How I got over my fear of sleeping outdoors
/Last night I slept outdoors for the first time in my adult life.
my MSR Hubba Hubba NX Tent at our farm campsite
I used to envy friends who would tell me about their camping adventures. I too wanted to sleep on a beach, camp in a Redwood forest and especially experience Yosemite overnight. But I just couldn't get myself to do it. I was scared. There were too many unknowns and everytime I started to plan a trip I would feel so overwhelmed with fear that I would convince myself overnight trips were not for me.
But this year is different. This year I'm tackling my fears head on. So I set a date and planned a camping trip. Here's how I did it.
Book it and just go!
I figured if I book a campsite then there's no turning back. Having a concrete date set and a little bit of money on the line really helps me feel committed to doing something. I attempted to use reserveamerica.com and found myself over-researching trying to find the best campsite for the dates available. Luckily I stumbled upon Hipcamp, think Airbnb for camping. There are plenty of sites available to those who live in Northern California so I picked one and booked it.
Buy some gear
Now that I had a date set, I needed some gear. I didn't have a tent or a sleeping bag and in my usual fashion I decided to do a ton of research on the gear I needed. I knew eventually I would want to go on a multi-day backpacking trip so I opted to keep all of my gear light and packable. I watched a ton of videos on how to properly pitch various types of tents and opted for something that was super easy to set up. Once I found the tent and sleeping bag I wanted, I went to REI and purchased it.
What will I eat?
my msr pocket rocket stove, msr fuel canister and gsi minimalist cookset
I wanted to try freeze dried food so on my trip to REI I picked up a few Mountain House MRE's. I went home and did a practice run with them for dinner. The food was pretty tasty and I was excited to bring them on my trip. But I had another problem. I'm terrified of fire and I hate lighting matches. So much so that even lighting birthday candles scare me. So how was I supposed to light a campfire or get the backpacking stove started? I decided to bring a long barrel lighter so that I could put some distance between me and the camping stove. When it came time for dinner I lit the lighter and had my husband turn on the stove. We alternated so I had practice with turning on both the lighter and the stove.
Scared of bugs
I have an irrational fear of bugs. And I knew that sleeping outdoors would present an interesting challenge for me. I decided to setup a few rules at our campsite to avoid bringing home the creepy crawlies:
- Close every bag
- Check for ticks every hour
- Keep the tent zipped up
- Launder clothes right when we got home
My husband thought most of these rules were pretty silly, but it helped keep me sane. The first hour I was constantly swatting bugs away from me, but I quickly got tired of doing that and stopped. Eventually I got so sleepy that I just decided to take a nap and I'm sure there were tons of bugs near me. I just didn't have the energy to worry about them so much.
And that was it. After this one trip I've decided I love camping. I'm still scared of bugs and fire, but now I realize there are ways to contain the fear. I can't wait to go camping again and hopefully go on my first backpacking trip!
