This thread is just for telling stories of interesting things that have happened in your life. They can be as short or long as you wish, and can be anything from funny to interesting. We all have stories to tell, and I’d like to hear some of yours.
I was in the Boy Scouts (if you ever have kids, try to convince them to join scouting, it’s one of the best things I ever did). And for those of you who don’t know, scouting has something called high adventure bases. These are large sites owned by the Boy Scouts that serve as a destination for scouts to do adventurous activities. I’m not talking like knot tying or other first year cliché scout things. I mean like spending two weeks in the mountains of New Mexico, hiking for around 10-50 miles a day with ~50 lbs of gear on your back.
Of the 4 high adventure bases (phillmont, northern tier, sea base, summit), I’ve been to 2. Philmont (which is a story I’ll get to on another day) and northern tier.
Northern Tier is a series of 3 bases on the border of Minnesota and Canada, or more specifically the literal thousands of lakes on said border (known as the boundary waters). At this base you spend about a week canoeing a path you planned out, Whenever you came to the end of a lake, you portaged the canoe, and your 80lb frameless bag, across a strip of land thats usually anywhere from a couple hundred yards to 2 miles long. You kept doing this until you finally got back about a week later.
This is all to set the stage for the real story, and every story needs a character. Enter Kyle.
Kyle is an interesting fellow. I could write an entire book based on things that he had done on this trip alone, but to keep it relatively brief all I will say is that he was a bit of a delinquent. A delinquent who really didn’t want to be there. The only reason he was there in the first place was that his older brother had been to a different high adventure base the year before and came back almost different person. His mother noticed this and decided to send Kyle to the next one. The problem is that the base his brother went to was a vacation compared to northern tier. Add that to the fact that his brother was a generally more likable person and you’ve got a disaster.
Still, he was a fun person to keep around, if only for the weird situations he got himself into.
Anyway, the boundary waters are protected to hell by the 2 nations, you’re legally not even allowed to have more than 9 people in a group there at a time.
Another thing that it’s illegal to do is jump off of a cliff that’s more than 5 ft tall. So naturally we jumped off of a 35 ft tall cliff (into water, of course). We took turns jumping, with my jump being nothing special. My friend jumped with his palms facing down so they came out red, and his brother had the most graceful looking pencil dive you ever did see.
And then there was Kyle...
Kyle struggled to build the courage to jump. I don’t blame him for this, I was scared too. When he finally jumped, he did so in a strange way...
Imagine sitting in an arm chair. See how your arms are resting? See where your center of balance is? That’s how Kyle jumped.
Except he didn’t land on his tushie. He landed somewhere a bit more unpleasant.
Now imagine slapping a large ham with a fly swatter. Add a megaphone to it and you have a general idea of the sound that was made as Kyle hit the water. There was no splash, no other noise, just someone yelling “yeah Kyle!” As he fell on the water in a way that would make anyone wince.
After sitting out on a nearby rock for about 20 minutes, Kyle recovered.
Luckily for us, we recorded his elegant swan dive, that clip is stored away for us to watch anytime we need a laugh. Kyle is fine with it of course, I mean it happens to all of us. His kids are gonna look like Stewie Griffin though.
I was in the Boy Scouts (if you ever have kids, try to convince them to join scouting, it’s one of the best things I ever did). And for those of you who don’t know, scouting has something called high adventure bases. These are large sites owned by the Boy Scouts that serve as a destination for scouts to do adventurous activities. I’m not talking like knot tying or other first year cliché scout things. I mean like spending two weeks in the mountains of New Mexico, hiking for around 10-50 miles a day with ~50 lbs of gear on your back.
Of the 4 high adventure bases (phillmont, northern tier, sea base, summit), I’ve been to 2. Philmont (which is a story I’ll get to on another day) and northern tier.
Northern Tier is a series of 3 bases on the border of Minnesota and Canada, or more specifically the literal thousands of lakes on said border (known as the boundary waters). At this base you spend about a week canoeing a path you planned out, Whenever you came to the end of a lake, you portaged the canoe, and your 80lb frameless bag, across a strip of land thats usually anywhere from a couple hundred yards to 2 miles long. You kept doing this until you finally got back about a week later.
This is all to set the stage for the real story, and every story needs a character. Enter Kyle.
Kyle is an interesting fellow. I could write an entire book based on things that he had done on this trip alone, but to keep it relatively brief all I will say is that he was a bit of a delinquent. A delinquent who really didn’t want to be there. The only reason he was there in the first place was that his older brother had been to a different high adventure base the year before and came back almost different person. His mother noticed this and decided to send Kyle to the next one. The problem is that the base his brother went to was a vacation compared to northern tier. Add that to the fact that his brother was a generally more likable person and you’ve got a disaster.
Still, he was a fun person to keep around, if only for the weird situations he got himself into.
Anyway, the boundary waters are protected to hell by the 2 nations, you’re legally not even allowed to have more than 9 people in a group there at a time.
Another thing that it’s illegal to do is jump off of a cliff that’s more than 5 ft tall. So naturally we jumped off of a 35 ft tall cliff (into water, of course). We took turns jumping, with my jump being nothing special. My friend jumped with his palms facing down so they came out red, and his brother had the most graceful looking pencil dive you ever did see.
And then there was Kyle...
Kyle struggled to build the courage to jump. I don’t blame him for this, I was scared too. When he finally jumped, he did so in a strange way...
Imagine sitting in an arm chair. See how your arms are resting? See where your center of balance is? That’s how Kyle jumped.
Except he didn’t land on his tushie. He landed somewhere a bit more unpleasant.
Now imagine slapping a large ham with a fly swatter. Add a megaphone to it and you have a general idea of the sound that was made as Kyle hit the water. There was no splash, no other noise, just someone yelling “yeah Kyle!” As he fell on the water in a way that would make anyone wince.
After sitting out on a nearby rock for about 20 minutes, Kyle recovered.
Luckily for us, we recorded his elegant swan dive, that clip is stored away for us to watch anytime we need a laugh. Kyle is fine with it of course, I mean it happens to all of us. His kids are gonna look like Stewie Griffin though.
