Dead-Fall Trapped

One morning I decided I was going to try to do something I had never done before. I was going to make myself a dead-fall trap.

With that in mind I found myself a good length of rope from our shed and I took it up into the woods with me. Next I found a trail to set my trap up on.

I tossed the rope over a high branch of a tree and tied it off to a large log.

It took me a longer than I thought it would to get the log up ended and leaning against the tree. It must have weighed a couple hundred pounds.

After getting the log balanced I set about creating a figure-four trigger. It took me a number of tries to get it to stay in place when the log was moved away from the tree.

Finally, I found the perfect balancing point between the trigger and the log. Satisfied with my work, I stepped back to look at what I had done.

It was like watching a slow-motion movie — as the log topple backward and the loop popped off the ground as the trigger fell apart. I jumped as I high as I could to avoid the loop as it flew underneath me.

I couldn’t jump high enough — fast enough.

The loop grabbed me by the calf of my left leg and I found myself flipped upside down, zooming skyward. I heard the log collapse on the ground and I suddenly stopped moving towards the branch the rope was hanging over.

It would take me about 20 minutes to finally gather the courage to cut the rope and set myself free — after all I was about 35 feet above the ground, hanging upside down. Unfortunately, I didn’t drop in slow-motion.

I’ve always imagined some old buck  — having seen me get caught in my own trap — laughing at my folly.