Most Dangerous Thing In Alaska?

[Silverfang]

On monday I was driving into town from my little nowhere out in hatchers pass, and as I'm starting to get onto the highway, I notice two hitch hikers. In the spurr of the moment I decide, Hey, I think I'll do something nice for these gents, so I stop and pick em up. The two, apparently, were what I think you'd call, prospectors. They actually spent their time searching rivers and such for gold. They were equiped with a large dish I asumed was used for gather's earth in and then one of those straining mechanisms in order to sift through said earth. In any case, I picked the two up on the Trunk Road turnoff and dropped them off in Thunderbird falls, after having a couple of... interesting conversations.
So I get into town and I decide I want to brag a little bit about the little... I guess you could call it a adventure, but I wouldnt call it that. One of my friends got REALLY mad at me for doing so dangerous and I was really not expecting that kind of a reaction! He said that was the most dangerous thing you could probably do in alaska and that I was irresponsible and stupid for doing so.

I guess I could understand where his concern came from but, seriously, I highly doubt its the most dangerous thing to give some one a lift some where, even if you dont know them. Then again, according to said friend, I'm an idiot, lol.

[Oni]

The thing with life is. Lifes a chance. And it looks like you had an awesome experience from taking a chance. Good job. Sounds like you meet some rather interesting people.

[Ike]

It's probably not THE most dangerous thing, but considering how easy it is to get a gun (especially here, but this applies in most places) it's generally not a good idea to let strangers into your cars anyways...

And I mean, maybe this wasn't the case near there, but a lot of the construction workers are prison workers, so it's really not the best idea, especially on the highway... At least in my opinion.

But I dunno, I mean, I guess if they SEEMED normal they probably were. I wouldn't say it was the most dangerous thing you could do, there's just a lot of if's - if they had been transporting something illegal, you would've been accessory to that. If they had been running from the scene of a crime, you would've been accessory to that, too. If they were going to DO something illegal, you would be accessory to that... And if they decided they wanted your car, it's pretty easy to steal someone's car from them once you're in it.

But at least you got a good experience out of it! Could've ended much worse than it did.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

I respectfully disagree.  The most dangerous thing you can do in Alaska is get between a cow moose and her calf.  Compared to that, picking up a pair of hitchhikers is downright safe.

Speaking of hitchhikers...all the scary stories you hear about people picking them up almost always involve a lone hitchhiker - and even then, most of the stories are fiction.  Criminals, in general, do not travel in pairs.

[Ike]

Speaking of hitchhikers...all the scary stories you hear about people picking them up almost always involve a lone hitchhiker - and even then, most of the stories are fiction.  Criminals, in general, do not travel in pairs.

And that means that it is perfectly safe to let people you don't know into your car, because they probably aren't criminals! At least, not in general. <<;

I'd like to point out, who actually thinks letting random people into your car is a GOOD idea? Especially off the side of the road?

[Oni]

I have done it and was glad to do so. The people were very glad for a good jester form some one.

[Silverfang]

I take pleasure in helping people when I can, and at the time I felt like I should. I dunno what drives me to do it, all I know is I do it. The two gentlemen and I had a pleasant conversation even if they did smell like hippies. I'm obviously not gonna just pick up anybody, but if I get a feeling in my gut or w/e that tells me I should, I will.

[Goman Fox]

I respectfully disagree.  The most dangerous thing you can do in Alaska is get between a cow moose and her calf.  Compared to that, picking up a pair of hitchhikers is downright safe.

I was going to say strapping raw meat to your body and trying to tango with a grizzly bear... but yeah, I think getting between a moose and her calf might be more dangerous than that.

I don't really trust anyone I don't know in this state, there's a bunch of crazies out there, and criminals too, lol.  Personally I think it's stupid to pick up most anyone on the side of the road, because of what could happen, really it's all up to the driver to decide if they should or not.  And I guess the situation.  If it was like, some person and their 4 year old child next to a broken-down car on the highway in the middle of winter, yeah, I'd probably think they weren't crazy and shouldn't be helped.  Unless the kid was really a midget and they were partners in crime that hijacked cars, but what are the odds of that happening?

Personally, I thought it was weird almost 5 years ago when Cat stopped and gave half a gas can to a guy holding a sign out on Dimond that was asking for it, especially when the guy went off about how his sign wasn't really asking for gas, it was a secret message to some people, or something.  I don't really remember but it was weird.

[Ike]

It's cause people standing on the side of the road with signs don't want gas, they want money, regardless of what their sign says. I knew someone who tried to give someone with a sign her lunch and he turned her down, even though his sign said he was hungry...

[Keph]

It's cause people standing on the side of the road with signs don't want gas, they want money, regardless of what their sign says. I knew someone who tried to give someone with a sign her lunch and he turned her down, even though his sign said he was hungry...

Having worked in the liquor industry for almost a year, I got to know a good majority of the "give money" faces in anchorage - unfortunately so. I saw a lot of them in the stores trying to buy their daily allotment of Steel Reserve / Old English / Schlitz / etc. Many of the people on the roadsides aren't there for food, clothing, gas..what have you - they want money for cheap liquor (sometimes even Burnett's, Monarch, et al.) Now, that doesn't mean that all of them are there for beer, just that the ones you see on a regular basis are usually 86'd from most of the booze stores in town. I'll pick up food once in a while and give it to folks like that, and a lot of them really appreciate it. The ones that don't want it, even though their sign specifies otherwise, I'll just pass from then on out. The homeless / destitute crowd in anchorage usually doesn't look kindly on those trying to buy liquor, and you can see it if you watch for long enough.

As far as the original topic goes, the most dangerous thing I've personally done was get stuck on a mountaintop while hiking, overnight. I couldn't see to get down, my flashlight wasn't helping (because I needed my hands to get down the waterfall), and the aforementioned waterfall, while not being steep, was very much rocky and dangerous. (if anyone was curious, it was the trail up to the mountain at the Williwaw campground near Portage Glacier). Didn't really sleep that night, had to stay up trying to keep warm for the majority of it - fortunately, it was July, so I didn't have to wait too terribly long. Learned my lesson on that fairly quickly.

The most dangerous thing you can do in Alaska is get between a cow moose and her calf.

I'll one-up that: get between a bear and her calf. Both are about equally dangerous, just the former will make curtains out of you.

[Taylor-MadeAK]

I'll one-up that: get between a bear and her calf. Both are about equally dangerous, just the former will make curtains out of you.

Oh!  OH!  You wanna play the one-up game!  Fine, I'll play:

Even more dangerous still is...eating anything Oni cooks, especially if it comes off his grill.

By the way: young bears are called cubs, not calves.  Only ungulate and cetacean (and that rogue oddball, the pachyderm) young are called calves.

[Keph]

Whoops..I was reading about Moose and their calves, and completely spaced out writing the correct statement (even though I was thinking it). Blah..I hate my mind sometimes.

Point taken, though - I'm Much obliged.