Woot, blogging from work.
There have been two massive games of manhunt at my house in the last week, and I haven’t mentioned them at all on here, so I might as well.
Behind my house, there is eight acres of forest. Lotta room to play manhunt in. Friday night (I think), we played back there for the first time. Its extremely cool, because its pitch black back there (we played at night), and there are tons of places to hide. Unfortunately, it isn’t that cool because its pitch black back there and there are tons of places to hide. I guess it depends whether you’re hiding or not.
For those of you who don’t know, Manhunt is sort of like full contact Hide and Seek, or Tag with teams. One team has to hide out in the woods (or where ever you’re playing) and the other team needs to find and subdue them. If the people hiding manage to get away after being found, they can run to the base, where they will be safe, and earn their team a point. Points can also be earned by not getting found for the entire game, or (for the hunters) catching someone who is hiding.
At least thats how we play, there are variations and things, but thats the gist.
It is extremely hard to find people back there. Good hiding spots + Extreme darkness = uneventful games
On Friday, neither team was able to find the other, which is really kinda lame, but we managed to have fun at it.
We played again on Monday, which was slightly more eventful. We started off trying to play capture the flag, because we figured that there would be more action and such. And there was, but it eventually changed into manhunt anyway.
This time, things were a little different. The first game, Jack and I were hiding in this place we call Deer Fort. Its little place surrounded by trees which I use to defend when I was in fifth grade. Its really obvious that I was in fifth grade when I last used it, because the entrance is tiny tiny tiny. It turns out we got in there through the back door, which was loaded with prickers and various other pointy things which we had set up to keep people out. Go us.
Anywise, they had no chance of finding us, and about 20 minutes into the game, we decide to move. Since we would need to use our flash lights to make sure we don’t kill ourselves, and we’d be making lots of noise, we’d be sure to be found.
Sure enough, the noticed us, which had us doing a mad dash for the base. I found out that I can run a lot faster than I thought I could back there. You just need to duck your head so you don’t closeline yourself on a branch.
I was able to out run the people who spotted us, but there were people from the other team around the base. I was able to get around them as well, but at a price. I kept going to the side of the people guarding it, and eventually, I was behind where the base was. I dove for it, and went straight threw a pricker bush. Not little prickers, either. Some of these things were an inch long. I’ve counted about 20 puncture wounds (well, they’re not that bad, but it still hurts) on my legs, and I think there are more on my back, but I can’t see em.
We played one more game which had about one minute of excitement, where we found two people just moments after entering the forest.
That was pretty much the last game for the night, but we’re going to have to do it again. We’re thinking of rule changes and variations that would make it more interesting; some are pretty brutal.
One idea was sort of a combination of survivor and gladiator. Each team would get an hour to go out in the woods, with a pocket knife, and they would build their own base and weapons. There would be a flag in each base that the opponents would need to try and capture. You would wear a paintball mask and catcher’s padding on your chest to reduce the lethal blows. After that hour its on. The only real rule is you can’t use the pocket knife, just the stuff you find back there.
Yes, someone will probably get dead, but I figure its a risk we’ll need to take.
Another option is laser tag or paintball back there, but paintball is expensive, and for laser tag, we’d need to get good guns, or make our own (I dare you to find the somjuan post on that;)).
Meh.
Anyway, around midnight or a little after, everyone takes off except for Jack. We have a campfire going strong, and we start to dispose of the trash lying around.
Let me first paint a picture of this fire. Its in a small round metal pit, off of the ground, and only about two feet across. It is not big at all, but what we managed to pull off with it is remarkable.
A bag of chips which is starting to go stale is poured on top of the fire, and those things really burn. We also tossed on some popcorn and plastic bags that were on the ground.
The fire is getting incredibly hot, and we start to throw in the empty soda cans. They melt. In under a minute. I’m not kidding.
I’ve been around a lot of bonfires in my life, and someone always gets the bright idea to throw a empty can in the fire. I normally make fun of them because the only thing that normally happens is the paint/color burns off the outside of it. I have never ever seen one melt before.
These were melting in under one minute. Google tells me the melting point for aluminum is 1220.666 °F.
It gets better. We had an iron pole which was one of those reflector things you put on the end of your driveway so people don’t hit things in their car at night. That was our poking stick, because, what could possibly happen to this iron rod?
It starts to bend as we’re moving logs and cans around. It isn’t hot enough to melt it yet, but it softened it enough to bend it, without practically any force at all.
Parts of the metal firepit we had this in were melting or bending as well, although I can’t say what they were made of.
Google tells me the melting point of iron is 2795.0 °F.
So our fire was somewhere between 1220.666 and 2795.0 °F. Wow.
After we ran out of cans, we started burning signs from Jack’s trunk. This only made the fire hotter, and we started worrying about the bottom of the firepit giving way.
We doused the fire with a full bucket and a full pitcher, and it took a lot longer than it should have. At first all the water hitting it was evaporating into steam, but eventually some started to collect on the bottom. That water started to boil. Even after both were empty, and there was a huge cloud of steam in the sky, parts of the fire were still going.
We really need a bigger fire pit. Imagine the possibilities.
Anywise, I got to bed around 3 or 4 in the morning, and woke up at 7 for work.
I can’t believe that you read all that. Go you.
I’m gonna get back to work now.