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Archive 2011 · camping alone

Kelly Phillips
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · camping alone

Most of us landscape photographers are also hikers/campers. I often wonder about how different people react to camping alone. I'm a bit of a scardy cat sometimes. It really depends on where I'm at. Sometimes I worry about other people, sometimes it's animals, and (embarrassing as it may be) sometimes ghost stories get the better of me.

Would any of you be willing to admit that , just maybe, every now and then you tuck that sleeping bag up around you just a little tighter late at night on solo camping trips?

Here is a story of one of those times for me.

It was my first trip to Colorado. I was alone. My first night camping was along Rampart Range Road near Colorado Springs. I was scared of many things that night. I had never really been west of the Mississippi River before. Animals were a big concern, Altitude sickness was another. I found a camp site at about 8500' I think. It was probably 20 miles or more down Rampart Range road. I remember 3 or 4 cars coming by all evening.

After setting up my tent, I noticed a tent about 100 yards from mine, tucked in the trees. No cars, no people, I was curious. Nobody ever returned to that tent that night. Right before sunset, an old car pulled into the gravel pulloff that included my secluded campsite. A man about 20 years old got out and went into the woods. He had no gear with him. He was in the woods for about 20 minutes. Out of all the places he could have picked he picked this spot, miles from anyone else. After his mystery trip into the woods, he returned to his beat up car and just sat in it for at least 15 minutes, looking at me every now and then.

Ok, so add "ax murderer" to my list of things to worry about that night. He finally left and a huge storm rolled in. My first Rocky Mountain storm at 8500'. Very different from storms at 500'.

http://www.kpphoto.net/Landscapes-and-beautiful/Colorado/1/608604619_tmtrA-L-1.jpg

I tried to sleep that night. I started having breathing problems from going too high too fast. I was worried about "ax murderer" and the empty tent close to me probably full of hacked up body parts waiting to be found. I was worried about bears. Then I started thinking about ghost shows. After not sleeping for several hours, I packed up and headed out about 4 am.

I have camped alone many times. Most of the time I don't have a problem. The only other time I really got nervous was my solo trip to West Virginia. The people there scare me.

Not much of a point to this post. Just wondering if I'm alone on this or not. I know that some of you camp solo most of the time in some of the most remote places of our country. Just wondering how you deal with fear. Or are you fearless?

Red River Gorge, KY dawn after solo camping: http://www.kpphoto.net/Kentucky-and-surrounding-areas/Red-River-Gorge-and-Natural/sunrise-final/757203984_VfK35-L.jpg

Jun 01, 2011 at 04:45 PM

mike reid
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · camping alone

both are great...love the light in the second one

Jun 01, 2011 at 04:46 PM

teked
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · camping alone

Second shot is a beauty, Kelly. Wonderful light and colors.

Cheers,
Ed

Jun 01, 2011 at 04:48 PM

gdanmitchell
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · camping alone

Kelly Phillips wrote:
Just wondering if I'm alone on this or not. I know that some of you camp solo most of the time in some of the most remote places of our country. Just wondering how you deal with fear. Or are you fearless?

I do a lot of hiking and quite a bit, but not all, of my backpacking is done alone. It has been this way for many years.

I've rarely been fearful on the trail. On one or two occasions when I was younger I got myself in slightly over my head once or twice and had momentary issues - once from falling into a creek, and so on.

For the most part, at least in most areas of the continental US, there is little to fear in the backcountry. In most places the wild animals that could do you harm are not that interested in you - though they may be interested in the food you carry. Once or twice I was pretty certain that mountain lions were about, but I couldn't see them. I recall thoughts of how I would wield my tripod as a club going through my mind. I've encountered quite a few bears - I regard them with great respect but not with fear.

I do understand your reaction in a "front country" camp ground. It is in those places that you are perhaps more likely to run into actual trouble in the form of humans whose behavior is not so wonderful.

Dan

Jun 01, 2011 at 05:03 PM

Ray Still
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · camping alone

Very nice lightning strike captures and the light and colors in #2 are yummy

Ray Still

Jun 01, 2011 at 05:14 PM

JimFox
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · camping alone

Hey Kelly,

2 nice shots here, the light in the 2nd is really sweet.

As to solo camping, I guess I would go along with what Dan said. I think it's safer being out in the backwoods than it is to be in the city. Typically it's a more respectful sort of person that you will bump into outdoors. Now... if I had the experience that you described... that is a little bit crazy sounding for sure... perhaps I would have packed up my stuff at 4am too...

Jim

Jun 01, 2011 at 05:32 PM

SharonVL
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · camping alone

Kelly, my husband and I were rolling in the floor laughing reading this. You should be a writer! You have a great sense of humor.

The second shot is gorgeous.

Sharon

Jun 01, 2011 at 08:07 PM

Rosemary R
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · camping alone

As a woman camping alone I get a lot of grief from family.....and I'm stubborn, so that's not a great combination. But I have never had any experiences out there which would cause concern. In the front-country, I go to quite a bit of trouble to make it appear as though there is more than one person in my campsite...two chairs, etc. But most of all, I've learned to respect my instincts. If something doesn't feel right, just move on.

As for bears and things that go bump in the night, no don't worry about those things. I sleep pretty well at the end of a long day of exploring and photography.

Jun 01, 2011 at 08:34 PM

Steve Sieren
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · camping alone

Shit yeah I get scared out there while I'm solo. Once I was hiking up to the Big Pine Lakes under Temple Crag, it was about 2am and I wasn't very far along the trail and I encountered some odd hissing noise I was thinking what the hell is that?? It was coming from behind me off the trail. I yelled out to let it know I was there but it just kept hissing at me. Didn't see anything with my headlamp in the direction of the noise but it wouldn't stop so I picked up couple of large rocks and tossed them in the direction of this thing, what ever it was! It never stopped and didn't follow me so I gave up on it. What a way to start a 4 hour hike in the dark.

On the way back I figured out it was a sprinkler on the outer grounds of the pack train station. I never hated a sprinkler so much in my life

Another trip on a middle of the night hike I was further south in the Sierra. I was about 6 miles in and arrived at the lake I was going to photograph a little too early. I didn't have a bear canister on me because I wasn't backpacking and I only had a few cliff bars. I walked into someone's campsite and I could a reflective ring shining from the light of headlamp and in just a few seconds I saw 2 eyes, not 2 eyes like you would think. Eyes at night end up glowing like 2 little stars. These eyes were down pretty low and then quickly raised up above my eye level so immediately stop and start talking loudly and it still doesn't move. I bang my trekking poles together above my head and still no movement from the eyes. I pressed my high beam on my head lamp, shit it's a bear alright! I keep making noise and slowly veer off to the left.

Eventually I lost sight of the eyes and found a high tree branch to put my cliff bars in. It began to rain so I found a small rock overhang to take a short nap before sunrise. When I woke up it was snowing, the light sucked and I didn't really get any great shots. You know on the way out I checked the camp sight for sprinklers

Jun 02, 2011 at 01:49 AM

nanogram
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · camping alone

Wow ax murderer... I'd be scared too! I've only been camping alone a few times and they were usually just overnighters to get the sunset and following sunrise. In the PNW if you're out backpacking it's usually really secluded, or you've found a trail thats busy or even campsites for that matter. I try to not think about the scary things (ghosts and stuff) but the more that happens the more I will think about it. I also have a very frightening imagination. But thinking about it also helps a little. Anyways, I think it's time that you got a dog, something along the lines of a German Shepherd or Husky. That way they can take down the guy with the ax or sniff out body parts for ya as well as fend off bears.

Jun 02, 2011 at 02:09 AM

Rudi Venter
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · camping alone

Great photos and a great story!

I often camp alone as well and yes, I do sometimes worry...... Mostly back-country stuff so the main worry is not humans (they scare me the most!!) but rather large animals.

I live in South Africa and the places I mostly camp have animals like Elephant, Hippo, Rhino and Lions. I have had Elephant and Lions in the camp at night, the tent suddenly seems VERY fragile! It is not that the Elephant would want to harm you, they are mostly peaceful, but a wrong step and you are history. As far as the Lions go that is another story, there have been cases where they dragged people out of a tent.....

There are other problems as well, not just at night like the time I hiked back to my plane (Often fly into bush strips) after an overnight camp away from the plane, getting close to the plane I noticed a pride of Lions enjoying the shade of the wing. I had to wait the WHOLE day, at a respectful distance in a tree, for them to leave, by the time they left it was too late for me to fly out so I ended up spending the night in the plane, NOT in the tent!!

Jun 02, 2011 at 07:06 AM

trenchmonkey
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · camping alone

The 2nd's great, Kelly. I find my gear to the left and a Glock to the right...of my sleeping bag,
goes a long way to ease the willies

Jun 02, 2011 at 07:20 AM

dsjtecserv
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · camping alone

Great shots, Kelly. They show the big advantage of being willing and able to camp out in the backcountry: you are already there when the good stuff happens.

I've been backpacking and camping since I was a kid, but combining that with serious photography is relatively new for me (last 10 years or so). That has led to some changes in the approach I take. I am less likely to plan a long point-to-point hike, but more likely to do a single "stealth" overnight with minimal equipment, targeting a single location. At most I do 2-3 night loops to explore a scenic area. A big step for me was becoming comfortable hiking in the dark (risk of unresponsive sprinklers notwithstanding; great story Steve!). That allows me to venture further from camp for sunrise or sunset, or to not need to camp at all, just hike in or out for a quick visit to good location.

I find I can travel lighter (which frees up more capacity for photo gear

) that way, but it means I need to make more careful choices about what to bring for safety and convenience. I'm comfortable (perhaps a bit complacent) about dealing with eventualities that might occur, but I'm aware that I'm accepting a bit more risk and need for creative problem solving should something untoward occur. I've seen lots of bears, and once played peek-a-boo with one that was eating berries on the other side of a boulder crevice that the trail went through. But (black bears anyhow) generally have no more desire to deal with you than you with them, unless they are habituated to human food or you provide them with no outlet (I've never encountered a grizz). I've run into some people I'd rather not share the backcountry with, but no one who was overtly threatening, so far anyhow. Frankly, I'm often more concerned about the well-being of my car back at the trailhead than about what might happen in the woods.

One thing, though, that Aaron Ralston reminded us of, is make sure someone back in civilization knows where you are what you rough plan is. There are limits to self-reliance and the time can come where you need to count on someone else, even if they aren't physically with you.

Dave

Jun 02, 2011 at 08:09 AM

gdanmitchell
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · camping alone

There are benefits in traveling alone when you are doing photography. At least for me, it is important to have a great deal of unstructured time and to be able to change (what passes for) plans at a moment's notice. Traveling alone, this is rarely a problem. Traveling with a group, this can either be impossible or else a tremendous imposition on the rest of your group. For me, three options have worked fairly well:

1. Solo backpacking. While some think this is about as intelligent as lawn bowling on the freeway and that the risks are probably the same, my experience is that the risks are not nearly as significant as those who think about but don't do these things may imagine. (Your mileage may vary depending upon where you go and upon your judgment.) While I frequently travel alone in the Sierra back-country, in truth it is rare to be completely alone. I'll meet people on the trail almost every day and there are usually others within hailing distance when I camp. I've only been truly alone on a few occasions... and it was a rare and wonderful and memorable experience. It is important to be more conservative about what you will try when traveling alone. I'm much less likely to try new cross-country routes alone, for example. I tend to take fewer risks with tricky water crossings. In general I become less of a risk taker when on my own.

2. Travel with a loosely structured group. Every summer I travel with a group of folks who I have backpacked with for a decade and a half. We plan a trip of about a week's length together, often into some of the more remote and interesting parts of the Sierra. However, within the group we function as individuals or a sub-groups. Each person/group is responsible for their own shelter and food and so forth, and we do not necessarily stick together on the trail. Some leave earlier in the morning and others sleep in. Some get to camp early so they can explore while other do their exploring en route. This has accommodated my strange photographer habits well. I'm usually up by 5:00 or 5:30, shooting for an hour or two before breaking camp. Then after dinner I can head off to shoot some more. And I still have the social and other benefits of traveling with a group.

3. Travel with other photographers. I've had the opportunity during the past few years to join a group of long-time Yosemite back-country photographers almost every season. These trips tend to be quite different from typical pack trips in several ways. First, it is extremely rare for everyone to load up and move to a new camp each day - instead everyone tends to work from a base camp. Second, there is no attempt to adopt a normal backpacking/camping schedule - instead, everything is done on "photographer time." Folks are up at 4:00 or 4:30 and quietly head out alone to their nearby photographic subjects. Everyone wanders back into camp at 9:00 or 10:00 in the morning. Breakfast is fixed, tales are told, sitting around is accomplished. Dinner is at about 3:00 in the afternoon, after which everyone heads off individually once again to shoot until the light is gone. Sometime between 9:00 or 10:00 all of the exhausted photographers wander back into camp and go to sleep. Rinse, lather, repeat.

Dan

Jun 02, 2011 at 08:38 AM

ckcarr
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · camping alone

I'm with the monkey...
Glock .40 is my friend.
We are westerners and realists.

Jun 02, 2011 at 08:44 AM

Kelly Phillips
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · camping alone

Great stories Steve, and great input from everyone. I'll admit that most of my fear is from me freaking myself out thinking about every single scary movie I've seen and every ghost story I've heard. People scare me some, but other than the Colorado Springs ax murderer and the West Virginia mountain folk, I've never been too scared of people in the backcountry. I did get too cold one day hiking in Red River Gorge at 11 degrees with 10" of snow on the ground and started seeing things. It was just after sunset, I was a mile from my car and my feet were wet from falling through some ice. I swear I saw a black cat on the trail jump toward me. I ducked and everything. There was no cat there.

Another day in Colorado, I was hiking around a lake before sunrise and a chipmunk jumped out and screamed at me. I hate chipmunks now. I'm actually glad I was alone for that one. That would have been pretty embarrassing for someone to see my reaction to that little chipmunk.

Jun 02, 2011 at 08:46 AM

Ear Mountain
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · camping alone

I really like that 2nd shot. I might have added a little bit of sky above the tree in the upper left corner but the photo is still great as it is. Nice color and comp.

I do about 75% of my photography on solo trips. Some are day hikes but most are long backpacks in wilderness areas like Glacier National Park or the Bob Marshall Wilderness of Montana. I am a cautious hiker and climber don't get scared when out alone. I have been a little nervous when I've heard the sounds of large animals in the night. The areas I frequent are in grizzly country so one definitely has to be alert. But I've never had any experiences that I would characterize as negative.

Jun 02, 2011 at 09:38 AM

river rover
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · camping alone

I'd say about 90% of my trips are solo and I've had a few tense moments which include:
Near miss lightning strikes above treeline (Balds of NC)
Bluff charged by Grizzly on trail to Otokomi Lake (Glacier NP)
Being tracked by a Mountain Lion for a mile and a half (Eagle Cap Wilderness)

The most spooked I ever got was actually from a herd of Mule Deer in the Eagle Cap.
Turned out I put my tent pretty much where they bed for the night. Nothing like waking up at two AM to the sound of BIG movement ALL AROUND the tent. I decided to look out the little tunnel vent on the side of my single wall tent, and I saw nothing but a snout. It seems like they were as interested in what was going on inside the tent as I was in what was going on outside. To say I screamed like a little girl would be an insult to little girls everywhere...

On top of that there are those moments that don't hit you until later, a rock on a scree slope giving way under your foot, a slab of snow sliding away just after you've traversed beneath it. Those are the ones that don't make an impact until you're home lying in bed.

I'm extremely cautious, always let someone know where I am,, I let my WFR expire but the skills are still mostly there. I don't like to take unnecessary chances, but if it were 100% safe the chances for true solitude would be greatly reduced. I'm not a true misanthrope but I enjoy getting away from people, and often that mean dealing with the risks of not having help when you need it.

Oh yeah, I actually get more freaked out in sites that are just off the road. Camping along the Chattooga River in Georgia at Woodall Shoals or Thrifts Ferry on a weekend will almost certainly guarantee a wildlife encounter of the drunken good ol boy kind. Most of em are harmless but every once in a while you get a rabid one.

Jun 02, 2011 at 10:24 AM

gdanmitchell
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · camping alone

ckcarr wrote:
I'm with the monkey...
Glock .40 is my friend.
We are westerners and realists.

I never carry a weapon and I've never felt the need to have one with me.

I'm a life-long "westerner" and a realist.

Jun 02, 2011 at 10:37 AM

gdanmitchell
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · camping alone

river rover wrote:
I'd say about 90% of my trips are solo and I've had a few tense moments which include:
Near miss lightning strikes above treeline (Balds of NC)
Bluff charged by Grizzly on trail to Otokomi Lake (Glacier NP)
Being tracked by a Mountain Lion for a mile and a half (Eagle Cap Wilderness)

That I'll agree with. Being alone hasn't been an issue in a concrete way ever. But stuff does happen. I've had a couple lightning "incidents" that tended to focus my attention on getting away from exposed places a bit sooner than I originally though necessary. (All three incidents occurred while I was traveling with others - go figure!)

I did deal with the _threat_ of a bluff charging bear on my first solo pack trip. Thinking that commitment was a good thing, my first solo was a two week trip in the southern Sierra many years ago. The first day I spent about 90% of the time telling myself all the reasons I shouldn't do this. On the second day it was about 50% of the time. On the third day it was down to perhaps a quarter of the time. Then I broke free and began to enjoy the rare and precious experience of being subject only to the realities of the country through which I travelled and my own inclinations to explore or sit and look. I wandered up canyons that caught my fancy. I sat for two hours on top of a pass. I spontaneously decided to camp at a place that was not on my itinerary.

One of those realities came half way through the trip when I descended to a trail junction. A left turn would have taken me out to a trailhead by the end of the day and shortened my trip by half to a single week. A right turn would take me deeper into the wilderness for another week. I was tempted as I approached that junction, but when I arrived I simply turned left and kept going.

This was the moment that I knew I was hooked on solo travel.

Soon I started to meet people along this more popular trail - and they almost always began their conversation with, "Have you heard about the bluff-charging mother bear?!" Not at first, but within an hour I had heard way more about this bear than I wanted to know, and for the next day and a half I worried myself silly about how I would stand my ground.

Never saw the bear.

I now encounter California black bears with some frequency in the Sierra and while this raises my adrenaline level, I don't fear the bears. I do respect them and I consider it a special privilege to be able to see and observe them. (YMMV, especially if you encounter different bears than the ones I'm familiar with.)

Dan

Jun 02, 2011 at 10:45 AM

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