Hey Pandas, What's The Scariest Thing(S) You've Experienced

I was a junior at university and during a long weekend in Autumn, I went with a group of fellow university students to hike up a mountain. It was a smaller mountain and could be summitted in one day, even accounting for travel to and back from the mountain. I hadn't summitted this particular mountain before, and I'm more accustomed to backpacking than hiking, so I was interested in trying it.

There was this one guy who had assured us all he was very familiar with this mountain and regularly summitted it a couple of times per year, so we all just let him lead us. At one point, I saw that we were leaving the trail, so I caught up to him and asked, "Hey, are we leaving the trail?" to which he replied, "Yeah, there's a really great bald up ahead, perfect place to stop for lunch." (For those of you who might not know, a bald is a section on a mountain (typically in the South Eastern United States) where the trees fall away to reveal mostly rocky or grassy terrain.)

Turns out he was right, and we all stopped at this bald to eat lunch and enjoy the fantastic view. After lunch, he starts leading us again, but he doesn't lead us back to the trail. Again, I catch up with him and ask, "Are we not going back to the trail?" to which he replies, "No, I know a shortcut that leads us to another trail nearby, and it has gorgeous views. Relax! Haha! You're so anxious!"

Now, normally you should never leave a trail unless you're going to get back on it. That's a basic hiking/backpacking rule. However, if you're with someone who really, truly knows the mountain, they can show you some really great sights. I had experienced this with a seasoned backpacker on several occasions, so I figured this guy knew what he was talking about. After all, he was right about the bald. What could go wrong?

We could get hopelessly lost for hours, that's what could go wrong. And we did. The farther we hiked, the less confident the leader seemed, and at one point he stopped to consult his map... which he forgot to bring with him. He then proceeded to try to use his phone to look up the map, but he didn't download the map ahead of time and of course no one had any reception on their phones.

Now, it's getting to be late afternoon. This was meant to be a one-day hike, so no one had brought more than enough provisions for one day. On top of that, although this particular mountain isn't home to many dangerous predators, there are black bears, and tons of rumors about mountain lions (there have not been any confirmed sightings of them, but lots of the inexperienced hikers with us were getting super nervous about them).

Finally, the leader stops, turns around to face us and says, "I need the lightest person we have. I can't figure out where we are without a better view. There ought to be a trail right around here, but I can't see it." Well, being 5'0" and 105lbs, I step forward expecting him to want me to climb up on his shoulders to take a look from a higher vantage point, or maybe climb a tree. Nope!

He wanted me to be the end of a human chain and walk down this extremely steep side of the mountain where there were lots of little sapling trees growing and where the steep floor was covered in a carpet of fallen autumn leaves. Now, at this point my water bottle is almost empty, so I stupidly agree. We all form a chain, with the lighter people on my end and the stronger people at the other. I start walking down. After a couple of minutes, I finally see a trail. I tell the girl who is holding my hand I see it, and she gets excited - and then she loses her grip on my hand. I fell, slid, and crashed into trees. People start panicking and they PULL UP THE HUMAN CHAIN. I end up having to claw my way back up, pulling on saplings and bloodying up my palms and fingers. I make it back up, tell them where the trail is, and long story short we made it down to the trail and back to our cars. It took me weeks to heal. But, I learned an important lesson that day. Several, in fact.

There's this creek behind my friends house that's real hard to find since the trail leading to it is SO overgrown. I went with my 8 y/o f friend, my 7 y/o m friend who found it and my 5 or 6 y/o little bro. I was 8.

We had gone here multiple times before, but this time it was really hot, and it was the solstice, so we had extra time on our hands. we walked and had fun for an hour or so, but than stopped to realize just how far we had gone. Real, real far.

That's when we heard thunder.

We all panicked. My f friend had to carry my bro on her back since she was on a soccer team and he couldn't run very fast, but that slowed her down. Just when we got to the open area is when it started raining. Hard.

We were soaked in seconds and had no time to stop. when we got near the end my f friend had to take a break from carrying him.That was the first time I had ever cussed in front of anyone. "WE NEED TO F***ING GO!!!'
The kid who lived near the creek had just got home who I knew, and gave us raincoats since we were close to our house. Well they got raincoats. I was somehow taller than him and his mom, so I got a metal umbrella in a thunderstorm.

We did make it back, but I never went to that creek again.

TL:DR i was caught in a creek during a thunderstorm.

My nightmares, if you saw them you’d be scared for life