A wild untamed experience?

[kauai_paintball]

Yesterday, being the busy person I am, I took a chance to walk around our suburban neighborhood for a while. I live in a two story house, on a ridge, on a dead end street. I moved here to kauai 4 years ago, and I have never even had time to enjoy it. There is a big lot across the street from my house. If you were to walk through my front door and straight through the fence, and into the lot, and kept of going, you would walk into some 6 foot elephant grass(Jurassic park was filmed here, and I kind of adopted that name for the tall grass that grows all over the island) and off a steep hill, into a previously untamed valley, with beautiful groves of trees, and a large field with 9 foot elephant grass. it is about 90 feet below our house the bottom rests. There is a ridge on the other side, that we look out and see cows wondering on. There is a fence on the top of the ridge so the cows dont go down into the valley. I had only ventured into it once before in search of my neighbors escaped cockatiel, whom I never did manage to catch. Yesterday, I walked around the corner and up a hill. I live in a ghetto of sorts, even though my street has homes selling for $650,000(two bedroom one bath. YIKES). I looked and saw some small Philipino children playing with toys purchased at walmart, the only place to get paitball stuff on our island besides our one speedball field and one woodsball field. I turned a left, and found a pig trail going through some bushes on the side of the road. feeling adventureous, I took it, and found myself on the ridge across the valley from my house. I could see clearly down into the valley, and low and behold it had been mowed! I ventured down the slope into it, and found myself in an untamed forest, having the only other noises being birds and chirping insects. I looked up, but a long grove of trees blocked my view of any houses.I ventured into some banyan trees, and found it cool and comfortable compared to the 95 degree weather at the top of the ridge. I was astonished that this beautiful place was across the street! I looked up, and saw the elephant grass that was across from my house. The slope to it was nice and gradual, with some nice roots for steps. I looked around, and found plenty of natural wood and dead branches. I went down the valley, and found a fence about a quarter mile down it. I went into it, and was greeted by some foul smelling kids(Goats).I went up the now small hill that used to be a ridge, and hiked across it. I found the end of my street, and walked down it till I found my house. I looked across at the elephant grass, and went into my back yard and got some clippers. I went across the street, skirted the grass, and began making a very narrow trail to the center of the grass from the unexposed side. I didnt want anybody walking by to find the trail and tell someone else about it because then everyone on the Island would know, and the pristine beauty would become the next hangout for the Iceheads and crackheads of the neighborhood. I am finishing the trail tomorrow. I am going to build a stealth natural paintball field down there, with natural bunkers. I say stealth, because I dont want it to look man made, because if it looked out of the ordinary, the people who live right on the ridge would go and investigate and find it. Is there any tips anyone can give me for building a natural paintball field? Im going to order some camo netting to set up on the incline of the ridge for an area where anyone whos not playing can rest in peace without having to worry about getting the well known "oops" shot. Some things I have to take into account are the wild boar that live in the valley. I saw some evidence of their presence. Towards the center of the island, they get to be 600+ pounds and about 4 feet tall. They are known to gore people to death, and have killed 45 something people in the last 30 years. its always on the front page of our newspaper when someone is. Anyway, need help. Im going to Invite friends to play down there. My dad is buds with the guy who owns the land, so I dont have to worry. Paintball across the street. Is there anything better?

[master_alexander]

is there annything better than paintball across the street? yes !!! paintball in your backyard, brothers make good moving targets. have fun with the field.

[craltal]

Where on Kauai. I have a college friend who's family live just outside Lihue and I spent 2 weeks visiting them a couple of years ago so I am wondering where you are so as to better visualize the area you are talking about.

The netting is a good idea, but you'll have to come up with some way to put ti up and take it down, otherwise that in and of itself will be a give away to the existence.

I do think you might have some trouble keeping it secret due to the noise associated with playing, but wish you the best of luck.

[JoshK]

thats amazing...sorry i don;t have any advise...but best of luck to you man! Also....WE WANT PICTURES!!!!!!!!

[slade]

I hate you. I want to live there.


actually if i were you, what i would do for the path is anchor a string at the edge of the grass and lead it through to the field, and then start the path partway through. that way no one will be able to find it, unless they see the string and decide to follow it or just randomly walk through the grass.

and yes, i definately second the pictures. it sounds great.

as for the bunkers, you could try piling sticks up, but that still wont look too natural. actually i saw something on warpig a while ago (or maybe it was somewhere else...) about foldable bunkers that you could fit in the backseat of a car. you could try those, it wouldnt be as good as a speedball field but it would work. you could also experiment with other removable bunkers, like maybe tarps that you could tie to trees. or maybe even tires, if you can find a place off to the side where you can put them without anyone noticing.

[JoshK]

could the netting be used as bunkers? its just a thought...but how obvious would that netting be? if they were only like 6 ft (the tallest) tall and maybe 3 feet wide....you could use like wooden stakes (some big ones, for the taller bunkers) to anchor them down...or maybe you could find burlap...but i dont know how long that would last....i dont know...maybe you could klill the boar and use it as a bunker also

[slade]

could the netting be used as bunkers? its just a thought...but how obvious would that netting be? if they were only like 6 ft (the tallest) tall and maybe 3 feet wide....you could use like wooden stakes (some big ones, for the taller bunkers) to anchor them down...or maybe you could find burlap...but i dont know how long that would last....i dont know...maybe you could klill the boar and use it as a bunker also

you can see through the netting, so it wouldnt be that great for bunkers, it would be impossible to bunker someone or hide, there would be no surprise element of the game. and burlap just plain doesnt work, ive tried it before. paintballs go strait through it. maybe you could try burlap bags, filled with leaves/sticks/sand/dirt/whatever.

actually i was thinking it would be very interesting to cut down paths and openings in the grass, and play in a grass maze.

[kauai_paintball]

I hate you. I want to live there.


actually if i were you, what i would do for the path is anchor a string at the edge of the grass and lead it through to the field, and then start the path partway through. that way no one will be able to find it, unless they see the string and decide to follow it or just randomly walk through the grass.

and yes, i definately second the pictures. it sounds great.

as for the bunkers, you could try piling sticks up, but that still wont look too natural. actually i saw something on warpig a while ago (or maybe it was somewhere else...) about foldable bunkers that you could fit in the backseat of a car. you could try those, it wouldnt be as good as a speedball field but it would work. you could also experiment with other removable bunkers, like maybe tarps that you could tie to trees. or maybe even tires, if you can find a place off to the side where you can put them without anyone noticing.

Great idea! why didnt I think of that? Anyway, Ill borrow my neighbors digital camera and get some pics of the valley. I live in kapaa, up towards kapahi, a very suburban area, with most of the fields up towards the mountain, except for a select few.Im going to use that camo netting, and the bunkers will be made out of wood and the occasional cheap particleboard for reinforcement spraypainted a dark rusty brown to match the dirt. Ill make it so its easy to put away. Ill use that natural yarn stuff to tie sticks together for the bunkers, and just roll them to the edge of the incline when Im done for the day. Normally it is very loud at the top of the ridge, but at the bottom, it was VERY quiet, and I have no worrys about paintball sounds tiping off the neighbors. The field will be close to the ridge on my side of the valley, so the neighbors wont see it over the groves of banyan trees. I going to be VERY sure nobody leaves ANYTHING down there, so it wont hurn the excellent envoironment. I got to remember my bowie in case a pig shows up tho. That could end up nast if its a sow

[billmi]

Man, what a beautiful place to live. My wife and I and some friends spent a week on the island in 96. Stayed at the Barking Sands naval base, and hiked around a bit up in the hills. Fantastic. Just have to get used to Spam being considered a type of sushi, and ramen noodles at McDonalds.

[slade]

ok its been long enough, where are the pics?

[JoshK]

ya man...were my pics? wanna trade guns? my custom cocka for your beastly led?

[kauai_paintball]

Hopefully will have pics by the end of the week. I played paintball down there a couple of days ago for the first time with a friend, and it was cool, except for the fact that about 70 (no exageration) mosquitos swarmed us, forcung us to hike back up the trail for repellent, and then again 5 minutes later to go to the bathroom, and AGAIN after that to get some water, so anyways, it was fun. Send me some specs and a pic of the cocker to [email protected] .

[JoshK]

http://www.automags.org/forums/showthread.php?t=159039

Or im selling...not for $600 though...im probly gonna get close to 450.

[pump]

wow holy huge paragraph

[Skoad]

sorry i couldn't read that.