My mom, my little brother and his friend, and I all went down the road from our house a little ways to the swamp, and since the swamp is all flooded and frozen over and there are some open areas in it, we built a campfire on the ice and did some skating. So they all left back to the house, but I stayed, because I'd brought my pack (I'm obsessive about my pack, I keep it all set so that I could walk out the door any day, and have everything I'd need to never come back), and so I had a sleeping bag and waterproof sleeping pad. I was in my sleeping bag and reading a book, whiten the fire started dying down. Now, I'm in vermont, and we have coyotes here, and though I know they really won't bother humans, I was getting a little scared, and when the fire really died I got kinda sketched out, and so I ended up scaring the shit outta myself with a flashlight, making shadows jump, convincing myself that I'd seen a coyote. I walked the whole mile back to my house at an almost-run, stopping every 20 steps or so to whirl around with my flashlight, convinced I'd heard footsteps behind me, or a growl. Really lame. I'm embarrassed. Though after all, swamps are among the creepiest places to be at night, you can really scare yourself. Anyway. It was fun, for the while I was down there.
Yeah something about starting to run and giving into your fear always makes it worse. Fear is a funny thing
That it is. I am very prone to getting scared, thats why I never go camping alone, something about the dark unknown just gives me the willys.
I always imagine it's daylight. And the other thing is, when I'm out on some moor I *never* *ever* see anybody else, at least off the tracks anyway. The only spooky thing is that whenever I go out in the snow (like yesterday), I often find fresh footprints of an individual in some really remote places where you think a human hasn't been for months!
But hey! That sounds really awesome that you planned on staying there yourself anyway! Id perobably want a sleeping buddy!
I tried it again last night I had much better luck with the fear thing, because this time I camped inside the wooded area, instead of out on a cleared part, and it got rid of that feeling that there are things in the woods, since I could see better (you know how when you're inside a dark place you can see it better than when you are in a bright place (from moonlight) looking in to a dark place). Unfortunatley, I got a really late start at 5 PM, and so I couldn't get enough firewood before dark, and I had to head home around 8 when my fire died. It was going to be below zero, and though I think I had enough warm clothing to last the night in my sleeping bag all bundled up in jackets, I didn't want to get that cold, so I headed home again. Today i took a break from it, and stayed home, but tomorrow I'm going to go again. This time I'll leave at 3 or 4, and have enough time to gather firewood properly.
Hell no. It's way too cold lately. I've barely even left the house in a week... Oh, God, when is the warmth going to come back! hehehe...
That's cool man, you should really not let those coyotes scare you. First, they'd have to be pretty damn starved to attack you, and second, even if one did you'd probably be able to scare/fight it off. I don't know how big you are but you're probably bigger than a coyote. And if they were really starving, don't their packs break up? I could be wrong but I thought that's what usually happens, because they can't find enough to feed the whole pack so they split up and save themselves. Anyways, kudos on the winter camping. I've never done it, but it sounds cool. I'd take some getting used to the cold, because I hate being cold. As far as going alone, that's never been a problem with me, I'm a loner by nature and almost prefer being alone in nature. My friends are always blathering on right at the moment I'm trying to enjoy a sunset or something, haha.
