Worst case scenario.

[woodsman]

Whats the worst thing that happened to your tent ?
Mine was way back when I borrowed a friends tent because I didn't have time to buy a new one before I set off on my trip and the old one got shredded in my previous trip either way I digress, it was a simple tent basically new since my friend wasn't really the camping type and it wasn't really designed for rain and with my luck I managed to get caught up in the mother of all storms, the clothes that were in my backpack got so wet in under 5 minutes that I needed to put them in the dryer when I got back from the trip.

 

[Michael]

I forgot to put down a tarp when camping in the snow one winter. I woke up in the middle of the night totally drenched, the snow beneath me having melted and soaked through the bottom of the tent.

It was more horrible for me than for the tent. I don't think I've been as cold in my entire life, except for that time I fell into a partially frozen river.

 

[lbean]

I do not know how it happened but we were camping and some how the kids cut a whole in the tent. I never did get a straight story about how it happened but I still made them pay for replacing it.

 

[dinosaur]

So far the worst thing that happened to me was when I was day camping and got caught in a tornado. I got down along the bank of the creek I was fishing and tied down everything I could. I grabbed my dog and held him close while holding the base of a small tree and prayed. The wind got pretty bad and the trees above us blew apart but we stayed there. It passed within minutes that seemed longer and it was over. I was twelve at the time. It was a long time ago. We both made it. I miss my dog now.

 

[Pril]

I had a tent that looked like a cabin. and the rain made puddles in the roof. as we drained the puddles from the inside pushing out. the snap that held it to the pole in the middle snaped. so any more rain would have went in the tent. The fun part about it is the rain did come and was angled just right where it didn't even backsplash in.
Wonder if nature knew it was my honeymoon?? lol

oh and another tip when i was state camping the screen room imploded or just fell down from the rain... and broke!

My husband has one where his tent flooded. his laptop was in there too.. lol thank goodness we upgraded.

 

[Amelie]

My worst tent scenario was when a herd of cows (and their resident bull) entered the field in the middle of the night and started "ruminating" in a circle around the tent. It was a bit of a shock - they were the big Scottish breed with a red shaggy coat and huge horns.

As it happened they were very gentle and curious - even the bull.

As for the tent, it survived being sat on by (the farmer later told) was the grand old matriarch of the herd.

He gave me a dram of single malt with my breakfast !

 

[Erwin]

The worst tent story we have is when we were camping about 5 years ago we had a huge wind storm and it blew our tent about a half mile away then we got it set back up forgetting we didn't have the ground cover and it rained the next night. So we woke up soked luckily the cloths were in the car. Then it was a nice day so we went canoeing to come back and find that coons had taken over our food and tent. WE LEFT!

 

[Grandpa]

Tent + middle of night + skunk = bad experience

 

[YogiBear]

Tent + middle of night + skunk = bad experience

Grandpa that does sound like a horrible experience. The worse experience I had camping that I remember was when I was a kid and my dad decided to take us all camping. Instead of the usual tent he bought a net tent. There are five of us and he and I were the only ones that slept in it and got ate up by mosquitoes.

 

[BCBabe]

I wasn't in a tent, but I did have the living Hell scared out of me.

It was a course on survival skills, it was me and some grub, rope, and a lighter out in the boondocks for a few days: the course leaders would check in twice a day, but otherwise, that was it, I was on my own.

I'd made myself a lean-to of sorts, and made sure it was as dry as I could make it, trenching the surrounding area, that idea....

I woke up in the middle of the night, the fire basically out, to find something 'rooting' around the edges of my sleeping bag. As I came to, it was to register a set of eyes staring at me from outside the lean-to as the 'rooting' went on.

I hollered, and that sent a raccoon out of the lean-to at Mach 5: guess what had been 'rooting' around my sleeping bag? There was a family of them, curious, and the boldest of them had come into the lean-to... and succeeded in scaring the living bejabbers out of me.

I wasn't an adult yet, by the way, I was still in my mid-teens.

 

[Trailer]

My worst was on manoeuvres with the RAF. We were staying in pretty large tarp tents, on cots. We had a storm and a flood tore through our field. We couldn't move the tents, they all leaked and the best we could do was put our bags up on our cots. The roof leaked, the beds were soaked but we'd stashed our gear in our packs so they and the sleeping bags were dry. We got no sleep at all that night.

 

[CatsEye]

Well, mine was people related. We went camping in the primitive campground one weekend and set everything up. One of the groups that was camping decided they were going to get liquored up and start shooting their rifles off. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep and we were scared to death. We finally left at about 3 am with them still going strong. I had been hoping they would pass out but no luck.

 

[JollyRogers]

In the Philippines our unit was out training in tents when a Typhoon hit. Luckily we had cots to keep us out of the water, but the valley where we were camped flooded with nearly 2 feet of water and with the noise of the wind no one got any sleep. We had guy line "watches" with flack jackets and helmets in 2 feet of water throughout the storm to keep the tents anchored and try to keep them up.
The next morning we were in formation when a 1 star General came to visit and asked if we had stayed dry. The Lieutenant said "Yes General, we barely noticed the Typhoon."
When the General found out later that day that all of the officers and NCO's had stayed in town the night of the storm we all got pulled out and put up in a hotel for the rest of our stay!

 

[Gus]

Thank Goodness for Army-style canvas tents

When I was 9, my grandfather took me on a week-long bear hunting campout.
Tent camping in an old square army-style canvas tent about 6 or 8 feet square.

it was my second year doing this so Pop let me carry a small model 94 Winchester 30-30.

Pop was also a practical joker - old-school style - if it didn't kill you, then it was OK and funny.

Him, his brother, and myself on cots in the tent. After dark he slipped out and put a bunch of grocery-store salt fish right next to the tent wall - my side of course.

Sometime later in the night, I was awakened by snorting and snuffling just a few inches from my head. And I could hear it brushing against the tent wall. Yep, bait worked. At 9-years old my imagination told me it was a 10-foot tall grizzly and I was going to be the next mouthful, but fortunately the fish ws enough, and after what seemed like hours the bear left.

But I stayed awake until dawn, with my hand on that cocked 30-30 under my cot.

The sign outside the tent next morning looked to be that of a black bear, which don't really get very big, - unless you are 9-years old.

Sure was thankful for that heavy canvas wall.

Gus

 

[OutdoorsGirl]

When I was a kid, my folks decided to go camping to my uncle's lot. We borrowed my uncle's truck and tent. Well they didn't check to make sure all the poles were there, etc. They ended up make shifting the tent with tree branches and it rained so hard they ended up with the tent in the nearby river and sleeping in the truck. It sucked~

 

[canyontony]

Back in the early 80's my brother and I hiked the Grand Canyon, on a clear sunny day, till is started raining. We had no tent and we carried those old boy scout cloth sleeping bags. To say the least things got real cold and heavy. At that point it was never hike the canyon again or fall in love with it regardless of what happened. I think love won.

 

[Sarah]

Several experiences mentioned way worse than mine. We had just been given a tent from a friend and took it on our first tent-camping trip. After riding through the park on a dirt bike, we came home one evening and parked the bike next to the tent. During the night a big wind hit and knocked the bike over on the tent and ripped it. Lesson learned.

 

[ejdixon]

My worst experience would probably be back in college when I went camping with my roommate and a few of our other friends. I was so smart to pitch my tent on top of an ant hill. Fortunately, I managed to convince my friend to make some room for me in his.

 

[Camoguy]

Those are some of the most horrible stories I've ever heard. The tornado sounds the worst though. I don't think I would like to be in the middle of that.

 

[Lamebeaver]

I lent mine to a friend and she snapped a pole (fiberglass). I patched it up with a couple spares I had lying around.

Most terrifying experience involved very high winds, with aspen trees snapping all around me. Ever see one of those blow-down areas in the forest? It's no fun to be there when it's happening!