Those Little "white" lies:

In my thread about Giant and trail degredation someone posted a response & in it told about some folks he met hiking who apparently didn't have a clue where they were so he "almost" yanked their chain when "in response to "After a few minutes the woman in the group asked me "what mountain is this?". Well I wanted to say Whiteface ".......
I can be a bit of a prankster sometimes & when the mood strikes like to yank someone's chain for smiles.
My confession is the little "white" lie we told the young man at the sign in cabin over at the Ausable Club. It was about 12:30 pm & the young guy came out to ck on us & ask where we were going & I don't know why but - must of been the mood I was in I decided to mess w/ his head. I casually said oh i think we are going to go over to do the trail up haystack. i actually haven't done haystack yet but i am pretty sure leaving at noon would be a bit late? so he's like checking me out; looking at what i was wearing, my pack etc. but i had good equipment so i could tell he was thinking well maybe..... so he walks in the cabin, turns around & comes back out & says something like well you know you have to go over a couple of summits there & back. i'm like reeeely? oh those little things? so he turns around but comes back & says - you realize it will be dark for most of the return. so i'm ya i know, not a problem besides - i'm a fast hiker. he went in & out of that cabin 4 times! finally, either totally baffled or convinced we were fastpackers prepared for a long hike in the dark he retired back to the cabin. the poor guy if you could have seen his face. it was priceless
HOWEVER, just so you guys don't reem me for leading him on & having him concerned. after siging in i did go in and say i was sorry we were actually just doing the west trail/ indian head & gills brook.
i don't know i just couldn't help myself he was so serious - so please forgive me you guys i'm not a bad girl honest!
What encounters have you guys had where someone set themselves up or you took advantage of a situation for a few harmless laughs? come on fess up!

...None..........

sitting in the corner by myself

oh boy that's what i get for confessing
here i am
all alone
broken hearted
could have ....
but only ......

I'm really not trying to be an a****le! But seriously, I just don't do that. It's always annoyed me, I never thought it was funny, and I don't like to play around with people. I'm guess I'm just not a practical joker.

Until it stopped getting funny to even me I would sometimes ask "So this is Washington, right?" on reaching any summit Some would laugh some, take a moment and others would give me a doleful stare as if to say "You poor demented soul."

I have a strange sense of humor and sometimes people get it sometimes they don't but I'm never purposefully malicious.

Bob

When my cousin and I hiked the Northville – Placid Trail a few years ago, we asked someone how much farther on the AT we had to hike to get to Katahdin. The person gave us a dumb founded look. It was obvious that joke was lost on the person and they had no idea where Katahdin was or what the AT was.

that's ok

tcd: you're not being an a-hole or anything. like i said i'm not a bad person just a little goofy sometimes. i don't do that stuff often and certainly not to hurt anyone. sometimes it's just the timing is right. i took a risk exposing myself like that for even telling it but i trust you guys not to go off the deep end on me..

Don't Jump, Mr. Wu

I was climbing Bee Hive in Maine one day and I reached a ledge, looked down and said to no one in particular, "looks like a perfect place to jump." About 2 minutes later a dude, about in his early 20's, came over and asked me if everything was ok. I was shocked... yeah, why??... Because you just said you were going to jump... I thought it was pretty funny -- I had to explain to him that I was just joking or actually, just rambling. I didn't jump.

-Dr. Wu

Oh, I love palying tricks on people.. Usually at my expense, but not always. Lets see... on some trailwork days, when we hike in, we usually stop to regroup and take a break at a lean-to. Sometimes there are people still asleep there (Hey, Rico, didn't I wake you up once?) and we stop with our tools and tell them that they have to vacate the lean-to, because we're there to dismantle it.

When we're building a bridge, I'll tell them its a toll bridge. Rather than having the general taxes pay for trail

Telling the workers that they have to talk to the rocks. Long story there.

On ascend a peak, I'll often tell people that I glad I'm just about on X when it is Y.

Hey Shadowcat! You ought to do some trailwork with us. Leg pullers are always welcome!

Nothing wrong with a little good humored goofing...

I've a friend who says that claiming his Depends may leak always earns him a spot on the bottom level of a multi-tiered shelter.

Other hiker: "What is that? A bear?"
Me: "Yes" (discussing large white dog on end of leash - obviously polar bears have migrated this far south)

Other hiker: "Where are you headed?"
Me: "Maine"
Other Hiker: "When will you get there?
Me: "Should be late tonight if we keep going after dark" (while on the AT in NY)

Aaah, I am a leg puller too sometimes. I just don't want to regret if something ever happens to me and the searchers are off on Haystack and I am hanging by a limb off Indian Head.

Dugan said:

Nothing wrong with a little good humored goofing...

Click to expand...

Well, call me a killjoy, but to me there *is* something wrong if it stresses the other person out for more than a moment. The caretaker in the cabin was probably unduly stressed, IMHO. Would you want to be him that day ?

Now, asking someone if you're almost to the top of Washington when you are on Hunter is ok. Virtually everyone will understand that.

I used to have a 'friend' who teased me mercilessly in college. That's why the 'friend' is in quotes. After a while, I tired of him. He would always apologize, but the hurt accumulated all the same.

I work in a multi-national company, and we maintain bulletin boards for technical communications. A lot of the posters speak English as a 2nd language. Almost any attempt at humor invariably needs to be explained, or is mis-understood. Especially when there is sarcasm, puns, etc. This is even true of people in England/America/Australia/Canada. Just something to keep in mind folks.

Never have liked being taken for a fool. If I pull someone's leg, I try to do it in such a way that that it's obvious to them within half a second of my doing it. That way they get to have a laugh too.

"Could we stop for a minute until my chest pains subside?"

Bob - that's my intention too. I hope that it is obvious I am only joking but some people are just too darn serious

I really should do some work....

Bob

Keep it truly light and harmless . . .

Bob Kittredge said:

Never have liked being taken for a fool. If I pull someone's leg, I try to do it in such a way that that it's obvious to them within half a second of my doing it. That way they get to have a laugh too.

Click to expand...

Count me in with Bob K and Tom R. I enjoy a good joke and a good laugh as much as anybody could. But it just ain’t funny or fun or “good” if it inflicts pain (or stress or embarrassment or ridicule) on someone.

(No Goody Two Shoes, here. I’ll make occasional exceptions for special cases in which the targeted victim really has earned some pain, stress, ridicule, embarrassment, etc.. But those are rare instances.)

G.

Tom Rankin said:

I used to have a 'friend' who teased me mercilessly in college. That's why the 'friend' is in quotes. After a while, I tired of him. He would always apologize, but the hurt accumulated all the same.

I work in a multi-national company, and we maintain bulletin boards for technical communications. A lot of the posters speak English as a 2nd language. Almost any attempt at humor invariably needs to be explained, or is mis-understood. Especially when there is sarcasm, puns, etc. This is even true of people in England/America/Australia/Canada. Just something to keep in mind folks.

Click to expand...

Tom -
Very well-stated. You have to be wary of people who have to apologioze after everything they say. They know what they were saying when they said it.
The written word can often be taken in the wrong way, just as easily as the spoken word. When you write it there is evidence...people should be mindful of being hurtful.

My jokes are the typical ones, telling the people I'm hiking with that the top is "just over there/around that corner/ .1 mi" or acting like I lost my keys after getting back to the car at a remote trailhead.

I don't really mess with strangers but, I do talk about them when they've gone past if there is something really odd about them, they look unprepared, or it's really late to be starting up anywhere.

I do think it would be funny to hike in the woods near a trail and jump out and scare someone though...

I'd only do that to someone I know though. Angering a stranger in the woods is probably not a good idea!

hey pete

if you are ever doing any painting try putting up a sign that says "dry paint" then sit back and watch.
in regards to the toll bridge -- too funny -
and how many of you have said to other hikers "you're almost there"..... that's one open for interpretation.
hey the world could use a little more humor;
like my mom always told me "laugh a lot , laugh at life - laugh in the face of adversity - do that and all your wrinkles will be in the right place!"
i luv ya mom! (miss ya a lot too...)

My cousins and I once pretended to be British when hiking up Blue Mountain, putting on ridiculously bad accents. It worked until we ran into some actual Brits who were on the way down and my Uncle said, "Shut your bloody trap and keep movin', lad," to one of us in front of the elderly lady. She was shocked and appalled.

I've done the scaring thing to my brother and a friend who were hiking in late one night. We had moved camp only a mile or 2 down the trail from night one of a multi-day hike, so 2 cousins and I went to meet the two late-comers and bring them to the next camp. We set up a blind with some cut logs, one cousin hid in some scrubby pine trees all dressed in black, the other 2 of us were in camo from head to toe. When my brother and friend came in to camp shortly after dusk, we began throwing random rocks into the trees to make noises, getting them primed. My cousin in the pine trees began to grumble a little and shake the trees, then charged out just as the two of us behind the blind lit a couple of screamer bottle rockets off. I've never seen someone so scared! It was great...

shadowcat said:

....... I can be a bit of a prankster sometimes & when the mood strikes like to yank someone's chain for smiles .......
the poor guy if you could have seen his face. it was priceless .....

Click to expand...

The most hilarious part was when the guy came out of his cabin for the last time with a double barreled shotgun loaded for bear and stuck it up shadowcat's nose and said, " ....