crystaliscious
09-13-2013, 05:14 PM
Early in the year, while the ground was still frozen, my partner Joshua and I were out hiking, I saw a bald eagle fly over and following it's path I saw a huge nest. I did't want to bother anyone, or the bird, I just wanted to get pictures of that nest and maybe even find a feather.
We were across the lake that day, so we came back the next weekend and parked in an area we thought we could reach the nest. After hours of walking in fields and through wild woods I saw the nest about 100 foot ahead and about 75 ft. high. We realized we would have to make our way through a thick bamboo forrest to get to the clearing under the tree, bamboo is not as forgiving as one may think. Coming out of the bamboo, with my eyes on the nest walking towards the tree, and then something I didn't expect. Pain seared through my foot all the way up my leg, I was scared to look down because I thought my foot may be gone and because of all my water training the first thought was' shark!' silly me, I was on land so the second thought was bear trap. It wasn't a trap, thank- goodness, it was a punji stick. A homemade booby trap that found it's birth in Vietnam, the vietnamese would sharpen a piece of cut bamboo, then heat it to make it very strong like steele, then smear it with yak shit. The purpose was so soldiers would step on them and get terrible infextions and off the battle field they go, 1000's of men and women have lost thier lower limbs to punji stick through out Asia.
So just what the hell was a punji stick doing here, under an eagles nest in Middle Tennessee? It wasn't the only one, there were at least 30 of them, sticking up from the ground about 6 inches, looking like huge needles all covered in eagle shit. At the time I thought' I didn't know bamboo broke off like this, this is dangerous". My partner looked at my foot, the punji stick had punctured to a little over 2 inches, I thought it was broken at the time and still think there was a small fracture, we had almost 6 miles of rough terrain to get over til we got back to the car. I put my head down and said I can do this and as we were moving through open fields we thought the small airplane that kept flying over was strange, then the dirt bike that kept coming and circling the field gave me a bad feeling- It didn't take a psychic.
It took almost 5 months before I could hike again, no insurance and terrrifed of infection that would cost me my foot, it's a good thing I have a strong medical background. I did alot of internet research while I couldn't walk, I found about punji sticks and why we see them in this country. I couldn't believe it, it made a little sense, but not much, most people out in the woods aren't there to harm others.
I also read an article where a man in NY also decapitated himself with his own booby trap of piano wire around his outdoor grow. This is not smart.
I don't want to start a shit storm and I am in favor of growing outdoors, wherever you can, please just take your booby traps out with the harvest, re-think your booby traps and stay safe out there - hikers and growers alike!
Toke-on!
We were across the lake that day, so we came back the next weekend and parked in an area we thought we could reach the nest. After hours of walking in fields and through wild woods I saw the nest about 100 foot ahead and about 75 ft. high. We realized we would have to make our way through a thick bamboo forrest to get to the clearing under the tree, bamboo is not as forgiving as one may think. Coming out of the bamboo, with my eyes on the nest walking towards the tree, and then something I didn't expect. Pain seared through my foot all the way up my leg, I was scared to look down because I thought my foot may be gone and because of all my water training the first thought was' shark!' silly me, I was on land so the second thought was bear trap. It wasn't a trap, thank- goodness, it was a punji stick. A homemade booby trap that found it's birth in Vietnam, the vietnamese would sharpen a piece of cut bamboo, then heat it to make it very strong like steele, then smear it with yak shit. The purpose was so soldiers would step on them and get terrible infextions and off the battle field they go, 1000's of men and women have lost thier lower limbs to punji stick through out Asia.
So just what the hell was a punji stick doing here, under an eagles nest in Middle Tennessee? It wasn't the only one, there were at least 30 of them, sticking up from the ground about 6 inches, looking like huge needles all covered in eagle shit. At the time I thought' I didn't know bamboo broke off like this, this is dangerous". My partner looked at my foot, the punji stick had punctured to a little over 2 inches, I thought it was broken at the time and still think there was a small fracture, we had almost 6 miles of rough terrain to get over til we got back to the car. I put my head down and said I can do this and as we were moving through open fields we thought the small airplane that kept flying over was strange, then the dirt bike that kept coming and circling the field gave me a bad feeling- It didn't take a psychic.
It took almost 5 months before I could hike again, no insurance and terrrifed of infection that would cost me my foot, it's a good thing I have a strong medical background. I did alot of internet research while I couldn't walk, I found about punji sticks and why we see them in this country. I couldn't believe it, it made a little sense, but not much, most people out in the woods aren't there to harm others.
I also read an article where a man in NY also decapitated himself with his own booby trap of piano wire around his outdoor grow. This is not smart.
I don't want to start a shit storm and I am in favor of growing outdoors, wherever you can, please just take your booby traps out with the harvest, re-think your booby traps and stay safe out there - hikers and growers alike!
Toke-on!