Whats your awesome list look like?

[Ifrit617]

I'm slowly building my list:

I've surfed in Hawaii
Landed in a helicopter on Mt. McKinley
Visited the wettest, windiest, and driest places on Earth, along with the highest in North America
Have climbed a large number of the 46 Adirondack high peaks
Visted and hiked into the majority of the national parks in the western United States.
Hiked onto the Harding Icefield in Seward Alaska
camped in a tent on a frozen Adirondack lake
Seen the northern lights
Earned a black belt in Shotokan karate and my eagle scout

And done a crapload of other stuff that means a lot more to me than anyone else would understand if  posted it here, so I'll spare you the details!


But here's the kicker... I'm only 18! 

Jon

[osage outlaw]

My list is kind of lame compared to some of you guys. 

~  Found a woman that is willing to spend the rest of her life with me and have my kids.
~  Survived a 15' fall out of a tree
~  Petted a live beaver in a creek ( I have pictures to prove it)
~  Made it through heart surgery
~  Annoyed a momma bobcat to just before the point of attack.

[JW_Halverson]

I've never stepped up to the plate like Eric has done.  As horrible as it sounds, the chance to care that deeply for another person is something I envy.

As a kid I had 5 dreams.  I've achieved 4 of them.
1) Worked in a radio station on the air.
2) Was a professional actor, I've got almost 2,000 appearances onstage.
3) Worked as a park ranger, state parks and for the National Park Service at Mt. Rushmore.  (Yeah, the view from Washington's head IS that good!)
4) Worked with falcons and other raptors.

The only dream from my childhood that I have left is to visit Emperor Penguins on their breeding grounds in Antarctica.  They breed in the winter.  What was I thinking?

Other then a very brief moment of madness, I have been a lifelong bachelor doing just what I wanted and when I wanted. 

[killir duck]

well heres mine:

shot an elk with a longbow
shot over 300 ground squerells with a longbow (about a 100 with a primitive bow)
called in and shot 18 coyotes in one month (i only hunted about 25 days)
shot a coyote in a dead run at 427 yards
made over 80 custom knives
rode more horses then i can count
roped more cattle then i can count
shot 16 deer in 4 years (most on public land or block management)
trained the best bird dog i've ever hunted with
so far have survived 12 years of home school (by far the toughest of all of them)
lived twenty miles or more from town most of my life

maybe not all that exiting but i've only had sixteen years to do it, hopefully the next sixteen will have at least half that much in it.

   Duck

[Joec123able]

Well here is mine ---...........................:....................................................................... Yep ........... ..

[hedgeapple]

It is so fun reading your guy's life experiences.  I don't find them boastful at all, just highly interesting.

At 40, I had been married once and had a long term relationship, but had happy resigned myself to bachelorhood, when the blond California, vegetarian chick stole my heart.  Apparently, I was a bad influence on her.  She now thinks my venison chili is the best food ever.  She's insisting that Saturday night we should go frog gigging and Sunday we should take the canoe out for a fishing trip. 

Other life accomplishments:
I've kayaked class V water on steep creeks where ever paddle stroke has to be near perfect.
I've been to Zambia and Zimbabwe where I saw wild elephants, rhino, buffalo, giraffes baboons, wart hogs...
   On this trip I had an elephant mock charge to within 15 yards, a hippo charge our inflatable canoe and a baby baboon fall out of a tree beside our tent.

I stepped on a 250+ pound wild boar. I fortunately there was a small sapling for me to jump up into as it stood up and tried to hook me with it's tusk.  I've had 6 or 7 other close calls with wild boar.

I've tracked wound bear on my hands and knees through clear cut thickets in Maine.

I've had 2 close, aggressive encounters with bull moose.

I've jumped on the backs of 3 wounded deer to finish them off with my knife.

I've been bitten by a rattlesnake.

I've had the good fortune to have 3 once in a life great Brittany Spaniels to allow me to hunt with them and sleep on my chest at the cabin and have 2 more that were darn good hunting dogs.  Two 3rd generation puppies are nursing by my side right now. 

I have met some of the best people in the world on this site.

As Pappy would say, "Life is Good."

[sleek]

This thread is turning out to be awesome! Thanks to everybody who contributed and please keep it coming!

[Marks]

The only thing I don't like about this thread is I need back stories to a lot of these accomplishments.

JW is an actor with 2000 apprearances?

Hedge STEPPED on a boar? You can't leave folks hanging like that

Also the more I read others posts the more I think oh yeah I did that too.
I surfed HI.
Eagle Scout
I shot a coyote 350yds at a trot. <---I was the one trotting ......haha. yeah right. The coyote was trotting. I pulled up to the field and pulled my truck 45 degrees and shot off the side mirror.
I've shot a drop tine velvet buck.......here is the kicker........on the last day of the season. He had a genetic defect (no balls). That's the 2nd velvet eunuch buck out of that farm. The other being on thanksgiving.
Shot 5 doves n 4 shots.
Hunted squirrels with a red tail hawk.
Knifed a hog
Been to Pikes Peak (highest point in the US)
Been in the Statue of Liberty.
I've already mentioned the power of my pecker earlier. 

Also something a lot of you have done that I haven't and is worth mentioning and the reason why I'm here, I want to kill a deer/hog with a hand made weapon.

[Pat B]

At 63 years old I can say I have lived the life I wanted to live, not the life others thought I should live. I got married at 28 to a woman that I am still with after 35 years. Marcia and I raised her daughter together(Meredith is now 41 and the Deputy Associate Chief Council for Customs and Border Patrol in Houston) and we have lived in the two places we both always wanted to live, Bluffton SC and now Brevard, NC where we built our dream house in 1990 on 25 beautiful acres.
 A few years ago(2006) I got to go on a dream hunt to the San Juan Mountains of SW Colorado with a PA member Littl John(Kenneth Gorman). I've been out there two times now and had a fabulous time both times even though the elk never showed up. On my last trip I was within 25 yards of a wolf and he never knew I was there. Now, that was COOL!!! Both of these trips were successful even though I never saw an elk.
  I worked for a ship channeler where I delivered ship stores to many foreign ships, worked on an ocean going tug boat one summer between Savannah and San Juan Puerto Rico, worked on the fire systems on the NS Savannah, the first US neuclear powered cargo ship, became a leathersmith and part owner of a custom leather shop, was a factory trained Johnson/Evenrude outboard motor mechanic, a certified landscaper and nurseryman and now a NC REALTOR(with landscape work for my living).
 I think I was one of the first subscribers to PA magazine and have been a proud member ever since and have met some of the best folks around right here on PA. I have been to the Tennessee Classic 6 or 7 times now and will continue to go as long as I am able. I was amoung the survivors of the 13th annual TennClassic when we had 14" of rain in two days.
  Actually I have lived a pretty boring life....but it was the life I wanted to live.   
 I never have been much of a hunter but I have enjoyed hunting since the early 1980s and hunt mostly with bow and arrow that either I built myself of others have built for me. I've always enjoyed the out of doors but that is something I learned on my own because it was not something my immediate family ever did. I have never taken an animal(except a squirrel) with my homemade gear but I did miss 6 deer in a row in less than 15 minutes...with only 3 arrows.

Oh yeah, I surfed Savannah Beach, GA. 

[Marks]

I have never taken an animal(except a squirrel) with my homemade gear but I did miss 6 deer in a row in less than 15 minutes...with only 3 arrows.

I think this is my favorite so far.

[Pat B]

That was my first 6 arrows shot in a hunting situation with traditional archery. I had to climb out of my treestand to retrieve the 3 arrows before I missed the next 3 shots.     Every shot was over the deer's back(6 deer in all chasing a hot doe) and the shots were within 15 yards of my tree.

[Marks]

I know exactly how you feel. Adrenalin and nerves can do a number on a man. I missed a hog last year at less than 10 yds.

Did I mention it was with a scoped rifle??? Monday I missed a hog at 20yds with my 44 mag. I missed the same deer 2 times at less than 20 with my compound. For some dumb reason I used my 30 yd pin. That would make a good thread. MOST EPIC MISSES. I think I'll start it and stop hijacking this one. 

[YosemiteBen]

There are some mighty fine adventures listed here. Some not yet happened but I am sure they will eventually knowing the lot of you! I do not have an "awesome" or "bucket list". At this point My wife and I have raised three of our four grandchildren for at least part of their lives.  We have two of them part time at the moment. So.... My awesome list would be to have time to work on the things that I want to work on them - all of the "hobbies" that you all seem to have so much time to work on.  I enjoy my job but I have not had "me" time in a long time. So bad this year I did not even buy a fishin license! I just keep telling myself "Just remember to BREATHE!"

[hedgeapple]

Mark, here the back story on hog stepping actually I kind of stepped on two hogs within 10 minutes:
I was boar hunting with a group in GA.  My weapon was .58 muzzleloader.  It was hot so all the pigs were in the thick swampy area.  The dogs had bayed a boar.  Three of us had separated from the group.  It was so thick, the only place to walk was a drainage ditch about 14" wide.  Even then the tangled mess hung over the ditch.  You could see your feet.  The tangle were about waist high.  I was second in line.  My gun was slung over my shoulder. The lead guy was about 5 yards ahead of me.  I see him jump and cuss, then the weeds start parting heading my direction.  Fortunately the was a sapling about 4" diameter.  I jumped as high as could, grabbing the sapling and pulling my legs as close to my chest as possible.  The big boar ran right under me.  My boots scraped his back. He swung his head up to try to hook me with what seemed to 4-6" tusk.  That's the kinda stepping on a boar story.

The other 2 guys were hunting with compounds.  After the first incident, they elected me to lead since I had a firearm.  No more than 10 minute later, I feel something big move quickly under my boot. Oh **!!!  I tossed the gun to the side and jumped up another sapling.  The boar whirled, hooking at my boots.  Then ran down the drainage toward the other guys.  Thank God for well placed saplings.

[Eric Krewson]

I killed 5 quail on a covey rise once with 5 shots, a nice 8 point off the ground on public hunting land with my selfbow, killed three doves flying together with three shots, pass shooting, that went by smoking with the wind to their tails, did the same on ducks. There was a time long past when my wing shooting was on auto pilot, I barely remember pulling the trigger or swinging on the next target but my shotgun sounded like it was on full auto and everything in front of me fell out of the sky.

Now it takes me three boxes of shells to kill a 15 bird limit of doves.

Worked my butt off for 30 years, mostly power plant shift work, almost never turned down an overtime shift, my record was 9 double shifts in 14 days. I lived frugally, saved my money, became debt free and retired at 52 when my company downsized and sent me to the house.

I guess the "awesome" part of the work story was when the company called me to come back, I was in a secure place financially and was able to tell them to "kiss it".