Afraid of Camping? Try this... My 9 Best Tips For Feeling Safe When Camping

hello Darren Alf here from bicycle turn procom I am in the mountains of upstate New York right now this is my jumper Ursa 29-plus bike packing bicycle with a full set of wanderlust gear bike packing bags on the bike behind me I am camping tonight and I am camping in the woods and as the bicycle turned pro I get asked all the time if I am scared to camp in the woods and the honest answer to that is sometimes yes but most of the time no I have probably spent a third of my life camping in a tent so I am very used to spending my nights outdoors but there are times when I do get a little scared because of animals or people that might happen to be in the area so I thought that with my extensive amount of camping knowledge I would share 7 tips with you today that you can use to make your camping experiences feel a whole lot safer so that you will feel more comfortable when you are camping in a place like this all by yourself and the first tip that I have to give you has to do with your campsite selection and where you lay out your tent ok so this is our campsite here and there's my bike over there just off to my right there is a small fire pit so someone has obviously camped here before behind my bicycle is a small creek and beyond that Creek is a deep dark dense and scary forest then over in this direction is a small open field with a few little trees scattered throughout it and then down that way about Oh 200 meters or so is a small dirt Forest Road with the occasional car passing by and these are all important things to pay attention to when you're pitching your tent because I like to use my natural surroundings to create a like mental wall or mental barrier between these scary spaces and be not so scary spaces so in this particular instance I think that this forest over here that's beyond the creek on the other side of my bicycle over here is the scariest part of this particular forest I feel like the potential for animals coming down in this direction is the highest over here so what I usually like to do is I like to position my tent so that the back wall of the tent is facing towards the scariest part of my surroundings so in this particular instance I'm going to position my tent so that the back of the tent faces over here towards this Creek in towards this forest then I'm going to have the door of the tent facing this direction towards this open field and down towards that forest road down below that way I can see the open field and any potential animals that might come into the field near my campsite and I can also keep an eye on the road down below in case any cars or people come from that direction so that is the first tip for you is to position your tent in such a way so that when you're in the tent the door of your tent faces towards the area that you are most comfortable with usually an area that you want to have the most visibility you want to be able to peek your head out of your tent and see the vast majority of your surroundings [Music] all right so I've got the tent set up and like I said before the back of the tent is facing towards the creek behind my bicycle and behind that Creek is that deep dark scary forest the door of the tent is facing this direction which is down towards the road down below and towards this kind of open field so I can see from inside my tent all the way down to the road where any cars or people might come from now while I have the tent set up here I should mention that you should probably get in the habit of almost always putting the rain fly on your tent not just to protect yourself from any potential rain or snow that might occur during the night it rained last night for example and I suspect it may rain tonight as well but I almost always put my rain fire on my tent because what we're doing here essentially is creating a nest or a cocoon of sorts that you can climb inside when it gets dark and feel comfortable so when you are setting up your tent you put that rain fly on because it it acts as a barrier a shield to protect you from the outside elements not just from the weather the wind the rain the snow etc but for many potential dangers that might be out there it's just like being in your home for example those walls and those windows create a sense of security and this tiny little fabric on your tent is going to act in much the same way so put that rain fly up every single time you set up your tent and I promise you you'll feel much more secure at night sleeping in your tent with that fabric wrapped around you another thing worth mentioning is that a lot of tents including this one have windows or vents that allow you to not only get air circulating inside the tent and also protect you from the outside elements but these wind is also allow you to view from inside the tent outside the tent and that can be hard to do because most tents are protected in a sort of 360 degree circle once they're closed the door is closed etc but this little window for example it may not look like it but when I'm inside my tent I can sit up peek out this window and I can see in this direction outside of my tent so I often times try to point this little window towards an area that I want to see and in this particular instance what I think I'm going to do is I'm going to position my bicycle over here at night and lock it up so that when I'm in my tent if I feel like it if I feel like oh there's a weird noise maybe someone's messing with my bike or whatever I can simply sit up look outside this window and see that okay yeah my bicycle is still safe and secure so use these windows to your advantage not all tents have them but if your tent has a window make sure to position it in such a way so that the door is facing towards an area you want to see and the windows are facing an area that you want to see as well now that we have our campsite set up the next step is to secure your belongings and the first thing you probably don't want to do is lock up your bicycle so I'm gonna lock my bicycle to that tree behind me then I'm gonna take anything that could be valuable from my bicycle and bring that inside my tent or store it under the rainfly of my tent while I'm sleeping at night so my helmet my bike lights my handlebar bag with my camera and stuff like that in it all of that should be inside my tent with me while I'm sleeping at night you don't want to be sleeping in your tent and worrying about the things that are outside being stolen your bike and all your other belongings so you're gonna sleep a whole lot better knowing that you've secured your campsite and the third and final thing that you should do to secure your campsite not only locking up your bike and securing your belongings but number three is making sure that your food is stored somewhere far away from where you are sleeping this is especially true you you're camping in an area where there are bears raccoons mountain lions anything that could potentially come by your campsite and want to get into your food you don't want to have that stuff in your tent or on your bicycle while you're sleeping you are just attracting animals to your campsite so don't do that store your food at least like a hundred yards a hundred metres away from where you're sleeping if you can get it up in a tree but yeah those are the three things you need to do before you go to sleep to secure your campsite if you're one of those people who's a little afraid of camping you might think that having a campfire in a campfire pit like this one here would make you feel more secure when you're out in the woods all by yourself and I enjoy having a campfire I love it in fact it's great especially when you have some friends with you but when you're by yourself I have found that having a campfire after dark can be one of the scariest things imaginable and it's scary because once you light that campfire and it's pitch-black outside your eyes become adjusted to looking at the fire but as soon as you turn around and look off into the deep dark scary forest maybe you hear a noise behind you and you don't you wonder what that is you turn around you look you can't see a thing it is pitch black and it is scary so my advice to you is that if you are alone and if you are a little bit afraid of camping I would not have a campfire after dark have a campfire in daylight like it is now right before it gets dark but as soon as it gets dark put out that campfire and climb inside your tent you're gonna feel much more secure once it gets dark by climbing in your tent where you have built a little nest for yourself and you are comfortable versus sitting outside in the pitch black forest by yourself blind as a bat because you've been looking at that fire one of my biggest tips for feeling safe and secure when you were camping out in the woods like this is to make sure that once it gets dark you are inside your tent so before it gets dark you've got to make sure that you have every thing that you're gonna need to get you through the night and that means packing your warm clothes inside your tent so that if you need them you can get to them without going out to your bicycle and getting your other things it also means making sure that you have some water accessible it doesn't have to be in your tent but it should be within reach of you while you are sleeping and finally this means going to the bathroom once at least if not multiple times before you climb inside your tent if possible you do not want to be going to the bathroom once it gets dark so go to the bathroom number one and number two if need be before it gets dark and then climb inside your tent now once you're inside your tent what I like to do is position my body so that I'm pointed in a direction that I feel comfortable and just in the same way that we set up our tent with the back of the tent pointed towards the deep dark scary forest I'm gonna sleep with my back towards that deep dark scary forest and my head pointed off in this direction which I feel much more comfortable about and I do that because I'm basically creating a little cocoon in here where I feel comfortable and once I zip all this up and close the rain fly I will feel even more comfortable but I always keep my body positioned towards the direction that I feel most comfortable and I can sometimes even like bury myself inside my sleeping bag which is then buried inside the tent which is then buried inside the rain fly so I have like three layers of comfort over me and I'm positioned in a direction that I feel comfortable with it's just a strange little thing that I like to do but maybe it can help you as well for a lot of people who are new to camping what happens oftentimes is they climb inside their tent and then they start to hear strange noises outside the tent that they can't identify so one of my big tips is for you to pay attention to the surrounding sounds that you are hearing in your campsite before you climb inside your tent and try to figure out those sounds are before you go to sleep so at the moment I am hearing crickets I'm hearing trees rustling I'm hearing the branches blowing up in the wind I'm hearing trees knocking up against each other tall trees oftentimes sway and they hit and there's a loud like knocking sound I am also hearing some bird noises off in the distance over here these birds could be misidentified as larger animals in some instances so it's very good to kind of try to figure out what some of those noises are before you climb inside your tent so I'm very good now when I'm laying inside my tent and I hear a strange noise outside I kind of know that like oh that's a squirrel or that's a chipmunk or that's a bird or that's a deer or that's a bear or that's a moose I can hear the difference when I'm inside my tent and that only comes with experience so finally tip number seven is to simply spend more time camping the more camping experience you have the more comfortable you will be so camp as much as possible on or off of your bike and that will help you to feel more comfortable with your camping excursions in the future all right guys that's it I am deer now from bicycle turn pro calm I hope these seven tips to help you feel safer on your own camping trips will help you in some way if you want to learn more about how to conduct your own bicycle touring or bike packing adventures be sure to visit my website at bicycle trained procom or pick up a copy of my best-selling book the bicycle touring blueprint which is a 400 page guide that will teach you everything you need to know in order to conduct a short or long distance bicycle tours anywhere in the world that's filled with tips like the ones you found in this video so if you enjoyed this video pick up a copy of my book at bike tour book.com or on my website at bicycle touring procom once again I am darren AL from bicycle turned pro comm thank you guys so much for watching and I hope to see you out the road sometime soon bye-bye

Channel: Bicycle Touring Pro

Views: 260,178

Rating: 4.7761588 out of 5

Keywords: camping, afraid of camping, irrational fears, fears, afraid, scared, camping tips, bike touring, cycling

Id: Mkgim8txEWw

Length: 14min 57sec (897 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 14 2020