Wilderness or Town Conforts

imported
#1

I knew this girl, who was a city girl, and went into the army and they put her in a job where she and others would have to camp out/stay out in the woods a lot to guard military installations and be out on the permeter on guard duty. She said she hated it and was terrified at spending night out doors. Don’t think she ever got used to it.

No I love towns and creature conforts, but I also love the wilderness and being out on the trail.

As a boy, I would hike up on to the tallest mountain and fall asleep. As darkness would start to set in, the temperature would fall and I would wake having only a hour or so of light to make it home. I would run down off of those mountains making it home sometimes in the dark with no light source at all.

“Only the white man called it wilderness and was afraid of it, we called it home.”

I have meet hikers on the AT who are terrified being out there. And I ask myself, why are they here? To experience fear, to face their fears, why? Hikers, who will only stay at shelters, and if the shelter is full, they will pitch their tent right within eyesight of the shelter. Why? Terrified of being alone at night in the wilderness? There is a fear of the night and also a fear of the wilderness (a fear of the unknown).

Do you fear or love or both?

See you out there.

Maintain

#2

I fear people.

Miss Ann Thrope

#3

Fear of what is not known is common to most. What we see and have come to know over the years is familiar and taken for granted (most of the time). But it is the unusual person who does not have some fear of the unknown. I can remember my first job out of college when I took teens into the woods to “camp out.” The boys were from the “inner city” and unfamiliar with the deep dark that can be present in the woods. There was a lot of fear the first few day of our stay in the woods but as the week progressed there was less.

The Salvation Army was given (a donation was made) a house on Shelter Island for the use of one of the homes that TSA runs for girls; however, the girls wouldn’t go out to SI because they were afraid of the woods. Eventually TSA passed the house on to those who could use it.

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep…” And so the wilderness beckons us to itself for there we will find what we fear.

Skylander

Skylander

#4

There is more risk in getting behind the wheel of a car than in going out into the woods alone, but people imagine that they are more in control of the risks they face every day. Going into the woods alone is something new, so there is some fear, trepidation, nervousness, anxiety, whatever you want to call it…

Before I became accustomed to driving I was nervous about getting into an accident. Now I hardly think about it (except after I’ve returned home from a long trip and I have that brief moment when I’m amazed at having survived another trip). Going out deepsea fishing, I’m always a little nervous before I get on the boat, but then I’m having too much fun to be afraid while I’m fishing. I’ve only been on one airplane–a two-seater bi-plane–I was nervous before I got on, but had a great time once I was up in the air. I felt perfectly safe.

So I think you will probably see people who are planning their first hike exhibit a lot of anxiety about safety concerns, but once they’re out there they’ll do fine. Maybe some people have trouble leaving the safety net of the shelters, or maybe they just like the social scene, or maybe it’s a little of both. I dunno. I haven’t been there yet.

When I do go, I hope that I won’t have any problem getting away from the shelters. I enjoy my own company. I went to Torreya SP weekend before last and hiked it alone. It was wonderful. No child there whining at me. No nephew belting out show tunes at the top of his lungs. I saw lots of wildlife, including 14 deer. I don’t think I’ve had a more pleasant time hiking, even though my right knee hurt for most of the trip.

Ardsgaine

#5

I’m s-s-s-s-c-caaaaaaaaaaaaared of b-b-b-b-bears. Bite.:eek:

Bear Scared

#6

in the 6 months of the AT i only spent one night camping alone. and it petrified me. something about no distractions, no support, only you. everything trivial falls away, and you have to be comfortable with you, and at least in my case i felt i was grappling with insignificance. its a completely different mindset. and once you learn to be comfortable alone, as i have on the PCT, it is really satisfying. but it is a strange sign of the times that one can walk 2000 miles through some pretty wild terrain, and never have to really face that fear, face the wilderness. that is not a qualitative judgement, just an observation.

milo

#7

I used to be afraid of the dark and thought that would give me trouble with camping by myself but I got over that fairly quickly and enjoy camping by myself quite a bit. The woods on the AT might be a lot darker though, we’ll see how it goes.

Never got over the fear of driving though, still don’t have a drivers licence (I’m so Dutch, where’s my bicycle?)

And I’m still afraid of mean people :frowning:

Apple Pie

#8

I am so freaked out about mice, I must be an elephant. the few times I have actually slept in a shelter I never slept. One of the Kitchens I cook in, is in the basement of an old building in Boston. They have mice. Yesterday when I arrived at work, as usual I had to clean some dirty pots from the sink, because the frat boys left a mess. I picked up this one hotel pan, and a mouse jumped about a foot in the air. I dam near wet my chef pants. I had to get a frat guy to remove it from the sink.:bawling

Chef

#9

Funny this should come up… I spent one night totally alone in the 100 Mile Wilderness. It was very cold and dark and quite still in September. I had gone to finish the wilderness solo. My kids knew I was going alone, but I did not tell my husband. Strangely enough, I wasn’t afraid and slept quite well in the shelter. Perhaps it was because it was too cold for the mice :eek: Anyway, I remember reading something about how people felt when they were out in the “bush” alone for long periods of time. I think it was that “they had seen the elephant…” so then it was time to return to civilization. Just wondered if anyone else has come across that saying.

Lady Di

#10

I have some fear of camping alone out in the woods, away from other people. I usually camp with groups. It is part of my plan to do some stealth camping, though. I guess it couldn’t be much scarier than sleeping in the back of my open truck bed in a state park. I’ve done that several times on trips where I arrived late and didn’t want to set up the tent. The only time I was actually scared was when I saw a medium-dog-sized raccoon walking by my truck. (I was SO glad I’d used the campground’s provided food cage.)

I’m not necessarily afraid of mice, but I don’t relish the idea of the little creatures running over my head at night. I’m afraid I’d keep other campers awake with my squeals. I am planning on cooking & eating and socializing a bit at the shelters, but sleeping in the tent most of the time.

The thought of crazy people is scarier to me than animals and the dark.

:girl

texangie

#11

I’ve thought about FEAR quite a bit. Not only to examine my own but the topic in general. I believe that every fear is learned. We are not born fearful of anything. At least in terms of the fears that we are talking about here… heights, snakes, big cities, wilderness, etc.

Any fear we carry around began with an input. A story told to us, a TV show, an experience. That is why many fears are not realistic. Its hard for us to know what is most likely to happen… or what fear is statiscally real. One of the most satisfying things to do is to overcome a fear in life since they can hold us back.

Joe

#12

And if you can put fear in someone, you can control them. You can dictate their lifestyle, or open up their pocketbook if you wish. These controling forces are all around us, carefully calculated in many instances to sarcifice our own life experience for the benefit of someone else. Of course, those involved in the game will do everything to deny it, including calling you by stereotypical titles and names or by simply calling you “irresponsible” or even a “criminal” for not living life according to the fears they have harenessed or created entirely.

The good news is that long-distance hiking offers an existance generally away from those factors of manipulation. The challenge is in bringing that perspective home and applying it in in the face of fear-based cynisism.

Tha Wookie

#13

Glad to see someone recognizes that terrorism is not just on an international level. Corporations practice it right here at home. Control through the use of fear. Fear of losing your job, home, status in life, etc. People will blindly follow when threatened with the loss of things that they have to have to survive. In their programmed minds there is only one way to achieve true happiness and that is to slave away at the corporations bidding and at the end of 40 years your dreams will be answered. NOT.

T. Error

#14

I’ve never slept so well as when I’ve been out in the woods with sounds of the insects and the occassional hoot of as owl to lull me to sleep.There’s been many times I’ve hiked and camped alone and I loved it. Only when I’ve had to camp near a road crossing have I been a bit uneasy.I’ve always figured that God would watch out for me…Just remember its the two legged animals that you have to watch out for.

BooBoo

#15

There is a fear about being alone in the woods at night or even in the daylight and especially at dusk when it is feeding times for many of the animals. I can remember the bears coming to the town dump on Rt. 8 in the Adirondaks many years ago. Lots of people used to come out to see them feed off the garbage that was there. One time one of the bears came out of the woods behind the cars in the parking lot (which was some 15 feet above the garbage pit where the bears usually gathered) and it caused a bit of consternation among those who were standing in front of their cars watching the bears in the pit.

So, in a few weeks I will be in the woods in my "bear Pinatta (as Ed Speer aptly named the hammock). From what I have heard hammocks are safer than shelter/lean-to places because the bears have learned that there is food in and around the shelter and that is where they look for snack. Yet, there is a feeling that in the shelter/lean-to there is strength in numbers (or at least someone else that may get bit before another will) whereas in a hammock it is likely that one will be alone.

Being alone can be scary for many reasons. The vulnerabilty of solo hiking is a question in my mind. I have only heard of people being murdered, attacked, etc., when they were with someone else. Two women were murdered just off the Shenandoah Parkway several years ago. One woman was attacked last year at a Hostel on the AT where other people were in abundance. But still, the prospect of being alone is a cause for worry even if that worry is fruitless.

During the daylight hours when sight is useful to a greater degree and there is the chance that at any given moments someone else will be coming around the bend in the trail there is less fear.

Just the fact that one has taken the step to walk in the wilderness is an act of courage. The trail will bring out inner strength as more time is spent thereon.

Skylander

#16

I’m reading Earl Shaffer’s book Walking With Spring, about his 1948 thru-hike. Here’s a comment he has about the comforts of the trail vs. town comforts:

“The weather was turning cold and windy as I climbed from Deals Gap, and a brilliant moon was shining when I stopped to sleep. With poncho underneath and pack windward, I rolled in the blanket and pulled the gunny sack over my feet. Meanwhile those ex-navy guys undoubtably were sleeping in so-called luxury at Tapoco Lodge. I fell asleep to the lullably of the wind in the trees and the somewhere calling of a whip-poor-will. Most people in all their lives never sleep under the open sky, and never realize what they are missing.”

steve hiker