Camping can be a great adventure on which you experience the glory of nature and discover new things about yourself.
It can also be a total nightmare.
Wild animals, fires, rain, injuries, pesky younger siblings: these are all things that can absolutely ruin a camping trip at the drop of a hat.
These 10 camping nightmares shouldn't deter you from enjoying the great outdoors, but they should definitely serve as a reminder about proper camping safety! Too much horseplay, not telling folks where you are, and not following camp rules or regulations will most certainly lead to your very own camping nightmare.
Please, please remember that rules are there for a reason, and that your safety and the safety of others comes first when it comes to camping and entering nature!
Have you ever experienced a horrible camping trip before? Was it anything as bad as the following horror stories from Reddit?
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Thumbnail Photo: Wikimedia Commons / James deBoer (Jdeboer)
1.
On my very very first camping trip as a kid, it poured monsoonal rains on us. We were in old fashioned canvas camp tents and my ground cover was poking out from under the edge. The water poured in and I awoke in a pool of cold water.
Virtually everything I had brought with me was soaked through and through. I wanted to go home. I cried. I stayed (my parents made me – err – talked me into it). I had fun anyway. —TreeBits
2.
Slammed my hand in the mini-van door. Brother fell out of a tree, knocked himself out on a log below THAT WAS IN A FIELD OF POISON IVY. Stung by a wasp. Neighbor cut his arm open with a hatchet. [All on] one trip. —OnAveryIsland
3.
It was the year of the cicadas around DC. We woke up in the morning to find that the ceiling of our tent looked black and no light was coming through – all because of cicada bodies that had piled up on top. The ground was covered in them and they smelled terrible.
The bathroom facilities (yes, this was middle school girl scout camping, our campground had toilets and showers), had like 5 inches of cicada corpse piled up against one of the walls because the floor was slanted.
The whole experience was nasty, smelly, noisy and crunchy. —archaeob
4.
Our motorhome’s freezer wasn’t working well and all my ice cream sandwiches got all melty. —Dirt_Bike_Zero
5.
Sitting at the campfire after dark. Reach down and pick up a stick to throw into the fire. Not a stick. Centipede. —Spice-Weasel
6.
Friend dared me to eat butter packets. Had about 12 of them… Turns out they were expired, and didn’t respond well to the heat [or in my stomach]. –Oafah
7.
Hour two of a three day hiking trip, I got stung by a wasp on my face. Face swelled up all over, to the point my eyes started to close. We had to turn around so I could go to the doctor for an antihistamine shot.
Only took a few hours to ruin a trip we had planned for weeks. —GuyInOregon
8.
I suppose mine is slipping off an embankment and having my left foot/leg hit a hole and twisting, shattering several bones in my ankle and both the tibia and fibula, then having to crawl along a riverbank, leg flopping behind me, fighting off passing out while a couple guys fishing ignored me. —tbp0701
9.
My stupid brothers (I have 3) locked me in the tent and were being idiots outside of the tent. I just ignored them and read Archie. They started screaming about fire and running away, but I thought they were joking until the tent started to melt.
I sliced a whole in the other side, got out, and then dumped all of our coolers on the fire to put it out. I ruined my shoes from stomping on fire, I ruined all the food because I didn't take it out before dumping the coolers on the fire, the tent was wrecked, and those idiots told my mom that I was smoking in the tent and that's why it started on fire.
Three against one, my mom believed them and I was grounded for the rest of summer. I was 9! —princessk8
10.
Woke up to my younger brother standing up and peeing on his pillow inside the tent. In his half-sleep state, I guess he thought he made it outside…
Instead he was drenching his own sleeping arrangement." —grantmoore3d
Has anything like this ever happened to you? Please SHARE with your family and friends on Facebook!
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
