I am torn between doing a new route or redoing a route I have been on with the family. In reading some of the other posts, I guess it can get a little nerv wracking at night, all alone in the middle of nowhere.

Any advice????

Depends. Some people it seems to bother, others not so much. Never bothered me.

Alan

its just something i dealt with the first couple of trips. im over it now.

quote kanoes: "its just something i dealt with the first couple of trips. im over it now."

+1 You'll get over it with experience.

Just booked my permit for June 12th out of Mudro.....

Travel and work hard. Stay busy. You will be tired at night. Have wood for a fire ready. If you wake up and can't get back to sleep build a fire and enjoy the night sky. With experience comes confidence.

Leaving in the morning for a short solo.

make certain that there are no bobcats/linx in the pine trees over your tent. they do a yerowling sound that comes straight out of hell.

quote jwartman59: "make certain that there are no bobcats/linx in the pine trees over your tent. they do a yerowling sound that comes straight out of hell."

:)

Beavers dropping trees in the creek across from camp makes a helluva racket too - like an army of sasquatch ;).

Don't worry about it - you'll get over it quick. Go where you want - nothing's going to be familiar in the dark anyway.

I'll just tell you what Joe used to tell the city kids he took to Algonquin when they would worry that ever sound they heard at night was bear. He finally just told them the truth:

"If you hear something at night, it's not a bear. Bears don't make a sound when they come into camp." Well, it is true :).

Enjoy your trip!

My scariest animal encounter in the woods was not with a bear, but a rabbit. I heard it thrashing around in the bushes behind our tent and went to investigate. It was dark so my flashlight gave me limited visibility. The darn thing jumped at me (think Monty Python). True story.

Thanks for giving me more things to think about...... that should help.....a lot......

Going someplace you haven't been might keep your mind busier and actually help a little. I like to plan trips with options and make choices out there which way I'd actually go. If it's your first solo you might want the option to bail a little quicker. Just remember when your out there of all the work and such you have going into the trip. Make it fun and make it enjoyable. I like Hobbydog's idea about the fire...

the raccoon fight in the big old tree scared the blazes out of me a few days ago,and that was in Minneapolis and i was inside in bed!

quote jwartman59: "My scariest animal encounter in the woods was not with a bear, but a rabbit. I heard it thrashing around in the bushes behind our tent and went to investigate. It was dark so my flashlight gave me limited visibility. The darn thing jumped at me (think Monty Python). True story."

HA! My scariest encounter was a fearsome rabbit as well. On my second night of my first solo trip ever (on Isle Royale) I went up on a rock overlook above my camp at Chippewa Harbor to watch satellites and relax. I saw a flash of some eyes as I was cresting the top of the rock. I walked over to investigate and was about 3 feet away when a rabbit squeaked and launched out of a depression in the rock into the brush in front of me. I emphatically expressed my surprise.

Now that it's morphed into a "little things that go bump in the night" thread I'll share. Once I was hiking alone through Badlands National Park in the middle of the night in the rain (long story) and could see nothing more than my small flashlight beam. Coming upon an area I remembered earlier as having a prairie dog town I saw what must have been the reflecting eyes of two prairie dogs sitting on their haunches about 2 feet apart. I swung my flashlight over about 20 feet and there was another pair doing the same thing the same distance apart. "That's strange" I thought as I swung my flashlight back to the first set just in time to see them move in tandem from being 2 feet tall to 6 feet tall. "Oh shit!" was my next thought as I realized it wasn't the heads of two prairie dogs but rather the head of a single buffalo about 15 feet away. Apparently I'd stumbled upon a group of them sleeping and as I beat a hasty retreat towards the sharp incline I remembered being nearby I had another thought, "how do I know I'm not going to run smack into one since I can't see anything?"

Thankfully it ended anti-climactically but the final 2 miles back to my car were pretty tense, my mind started seeing them everywhere.

Alan

Some physical exertion followed by a little alcohol, a nice evening fire, and ear plugs. They are a good combo.