Cougar Country

[born2roam]

I thought he was afraid of the other cougars out there, talking slang I could understand

Grtz Johan

[Grapenut]

I went to college poor and know what its like to feel the hunger, having enough money to pay the rent but never getting enough to get the lights turned on...taking the battery and stereo out of my car from time to time so that I would have tunes...living by candle light...some of my friends thought my situation was "interesting" but didn't hold my apparent challenges against me.

So my advice from personal experience is let your parents help if they can, and always make sure you have plenty of money to eat properly.

Hanging and camping sounds like a ton of fun for all of the same reasons mentioned in the posts by others above. You will get something out of it no matter how many semesters you chose to do this.

Make sure you continue to hone your "tradecraft." Stay stealthy and be prepared to be courteous if you ever have to ask for forgiveness if you are asked to depart a Stealth Camping location. Remember, you are not a vagrant...you are a student! (Just like strippers working their way through college, ha ha)

Seriously though, leverage friends for things like small storage (cache) that you can't or don't want to keep in the woods (like books, a laptop or term paper when it is sleeting outside).

Pee alot around the periphery of your site (not too close...lol). Varmints, like racoons, will usually steer clear of your territory when you mark it in that manner.

I say go for it. The guy on the Dos Equis beer commercial didn't become the most interesting man in the world over night!

And, someone above mentioned keeping a journal. That is a great idea. Who knows, maybe you will get enough material to write a book someday so you can share your experiences...or maybe even a "how to" for others considering the same things.

G-Nut

[Bryt]

Thanks everyone for the overwhelming response. I may or may not go through with this. If I do I will keep a journal and maybe get it out there. I will not however give too many details when or if I'm out there for the purpose of stealth.

[sturgeon]

I'd love to know how this is going....

[ibgary]

Not a bad idea.
1 if there are deer in the area there are mountain lion.

2 mountain lions, cover large areas and eat deer.
3 although people are attacked, it is very rare.

99% of us who camp, hike, sleep in the woods have been seen by lions, but although I was a ranger for 12 yrs I never saw one.
If you do. DONT TURN YOUR BACK, BEND OVER OR TAKE YOUR EYES OFF IT.

[steveflinn]

I did that in college for 3 semesters.

got into a PE class, which got me a gym locker

worked out a little and showered at the gym, then later at the (free) muni rec center.

the rec center had a steam bath and i found the daily schvitz to be amazing. deep-cleaned me, and i never ever felt cold.

marked my territory daily

didn't keep food in the camp

didn't party in the camp

stayed solo in camp and kept my home's location on the down-low. no need to broadcast, eh? but no secrets about it and no shame because of that.

kept off the ground by sleeping in hammock under a tarp

kept neck covered while sleeping (cats are triggered by a juicy neck)

bear spray or other weapons weren't useful and just make the locals jittery so instead i deployed a $2 KMart boat horn (compressed air) to scare off critters racoon & opossums

stayed well-shaven and got frequent haircuts, so i looked and felt clean and got sick less. plus, the safeway readily cashed my checks since i looked straight & square away. pretty slick trick for a closet hippy, eh?

social isolation turned out to be a really bad for me. so i evolved to use the campsite for sleeping only lived the rest of my day in my various communities. what surprising benefits it had!

having friends and work outside of school and camp was key not only to surviving but to finding some measure of happiness (still is!!!)

i always liked to have regular weekly dinners at friends' homes. i'd chip in however i could...even if broke i made sure not to arrive empty-handed...ain't a party unless you add something to it! anyhow, the food was better than i could manage to make/buy for myself, i found more opportunities in my world, and it made me happy

by the way, i turned my scholastic situation from chaos to a huge success this way. work, too.