Camping Solo

I love to camp.  I’m not sure why a normal person looks forward to sleeping on the ground, and maybe that isn’t my favorite part, but I’ve always enjoyed camping.  Maybe it’s because I’ve been doing it since infancy.  Maybe it’s because I can out camp most guys I know these days.  Maybe it’s the happy childhood memories of family camping trips with Oreo’s, tiny boxes of sugar cereal and orange soda.  Whatever it is, I am in my element when camping.

Lately I’ve been wondering if I could handle camping by myself.  It’s hard to coordinate with other friends and their kids now or to find people interested in camping.  In my day-to-day life it’s usually just me, so I don’t have an issue being alone, but at home I have a TV and computer to distract me.  I was worried that camping would be an awful lot of, well, ME time.

I was planning an overnight camping trip with friends, but since it’s just as much work to go camping for one night as it is seven, I decided to make it two nights.  Even if that meant camping alone one night.  I was far more worried about getting bored with myself than I was being attacked in my sleep.  After making promises to my worry wart friends, who WERE worried about me getting attacked, that a) I would text often and b) I had weapons to defend myself, I decided to go for it.

I ended up at Beacon Rock around one and picked out the ideal camp site.  I slowly set up camp, in no rush since it was just me.  I picked up some firewood and used the hatched to cut some kindling.  In addition to needing to be able to start a fire, I figured it would help to know exactly where it was just in case I ended up needing to use it on an axe murderer that my friends were convinced was lurking in the campground.  After a short walk I took a nap.  There is something special about napping in a tent.  The ground doesn’t feel nearly as hard at 4pm as it does at 4am.  Eventually I got up, read a book, cooked dinner and enjoyed a campfire with a glass of wine.  It was a ridiculously peaceful day.

My friends ended up coming right before bedtime that night, so I didn’t get the full experience of attempting to sleep while camping alone. It’s far more relaxing than staying at home because at home there is always something you could be doing.  In the woods, your could be doings are pretty limited to all things relaxing.   Clearly I don’t need to worry too much about being bored.