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  1. #41

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    Find yourself a comfortable pleasing campsite, feel good about your food storage, pop your earplugs in, take a melatonin if need be for you, and drift off to sleep.
    Trail Miles: 4,927.6
    AT Map 1: Complete 2013-2021
    Sheltowee Trace: Complete 2020-2023
    Pinhoti Trail: Complete 2023-2024
    Foothills Trail: 0.0
    AT Map 2: 279.4
    BMT: 52.7
    CDT: 85.4

  2. #42

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    Quote Originally Posted by Teacher & Snacktime View Post
    My tent is 3000# and made of steel. If I get spooked, I jump into the front and prepare to drive away, or over an offender if necessary!

    Actually, I share the same fear, so for now have limited myself to day hikes to my "steel tent" and I sleep quite well. This was the year I was going to overnight solo to address that fear (at 62 I should be grown up enough), but plans changed. Maybe later in the season....maybe not. So far I haven't felt like I'm missing out on anything. It's just that niggling sense of "I should or shouldn't" that's the problem.
    I would rather sleep in my fabric tent in the woods, than in my car in a parking lot anywhere along any trail
    Trail Miles: 4,927.6
    AT Map 1: Complete 2013-2021
    Sheltowee Trace: Complete 2020-2023
    Pinhoti Trail: Complete 2023-2024
    Foothills Trail: 0.0
    AT Map 2: 279.4
    BMT: 52.7
    CDT: 85.4

  3. #43
    Is it raining yet?
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    Yeah, parking lots are trouble. Sitting in them for long spells waiting for a shuttle I have witnessed more than a few characters who were clearly scoping the lot.
    Be Prepared

  4. #44
    Registered User JNI64's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ekeverette View Post
    i'm going to bite the f....g bullit and do it.... what the hell!!
    Thats the spirit, I love it brother!
    Live life hard! No regrets! No remorse!

  5. #45
    Registered User JNI64's Avatar
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    And hey if that's all takes is to bite on a bullet to get you through the night.......

  6. #46

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    Quote Originally Posted by BlackCloud View Post
    Yeah, parking lots are trouble. Sitting in them for long spells waiting for a shuttle I have witnessed more than a few characters who were clearly scoping the lot.
    I've been doing it for years. Last month spent 3 weeks in GA parking at Gooch, Woody, (5 days), Byron Reese (3 days), Unicoi, Dicks Creek, and Tesnatee. Not even a hint of a problem in any of them. Also PA225 for a night and Hot Springs...again, no problem. Where else are you going to stay to meet the shuttler at the crack of dawn?

    My favorite part though is when I got to sleep in, and the thrus I'd seen the day before while doing magic go by and I can hear them say things like "that's Teacher's car....should we wake her?" They will usually hang around a bit and I'll pop the trunk and hand out the PB&J supplies while I get up.
    Last edited by Teacher & Snacktime; 06-08-2021 at 12:44.
    "Maybe life isn't about avoiding the bruises. Maybe it's about collecting the scars to prove we showed up for it."

  7. #47

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    Quote Originally Posted by ekeverette View Post
    i'm going to bite the f....g bullit and do it.... what the hell!!
    Get yourself a motion activated game camera, and get pictures of what’s making noises in the night around your tent. You’ll probably see deer, possums, raccoons, and other harmless critters.

  8. #48
    Registered User ekeverette's Avatar
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    When I was a kid we lived in this really old house, and there was this huge armoir in my bedroom, I just knew there was something in that damn thing, and god forbid don't hang your feet over the side of the bed, cause you know somethings going to gab your butt and pull you under. ( 5 year old crap right). Well if i had to describe the feeling, that would be it.But worse than all that fear is regret, and one day i want be able to get out there. Ive made to New Jersey so far, so next spring come hell or high water im going!!
    eveready

  9. #49

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    Quote Originally Posted by ekeverette View Post
    i'm going to bite the f....g bullit and do it.... what the hell!!
    Good man. You probably won't get a full night's sleep, but the feeling you get in the morning light is worth the price of admission.

  10. #50
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    Quote Originally Posted by gpburdelljr View Post
    Get yourself a motion activated game camera, and get pictures of what’s making noises in the night around your tent. You’ll probably see deer, possums, raccoons, and other harmless critters.
    I would love to do this! -- although for some people, this might actually backfire. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
    fortis fortuna adjuvat

  11. #51

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    Facing one's fears and phobias is ALWAYS a challenge.I saw a bumper sticker some years ago that became my rallying cry for a number of things,it said-Fear is the Thief of Dreams.Don't let fear rob you of the experiences you want to have.Easy advice to give,not always easy to follow.

  12. #52
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    I feel this! I hate the dark, LOL...which is weird since I'm a night person LOL. I've done four solo overnight trips... each time, I made sure my tent was zipped and closed before the sun was all the way gone, LOL, to give me the illusion of security. It worked... and I'm fixin to do the GA section of the AT in September. I still don't like the dark and it makes me nervous, but Imma do it anyway.

  13. #53
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    Someone mentioned deer snorting loudly - I had first-hand experience of that after bedding down in a deer's territory, apparently. I didn't sleep a wink, and I also didn't know what it was either, which was disconcerting.
    Long-distance aspirations with short-distance feet.... :jump

  14. #54

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    Quote Originally Posted by foodbag View Post
    Someone mentioned deer snorting loudly - I had first-hand experience of that after bedding down in a deer's territory, apparently. I didn't sleep a wink, and I also didn't know what it was either, which was disconcerting.
    First time I had heard a deer snort was in the PNW on a trail thick with brush on both sides of the trail. To say it startled me is understating the reaction, which was to literally freeze between steps. I honestly thought it could finally be Big Foot showing up after thousands of miles under my feet. I never saw the deer, which lent to deepen the "survival mode" feeling as I made my way out of the area, frequently looking behind me. My eyes must have been like tea cup saucers in an effort to spy any minor motion signaling a violent end to yours truly. It wasn't until I related the experience with a few people I found out these things snorted and have not heard that snort since.

  15. #55
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    Quote Originally Posted by Traveler View Post
    First time I had heard a deer snort was in the PNW on a trail thick with brush on both sides of the trail. To say it startled me is understating the reaction, which was to literally freeze between steps. I honestly thought it could finally be Big Foot showing up after thousands of miles under my feet. I never saw the deer, which lent to deepen the "survival mode" feeling as I made my way out of the area, frequently looking behind me. My eyes must have been like tea cup saucers in an effort to spy any minor motion signaling a violent end to yours truly. It wasn't until I related the experience with a few people I found out these things snorted and have not heard that snort since.
    I've heard that deer snorting sound a couple of times, but before you get too relaxed I'll tell you that mama bears make a similar sound, more like a snorting-huffing sound. I heard this exactly one time when mountain biking at Waywayanda State Park in northern New Jersey when I came around a bend in the trail going fairly fast and was suddenly confronted with a small-ish mama black bear a few feet off the right side of the trail and 2-3 cubs about 20-30 feet off to the left. I realized instantly I was in the worst place you can find yourself with bears — between a mama and her babies — and I made a nano-second decision to keep stomping on the pedals as she grunted out that snorting-huffing sound, which sent the cubs scurrying up into the trees. She didn't have enough time to make a run at me and I made it through okay, and it all happened so quickly that there wasn't even time to be afraid. It was about 30 seconds later, when I was clear of the danger, that the fear and dread of what might've been washed over me.

  16. #56
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    Lying in your tent at night, there is something that'd give grown men fright , there's a black figure stalking in the night, and it won't go away until dark turns to light.

    There that should help.

  17. #57
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    Quote Originally Posted by JNI64 View Post
    Lying in your tent at night, there is something that'd give grown men fright , there's a black figure stalking in the night, and it won't go away until dark turns to light.

    There that should help.
    LOL thanks a bunch!

    I'm not skeered of the dark — I usually sleep better in the woods in my hammock than at home! — and I've made a habit of scanning the woods with my headlamp at 230 lumens while irrigating the vegetation at 2am. It has amazed me over the years because I very rarely see any retinas reflecting back at me. I've seen a deer and a wood mouse and once either a skunk or raccoon. And that's it for a few hundred nights out.

  18. #58
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    I've had a porcupine come into my tent vestibule, grab the shorts that I'd hung up in hopes they'd be a little bit drier in the morning, and skedaddle. (Commando for the rest of that trip!) And I've had a raccoon drag my pack (no food in it, that was properly secured) out of a lean-to in the wee hours in subzero temperatures - poor critter must have been desperate, but have you ever tried to get out of a fully-battened-down deep-winter sleep system and into frozen boots to chase a raccoon?

    Also, there's nothing like the sound of two porcupines making passionate porkie love under a lean-to floor ... unless it's the sound of two porkies snoring afterwards! If you think that porcupines are talkative all the time, imagine when they're ... occupied. Don't ask how I found out that tidbit.

    I still sleep pretty good Out There. Unless I've done something stupid like camp right under a screech owl - that racket would keep anyone awake. (I don't sleep well with earplugs - my ears don't like them.)

    I like listening to loons, but I know what they are. They scare the dickens out of a lot of people.
    I always know where I am. I'm right here.

  19. #59
    Registered User JNI64's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Another Kevin View Post
    I've had a porcupine come into my tent vestibule, grab the shorts that I'd hung up in hopes they'd be a little bit drier in the morning, and skedaddle. (Commando for the rest of that trip!) And I've had a raccoon drag my pack (no food in it, that was properly secured) out of a lean-to in the wee hours in subzero temperatures - poor critter must have been desperate, but have you ever tried to get out of a fully-battened-down deep-winter sleep system and into frozen boots to chase a raccoon?

    Also, there's nothing like the sound of two porcupines making passionate porkie love under a lean-to floor ... unless it's the sound of two porkies snoring afterwards! If you think that porcupines are talkative all the time, imagine when they're ... occupied. Don't ask how I found out that tidbit.

    I still sleep pretty good Out There. Unless I've done something stupid like camp right under a screech owl - that racket would keep anyone awake. (I don't sleep well with earplugs - my ears don't like them.)

    I like listening to loons, but I know what they are. They scare the dickens out of a lot of people.
    Holy crap this is so freaking funny. I almost spit my coffee out.
    Thanks for sharing.

  20. #60

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    Quote Originally Posted by Another Kevin View Post
    I've had a porcupine come into my tent vestibule, grab the shorts that I'd hung up in hopes they'd be a little bit drier in the morning, and skedaddle. (Commando for the rest of that trip!) And I've had a raccoon drag my pack (no food in it, that was properly secured) out of a lean-to in the wee hours in subzero temperatures - poor critter must have been desperate, but have you ever tried to get out of a fully-battened-down deep-winter sleep system and into frozen boots to chase a raccoon?

    Also, there's nothing like the sound of two porcupines making passionate porkie love under a lean-to floor ... unless it's the sound of two porkies snoring afterwards! If you think that porcupines are talkative all the time, imagine when they're ... occupied. Don't ask how I found out that tidbit.

    I still sleep pretty good Out There. Unless I've done something stupid like camp right under a screech owl - that racket would keep anyone awake. (I don't sleep well with earplugs - my ears don't like them.)

    I like listening to loons, but I know what they are. They scare the dickens out of a lot of people.

    Thanks Kevin,I'm just glad porcupines don't smoke afterwards or there might not be any woods left.........

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