Humorous outdoor situations or events

[ppine]

We were running the middle section of the Klamath River, CA in rafts. My brother's enormous Dachshund Dieter Bob (he was from Texas) took a swim in a Class 2 1/2 rapid. We got him back in the boat just as we drifted slowly by a family of river otters. They started chattering and running around in a panic. They thought Dieter Bob did not belong on their river.

The next night we had a large group rolled out in the woods without tents. The weather was warm. Around 0300 the same bear that had sniffed our dinner from the other side of the river showed up grunting and sniffing around. It was on. In the moonlight, I could see Dieter Bob with his ears flying leading the charge backed up by my 2 cow dogs. They chased that bear for at least a quarter mile and he never came back. I really miss that dog.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

This short story is not funny at all. There is absolutely no humor in it, in fact it is very sad. The funny thing about it is that It made me laugh my head off.

I was on a trip with a good friend on the north slope of the Brookes Range in early September. We were in the hot tent with the stove going making small talk getting ready to start the day. My friend was telling me how much he loved his goose down sleeping bag, proudly stating that he has had it since high school. Very shortly after this his sleeping bag came in contact with the stove and it melted a big hole in it. I don't know why I found it funny, but I couldn't stop laughing. I still laugh when I think about it today.

Humor is all about timing.

 

[Dana]

Humor is all about timing.

Or who sees it.

 

[ppine]

Back in the 1980s I took a group to the Boundary Waters out of Ely, MN. A couple of days in I was carrying a 17 foot Grumman on my shoulders walking solo down the portage trail. I came around a corner and there was a black bear walking towards me. He took one look at the canoe and took off at a dead run. That was funny.

A couple of days later, I ran into a party on a portage about 50 miles into the bush. The guy looks at my cow dog and says "Where did you get that dog?" By we are on the Canadian border on the Voyageur Trail. "I wen herr in a pocker game." He thought for a moment and comes back with "Did you win or lose?"

A few days later we were all celebrating in the 1980s style and got kind of high. A bear waltzes into our camp, and none of us paid much attention to him. My cow dog Snuffy to the rescue. She just went straight at him snarling and barking and chased the bear a long distance out of camp. A friend of mine turns to me and says "What was that, did we just have a visitor>"

 

[RatAssassin]

I was talking to my neighbors kid (now 40) a few days ago and we got on doing trips when he asked me if I and the wife have anything fun coming up as far as out outdoor travel pursuits. My wife has known this guy since he has been about 3 or 4. Nice guy, nice family. Lives 5 hours away and always stops over to say hello when in the area. All his siblings and now their families do the same.

He recounted for me his one and only BWCA experience when back in his early 20's, he and a bunch of buddies planned "The Big Trip".
The plan was to rent everything because none of them even had any camping gear. They were going out for 6 days of fishing, fun, camaraderie and general nonsense at that age in such a setting.
Being extraordinary trip planners, they were out on the water almost a full day in order to make "camp" that they over-estimated their abilities for. Arriving tired, beat up and mostly hungry, that's when they discovered that somewhere in the planning process, it came down to 2 of the guys who thought the other was supposed to bring the food for the group. Nobody even questioned it because at some point, they all saw one of those big paper sacks with the little netted "window" on it full of 30lbs of potatoes being loaded between old duffle bags, backpacks and just "stuff" in various forms of containment, including plastic garbage bags tied off.
That's all they had.
Being newly tested wilderness experts from the days travel to get to camp, the group decided they were "rugged enough" to push on with their 30 lbs of potatoes because there were lakes full of fish to be had.
But they all pretty much sucked at fishing.
On the very early morning of the third day, first light, they turned their rental canoes around and didn't stop until they were back to the landing.
He said to his knowledge, not one guy ever went to try it again.
And then he said.....At least it didn't rain until the last day about three hours from the vehicles.

He tells this story about how I wrote it. Totally admitting their shortcomings and their over-expectations. It's hard not to be in tears of laughter.
And to this day he admits..."Yeah, we had no clue what we were even doing".