There are few things that are better for your mental health than getting out into nature. Breathing in crisp, fresh, forest air and stepping on crunchy leaves can give you an instant dopamine boost. Plus, going for a hike is great exercise, and it’s even better when you get to do so with friends.
But because hiking and camping are so much fun, it’s easy to forget how dangerous they can be. Safety should always be your utmost priority, otherwise you might not make it out of the woods. Redditors have been recalling the most terrifying experiences they’ve had in the forest, so we’ve gathered some of their tales below. We certainly don’t mean to scare you, pandas, but let these stories be reminders that you should exercise extreme caution while exploring the wilderness.
#41
This was two decades ago. They used to do donkey tours in the Grand Canyon. You ride the donkey and then hike. You can camp, but we did the day tour. A woman that was probably in her late 60's/Early 70's was in front of me and on an incline started to act strange. She was swaying left and right as on a steep cliff(which was very safe and wide). It swayed back and forth for maybe a minute and she was slumped over and then boom, it looked like she passed out and pulled the donkey to the left and fell over the cliff. I saw her tumble over and then they were just gone. I cant remember how far down the fall was, but it had to be over 100ft. Immediately the guide jumped off at the front ran over and let out and audible scream before stopping after realizing she had a tour with her. A few people got off their donkey and she stopped them from peering over. A few of the other guides looked over and they made some radio calls and then we proceeded. It was very obvious that something really serious had happened, but we never found out. I'm pretty sure I watched a woman and a donkey fall to their demise in the grand canyon.
Report
2points
#42
This didn’t happen to me but happened to my friends family/father and tbh should be made written down in a memoir somewhere.
So they were hiking in a pretty remote area (I feel like it was Alaska but I could be wrong) and were staying at a camp with some pretty basic cabins. My friend is like 7 or 8 at the time.
It’s the middle of the night and the campsite of a few cabins are woken up to someone calling for help. Into one of the cabins comes a teenager carrying his bloodied and mangled younger brother in his arms. They had been out in the absolute torrential deluge by themselves when a rock slide happened and a soccer ball sized Boulder fell down the mountain and hit his younger brother in the face. His face was basically a bag of bones, he was seizing and fading in and out of consciousness, and his brother carried him literal miles back to try and find help.
Extremely lucky for them that my friends father is a ENT reconstructive surgeon with a fellowship in facial plastics.
So basically this absolute chad of a surgeon (which you would never guess if you met him) set about trying to save this kids life. The kid is essentially hours from dying if he didn’t get emergency surgery. Mind you there’s a monumental storm happening outside, they are in the middle of nowhere, and it’s the middle of the night so there’s no way they can try to helicopter the kid out until later the next day at the earliest.
They gather some kitchen knives, a sewing kit, and a cordless drill and this dude proceeds to put the kid back together on a kitchen island. My friends mom (who is not good with blood) is assisting him as he sutures and stabilizes him to stop the bleeding but he keeps on seizing and slipping into a coma and it becomes evident that he has major intracranial swelling. My dude does a craniotomy in a backwoods kitchen with a cordless drill.
Just absolutely nuts. The kid survived. They suffered some deficits but understood what had happened to them and that they would almost definitely have died. From what I gathered is they lead a relatively normal life but unfortunately succumbed to a seizure some time later.
Just absolutely mental. I cannot imagine how messed up it was.
So they were hiking in a pretty remote area (I feel like it was Alaska but I could be wrong) and were staying at a camp with some pretty basic cabins. My friend is like 7 or 8 at the time.
It’s the middle of the night and the campsite of a few cabins are woken up to someone calling for help. Into one of the cabins comes a teenager carrying his bloodied and mangled younger brother in his arms. They had been out in the absolute torrential deluge by themselves when a rock slide happened and a soccer ball sized Boulder fell down the mountain and hit his younger brother in the face. His face was basically a bag of bones, he was seizing and fading in and out of consciousness, and his brother carried him literal miles back to try and find help.
Extremely lucky for them that my friends father is a ENT reconstructive surgeon with a fellowship in facial plastics.
So basically this absolute chad of a surgeon (which you would never guess if you met him) set about trying to save this kids life. The kid is essentially hours from dying if he didn’t get emergency surgery. Mind you there’s a monumental storm happening outside, they are in the middle of nowhere, and it’s the middle of the night so there’s no way they can try to helicopter the kid out until later the next day at the earliest.
They gather some kitchen knives, a sewing kit, and a cordless drill and this dude proceeds to put the kid back together on a kitchen island. My friends mom (who is not good with blood) is assisting him as he sutures and stabilizes him to stop the bleeding but he keeps on seizing and slipping into a coma and it becomes evident that he has major intracranial swelling. My dude does a craniotomy in a backwoods kitchen with a cordless drill.
Just absolutely nuts. The kid survived. They suffered some deficits but understood what had happened to them and that they would almost definitely have died. From what I gathered is they lead a relatively normal life but unfortunately succumbed to a seizure some time later.
Just absolutely mental. I cannot imagine how messed up it was.
Report
2points
#43
My uncle's a trucker. He was once going up the mountains in south Queensland and had to stop on the side of the road to take a leak. This was around 11pm at night. It was quiet except for the occasional other car passing. Oh, and the giant thumping noise coming from the trees. Emus don't go up that high, and if it was a kangaroo, it would have run off before being heard, same as a wallaby. Cassowaries don't go that far south, so it was either a very fat mountain goat, or our version of bigfoot. these are my uncles words, not mine.
Report
2points
