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

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.