I guess I went camping alone for a lot of reasons and they all sounded like good ones at the time. First of all, I just spent hundreds of dollars over the last few months buying gear that was gathering dust in my garage. Secondly, I was planning two seperate trips in the spring and summer with friends and wanted to “practice”. Third, I really wanted to go fly fishing for some mountain trout but don’t live close enough to make a single day trip worth it. Finally, I spent so much time running my mouth about my new “hobby” camping, more specifically, backpacking, that before I knew it I had announced this great solo adventure.
The plan was to head out early on a Friday morning and drive the 4 hours to the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina. I had a trail and a fishing spot all picked out. I loaded up my 40lbs of gear on my back, said goodbye to my car, and headed into the woods. I don’t think I had taken 20 steps down the trail when a single word struck me. Bears. I was completely spooked and I have idea why. I had day hiked down trails in this exact area before to go fishing and never even considered running into a bear. Suddenly with a 40lb backpack and the prospect of a night alone in the woods every sound was a black bear rounding the corner ahead of me.
I reviewed everything I could think of about bear lore and knew if I made enough noise they would head the other way, most likely. So here I am, all alone, huffing and puffing down the trail, whistling and singing every song I have ever heard.
Of course, no bears ever made an appearance but you would be amazed how much a squirrell running up a tree sounds like a black bear charging when you listen really really closely. And believe me I was listening really really closely.
So the bear thing was my first unexpected dilemma but I got past it. The next problem was even tougher. I think it was hard because it came with an overwhelming feeling of “Well of course, how could you be so stupid!” Maybe I should revise my title from camping alone to Winter camping alone. You see at about 5:45PM it started to get dark, I lit my campfire an hour ago “just to make sure I could” and after a day of unproductive fishing sat down to read a book. Within 45 minutes the weather got so cold that sitting outside my tent was no longer an option. So cheery and chipper I climbed into my sleeping bag and pulled all the draw strings to block out the wind and was 100% comfortable. I proceeded to read for what seemed like hours, happy and warm in my $200 tent, my $80 sleeping bag, reading by the light of my $50 head lamp. I dozed off a few times, shutting off my light to get some sleep, woke up a few times and listened to the sounds of the woods in the middle of the night. I picked my book up a few more times, reading again, shifting around in my bag to get comfortable. After a while I got curious about when the sun would be coming up and was it worth it to maybe hike out to one of the waterfalls I saw the previous afternoon to see a great sunrise. I decided to look at my watch. Big mistake, big big mistake. You know the expression time flies…well time doesn’t fly in a tent alone in the woods. My “night” of reading, sleeping, tossing and turning had added up to exactly 90 minutes! It was 8:00PM on the dot and I had 11+ more hours in that tent before sunrise at 7:14AM. At that point I realized that maybe this wasn’t such a great idea. By midnight I was getting mad at myself for not taking into account that it was going to be dark for 13+ hours on this trip. By 2AM I was rethinking the whole camping thing in general, wondering what I could get for my gear on ebay. By 4AM I had decided to forget about fishing in the morning and that I needed to get out of this tent and these woods as soon as possible. So with an hour to go before sunrise I was up packing my gear by the light of my head lamp and before the first hint of sunlight was on the trail I was hiking out.
This sorry tale almost ends here except for a nice little salt in the wounds moment right at the end. The GPS system I had spent weeks and weeks getting ready for this trip was guiding me from point to point along the trail down by the creek and was pretty accurate. When I reached the trail leading back to my car it got pretty steep and after a sleepless night on the cold ground I was hurting. It was only a mile back to the car from here but I stoped 4 or 5 times to catch my breath. Finally with 1/4 mile to go according to my GPS I was spent. I decided to take a good fifteen minute break instead of the 30 second stops I had been making. I took off my pack, dug out some food and water and stretched out my legs. I rubbed them back to life and waited for my breathing to return to normal. I psyched myself up for that last quarter mile, I pulled my pack back on, blew out a big breath and started climbing. I walked about 20yards where the trail turned to the right and staring me right in the face was my car. I had taken a fifteen minute break 40 yards from my own car thanks to my GPS. I am very proud that it isn’t laying on that trail right now in a million little pieces.
Well in conclusion, camping is fun, backpacking is hard, winter camping is cold and dark, and camping alone is very very boring. Good luck.
