Official Outdoorsey Adventurous Sh!t Thread (2 Viewers)

[Trihonda]

Post your crazy outdoors and adventurous crap in THIS thread. Discuss adventure trips and gear, share pics, inspire others.

Have you mountain climbed the Andes? Have you kayaked the boundary waters (or next to an Alaskan glacier)? Have you bicycled across the country? Have you snowshoed in the Alps? Did you navigate underwater caves in Mexico? Did you take an RV across the country or camp on the side of a mountain? Past, present, future, we want to hear about it.

We have several different specific threads for kayaking/biking/etc.. But nothing that encompasses all adventures.

If you're a lazy couch bum, and your idea of adventure is turning on your PC, then this thread might not be for you.


I'll get us started:

I used to adventure race, similar to the Eco-Challenge. These are team races that typically involve various components, such as biking, orienteering, paddling, running, ropes/rapelling, etc... The Eco-Challenge was a 10-day long event, but I usually stuck to the 1-2 day long events. Essentially, there is no set course, just a start, finish, and required checkpoints in between. You choose your own path, These were a lot of fun (unfortunaly liability issues caused many of these events to fold).

Night time navigation:

Typical muck we had to traverse:

Difficult caving challenge: Traverse 100' long tube into solid rock. Too narrow to bring your arms down to your sides... You had to inch-worm your way forward. Opened up into this cavern. This caused more than one case of clausterphobia!

Some solid biking peeps!

80' rappel off a bluff. Landed on a narrow ledge to start the above cave tube crawl.

 

[AK Chip]

A little trek up Mt. Barometer Kodiak AK

 

[pltrgyst]

Not a hell of a lot here, but:

- As a kid, helped start an Explorer post specializing in spelunking and astronomy. Did a whole bunch of interesting caves from PA down through WV, Kentucky, and NC.

- Rode a Honda 305 SuperHawk from NJ to CA in five+ days (and paid the price in body aches!) It got its revenge when it later blew a rear spoke and threw me off on the NJ Turnpike at 60+ mph with no helmet on.

- Spent a week seeing the sights in Antarctica (McMurdo), waiting to escort a general's body back to CA.

- After army airborne school, made 27 jumps.

- Volunteered for some extended outdoor adventures in the central highlands of South Vietnam, 1968-70. Managed to hitch a ride in a Phantom!

- On R&R from RVN, did a climb of Mt. Fuji, on the fringe of walk-up season. Not very tough.

- Did a whole bunch of rock climbing and rappelling around the Nantahala Gorge, NC, and other places.

- 35 years of racing and autocrossing Formula Fords -- mostly two Eldens, a PH8 and a PH10, and a Lola T70; plus a modified TR-8. Started club racing at Hockenheim in Germany, then later at Summit Point WV, with frequent excursions to Watkins Glen, Mid-Ohio, Lime Rock, Charlotte, etc.

After all the jumps and climbing, it now bothers me to go 20 feet up a ladder.

But the need for speed never goes away -- still spend a lot of time on two wheels, and do club days at Sebring. :

 

[DrStrange]

Terror or why I haven't been spelunking again.

In my younger days, I dabbled in rock climbing and related adventures. My upper body strength wasn't really adequate for a long climb, but short slopes or less technical areas were fine. I got an invitation to join a group visiting a private cave quite near Austin and joined the fun.

Caves are dark. No surprise there, though dark might be too mild a word. Private caves don't have lights like a park cave does. We had our head lamps, hand lights and glow sticks but nothing else (and they weren't much). The first hour or so was interesting, fun and just a little scary. Then we got to the narrow part of the trip - a tight spot where you slid on your back through about ten feet of crevasse. This space is muddy, but not flowing water. Your face clears the upper rock by maybe three to six inches. There was essentially no side to side movement, this is one person wide. We took off our head lamps, belts and anything that might get caught. There is no turning back once you start down the crack.

I would not consider myself claustrophobic, but in that tiny slot with no light, sliding through the mud I pretty much lost it. I did push through not that I had much choice. So we get to the other side and can stand up but we are right next to a twenty five foot drop off. The guide points out a spot below us and related a story of an earlier group who had someone fall there, breaking their leg. It took many hours to get the guy out - first up the cliff, then through the crack and then up out of the cave.

Making that descent would have been easy above ground. Easy enough that I might not have needed technical assistance on the surface. Underground, slightly damp/slimy and a little unstable - the climb wasn't easy at all. Did I mention that it was dark?

The last part of the adventure was not too bad. The floor was irregular but passible. The room we were aiming for was pretty impressive by local standards, though nothing like the best parts of a park cave.

The trip out was awful. We were all fatigued. The heat/humidity was oppressive. Climbing up/out is harder than climbing in/down. And then we get back to the crack - which already has me spooked. I think there was new water but the guide said it was just water pooling where we had scraped the mud away in our earlier passage. Somehow I convince myself to climb back through the crack and don't freeze up it in the passage. Even so, to this day I can get the willies just thinking about that place.

I didn't go back -=- DrStrange

 

[mike32]

Wow Dr. Strange I get scared just reading your post, not for me!

 

[detroitdad]

I repelled out of a helicopter in 88. Thought I was going to die. Decided repelling wasn't for me.

After a fire fight in Panama I had to use my canine to search for bodies in the jungle. Didn't find any. That was easily the most intense thing I have ever done

 

[AK Chip]

Not sure if this counts but its not the couch. Dip netting for red salmon at the mouth of the Kenai River

 

[detroitdad]

Not sure if this counts but its not the couch. Dip netting for red salmon at the mouth of the Kenai River

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I could look at photos of your area every day

 

[rowlin]

If you're a lazy couch bum, and your idea of adventure is turning on your PC, then this thread might not be for you.

What if we like adventures but are just way less awesome than you?

 

[Trihonda]

I could look at photos of your area every day

I know, right?

What if we like adventures but are just way less awesome than you?

I'm no longer awesome. I'm a has-been hack. All of my adventures are behind me. Which is why I'm sure you're way more awesome. This thread is for all the adventurousness. Please share.

 

[rowlin]

Nah, I'm right there with ya man. The older I get, the better I was.

 

[Trihonda]

Nah, I'm right there with ya man. The older I get, the better I was.

In my mind, I WAS pretty awesome back in the day! Ha!

I still try to be adventurous, but I need inspiration!

For instance, I have done NONE of these things, which is why I was hoping people would post cool stories and photos.

Have you mountain climbed the Andes? Have you kayaked the boundary waters (or next to an Alaskan glacier)? Have you bicycled across the country? Have you snowshoed in the Alps? Did you navigate underwater caves in Mexico? Did you take an RV across the country or camp on the side of a mountain? Past, present, future, we want to hear about it.

 

[AK Chip]

This thread and the fact you guys said you like the AK pics already has me thinking of some adventures I will try in the near future. So your thread has worked for me.
Thanks!!

 

[Irish]

Not quite as dangerously adventurous as cave diving or rappelling, but the wifey & I did the Narrows hike at Zion during our 10 year anniversary vacation a few years ago. Very cool hike with some amazing sites:

 

[AK Chip]

Not quite as dangerously adventurous as cave diving or rappelling, but the wifey & I did the Narrows hike at Zion during our 10 year anniversary vacation a few years ago. Very cool hike with some amazing sites:

Wow!! Awesome!

 

[detroitdad]

Not quite as dangerously adventurous as cave diving or rappelling, but the wifey & I did the Narrows hike at Zion during our 10 year anniversary vacation a few years ago. Very cool hike with some amazing sites:

Awesome. ....repelling wasn't adventurous. It was stupid. Off a building wasn't bad. Helicopter was a different story

 

[pltrgyst]

Awesome. ....repelling wasn't adventurous. It was stupid. Off a building wasn't bad. Helicopter was a different story

Agreed about helicopters, but when you've made a difficult climb, rappelling beats the hell out of trying to climb down.

 

[Trihonda]

Not quite as dangerously adventurous as cave diving or rappelling, but the wifey & I did the Narrows hike at Zion during our 10 year anniversary vacation a few years ago. Very cool hike with some amazing sites

Wow! Amazingly awesome cliffs. And this thread wasn't intended as a competition, or to have us trying to "out-adventure" each other. Everyone's adventures (and perspectives) are a little different.

Case in point, we had some friends from Switzerland that used to visit our area of WI every year. They felt like WI and IL were the most beautiful places on earth... Huh?

I finally understood when I traveled to visit them a few years later. They lived in a valley in the Swiss Alps (absolutely stunning mountain views, etc...), but their everyday world involved a sightline of exactly 2 miles in each direction. To visit a place where they were able to see many many miles in all directions, was simply amazing to them... To each their own.

It was stupid

Oh, and I agree... Most of my adventures fall into the stupid category, lol. My mountain caving tubing was dumb... scary as hell (unable to bring your arms down to your side), stretched out in a cave barely big enough for people to make it through, for 100'... Clawing, inch-worming your way through...Took 25 minutes, and the penalty for bypassing the challenge was 30 minutes.. Ya, my back was messed up for 2 years after, and we gained 5 minutes.

 

[k9dr]

I caught a nice redfish yesterday

 

[Puggy]

First salmon from this year's fishing trip.
And some scenery from the river plus a pic of our camp.

 

[AK Chip]

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First salmon from this year's fishing trip.
And some scenery from the river plus a pic of our camp.

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Looks like the perfect spot for a fishing trip!!

 

[wetfoot]

Early last month a couple friends and I did the Rubicon Trail.

 

[Chicken Rob]

I used to be a black diamond skier. Then I lost most of my vision in my left eye. No depth perception = no moguls.

Closest I come now is jet skiing. Here is a couple shots form the CT river in MA from this summer:

 

[bergs]

I'm going to the Bronx to watch the Yankees this weekend. This is both dangerous and exciting. Most of it is outdoors.

 

[courage]

I like to fish. Not too dangerous except if you count clanging 8 Oz lures with giant hooks off your boat partner's head (hello ER) or getting stranded on a 45 mile x 25 mile Canadian lake with boat trouble.

 

[CHP TD]

I'm going to the Bronx to watch the Yankees this weekend. This is both dangerous and exciting. Most of it is outdoors.

Dammit Bergs

Your trolls are A+ well played sir!

silll giggling...

 

[TheChipVault]

Hiking / Climbing. My son and I did a few trips this summer.

 

[toad94]

Are any of the bottom three pics from Colorado?

 

[TheChipVault]

Are any of the bottom three pics from Colorado?

Yes sir! Rocky Mountain NP and Boulder.

 

[Poker Zombie]

All that hiking - far too dirty for my liking.

I prefer my outdoor adventures pretending to be @Redbelly

@Mrs Poker Zombie wasn't going to be outdone either...

I love firefighting, but this was the only time I wished I had taken a different path and became a pilot instead.