doing so last Oct had a head on collision with a wrong way driver. She died. He just got home from rehab with a long way to go. Every bone in his body broken except for one leg. |
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missmolly |
In northwestern Ontario, lightning struck my tent and melted my guy lines. |
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missmolly |
eagleriverwalleye: "I am relatively new to BWCA/Q tripping with 4 so far, but I have been on countless climbing trips and several expeditions. In the Rockies and Cascades the biggest threats seem to be afternoon thunderstorms that sneak up on you. On Forbidden Peak in the Cascades we were ascending the ridge in gorgeous summer weather when I noticed that my partner ahead of me on the rope was in some distress. She couldn't understand why her long hair wouldn't stay down, and instead was arcing upwards in no wind. Then, Boom! The lightning strike couldn't have missed us by more than 50 feet. We rappelled off that ridge in record time and waited it out in a gully. That storm materialized in a short time behind us, and we failed to keep an eye out as you can get tunnel vision when the summit is so near. We were lucky." Whoa! And, WOW!! I've had my fishing rods hum a few times prior to a storm. |
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ForestDuff |
Hiking on my own when I came to a point where a glacier came to an end where it was a river coming out from it's end point. I was so curious to see what was happening at that point, it was a hot summer day. Little rocks were tumbling down from the dirty glacier here and there, but.......I so wanted to see what it looked like up close where the river exited from the glacier. Then it happened......I heard a noise, large rocks were breaking loose. I realized that I was in a world of hurt, ice cold river to the right of me, pure chaos to the left of me. I made a 50 yard dash jumping from from rock to rock at full speed as bolders were bouncing all around me. Pure luck......rocks the size of a kitchen table passed within inches of me as I booked arse as only a 19 year old could. That is with out a doubt the day I realized as a teenager that I wasn't invincible. So damn lucky. |
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GopherAdventure |
Here’s a video of that trip, fast forward to 26:46 to get to the “oh no” moment. Drought to Deluge Tony |
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mooseplums |
There were 3 of us in the tent when the storm hit around midnight. Insula Lake |
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eagleriverwalleye |
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MReid |
Duff: "Mt Rainier national park, 19 and I was with my folks on a three week tour of the West. Yep, sounds like Mt Rainier, probably either the Carbon or Nisqually glacier. And it's getting worse with the recession of the glaciers. Worked there for 6 years. One of my coworkers (and ski partners) was the "fluvial geomorphologist", who studied all that stuff. My title was much shorter and less sophisticated sounding. |
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noahj |
Captn Tony: Of course the most risky activity is driving to and from the activity!" I wholeheartedly agree! Driving is one of the most risky things we do but we take that risk on because the risk is worth the reward. I really appreciate your approach. I also always bring up the point about driving when my wife worries about my outdoor hobbies. She’s not convinced. Lol |
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MikeinMpls |
On another solo a couple years ago, I fell twice on one of the portages between Mudro and Fourtown. I slipped in the water taking out my pack, and again down a steep rock face at the north end of the portage. Again, very lucky. A lot of bumps and bruises, and a broken compass (it was in my pocket for some silly reason), but basically my body was intact. That was a tough day, foggy and windy and cold. I went to bed early, had some medicinal Jack in my tent, and spent the next day soaking my aching legs in the cool water of Fourtown. Mike |
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mgraber |
Banksiana: "Last night of a 12 day solo in April (early ice out) on Argo lake. All day rain was finally quiet against the tent. Woke to claustrophobic tent sagging towards me- when I pushed against the sides I felt weight, real weight- my thought was oh-oh. Dawn showed 18" of snow and strong cold winds from the north. Portages were brutal, paddling Crooked and Friday Bay was terrifying. Mudro exit in a day simply not possible. Portage from Argo to Crooked took almost three hours. Day time temp never rose above twenty, ice an snow adhered to the canoe. Not much left to eat. Plenty of whiskey. " Man, that sounds like a real nightmare! |