Do you ever get spooked

[eprman1]

Great stories! Lots to consider when camping.

[MSHappyCampers]

Originally Posted by okmunky

Six years ago when I decided to RV full time -- just me and a small monkey, I carefully considered all my options. I decided that I would "feel" safer in a motorhome than in a TT or 5er. I knew that if I ever felt spooked it would be easy to just hop in the driver's seat and drive until the fear subsided.

Two months after leaving on this grand adventure I realized that Sena's (the monkey) discomfort was not about traveling, but was from being at the bottom of the totem pole. Monkeys like to be able to be boss and it wasn't gonna be me. So we became 3 with the addition of a small breed puppy -- our sacrificial beast.

Once again I had to consider if I was going to break my ironclad rule about leaving the coach after dark in an unfamiliar place to walk Lily (the dog). Instead I opted to train her to use a puppy pad instead of going for night walks.

In more than 5.5 years and over 40,000 miles I have never (yet) even considered driving away from a night boondock spot out of fear. Avoidance of noise, yes, but never fear.

I am resolved to never opening the door to any stranger after dark, even a LEO. And my only readily available weapon is a tire iron that lays behind the driver's seat. Anything else is too dangerous in the hands of a curious little monkey. I bought some mace, but it has to stay safely locked away.

.

Barb, unfortunately it's not the RV'ers you need to be concerned about!

[JohnBoyToo]

Good stories !!! only thing missing is the campfire

My biggest scare was with my then new to me second wife...
she knew I snored, but guess didn't realize how much...
to hear her tell it, she rolled over onto my shoulder during the night and I must have let a good growler out and it scared her so much she screamed right in my ear, I screamed some expletives coming up for battle, and that scared her again such that she screamed louder !!!
there was no sleeping for a long times afterwards !

But the most uneasy/uncomfortable?
The first wife and I worked in Iran a LONG time ago and got an invite to go camping up in the Alborz Mountains with an Iranian friend and girlfriend on our dirt bikes and Paykan 'pickup trucks' (bmw opposed motorcycle engine and sheet metal )

Remote ??? this was a LONG day driving up into remote mountains... NOTHING around !!! found a nice level place next to a creek and the four of us sat around the campfire the first night, but couldn't see 5 feet into the darkness it was so black !

could hear things out there, but we felt ok by the fire...
went to bed in a 'tent' like overhang in the back of our pickups and during the night our dog started a low growl that woke us up...
so I clamped down on his snout and listened and heard nothing...
poked the flashlight out for a sweep and yikes - two large cat eyes connected to all black coat were looking back at me about 10 yards away and bad thing is, they were higher than we were it was so big - no sleep that night either

[texkayaker]

About 25 years ago I was traveling along I-12 in La. I was I my car returning from a whitewater kayak trip to Tenn and NC. Stopped at a rest area about 1pm and got things out to make a sandwich for lunch. Went to a picnic table and was enjoying lunch. Two men in a car pulled up behind my car blocking it from backing up and leaving. They walked up to me and said give us your money. I told them my wallet was in the car, they did not believe me and Started to come closer to me. It was cool and I had on a light jacket with my pistol stuck down inside my trousers. I was reaching for it when a La state trooper started a slow drive on the road in front of us. The men went back to their car when they saw him. He stopped when he came down the side where my car was. He asked if those men had hassled me for money, yes they did. He said La. Rest stops were not safe. Would I have shot them if he had not showed up? Yes.

I

[parkerbill]

Originally Posted by texkayaker

About 25 years ago I was traveling along I-12 in La. I was I my car returning from a whitewater kayak trip to Tenn and NC. Stopped at a rest area about 1pm and got things out to make a sandwich for lunch. Went to a picnic table and was enjoying lunch. Two men in a car pulled up behind my car blocking it from backing up and leaving. They walked up to me and said give us your money. I told them my wallet was in the car, they did not believe me and Started to come closer to me. It was cool and I had on a light jacket with my pistol stuck down inside my trousers. I was reaching for it when a La state trooper started a slow drive on the road in front of us. The men went back to their car when they saw him. He stopped when he came down the side where my car was. He asked if those men had hassled me for money, yes they did. He said La. Rest stops were not safe. Would I have shot them if he had not showed up? Yes.

I

[emoji106]

[Old Radios]

Never had a problem boondocking or in rest areas in the RV. I would be more aware near metro areas as most crooks, meth heads, etc. like conveyance and most likely won't wander that far from home base. Biggest worry is leaving the rig for long periods of time hoping someone wont steal it for their new meth lab.

That being said, back in the 70s we were tent camping along a river in the Adirondacks and were woken up at dawn one morning by a State Trooper. Seems a serial killer had killed a camper up the road from us during the night and he was still loose and they were hunting him and clearing everyone they could find out of the area. He stayed with us while we packed and hiked out to the road. We drove through two toad blocks on the way out of the area.

Only thing exciting in the years since then has been a couple of bears searching for food. We have coyotes at the house so they don't bother us.

[davendeb]

Originally Posted by Canarado

I was about twelve when I went and watched a pretty well done Bigfoot movie in the late 70's, then afterwards walked a mile home on a very dark back road surrounded in bush....quite the teeth-rattling walk home!

The Legend Of Boggy Creek. Filmed in, and about events in Foulk, Arkansas. It was scary back then.

[Bob55]

Originally Posted by texkayaker

About 25 years ago I was traveling along I-12 in La. I was I my car returning from a whitewater kayak trip to Tenn and NC. Stopped at a rest area about 1pm and got things out to make a sandwich for lunch. Went to a picnic table and was enjoying lunch. Two men in a car pulled up behind my car blocking it from backing up and leaving. They walked up to me and said give us your money. I told them my wallet was in the car, they did not believe me and Started to come closer to me. It was cool and I had on a light jacket with my pistol stuck down inside my trousers. I was reaching for it when a La state trooper started a slow drive on the road in front of us. The men went back to their car when they saw him. He stopped when he came down the side where my car was. He asked if those men had hassled me for money, yes they did. He said La. Rest stops were not safe. Would I have shot them if he had not showed up? Yes.

I

He!! yes!

[sam-3]

We were camped at a state park in NY and left in our truck and came back about 10pm. The state troopers were stopping each vehicle and checking for a convict that had escaped some days earlier. It took them several weeks before they caught the convict. Made the mistake of leaving dirty dishes out at our picnic table. In the middle of the night i heard scratching on the canvas of our pop up. Got up and shined the flash light on the picnic table and saw the ratcoone. Couldn't tell my young daughter as she would have been paranoid due to her Autism. Another time I had two skunks come and visit our campsite. My girlfriend was in a tent and my family was in the TT. I had gone in for something and she called me on the cell phone to tell me the ratcoon was by the tt steps. If I came out I might have set off his spray!! She was so scared she slept in her car that night.

[rarebear.nm]

As others have said the key is always awareness and learning to trust and react to your feelings. It has saved my life a few times over. I travel prepared.

I've tent camped for 50 years with countless stories, bears just at arms reach in the black of night hiking with only natural light, mountain lions following us, etc. While some of that was interesting at the moment, I'm still much more concerned about bad human encounters. The worst ones are in or around cities or where there are lots of people for them to interact with. In the remote areas, bad dudes are usually rarer. I'm sure there are exceptions as always. One encounter near the US/Mexican border, but my mom pulled her pistol and problem was over, she was a great shot.

Life is always about risk reduction vs. potential gain/being happy. In the end I figure that getting out on the road every day is the most dangerous thing we can do, yet we do it. So many crazies out there on the roads.

I agree with others, if you're out of your comfort zone, get out of where you're at, what ever what that might be, but be prepared and alert. If that voice says NO, then No and don't think twice. Always strive to be happy and safe first and foremost.

[memtb]

Over the years, we have experienced a few “spooky” moments...panhandlers at a truck stop, a grizzly with three large cubs in and around our RV every night (sheep hunting at the time), and a few others I can't recall but the scariest happened in the early '80's.
My ex-wife, I and our 2 young children were camped in a StarCraft pop-up tent camper on the beach at Elmer's Island, LA (very near Grand Isle). Elmer's Island really is only an island at high tide. At low tide, there's a two track which you can drive through intermittent salt water to get to the beach. As we approached the end of the road at the beach, you can turn either right or left onto the beach. We observed a large U-Haul truck parked on the beach where the road ended which we thought peculiar due to the fact, it was almost a mile off the paved highway. We were young and dumb at the time and this should have raised a lot of red flags. After turning left, we made camp about 200 yards down the beach from where the U-Haul truck was parked.
The beach is narrow and we parked as far away from the water as we could. At high tide, there was barely enough room to drive between our camper and the lapping surf. At around midnight a Chevy El Camino, with several people in the back and a man jogging behind. passed by our camp. This got our attention! A little while later, about a half mile in the direction they had traveled, a very large bonfire was started. Minutes later, the El Camino came back by with less people. Then another large bonfire was started where the U-Haul truck was parked. We're watching these activities closely. The bonfire gave off enough light that you could see out into the surf about 20-30 feet. Soon there was a “bucket” brigade of multiple persons passing between the U-Haul truck and going into the darkness beyond the fire's light. I can only assume that there was a boat anchored in the darkness and they were not unloading seafood. This went on for about 15-20 minutes. This may have been the most helpless feeling I have ever experienced. My ex-wife, my children and I were trapped on this beach with our only exit right past the U-Haul truck. I had (as I most always did) my .44 magnum S&W with two speed loaders, a total of 18 rounds. I was outnumbered and almost certainly outgunned. All we could do was sit and watch and prepare to escape into the tall weeds of Elmer Island.
Suffice to say, we got no sleep that night and the U-Haul truck was gone before sunrise. Looking back, I feel pretty fortunate to be relating this story as we were witnesses to what appeared to be a very large drug shipment coming ashore.

[gtsum2]

Some great stories. Haven't had any unnerving moments camping or traveling yet. We tend to stay at higher rated campgrounds and never at a rest stop. We have been to a few campgrounds that had more than expected seasonal and permanent sites and some were more than shady. In each instance, we left early the next morning


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[UTTransplant]

I am not worried about any 4 legged critter. I keep a clean camp, and I have camped in bear country without incident for many years, both in a tent and a trailer. Two legged creatures have only bothered me enough to leave once. Maybe 30 years ago DH, young sons, maybe 2 and 6, and me pulled in a National Forest campground near Mt. Taylor, NM with our pop up. The campground was completely empty and in a lovely area. We got it unhitched and mostly set up when two cars full of young men came driving into the campground. I am think of noisy campers, but they didn't stop, just drove very slowly through, looking directly at us. They left, but were back in less than 5 minutes. Repeat drive through and leave for a dozen times. We just packed up and left. One car pretty much followed us all the way to the min highway. We ended up in a commercial campground that night! I figured the young men wanted to do something at the NFS campground that night (drugs? fight?), and they didn't want us around?

I have also camped many times by myself, mostly in tents. I would leave an air horn next to my bed in case I needed to alert someone. When camping with DH in the travel trailer, we have occasionally stayed in boondocking areas completely alone. We do carry a shotgun these days just in case a crazy comes by. I figure either one of us would be shaking with adrenaline too much to aim a pistol effectively, but a shotgun doesn't require a good aim! Actually I figure just the sound of a shell being racked would do it.

[KennyGolub]

I retired from Cleveland PD back in 1998.

In my 18 years of retirement, I've learned that instincts remain long after.
If your gut tells you something isn't right, 9 out of 10 times, it isn't.

I keep up with my yearly CCW for law enforcement qualifications, and never go to a major city without protection, and always have it close when camping.

That being said, I've never had the hair on the back of my neck stand up while camping.