Your first solo camping trip - details

Have an interesting or epic climbing story? Post it here.
Forum rules
  • This is a mountaineering forum, so please keep your posts on-topic. Posts do not all have to be related to the 14ers but should at least be mountaineering-related.
  • Personal attacks and confrontational behavior will result in removal from the forum at the discretion of the administrators.
  • Do not use this forum to advertise, sell photos or other products or promote a commercial website.
  • Posts will be removed at the discretion of the site administrator or moderator(s), including: Troll posts, posts pushing political views or religious beliefs, and posts with the purpose of instigating conflict within the forum.
For more details, please see the Terms of Use you agreed to when joining the forum.
User avatar
Tornadoman
Posts: 1438
Joined: 7/30/2007
14ers: 58  8 
13ers: 266 35
Trip Reports (12)
 

Re: Your first solo camping trip - details

Post by Tornadoman »

jibler wrote:
but there was this big ax buried into a log - and that axe alone just freaked me out for some reason - ended up just catching sundown and bailing out of there!
Watching too many horror movies will do that to you...
Climb the mountain so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.
User avatar
chicagostylehotdog
Posts: 212
Joined: 4/22/2015
14ers: 57  1  1 
13ers: 9
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Your first solo camping trip - details

Post by chicagostylehotdog »

Oman wrote:My first solo camping trip I heard footsteps outside my tent and I was convinced a psycho killer was out to get me. The next morning I woke and found elk scat and tracks.

The next night, in a new camping spot, I wore earplugs and fell into hibernation. The next morning there were more elk tracks around the tent.

Since that trip I have worn earplugs every time I have camped.
More often than not I fall asleep listening to music when I'm backpacking or solo camping because I can't shake the paranoia if I can hear every rustle. First time I took my girlfriend backpacking I was trying to keep my cool while secretly freaking out about a sound I could hear. She could tell I was nervous. I ended up getting out of the tent to investigate and it turns out it was just the backpacking permit subtly brushing up against the tent in the breeze.

It doesn't help that my dog is paranoid in the tent, too. He'll just sit up all night and stare at the tent wall.
User avatar
Rollie Free
Posts: 456
Joined: 6/8/2012
14ers: 45 
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Your first solo camping trip - details

Post by Rollie Free »

I find it soothing to watch 'Back Country' on my phone. Try falling asleep to that in a tent by yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0AHvPpGrDU
"Quicker than I can tell it, my hands failed to hold, my feet slipped, and down I went with almost an arrow’s rapidity. An eternity of thought, of life, of death, wife, and home concentrated on my mind in those two seconds. Fortunately for me, I threw my right arm around a projecting boulder which stood above the icy plain some two or three feet." Rev. Elijah Lamb
User avatar
lcjackson
Posts: 43
Joined: 6/21/2017
14ers: 21 
13ers: 1
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Your first solo camping trip - details

Post by lcjackson »

September 27, 2015 I drove 9.5 hours from Victoria, Tx to Guadalupe Mountains Nat'l Park in Far West Texas, arrived at the visitor's center and picked up a backcountry permit around 2 pm, hiked in with a 35 lb pack (mostly water weight, there's no water sources in the Guadalupe's) 3.5 miles and 2100+ vertical ft to the Guadalupe Peak Backcountry Campsite. Set up camp, watched the triangular mountain shadow shoot out toward the East as a full moon rose over the west Texas chihuahua desert, and shortly thereafter watched a total lunar eclipse. Woke up the next morning, climbed the remaining mile and 700 vertical ft to the summit. This was my first 'mountain' experience, and really my first camping/backpacking experience as well. I had no idea what I was doing (evident by my mostly cotton attire and my excess/unneeded extra clothing and other unnecessary items I hauled up the peak with me), but it was a life-changing trip and a turning point in my life.
The following 2 years I would return to Far West Texas to climb that peak again another 3 times, as well as other west texas desert mountain peaks.
User avatar
LoneStar
Posts: 148
Joined: 5/30/2007
14ers: 9 
13ers: 1
Trip Reports (2)
 

Re: Your first solo camping trip - details

Post by LoneStar »

July 2010, on the trail to West Maroon Pass, Four Passes Loop. Bolted straight up in my tent that night at the sound of something outside. With the aid of a headlamp, I discovered it was a porcupine. I was able to make him trudge off back into the trees and I eventually went back to sleep. The next two nights - along the North Crystal River and at the beaver dam on Snowmass Creek - were much more peaceful.

One of my best nights of solo camping was Dec. 30 a couple of years ago on the South Rim of Big Bend National Park. Sunset was characteristically AMAZING then I trudged back to my frosty tent for a good night's sleep. Did not see another soul.
Post Reply