Solo Backpacking

True. However, the op’s issue–and all of ours!–is with imagined animals prowling around the tent. In that case, sleeping near other campers can give a good amount of emotional

Understood.  Until you think its imaginary but there really is a raccoon, bear, possum, coyote or some other animal that frequents that impacted site.

I’ve been doing solo backpacking trips for a number of years.  We have more than our share of cougar attacks here on Vancouver Island.  Plus black bears.  My fear is always the highest the day before, the night before, and the morning of the trip — enough that I flat out don’t want to go. I’ve learned that I just have to ignore the fear.  Every time, once my boots hit the trail, I’m fine and happy to be there.  And I’m not afraid during the trip or overnight.

The Temptations got it right I think……

I’m with you on the cowboy camping creepy crawlies Matthew K. I used to always do it until I woke up one morning with my eye grossly swollen shut from something that apparently bit me in the night.

I must pull solo trips as no one wants to go out for 21+ days—who has the time??—and no one wants to carry 21 days worth of food.  My longest solo was 27 days w/o resupply—making for a butt heavy pack.  Into NC’s Snowbird wilderness.  Pic is on Day 19.

Nighttime noises take some getting used to. I started out going solo, and being out in the middle of nowhere, in the dark, alone, in black bear country definitely made me nervous. For the first few times, I carried bear spray. The more I went out, and the more I learned about the wildlife that was out there, the less I worried.

After the first few times, I traded in the bear spray for a small can of people pepper spray. Now, I don’t even know where it is. I agree with some of the others that other people are my biggest worry now. Carry what you need to feel safer until you no longer need it to feel safe.

I’ve done 99% of my backpacking solo as hardly anyone ever wants to go when I do. If I didn’t, I’d never go.  I vaguely recall loneliness in the beginning and sometimes bordom due to stopping at 2-3pm that I figured out how to distract or keep it from happening by forcing myself to do longer hikes where I couldn’t just hike out the next day. Don’t even think about those issues anymore.

F0r noise, only advice is go out and get use to it. Experience helps as you start to get an idea of just how big and close the noise source is, and maybe even identify it. The more you go out, the less the noises bother you as they no longer seem foreign.  Start out in places you are familar with where you’ll have a good idea what any noise are.  I will note that during the day, I can usually tell roughly whatever it is making noise as I hike by, but when hiking in the dark, those same noises suddenly sound so much louder and larger due to concentrating more on my other senses because I can’t see as well.  Which is how a rodent turns into a bear at night.

My only actual experience with a large animal when solo: I was cowboy camping (as I normally do) and was awakened by what clearly was a large animal nearby moving around. Was convinced it was a bear, sat up with my flashlight and shined it on it yelling and discovered a buck deer grazing nearby who ran off.  Only other experiences over the years was a large frog that was traveling to the creek I was probably camping too close to that ended up under my tarp and I wondered how a wet rock got next to my quilt until I woke up enough to realize that wasn’t a rock.  Oh, and field mice trying for crumbs in my pack (in case of mice that keeping coming back, it’s time to move camp in the middle of the night or you’ll never sleep.  They can chew into anything including tents.)  These are all things that can happen even with partners so don’t fear and just go.

If one is nervous about backpacking solo, an enclosed tent with netting helps a lot. I’ve never had mice or anything else chew their way into my tent, and I’ve spent hundreds of nights out. And of course, bugs are kept out as well. I need a good nights sleep. I miss the stars but cowboy camping more often than not presents too many issues for me. A headlamp attracts a million bugs and mice. On warm nights I take off the canopy and sleep with the netting, and then unzip for star gazing.

An enclosed tent provides psychological comfort too if you’re nervous about being out with animals at night.

In 41 years of backpacking I only had one black bear “attack”—when he/she took a love bite out of my Hilleberg tent on Thanksgiving morning 2020.

I solo hike all the time and sleep under a Pocket tarp without any netting or bivy or else out under the stars.

The nighttime noises you hear are rarely what you think they are.

A good thing to do is to sit out at twilight. My friend has a rule she doesn’t go to bed until she sees at least one star. I usually get into my bag to stay warm well before there are any stars. But I sit or lay there and listen to the sounds at the edge times of the day.

Sometimes the frogs are super loud so I’ll go down to the creek and record them. I love the sound of frogs. Recently some “bird” was making a holy racket so I recorded that. After a while I finally saw the “bird” when he leaped out onto a branch and almost fell and I saw he was a squirrel. The loudest thing I’ve ever heard were deer. Recently I laid awake watching pillars of mosquitoes fly around. It’s so weird how they bump into each other as they spin and spin in their little groups first of just two, then three, then four, then more, then they split up again. Another group above them in a vertical column. Weird how they didn’t come bother me at all. Never had a bear ever come to my camp. I’ve done so many solo trips I cannot even remember them all. I never hang my food and only use a bear canister if required. Never had a problem with animals except rodents a few times. It’s likely most of those “stick breakers” at night are various rodents.

My first solo overnight I was really nervous.  The noise from passing my own gas made me jump.  Probably 4am before I fell asleep.  But in all a success.

2nd was for two nights.  Night one, little sleep, night two right to sleep.

That was my warm up for a section hike on the CDT.  Relaxing and getting past waking at every sound no longer an issue.  BUT, BUT, BUT I packed for every contingency including a zombie apocalypse…started with a 75+ lb pack.  Didn’t need a third of it, but had to live it to know it.

My point…expect some growing pains and expect to be nervous the first, maybe even the 2nd and 3rd times.  Yes, stick to familiar places and go enough times until you are at ease.  Once you can relax take a good hard look at your kit and scrutinize every item.  Did you use it?  Did you use it because you needed it or because you had it?  And did you not use it?  And if not, what circumstances would have required you to use it?  (that last question took my first aid kit down to essentially a half dozen band-aids).  Answering those questions will trim your kit and repeating these trip after trip you’ll get dialed in to what works for you.

The best is this can all be done within a single season.  But expect a few sleepless nights and maybe a few hikes with too heavy a pack.  Neither of those is failure, rather it is just part of the learning to finding your way.

And Tipi, hat’s off!  The most I’ve done unsupported is 2 weeks and I don’t really want to imagine carrying a months worth of food.

I prefer soloing but understand about animal concerns, night noises, etc..  Realize many long distance hikers, especially on the PCT, sleep “cowboy style” – that being out in the open with only a sleeping pad and sleeping bag/quilt.  Plenty of nocturnal animals about including cougar (mountain lion, puma).

Think getting into more serious bear country, one needs to take more precautions like clean camp, bear can, and sleeping under at least a big tarp vs being out.   I’d look at the stats though.  Any large crash would likely be a deer (maybe not so happy if you set up near its own sleep area).  I’ll actually bring ear plugs in case other campers set up closer and start snoring.

After soloing in the Sierra Nevada many times I wanted something more adventurous and with more wildlife, so I did a solo trip from Hope to Seward across the Kenai Peninsula (about 80 miles on the trail) in the fall of 1994. Lots of brown/grizzly bears and the often more dangerous moose. Also hundreds of bald eagles, thousands of salmon and dozens of beavers, and more. Saw a number of moose at distances of 1/4 mile or more, saw many bear paw prints the size of dinner plates and huge piles of scat, but not the bears themselves.

After following a very elaborate protocol for cooking, storing food on a line between two trees at least 20 feet high, hiking at least 1/2 mile from camp and across a stream every time, setting up camp with an open fire, and hanging steel cans with small rocks from a perimeter cord 28″ off the ground, I would get into my tent for an illusion of security, lie down with a 12 ga. shotgun loaded with eight 3″ magnum slugs, and try to sleep.

Good luck with that the first couple of nights! I’d never felt so vulnerable and out of my element. This place belonged to them, not me. Every little sound filled me with dread, and it was even worse because I couldn’t see anything from inside the tent. The weather was fine, so I cowboy camped for a night and it was actually better. The last night I stumbled upon a hunter’s cabin and slept feeling blissfully secure.

Oh yeah, and I doubled my planned daily mileage and cut the number of days in half.

That was the first time I carried a gun on a backpacking trip (the darn thing weighed 8 lbs loaded), the only other being on a trek in the Mendocino National Forest where the federal rangers advised us to go in armed in case we stumbled on an illegal marijuana grow, and also warned us that if we were caught with a joint we’d go to jail.

One way to ease into the “backpack alone” mode is to backpack with a friend and at night to each have your own camp apart from each other.  Your friend can be 100+ yards away.  That way, you’ll still experience being alone, with all the noises and uncertainties that go with it, but also have a friend available.

One or two times and you will be ready to do it alone.

The poster above mentioned not camping in high traffic areas, my first solo trip was in a high traffic area up in the white Mountains.  Most of it intersected the AT and as a consequence there were plenty of people at each designated camp sight so I was only hiking on my own in the day time.  So my thought was if you were nervous about being alone go to an area where you expect there to be others camped at the sites you would use.  I never really gave any thought to camping alone personally but I can understand why it would make some nervous but there are some great destination hikes where there are plenty of people that will be in camp.  For me many of the places I want to go coincide where I am likely to find others whether I want to or not.  The White Mountains are extremely popular for example so it is hard to really be alone there if you are on one of the main routes.

I am doing a solo this weekend, I am assuming there will be people at my camp site as I am staying in a nature preserve where you have to make reservations.  I am not worried about being on my own if no one else were at the site but I am expecting there will be.  I chose where I am going just because it sounds interesting.

I just returned from another solo overnight trip! This was my final reward after a day of about 12.5 miles full of special rewards all along the way!  Yes, sometimes it gets freaky at night sleeping open like this, but every morning I wake up and think.. lol, that was GREAT! You just gotta do it!

So Kevin? Did you go yet???

Thank you all for the advice and encouragement. My trip was extremely successful, I found that I was actually less nervous than I have been in the past camping with groups. It was a great experience and one that I will definitely be repeating in the near future. I often find it difficult to convince others to go on the more strenuous trip with more miles and now I have more confidence in my ability to go at it solo.

Really happy to hear it went well.  I get the part about getting others to go.  You have to find someone willing, who has a schedule that aligns with yours.  That never happens for me. So while I don:t do a lot of backpacking, I am just reconciled to planning on going alone.  I might be less apt to do so though in some areas over others.  Here in the eastern U.S. I am not that worried about any animal encounter other than a rattle snake.  We have black bears but I think they know of one person in history that has been killed by a black bear in Pa.  In any event it is some number akin to that for which i would be more worried about getting lost or injured.  So my inclination is to stick with areas that are reasonably traveled and let people know where I am and where I am going.  For example on the Pemi loop in the white mountains when I was on trail I would encouter a person or group of people about once per hour in the more remote areas.  there were lots of people at the designated camp sites to the point that one night i had to sleep in a shelter with 20 other people. I don:t think I would go hard core back woods on my own by preference.  At the minimum I would want an in reach or something like that on me.

What works for me , for those dark nights, ( I understand !!! I’ve heard some scary sounds out there , late at night ) is I bring a small , Sangean pocket radio, 2 small batteries, and I listen to coast to coast  broadcast at the darkest hours of the night. Believe me, it works .

As stated already, the two-legged critters are the ones you need to worry about, so rationally if you’re the only two-legged critter you brought… it’s you.

That wiggy feeling is irrational; you already know that the squirrels will not gang up on you and carry you back to their lair. The feeling that something will happen is the problem. There are a million ways to get through it (whistle, sing, squirrel repellent clothing…).

I’ve only done a few solos, but I find it’s worst in the idle time before I get tired and lay down. Knowing that, I can rationally prepare for my irrational feeling. So, your question about how to deal with the wigginess is half of the solution.

I did my first solo backpacking trip after not backpacking for over 20 years as a way to celebrate my 50th last year. It was a life-changing experience. I do think having some method of communication, I personally just have a personal locator beacon, provides a modicum of comfort and safety. I am fastidious about ensuring everything that might have a sent goes in my food bag and is hung. If I think I hear something in the middle of the night I just try to except the fact that there’s little I can do about it and if it’s coming in, I’ll deal with it then. A Sleep aid that you’ve tried at Home can also help.
I heard this on a YouTube video earlier this year regarding solo backpacking: not everything can or will go my way and that’s fine. After all, I am mostly alone out here and honestly I don’t think I would have it any other way. It’s nice to feel alone in such a vast and uncaring place. In some ways it makes me feel small, but it also makes me feel powerful. I am in control of all my decisions and all of my decisions, even the small ones, affect me so directly. It’s A very simple way to experience life and I think it’s what makes it so special. None of my choices are so grand, and yet they are all so important

“In some ways it makes me feel small, but it also makes me feel powerful. I am in control of all my decisions and all of my decisions, even the small ones, affect me so directly. It’s A very simple way to experience life and I think it’s what makes it so special. None of my choices are so grand, and yet they are all so important”

That was beautiful!

I found that after 3-4 solo trips all those “wiggie” feelings disappeared.  “oh…none of those noises I heard last night were anything to worry about”.  “oh…I am perfectly capable of keeping myself dry, and warm, and fed, and hydrated”.  Experience is invaluable…but there is only one way to get it.

And may I point out that when solo, you don’t have to deal with the desires/expectations/foibles/fears of others.  YOU make the decisions.  YOU control the outcome.  Take a zero day.  Change the route.  Keep hiking when you discover the place you intended to camp sucks.  Bail if you want/need to.

Solo is so incredibly freeing and joyous.

I welcome wildlife coming around and find it fascinating. Nowadays, I bring my thermal imager and play a game.  When I hear a noise, I concentrate and listen intently, then try to guess what it is.  I’ll then use the thermal imager to determine what it is.

And – yikes! – what do you do if the thermal image is bipedal?

I give myself enough lead time to move away from my current location. The simple truth is anyone would be outmatched by someone else with a thermal.  You can see in complete darkness whereas someone else has to turn on a flashlight and it would give away their position.