I'm doing 20 things
I’m currently going to college in San Diego, where it’s difficult to find any natural forests or wooded areas, but it just so happens that there the tip of a natural reserve park extends just to this canyon right next to my school. Here is a chance to live in a tent while going to college, having only to walk up and down a hill every day to get to class. No use of gas; No traffic; and especially, no outrageous rent (a pretty bad investment).
So I hid the tent on some flat ground, among some bushes, at the bottom of the canyon and tried it out for a few days. At first it was incredibly scary: going down into the bush in the middle of the night where nobody is except possibly some bums. But soon I realized that the area was so frightening at night that it prevented people from going down there, at least during the night.
The main issue became the roaring traffic not 20 yards away. That could’ve been easily remedied had there been a more remote spot available, but in this case there wasn’t. Another lesser issue was the hardness of the ground. I intended to slide a cushion or something under the tent and I think that would’ve solved the problem.
About three or four days into this experiment, an unusually long (for CA) rainstorm came through, and it poured for four days consecutively. I thought that surely the tent would’ve been washed away, but when I returned not only was it still standing, but it was dry inside (I had two brown tarps over it to protect it from moisture and to camoflouge it) except for a small spot where the diagonal rain had passed through a gap I left between the tarps. In fact I assume the tent is still down there, although I assume there is more chance of somebody stumbling upon it now that school is back in session.
Strengths of living in a tent:
-Intimacy with nature and the feeling of waking up to the beautiful sight of the absence of civilization.
-There are no issues with space as there would be with the van
-Once at the camp site, there are no privacy issues, as with the van
-Fresh air.
Weaknesses of living in a tent:
-Vulnerability and lack of security
-It is not recommended to store anything but essentials in or around the tent, as there is nothing to stop anyone from taking anything
-Any nearby noise is clearly heard
In conclusion, I determined that I didn’t get as good of a rest as I needed to be able to focus at school. I strongly feel that if the traffic noise and the hardness of the ground were remedied, this type of living situation would be successful.
On Mar 6, 2010 I checked on the tent after leaving it standing for about a month and it was untouched.
