A warning from my shod ultra club to its members...

Barefoot TJ

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Mar 5, 2010
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People are messed up!








I know you don't trail run, but I need you to send out a warning to all of your running contacts. I have a friend who works for Georgia Power and he spends a lot of time on the power line easements and fire roads throughout central and north Georgia. Like the "Power Lines" at Sweetwater. On Monday he and his co-worker came across an intricate set of trip wires that were connected to 8 guns arranged in a crossfire pattern with electronically wired triggers. Best case scenario someone was illegally poaching deer with a very dangerous very illegal booby-trap. Regardless, I know a lot of runners use fire roads for trail running. We need to get a warning to as many people as possible and warn them of this dangerous scenario. My friend says he was lucky he was on foot and moving slowly. If he had been in his truck he would have never seen the setup and possibly would have been shot and killed.

Please pass this on to as many runners as possible.
 
Whoa, are you sure this is

Whoa, are you sure this is legit? It sounds so urban legend-ish. If it is true...what sort of freak would do something so stupid?!
 
Apparently, the guy who

Apparently, the guy who emailed this to the president of my running club is a fellow member, so I would hope he was serious.
 
Well, I don't know about the

Well, I don't know about the 8 guns, etc., but my son's Boy Scout troop had to change campout plans, because several of the state parks at the lakes are closed to campers during deer season. So the crazies are definitely out there.
 
mikerWell said:
miker Well said:
As a hunter, I find your post rather offensive. You seem to be associating hunters and crazies as one and the same. State parks often close to campers/hikes when they are open to hunting due to safety concerns, since many times campers/hikers are not aware of hunting season and don't wear any of the hunter's orange clothing that firearm hunters are usually required to wear.
 
dukester75

dukester75 said:
miker Well said:
As a hunter, I find your post rather offensive. You seem to be associating hunters and crazies as one and the same. State parks often close to campers/hikes when they are open to hunting due to safety concerns, since many times campers/hikers are not aware of hunting season and don't wear any of the hunter's orange clothing that firearm hunters are usually required to wear.

ummm....dukester...ummm...I don't find anything in my post (see above) where I associate hunters and crazies. You made that jump on your own, brother. Hunters (to me) are responsible and don't shoot until they are sure what they are shooting at. Crazies are the reasons they have to close public parks for the safety of the campers. I also wasn't aware that hunters were "usually required" to wear orange clothing. I just thought they wore it so the crazies didn't shoot them!
 
Barefoot TJ wrote: he

Barefoot TJ said:
he and his co-worker came across an intricate set of trip wires that were connected to 8 guns arranged in a crossfire pattern with electronically wired triggers.



ohhhh..... guns. Is that all? I was afraid you were going to say they were warning people not to run barefoot!
 
Thanks for clairifying that

Thanks for clairifying that Miker. Sorry, I did make that jump on my own with your associating deer season and crazies. The crazy ones can be out there anytime, not just during deer season. Accidents can and do happen to normal folks. A camper or hiker wearing drab outdoor clothing behind a screen of brush watching wildlife may not be visible to the hunter on the other side of the field.

I believe all but 10 states have hunter's orange requirements during firearm big game seasons, the other 10 strongly recommend it.
 
Dukester, you can tell I

Dukester, you can tell I don't hunt much. ;-) I prefer fishing (much less chance of being shot...although stranger things have happened). I'm glad to hear that they require orange. I used to own a Weimaraner (large gray dog) and he always had a orange reflective collar on when it was deer season. We live in the country and I always worried about him. He died a couple of years ago, but for 11 years he was my running buddy! :)
 
Much less chance, but you can

Much less chance, but you can get shot while fishing, that is if you hang out with the morons I used to hang out with.

One summer I was visiting relatives in Western Kentucky when I was about 18 years old. Some friends and I decided to take the ole John boat out for a little excursion. It was late at night, we were in the party-mood, and feeling no pain. "No biggie," I thought, "This'll be fun." We got up to Kentucky Lake and in the boat about 10 or 11 p.m.

So, we're out flying across the lake when one of my moron friends (David) playing with one of the paddles drops it in the water. Now it's too dark to go back and find it. "Nah, forget," he says. "It's just a stupid paddle. Who needs it?"

Later, we're trolling along the shoreline, nice and slow, when we come upon a long, long line of milk jugs floating in the water. "Oh neat, what's that?" says this clueless California girl, so they stopped the boat. We can see campfires burning out in the distance and campers and tents. "Neat. People are camping over here," I thought. They said, "It's a jig line." Then David starts pulling up the line attached to the jugs and starts handing it over to Darrell, Lisa, then me. Everyone is pulling on this thing, and it's getting heavier and heavier. All the while, they're telling us stories about how people will protect their jig lines with guns if they have to, and we better be quiet. Now I'm getting scared. I'm thinking, "This is nuts!"

You won't believe this, but I ended up with my arms wrapped around a cat fish bigger than a large size kitchen garbage can! I sh!t you not! Everyone was excited. They're yelling at me to leave it in the water before it's lip rips from its weight and it gets away. I'm yelling at them to let it go. I guess everyone forgot to be quiet in the heat of the moment, because now we can see people scurrying at the camp sites. Apparently, these were their jigs (and we were jigging, not such a clueless little girl now, huh?). Then they're all yelling, "Go, go, go! Go or be shot!" I'm like WTF?! The big ass fish slips from my arms and rips itself away from the line, and I was like, "Yeah!"

But now we have another little problem, the motor won't start. By this time, Lisa and I are laying on the bottom of this boat against the wall, so we wouldn't be seen OR SHOT, and the guys are working frantically to get the motor started. After a good couple of tense, and I mean tense minutes, the motor starts, and we haul ass away. I didn't look back because I didn't want to get shot. We got out of there just in time. We seriously could have been shot.

We were probably 5 minutes out from the jigs when the motor goes out again. We're coasting now, and one of them goes for the flood light. Turns it on, and it goes out. I remember something about a bad battery. They worked on that motor for awhile by moonlight but couldn't get it going again. (Knowing David, we were probably out of gas.)

Now, stuck with one oar, that all not-so-important oar, what were we going to do? Nothing! We floated in the moonlight for what seemed like hours. By early morning, it was light enough out that we could see a marina off in the distance. Now we have moron No.1 and moron No. 2 passing the paddle back and forth to get us there. We finally get to the marina around 6:30 in the morning, and we start knocking on all the house boats' doors. Only one guy was home. I have no idea why we were knocking on doors. I think they we're looking for paddles or jumpers or something. I don't remember much after that. All I know is don't drink and jig!

Oh, and don't hang out with morons!
 
TJ, they are called "jug"

TJ, they are called "jug" lines. 3 guess why (and the first two don't count) ;-)

And you didn't almost get shot while you were "fishing". You almost got shot for "messin' wif sumbuddies jugs" ;-) Just sayin'...

ps. glad you survived. Otherwise I'd still be calling my VFFs "barefoot shoes". lol
 
Yes, jugging from milk jugs. 

Yes, jugging from milk jugs. Been 26 years ago. I thought it was pretty good that I could remember all that!

And what? Board hasn't posted for the past two days, so you have to be the resident know-it-all now? Not that there's anything wrong with that. ;-)
 
Barefoot TJ wrote:  Board

Barefoot TJ said:
Board hasn't posted for the past two days, so you have to be the resident know-it-all now?

It's been that long? Firearm deer season here in Michigan must have made me lose all track of time, what with all those hunter's lonely s/o's aimlessly roaming around town seeking comfort, it's a rough life but you know...

Yeah, right. What we used to call "paperwork" and "chores" has kept me occupied I guess.
 
wow! that's insane and

wow! that's insane and ridiculous! Seriously?

TJ, I was laughing my ass off reading your story, now that one's for the books! Thanks for the giggle
 
So glad you're back, Board.

So glad you're back, Board. Miker there thinks he knows it all. ;-)
 
I have lots of good stories. 

I have lots of good stories. Just not sure I should share them all here. Hee. Let's just say, I was an adventurous kid. ;-)