Fear?

[PaulE]

Bit of a wimpy admission here, but was wondering if it happens to anyone else too...

Went out for a nice long ride through the peaks yesterday, planning to bivvy out somewhere near stanage and then ride home in time to do the school drop off this morning.

Had a great ride, pretty tired and low on energy (mostly because the silly chip shop in Castleton shuts at 5 :( ) but feeling ok. Got near to where I wanted to stop and just got entirely scared. Not panic type fear, but very calm rational feeling despite mostly coming from seeing (non existent) things in the shadows of my lights. Summarily bottled it, rode home over houndkirk moor, just in time to see the kids before they fell asleep.

I've not got out since the spring, and not solo for a couple of years now so that may have something to do with it, but the whole calm, rational feeling of fear was very strange!

[Richard G]

Only "fear" as such that I've ever had is that some farmer / landowner will come and tell me to get orf their land.

Not happened yet, but it still plays on my mind.

[Bearbonesnorm]

Although I've never experienced this, to some degree, I can understand it. However, I do wonder whether simply knowing that, 'I am the scariest b'stard in the woods' means it's something I never consider?

[PaulE]

That's exactly my thoughts - I'm already the nutter on the moors, what's the chances of another one showing up in the same place???

[Bearbonesnorm]

The only time I ever feel slightly uneasy is in a bothy - not somewhere unknown to most in the middle of nowhere bur those popular destinations that can be reached easily. It's not because I expect to be attacked by an axe wielding nutter ... if I were an axe wielding nutter, the last place I'd go to find a victim is up into the hills, I'd simply walk down a busy street. No, the reason is that you're likely to come into contact with 'normal' people. Their ideas about how best to behave and mine are likely to be different and the potential for some confrontation exists ... I'll take the nutters, zombie badgers and werewolves any day.

[screescree]

I have this problem, but then I think to myself, if I was walking through the middle of nowhere and saw a tent, I'd soon turn the other way!
It's the whole "they're more scared of you then you are of them" argument.

Except I'd probably bite.

[HaYWiRe]

Only fear i get is from the chance of not waking up...sounds dramatic i know but most irrational fears are.

Ive been known to 'fit' or shake in the night from low blood sugars, while i usually wake up sometimes after long tiring days i dont, and have awoken to my partner trying desperately to wake me while testing my bloods.

Only ever camp out with my partner and the fear of comatose in the night (and no one knowing) limits most solo nights.


Ill me honest i get similar fears sleeping on my own even indoors, but being outside and miles from anything is just that little bit worse (and maybe more justifiable?)

[Bearbonesnorm]

Only fear i get is from the chance of not waking up...sounds dramatic i know but most irrational fears are.

Ive been known to 'fit' or shake in the night from low blood sugars, while i usually wake up sometimes after long tiring days i dont, and have awoken to my partner trying desperately to wake me while testing my bloods.

Only ever camp out with my partner and the fear of comatose in the night (and no one knowing) limits most solo nights.


Ill me honest i get similar fears sleeping on my own even indoors, but being outside and miles from anything is just that little bit worse (and maybe more justifiable?)

I think they're very special circumstances and any fear is completely justified and certainly not irrational ... more sensible.

[Matt]

Does a fear of Slugs count?

[psling]

I can remember being woken up once in the night on the Black Mountain by sounds that had me picturing the great beast of the moor in my mind. Stuck my head out into the night to see wild ponies munching the grass a few feet away. It's amazing how sounds are amplified in the darkness and quietness of the night when miles from anywhere; and amazing the pictures the mind can paint! The imagination can be totally irrational at times.
People at work can't believe that I cycle to and from work during the winter months - through the forest! in the dark!! alone!!!

[benp1]

I had a badger run full pelt at me one night, I was solo night riding in the woods. I genuinely didn't know it was going to stop before it got to me, scared the bejesus out of me, still remember it vividly

Things at night sound/look worse than in the daylight, and if you're on your own it's so easy to get spooked!

[whitestone]

It's more the lack of background noise like traffic so your mind tries to "lock on" to something and amplifies it to fill the space it expects. I noticed this on the Cairngorms Loop when tramping across the Geldie-Feshie watershed in the dark - I was expecting to get to the Eidart at some point so every burn sounded enormous but when I got there you could just step across it. The Eidart itself sounded like Niagara Falls

[Moder-dye]

Reminds me I missed a both off my list!

My only fear/been on edge has been at a remote bothy when estate workers have raced up/past it in the middle of the night on quads with lights blazing as it seemed they circled the bothy a few times. Was worried I might be squealing like a pig before dawn

Gave me a bit of a fright, but then I settled back down

[jameso]

Places that put me on edge 100x more than the woods at night -

Motorways, the M6 J13-17 in particular. A genuine feeling that death is only seconds away. Idiot drivers everywhere.

Many town centres at 11.30pm on a Friday or Saturday. Drunk idiots everywhere.

There's a theme here : ) idiotic people are to be feared, the woods aren't. Well, the woods of BC, Montana and Idaho spooked me. Try biving out alone there each night for a week or so, had a few occasions where I woke frozen in fear or fight/flight mode for a few seconds by branches breaking or large animals moving nearby (large, I thought - probably just a raccoon size..). Hearing deer or foxes during local trips had the same effect for a while afterwards

[gairym]

I sleep terribly whilst bivi-ing out - always have and probably always will!

I've had nights where I've been chased up a tree in my shreddies by an angry pack of wild boar, been terrified sleeping in some woods in Switzerland where they'd had a bear in nearby the village one week previously (literally every single sound had me 110% awake), passed wolf tracks in the Jura mountains and then bivied in the open on the snow fully expecting to see yellow eyes everytime I opened mine and once had a rutting stag take issue with my presence on his turf by barking at me from about 12ft away whilst I'm conveniently wrapped up in my hammock.

But none of this is what keeps me awake usually, it's the knowledge that if any harm is going to come my way it's more than likely going to be from other humans.

I know this is massively unlikely but I can't switch off my worry about meeting @$$hole humans and so I keep myself awake with worry most nights I sleep wild.

In reality the only hassle I've had from people whilst bivi-ing was once being kicked awake by an angry French farmer dude but to be fair I had decided to treat his shed as an unofficial bothy in bad weather and so he did have a bit of justification.

No real point to my waffle other than to conclude that I think people are worth worrying over but wildlife generally isn't and even worrying about people is a waste of time (sleep) as everything is pretty much gonna be fine and you're in ten times more danger walking down any high street at closing time.

Looking forward to my next night out.....

Cheers, Gairy.

[ericrobo]

I’ve spent a lot of time out on my own at night, and nothing usually phases me, unless I’m too near to civilisation (which I wouldn’t (normally) be)

But two incidents spring to mind:
1) testing my photon tent on the moors about 4 miles from here, it was very windy with bursts of sheet lightning- the wind kept waking me up, and at 3am I peered out to see the sky lit up a bit with the lightning...
Still wasn’t sleeping soundly so tightened the tent, got back in, and before zipping up, peered out once more... a few hundred yards away I could see intermittent flashes, looked a bit funny, so studying it all of a sudden it stopped, (there was a gully) feeling uneasy when after a minute it reappeared but nearer, then I realised it was somebody coming with a head torch... not exactly freaking out... yet... I got my knife out just in case... ( I don’t carry a knife must have been a tent peg...)
But I was braced and ready for being attacked. As it came nearer I could hear footsteps (and see the light) but they just ran past...
My immediate thought was are they running on the way to Winter Hill, so I unzipped and looked out...
And this is when I did feel scared... there was no trace of anybody
So... have they turned off their light and are encircling me...

I didn’t sleep too well !

2) this time on my newly acquired fat bike, Darwen Moor, very windy and wet, and testing my MLD Trailstar

Got up at 1am to tighten everything, horrendous weather out there, back in and in my sleeping bag but somewhere mixed in with the roar of the wind I thought I could hear an engine!!! Can’t be a helicopter up here in this weather ? I need to know what it is so really straining to hear it through the wind... there was something but it wasn’t clear.. I was like this for a couple of minutes... then I felt a very distinct tingling in my feet, both feet, which started spreading up into my legs, both legs, then thighs, then it got to my chest... and I suddenly had this thought that what if it’s a flying saucer !!!

Panic set in, but not for long cos I told myself to get a grip and don’t be a soft custard...(bustard...)
But it was scary but I just refused to panic...

I was told sometime after this that it would have been aliens, they scout for places like that, and first thing they do is to paralyse their victim before absconding with them...
Apparently you do get returned though

I wouldn’t mind if they were Amazonian blondes who just wanted to experiment on me...

So praps it all can happen up on’t moors

[99percentchimp]

I wouldn’t mind if they were Amazonian blondes who just wanted to experiment on me...

The tingling doesn't start in your feet in this case....... in my experience

[jameso]

But two incidents spring to mind:

... classic halloween bivi stories in the making there

Thinking about it, maybe this is why I prefer a bivi to a tent. Not being able to see out does mean your imagination can run wild ...

[Nevis]

Had very scarey moment on the Cairngorms Loop last year whilst bivvying at Bynack lodge ruins.

After a nice relaxing evening we climbed into our bivvy bags and fell sound asleep until about 1.30am we were woken by the most horrendous noise. There were about 20 voices shouting and laughing. Felt very intimidated, thought we'd been overrun by a load of pish heads.

Turned out to be a DofE leader barking instructions at a load of giggling teenage girls

[Dave Barter]

eric

My advice, stop testing your stuff

[ScotRoutes]

I'm too used to being in/sleeping in the outdoors for it to scare me, but....

Earlier this year Piemonster and I bivvied out in Ardgour near a building that was once a drovers inn. I "woke up" several times during the night to the sound of voices and footsteps. On every occasion I was unable to get up, or even turn over to see what was making the noise, physically frozen in place.

Easily the most restless night I've ever experienced outdoors.

[summittoppler]

I'm usually quite relaxed when out in the sticks at night. I remember one evening on the edge of Beddgelert forest in Snowdonia. I was all chilled out on my tod, bottle of red on the go, camp fire offering some warmth and then I goes and hear what I thought was a woman screaming from in the woods!! It proper spooked me, you know when you actually do miss a beat! I then in a split second remember thinking, mad axe man, I'm next, why is a female in the woods at night, blar blar blar. As I got my senses back in order I realised it was a fox making its mating call. phew...

[ericrobo]

Dave

I wasn’t testing any of that stuff

Only my tents... (very tense tents too)

Summit-topler
Stomach still aching after that one
But I was lying there on my back and not in an erect position at all...

(mmm... all before the watershed this, better behave)

[slarge]

Probably the worst bivvy I had was at the cafe on the Great Orme, prior to starting a coast to coast, fast asleep in the corner of their walled area when I got woken by low voices and torches - looked out of my bag to see 2 blokes having a good look around the cafe. One shone their torch at me, so I asked "what the f are you 2 up to?" Their response was "nothing", then they got in the car and drove off. I lay awake for an hour wondering if they were going to have an attack of bravery and come back to have a laugh at my expense. Still blame them for my poor show on that ITT!

Other than that I think Stu is right - I am the only nutter in the woods.....

[Jurassic pusher]

Other than that I think Stu is right - I am the only nutter in the woods.....

On any given WRT weekend, how many nutters can "the woods" harbour?