I camp in the wilderness with friends pretty often and thought it would be fun to try doing it alone once. I didn't sleep at all, I kept imagining terrible things in the night coming to get me.
Maybe I'll try again in my thirties.
Maybe I'll try again in my thirties.
It was a little nervewracking and spooky even though in truth I was only about a twenty minute drive from the edge of the park and civilization. To know that if I slipped and broke a leg or something I'd be screwed for a couple of days until a crew could find me.
But I experienced it as a good kind of anxiety. I deliberately wanted to get outside of my comfort zone and spend a little time getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. It was an absolutely rewarding experience and one of the highlights of 2020 for me. I woke up the next morning refreshed, centered, and excited to return home to my family.
A quote I think about a lot is J. A. Shedd's, "A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."
Get an EPIRB.
Just make sure you get one that uses 406Mhz rather than two-way LEO satellites. The two-way stuff requires monthly payments and is far less reliable, won't get through forest canopy. The 406Mhz SARSAT beacons are single use only one-way transmitters (they receive GPS, not 406Mhz-SARSAT, although they still work without a GPS signal). Anything that advertises using it to send SMS messages is junk for emergency use.
There's an older, lower-frequency SARSAT band somewhere in the 150mhz-ish range, but it gets so many false positives (like some ATM in Kansas) that it's basically retired. The 406Mhz protocol has a lot more checksums in it.
Edit: you want this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Cospas-Sarsat_...
Also, seeing on https://www.acrartex.com/products/resqlink-400 it says "Battery Replacement: After 5 years or after emergency use, whichever is first"
Speaking of packaging, the product you linked to is the buoyant version. Don't get that for hiking, it's significantly larger (physically) than the non-buoyant one. Confusingly, they are both called the "ResQLink 400".
10/10 will do it again ;)
I really don't understand what's behind those types of irrational fears. Some nights I can't even walk from the kitchen to the bathroom without turning the light on in the corridor. I know there's nothing behind the corner, just like I'm sure you knew there were no "terrible things in the night coming to get you", yet I must turn on the light
When I was a kid, I used to think that adults are not afraid of the dark because they are adults. I'm almost 30 now, and I often wonder if I never really became an adult that's never afraid of the dark.
I think there's some kind of psychological/physiological feedback loop that goes on in those moments at night where you feel compelled to run to the door or switch the lights on or whatever. Sometimes rationality just doesn't help.
I have a fear of the dark, for lack of a better term. I can put myself in the shoes of characters in horror movies and feel their fear. Meanwhile my girlfriend is incapable of it. Not because I somehow believe in things that go bump in the night (I don’t) and she doesn’t, but rather it’s some sort of mental quirk that she doesn’t experience.
I’ve embraced it, though. Whenever I’m doing something like solo camping or running through the woods at night, I like to enumerate terrifying scenarios and then when I get home, jot them into my notes app and sometimes stub them out into short stories that I submit to those scary story youtube channels or r/nosleep.
Anyways, I’ve thought a lot about why I would have this fear reflex while others don’t. Doesn’t seem to be much explanation. I’m in my thirties. Embrace the thrill.