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#102449 - 12/10/08 07:45 AM Re: Freaky Nighttime Woods Noises [Re: chaz]
northernbcr Offline
member

Registered: 05/26/08
Posts: 125
Loc: bc/yukon border area
home again sick and grumpy .just read this entire thread and found most of it pretty funny . also the question did get ansewered .

other than the usual noises my ....incident .... goes like this, after spending a long and damp,cool type day of trudging around exploring a new area i had made it back to camp, warmed up and eaten. it was past bed time and i was sitting by the fire kind of dozing in lala land. out of the blue a wolf lets out this howl and by the tracks and scraping he was 30 feet away from me. this caused me to spring up and land on my feet,and with heart rate going full out a slow grin came to my face and then a good laugh what a way to wake up. then it was bed time . those beasts are loud at that close distance.

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#102450 - 12/10/08 11:59 AM Re: Freaky Nighttime Woods Noises [Re: northernbcr]
billstephenson Offline
Moderator

Registered: 02/07/07
Posts: 3917
Loc: Ozark Mountains in SW Missouri
Quote:
it was past bed time and i was sitting by the fire kind of dozing in lala land. out of the blue a wolf lets out this howl and by the tracks and scraping he was 30 feet away from me. this caused me to spring up and land on my feet,and with heart rate going full out a slow grin came to my face and then a good laugh what a way to wake up. then it was bed time . those beasts are loud at that close distance.


That reminds me of this story...

I've camped at the same spot many times. It's public land now. Lot's of coyotes there, but the wolves are long gone now. (There are stories of sightings, my neighbors supplied the latest one, but I've never seen one.)

Bill
_________________________
--

"You want to go where?"



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#102451 - 12/10/08 01:21 PM Re: Freaky Nighttime Woods Noises [Re: billstephenson]
northernbcr Offline
member

Registered: 05/26/08
Posts: 125
Loc: bc/yukon border area
sheesh what can you say i do not usually think of wolves like that,as far as i can remember there has only been a couple of documented cases of wolf s doing that up here. sounds pretty awful, maybe this should be a new animal saftey tangent for me to get off on........ just kidding

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#108360 - 12/27/08 12:11 PM Re: Freaky Nighttime Woods Noises [Re: abp]
GDeadphans Offline
member

Registered: 12/26/08
Posts: 382
Loc: Maine/New Jersey
Welcome to the great outdoors! The noises are great, I always try to identify what made the sounds (being a Wildlife Biology major helps a lot)

Probably the craziest thing that ever happened to me was not on a backpacking trip, it was walking to my friends house with his dog. We live in the middle of no where Maine, and my buddy Alan lives on a homestead 3 miles down a logging road.

I was walking his dog at night, stopped to take a leak, all of a sudden a huge moose came out (rut season as well). I thought I was gonna get charged, it was so close. I quickly zipped up and hid behind a tree opposite of him. He did nothing, just stood there in his massiveness, then turned around and left. But geez, what a fright! Moose can really do some damage. The dog went buckwild but luckily its a small dog so I grabbed him and took him behind the tree with me.

Another startling moment was hearing a pack of coyotes about 20 yards away. I could hear them rustling around through the shrubs. Then 2 minutes went by and I heard them all howling so loud - they must have found a kill. It was amazing. Needless to say I pulled my knife within reaching distance lol, and was glad the kill wasn't me. I have a feeling that the knife wouldn't do much to a coyote, more over a pack of coyotes

_________________________
"To me, hammocking is relaxing, laying, swaying. A steady slow morphine drip without the risk of renal failure." - Dale Gribbel

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#108396 - 12/28/08 01:34 PM Re: Freaky Nighttime Woods Noises [Re: GDeadphans]
chaz Offline
member

Registered: 10/22/07
Posts: 1149
Loc: Tennessee
Originally Posted By GDeadphans
I have a feeling that the knife wouldn't do much to a coyote, more over a pack of coyotes



You would be suprised at what you can do with only a knife. An avid hunter I used to work with, told me a story of one of his Boar hunts in Mississippi a few years ago. He was bow hunting and shot a boar that ran away. So he tracked it down the trail and realized it was hiding behind him. As he turned, the wounded pig charged with the arrow still in him. He sidesteped the charging pig and jumped on it with his hunting knife intending to finish it off. He dropped the knife but still had a hold of the moving pig. His only weapon at that point was the arrow. He pulled it out and used it to repeatedly jab the pig in the open wound. He freakin killed the pig like Conan or something. When he was telling the story, I couldn't believe it. But, whitnesses confirmed that "Bridgewater" was indeed a hunting machine.
BTW he also hand grabs giant catfish and can dress a Deer like it's a speed contest on T.V..
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Enjoy your next trip...

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#108416 - 12/28/08 10:09 PM Re: Freaky Nighttime Woods Noises [Re: abp]
Gadgetech Offline


Registered: 11/28/08
Posts: 19
Loc: Upstate, SC
Moonshine stills if you ever camp in the SE mountains.

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#108976 - 01/08/09 11:37 AM Re: Freaky Nighttime Woods Noises [Re: Gadgetech]
hazydavy Offline
newbie

Registered: 01/07/09
Posts: 4
Loc: n.c. florida
While steelhead fishing on the smith river in no. ca, My friend and I awoke to the sound of CRACK, WHOOSH, BLAM, sevral times. Come to find out it had started snowing just after we fell asleep and it was the sound of redwood boughs breaking under the weight of new fallen snow and landing only a few feet from our tent! pretty scary. And as a word of caution for those of you who sleep under the stars, a packing friend had a pine cone fall from a hundred feet or so and hit her on the jaw, shattering it. Talk about a rude awakening!

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#109001 - 01/08/09 04:48 PM Re: Freaky Nighttime Woods Noises [Re: hazydavy]
kevonionia Offline
member

Registered: 04/17/06
Posts: 1322
Loc: Dallas, TX
. . . and never park yourself or your car under a sugar pine in Kings Canyon NP. Those cones are two-foot missles falling from the upper reaches of 20-story trees. Wonder if anyone's ever succumbed to being hit by one?
_________________________
- kevon

(avatar: raptor, Lake Dillon)


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#110141 - 01/27/09 01:33 AM Re: Freaky Nighttime Woods Noises [Re: kevonionia]
Lupine Offline
newbie

Registered: 01/27/09
Posts: 6
Loc: Pacific Northwest
Worst noises ever--skunks mating. Seriously freaked me out.

OK, worse was a grizz schnuffling around my tent in the Northwest Territories. Sure, the grizzlies are smaller up there, but so what?


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#110188 - 01/27/09 06:26 PM Re: Freaky Nighttime Woods Noises [Re: Lupine]
sabre11004 Offline
member

Registered: 05/05/07
Posts: 513
Loc: Tennessee

I think that is part of the reason that I trek into the back country. That is to hear all the noises that I love to hear but do not really get the chance to hear in the city. I think that one of my favorite things is to just lay in my hammock early in the morning and just listen to the sounds of the wild. Gosh, after doing that for a week or so, I can come back to town feeling almost like a human again...sabre11004...

The first step that you take will be one of those that get you there !!!!! awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome
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The first step that you take will be one of those that get you there 1!!!!!

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#110190 - 01/27/09 06:31 PM Re: Freaky Nighttime Woods Noises [Re: Glenn]
sabre11004 Offline
member

Registered: 05/05/07
Posts: 513
Loc: Tennessee
We were in middle eastern Tennessee about a year ago and heard something in the night howling. The friend that I was with said that it was a wolf but I didn't really think that there were wolves where we were at. Later on after getting back home I watched a T.V. special about wolves and it said that the populations of wolves were being built back up in this area. We have never seen one, but (I think) have sure heard them before and it is quite a hair raising sound for sure...sabre11004... shocked
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The first step that you take will be one of those that get you there 1!!!!!

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#110191 - 01/27/09 06:36 PM Re: Freaky Nighttime Woods Noises [Re: Berserker]
sabre11004 Offline
member

Registered: 05/05/07
Posts: 513
Loc: Tennessee
Yes bears do sound like a person going through the woods. Some times if they are big enough, they sound like a large drunk person walking through the woods. I have always hoped that the bears that we have encountered, would not find any thing interesting around us and just kind of mosey on along and most of the time they do with out bothering any thing. They are usually just looking for food. Besides, the truth be known, they are probably a lot more scared of us than we are of them. eek

The first step that you take will be one of those that get you there !!!!
_________________________
The first step that you take will be one of those that get you there 1!!!!!

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#110192 - 01/27/09 06:38 PM Re: Freaky Nighttime Woods Noises [Re: rootball]
sabre11004 Offline
member

Registered: 05/05/07
Posts: 513
Loc: Tennessee
No don't run back to your car because if there is a bear near by he will follow you just out of curiosity...and he can catch you no matter what or how fast you are...sabre11004... confused

The first step that you take will be one of those that get you there !!!!
_________________________
The first step that you take will be one of those that get you there 1!!!!!

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#110193 - 01/27/09 06:46 PM Re: Freaky Nighttime Woods Noises [Re: abp]
sabre11004 Offline
member

Registered: 05/05/07
Posts: 513
Loc: Tennessee
Ahh, yes!!!!! The crickets are among my favorites and sometimes you just can't go to sleep without them...sabre11004...


The first step that you take will be one of those that get you there !!!!! sleep
_________________________
The first step that you take will be one of those that get you there 1!!!!!

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