Know what you mean. I remember waking up to my first wolves at night while at Slough Cr. after they were re-introduced into Yellowstone. I would much rather have the bears around, my border collies can handle them. But wolves...will make pup mcnuggets out of most dogs.Originally Posted by Doubletime
Fun thread. I backpack solo in the Sierra and I might be addicted to the adrenalin of fear. Like somebody said, I embrace it. If I hear something scary, I breathe quietly with my ears out on stalks by my head. At least it feels that way. I stealth camp because I'm a female out there solo. My dogs got me used to it over the years but I've done some 4-5 night trips recently without them. I see a lot more wildlife alone. Exciting. I hiked out late one night from a wilderness trip in 2015, drove into my own driveway and a mountain lion walked right into the brush in front of me.
I was fortunate to spend a career working in the backcountry. Most of my latter career working by myself, not counting horses, mules, and border collies. Over the years I can vividly remember half a dozen griz encounters, several black bear encounters, moose encounters, and three lion encounters (two with multiple lions). These are the ones I was aware of. There undoubtedly were numerous times I was completely oblivious to what the critter in the woods was thinking about that dumb *** pilgrim thrashing about. Sometimes my dogs or horse let me know something was there that I simply could not see or smell. Come to think of it, I'm surprised I didn't pee my pants. Probably should have a time or two.
But guess what, I made it! I never was eaten or chewed upon (except by those dang border collies and a horse/mule nip or two). And I had and still have a great time in the good ol' outdoors.
Last fall camping at Ted Shanks Conservation area south of Hannibal Mo. It's right on the Mississippi river bank, and free. There was a traffic jam of barges at lock and dam 22, going up river for the upcoming harvest. About 1:30 AM a tug crew decided that little campground would be a good place to park for the wait to go through the locks. The ungodly screeching an clanging of a string of 15 empty barges being run aground would wake the dead! Then they toss an aluminum ladder down to come ashore and tie off to a big cottonwood tree, with all the accompanying lights flashing all over, people yelling etc. I bailed out for a whizz break and right there, 50 feet away is a big steel wall. They flat ran the lead barge up partly on shore. One of the crew said they'd be there for 36 hours. I bugged out at sunrise, still wide awake.
I was hiking with a group of friends on the AT in New Hampshire and we stopped at a site that was known to be frequented by bears. They had bigger and more robust storage containers for our food (required) and packs (if you so desired to use them.) Anyway... Middle of the night I'm swinging peacefully in my hammock in kind of a twilight state when I heard a sound coming through the brush and snuffling into the campsite. I couldn't see anything and the sound really truly was much too big to be a raccoon or anything else than a bear. I had a momentary unease of feeling like a piñata but was also tired and cranky. I sat up in my hammock and shouted, "No food here, bear! Go away!"
And darned if that outburst wasn't followed by the crashing sound of something running away through the brush. After I calmed down a little I went back to sleep and was out cold for the rest of the night. We found bear tracks in the camp. No harm no foul.
WBBB 1.1 (Coyote Brown)
SuperFly Tarp / MacCat Deluxe Tarp (Coyote Brown)
TQ: Warbonnet 3 Season
UQ: HammockGear 3 Season Incubator
Mystery Ranch Kodiak or SweetPea / Gregory Z55
I will have to remember this for future encounters!
This thread is great! I've never run into any critters yet however I can think of the first time I used my spindrift sock on my WBRR. About 1am I had started to sag a bit and the spindrift ever so slightly was scrapping a leaf. I thought it was something sniffing me and being totally enclosed I felt helpless. I was froze solid and heart pumping until I realized lol. Good stuff. I did wake up with a massive wolf spider near my face that morning. Does that count?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk
I would almost rather have an encounter with a bear than a big spider!!!
That reminds me. I picked up a tip from the grizzly bear study team folks I worked with. If you are in an area where there might be a problem it is not a bad idea to have a knife handy. If the bear knocks the tent over you may be able to cut the tent and not be trapped inside like a trussed up nylon taco. Or in the case of an enclosed hammock, a pinata. However, I wouldn't give it a second thought because they only attach when you are sleeping.
That was one of the benefits, among many, of my favorite tent, a bottomless hex pyramid tent such as the Golite Hex3,
The scariest animal I've ever encountered at night is a deer. Seriously though, predators really don't scare me. Having one unexpectedly show up in my camp would be a shocking experience, and they certainly can be dangerous and deserve respect, but I understand predators and have never been kept up at night worrying about them.
I've been awakened by squabbling raccoons fighting on top of my companions' sleeping bags (we were going tentless) and so human habituated animals scare me some, but still not enough to keep me up at night.
Deer, though. I spent a summer in Alaska and most nights I was in a camper by myself with one other woman in another camper nearby. We were miles from the nearest town, and while most of the people we met were wonderful, there were a few creepers and a lot of unknowns.
So one night we had a boat tie up at our dock late enough that we didn't run down and introduce ourselves. And I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of someone slowly circling my camper, crunching gravel. They stopped right outside my bedroom window for what seemed like forever, while I breathed quietly and tried not to imagine my impending kidnapping and/or murder. Eventually they went away and I fell back to sleep for a while.
Woke up in the morning and guess whose tracks were all around my trailer? Certainly not the sweet and definitely not murderous older couple cruising up the coast in their sailboat. Nope. Mule deer. But I'm sure it was a really nefarious one, plotting my demise but thwarted by his lack of opposable thumbs.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks