Solo Camping Trip

i've been camping at the same spot every summer for the past 6 or 7 years. i went with my brother earlier this summer back in june, but the mosquitoes were UNREAL because of recent rain, so we didn't have the best time. with the end of summer coming up, i wanted to take one more camping trip, and decided to do this one alone. i've never went camping alone. i have dosed alone several times, just never while spending the night alone in the middle of the woods, several miles from the nearest house.

i started hiking to my spot around 1 PM. and it started raining. it was light rain at first, no big deal, but of course when i was ready to set up my tent, it started raining more steadily. i was pretty soaked by the time i was done. but soon after that, the rain let up, the sun came out, and i dosed myself with 1.5 hits.

i gathered a little firewood while waiting for the comeup. after about 40 minutes or so, it started kicking in, and i started walking up the creek to check out the scenery. there is an awesome rock cliff to look at, and further past that there are some small water falls you can swim by, and you can even jump off them into a pool of water below.

as i came up on the waterfalls, i saw a big group of people camped next to them. they saw me coming from a ways away and waved. when i got within earshot, one of them asked "you like whiskey?" i stumbled my way through a garbled sentence trying to say "i'm good on the whiskey." they were a group of hippies - the typical people i would expect to see at a music festival. i chilled with them for 15 or 20 minutes before i continued up the creek...

...where i found some more people swimming in the water. they yelled to me "you're on private property," which confused and worried me a little. i had no idea i was even close to trespassing, and by now i was pretty fucked up i turned around and went back the way i came, but two guys followed me on fourwheelers and told me i was still on private property. i told them they had to show me how to get off of it then. since i came up the creek i didn't see any Posted signs or anything, but i guess i was on their land.

after that little confrontation, i stopped by the hippie camp again for awhile, on my way back to my campsite. i had a beer with them, and we eventually started chatting about LSD and related things. it's pretty funny that i went into the woods to trip by myself, and right up the creek were a bunch of people doing the same thing. i even recognized one or two of them from a music festival from last summer. these guys had all kinds of crazy stories...putting 60 hits of acid into a cup of whiskey and passing it around to everyone...putting acid in some big drink, and matching whatever anyone else put in - a 10 strip here, and few drops there.....pretty wild shit. they were saying that they had some of the best liquid right now, and it kinda seemed like they were gonna dose that night, but i don't think they did. they were already tripping the previous night i think.

it was getting close to dark, so i headed back to my camp to start a fire and cook my sweet potatoes. had a tough time lighting the fire, almost ran out of paper, but i eventually got it going. chilled around the fire for awhile, listening to music, singing along (LOUDLY), and eating. around 10:00 i decided i would go see what the hippies were up to. i smoked some weed before staring out to get really high. i was walking on the wooded path this time, a way i have never been even in the daytime. but i figured if all those drugged-up kids could find the place, i should be able to. plus they had music so i would be able to hear them.

when i got there, it was pretty uneventful. i brought some fruit to share - a couple clementines, a couple apples, and a banana. they were pretty pumped for that...i don't think they brought much food with them. i hung out for awhile, but some of them had already went to sleep and i figured i might as well head back to my own fire. on the way back i had a hell of a time finding my campsite. my fire had went almost out, so i couldn't see it from the trail. i walked right past it and kept going for a while, until i was sure i had went too far. started getting worried that i might get lost out there, or at least be walking around in the dark a lot longer than i wanted to. but suddenly, i walked right up on my camp - yeah!

spent the rest of the night just listening to tunes, stoking the fire, and looking at the stars. was a pretty fun trip, and a new adventure to go camping by myself. hard to say if i would have had as much fun if i didn't meet all those other people. it kinda "ruined" the test to see if i could last in the woods without anyone else, but i would be confident enough to try this again next summer.

 

Nice one! Even though you had to battle through some shit like getting lost and trespassing. Sometimes I want to travel to another country by myself or trip out in the woods solo but I have such a terrible sense of direction and sometimes common sense, so my street smarts girlfriend is always nice to have by my side. I'd still probably do either one of them but I would need to make sure I really focus on my direction and surroundings. I had a good laugh when you said you were singing along (LOUDLY). Haha that's a great picture and good to know you were enjoying yourself.

 

If I were you next time though, leave your tunes and other electronic accouterments at home, and truly do that night alone.

LOL, I woulda been singing 'This land is your land' after the encounter with the private property people. lol

..."As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing"
But on the other side it didn't say nothing
That side was made for you and me" ♪

 

there was a stretch of time when i turned off the music and just listened to the sounds around me. ...i prefer having music though

would you suggest i leave my flashlight at home too?

 

Sounds like a pretty nice trip minus the private property people chasing you off!

Once while tripping with a bunch of friends a forest we thought was empty this group of people came by on ATVs. We could only see glimpses of them through the forest and hear them laughing. I was very happy they never ended up coming up to us because I think our state of mind would have been a dead give away..


I would still bring a flashlight to go camping. You can leave it off most of the time but it's always good to have the option to be able to walk out in the dark woods, find your way etc. I've spent a few nights camping alone without any light source, and it can get pretty dark and boring. Although I suppose the LSD sort of provides the entertainment, haha.

 

I swear, everyone with a fourwheeler is a nosy douchebag. It's like they either buy the fourwheelers to be nosy douchebags, or they use them to be nosy douchebags to pretend that they had some practical justification for buying the fourwheelers in the first place.

 

Haha last time I went camping we were chilling by a campfire around midnight and two drunks on a fourwheeler noisily drove up to where we were while making a bunch of noise and trying to maneuver in and out of spots directly in front of us.

 

yeah, i would always bring a flashlight. like i said, i was about to get lost even WITH my light haha.

you spent a few nights camping alone, without a light? sounds pretty intense.

 

LOL, depends on when you plan to go home.

I went on a little impromptu trippin' camp-out with some friends in highschool this one time. We drove up in the mountains to this perfect spot, you had to hike up a fairly difficult trail up to a little clearing. We had brought provisions, water, cigs, food, and arrived in plenty of time to gather firewood for the night. It was summer and the plan was to stay up there tripping around the fire till sunrise, I warned everyone that when it got dark and we were all tripping, it would be too dangerous to navigate the trail so there's no going back to the car because no one has a flashlight. It' seemed like a perfect plan but just as the peak is coming on one dude suddenly freaks out, insisting he needs to go back to the car, back to town. I finally told him to do whatever he has to do, but I had the keys and no ones driving anywhere till morning. I also told him he'd better yell pretty loud if he breaks a leg or something going down that trail 'cause we're not coming down to check on him. Despite all our admonitions the dude actually used a lighter to make his way back to the car, and stayed there by himself until dawn when we all went back down the mountain. He got marked off my list of trippin buddys after that BS to say the least, lol

 

i light is nice to have when you are away from the fire, like in your tent looking for something. but it destroys your night vision, so i can see how on some level, it would be 'better' to not have a flashlight.

i spent that night alternating between building the fire up as big as i could (with not that much wood, and wet), and letting it dwindle down to almost nothing. when it was only embers and no other light, the STARS were so bright. almost brought my sleeping bag out of the tent so i could lay down and stare at the stars. i settled for leaning back in my chair. doesn't work as well though...your neck gets tired that way.
but damn, there were so many stars, it was making me kinda dizzy.

 

Oh yeah, and your eyes are extra dilated so they're taking in more light.

I hope you get to do a true solo though. I did one in the desert near Phoenix once. It was in the 90's all night so I didn't really need anything to keep warm, there was a full moon so wasn't planning on making a fire. I was just wearing shorts and tennis shoes, not even a shirt. It was great not to have any stuff to keep track of or carry. the moon lit up the desert floor enough to avoid cactus and what-not so I just walked around all night and/or stood gape-jawed staring at the sky, watching endless shooting stars. Didn't see a soul or a single headlight all night. I was still tripping when the sun came up and it was fucking glorious!

LOL, unfortunate side-note, I was bitten twice by a brown recluse that night. The necrotic wounds that developed from the bites took months to heal, though there was only a slight itch when it bit me. I hope that spider tripped as hard as I did that night! Memories...

 

Yeah, I had basically no money left after back-packing for about a year and I had a 2-week stop in New Zealand. So I bought a tent and sleeping bag before going there in the hopes of camping for most of the time.

I walked this mountain trail and camped for 3 or 4 nights before deciding it wasn't that much fun without any light or anything, haha. You can only sleep for so long, and it would get dark around 8PM so it got pretty boring. To top it off it was below 0C most nights, so I spent most of the night freezing and just trying to keep up my heat.

So yeah, at least with a light I could have read or something. And with some acid I could probably have had a good time as well

 

i have thought about going camping in the winter. never actually done it though. (actually, i might have when i was a boy scout, but i can't be sure)

doesn't sound like ideal conditions to me, CS
did you build a fire??

 

My guess is that tripping at below 0C would probably not be much fun, or especially safe.

 

Now winter camping is a lot of fun. I've also done that, when we both slept under a tarp and made a 'quinzhee'. Making a quinzhee is surprisingly comfortable and warm. It was -30C outside and inside it was around 0C, perfect with a good sleeping bag.

But no, during the solo camping trip I mentioned I didn't build any fires. I was up in volcano terrain, so it was pretty rocky and there was no real fire material to speak of. It would have been nice to have a fire though, haha.


I think tripping below 0C would be fine if you have the proper gear (mainly a better sleeping bag, as mine was only rated to 2C I believe). There was no ice or snow at the time so it would have been fine to walk around. At least with a light, so you don't trip while tripping. But yeah, that camping trip in particular probably wasn't suited for any solo tripping action.

 

Maybe for some people, but for most people I think it would be a bad idea.

There is some danger of actually dying from exposure in cold weather, I'm not sure the most people would have their shit together enough to safely deal with the practical issues and also be comfortable in those conditions

I guess if you were really into the hard-core aspects of tripping while roughing it. Maybe the stars on clear night would make it worthwhile.

 

let's not forget the all ergot derivatives cause vasoconstriction to one degree or another, not a good thing in cold temps, greater likelihood of frostbite.

 

And you don't notice the cold as much so you have to stay aware of that and use common sense.

There was this one time we went sledding on acid...so much fun...why am I shivering? Uh oh, first sign of hypothermia, time to go warm up in the car, lol

 

You are all very correct, the cold shouldn't be underestimated. Especially while on powerful drugs.

I would do it, but that definitely doesn't mean it's for everyone.

 

let's not forget, CannbisSoul is Canadian...