Strange things in the desert

[Trask]

..And with Desperate or Crazy all normal reactions and predictability go out the window. You can try to be ready but you can never really prepare for "nuts".

[arrow719]

Originally Posted by Trask

My dad told me a story about when he and a buddy were in college and they had camped in a very remote area of Jordan Valley Or...He was awakened at dawn by an odd noise and peeked through his tent to find a guy sitting next to their still smoldering camp fire. He was in a "complete" Lone ranger outfit..including the mask...only he had real 6 shooters. He spent about 5 min "packing" his gloves ( forcefully pushing the 'web' of your hand against the other) until they were skin tight. Then he would stand facing the fire and do a "quickdraw" with his pistol...Dad says he did this for about 15 min. total..and never once turned or noticed my dad and his buddy paralayzed by fear only 15 yds away. Eventually he just wondered off into the desert..They grabbed shotguns and went looking for him but his footprints eventually led to tire tracks and he was gone..( I think they gave him a healthy lead)

Dad said they "moved camp".

That would be creepy! I wonder if anyone had escaped from the mental hospital.

[DesertWalker]

Sounds like a "hippy" era story..if ya know what I mean..shroons and LSD do funny things to the mind..

[arrow719]

Here's another strange thing in the desert I witnessed.

Me and my hunting partner had been planning to hunt a certain valley bottom. The day before it rained hard, we knew it would be a muddy mess and we considered calling it off. But since I had a good 4X4 we decided to go anyway. I wasn't to worried about getting stuck although it was a remote possibility. I had to drive straight across the valley to get to the small road I needed to turn onto. Almost right in the middle of the valley I see this really old and beat up Cadillac, the type that's bigger than a boat. The car was stuck in the mud. Keep in mind it's really remote and very muddy. As I got closer I noticed beer cans all over the ground. Then I saw that one of the doors was open with legs hanging out of it. I pulled over and cautiously walked over to the car to see if someone was dead or in need of help. The guy wakes up and tells me that he was deer hunting. He was trying to get to a place that had a high and dry well maintained road leading right to it. So why did he try to drive across this mud hole for a road? Who goes deer hunting in an old Cadillac anyway? Even if he had killed a deer where would he of put it? He had no cell phone, which wouldn't of done him any good anyway. But worse than that nobody knew where he was. He could of sat there a month before the next person came along. Or he could of walked the 40 something miles to the next town. Lucky for him I had a rope and was able to pull him out. You just never know what you'll come across out in the desert!

[drdave514]

Lol, that is one lucky dude.

As for where he'd put it, I had a roomate in college who put a dear in the trunk of a compact rental car. He was that kinda guy.

Another buddy flew home to AL from Iowa and when deer hunting. Not knowing how he was going to get the deer back he decided to cut it up and make it freezer package ready. He put most of it in a suitcase and put the suitcase into a deep freeze. He checked the bag in and retrieved it when he got back to Iowa. Still frozen. I told him he might be a redneck.

Anyhow, that would have really bummed out your trip if he'd have been dead. lol.

[Mojave]

One day after a long hike in Saline Valley California many years ago I was driving home. At the pass on the south end of the canyon where Saline Valley Rd and Hunter Mtn Rd split (a 4WD trail) there was a young woman in the middle of the road wearing nothing but cutoff shorts and a tank top. Not even any shoes and or water or anything. For those who don't know this spot is in the mountains on the west side of Death Valley. You don't hike down there in the summer because it is too hot. In the winter the pass is closed. When I was there the weather was pleasant but the night was going to be in the teens. I stopped and the young lady wanted a ride down to the nudist colony on the other end of the valley. I knew the area well because the colony was just before a place called "Arrowmakers Knoll" which was famous for arrowhead finds. She was determined to make it there. The sun was going down. She wanted me to take her there. After telling her I didn't have enough gas to get down there and back out she tried to convince me that someone would buy me gas at the "gas station." After explaining to her there was no gas station for a hundred miles and it was a 90 minute drive to get to where she wanted to go, she decided to walk. I practically begged to take her back to civilization. I was going to go through the Owen's Valley south of Bishop (where Manoman lives.) She absolutely refused. I went home. There was nothing I could do. I have no idea what ever happened to her.
I did find a couple great points that day though.

[oregonranger]

Mojove,

I had a similar situation like that in the early 90s in the Oregon Coast Range. I was up hunting grouse, and as I come around the corner; here stands this gal with hair the color of cherry Kool-aid. She skipped the cut-offs and the tank top part all together. She did have some Roman sandals on and a bull mastiff pushing 200 lbs. She casually walked up to the window (modeling her birthday suit) and asked me for a ride up the road, and help changing her flat tire. This was a bitter sweet incounter and I'm not sure which part of the shock and ahh got the best of me. Exited but reall scard ****less, I rolled up my window and drove off. Mind you I was a good 20 miles in on old logging roads, and I never did run into a vehicle with a flat tire, or any other vehicles for that matter. A few weeks later I was up near the same area and heard a log truck driver over the CB asked if anyone had seen "little red riding hair" in the last few weeks. Appearantly she had a favorite skinny dipping hole that the truck drivers loved to window shop. I guess she spent the majority of one summer up there liberated, then probably let her leg and armpit hair grow back and headed back to the Uof O in Eugene. For the oregon boys out there, guess she secreatly wanted to show Beaver but new eventually she would have to go back to being a Duck.

[DesertWalker]

Back in February, 2002, my buddy and I went to Tonopah because the weather was unseasonably warm there. Half way there, we saw a man with a large backpack pulling a wagon along the highway, with all his other worldly goods in it. 2 days later, on the way back we saw him again. He had made it some miles north, to near a snowy pass. I still wonder how and where he ended up. Nevada has to be the strangest place in the U.S. lol

[TEXAS DIGGER]

ok, i know this is an old thread, but i never got a chance to read it... some how.. but i have to put my story in here... about 4 or 5 years ago, 2 of my buddys and i wend hiking here in Texas, i had hiked this trail before and i had found a really old brick house, and decided to take the metal detector up there to poke around a little, so we headed out about 1pm after work, and this is about a 6mile hike... so it wasnt too well planed, all i had on me was my detector and my knife.... we make it to the house about an hour before sundown poke around some.. ( didn't find much ) and realized we needed to split or we would be hiking in pure darkness.. so we take off, and about half way back to the left of us into the thicket we start hearing a "chewing" or "eating" noise.. which seems to follow us down the path.. we kinda thought nothing of it and continued.. but it got louder and stuck to the side of us.... then we started hearing rocks fall like something big was stepping on them and making them roll down hill... at this point i already have my razor sharp buck knife out anticipating some heard of deer to come running out of the bush... and keep in mind... its pitch black dark now... so we start booking it down the trail.. we still got about 3 miles left to hike.. and to our left the noises continue.. except now the trees are shaking! and doves are flying out of the trees from being woken from there roost.. we start running.. pitch black.. knife in hand... whatever it is.. it keeps up with us almost stalking us... looking back, the real danger here was running down a pitch black rocky trail with the buck knife clinched in my hand! lol.

we finally make it back to the truck, running all the way, and what ever it was in hot persute.. we got in the truck and hauled ASS!

i have had stories of a big foot like creature being spotted in the area in the past... there aint much in the woods that spook me.. but i can honestly say.. we were pretty scared..

[Mojave]

Not to worry TD. It was probably just my friend...