Because of my experiences, I’m most definitely worried about dogs when I’m walking down that gravel road at midnight.
Bingo.
I live about a 1.5 miles off of a 2 lane state highway. Not far at all. A 1.5 mile walk ON A ROAD to a HIGHWAY is hardley the kiss of death unless you are in a monster blizzard. Anyway, I came across two girls stuck in there rental car on my road. One had thrown up because she was so scared. Took me about 15 minutes to get them pulled out and turned around. They had gone so far as to call 911 to come look for them because they where lost (this is exactly one turn after getting off the highway and turning onto the road I live on).
This winter, I walked the dogs to the end of the road and came upon a Ford Expedition trying to RAM a 2 wheel drive X-Terra out of the ditch. Uphill. It was… surreal.
Anyhow, all they had to do was walk 1/4 mile back to my house (that they passed getting to were they where) and I could have helped them ou t just fine. They ended up trashing that X-terra. I’m sure the Expedition suffered damage as well.
I walked home, got my Pathfinder and pulled the X-Terra out. Took maybe 20 minutes. I then had them follow me to where they need to go.
This is starting to sound like some science fiction story in which almost everyone lives in urban megalopolises, and the hinterlands are semi-wildernesses only inhabited by a handful of automated-farm tenders and hermits of dubious sanity.
I read a novel about modern day England (well, it was in the 70s or 80s), set in the farming areas where sugar beets were grown. Dead quiet, very few humans ever seen during the day until the punks, skinheads, and various hooligans (unemployed, sleeping all day) who lived there woke up at night…
What’s very strange to me from this thread is several urbanites talk about going through extremely rural areas. Unpaved roads? Gravel roads? No human settlements for miles? I grew up in western Virginia which is very rural/redneck compared to pretty much anywhere else in the State, and even then aside from areas of national forest and such, you’d have a very hard time just “ending up” somewhere that you wouldn’t see a human for miles and miles.
Unpaved roads, a common sight in my childhood, are now very uncommon. Around where I grew up, pretty much all the old dirt roads are at least tar and chip now, the only ones that are truly dirt now are ones that have essentially fallen into disuse (and you shouldn’t really go onto without an ATV and you have no reason to go onto as a passer through.)
Now, out west (west of the Mississippi) where rural is more about massive amounts of open, unsettled space (versus here where it just means you’re in very mountainous forest but possibly never more than a 2-3 hours walk from the nearest house, at the absolute worst) I still don’t get how you would be so far off a major road and yet so unprepared. If you’re from Chicago and you’re travelling miles on some endless country route in Wisconsin or Minnesota, I think any diligent traveler would pretty much be stocked for any unforeseen circumstances.
For example I’ve been through Montana/the Dakotas in the winter. That’s a classic area where you could end up stranded in weather so cold it could be rapidly fatal. That’s why I had packed pretty much anything I’d need to get by for a long period of time in my vehicle if I was totally stuck, and proper clothing to be able to travel on foot as a last resort. It’s not like there isn’t equipment for these situations…travelling in an area where you could end up stranded in miles of desolate tundra with only the reliability of your car between you and absolute destruction seems ridiculously stupid.
Maybe they’re concerned about The Good Folk?
I was once chased by a wild boar in Georgia, does that help? 'Course, I had been chasing the wild boar up until seconds earlier, so maybe it’s not something to get real worried about.
I know. They’re worried about settling down and loving it.
I’ll have to pay more attention when watching Man vs. Wild, should I get lost again. Or buy a map.
I spent a couple of years working in the oil field where the chances of getting stuck or broken down on a right of way in the national forest with no cell coverage was very realistic. It’s not a good feeling.
If you break down on the road here, someone will stop and offer you a phone or a lift. It’s an absolute given. Usually within the first couple of cars. But there are definitely unpaved roads (heck, the road I work on was only paved about three years ago) and lots of places with very few inhabitants.
No one’s worried about bears attacking them. I’m the only person in the thread to mention bears, and I expressed concern about hitting one with my car, not it attacking me.
Yeah, the Fens where I grew up match this.
It’s flat and boring but it’s hard to get really lost.
Bear in mind, in England if you head east or west you’re never more than 4-5 hrs drive from the coast. So if you’re ever lost aim for the setting sun and within a tank of petrol you’ll pretty soon run out of geography to be lost in.
I think in the UK we often don’t appreciate just what “rural” means in an American context. Here it means no town for 20-30 miles at the most… in the US it can mean no town for 200-300 miles if you’re in the right place.
You guys also have significantly more geography than here… our largest river barely registers in US terms, likewise mountains, valleys and forests. For us, getting lost in the forest means a 45 min walk back to the carpark, over your side of the pond it can mean a plane can crash within 20 miles of a major airport and not be found for three years!
Just this weekend The Bloke and I caught up with an old mate to go camping in a somewhat remote part of Victoria, Aus. As the mate had brought along his gruntin’ 4WD, I asked if we could try to find a little waterfall that I’d remembered from a trip there over 30 years ago. My memory was hazy as to it’s exact location, and unfortunately we didn’t bring the topographic map so it was with a bit of a wing and a prayer that we set off.
Down a dodgy old dirt ‘road’, turned onto another and then a right-turn down what could only be described as a track if one was feeling generous. At first it wasn’t too taxing for the 4WD, but it got progressively worse and after a few kilometres it was hard to discern any track at all. And the earth underneath was so slippery from recent rains that the car was fishtailing like mad threatening to end up over the edge. So I started panicking, silently of course. 
My fear was that the track would peter out to nothing, and because of the terrain there was nowhere where we could turn around. No mobile-phone coverage of course!! There’s no wild animals that will eat you 'round here, nor any feral people, so my main ‘fear’ was either being injured if the car went over, or the prospect of a very long walk back to camp. Neither really thrilled me much.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, the track DID eventually meet up with another, and we got back to camp for a very strong coffee to calm EVERYONE’S nerves. Alas, we didn’t find the waterfall.
You’re really going to have to find some serious backcountry to be 200 or more miles from some kind of town, even in the most remote parts of the United States. It really isn’t that easy to accidently get yourself into a place that is so remote a reasonably healthy person with a bottle of water couldn’t walk out of (barring inclement conditions) and even harder to find somewhere where you aren’t going to see at least a few cars a day. Really, this all boils down to not having the skills and preparation to deal with reasonable contingencies, and not having the experience to separate perceived danger from reality.
I’ve walked dozens of miles into inaccessible bear-and-mountain-lion-infested backcountry with no more protection than a camp knife and a weathershell, and the biggest danger to me was my own self. Once you understand that most animals–even dog packs–will leave you alone if you stand upright and act aggressive, that you can survive overnight even in rain and snow, and that the vast majority of people you will ever meet under such circumstances will at a minimum call a tow truck or emergency services for you if not more likely fill up your gas tank and give you a hot meal if you are truly desperate, the world becomes a lot less fearsome.
Stranger
Yup, I’m talking about the fear of country people or something supernatural. And most of the people I’m talking about are white, so the fear of lynchings are out.
Rural guy here. Admittedly I’ve only browsed through the previous posts but I feel that much of the listed possibilities are events that would occur in hard-core, completely unserviced, unpopulated wilderness areas. Not rural.
I didn’t realize that they close. I’m so used to every gas station open 24/7 that I went wandering through the countryside a couple of months ago at night with an empty tank. I was really sweating it. NOBODY wants to hear a knock on their door at 1 am in the country.
And I’ve experience Murphy’s law before. I was deliberately wandering the backroads once at 4am and the engine just shut off. Whoever put the dash lights on the engine management fuse should be given an award. I immediately checked the fuses and was able to swap out an air conditioner fuse. Back on the road in 5 minutes.
Around here, escaped prisoners and/or psycho killers. And wild animals. Or Sasquatch.