What are your best Camping, Hunting, or Hiking stories? Share & You Could Win!

I've been going to the same spot for 40 years. The only thing that has changed is the size of the trees and the path of the creek.

My best fishing trip would have to be when I went out with my stepfather and grandfather. We decided to fish in the Corpus Christi Bay in Corpus Christi, TX. I do not know the gear used but we used a live shrimp for bait. It was rememberable for a number of reasons.
As the went on we could see large ripples in the water. It was sharks swimming near us. Though they never get closer to us. We just continue fishing.
After 6 hours of fishing in the middle bay was something I have never did and still have not done since. I have also caught about 5 fish that trip with the largest on being a 27 inch sea bass.
That whole week my stepfather introduced me to a new hobby that no one cared to or I had to do alone.
That whole week I fished all week and caught some drum and other small fish with my children but that moment I discovered the joy of fishing.
Since that trip I have bought my own gear and created a healthy obsession. I have learned more techniques and more about fish in general. It has been a journey that will not end and never will.

Thanks for sharing

How come I receive these after they have ended?

My last hunt before Boot Camp was for Deer and Elk in Colorado. Normally it was with my Dad and brother, but this year one of my uncles and two cousins came, as well as my brother-in-law. We were having issues with deep snow and people were coming down with something to where my Dad had to run them into town and stay at a Motel. It snowed one night, and there was a pristine blanket when we went to sleep. We woke up early to get going, and there were HUGE Mountain Lion tracks right through the middle of our camp. We had a lot to talk about for the rest of the trip.

My wife and I were camping with several friends at Taylor Park Reservoir on the Taylor River in Gunnison County, Colorado. It is a spectacular place should you have the opportunity to go one day, you’ll find it well worth the trip.

My loving bride and I had at the time a 16’6” kevlar canoe which we fished out of. So we were out on the lake fishing when my wife’s spinning rig became tangled, as was the norm. So I gave her my fishing rod to use while I worked on untangling her fishing rod, as was also the norm. While I was earnestly working at undoing the mess I was presented she hooked a fish. Again the norm. She was so excited and busy reeling in the fish which was giving her quite the fight. Alas she was able to bring the fish in which turned out to be about a 12” Northern Pike! She was so happy to catch a fish but very disappointed to find out it was a baby PIKE! They are so ugly you know.

Her Pike was flopping and jumping around inside the canoe and I am busy trying to get ahold of it. My wife is yelling “Get him” and “That thing is so ugly” and “Through him back” etc. etc. etc.

Well me, I’m sitting in the back of the canoe with a big ball of fishing line trying to keep the ugly fish from making a bigger mess of the mess I have and desperately trying to snag said “Ugly Fish”. Eventually I was able to get ahold of the baby pike. Baby pike are very energetic and are hard to hang on to! I had put a Rapela lure with two treble hooks and the poor guy had nearly swallowed the entire lure. I was able to actually free him of one hook when the fish really took to flopping around and got loose form my grip. In the process I got hooked in the left hand by the free treble hook! Now it was Ugly Fish and ME caught on the the same Rapela lure! While I am trying to stay calm and regain control of the fish the hook is going ever more deeper into my hand! My loving bride is in the front of the boat yelling at either me or the ugly fish but yelling none the less.

It seemed as though it was for ever while this was going on but eventually ugly fish through himself off the hook but was still flopping around the canoe. it was a relief to be free of the fish but I’m still hooked to the lure. I tossed the ugly fish over board and began assessing the aftermath of this whole event. My wife was concerned that people who might have observed the whole thing would think we had gone crazy out on the water. I assured her that they most certainly would believe that.

I had one leg of a treble hook buried in the top web between my thumb and finger of my left hand. I cut the lure away but could not get the hook out. We were a good ways out on the lake and I thought I might need the help of someone getting this thing out of me. We went back to shore, loaded the canoe and headed back to the camp.

At camp several of my friends tried to help me get this hook out but it was really deep. We tried pushing it through but things got worse. Eventually it was determined that I needed to go to the Emergency Room in Gunnison to have a Doctor get it out. It was late in the afternoon and by this time everyone but me had partaken of some form of Adult Beverage. I drove myself to Gunnison. Not a problem.

The emergency room Doctor tried to get the hook out but was concerned because it was so deeply embedded into my hand he opted to call for the on call surgeon to come and remove it. Eventually the hook was removed and I got back to camp in time to have a few beverages of my own.

I wonder at times if that Ugly Fish ever tells his fish friends the story of the “The One That Got Away”.

My parents loved camping and hiking, my Dads best friend climbed Mt Witney every couple years and Dad said my brother and I could go with him and his son in 1971, 2 nights up and I night down, fantastic experience , his son got sick after 1st night and we went for it alone and made it. Pictures attached are my brother and I heading to top of MT Witney and me signing book, also dad, my brother and me in 1961 at Yosemite

Had to be at Holiday Travel Park in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Had a Canadian pull in next to me and he had three of the most beautiful daughters I have ever seen. He pulled out a chair and sat down with a case of cold beer and the girls put everything up, while he yelled at them constantly. He failed to notice that the tent they erected next to his camper had a tie down that went thru the back of his chair and close to the bumper of his car. He yelled at his wife to go get him some more beer and when she left with the car so did the tent and the chair with him in it. I don't know what happened to him but the very next day it was just the three girls and their mother. Kind of made me smile a bit.

A little off subject but too funny not to share; Roughly 40 yrs ago my 1st wife Lynn & I (then GF) having been out on a date but did not wish to return to her parents home yet as we could not even be in a room with the door closed. So we stopped at Mount royal park, we were sitting at a picnic table and in the dim light we saw what we thought was a stray cat. Lynn immediately started calling to it and it turned and approached us coming into the street light- well it was NOT a cat but a great big skunk! Needless to say we beat a hasty retreat and escaped unsprayed.

Two week's in the Kalahari Desert, South Africa.