I love meeting new people. Sure, there are lots of people around the world who are mean, unfriendly, or the worst, stupid; but I love new people. Humans, in general, have a unique ability to gauge each other for likable and unlikeable characteristics within minutes of meeting, and it is that ability that has made me some great friends and kept me out of some bad situations. I was in Maine two years ago camping with four of my friends who were more interested in drinking. I, of course, was not opposed to the occasional drink so we stopped into a bar on the first night we were there and sat down for a beer. I, being 19 at the time, was slightly worried but my hesitance was unfounded and we were served promptly. I started talking to this kid who looked, acted, and talked similar to me, another trait of human behavior. I was telling him why we were there and what our plans were when he suggested that he come along with us because he knew the country well. At this point, I could find nothing wrong with this person: he seemed smart, educated, and fun. I was fine with it and so was everyone else, so we were off.

We were planning to be out for around 8 days but had no definite plans. We packed the food, sleeping bags and any other items we could fit in our packs and we were off. My new friend, Jake, packed very light. I saw this as a sign that he knew what he was doing and knew just exactly what to take, I was wrong. On a camping trip that I had been preparing for nearly a year, I, at the last minute decided to bring along someone who was supposed to be knowledgeable of the area. This is a list of things that Jake “forgot” to bring:

Clothes
Water Bottle
Food
Bug Spray
Socks
Extra Shoes
Sunscreen
Toilet Paper

In fact, Jake saw himself to be such a great woodsman that he was going to forage for food. I knew it was a dumb idea, but I stopped caring and let him go. Jake returned to camp a few hours later with hundreds of red berries that he called “strawberries”. I, not being stupid, knew that these were not strawberries but again, I didn’t care, and let him eat them.

The 7 mile hike back to the car would have been fine if it were not 3 AM. The drive to the hospital took only 2 hours, mostly, because Jake didn’t know exactly where it was. Sparing a great deal of detail, Jake had eaten some sort of poisonous berry and had developed 5 ulcers (burned holes) in his stomach.

Meeting new people is a great experience but don’t always trust them. Someone may act like you, look like you, and nearly be you, but that could still be a poisonous berry eating, ill prepared survivalist, crazy nut.