Worst experience while camping

[norty1]

bluegill1 gave me an idea for a new thread with the heartwarming story of camping with the family. I would like to start off:

My three sons and I used to always camp every year at a nearby State Park. We would go several times a year for a weekend. Then grands came along and this particular weekend 16 years ago there were 9 of us. Me, 3 sons and 4 grand boys. This was a guys only trip. We had tents, my fifth wheel and always had a ball. Cleaning up on Sunday morning getting ready to go we were all packing up after breakfast and the grand boys were throwing a football and doing what boys 6 to 10 years old do.

We had burned all the firewood we had and added some more that morning. One of the grands, Jeremy was 8 years old and was running thru the campsite after a ball. He tripped and fell hands down into the red hot coals from the fire pit.

I will never forget his screams and our tears. We grabbed him up and administered first aid and took off for Charleston, 80 miles away to the nearest emergency room. My middle son, his uncle was in the medical field and knew what to do. He was treated and released with big old bandages on both hands and was out of school for a week while his hands healed enough to go back to school. Yep, grandpapa was there every day taking him for milkshakes.

Last year, he graduated from college with a Major in Music Education. He is a music minister in a Christian church. He grew up playing guitar, piano and percussion instruments. Has been married for a year and has virtually no scars from the burns.

[ttavasc]

I've been fortunate over many years of backpacking, tent camping with my kids and more recently trailer camping/traveling with the DW we've not had any serious accidents or injuries. Miserable outings - sure - like backpacking into the Hoh River Rain Forest during the third week with no rain and having the skies open up and pour non-stop for the entire weekend after we were 10 miles in and set up.

However, I still have very clear recollections of a terrible hike when I was in 1st grade (this will date me for sure...). We were in the Mt Rainier area and had done a short day hike to Sheep Lake. I was on the far side of the lake running after our dog when my right foot went in a hole and I snapped the right femur bone about the mid-point. My folks were on the other side of the lake visiting with some other hikers and I've been told that they heard the bone snap. I recall my Dad making a splint out of a couple of tree branches and we were fortunate that there were some folks at the lake with some pack horses. They put me on one of the horses to make the ~2 mile hike out, then it was into the back of my sister's fairly new '68 Camaro RS for a quick ride down the mountain to Madigan Army Hospital where I spent several weeks in traction. That was a whole other ordeal. The weight of the traction would gradually pull me down in the bed and periodically a couple of nurses would have to pull me back up. Woe be unto whoever took a little too much weight off when doing this as that was extremely painful and I let them know it. I can still hear my mother laying into them when that happened and demanding that those particular nurses not be allowed back. I remember building a number of little snap-together model planes and cars that my Dad would bring me from the BX as well as playing with one of these:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whee-lo

I eventually ended up getting a body cast from the waist all the way down the right leg and half-way down the left. They obviously did a good job on setting the break as that leg has never bothered me. To this day I've always had a splint in my packs - and now I keep one in the trailer as well.

Years later I hiked back into Sheep Lake with my kids and the memories of that day still seemed fresh. I think my kids wonder to this day what the heck I did with the Wheelo all day......

[Victoria]

A burn like that scares the bejezus out of me. I am always hollaring at my boys to not walk by the fire ring.
We can now laugh about my story. We camp to ride our ATVs. I rolled my atv and we thought I broke my arm. It swelled up so fast, and the pain was crazy bad. We used my coat to tie my arm in a sling, I switched to the automatic ATV and we rode about an hour back to camp. The xray did not show a break, but the ortho put me in a huge immobilizer for 6 weeks. Sheared ligaments take a long time to heal. And years later my wrist is still not right, gives me pain with too much riding or lifting. But I am proud of myself for getting back to camp. It was tough, but I did it.

[Marcm157]

We were camping in a remote location in upstate NY for Easter in 2016 as had become our family tradition since everyone had purchased campers.

There were 30 of us in 8 campers 3 of which were in adjacent sites and the others not far away. There was a good mix of adults and children ranging in age from 8 months to 83 years.

We had been there since Thursday and it was Easter Sunday. Trip was outstanding to this point. We were all gathered around the 3 campers that were clusters together and about halfway through our lunch a freak and unexpected wind storm kicked up. Anything that wasn't tied down began to blow around wildly. As we all scrambled to secure anything and everything we could we heard that very distinct sound that a tree makes just before it falls. Nobody knew exactly where the sound was coming from but we all knew what it was. Within a fraction of a second a very large maybe 40 foot tree came crashing down, landing on 2 of the trailers and a truck crushing them as if they were a paper toys. My wife was struck by extended limbs from the trees and required a hospital stay and 2 other family members sustained minor cuts and bruises. Considering the amount of us clustered together when this happened we were all extremely lucky to suffer only the minor injuries. The 2 campers and the truck were obviously a total loss but property can always be replaced...

[nighthawk87]

Here’s a funny one for you guys:

Family was tent camping in Big Bear,CA. Last day and we were packing up. Just as we put the last of the items in the van, we hear one of our daughters say, “Juliet put a rock in her nose and we can’t get it out”. Not thinking much of it I go over and sure enough there is a rock in her nose. I try to get it out with my fingers, but she’s 2 at the time and there’s just no way. I asked my wife to try and try’s for about 20 min with no luck.

Me, being resourceful, tells everyone, let me check my tool bag! I pull out some needle nose pliers, which all the sudden have a different, more sensible, meaning to them now, and begin to attempt picking at the rock up her nose. After a couple of, “crap it went further in” statements, I decided to give up. At this point we didn’t know what to do so we decided to put her n the van and ask if there was a hospital or doctor office nearby. All the while, while scared, my daughter was fine. She was talking and laughing like it’s not even there.


We couldn’t find a doctor office and decided since she was doing so well that we would try to head down the mountain and stop at Kaiser in Riverside. All the way down we were worried the pressure change might cause some issue, but we made it down no problem.

We stopped at the ER on the way down and I couldn’t help but laugh when telling the receptionist why we were there. After an hr wait we were taken to the exam room. After what seemed like an eternity nobody came. She started getting really fussy and crying and throwing a fit. Next thing you know we notice a small rock in the chair she’s in. We looked up her nose and the rock was gone!!

We quickly left the room and asked the admin what to do. She gave us a form/waiver to sign and we were on our way.

We have more stories but this has to be the funniest and could have been way worse.

[Ohiofinlander]

Wow you guys, now I'm looking over my shoulder as I sit at the campsite with my DW and kids. What's next for us on this forum family? Glad everyone has been blessed with minor injuries over the years and not life threatening injuries.

[RogerR]

I don't think our incident was as bad as the first two but we felt it was bad at the time. We arrived late back to our campsite in Ontario and went straight to bed. After a very short sleep I awoke to the humming sound of mosquitoes. Before I was done over 50 were slapped, squashed or swatted. But the loss of sleep was not the worst part. Our 6 year old was bitten so many times she became feverish and sick. We took her to clinic and were greeted with the demand we pay in advance before they would see her as we are Americans visiting Canada. After an injection and a ton of cream she got better.

[Ohiofinlander]

My son and I enjoying the weekend!

[DC8Captain]

Well let's see. In the early 70's we were on a winter mountaineering climb of Mt Wilson outside Telluride, CO. It was -20 during the night with an un-forcast heavy snowfall. Woke up with all three of our tents collapsed, too much snow to continue the climb. In thinking back to that time we didn't look at it like it was a "worst experience", it just meant we couldn't continue the climb. Actually is was a fun overnight, it could have been worse.

[Timber]

In late 70s in a tent trailer waking up at 2AM to a large tree falling, I think the whole camp ground was screaming by the time it hit the ground. We had set up in the dark and did not see the 100 ft tall cedar tree with dead tops

[cabinetmaker]

Camping with some friends back in the 80's in Red River New Mexico their toddler pulled a hot pot of coffee over on himself.

They rushed him to Taos for treatment. He was burned pretty bad. I still think about that to this day.

He is grown now with his own kids and you would never know he had suffered such bad burns as a child. His skin recovered with little to no scaring.

Things happen and so quickly! When traveling we tend to let our guard down when the opposite is really needed!

[t18skyguy]

Me, the wife and daughter we're having a nice evening in the rig when some guy tried to invade the rig. I was sitting all the way in the back and my wife was in the front near the door. I looked up and noticed her struggling with the door and she was saying something like wrong rig. Now you think she would have screamed for me but she didn't, I had to figure it out by myself. We had a nice big fight about that later. Anyway, I ran to the front at just the moment he yanked the door from my wife. He didn't hesitate and started right up the steps. His head was about chest high on me then and I let loose a punch that knocked him off the steps onto the ground. He got up and ran off. I always make sure the door is always locked now. Trouble can come so fast and at the weirdest time.

[topshelfredlabel]

[QUOTE=ttavasc;670444]My folks were on the other side of the lake visiting with some other hikers and I've been told that they heard the bone snap. I recall my Dad making a splint out of a couple of tree branches and we were fortunate that there were some folks at the lake with some pack horses. They put me on one of the horses to make the ~2 mile hike out, then it was into the back of my sister's fairly new '68 Camaro RS for a quick ride down the mountain to Madigan Army Hospital where I spent several weeks in traction.[QUOTE]

OUCH! You just made my stomach turn over. I can't imagine what hurt more... setting the bone and the traction, or that bumping and jarring 2 mile hike out on horseback! Glad you recovered well. That's a very serious injury.

[3'senough]

I'll start with that I think the worst experience is when it involves kids. The screams are things that somehow permanently resonate in our heads.

It's Friday night on a weekend getaway in the fall. I am setting up the final outside stuff and see a father and son riding their bike around. That's right one bike with 2 on it and where is the son, but on the handle bars. No helmets and just a poor decision. I say to myself WTH, that's going to end badly. 2 minutes later I hear a kid screaming, dad yelling and see the dad running with his son in his arms, the bike in the middle of the road!

The panic is already set in with the mom screaming now too. We call 911 to which the FD is literally 200 yds from the CG and all the whistles are going off as well as sirens. Ambulance, police come to the site and we watch in horror.

After all the dust settles, ambulance leaves I pick up the bike and put it on the now vacated site. Pick up a few loose items and stow for the family now on the way to the hospital. We stare at the trailer, bike and remnants of the dinner prep left behind knowing what just happened was bad.

The next AM the father returned and we asked if the son was okay. He told us the son put his sandal covered foot in the spokes which was pinned to the forks. It peeled off about 4 inches x 4 inches of skin from the top of his foot while the father was pedaling.

This was highly avoidable and I used it as a teaching moment to my much younger children at the time. I try to let them be kids camping, get dirty, play in the dark and explore, but I draw a hard line on being ignorant. If you know how it's going to end and the outcome is negative, don't do it. It's actually pretty funny how they have evolved to be responsible with checking in with us and coming back at the time we designated.

We have had a split a lip or two with my youngest taking the hardest one to date. No burns, but the screams from some kids fall are the worst for me. Those are always tough to take regardless of who's child it is.

In closing I will just say this. Make sure your kids know your site number! That's the first thing they are going to be asked if they are hurt without you being present.

[michael.g]

My worst camping experience fortunately didn't directly involve me. This occurred in 1997 or 1998. A group of college friends were tent camping at a State Park in Western Maryland. We got there mid-week in early June before public school got out for the summer, so it was pretty quiet. A group of 4 guys set up camp about 5 or 6 sites down from us, right across from a young family with very young children.

After we have gone to bed, throughout the night we hear this yelling and screaming and running throughout the campground, which is heavily wooded. It sounds like people are fighting, but I'm not completely awake. It woke me enough to hear it, but not enough to realize that it isn't something I am dreaming.

In the morning, we all talked about it. A few of us walk down to the other campers to see if they heard anything. As we round the corner towards the group of 4 guys camping, we see 2 of them dragging one of them into their car while the 4th guy gets in the drivers seat. The guy being dragged is clearly being dragged against his will and you can see he has been badly beaten. By the time we get close enough to say anything, they sped off in their car.

We talk to the young family across from them and they confirmed that what we thought we were hearing was indeed reality. The mother was beside herself. She said her and her husband had been calling the Ranger all night and left messages, but the Ranger never showed up and never called them back. After talking to the mom, the Ranger finally shows up. Then the state police show up. When the car returns, with only 3 guys in it, the state police arrest them.

We never learned what happened. We did check the local paper to see if there was anything written about it, but we didn't find anything.

-Michael

[Camper_bob]

We've had 3 that are memorable; two weren't so bad, the third was.

The first two were when DW and I were trying to figure out how we wanted to travel, and what we wanted to do for "camping". I grew up backpacking, so my opinion was pretty clear; I wanted to do that again. DW grew up "tail-gate" camping, so backpacking didn't seem a long stretch. Our first trip out she got dehydrated, heat exhaustion, a raccoon stole my food bag (thankfully we had separated our food into multiple bags, so we still had food), and God decided that night was a great time to make an effort to end the drought. Thunderstorms, lots of rain, lightning... I slept GREAT!! We were safe and dry (by design, I know what I'm doing out there). DW wasn't having any of it, she had a miserable time.

Next time out backpacking again, she decided to give it another shot. I packed extra water for her, and tried to make sure we were in the shade as much as possible. She burned through all her water and most of mine (I had to start rationing so I wouldn't get severely dehydrated, and I had iodine tablets if it got to that), AND she still got heat exhaustion. Apparently God decided we hadn't had enough, so he opened up the sky again that night. Thunderstorms, LOTS of rain, lightning, etc. I slept GREAT! AND I secured my food for the night! DW wasn't having it, she was miserable. We ended up walking back to the car and going to the nearest Dairy Queen, sitting in the AC eating ice cream she told me "never again".

This is how we ended up with a travel trailer!

The third "worst time camping" was a few years ago at Corpus Christi State Park here in South Texas. We were seasoned RVers by this time. Our son was just barely more than an infant, he couldn't walk yet anyway. We were swimming in the lake one afternoon and decided to go back to the camper about the time an ambulance showed up along with a bunch of police officers and Game Wardens. Of course, we wondered what was going on. We learned what happened when we saw the EMS load a corpse into the ambulance. Turns out a man had drowned in the water less than 50 yards from where we were swimming. SUPER scary!

On top of that, same trip, the next day I was outside the camper wrapping up the utilities getting ready to leave. DW was inside taking care of that side of packing up. I bent down to pick something up and felt a twinge in my back. I tried to ignore it telling myself "you're fine, just tighten it up and be more careful". About two seconds later I was bent over, went to stand up and my back went out on me. If I hadn't been standing next to the camper I would've fallen on the ground. I saw stars, and almost blacked out from the pain, tunnel vision BAD. I managed to make my way to the picnic table where I could rest my torso on my elbows and get SOME relief. DW was jamming out with the radio turned up, so she wouldn't have heard me if I screamed. Thankfully I had my cell phone on me, so I called her to bring me a handful of pain killers and some cold water.

I could barely move. She had to all but load me into the truck where I proceeded to tell her how to finish breaking down the trailer and how to hitch it up. She had never learned really well how to do all that, but she had a basic understanding. She also had never towed the trailer before. I have to say she did pretty darn good for a trial by fire! Of course she was driving too fast, but she always have and always will! LOL!! I started feeling better when I got into the "good" pain killers at home and was back to normal in 2 days or so.

Thankfully, I think those are the worst we've had so far. But my son is only almost 4 years old, so I'm sure we'll have scraped knees, bumped heads, etc. I just hope they're not bad enough to require a trip to the hospital or a visit from EMS. The other poster is correct IMO; not much worse in this world than a child screaming from pain.

[Merrick]

Well the story above about the back going out reminds me of the worst trip Ive had (so far). Only been out 6 times in new TT since I bought it in October 2017.


My back went out about a week before planned trip. Shoulda cancelled, but I was determined to go. On pain pills. Got there and made it through the days okay, but at night laying down it was level 10 pain. I had to scream out in pain at times. I couldn't get up to use restroom and GF had to bring me a folgers coffee can (if you know what I mean). It also got down to 11 degrees that night, but that wasn't a problem.


Pretty sure the neighbors thought I was getting killed inside at night because of the screams. Can laugh about it now.

[CamperForLife]

Love the memories~

I have two...
Our family was on a cub scout camping trip at Raccoon Mountain Caverns & Campgrounds earlier this spring. We did the cave crawl and that evening while hanging out, my 8 year old daughter's forehead was the unfortunate stopping point for a very pointy stick (a boy scout was trying to prevent an accident by taking the stick away from some younger boys and when he threw it, he didn't see my daughter). We had to take her to the ER in Chattanooga where they had to use surgical glue to close the gaping wound on her forehead. After everything was said and done, we still had a great weekend!

Second "worst camping trip" was probably this summer when we had to vacate our camper and very quickly drive to avoid a tornado in Nebraska. It was an adventure but also pretty scary. Once the tornado warning sirens went off, we got in our truck and kept driving thinking it would be easy to outrun the storm (Nebraska is so flat and the roads run east to west and north to south so you don't have to worry about being run in circles). The storm just seemed to follow us where ever we drove. After 1 hour of driving we finally settled in at a bar in a small town to wait out the 2nd tornado warning. Fortunately our camper didn't sustain any damage.

[BeckyMax]

About 5 years ago my extended family and I were camping about 3 hours from home. Some other family members we coming from about 4 hours away and were arriving a day earlier than the rest of us. We had a total of 3 travel trailers, 2 popups and 6 vehicles. On the way down, one of the vehicles (thankfully not a TV) started having problems, they pulled off at an exit ramp to find tranny fluid leaking out from under the car. They decided to leave it in a commuter parking lot and pile in the TV for one of the campers. It was a tight squeeze but they made it work. I got the call about the problem and then planned on bringing my 2nd car so as to alleviate some of the crowding on the way home. On my way out of town I found that the AC was not working very well in my TV (a Tahoe). I ended up loosing the AC altogether about an hour into the trip, it was about 98* and I kept cool with a wet washcloth and a frozen bottle of water. In the meantime, my stepbrother had a family member go get the stranded vehicle from the reststop and found that the tranny wasn't serviceable.

While setting up one of the cables broke on one of the pop-ups. We were able to rig it up with a 2x4 and who knows what else.

Later in the weekend, my my son jammed his finger while playing catch with his cousin, but mostly the actual camping went alright.

We pack up to head home and we have a convoy of 4 campers and another car heading down the interstate. About 8 miles from the campground I notice a puff off smoke from my step brothers trailer tire. I call him right away and we all pull over to change a flat on his TT. We get back on the road, about 20 miles further and I notice his TT is now listing to the right while driving up a huge hill that seems to never end. He finds a safe place to pull over, gets out and discovers a 2nd tire has blown. He creeps along on the shoulder for about 3 miles to the next exit and we all pull into a gas station lot. Step brother and husband take the 2 bad tires 2 Wal-mart and we then get started back down the road. We make it about another 100 miles and wouldn't you know a 3rd tire blows on his TT! By now he can jack that thing up and change a tire as if he is in a NASCAR pit crew. He changes the tire and back on the road we go. I suggested he follow me to my storage lot and I give him one of the tires off our TV so he will have another spare. He declines, saying he thinks he can make it the final hour. We all have a good laugh at that as 3 out of 4 tires say he wont. Miraculously he does make it home. The 4 hour drive home had turned into 8 hours. Final count:

3 flat tires
1 blown transmission
1 blown A/C compression
1 broken pop-up lift cable
oh yeah, and my son's finger was broken

It was a memorable trip for sure, a story you just can't make up, and one that all we could do was laugh at. I wish I could find the photo of us sitting in our lawn chairs under the camper awning on the parking lot of a gas station. You might be a redneck....

Becky

[RetiredLEO]

My worse one was I was Eleven and it was my first week camp at Boy Scout Camp. Nobody from my class was old enough yet to go so I got stuck with a older boy that nobody else wanted to tent with............found out why. Complete PSYCHO!!! Very 1st afternoon we got in to a argument about something little. He pulled a large fixed blade hunting knife on me and went after me. I was younger than him but big and strong for my age........I knocked him on his "Moderator edit " I got the knife away from him and threw it as far as I could into the woods. I got a new tent mate for the week. I never ratted on him for the knife. Found out later it was his Dad's and he got permission to bring it it to camp. Hope he had a good time lying to his Dad what happened to it! He was kicked out of our troop when it leaked out what had happened. This was 50 years ago. He would be locked up for it today..........maybe