Everyone here's bound to have a good story...Let me bore you with mine. The reason I carry an emergency tent with me: A fellow photographer and I were hiking to a waterfall in south-western North Carolina, about a two mile trek. We started at about noon and reached the falls at roughly 2:00 (stopping and shooting as we went). We wanted late afternoon light on the falls - else we would have started earlier. Anyway - after we reached the falls and shot what we wanted, we noticed that the trail continued down the hill, but didn't look like it had been traveled much. Well, our curiosity got the best of us, so we decided to go down this trail "just for a bit". (We both kinda think alike - and a "bit" usually means four miles or so). All downhill - this little trail (after crossing the river that the falls fed a couple of times) spit out onto what looked like a dirt road. "YAY", we thought. "Let's follow this road to where it meets the main road and hitch-hike back to our car!" - Great plan! So we hiked, and this little dirt road spit out into another little dirt road. "Right of left...?". We chose right. Didn't matter - that road let to another road, to another, to another - without the first sight of anything civilized - not even a phone pole. We finally found and end in sight - a barrier at the end of one of these dirt roads - just stopped in the middle of nowhere - and it was getting dark...and cold. We hit this dead-end just after dusk - and just about an hour before the freezing rain showed up to brighten our situation. My companion stated, "My wife made me bring an emergency kit - with a tent, matches, flares, etc........it's back in the Jeep". Wonderful! We had a choice - make some sort of make-shift shelter and wait out the night - or try to hike it back in the dark (and I mean DARK - no moon, no lights....literally could not see your hand in front of your face!). So we decided to hike back. Now, here's where it get interesting - we didn't have any flashlight (also why I carry one now). I had a lighter (first time he was glad that i smoked), but a lighter wasn't going to cut it - and making a torch would be a chore in the freezing rain. Our solution - electronic flash! We would point the flash slightly upward and pop it, and then travel as far as we could based on our memory of what we saw when the flash went off. Parts of the "roads" we were on had severe drop-offs, so we decided it would be safer to "tie ourselves together" in case one or the other slipped - the only things we had were camera straps. Now this is a comedy in the making - us bouncing off each other while strapped together with camera straps - this didn't last long and gave way to more of a "try not to kill yourself" approach. As we went, with every pop of the flash, my mind would put a little something "additional" into what I saw - you know, the usual bear right in our path - or that elusive axe murderer. I started walking with my knife pulled (not my Swiss Army - but a 6 inch blade Bowie). Anyway, for every intersection we reached, we had to decide whether that was the road that we came from - this led to a few arguments, but we got through the "dirt road" section.....and reached the river that we had to rock-hop across...with no lights...and I was NOT going to pop a flash and cross a river based on my "memory" of the scene. Kevin, my companion, offered a glove...and we set it ablaze. Waving this flaming glove, we got half way across the river to a good size rock in the middle - time for the other glove. After making it across the worst river crossing, we were at the foot of the mountain we needed to climb - and the trail, as I said before, was little traveled and could be easily mistaken for any number of animal trails that forked from it. We needed a consistent light source. Kevin to the rescue again! He had a tube of Chap Stick. We bored a small hole into the center of the Chap Stick and stuffed some paper (old receipts from my wallet) into it, lit it - and behold - a perfect candle. It had to last for an hour at least! Enough time to get back to the falls that we started out for - and from there, a trail easy enough to stay on even in the dark. We got back to the Jeep just before sunrise (might have done better staying where we were - but I guess keeping moving kept us warm?). After getting back to civilization, we looked up where we were on a topographical map. We had wandered into a hunting preserve - that had more roads than Carter has liver pills. We would have had to make 20 or so "correct turns" on these dirt roads to get to the main road. As it was, we were roughly 16 miles (as the crow flies) from our Jeep. As a result, I ALWAYS carry a tent, candles, matches, lighter, flashlight, flares, etc. If alone, it would have been WAY too easy to freak out and break a leg or take a dive into one of the gorges. I dunno if this was my worst or my best experience in photography - I'll let you decide! Wolf

Fascinating story....can't say I've had anything fun like that happen... almost reminds me of the Blair Witch Project where they got lost in the woods.... shudder Worst thing I can brag about is almost losing a thigh high rubber boot in the river cause I got semi-stuck in the muck. Luckily I was able to get unstuck, keep the boot, and not get my equipment wet! PS....beautiful shot of the falls... :~)

Yes, excellent story and wonderful picture! Jinx

ROFLMAO the REALLY funny thing is, the shot was worth it! Great shot!

Oh - don't get me started about wading rivers, Mishelle - I was wading across a good size river in the Smokies when a strange urge came across me - something in the "shouldn't have had Mexican for lunch" range - dead in the middle of the river....nothing could be done! i wound up on the other side and donated a pair of Fruit-Of-The-Looms and a pair of socks (better than leaves!). Wolf

hahaha... priceless... i was enthralled! thanks for the story :]

"Two guys found frozen, roped together at bottom of cliff, 500 yards from local Dennys parking lot. Police have not ruled out fowlplay, as one seems to have stabbed other with small sword. "National Inquirer" investigating strange flashes of light seen in the sky.

Brilliant story and well told. Waving a flaming glove while crossing the river?????? If you had a tent, you could have set fire to it , that would have lasted longer and may have spared the second glove!!! LOL Thanks for the story.

"Man who goes Camping with Flaming Arrow has One Intent" Old Boy Scouts Motto :]

Great story ... reminds me of trying to cut it short in Sardegna two years ago. What seems to be half a mile got ten of them without any light at all through thorny macchia without ending, carrying two mountain bikes .. but at least, as we were on sea-level .. the risk to drop down from something was very low ... ;) Thanks for telling Wolf!