Your Worst Nature Experiences

See the best of the worst nature experiences, our favorites from the dozens of submissions we received. Or scroll through the amusing rest, here. (Note, we asked for 140-character stories to fit the Twitter standard, but we've included those that came in by Facebook and exceed the limit.)

Claudia Seitz Walked right into a HUGE spider web in the middle of the forest!!!

Pat Angell Hege The day I walked around the pond at Indian Valley walked right into a big pile of bear poo, asked my sister in law if that was what I thought it was she confirmed it. Enough hiking for me that day, next day hiking was really loud talking to myself.

Sean McKernan Being in southeast Florida when Andrew hit - fortunately just far enough... See More north, but it was still a ghastly shrieking and rattling and making train sounds (much like that tornado)...

Bonnie Pezzuti Halsey Lost in the woods for hrs. @ my breaking point, covered in mud & scratches, holding back tears, I came 2 a road. A boy met me & walked w/ me for miles. Finally, we came 2 a phone & called 4 a ride. When I turned 2 talk 2 the boy, he was gone. It was as if he was a spirit sent 2 guide me home.

Kristine Downing Watching BP poison the Gulf of Mexico.

Ohgoddess Meilani hearing cries of "drill baby drill"

Dan Shapley Short jog before dinner. Lost in the woods sun setting. Jog toward road noise--where else? Highway, 2 exits away?! Still hungry, steal corn.

Jody Ford While walking through a large field surrounded by trees with my three dogs we inadvertently walked between a Cow and her calves which came as a complete surprise to everyone. Mother moose immediately mounted an attack leaving one dog kicked and everyone scrambling for cover into a thicket. Here we spent several minutes being fiercely charged while ... backing up through the heavy brush. Our back stepping departure continued until we reached an open area where we made for our escape in the opposite direction across a hay field to the nearest road. Half way across the 40 acres the moose saw us and gave chase again. We ran as fast as we could, just making it to the other side with the 700 pound moose literally snorting down my neck. I was grateful that this ended with no serious injuries.

Elena Sanko Oh! I have something to tell you! There were three of us, three girls, actually. We were living in a tent in mountains and it'd been raining heavily for 3 days, so we just couldn't kindle the fire, because all the firewood was wet! We were cold, we were hungry, buy fortunately we didn't catch cold, because we had some vodka and it warmed us during the nights! It were the strangest and the hardest three days of my life and I think I'd never forget them.

Remy Chevalier My worse and best, was getting caught in a freak flash storm in the Mediterranean, with waves 30 feet high, in a ferry between Le Lavandou and the Isle of Port-Cros. Fear just vanished as I watched stunned the wall of water all around us. The captain miraculously found his way through the waves. He said he'd never navigated through anything like this and we were lucky we made it out alive. Now they pilot hydrojets: http://www.vedettesilesdor.fr/

Dorraine Darden Worst always involved people and not nature. In this case, we'd camped next to a cemetery, family renuion, don't ask, and we girls were sleeping on the floor in an old church. The back door led directly to the cemetery, and was padlocked from the outside. In the middle of the night, the door flew open and we heard footsteps creak, creaking on the wood floor. We flew out that front door, yelling and running, waking every last live relative. Even though that back door was wide open and the lock missing, everyone thought we'd done it. My brothers, known for their shenanigans, never fessed up, so I'm not sure if we really got a visit from the dead, which wouldn't be natural at all!

Lea Cox This one was actually pretty cool. I've always been close to animals and insects and creepy crawlies and one night while ... See Moreliving in Phoenix I decided to grab my sleeping bag and go spend the night in the Superstition Mountains. I woke up during the night feeling movement inside my sleeping bag and when I cautiously felt what it was, I realized that a rattlesnake had joined me and was curled up next to the warmth of my belly. Fortunately, as I mentioned above, I love snakes and grew up watching rattlers so they didn't frighten me (I had the good sense to respect their boundaries and leave them alone when they wanted it). Therefore I didn't freak, didn't panic, didn't try to climb out of the bag first. I simply made sure that the snake was comfortable and went back to sleep. I mean, what more could I have done? Had I made any antagonistic move the snake would have nailed me quicker than I could react so even if I had been afraid of snakes I wouldn't have made it out alive. I figured I did the right thing and the snake and I passed a peaceful night together under the Milky Way. The snake woke up and left before I woke up the next morning. I was covered in mosquito bites and had to call in to work because I looked like I had a disease, but other than that it was pretty cool.

Paula Lankton Reeves 4th of July on year I pulled up some tall yellow flowered weeds in one of my flower beds, broke them in half, tucked them under my arm and walked them down to the burn pile. I was already wearing a swimsuit and spent the rest of the day in our above ground pool with the kids, gorgeous sunny day. The next morning while I was making blueberry pancakes my daughter asked me what I did to my arm, had I burned it while making breakfast? Huh, no pain, but my entire right arm was beet red like a severe sunburn. Had no clue what was going on. Later that night the arm began to swell and hurt. When I woke up 48 hours after initial contact, I had huge, fluid filled blisters all over my arm, under my arm, in my arm pit, on my side. I called an allergist I knew and he got me in right away,I thought I might have gotten into something...I'd had severe reactions to poison ivy and oak in the past. He had no clue as to what the cause was and was very concerned about the boluses on my arm, so he sent me to a dermatologist across from the hospital. She also had no clue as to what was causing the boluses and the severe pain, and recommended Epsom salt compresses. Thinking back through the days past I realized I had handled plant material I was unfamiliar with. An Internet search led me to the Minnesota DNR sight that identified wild parsnip....a light activated chemical reaction had occurred (all day floating around in a pool in direct sunlight)...and I had second degree burns on my arm. Thus began efforts to educate Iowans about the dangers of this noxious plant that literally covers the countryside. It can be picked and destroyed, evening hours and long sleeves are highly recommended. This plant can really hurt! I still have the scars on my arms to prove it!

Jae Nicole Having an outing near the river with my son, who was a toddler. He began whining and pointing to his shoes. I looked down to see lil black aunts beginning to swarm his feet. I naive to the fire ant kingdom, stayed right in that area, picked him up, and began wiping the ants off him as quickly as I could. In seconds I began feeling stings and pains ... See Moreon my toes, feet, and ankles. I looked down to see them all over those areas!!!! I still had my son in my arms and couldn't put him down. So I ran to a bench hoping to secure a safe spot for my us both. The entire time I was running they were biting and biting. It was awful. I finally reached the bench, wiped them off my feet and ankles and looked around to see many others exploring the bench! grrrrrr....I quickly grabbed my son and headed for the car. It seemed they were everywhere. The next day I awoke with blisters on my feet that itched horribly for days and days!!!

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