I can't believe no one here told him about the chupacrabas.
I believe you crossed the line with that one, Bill. Of all the serious back country threats you AREN'T supposed to talk to new campers about, chupacabras and trans-tent-wall alien abductions (TTWAA) top the list. Shame on you. I can see the headlines..."camper found with empty cranium and blood drained....police baffled"
The first time I heard a male Grouse looking for the ladies I thought my heart was going to go through my chest <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> Boy did I feel d-u-m-b after I figured out what it was.
The wind is always interesting at night - especially if you have a permit on the outside of your tent. ScratchScratch! All night long.
Had a marmot that would not get out from under my rain fly one trip <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> another time I lay there looking up as Squirrels ran back and forth between my rain fly and the inner tent. It was a looser design - we were car camping. I'd hit the ceiling and they would fall down. And come right back. All freaking night.
_________________________
Freezer Bag Cooking, Trail Cooking, Recipes, Gear and Beyond: www.trailcooking.com
I wouldn't be to freaked out at some of the noises that you will hear at night. The last time I went out, I heard something getting chased by what sounded like cayotes. They werent barking like dogs but yapping. The pray they were after made screaming noises and in a few minutes it was all over. I guestimate it was a hundred yards ffrom where I was camped and about 3am. I just went back to sleep. If your easily freaked out by unfamilier sounds you might consider taking along a friend the first couple of trips.
We were car camping in October on Vancouver Island just out of Victoria, and after a steak dinner and pitching the bones and stuff in the fire went to bed. A few hours later I bolted up in the tent when I heard this:
I sat there listening and it went on for two minutes, but I didn't wake up either my wife or brother who were both in the tent snoring away from a little too much BC Okanagan Valley white wine. It was vicious, and eventually trailed away into the woods.
First I thought they were a couple of wolverines. But then I did a little research and it looks like the wolverines' territory doesn't include Vancouver Island. (Anyone know for sure?)
Then someone said they were just raccoons fighting over the steakbones my brother had pitched in the fire. Unless they burned those cute little paws digging them out, I can't pin such a hateful, terrorizing sound on those creatures.
Then I remembered the cartoon and sure enough, this is the sound closest to what I heard. Is it possible some ex-Aussie released his pet Tasmanian Devils on Vancouver Island and that's what I was hearing?
Just glad I didn't meet up with them in the daytime, especially if their paws were scorched.
Then someone said they were just raccoons fighting over the steakbones my brother had pitched in the fire. Unless they burned those cute little paws digging them out, I can't pin such a hateful, terrorizing sound on those creatures.
Then I remembered the cartoon and sure enough, this is the sound closest to what I heard. Is it possible some ex-Aussie released his pet Tasmanian Devils on Vancouver Island and that's what I was hearing?
It was raccoons - they sound a lot like that when really angry. Had some fighting in my camp in Sequoia not long ago. Guess I never thought of them as cute - a friend was raising one that was found orphaned in a post office, and I coon-sat for her, and I'm so very glad it was a youngster and not a full grown one. Strong, loud, and demanding. And those cute little paws can rip you up.
_________________________
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities. In the expert's mind there are few." Shunryu Suzuki
The same black bear exploring and sniffing around my tent made all the hair on my body raise for a long time, every night while camping by a lake in Labrador. Suspect splashing and panic screams in the nearby croc-populated billabong kept me awake some more nights. Various rodents, and possums, and young birds in pre-dawn hours can be horrendously noisy, but not that scary. And falling asleep with the sound of wind (not howling gales...) or pounding waves is such a nice thing! But altogether, I always feel that "two-legged" animals noise can be more frightening...
The scariest growl I ever heard while camping was VERY close. It woke me up screaming to scare away what ever it was. Then it growled again, only this time inside my sleeping bag... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Jim <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />
_________________________
These are my own opinions based on wisdom earned through many wrong decisions. Your mileage may vary.
Then it growled again, only this time inside my sleeping bag...
Stop making me laugh out loud when I'm reading this surreptitiously at work! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
Registered: 02/07/07
Posts: 3917
Loc: Ozark Mountains in SW Missouri
Quote:
If your easily freaked out by unfamiliar sounds you might consider taking along a friend the first couple of trips.
That's good advice Chaz. I'd add that one that is a slow runner and sound sleeper is a good first choice.
Seriously, I was camping alone on the Buffalo River in Arkansas and was woke early one morning by a monstrous and horrifying inhuman screaming that would have scared even a sound effects guy for horror films.
I peaked out of my tent and it was just barely dawn with a creepy low fog rolling around the banks of the river. I could tell the noise was coming from just around a bend upstream. I decided to go find out what is was when it let loose another terrifying howl so then I decided to stay where I was and not get eaten.
Seriously, I was camping alone on the Buffalo River in Arkansas and was woke early one morning by a monstrous and horrifying inhuman screaming that would have scared even a sound effects guy for horror films.
I peaked out of my tent and it was just barely dawn with a creepy low fog rolling around the banks of the river. I could tell the noise was coming from just around a bend upstream. I decided to go find out what is was when it let loose another terrifying howl so then I decided to stay where I was and not get eaten.
That's it? You're going to leave us hangin'?? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />
The worst and "scariest" noise in the woods I ever heard (not camping, but sleeping in a longhouse, hight above ground, and safe...), was a desperate, near-human wail that stopped brutally. The next morning, we discovered a dead piglet, which had been swallowed alive by a python, and spit out asphyxiated (?)...Bigger hunger, than mouth and belly.
Registered: 02/07/07
Posts: 3917
Loc: Ozark Mountains in SW Missouri
Quote:
That's it? You're going to leave us hangin'??
That's it. I zipped the tent up and fell back to sleep. I have no idea what it was but I've never heard anything like it before or since and I've camped at or near that same spot several times since then.
I did go around the bend later that morning and I didn't find anything with an empty cranium and blood drained, or even any footprints. Maybe it was one of those giant birds that carry off their prey.
Registered: 02/07/07
Posts: 3917
Loc: Ozark Mountains in SW Missouri
Quote:
I believe you crossed the line with that one, Bill.
You're right Dryer, I should have known better. Especially since he posted his message on the "Backcountry Beginners" topics.
I guess I figured that everyone here knows that the whole reason for having lightweight gear is so you can run faster than the beasts that try to eat you out there. I'll try to be more careful in the future...
I believe you crossed the line with that one, Bill.
You're right Dryer, I should have known better. Especially since he posted his message on the "Backcountry Beginners" topics.
I guess I figured that everyone here knows that the whole reason for having lightweight gear is so you can run faster than the beasts that try to eat you out there. I'll try to be more careful in the future...
Bill
Glad you learned you lesson, Bill. You and I both know the "Ultralite Backpackers Motto" when hiking with a buddy in a chupacabra infested area.......
"All I need to do is be able to out run YOU! " <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
Registered: 02/07/07
Posts: 3917
Loc: Ozark Mountains in SW Missouri
Quote:
right after you change your shorts
I'll at least admit that it probably was the fact that I couldn't hold it any longer that finally got me out of the tent. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />
Whats has scared me the most has been branches breaking around my camp. It could have just been twigs but it sounded Loud so I imagined it was a big branch and something big had to have broken it
_________________________
My gear is no where near lightweight
Well my first trip a few weeks ago I was very nervous as well. I was 6 miles up deep in the smokies at a backcountry site notorious for bears (#30) and so I was worried about that. Didn't get any bear visits but long about 3 am I woke up hearing believe it or not a cat meow really loud. I questioned my sanity and then I heard it again like a house cat doing a loud 'meowwww' somewhere close by. Feeling kind of silly I stupidly meowed back and it stopped. Imagine my horror when I got back home and researched on google finding several videos of cougars and such that apparently can meow and sound just like a house cat! Now I don't know that it was a cougar but I don't think there are too many stray house cats that far back up in the smokies. In any case I sure let it know where I was at with my return meows lol...
Edited by BlountCountyBackpacker (09/10/0811:28 AM)
Registered: 05/10/04
Posts: 493
Loc: Lynchburg, VA
I'm glad someone brought up the grouse. The first time I heard a grouse I thought it was the smoke monster from Lost. I had no idea what it was until I ran into a ranger the next day and asked him about it. I think that is one of the coolest sounds to hear in the woods as well as being the brunt of many jokes when hiking with other people.
Registered: 01/10/06
Posts: 679
Loc: Central Texas
This thread is fun. Plenty of night time noises will keep you wide-eyed.
However, it is best to remember that the dangerous things are quiet. Very quiet. That's why they are dangerous. Otherwise they leave the gene pool.
The rustling in the leaves is probably a beetle, not a butcher-knife yielding psycho. BKWPs are stealthy.
The huffs and stomping are deer who are upset because you have camped inconsiderately in their usual path.
Screams are either birds or small animals being eaten by bigger animals. A rabbit's death scream will send most folks up a tree. When a panther screams, it is just horney, and has its mind on something other than eating you. It might run you down on the way to his or her rendezvous with luv, but he won't stop for a meal of stringy hiker.
The quiet when you can hear your own pulse and the sigh of your own breath means that something with claws and teeth is stalking. Don't fear the cacaphony of the woods. Fear the silence. -----------------------------------------
Sorry. That was way too much of a temptation. It's all true, of course. But really, the most dangerous things in the woods are the ground apes. Especially when we are afraid of something.
Our long-time Sponsor, BackcountryGear.com - The leading source for ultralite/lightweight outdoor gear:
Affiliate Disclaimer: This forum is an affiliate of BackcountryGear.com, Amazon.com, R.E.I. and others. The product links herein are linked to their sites. If you follow these links to make a purchase, we may get a small commission. This is our only source of support for these forums. Thanks.!