First night in the woods alone?

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bilko

Settler
May 16, 2005
513
6
53
SE london
When was your first night in the woods alone and were you scared?
I ask because in order to actually get anything done worth while i will have to pop my cherry so to speak. Now i'm no coward but i am apprehensive and interested in your tales and experience.
Lets just say that youv'e found a place you deem suitably large enough to legaly camp overnight :p
There are plenty of fallen trees and dry standing too. The woods are quite dense but youv'e found a good place to make a shelter. You start with the inevitable over ambitious cabin and finally wittle away to a partially covered wooden tipi.
it has enough floor space to make a small fire so you clear the ground and prepare your fire.

So there you are trying to make a brew at dusk with your fire crackling away, the clouds are dark blue now seperated only by that dirty washed out yellow that the sunset forget to take. Your aware that the temperature is falling and the night is closing in. A fox barks a few times and you feel an eeri quiet envelop all.

Naturally you move quietly around the fire not daring to break the silence and announce your presence to the wood. You try and fight back fear; fear of the unknown. annoyed that your very thoughts are ruining this night . Things would be different if you could see the sky, the twinkling stars and the moon. But the forest canopy is covering the sky.
you lay your head down, clutch your sleeping bag and listen.........

A sound wakes you, " was it a sound?", i thought i heard a crack!. Then again, distinctly now and closer, the sound of twigs breaking under foot. Your heart is in your mouth, you sit bolt upright in your bag and grab your axe. Listening......

You must have sat for an age with your ears pricked ntill sleep claimed you again. Foolishly dropping your axe which is now somewhere deep inside your sleeping bag. Lord knows how you didn't amputate a foot in the night. You poke your head out of the shelter and into twilight. The forest is the same as you left it the night before but now small birds are beginning to churp before dawn.

You pull on your boots and scramble out of the shelter, proud that you have survived. It's getting light at an alarming rate even though it is still before 5am so you decide to build a fire on which to cook breakfast and celebrate.

You look around the woods grasping your mug of steaming tea and blowing the steam off the top. " this is the life you think " and with the passing of that night you realise a new part of you is born. Gulping down your brew you stare into the tree tops for the last time before daybreak and you can almost feel the birds congratulaing you.


Well that's what i imagine it to be like anyway :D and you?
Any fears?
Any tips? ( apart from, don't be a woos) ;)
Cor i even enjoyed imagining that :)
 
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Razorstrop

Nomad
Oct 1, 2005
314
6
North West
It might sound a bit odd but when I get spooked in the woods on my own, I always remind myself..............."I'm the worst thing out here tonight." , not being macho or anything just simply that I belong to a species of creature that has done everything in its power to try and destroy itself and everything else that walks the earth and yet here we still are.

Plus it doesnt hurt to remember you have at least two knives,an axe and a large pile of sticks very close by :)

Things that go bump in the night? That will be Mr Bump
Mr Strop
 

Ogri the trog

Mod
Mod
Apr 29, 2005
7,182
71
60
Mid Wales UK
bilko said:
A fox barks a few times and you feel an eeri quiet envelop all.

Bilko,
A fox barking has nothing on a badger when they start grunting a few feet away from you. I had fallen asleep in the lea of a hedge whilst out shooting one night to be woken up by that sound on the other side of the hedge - when you hear it for the first time your blood freezes. :eek:

ATB

Ogri the trog
 

stovie

Need to contact Admin...
Oct 12, 2005
1,658
20
60
Balcombes Copse
I hope you get out soon. You will wonder what all the fuss was about.

I think my first all nighter was when i was around 13yrs. Did a lot of fly fishing on the Aln & Coquet in Northumberland, and it was not unusual to be out all night chasing Sea Trout. I remember just lying by the mill stream and staring at the stars...next thing I knew it was getting light. This was summer, so day broke early. The tea was cold in my flask, I remember that. Went home empty handed (not the first and not the last). Now, i feel totally relaxed outdoors, with or without others...

DSCF2350copy.jpg
 

bilko

Settler
May 16, 2005
513
6
53
SE london
Stovie, that is quite a blaze you have going there. I read your post previously about taking your boys out :)
Btw, what is that ominous looking thing sticking out of your pack just within arms reach? :D

Gary
Yeah, i know :eek: . Quite often i have found that iv'e done something and then thought " what was all the fuss about?". Not realy fussing btw just my overactive imagination :D The very last thing i wanted to do was bolt head first into the night deep and fast ploughing into the first tree and ripping open some important part of my body :eek: :lmao:
So, i guess once your'e there your'e stuck.
Did you like the bit about the washed out yellow? :D
 

Ed

Admin
Admin
Aug 27, 2003
5,973
37
51
South Wales Valleys
From what I remember I didn't get any sleep the first time I spent the night out alone.... I was far too cold and ill prepared (the inexpierence of youth). I ended up sitting by the fire keeping warm till the sun came up with a blanket wrapped around me..... very toasty :)

:D
Ed
 

TwoFourAlpha

Tenderfoot
Dec 18, 2004
57
1
Manchester
Bilko,

That's what you get when you spend your entire career 'camping' surrounded by 8 tons of aluminium armour. ;-)

When you are out ( at least in the UK ) you are by far and away the biggest, scariest thing in the wood. You also have tools. Nothing will mess with you.

Now Germany, that's different. I remember a very scary night on Soltau listening to a boar wandering round the harbour area. Believe me, we were sharp that night.
 

Graham_S

Squirrely!
Feb 27, 2005
4,041
65
50
Saudi Arabia
"yea, though i walk through the shadow of the valley of death, i shall fear no evil
because i am the baddest mother****** in the valley"

:D :D :D
 

TAHAWK

Nomad
Jan 9, 2004
254
2
Ohio, U.S.A.
As a 12-year-old Scout, I took part in a survival "exercise." We were dropped off at one mile intervals along an old logging road in the San Gorgonio Wilderness area of California. The temperatures were not expected to go much below 50F. We had what we could carry in out pockets an in a 3 lb. coffee can -- plus a 1qt, canteen of water. I built a shelter and bed from brush, lined it with a small sheet of plastic, cooked dinner, and went to sleep. At 7 AM, the truck came along the road to pick up the Scouts that had been dropped off the previous late afternoon. There was nothing to fear in the San Gornonio Wilderness area except a heavy rain, and that didn't happen.

I was only afraid alone in the woods once. That was near the border with Mexico, and there were rifle shots in the distance twice that night. It was not during any legal hunting "season." I did not backpack into that area again.
 
M

Millbilly

Guest
Ogri the trog said:
Bilko,
A fox barking has nothing on a badger when they start grunting a few feet away from you. I had fallen asleep in the lea of a hedge whilst out shooting one night to be woken up by that sound on the other side of the hedge - when you hear it for the first time your blood freezes. :eek:

ATB

Ogri the trog
Amen to that, brother! :lmao:

First time i heard it, i was sound asleep under my £4.99 Homebase tarp about four years ago, and i woke up fast! Scared the bejesus out of me, i can tell ya! A while later i picked up a 1st gen night vision monocular, initially to protect me from all the big bad nasties out there in the wood. After a few incidents where i'd use it to investigate strange noises, i found myself using it for the observation of wildlife More and more often. (Badgers in particular, are amazing to watch! :approve: ) Nowadays, its only used for that purpose. What im getting at is that the things that initially frighten you, (Badgers grunting, owls hooting, being in complete darkness, Fox fights etc.) eventually become so common place, that you start to long for them, and to appreciate them, whereas before, you were just scared of them 'cos they represented the unknown. As you get used to these things, you learn to appreciate them. Good luck with it mate.
 

Yohny

Tenderfoot
Jul 13, 2005
56
0
60
Thanet, Kent
Hi Bilko. I know what you mean, mate. I've camped out in the woods both here, Scotland & North Carolina alone (& with others) on & off since I was 12. Sometimes everything's fine, whatever the weather. Just so nice to be out by yourself. But there are other times when your imagination runs riot, when every leaf falling (funny how loud they sound alone at night!), every animal foraging could be an axe wielding maniac (& as mentioned already, I'm probably the only axe wielding maniac in the woods!). A few times shotguns have been fired a little too close to where I was bivied up for the night & have been woken up by the sound of someone walking nearby which was a little disconcerting! Yet, there really is nothing quite like being out. As you say, that first light of morning when you get the fire going again, shivering but all your senses alive & singing - sheer heaven. A liitle tip, tho'....don't watch The Blair Witch Project before you go out! :eek:
 

led

Settler
Aug 24, 2004
544
5
uk
One of the things I always find is how noisy it is out in the woods. Last time I was out I lay there listening to the different animals I could identify; owls, badgers, cows, sheep, even a donkey in the distance. I find that really rather reassuring and comforting when I'm out there. As others have said, the only thing that gets me a little nervous is when I can hear other people about nearby.

When you go out for the first time, don't count on getting a full night's sleep, after all, that's not why you're out there really is it? Just enjoy being in nature's lap for a night.
 

Steve K

Tenderfoot
May 12, 2004
91
0
49
Eastleigh, Hampshire
Hi Bilko, Are you sure you haven't done this before?

My first night out alone (after camping with others since time began) was in the relative saftey of my inlaws garden Now this night was also my first in a hammock so not only did look round everytime I heard a strange noise but I spent the next 15 minutes rocking violenty.

It was much better the next time.

It make a great line when you tell people that you sleep in the garden when you stay at your mother in laws. LOL
 

Phil562

Settler
Jul 15, 2005
920
9
58
Middlesbrough
Bilko, just watch out for those six feet tall bunny rabbits, there out to get you :p

No seriously, being out on your own is one of the best feelings in the world ;)
 

jerv

Forager
Aug 28, 2005
226
1
47
sussex
Like everyone else the only things that scare me in the woods are other people. I love lying listening to the noises of the forest . what are those guys blasting shotguns at night hunting for??
I once had a bear stick his nose under my fly sheet once but i was so tired I just mumbled at it. However the scariest incident was in lonely desolate mountain hut. As I had approached the hut I saw a man yelling at the sun and hammering the ground with a stick. I got to spend the night with him in the hut talking and whining to himself. Naturally i dind't sleep a wink I just lay there with my back to the wall and my axe firmly in my hand. strange thing was in the morning, he turned really nice and left with a hearty "goodbye". Maniac
 

moduser

Life Member
May 9, 2005
1,356
6
60
Farnborough, Hampshire
First night on my own was probably nearly 30 years ago. I would have been about 12 or 13 (how attitudes change).

Thing is I'd been camping out either with friends or my dad for a couple of years by then, nearly always with a lean-to & a fire, so was used to the night sounds.

In contrast (mostly because of my other half) my son didn't get to spend a night on his own until he was 13/14 and that was in the garden.

I'm going to have to get out more on my own, the solitude is wonderful.

moduser
 

khimbar

Nomad
Jan 5, 2005
271
0
birmingham uk
I'm sure it was someone on this forum who said this, so if I remember who I'll credit them later.

Don't worry about the nutters in the woods, we are the nutters in the woods. :lmao:
 

nishishinandy

Need to contact Admin...
Sep 19, 2005
8
0
35
Belfast northern ireland
My fist time alone was when i was 13. I was canoeing all summer in canada and we decided to do a solo night it was the best night of my life. I didnt sleep because i didnt feel like i should. I had a great time although about a million may flies droped out of the sky that night. Now i dont feel like im at home unless im in the woods and on the water.
 

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