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Joker4ink
04-09-2011, 23:59
Unfortunately most of my friends don't hike or go backpacking. So, more often than not I hike along. I very much enjoy the solidarity and peacefulness and can go at my own pace. However when I make camp is when my mind wanders and feel uneasy...it doesn't bother me during the day however. This feeling often dissuades me from backpacking by myself when I love so much to be on the trail. I am just wondering if anyone else feels that way and what do you do to help. The trail is my little "happy place" and I need to know what you have done to get over those feelings.

dragoro
04-10-2011, 00:18
I read when I start feeling that way. Get myself lost in a good book.

tdoczi
04-10-2011, 00:18
yeah me too. i camp near other people, even though i rarely interact with them, somehow knowing i'm not really alone helps.

so does being too tired to care and/or having a book to read or a movie to watch on my ipod.

Datto
04-10-2011, 00:22
I hiked quite a bit alone before the PCT. Enjoyed it. Got me well prepared for the AT and I ended up enjoying quite time alone on the AT as well as time with other hikers.

On the Knobstone Trail I was so exhausted one night (that trail wore me out completely -- tough trail) I just layed out my one person tent near an existing fire ring and went to sleep. About 2:30am a fox was trotting down a trail that had gone through that fire-ring site. He wasn't paying much attention and landed right on my face through the netting of the one person tent. It ended up being quite a wrestling match and I ended up getting out of the tent and yelling something at the fox and doing some chest puffing. The fox ran off so I know I'd showed him good.

Took hours to get back to sleep.

That was before a skunk landed on my head one night during my AT thru-hike. Good thing I'd already gone through the incident with the fox. I'd actually batted the skunk before it dawned on me that it was a skunk.

On the PCT I had an elk land on the tent about 10:30pm one night. I'd set the tent up unknowingly on a deer trail and the guy had just been galloping down his usual deer trail and had ran right into the tent. I'd had my earplugs in and didn't know what the heck was going on and had initially thought it was a bear attack.

Oh well, lots of cool things happen when you hike alone or with people. It's all memorable for me.

Datto

leaftye
04-10-2011, 00:47
I also prefer to hike alone and camp with others, but if I was with Datto I would reverse it so I don't have an animal land on my face.

Trailweaver
04-10-2011, 00:48
Reading helps a lot, as does writing in a journal. A lot of the time you have company when you reach a campsite on the AT, so you will have someone to talk with. It can be a little un-nerving to be alone if I think too much about it, so I also take something along that will help me sleep if I need to. Benedryl works well and is OTC.

Northern Lights
04-10-2011, 00:54
I hiked quite a bit alone before the PCT. Enjoyed it. Got me well prepared for the AT and I ended up enjoying quite time alone on the AT as well as time with other hikers.

On the Knobstone Trail I was so exhausted one night (that trail wore me out completely -- tough trail) I just layed out my one person tent near an existing fire ring and went to sleep. About 2:30am a fox was trotting down a trail that had gone through that fire-ring site. He wasn't paying much attention and landed right on my face through the netting of the one person tent. It ended up being quite a wrestling match and I ended up getting out of the tent and yelling something at the fox and doing some chest puffing. The fox ran off so I know I'd showed him good.

Took hours to get back to sleep.

That was before a skunk landed on my head one night during my AT thru-hike. Good thing I'd already gone through the incident with the fox. I'd actually batted the skunk before it dawned on me that it was a skunk.

On the PCT I had an elk land on the tent about 10:30pm one night. I'd set the tent up unknowingly on a deer trail and the guy had just been galloping down his usual deer trail and had ran right into the tent. I'd had my earplugs in and didn't know what the heck was going on and had initially thought it was a bear attack.

Oh well, lots of cool things happen when you hike alone or with people. It's all memorable for me.

Datto

I don't know why but I find your story extremely humorous. Most people would give their right arm to see wildlife and don't and you have them trying to get into your tent regularly.

If you tell this story to everyone, that's probably why you hike alone, no one wants to go with you for fear of being attacked by wildlife in their sleep!:D

too funny.

Tipi Walter
04-10-2011, 01:06
Unfortunately most of my friends don't hike or go backpacking. So, more often than not I hike along. I very much enjoy the solidarity and peacefulness and can go at my own pace. However when I make camp is when my mind wanders and feel uneasy...it doesn't bother me during the day however. This feeling often dissuades me from backpacking by myself when I love so much to be on the trail. I am just wondering if anyone else feels that way and what do you do to help. The trail is my little "happy place" and I need to know what you have done to get over those feelings.

Mind wanders and you feel uneasy? Is this to say you feel homesick? Depressed? Afraid? It's hard to tell from your post. A long solo backpacking trip elicits many different emotions, from extreme physical pain to mental despair to joy and the love of a night spent in a tent in the rain. There's no place on earth better than a secure tent with ample goose down during a five day blizzard. Then again, there is loneliness, the bane of Life, but loneliness is not unique to solo backpackers, it happens to everyone at any place.

paistes5
04-10-2011, 01:24
I'd camp with Datto, no question. That way I know no animal will be landing in my tent, they'll go straight for his.

double d
04-10-2011, 01:45
Solo hiking is great, lots of time to think, enjoy your own pace and its fun to meet new people on the trail. Then again, finding a hiking buddy is fine as well, but they have to match your personality, pace, etc, otherwise, it can get to be a problem after about fifty miles!

Chubbs4U
04-10-2011, 01:54
I hiked quite a bit alone before the PCT. Enjoyed it. Got me well prepared for the AT and I ended up enjoying quite time alone on the AT as well as time with other hikers.

On the Knobstone Trail I was so exhausted one night (that trail wore me out completely -- tough trail) I just layed out my one person tent near an existing fire ring and went to sleep. About 2:30am a fox was trotting down a trail that had gone through that fire-ring site. He wasn't paying much attention and landed right on my face through the netting of the one person tent. It ended up being quite a wrestling match and I ended up getting out of the tent and yelling something at the fox and doing some chest puffing. The fox ran off so I know I'd showed him good.

Took hours to get back to sleep.

That was before a skunk landed on my head one night during my AT thru-hike. Good thing I'd already gone through the incident with the fox. I'd actually batted the skunk before it dawned on me that it was a skunk.

On the PCT I had an elk land on the tent about 10:30pm one night. I'd set the tent up unknowingly on a deer trail and the guy had just been galloping down his usual deer trail and had ran right into the tent. I'd had my earplugs in and didn't know what the heck was going on and had initially thought it was a bear attack.

Oh well, lots of cool things happen when you hike alone or with people. It's all memorable for me.

Datto

Way too funny. And you still camp? I love the fact that you thought it was a bear attacking. I would of had a heart attack.

Derek81pci
04-10-2011, 04:15
I've only hiked with 1 other person since I've been doing real trails. It was a horror story (refer to my post in "Is my dog trail ready" forum...). I like being by myself on the trail. Night time has sparked an uneasiness in humans since the first humans, it's 100% natural. The dark, the unknown, the sounds... I don't stay in shelters mostly because of the critters and snoring. I always stealth hammock camp off the trail, but within earshot of a shelter or other campers, for safety reasons. If you're a people person, stay at the shelters. Also, you could ask other campers you see if they minded you camping near them?

LoneRidgeRunner
04-10-2011, 06:34
I often back packed deer hunting solo (always hike solo) and most times when deer hunting / camping I wouldn't even hear another human voice in the distance for the 8 days I would be in the woods. After 3 or 4 days you'll catch yourself taking to yourself. A few more days and you begin to answer your self but no need to worry until you talk, answer your self and then say "huh?"

10-K
04-10-2011, 06:41
It's pretty common for me to be thinking about how nice it's going to be to finally set up camp, eat, rest and go to sleep towards the end of the day and as soon as I get everything setup and in my bag I'm ready for tomorrow to get here.

It gets better the longer I'm out - at first I wake up every time there's a noise and after a few days I start sleeping through the night pretty good.

I know I'm 'in the zone' if I can sleep solid until daylight - which is oversleeping for me.

Furlough
04-10-2011, 08:14
After 3 or 4 days you'll catch yourself taking to yourself. A few more days and you begin to answer your self but no need to worry until you talk, answer your self and then say "huh?"

Wow LoneRidgeRunner, I am impressed it takes you 3 or 4 days before you start talking to yourself, I seem to start 3 or 4 hours into or earlier in to the first day. :)

Del Q
04-10-2011, 08:22
I just don't worry about it. Am confident in the woods, safer than driving to and from the AT - also, Scotch or Whiskey helps, the animals are afraid of it.

kanga
04-10-2011, 08:39
I hiked quite a bit alone before the PCT. Enjoyed it. Got me well prepared for the AT and I ended up enjoying quite time alone on the AT as well as time with other hikers.

On the Knobstone Trail I was so exhausted one night (that trail wore me out completely -- tough trail) I just layed out my one person tent near an existing fire ring and went to sleep. About 2:30am a fox was trotting down a trail that had gone through that fire-ring site. He wasn't paying much attention and landed right on my face through the netting of the one person tent. It ended up being quite a wrestling match and I ended up getting out of the tent and yelling something at the fox and doing some chest puffing. The fox ran off so I know I'd showed him good.

Took hours to get back to sleep.

That was before a skunk landed on my head one night during my AT thru-hike. Good thing I'd already gone through the incident with the fox. I'd actually batted the skunk before it dawned on me that it was a skunk.

On the PCT I had an elk land on the tent about 10:30pm one night. I'd set the tent up unknowingly on a deer trail and the guy had just been galloping down his usual deer trail and had ran right into the tent. I'd had my earplugs in and didn't know what the heck was going on and had initially thought it was a bear attack.

Oh well, lots of cool things happen when you hike alone or with people. It's all memorable for me.

Datto


jeebus, introduce yourself if we ever meet so i can say a friendly "hi" and then camp the hell away from you! :D

kanga
04-10-2011, 08:41
Unfortunately most of my friends don't hike or go backpacking. So, more often than not I hike along. I very much enjoy the solidarity and peacefulness and can go at my own pace. However when I make camp is when my mind wanders and feel uneasy...it doesn't bother me during the day however. This feeling often dissuades me from backpacking by myself when I love so much to be on the trail. I am just wondering if anyone else feels that way and what do you do to help. The trail is my little "happy place" and I need to know what you have done to get over those feelings.

you're not alone. it happens to me sometimes too. i agree that a book might help. headphones makes it worse for me, as i can't hear the booger bears coming for me.

Duff
04-10-2011, 08:50
The AT offers you that choice. It doesn't have to be one or the other. You can have as much solitude (to a degree) or as much company as you want. Want company? - Keep up w/ others and partake of the shelter community. Solitude? let em' pass and stealth camp. NOBO in early Spring up through Virginia is a community, until enough drop out; if you truly want solitude then start SOBO in June (ish).

Furlough
04-10-2011, 08:59
Unfortunately most of my friends don't hike or go backpacking. So, more often than not I hike along. I very much enjoy the solidarity and peacefulness and can go at my own pace. However when I make camp is when my mind wanders and feel uneasy...it doesn't bother me during the day however. This feeling often dissuades me from backpacking by myself when I love so much to be on the trail. I am just wondering if anyone else feels that way and what do you do to help. The trail is my little "happy place" and I need to know what you have done to get over those feelings.

I too end up doing most of my backpacking solo. But by now I am acclimated to it. I do have the occasional What the F^%>+ over moment at night, usually caused by some nocturnal wanderer kicking through the underbrush and leaves. If it gets too close for comfort I just yell out a very bassy and loud "There I was" and listen as whatever it was out there heads the opposite direction - probably now having its own What the F^%>+ over moment.

Joker4ink
04-10-2011, 09:29
Mind wanders and you feel uneasy? Is this to say you feel homesick? Depressed? Afraid? It's hard to tell from your post. A long solo backpacking trip elicits many different emotions, from extreme physical pain to mental despair to joy and the love of a night spent in a tent in the rain. There's no place on earth better than a secure tent with ample goose down during a five day blizzard. Then again, there is loneliness, the bane of Life, but loneliness is not unique to solo backpackers, it happens to everyone at any place.

I don't feel homesick or depressed, I'm not exactly sure what it is. I am a very socialable person so I love meeting new people, but I also enjoy the time alone when I get it. I love sitting in the shelter and reading the trail log of others who have passed though. Hearing their triumphs and tails of the trail really is nice way of winding down at night. I do as others do, get my nose in a book, or play solitaire and listen to the ipod to drift away to sleep. I am thinking that's just an experience thing and I need to be on the trail more so my apparent insecurities get less and less.

Prov
04-10-2011, 11:09
I am a female and backpack alone all the time. I am out there for the quiet. In doing over 500 mi of the AT (and sleeping as far away from the shelters as I usually can), there is only one thing that bothers me: Why are guys always asking me if I am out there alone? It is like they are begging me to lie to them. As I pass by them I always respond that my hiking partner is a few minutes behind me. They may not think that it is a silly question to ask (after all, they are a great person and wouldn't harm a fly, right?), but I don't know that. How would you want your daughter to answer that if asked by a stranger? Please, stop asking.

bobqzzi
04-10-2011, 14:04
Unfortunately most of my friends don't hike or go backpacking. So, more often than not I hike along. I very much enjoy the solidarity and peacefulness and can go at my own pace. However when I make camp is when my mind wanders and feel uneasy...it doesn't bother me during the day however. This feeling often dissuades me from backpacking by myself when I love so much to be on the trail. I am just wondering if anyone else feels that way and what do you do to help. The trail is my little "happy place" and I need to know what you have done to get over those feelings.

I very much like audiobooks since you can carry hundreds of books on a very small device like an iPod

AndyB
04-10-2011, 14:12
when i hiked alone, or spend the night alone for that matter, I never sleep good the first night. Stay out for like 3-4 nights, after hiking a few days and not sleeping well by the time your last night rolls around you'll be too tired to keep waking up. After that first night of good sleep you'll be home free

kayak karl
04-10-2011, 14:21
you're not alone. it happens to me sometimes too. i agree that a book might help. headphones makes it worse for me, as i can't hear the booger bears coming for me.
i hate head phones. i think im missing some thing.

i came running down a trail in snow and ran into people as i was singing,

Im Late, Im Late
for a very important date,
No time to say hello, goodbye,
Im late, Im late, Im late
and when I wave,
I lose the time I save.
My fuzzy ears and whiskers
took me too much time to shave.
I run and then I hop, hop, hop,
I wish that I could fly.

stomping my feet trying to stay warm. doing this guarantees you will stay alone :D

WingedMonkey
04-10-2011, 14:28
If not rushed to do some miles, one of my reasons for hiking is to be alone at night. I often stay up too late looking at stars that you can't see around town lights. (yeah I might have NPR on the ear buds low) The night sounds in the woods amaze me (more so if here in Florida). And yes I have heard a deer snort and pound his hoof when I set up on a game path, I think my laughing scared him more than he scared me. An armadillo makes more noise in the understory that a wild boar, but you have to be out at night to learn that. A walk at night to see what else is awake is a way to learn they ain't out to get you. If I do get to sleep early then sometimes I like to get up before sun rise and walk around again see whats stirring.
After a while you can tell what the night sounds are without leaving the tent and lay there and enjoy them as if it was an ipod movie till you fall off asleep.
Embrace the solitude.

map man
04-10-2011, 14:59
I've done a fair amount of hiking alone and with partners and on balance I prefer hiking with others. I like hiking by myself but really prefer having company in camp. On long solo trips, in particular, I find that even if I strike up conversations on the trail with others, and have the company of others at shelers or tentsites sometimes, that I still find myself wanting to just get the trip over with towards the end. This doesn't happen when I have good hiking partners.

Some of the really fortunate here at Whiteblaze have struck up hiking partnerships with others they meet on the trail (and hadn't known beforehand) that last and last through the rest of that hike and future hikes too.

WalksInDark
04-10-2011, 15:41
As a hammock camper, I can set up pretty much anywhere. While I experience a bit of nervousness when I first get into my hammock, I remind myself that the two most likely problems I am going to have are: a critter coming to check out the food smells (use a bear bag); or a dead branch falling on my head (look for snags over your prospective hammock site while you still have light.

After I solve those two dilemmas, I pretty much leave open the possibility that SHIP happens....and it can happen in the "Real World" as well as while out on the trail. Once I accept my real powerless over highly unlikely, but possible events...I fall asleep pretty quickly.

Lemni Skate
04-10-2011, 16:37
Yeah, my longest backpack trip was 11 days. It was supposed to be 14, but I got killer lonely and down and decided that if I could get cell phone reception at the next overlook I was coming up on I would call for a ride. I made the call and got the ride.

I think I just needed somebody to talk to about what I'd been doing for 11 days.

Joker4ink
04-10-2011, 17:57
Well it's nice to know that I'm not the only one and it's great to hear others' experiences. I hope my weekend frees up so I can enjoy the trail, regardless of who I'm with.

TIDE-HSV
04-10-2011, 18:55
Datto, I've done the skunk bit and more bear incidents than I care to recall. I also can see elk doing something dumb, but the fox are so cautious, I'd be worried about something wrong with the beast...

tjforrester
04-10-2011, 19:48
Unfortunately most of my friends don't hike or go backpacking. So, more often than not I hike along. I very much enjoy the solidarity and peacefulness and can go at my own pace. However when I make camp is when my mind wanders and feel uneasy...it doesn't bother me during the day however. This feeling often dissuades me from backpacking by myself when I love so much to be on the trail. I am just wondering if anyone else feels that way and what do you do to help. The trail is my little "happy place" and I need to know what you have done to get over those feelings.

Just get out there and camp alone. You'll get over your nervousness soon enough.

jthue
04-10-2011, 19:48
For me its all about jamming to tunes as I lay alone. I've fallen in love with a lot of good rock n' roll laying on my back and listening while I gaze at the stars. But I understand the feeling when I'm alone. Since I'm from utah most of these experiences have happened up by yellowstone where Grizzlies and Mountain Lions love the smell of what you cooked for dinner. Listening to speeches by church leaders helps too if you are into religion. Its a special feeling to connect with the Lord in the wilderness.

Dogwood
04-10-2011, 19:51
When I've been immersed in society for a lengthy period I'll enjoy the new solitude of solo hiking for a while, but then I reach a threshold when I start feeling lonely and need human interaction. Though, often, when hiking, I'll be alone but not be lonely.

Dogwood
04-10-2011, 19:56
Sometimes, with some people, all the yakkety yak is nothing more than unwanted static. Don't need it. Don't want it.

Ever listen to most conversations especially those being conducted on cell phones? Nothing more than destructive overly verbose unwanted banter to me. I don't buy the excuse from many, including hikers, that say, "I only use my cell phone for emergencies."

HIKERJEN
04-10-2011, 20:22
When I go backpacking alone, I don't want to see or hear another person ! I take my dog, she keeps me company, & I bring a book to read in the evening.

cthiker
04-10-2011, 20:52
Haha, reminds me of the time I was cowboy camping in the woods on what I later realized was a game trail. At about 2 am when I was sound asleep I got woken up by some footsteps followed by barking right by my head so loud that I thought my ear drums were going to blow. I bet the poor deer was scared to death :-)


I hiked quite a bit alone before the PCT. Enjoyed it. Got me well prepared for the AT and I ended up enjoying quite time alone on the AT as well as time with other hikers.

On the Knobstone Trail I was so exhausted one night (that trail wore me out completely -- tough trail) I just layed out my one person tent near an existing fire ring and went to sleep. About 2:30am a fox was trotting down a trail that had gone through that fire-ring site. He wasn't paying much attention and landed right on my face through the netting of the one person tent. It ended up being quite a wrestling match and I ended up getting out of the tent and yelling something at the fox and doing some chest puffing. The fox ran off so I know I'd showed him good.

Took hours to get back to sleep.

That was before a skunk landed on my head one night during my AT thru-hike. Good thing I'd already gone through the incident with the fox. I'd actually batted the skunk before it dawned on me that it was a skunk.

On the PCT I had an elk land on the tent about 10:30pm one night. I'd set the tent up unknowingly on a deer trail and the guy had just been galloping down his usual deer trail and had ran right into the tent. I'd had my earplugs in and didn't know what the heck was going on and had initially thought it was a bear attack.

Oh well, lots of cool things happen when you hike alone or with people. It's all memorable for me.

Datto

LoneRidgeRunner
04-10-2011, 21:06
Wow LoneRidgeRunner, I am impressed it takes you 3 or 4 days before you start talking to yourself, I seem to start 3 or 4 hours into or earlier in to the first day. :)

Guess I've spent so many days before to days after opening weeks of Deer season so far back in the woods and never seeing or even hearing humans talking in the distance (you can hear that a long ways in the dead of Winter in the mountains) that I talked to myself so much it now takes me 3 or 4 days to have something to say to myself that I and myself haven't already talked about. LOL.. Where I used to Deer hunt there were no trails and no one crazy enough to bush whack that far into the woods but me... Maybe you haven't carried on so many conversations with your self you've ran out of topics yet...:D

sbhikes
04-10-2011, 22:11
I hiked the whole PCT alone. I did the PCT in two years so I did two 3-month hikes alone. I never had any problem with it. I think it was because I was very busy all the time. I had all those miles to do each day and then when I got into camp I had just enough light to eat dinner, read the next day's guide book pages and write in my journal. For a while I also had time to read a chapter or two of a book.

Now that I'm not doing a long trail I find it a little harder to do. I have to leave my partner at home alone to go backpacking alone. So I feel guilty. Then what happens is I get into camp and have no guide book to read or journal to write. I set my stuff up and try to amuse myself playing my strumstick or penny whistle but eventually I just lay down and look at things and before I know it, I fall asleep--before dark. This makes for a really long night so I end up waking up in the middle of the night having trouble sleeping. Then I'm in for a very long night waiting for morning.

I'm not afraid, I just don't have enough to do. I had a friend who never worked at a job a day in his life. He always liked to tell me that people these days just don't know how to do nothing. He was a master at it. I, unfortunately, prove him right. I have a hard time doing nothing.

Rendezvous01
04-10-2011, 22:43
Most of my 1100 miles on the AT have been covered 'alone', for numerous reasons, the primary one that I seem to proceed more slowly than other hikers. However, I found hiking alone to have its advantages. For example, I had 10 separate bear sightings, including a couple encounters of less than 10 yards of separation (both times the bear in the encounter ran away first--faster reflexes I believe.) Not only do I hike more slowly than others, I also rest more slowly, if that is possible. The result of all this slowlyness is that typically I arrive at a shelter or my tenting site with just sufficient light to set up, fix a meal, and crawl into my sleeping bag. Little of my AT time has been spent being 'alone' in camp, even though I have camped by myself many nights.
So my advice, Joker4ink, is to make the trail day of your journey longer, since you seem to enjoy it, and your camp time shorter. Simply put, the less time you have to feel uneasy, the less time you will spend feeling uneasy.
Oh, I also highly recommend Datto's trailjournals. I followed him online during his 2000 AT thru-hike as well as during his PCT journey. He is a raconteur of the highest degree.

wornoutboots
04-10-2011, 23:00
It's pretty common for me to be thinking about how nice it's going to be to finally set up camp, eat, rest and go to sleep towards the end of the day and as soon as I get everything setup and in my bag I'm ready for tomorrow to get here.

It gets better the longer I'm out - at first I wake up every time there's a noise and after a few days I start sleeping through the night pretty good.

I know I'm 'in the zone' if I can sleep solid until daylight - which is oversleeping for me.

+1 that's me to a tee! I think uneasiness has something to do with the "new" changes to your personal environment. I feel it for a few days, then it fades the longer I'm out

wornoutboots
04-10-2011, 23:02
I suggest stopping for dinner on the trail before you set up for the night, then hiking into camp so that you wear yourself out a bit & then only have an hour or so for your camp chores, then read yourself to sleep.

Dogwood
04-11-2011, 01:17
It's pretty common for me to be thinking about how nice it's going to be to finally set up camp, eat, rest and go to sleep towards the end of the day and as soon as I get everything setup and in my bag I'm ready for tomorrow to get here.

It gets better the longer I'm out - at first I wake up every time there's a noise and after a few days I start sleeping through the night pretty good.

I know I'm 'in the zone' if I can sleep solid until daylight - which is oversleeping for me.

You put that so nice 10-k!

Even though I attempt to stay and live in "the moment", including when hiking, meaning even in "the moment" just before setting up camp, I sometimes find myself in the same situation.

Ditto the same with your second point. I know when hiking when I lie down and rest peacefully and comfortably all night long snuggled deep in my sleeping bag right up until about 6 A.M. I'm "zoned in". I'm there! I'm in "the moment". Life takes on new meaning! I love being out there thru-hiking!!!