SAFETY WHILE TRAVELLING ALONE
Hello All, I am new here. In the future I would like to live and travel full time in my truck camper. At least for a few years after I retire, maybe forever : ) My question is about personal safety...
Forum Discussion
I have camped alone since 1991, probably around 1000 nights by now. I am often far from other campers, since I really enjoy dispersed camping. I've learned that safety is not a gender issue. Being and staying safe is mostly mental. You don't have anyone to watch your back while you are alone, so get used to taking care of yourself. Keep yourself healthy and alert and keep your vehicle in good condition. Know where you are. In various settings, imagine what you could use to defend yourself if something bad happened right then.
Don't forget that you might be your own worst enemy; stumble over something and you can pass into victim status really quickly. Fortunately, the stumble that put me into the hospital for 3 days when 500 miles from home did not occur while I was alone.
Do not go into or stay in an unsafe situation (I like the "spidey sense" comments above). If you drive into a camp area and there is broken glass, trash, graffiti everywhere, I'd say just leave right then even if it is the only camp area around. Sometimes even places which appear safe do not stay that way. I once went from living area to driver's seat in my Class C and drove away when a situation which had appeared safe changed dramatically. A camp neighbor who was also alone started yelling and throwing his outdoor furniture around. Why sit there and wait for him to attack me or my gear when he ran out of other stuff to break up? I left.
Have a reliable communication device (I recently upgraded to an InReach satellite messenger). Give your itinerary to a trusted person and tell them what to do if they do not hear from you by a certain day/time.
Solo travel takes more than a bit of getting used to. For me, it is great now, but my first 24-hour solo trip was a torture of looking at my watch and asking myself if I could leave yet; there were no safety issues, it's just that I was not yet used to being alone.
Don't forget that you might be your own worst enemy; stumble over something and you can pass into victim status really quickly. Fortunately, the stumble that put me into the hospital for 3 days when 500 miles from home did not occur while I was alone.
Do not go into or stay in an unsafe situation (I like the "spidey sense" comments above). If you drive into a camp area and there is broken glass, trash, graffiti everywhere, I'd say just leave right then even if it is the only camp area around. Sometimes even places which appear safe do not stay that way. I once went from living area to driver's seat in my Class C and drove away when a situation which had appeared safe changed dramatically. A camp neighbor who was also alone started yelling and throwing his outdoor furniture around. Why sit there and wait for him to attack me or my gear when he ran out of other stuff to break up? I left.
Have a reliable communication device (I recently upgraded to an InReach satellite messenger). Give your itinerary to a trusted person and tell them what to do if they do not hear from you by a certain day/time.
Solo travel takes more than a bit of getting used to. For me, it is great now, but my first 24-hour solo trip was a torture of looking at my watch and asking myself if I could leave yet; there were no safety issues, it's just that I was not yet used to being alone.
