I have less then zero interest in camping out in the woods filled with nasty snarling rabbits and spiders. I might feel comfortable if I had 360 degree infra-red lighting and night vision cameras set up and a mounted machine gun. My lot is surrounded by woods and brush on 2 sides. I do not go beyond my lights. By the way, I have 16 outdoor lights in a variety of configurations: motion sensing, dusk-to-dawn, remote control, etc. If I hit the “All lights on” switch I can probably be seen from low Earth orbit.
A number of years ago I got a golf cart to use on my huge 1/2 acre property because of my failing knees. I wish I had a bigger lot as it is fun to drive and I would love to cruise down to a lake or whatever. But I have blazed a loop in the woods. When I first got the golf cart it had no roof. It was OK to drive but felt exposed at night. What a difference when I got a roof on it! Cruising the path at night with my blazing LED headlights feels snug and safe. It probably couldn’t outrun a rabid dog but that don’t matter.
Funny how little things change your attitude. Yeah, yeah, go ahead and make fun of me. Boo!
You wouldn’t make it down here. The kudzu and critters often come a bit too nearish.
Kudzu may actually come “to the light” we’ve had it running up poles the security light are on.
Camping is not desirable to me either, I have to say. It’s not the wilderness except when you gotta relieve yourself.(No not gonna deal with flimsy foldaway toilets and their contents. Nope. Not gonna!)
What I don’t like is a lack of my bed, mostly. I’ve come to enjoy it so.
You ride your covered golf cart and enjoy your acreage. I’m with you. . High ho silver and away!
The bugs are coming soon! Lots and lots of bugs, of all kinds, crawling all over everywhere. And you can’t get them out of your tent, sleeping bag, or hair.
The bugs are Here!! I just had one those extra large light beetles fly in the door. It landed on the bar still behind a grandkid. Who immediately started screaming.
Me being Nana who could save them, grabbed it. I kinda got squeamish when I felt it’s little legs flailing in my palm.
I tried to throw it out the door and it stuck to me for a second or two. I nearly gagged.
When camping there always seemed to be that one mosquito that got in my tent and figured buzzing around my ear was a fun thing for it while I tried to sleep. I love the outdoors but that was maddening on more than one occasion.
You’ve already done a pretty effective job of that yourself. Quite frankly, your biggest threat in the backcountry is infection from scratches in contact with contaminated water, or maybe an encounter with a venemous snake. I haven’t had a problem with wildlife even when (black) bears or raccoons were around except to secure food and cookware. I’ve never had a problem with “snarling rabbits” although the hares of Watership Down seem prepared for battle, and I’ve encountered more dangerous spiders indoors than out in the woods. Ticks are a verifiable menace and marmots are obnoxious, but I’ve never felt physically threatened in the woods except by one overly familiar (and frankly creepy) hiker in Yosemite who wouldn’t take a hint until I pulled out my field knife and told him to maintain his distance.
Do you really drive a golf cart with “blazing LED headlights” around your 1/2 acre property? I had to mow a lawn three times that size with a push mower as an eight year old child, and ventured far beyond at all hours of the night when I snuck out to look at the stars.
I love beetles and most insects but not spiders. Those big June beetle buzz bombs are cute. My grandmother had a pet beetle named Pedro she got in Mexico. It was bedazzled and jeweled on its back. It had a gold chain and clip to hook it on her dress and she wore him often. I think they have been outlawed for a long time.
I think that if our forebears could see us spending a ton of money to go brave the wilderness, they’d say “Are you crazy?!? We’re out here taming the wilderness, so that you can be comfortable and safe and indoors.”
They are about the only thing that scares me in a mainland American wilderness. All other dangers- just use some caution. Oh, wait- ticks too. Okay, any bloodsucking insects.
I’ve been camping with family, and with Boy Scouts, and the wife has done “camping” at Burning Man (not in 15 years or so though).
And… well, yeah. Camping is a good way to make you appreciate just how easy and secure you can be at home. There are individual moments of camping that I just love - especially how being away from city-glow can make the stars pop and how sometimes it’s just damn nice to be far away from the irritations that other humans often are.
But those are moments, and fleeting by nature.
My fondest camping trip was when I was 4ish. I had an awesome honorary uncle, who often took care of me when my parents needed a break, who had an amazing and huge loft apartment back in western MASS. He had taken me camping once before, and I loved the adventure of it, and we were going to do another, but it started raining.
So he set up his big dome tent in the middle of his living room, and we had a two day camping trip WITH TV, a bathroom, and electric lights!
. High ho silver and away!