Anonymous wrote:wow i can't believe so many people are against this. I know a few females who have hiked the entire AT alone and lived to tell.

Camping at a camp ground in a national park is fine. Those places are packed. i would definitely do that over some cheep, seedy motel.

Not hard to find a few who didn't.

I can't understand why poor people are posting on DCUM? I thought everyone here is DC UMC?

Anonymous wrote:This is what Cheryl Strayed said about being out in the wild on her own as a woman.

“I knew that if I allowed fear to overtake me, my journey was doomed. Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose to tell myself a different story from the one women are told. I decided I was safe. I was strong. I was brave. Nothing could vanquish me.”

Obviously you need to do what's best for you but I thought this was relevant.

Respectfully, you really know nothing at all about camping if you think car camping is equivalent to going off trail alone on the Pacific Crest Trail. Its approximately the same difference as taking a day hike on the C&O Canal versus summitting a mountain overseas.

I would do it, get some pepper spray if you're worried.

People are mixing two things: car camping and backbacking. Nix the backpacking alone. Its not rape and murder that are the statistical risks, but getting lost, getting hurt, getting giardia from a stream, etc. Better to encounter those risks with a buddy! But car camping at KOAs or the like along the highway? Safer than a sketch motel by a long shot. Someone busts the lock on your hotel room or follows you in and you are toast - no one is going to bust into a hotel room to save you. But in a car camping camp ground there are families with kids EVERYWHERE. You will not be alone, you'll be hanging out with half of middle America.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know that you'd save much money. I camp a lot alone with my kids. But not sure I'd do it alone. You'll do are better saving money be carrying a cooler and buying groceries to eat instead of eating out during your drive. Lots of cheap motels that are likely to be easier and cheaper than camping. Or sleep in your car - but then you have a bathroom problem.

I'm not sure why several people are saying you won't save much money. Even right outside of DC, the tent sites are maybe $25.

If you buy equipment and never use it again, you'll lose money. But if you borrow it, rent it onsite, or go camping again you'd come ahead of all but the truly most disgusting motels in the country.

$35-55 for a basic site. Still you'd save money over a hotel, unless it's a $69 Motel 6.

I'd probably stay at campsites in touristy areas, and in my car in more desolate areas.

Anonymous wrote:This is what Cheryl Strayed said about being out in the wild on her own as a woman.

“I knew that if I allowed fear to overtake me, my journey was doomed. Fear, to a great extent, is born of a story we tell ourselves, and so I chose to tell myself a different story from the one women are told. I decided I was safe. I was strong. I was brave. Nothing could vanquish me.”

Obviously you need to do what's best for you but I thought this was relevant.

I read her book, and I think she's an idiot who got extremely lucky. Not just with regards to hiking/camping, but also with every other dumbass situation she put herself in. I wouldn't use her as an example of how to hike, camp, or live life in general.

OP, I think your chances of being raped and murdered while camping are very slim. Your chances of being killed in a car accident while driving across the country are surely higher.

However, I would practice before you go so you know what you're doing in terms of setting up your tent and sleeping bag.

Anonymous wrote:I don't know that you'd save much money. I camp a lot alone with my kids. But not sure I'd do it alone. You'll do are better saving money be carrying a cooler and buying groceries to eat instead of eating out during your drive. Lots of cheap motels that are likely to be easier and cheaper than camping. Or sleep in your car - but then you have a bathroom problem.

I'm not sure why several people are saying you won't save much money. Even right outside of DC, the tent sites are maybe $25.

If you buy equipment and never use it again, you'll lose money. But if you borrow it, rent it onsite, or go camping again you'd come ahead of all but the truly most disgusting motels in the country.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When I was 22 I drove cross country by myself and slept at rest stops. I lived to tell the tale, though my mother wasn't pleased.

I wouldn't do this. My cousins best friend was murdered at the rest area on 64 west in between RIchmond and Williamsburg, the murder is unsolved and Patricia Cornwell wrote a book about it.

That sounds really awful and I'm sorry it happened, but the fact that it was unique enough to write a book about suggests its not exactly an everyday occurrence.

wow i can't believe so many people are against this. I know a few females who have hiked the entire AT alone and lived to tell.

Camping at a camp ground in a national park is fine. Those places are packed. i would definitely do that over some cheep, seedy motel.

Female here- I've done a lot of camping and a lot of crazy sh!t but I'd only do it if I was sleeping in the car.

I don't know that you'd save much money. I camp a lot alone with my kids. But not sure I'd do it alone. You'll do are better saving money be carrying a cooler and buying groceries to eat instead of eating out during your drive. Lots of cheap motels that are likely to be easier and cheaper than camping. Or sleep in your car - but then you have a bathroom problem.

No way. I have done a lot of camping. Never, never would I do this.

I have known two people who died camping alone. Both were guys too. I would say not safe but much in life isn't safe. Take precautions.