BEEN THERE...DID THAT..

Turner River Terror

AH ...Camping..while Hunting or Fishing..
Flooded Tents , Fire Ants in Tents , No tent and sleeping under a tarp with the Thermocell running all night just to stay alive and see the Dawn.

Spent the night sleeping  on cut down Palmetto fronts in a flooded swamp with my K5 Blazer in water up to the hood..Exploding Ravioli Cans in the campfire , No wicks for the Lantern...No Lantern at all.
Ah The Good Times..

bswiv

There is a scorched section of wall on the south side of our house that's been there for about 7-8 years now. As the house is architectural block and does not get painted and as the scorch has nothing to do with structural integrity, and as it is in a place few will ever see, we leave it there.

I'll forgo the LONG story but suffice to say 16 year old girls can be a destructive as 16 year old boys, at least our 2 bobcats were.

The actions of the youngest daughter, who caused the scorch ( And much other damage. ) on that day are sort of like your being stuck.......over time it has become a source of much family amusement.

Odd how the "bad" experiences are more of what we remember and sometimes add the best texture to life. 

4WARD

1980ish, the road to nowhere.
60 something Ford Falcon wagon and a 300# canoe.
Cow Creek bridge, sacks full of scallops, cooler full of fish and a shotgun under the old mans pillow. (actually had to pull it out once)
Dixie county rednecks(b4 meth) at 2 am, noseeums, yellowflys and the best times of my life .
I remember dumping cup fulls of noseeums out of the bottom of the cook stove in the morning. Had to run out to flip the fish, then jump back in the car.
Pop knew enough locals that they would finally figure it out, he would laugh and I would crap my pants.

Rich M

Back around 98 turkey season wife & I got stuck in a van in a long puddle - almost got out of it - front wheels were on dry ground.  Spent entire day in the water jacking the rear tires up and stuffing stuff under there,  going forward an inch at a time. 

Tried starting fire with the powder out of a shot shell - burned a neat little hole in the tinder on top of it - too hot to ignite it.  Finally got a napkin lit using jumper cables and sparking it.  Had hot dogs and water - slept on floor of van and walked out at first light AM.

6 or 7 miles later an old guy had pity and wondered what a lady was doing out in the middle of nowhere walking along side the road with a muddy guy.  She told him the story and he knew the place - took us back and pulled us out - more like a tap, barely pulled.

Anyway, we were taking the tow strap off and a truck comes thru the puddle and past us.  LOL!  We talk about this every now and again - how well we worked together and ultimately got married a month or two later.

spangler

Out on Turkey Season before you got married!  You got a good one Rich!

My girl is solid, but not exactly outdoorsy lol  she does like camping and fishing, but I be bating her hooks..

Once we were 'glam camping' on fort desoto.  Had one of those giant tents with a screened front porch lol.  Well, we had a water front site and had our front porch,appropriately, facing the view.  While we were setting up, a racoon climbed into my expedition (tail gate open), opened a cooler, grabbed our dinner and was outta there before I could do anything about it.  No biggie.

Shortly after we got some rods in the sand, just as the sun was setting, we noticed a storm moving in.  Dark skies coming right for us.  When it hit shore the 50-60knot gusts literally blew our tent out in an instant.  That front porch just acted like a scoop and the whole thing collapsed.  Visibility, due to the rain, was about a foot in front of your face.  It was coming down as hard as it ever does.  The campsite looked like a flash flood, all about 6" under water.  And filling up our fallen over tent.  The only thing not under water at this point was the air mattress.

But man, my girl went to work.  She didn't panic at all.  Just got right to what needed to be done.  Didn't even need any direction.  Didn't even complain. 

We got all our crap packed and loaded and had dinner back at the house.  Good times.

Not a crazy story, in a long list of crazy stories I've got, but yeah, good woman.  She prob aint ever gonna go hunting with me, but I'd take her over half my guy friends in a real emergency, any day of the week.

flydown

Three lakes back in 1980.  18 years of age.  Me and my brother headed there for late season archery hunt.  And it was cold out.  Like crazy early season cold.  Like 40 degrees at night cold.  We borrowed sleeping bags and an old tent from my stepfather, who assured me it was in great shape.  Got there early and found some lighter knot for our evening fire before heading out to hunt.  Tried to put up the tent, but when we began to unfold it, it basically fell apart.  Oh well, we had sleeping bags, pillows, and firewood.  Hunt was uneventful and when we returned to the camp, someone had stolen all our firewood.  So we started going from campsite to campsite looking for our hard earned firewood.  We finally found it and with a little coaxing and negotiating, we got the majority of it back. 

We started our fire and put a pot roast, potatoes, and some vegetables in a aluminum foil pack to cook our dinner.

Threw the foil pack in the fire and proceeded to strike up a conversation with the folks camping next to us.  Well time got away from us due to the beer, and when we finally went to check on our dinner, the potatoes had shrunken to the size of golf balls, the beans and carrots all but gone, and the meat was basically mush.  Not good.

With our stomachs growling we put our sleeping bags beside the fire and tried our best to get some sleep.

The fire must have died due to the unforeseen rain shower around 2 AM and we woke up to puddles of water all around us and soaked to the bone sleeping bags.  And everything smelled like kerosene from the smoke of the lighter knot.

It wasn't our finest moment.

gritsnhuntin1

I remember hunting in Corbett with my son. We had a decent buck figured out and all we had to do was show up. After two days he walked by me at 12 yards. I never moved cause he was heading toward my son and I really wanted him to shoot. The deer made it about 50 yards away and my son did something to alert the deer. He started heading back my way and offered me a 30 yard broadside shot. This deer was looking back towards my son so i figured all I had to do was drag him out. He was ready for a taxidermist.  I watched the arrow cut his belly hair and he ran off no worse for wear. I still searched and looked just to be certain, i wanted to make sure the boy understood how important it was to follow up every shot. While we were "tracking" the heavens opened up and i started feeling like i had to pee a lot, like every 5 min or so. By the time it quit raining enough to walk back to the truck i had a kidney stone making it's way to freedom so to speak. It took almost 3 hrs to get out of the woods and another hour to drive to camp. I was in the most pain i'd ever been in. My son said i was sweating like a racehorse and I was pale as a ghost. When we finally made it back to camp our tent had ripped to shreds and everything was blown all over the campsite, I told the boy put everything in the tent and roll it up in a ball. We made it home around 2 A.M. and my truck looked like the Beverly hillbillies. 4 more hours in the E.R. finding out i had a kidney stone and all i had to do was go home and "let it pass". Holy Cow was that the most painful 18 hrs of my life. Never found my cooler either. Somehow it came out of the truck on the way home after out hasty exit. My son still asks how my kidneys are when we speak on the phone.

Turner River Terror

Camping on Kice Island just east of Marco...Summer Spawn.
Big Snook and sitting in a lawn chair with a wet towel draped over your head and the water up to your neck most of the night.
No See Um's just about killed us..

Turner River Terror

Camping on Kice Island just east of Marco...Summer Spawn.
Big Snook and sitting in a lawn chair with a wet towel draped over your head and the water up to your neck most of the night.
No See Um's just about killed us..

binellishtr

if you have never experienced the burning of no see um's to the point where you are rubbing motor oil on your body you havent lived

Sixth Generation

4WARD,  Cow Creek Bridge is an amazing spot!  My cousin has a camp across from Lucy Lane (Rocky Creek Boat Ramp Rd).  Have spent many good times down there.  Hell back in the 80's they were still using that road as a landing strip in the dark...  My best time was way down in Ramsey Bend one evening.  I had dropped my wife at a tree stand  off on Turner Grade not far from the cemetery and I took our 2 year old twins for a drive.  They were in the back seat in their car seats and I was just out riding to see if we could find something to shoot at, basically just giving my wife some quiet time.  Well I happened to look back for a second and ran off the road and buried my truck in a deep ditch.  There was no getting out because believe me I tried.  I couldnt get anyone on the CB nor had any cell service.  After shooting every 308 shell 3 at a time it was dark 30.  I dont really remember how bad the bugs were because I knew how much trouble I was in.  My wife walked all the way to Caseys Cove and was actually brave enough to get in a truck with 3 guys who agreed to come look for me.  I finally dialed 911 on my cell and found out when you do that any cell tower will take the call (I had Sprint and only Verizon has service).  FWC officer Todd Nichols found me and just when he had me out of the ditch we heard a truck coming down the road...  Needless to say she was happier to see her little ones in good shape than she was mad at me.  

Soda Popinski

Last year we were going to South Carolina to do cleaning and clearing work on our hunt property, meeting everyone Saturday morning 0700, well rather than get a room I decided it would be cheaper to just wait til 11pm and ride out through the night and get there around 5-6am ready to go, we planned a nap inbetween.   Headed out and  around 4 found a place to stop, but it was right under some lights and we wasted about 45 minutes there before deciding to just push on to the property, got there a little after 5 and dozed for 5 minutes with the windows open..big mistake, whole cab was full, and we didn't have our thermacels with us.  

Worked the whole day, trimming shooting lanes, etc.   Got to the hotel around 5pm, had a light dinner and got back to the room around 7, the plan was to get up and go sit some stands the next morning.   I fell out at 715 and didn't wake up til after 9.   Never again.   

Killingtime1

The very first time I ever went gator hunting me and my brother were trying to get bait to no avail...Well on the way to Lake Harney we see a dead raccoon in the road, so my brother decided we will just use that for bait. When he puts the racoon in the boat he starts uncontrollably vomiting. He accidentally got some “racoon juice” on him, so pretty much he is puking the whole night while we were hunting. Even the gators didn’t want any part of this nasty ****. Funny thing is we snatched  a 10’ right at the boat ramp while we were leaving! 

4WARD

Sixth Generation said:

4WARD,  Cow Creek Bridge is an amazing spot!  My cousin has a camp across from Lucy Lane (Rocky Creek Boat Ramp Rd).  Have spent many good times down there.  Hell back in the 80's they were still using that road as a landing strip in the dark...   

I've heard lots of stories. I think it was mostly over by the 80's, before that they didn't even wait for dark.
This was well before cellphones, nothing like being surrounded by 5 or 6 trucks out there in the middle of the night.
Step Dad always ended up knowing someones uncle or daddy. He'd give them a few beers and they would be on their way. Still scared the crap out my 10 yr old butt.
I was instructed just in case," If I stick my hand in the window...Put the shotgun in it"

bgeorge

Killingtime1 said:

The very first time I ever went gator hunting me and my brother were trying to get bait to no avail...Well on the way to Lake Harney we see a dead raccoon in the road, so my brother decided we will just use that for bait. When he puts the racoon in the boat he starts uncontrollably vomiting. He accidentally got some “racoon juice” on him, so pretty much he is puking the whole night while we were hunting. Even the gators didn’t want any part of this nasty ****. Funny thing is we snatched  a 10’ right at the boat ramp while we were leaving! 

Do not ask me how I know but road kill fox works extremely well.  To big for a gator to swallow but I hear they will tie themselves up in the rope trying to break it up.  If you find one do not try it as it turns out they will get you in trouble with the law.  

ANUMBER1

yes it was well over before the 80's

FloridaOD

Camp!
My Dad & I would make Jon Boat runs on the Everglades Conservation Area canals,way back in,establish a Levee day camp,lean -to tarp,shore lunch and happily obligatory nap under the lean-to. 

And key largo Angler's Club. Yep.During the winter the Club dock was full of Yachts,my Dad was a Captain and had the Trumpy Yacht "Sinbad" there for regal Yachting season.Summer season back then the place was closed,desolate.We camped with the family Chevy Pickup camper right there at the end of the docks,fished,ye ol' Jon Boat launched,runs to flats,caught fish off the dock.

Chevy then saw camp use on the Levees west of Miami Canal/Terry Town dike. Rabbit hunt excursions along the levees my most fond hunting memory.Watched a Panther for the longest time one morning.Back then the fate of the open lands to the north were soon to become Rotenberger and Holey Land WMA.

Boat camp via ye ol' Jon Boat,again on levee berms out on Lake Hicpochee west of Moore Haven.

Moved to Northeast Florida,camped at Ocala National Forest Lake Delancey. Recall hearing music late a night coming from the dance bar on US 19. Camped along the Ocklawaha and got truck stuck in muck royally,Game & Fish officer rescued me.
(I have recently returned to Ocala NF to explore waterway camp options)

Then,Osceola National Forest,off hunt season " dispersed camp" out of a Tacoma pickup. 

Base camp is hunt lease private camp thirty minutes from home and a world away,simple elegance.
No power or running water,10 X 20 wall tent structure,small pond,fire pit and plink target setup.Walk to stand,general woods ramble.
When the lease camp and private stands seem to be a bit tame I head out to Osceola for Pickup truck camp ramble.

All of this is "Priceless".