camping stories.

[m3bassman]

Originally Posted by shenrie

had an odd thing happen to us over last summer. just thought id share since a lot of us are stuck at home right now.

i had been working 4-10's. wife had van ready to go so when i got home from work, we were on the road asap. we decided to go check out an area we havent been able to go since 2015 due to fires. the main road in had washed away and only access to the area was via foot, but i had heard that they finally got the road fixed and teh area was now open. i think we got up there around 6ish and had a spot in mind that we have been trying to get for quite a few years. well off the road and no other camp sites anywhere around. we'd seen the spot on a day trip, but every time we wanted to camp there it was occupied or some ******* had their trailer parked to save it.

we drove down the nutty little goat trail to access it and it was open! we parked the van near the water and tucked ourselves back in the trees. as i was chopping up some firewood we see a suburban come ripping down the road with a pop top trailer. they didnt see us till they were almost into camp. they slammed on the brakes and you could see the guy wasnt happy we had nabbed the spot. getting that little trailer down in there probably wasnt easy, lol. i figured id save others the same hassle and hopped on the moto to head up towards the road to hang a sign letting folks know that the good spot was taken. got up there and there was a sign that read johnson family camp next camp spot on the right. figured that was good enough to let people know it was occupied and rolled back to camp.

we thoroughly enjoyed the camp wed been after for so long and during one of our walks we went up the road a bit. upon our return i noticed something sticking out of the washed out sand build up from running down the gnarley little road to camp. it was a bone shaped dog tag with the dogs name, addy and phone number. figured id call the number when i got home and see if they wanted their tag back.

wife had stuff to do on sunday so we packed up considerably earlier than norm and headed back home. got unloaded then took a shower and decided to call the number on the dog tag. left a message that i had found their dog tag up camping that weekend and that i couldnt quite make out the address. if they wanted to call back and confirm, id drop it in an envelope and get it back to them. then i laid down on the couch and passed out cold for a solid 2 hours.

when i woke up i noticed i had a message. listened to it and it went something like this. "hi this is lee johnson (< made up name) and we got your message that you found our dogs tag. thats really weird cause we didnt take that dog camping this past weekend. either way, please call me back when you have time.".

i called lee back. he asked me where i found the tag. i told him where and the name dawned on me that johnson was the same name on the sign left at the turnoff to our camp. I asked if he was driving a white suburban with a trailer and he said yes, then asked how i knew that. i chucked and said that i was the one that nabbed the good spot up at jackson peak just before he had got there. we both had a good laugh. i said if it makes you feel any better, we only beat you to that spot by about 20 min. he said no, lolol. we talked for the better part of 20 minutes about the area and what each of us liked up there and exchanged some stories. he said he camped up there 2-3 times a year, but still didnt understand how we found his dogs tag since he hadnt taken that dog up there that weekend. figured that the tag was caught up in his camp gear and just must have rattled out during that crazy little drive off the main road.

as i was wrapping up our call i asked him to verify the address on the tag so i could get it back to him. he told me and i was like wait. this tag says emmett idaho, you just gave me a nampa address. there was a long pause and he said seriously? i said ya and told him what i could make out of the addy on the tag and he just said no kidding? I said ya why? he said, we havent lived at that address in 13 years. we were both kinda in awe.

that dog tag had been floating around up in that area for at least 13 years. still blows me away that all the stars aligned and we crossed paths like that. i dropped the tag in the mail and never heard from him again, but it left us with a great campfire story anyone else got a good campfire story?

Interesting that this occurred on Jackson Peak. We had an odd experience up there as well. We have only been up there twice. First was in June 2020 and had planned to make it all the way to the end of the road at Graham. We raced up to the "Peak" after work and had a fabulous site on top of the ridge. The next morning we continued on towards Graham and in the valley we passed head on with a guy in a nice Ram. We stopped and chatted a bit before moving on. He was looking for a place to fish the creek. We continued on only to hit a drift.


We turned around and have a shorter trip and decide to head to Atlanta instead.

Almost 13 months later we do the same thing, race up top the "peak" at night after work. The next morning we head for the end of the road and in the same EXACT spot as the year before we encounter head on, the same truck and the same guy. We stop and say hello, i think i recognized him before he realized what had just happened as i was a bit off the cuff with my "hello". It strikes me as one of those extreme odds situations mixed with deja vu.

Great spot and we have always had it to ourselves and had great weather.

[Twoxentrix]

Bumping because it's a fun Thread - everyone has a "story"!

[shenrie]

^^^ good bump! Rereading a few of these stories I noticed my cougar story I had said I’d never actually seen one with my own eyes before. That’s no longer the case. Last 4th of July we did d a 5 day trip that was pretty remote. We stayed later than most and after the masses left, we relocated to a nicer spot. Wife was hurting so I made a drink and walked down to the creek to see if it was fishy. Stood there for a while as I let the van idle for a bit to recharge a few things. Eventually shut off the van, made another drink then walked behind the van to watch the sunset. Wife was in bed and we were chatting through the rear window for around 5-10 minutes. I was pretty tired and since the wife couldn’t get out of bed to enjoy a fire I just climbed into bed with her. I wasn’t really tired so I was laying on my stomach looking out the back screen at the sun still dropping. Well it wasn’t 30 seconds into me lying there and a cougar walks into my view and stands right where I had just been not 10 minutes before. It was a good spot to get a lay of the land and the cougar dropped its ass and just surveyed it’s domain. It hung out for about a minute then walked into the woods casually. Tried getting pix but between how dark it was and trying to get the camera to focus through the screen none of them even showed an outline of anything. Either way it was really cool to see and the whole scenario was just kinda crazy.

Also saw my first Martin. Had never even heard of the animal before. Had to call fish and game to figure out what it was. Everyone I described it too told me it was a badger, but it did don’t move like one. It moved exactly like a squirrel, but it was way to big to be a squirrel. Looked like a 20lb cat with short squirrel legs and a fox sized tail. Was 2.5-3’ long and a really red squirrel kinda colored. I was a long way away from anything on the dirt bike. It wasn’t scared of the noise whatsoever. I’ve never seen any animal move through the forest like it did.

[BrianW]

Very cool: I’ve never seen a wild marten!

[Steve C]

Shea, that's a very cool lion sighting report. Having spent a good deal of time in the woods, I've never seen one that wasn't treed (worked on a research project where we collard them and tracked them around to study their habits). I'm jealous of your luck.

Regarding your Pine Martin... Sounds like you are describing a Fisher Cat. The Fishers are 35"-47" long and weigh 8-13 pounds. The Martins are considerably smaller at 18"-25" long and 1-3Lbs. Think small squirrel vs fox sized. Again a very cool sighting!

Cheers!

[wanderers]

I saw a martin a few years before I got my SMB, in fact it was before I'd even heard about Sportsmobile. It was in Boundary Waters Canoe Area, soon after we set up our tent. It was in September and the martin must have been preparing for winter. It came out of a hole in some rocks behind our tent and made several trips gathering leaves and carrying them back into its den. It wasn't bothered by our presence and didn't even seem to notice we were even there, in spite of the close proximity. The next morning it came out of the hole about the same time we were getting out of the tent and headed off down a small trail that I hadn't even noticed. That surprised me because I thought they were nocturnal. Boundary Waters has designated campsites and I suppose it had gotten used to the presence of humans at its front door.
__________
Roger

[shenrie]

Originally Posted by Steve C

Shea, that's a very cool lion sighting report. Having spent a good deal of time in the woods, I've never seen one that wasn't treed (worked on a research project where we collard them and tracked them around to study their habits). I'm jealous of your luck.

We were in total awe. As it was getting ready to duck back into the sticks I popped the canvas of the top. It stopped, looked back for a second, then bounced out of view. We were definitely lucky!

Originally Posted by Steve C

Regarding your Pine Martin... Sounds like you are describing a Fisher Cat. The Fishers are 35"-47" long and weigh 8-13 pounds. The Martins are considerably smaller at 18"-25" long and 1-3Lbs. Think small squirrel vs fox sized. Again a very cool sighting!

Cheers!

That thing is crazy looking! Never heard of those things either, but not what I saw. It was just a bigass pine martin. It moved through the forest so fast and effortlessly. Just like a squirrel on steroids. Fish and game said they are veracious little hunters too.

That trip also presented us a huge bull moose in the middle of a torrential downpour, the reddest buck deer I’d ever seen, and a small group of antelope. I got one fish to bite a fly twice then nothing for the rest of the trip. Whole reason I went back to that spot was cause I was slaying them in that same area the summer before. Only reason I stopped is because I ran out of daylight. It’s like I could hear them laughing at me this trip...

[86Scotty]

I've got an awesome story. One time long ago I went camping. It was awesome.

Those were the days.

[joeaeti]

i have a handful of stories, including some paranormal stuff when I have time I will start typing them up

[joeaeti]

Here is a quick one about coincidence.

We go to Ocotillo Wells SVRA every thanksgiving. We have been doing that for almost 20 years now. Occasionally we will also do Halloween, usually the same group. A family friend that never goes on any of these trips decided to go one Halloween, as it wasnt a family affair, just the boys getting time away for a quick trip. Well this friend lost his wallet Halloween night while riding around on someone's quad.

Next Halloween, we go again, and the family friend once again joins us. A year to the day after losing the wallet the guy gets a call that someone found it and has it in their camp not far away, and he went and picked it up.

now that I think about it I have a long list of stories from our guys only trips out there and all the silly things we would do when we were younger, dumber, and drunker. Only a few broken bones here and there!