Cowboy camping on the AT

[The Phoenix]

I'm doing a 6-7 week section hike coming up and I've been thinking about ditching my tent, bringing my minimalist bivy (as a backup plan) and cowboy camping the bulk of my journey, assuming the weather permits it.

After thru-hiking in 2009, I moved out West and all the hiking I did out there (Utah, Nevada, and the John Muir Trail) was primarily cowboy camping. I always felt safe, liberated, and in awe sleeping under the stars without a shelter around me.

For some reason, on the AT, I never really considered cowboy camping. I slept under a bridge or two, used my tent a good bit, slept in my fair share of shelters, but never truly cowboy camped. It could have been because I was 19 and felt a bit uneasy being so exposed... but then again... in the "shelter", a raccoon took a go at my head and bears visited my tent site in Tennessee multiple times.. so a thin piece of nylon or a three-sided wooden structure really don't offer too much:confused:

Anyone done it on the AT? Recommended? Same as anywhere else? Any concerns?

[Lone Wolf]

i've cowboyed a ton of times. one year at springer i talked a bunch of newbies into layin' out on the ground. it was awesome

[Starchild]

Rain and stray meteoroids, but HYOH.

[bigcranky]

I've cowboy camped numerous times on the AT, but the weather is often iffy -- much more so than out West. When the weather cooperates, it's a blast. I will sometimes set up a tarp just in case, then sleep out next to it.

[MuddyWaters]

In a humid environment, like is found on most of the AT, much of the year, you get wet under an open sky. Radiative cooling lowers the outer temp of your bag/quilt to below the dewpoint, and you wake up all damp. This isnt a big problem in the arid west like it is in the east. The dampness leads to loss of loft and you get colder too. Under a tree canopy, not as bad.

[bamboo bob]

Way too much dew on the AT. On the PCT you can get away with it often but the east is just too wet.

[Malto]

I cowboy camp every night I spend on the AT unless it is raining. Unless there is major bug activity then it works fine. Another dilemma in the summer involves bivy vs. bugs. It can get hot in a bivy and again bugs can suck, east coast bugs don't go to bed. Also, unlike out west, it doesn't get really cool in most of the east. On my PCT thru I slept every night in my bivy with a 20deg quilt and only once did I get warm at night. Most nights I was completely zipped up.

[Fredt4]

I've cowboy camped many times on the AT. Carried a bivy sack until the bugs came out. If you sleep inside a closed bivy sack expect condensation, but without a tent, tarp or whatever you'll need a bivy in case of rain.

[Hangfire]

Watch out for rabid skunks, last year 2 guys got bit by the same stinker while sleeping around the fire. They both had to get rabies shots, and I was never jealous of the cowboy campers again!

[Gambit McCrae]

Tarping might be a good happy medium for you. Your open to nature yet covered from falling dew/ rain

[Dogwood]

I've cowboy camped on the AT more than I've slept in AT lean-tos, tents, and hammocks and under tarps combined.

Cowboy camping is not the same everywhere. I too have spent plenty of nights outdoors cowboying, tarping, tenting, and sleeping in caves/rock shelters/rock amphitheaters, and under ledges and atop summits in Utah and Nevada as well. Yes, season factors in.

You're posting this on Sept 23. When is your 6-7 wk AT trek and what are your anticipated start end pts? It can play into your cowboying desire or kit selection regarding sleep/shelter systems.

[The Phoenix]

You're posting this on Sept 23. When is your 6-7 wk AT trek and what are your anticipated start end pts? It can play into your cowboying desire or kit selection regarding sleep/shelter systems.

10/1 to 11/11... Harper's Ferry to NOC (with the potential to jump ahead a bit in VA, so I reach Atlanta by 11/13)

[Slo-go'en]

10/1 to 11/11... Harper's Ferry to NOC (with the potential to jump ahead a bit in VA, so I reach Atlanta by 11/13)

The trail should be pretty quiet along there, that time of year. It could also be a bit stormy. You will have most shelters all to yourself.

[Theosus]

Second the dew problem... depending on the time of year, everything on the ground is wet in the morning. A tarp just big enough to cover you would be plenty, even if you stick your head out. A friend of mine cowboy camps all the time (trail name: cowboy). He sleeps on an oversized tyvek sheet and if it starts raining he'll reach over, grab the tyvek and throw it over himself like a big tyvek burrito.

[Coffee]

The trail should be pretty quiet along there, that time of year. It could also be a bit stormy. You will have most shelters all to yourself.
It will be busy in SNP in October.

[nsherry61]

. . . A friend of mine cowboy camps all the time (trail name: cowboy). He sleeps on an oversized tyvek sheet and if it starts raining he'll reach over, grab the tyvek and throw it over himself like a big tyvek burrito.
I've spent my whole life primarily cowboy camping in just this way, except with cheap poly tarps or nylon tarps instead of tyvek. Super fast and easy to make and break camp. Of course, if there is a fair chance of serious rain, I'll pitch my tarp or tent, but, I think of tents and tarps as really just storm insurance, not necessary or even desirable in most cases.

As for the dew issues, this thread makes it sound a little like bears, everything from fear to complete ambivalence . . . and that is probably a fair appraisal of the reality.

I cowboy camped on the AT in the White Mountains two days ago and woke up with a completely dry down bag.

[Tipi Walter]

I cowboy camp every night I spend on the AT unless it is raining. Unless there is major bug activity then it works fine. Another dilemma in the summer involves bivy vs. bugs. It can get hot in a bivy and again bugs can suck, east coast bugs don't go to bed. Also, unlike out west, it doesn't get really cool in most of the east. On my PCT thru I slept every night in my bivy with a 20deg quilt and only once did I get warm at night. Most nights I was completely zipped up.

Cowboy camping has its place, especially when done in stealth mode behind a walmart or in a town cemetery. But if you're legal, why bother?

Malto hits the main drawbacks to cowboy camping: Sudden past-midnight rain storms, major bugs, black carpenter ants who roam at night, too hot but you still need bug/mosquito protection ETC ETC.

Have you ever cowboy camped and set up in a big rhodo thicket under a crystal clear night and by 3am get hit with a gully washer?? You gotta move fast from deep sleep and set up some type of shelter. It isn't fun or efficient. Ya gotta crawl out of the thicket with your headlamp and find a place to set up overhead nylon. Why? Because a waterproof bivy bag does not protect you from falling rain---Your face and head/shoulders get wet, ergo your bag gets wet.

One time I was cowboy camping in NC back in the 80's and woke up to a sudden rainstorm at, yes, 3am and jumped up fast but too fast from a deep sleep and fainted next to my gear and woke up a minute or two later soaked. Lesson learned? Set up your shelter right off the bat and never have to scramble again in a surprise rain. NC and TN and Georgia and VA all get surprise rains.

One time me and my backpacking buddy Johnny B were camping on Upper Creek in Pisgah NF and left the camp fire around midnight and Johnny found a coiled up copperhead in his tent vestibule. Not a good scenario when cowboy camping like Hangfire says . . . about a rabid skunk. A tent can be zipped to keep out snakes, skunks, possums, raccoons, black ants, hunting dogs etc.

[Dogwood]

I've done what you're considering Phoenix - on the AT in or close to that section in Oct-early Dec when only carrying a WR bivy. It can work to save wt, which is why I did it to challenge myself as a gram weenie and not have such an absolute reliance on gear or shelters so regularly. I choose to cowboy because it's simpler and I like being closer to Nature without a wispy sheet of fabric separating me from the outside world. I've also hiked from shelter to shelter using them as my only coverage as my only source of protection in Nov during a 200 miler on the AT. At your time of the yr you will have less folks at AT lean tos but you never know 100%.I also have been burnt doing it getting drenched. Fortunately, the situations where I got drenched didn't turn into an extreme emergency and it was the AT with a nearby road crossing to hitch to a laundromat.

I got burned because I didn't have a radio/Ipod or access to current daily weather knowing on those days/nights lean tos with heavy rain in the nightly forecast I would need shelters to stay warm and dry.


Second the dew problem... depending on the time of year, everything on the ground is wet in the morning. A tarp just big enough to cover you would be plenty, even if you stick your head out. A friend of mine cowboy camps all the time (trail name: cowboy). He sleeps on an oversized tyvek sheet and if it starts raining he'll reach over, grab the tyvek and throw it over himself like a big tyvek burrito.

Maybe it's me, but this(burrito with a ground sheet/wrapping in tarp) has never worked for me to stay dry and still avoid condensation issues in anything but the lightest short duration drizzles/mists.

[Dogwood]

Maybe some didn't catch the OP saying he was bringing along his minimalist bivy which I'll assume is a WR more breathable bivy than a WP bivy. With Phoenix's bivy, attention to weather and conditions when dew does form, and mindful campsite locations dew does not have to be the huge issues as some have made it seem to be. He also said he's hiking from Oct 1 to Nov 1. IF being apprised of current nightly weather, and under wetter rainier conditions, a lean to sleeping location can be opted for. In the no rain in the forecast scenario cowboy in a bivy hopefully avoiding places and conditions where dew would likely form under clear skies. Can also mix up sleeping locations by choosing cowboy camping near or at a AT shelter but not in the shelter when nightly weather is iffy. IF need be, and if the lean to is empty, switch to it if rain starts to fall during the night. Personally, I'd take along one of my UL 6 oz- CF tarps with a WR MLD Superlight or Titanium Goat bivy and could have the best versatility of sleeping locations without the need to break down or move in a rain. Quite simple to set up a tarp in a 1/2 A-frame config, or lean-to config and IF should unexpected rain fall at night simply flip over the unused tarp side and pin down the a few side guy outs with stakes or tie off. I've done this many times when there's a chance of rain but not a high chance of precipitation.

[The Phoenix]

Food for thought. I appreciate the thoughts/experiences shared. I'll let you know how it goes, takin the train down to Harper's Ferry this weekend.

[lemon b]

When the weather looks perfect I'll do it, having learned over the years to have at least a poncho, set up to roll under in case of unexpected rain.

[LittleRock]

Have you ever cowboy camped and set up in a big rhodo thicket under a crystal clear night and by 3am get hit with a gully washer?? You gotta move fast from deep sleep and set up some type of shelter. It isn't fun or efficient. Ya gotta crawl out of the thicket with your headlamp and find a place to set up overhead nylon.

Yup. That pretty much describes my one and only attempt at cowboy camping on the AT.

[flemdawg1]

Once I was camping near Rausch Gap in PA, I looked out my tent and the whole ground was crawling with what looked like 10000s of Daddy Long Legs Spiders. Nope, no cowboy camping on the AT.

[Tipi Walter]

Once I was camping near Rausch Gap in PA, I looked out my tent and the whole ground was crawling with what looked like 10000s of Daddy Long Legs Spiders. Nope, no cowboy camping on the AT.

Black carpenter ants are my least favorite. Some night time spots are covered with them and they will invade your bedroll no problem. And they bite when pinched or you roll over them.

[Miner]

As long as a person has some sort of rain shelter for when the weather doesn't cooperate, there is nothing wrong with cowboy camping. I'm lazy. I enjoy hiking, but I hate doing camp chores like setting a shelter up. Now if it's raining or looks like it is likely to rain, I do setup my tarp when I get to camp. But like others, I cowboy camp whenever possible, to the point of pushing my luck; and for some reason I get away with it most of the time.

But I do get caught when doing so occasionally. For those times when I'm surprised, I either drag my stuff under a tree with thick foliage or do my blanket pitch of my tarp; i.e. throw it over me and my gear like a blanket while I decide what to do. I'll usually wait a short amount of time as a passing shower will just pass through quickly. If it doesn't seem like it's going to stop, but if it's near dawn, I'll just pack up and hike in the dark until the sun comes up. Otherwise, I reluctantly pitch a tarp by slowly elevating it while keeping all my stuff covered.

I never camp in meadows, next to holes in the ground, where there is signs of burrowing, or where I see a large amount of ants crawling around. Why borrow trouble when you can avoid it. Crawling insects and rodents just haven't been a real problem to me when following those rules.

Now for some reason, when I starting hiking south on the AT in Maine as many NOBOs where finishing, I got numerous stares from them, like what are you doing, when cowboy camping. It was like they had never seen it before despite having just spent 5 months straight camping. So the culture just isn't there like it is out west; or rather it seems more like it never occurred to them.

[Dogwood]

Another worthy aspect of cowboy camping or bivying is that you have a much greater variety of possible sleeping locations than with a tent. I would say, in some situations, a hammock would do the same. Cowboy camping as a means of being stealthier is not just a way of possibly camping illegally which is not what the cowboy approach to camping is primarily about anyhow. Cowboy camping allows one to have more privacy...period...and to practice LNT Ethics. Not everyone wants to camp en masse with other humans or in the most down trodden campsites. Some actually go out to have the deepest connect with Nature they can. Cowboy camping amongst rocks, under a rock shelf, in a cave, on an island, at the base of a waterfall, on the edge of an escarpment, on a above treeline ridgeline, on a fin at Arches NP, at a summit, inside a hallowed out Redwood, on a small granite slab on a river's shore or next to a waterfall, etc where it would be difficult to impossible in many situations if tenting.



HYOH.

[Dogwood]

Too much over confidence and reliance in the supposed convenience of a tent when not always necessary.

HYOH