Finally, a topic I can speak to. As a dedicated hoopless goretex bivysac user, almost all my backpacking is cowboy camping. I roll out my sleeping pad, roll out my bivy sac and I'm done. In the morning, I reverse order and I'm getting in 5 miles before I'm awake. The sac keeps out bugs, rain, critters, adds a layer of insulation. I keep my pack beside me with a rain cover over it. I chose synthetic bags to keep warm even if wet. I do carry a 12 x 12 nylon tarp weighing 1lb and recommend hanging it as a precaution. Just move under it if needed. That means staying below treeline unless very sure of weather. I developed this system to do ultralight before gear specifically designed for ultralight existed. It was pretty inexpensive as well. Hope that helps!
Re: cuddly snakes I volunteered at a nature center in high school and one day this woman came in looking shaken carrying a plastic box. She handed it over quickly and said "please take care of this" It was a good sized western king snake. Apparently she woke up having fallen asleep on a couch on a four seasons porch to find the snake cuddled up with her for warmth. Since he wasn't a native species in our area and was super friendly (maybe an escaped pet?) we kept him for naturalist talks on our back office where he got to get fat and happy and live a pretty chill life.
Speaking of cowboy camping opportunities, have you penciled-in any plans to through-hike the Hayduke or PNT over the next few years? A few years back I was cowboy camping on High Divide in Olympic National Park at a perfect spot to catch the sunrise. I woke up after a great night's sleep and was startled to find that an entire herd of elk had crept in to completely surrounded me. A ranger later said they do that a lot - and effectively use humans as a means to discourage predators from bothering them. Happy to oblige!
A fox came to me at night while I was cowboy camping and stole my shoes , lucky for me I had them tied together , so the small fox couldn't run with them too far. It was a bit scary as the fox was sniffing my head and I was using my shoes as a pillow. once he grabbed one pair and ran off the other one bumped my head waking me up. I used my flash light and saw him trying to run with my shoes, I didn't bother running after him. the other shoe was probably bumping into him as well.
I just remembered. My first backpacking trip with my Grandmother when I was 5, she just spread a blue tarp on the ground, put our sleeping bags down on it, and folded the tarp over the bottom of the bags. Great memories! Thank you! Scott
One of my buddies likes to talk about the "tarp taco" where, if the rain comes up, you just pull the tarp over you for a bit. Not the best idea if prolonged rainfall is in the forecast, but a simple contingency for weather.
@@laur-unstagenameactuallyca1587 Yes, My Grandmother took my brothers and my cousin and I backpacking every summer from the time I was 5 through high school years. We have many happy memories! Now my cousin and I take his kids each year.
I had a wild bull snake that used to curl up with me all the time in the texas panhandle. As soon as I would light the fire he would crwal out and up into my lap. He really liked to stretch out across the drive way before I'd get home. He was not a pet. Wild as could be just at great rodent control and never got rid of him. Never had an issue with rattlers either.
One of the few times I've cowboy-camped was while in the mountains of southern Arizona. The forecast was clear for the quick planned overnight. So, I left the tent at home and set up on a ridge with expansive views to the east and west. It was a beautiful star filled night with all the expected attributes of sleeping out in the open. But, sure enough around 5 in the morning, while sound asleep on my back, I felt a single splat of water on my forehead. After that one drop of water, and a couple of others, I was, literally, awake and fully packed in less than 10 minutes. Only a few more drops fell and the sun was coming up. The wind and clouds were coming from the west and provided me with a spectacular colorful sunrise. Turning around I was face-to-face with clouds rising up and over the ridge at eye level. What made the moment so special was that I shot the best roll of film in my life. Every picture was a painting of mountains and clouds. If I had been in a tent, I would have been oblivious to the raw beauty. If you click on my youtube avatar, the banner photo on my page was taken from that morning.
@@abcsandoval All of the green shades are from Aspens, Ponderosa Pine, various oaks and some Juniper. The highest peak (hidden by the clouds) also has spruce. It's hard to believe that the forested peak is 9466 feet in elevation and is just 7 trail miles from the Mexican border.
@@michaelharris4503 In the Huachuca Mountains. The ridge in the story is above Miller Canyon on the east side. The Arizona Trail goes right across the ridge to the west side of the range and goes north from there. The overnight hike I did was in 1997.
Dixie, met you on my 2016 hike of the AT. You was hanging with the 7 member family that did it 2015. I think. Like your videos. Keep it up girl. Take care and keep one foot in front of the other.
Howdy, Dixie! A few years ago, we did a Living History horseback trip, in which all our gear was based on 18th century items. It was a "Hunt, or Starve" Scout, in which we covered 130 miles in the mountains of South Eastern Idaho, using only map and compass to guide us. We were allowed only 6 ounces of jerked meat, and 1 1/2 cups of parched corn, each, and everything else we ate had to be gathered, hunted, or otherwise found in Nature. We slept in our clothing, wrapped in our saddle blankets, with a small bit of painted canvas to shield us from rain and cold. It was an exceedingly hard, and yet amazing trip!! I can send you some photos, if you would like to see a glimpse of what we did. THAT trip, was "cowboy camping", at it's extreme!! Thanks for the great video on this topic, and God Bless! - Doc Mark
Cowboy camping is the norm in Oz where we use Swags and I mostly camp for work. Had a wild camel come through one night when I was out one night on my own.., all I saw was this huge shadow looming over me and could see it’s breath in the air..so I just hid under the swag and was as quiet as a mouse 😅. Camels are like elephants, very dainty on their feet. So it had a good sniff over everything including me and eventually slowly left camp.
Thank you for doing a vid on this. I've been cowboy camping 35 yrs. ever since I left boy scouts as I hated carrying a tent. In the southwest, no snakes in bags, no bears sniffing me, and I've seen way more shooting stars and meteor showers. Just get a good bag that resists wind. Wind can be an issue so your ground cloth should be big enough to wrap up like a burrito.
Great video Dixie. Lol the "snake ex" comment. Can't beat "cowboy camping" (in UK known as bivvying short for bivouacing). An excellent book is "The book of the bivy" - very helpful. Some extra tips - use a bivy bag to keep sleeping bag dry; keep stuff organised & in dry bags so not spread out in case weather turns; unless have bug net, do minimum daily body tick checks. Final tip - relax & enjoy true freedom - mother nature has the best TV / social media!
Only issue I've found with bivvying is the condensation on a morning. It's fine if you have time to dry things out, but if its hammering it down and you have to pack up quick sharpish it's a pain in the arse
My most memorable cowboy camp would have to be along the river. All I had was sleeping bag and food. Slept out under the stars in the raft. One of the most comfortable nights of sleep I can remember.
I started cowboy camping just because I thought putting up a tent was odd when I was there to enjoy nature and also, why the extra work? That was my mentality. I also found out that few can soak your blankets in the morning so now I sleep on a tarp with half exposed so when I wake up before dawn I can pull it over me and wake up dry. Or if it gets windy or rainy at night I put the tarp over me and sleep soundly. Great video! Thanks for covering the topic so well!
I have cowboy camped, rarely, on the AT (spectacular view of Halbop Comet) and on local camp outs in Ohio as the morning dew levels can virtually soak the top of your bag. We mitigate this by sleeping on a ground cloth big enough to wrap yourself like a taco toward the morning. Cowboy camping was much more doable out west, specifically Big Bend NP, where the lack of morning dew and low humidity all but eliminates wet gear in the morning. On a windy night cowboy camping in Big Bend, however, my gear and I woke up pretty gritty (particularly my mouth, nose & eyes) from blowing fine sand. Every once in and a while, and in the right weather conditions, it is great to experience the great outdoors up close and personal!
Love your work, as always. Your advice about camping on a trail. Back in 1993, my daughter and I camped on our mining company (wilderness) property in southern Utah. We were awoken by an airplane landing less than 100 feet from our tent. Sand Wash Air Strip by Nine Mile Canyon, Utah . Lat./Long. (DD) 39.830786°, -109.930908°, Elev. 5376 ft. It was then I found out river (Green River) rafters were using our property as a staging area. Good advice.
It's funny, growing up my church always had a girls camp for a week up in the Lake Tahoe area in CA. From the age of 12, we all had to cowboy camp (unless it was raining) every night. It never seemed strange to me because that's just what we did. Now as an adult I'm grateful for that as I don't mind "roughing it". Another great video Dixie 😁
Dixie! Nice video, you have a lot of great ideas and suggestions about how somebody can ease into trying out cowboy camping. One thing you didn’t mention in your video but is a great piece of gear is a bivy sac! You’re protected from nature, they’re typically waterproof, they protect your gear, and you can zip yourself in should the weather take a turn for the worst! They also help to insulate you from the wind. Keep up the great work!
I just can't with all the bus. Did 850km hiking in Italy just now and could not have a single night without the net. But I did put net only (like the netted bivvy option you describe) sometimes and it was perfect. What I'd like to find now is a self-standing lightweight netted bivvy, meaning one I don't need pegs to make it stand. Useful on concrete ground, hard rocky ground, or ... church courtyards, yup, been there too.
If you want to try cowboy camping but ease into it, try setting up your shelter, but don't sleep in it. Set up to sleep next to it or a short distance away, and see how it goes. If it starts to rain or get windy, you can always just pick up your sleeping pad & bag and get inside your already set-up tent.
I'd recomend a ground cloth large enough for you to fold over or roll up in it in case of rain or for just a little more warmth. I just call this sleeping under the stars. To me cowboy camping would involve horses and a pot of beans cooked over a fire. And cattle.
I used a Fjellduken Jerven Extreme bivy type bag lasy year on a cross country motorcycle tour. It's heavy by the standards of ultralight backpacking equipment, but it incorporates several pieces of equipment in one. It's big enough to crawl completely inside, but it can also be used to make a shelter or even a hammock. I was able to sleep in the temperatures in the thirties (°F) although it was not entirely comfortable. I also used a emergency tarp as a ground cover to protect my investment. It was nice to be able to just throw down my camp without all the work of setting up a tent.
I learned the hardway to prepare for bad weather when i was up in the swedish mountains and they had predicted good weather so i just picked the most beautiful spot(no tent spot around) and a snowstorm rolled in. Had to hike about 5-10min during the night in the snowstorm to find a place to put my tent. Lesson learned! But a lot of great tips, preparing to fly over the Atlantic to hike the appalachian next year and your videos help alot!
Cowboy camping was typically done with a group-one person continued to stoke the fire to keep it going and rotated out after an hour or two. Plus sleeping out required heavy canvas bag- if it started to rain you just flipped the canvas over you. Also in the old days- everyone is armed- conservation of large predators was unheard of nor encouraged.
My favorite cowboy camp, sleeping on a bluff over looking a lake in the high cascades of Oregon. no electric lights in miles staring up at the milky way, pondering the universe. priceless
I did the same thing and had the same experience when I backpacked in Colorado. I cowboy camped by Lake Dillion, there was no light pollution at all for miles. I could see so many stars and I even seen an object enter the atmosphere glowing red. It was simply amazing and pictures couldn't do justice.
@@bdickinson6751 research flat earth... I can help. There is no universe but a hard firmament that all the stars are in. It proves the Bible to be true. A few hints: star trail videos make a perfect circle with a stationary polaris. water level, the moon is its own local light as is the sun and clouds can be seen in front of and behind it.
Happy Days Stumbled on one of your videos a little while back and since then have watched dozens of them. All entertaining and educational. Now here's the 1st one for me with the ink still wet on it...... ~ jumping up and down ~ I always set up my tent before cowboy camping. That way when the weather changes in the middle of the night ( Murphy's Law ) I have some where to run and hide.
I cowboy camped in the Sierras except when there was snow. I didn't even have a pad. I didn't know any other way. Bugs are mostly active in the evening and then went away later.
Polycryo is just heat-shrink window wrap. Buy at the hardware store, much cheaper than the UL websites and you get a large enough piece to split with a few friends. Surprisingly tough, highly recommended. I recently started using a polycryo / bugnet bivy / A-frame tarp combo, and one of the nice things is it gives you flexibility to use any combination depending on conditions, though camping out east we get such heavy dew I don’t think I’d try camping without the tarp even on a clear night.
I may have to try this sometime. Helps that living in New Zealand means no dangerous animals to worry about (never seen a snake, none in country). Down side is it rains here. A lot.
Have you gone (Ozzy) bag camping? I know they weigh a ton, so just curious. One advantage of cowboy camping, if you are expecting high winds, you can camp in a bush, under low hanging trees, or in a depression. I learned cowboy camping the old fashion way, Search and Rescue. In the summer only one in 10 brought a tent. Suggestions, place a tarp over you ground barrier, then sleeping bag, then fold the tarp over top. This way it will collect the dew. And if it starts raining, just pull the tarp over your head.
One of my favorite things... sleep under the stars with my iPhone and the app "NightSky"... incredibly educational watching the earth rotate against the background of stars, finding constellations and star names, even specific information on each star giving size, brightness, distance from Sol, etc... when you wake in the dark, every thing has moved... all of this gives a person a real understanding of physical astronomy. Bring a large backup battery pack just for this purpose... it's WORTH the weight!
In the U.K. we call it Wild Camping but it's the same thing. I love it because the simplicity puts me there with nature and nothing in the way. The stars are awesome and the sense of calm I get is wonderful. I always camp solo by choice, but then we don't have bears. Now you've done the Camino you should try the South West Coast Path in England; plenty of wild camping opportunities there and stunning scenery.
I spent years cowboy camping on river trips, but lost my taste for it. I also went to bed drunk most of those nights and rarely do now, so there might be a correlation in there somewhere.
Use bivouac bivi bags for sleeping without tents They are breathable and waterproof and don’t need a groundsheet And a poncho with that will keep you completely waterproof
Hey, I have been a cowboy all my life and didn't even know it. We always called it 'sleeping out'. When I graduated from high school I got a motorcycle and 'cowboy camped' all over the US, Canada and Mexico. The best part, other than stars, is meeting all the animals, big and small. The only problems I ever had were from the two legged kind. Most animals are interesting to watch and even bears can be dealt with but the worst are skunks. Those little buggers get kind of ornery and don't leave until they are good and ready. The scariest are large wild boar but if you surprise them they are hilarious, bucking and snorting and farting and running in all directions. In South Georgia the locals were terrified that I was going to sleep on the ground and told me I needed a 'grass rope' to put around my sleeping bag to keep the snakes out. In the Canadian Rockies a neighbor left his cooler inside his tent and I watched a grizzly go in his new back door and take the cooler out his new side door. We ran her off a couple times but she just kept coming back. The Rangers finally 'moved' her. Raccoons are the best, so intelligent and the opossums bring the whole family. Flying squirrels and birds, you miss all that in a tent.
Borah bivy makes a good sack for cowboy camping. If the weather & bugs are at bay, you can sleep with the head net section off (and I often do). If the weather & bugs start attacking, pitch the tarp and/or zip up the head net section & go back to sleep. The water resistant cover helps keep the bag dry when the dew hits. I'd caution the practice in tick areas, though. I've always been fine in the Sierra high country. The only time I've ever gotten a tick bite while cowboy camping (didn't zip up the bivy) was on the CA coast. I now use a fully-enclosed tent setup out there.
Years ago, I was a Wildland Firefighter. We spike camped (Cowboy) on a regular basis; the best advice I learned to give is always check for bug holes when you select a spot. It only takes one anthill to learn this. One summer in the Northern California, I woke up to something crawling in my sleeping bag- on my chest. I reached up to my pack to grab my headlamp, pulled back the flap of my sleeping bag and turned on the light. 2 Scorpions. 10 years later I still get the willies.
That false sense of security is me for sure. When I was hiking in Big Bend National Park I just couldn't bring myself to cowboy camp. I know a bug net isn't going to stop a Black Bear or Mountain Lion(which they have in the park), but I still felt safer with those walls around me. I did leave my rain-fly off though, so that I could stare at the stars on the moonless nights.
It's not a false sense of security. Those animals don't know what a tent is. They smell something but because of the size of the tent it confuses them. A tent provides some real security from bears and cats. It can take them many minutes to even figure out that it's just a thin sheet.
My most memorable semi-cowboy camp, in my tent without the fly, next to a river in the hundred mile wilderness in September. I had a small view of the sky and stars and the sound of the river... my best night on the trail ever. 😊
I once cowboy camped on a tiny beach next to a river, in Northern California. The stars were amazing, and I purposely kept myself awake as long I could, to stare at the sky. Another time, I was car camping and decided to camp outside the tent, but on my cot. I woke up in the morning to the most amazing pre-sunrise, with a tiny sliver of moon low in the sky.
" speed bump for a grizzly bear" 😆 I'm from the south too Dixie, I love your ability to explain things, using mental images! "Priceless" please keep the videos coming
Very good video. Clint Eastwood is a real veteran too. A bug net over a boonie hat works very well for a variety of situations. It makes silk blazing tolerable. At FT Huachuca, a rattler slid into the bag of a girl from GA back in the 70s. It bit her in the morning. She calmly beat the everloving out of the snake and got medivaced to a hospital. She stayed there for 3 days. That very impressed all of the rest of us. Good Luck, Rick
This is the way we camped when I was a kid, and as I got older. On top of the blanket or bag in summer. Under the blanket or in the bag in spring & fall. A tube tent if it rained.
I slept outside on a weekend trip in the Red River Gorge Area and contracted ehrlichioisis from a tick though I can't be positive it attached during the night. I love sleeping outside but I hate the ER more
Spent many nights with just a tarp for shelter, when I took an outward bound course we had a 12x12 plastic sheet for shelter and used our iceaxes as tent poles.
I'd say that the way you camp depends on where you live, hike, and backpack. In my senior years, I primarily hang my hat in the US Northeast. The old saying is "If you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes". The reason the NE US is so green is because we get a lot of rain. We use to get more snow too. I always check the weather forecast before heading out to the bush, and back in the dark ages, I carried a weather band radio to warn us of thunderstorms coming our way later in the day. I still have and and still use it. I use Maps and compass, and keep track of where I am. I was never interested in Cowboy Camping, too many bugs, spiders, snakes, etc. In order to get a view of the stars at night I bought a Mountain Hardware tent with a large clear window in the top of the fly, and we had a clear view on top of our favorite spot on top of a Plateau thru from the front of our tent too. Awesome, safe, dry, and no bugs. You only get in what bugs you let in. As I've gotten older, I prefer to Car Camp. Set up a base tent, and do day hikes around the state forest or wild area all day, go back to the base camp at the end of the day, get cleaned up, eat, and veg.
When I was younger none of us could afford a tent so cowboy camping is all we did, and a lot of it. Of course I grew up in San Diego so we were camping in Laguna’s or the desert or my favorite, the beach, and it hardly ever rained. Today I still love cowboy camping as my preferred method of sleep for so many reasons. I love seeing the stars as I fall asleep, I don’t have to wonder what’s making the noise outside of my tent, and especially when I get to camp and I’m really tired it is so much easier. Finally, it’s so much easier if you have to get up in the middle of the night to pee.
Love to cowboy camping. I find that it allows me to camp in hotter weather because at night there is a little more wind to keep me cooler. So it adds one more season of backpacking.
Had a kid wake up after a night camping in an open lean-to... with porcupine quills all over the foot of his sleeping bag. Seems the porcupine snuggled up to him to get warm for the night... and the kid didn't even wake up cause he was used to sleeping with his cat at home. Yup, I'd be concerned about other critters too. LOL
Like the bubble-wrap car-windshield thing, pair with a no-floor tent or tarp. Some sleep envelopes have a pretty durable pad sleeve as well, where its fabric may help protect the pad. Pad designers are creating more robust sides to inflatable pads or models more specific to durability. Great video. I personally cowboy camp alot if I am not in my hammock. The mummy-shaped well-insulated pad fits into a super-small 6 oz hammock, this way on steep slopes or over marsh I can set right up. I have my tarp ready in its "snakesl skins" for deployment. Ground or hammock I believe in snake-skin type items for rapid tarp deployment & control. I hate the stake: crawling around the ground tring to stake stuff. A pile of stakes poking holes in a $100 raincoat. Loosing stakes. Try pounding in stakes anywhere below freezing. Go cowboy camping with a tarp or hammock & forget wearing out your hands & knees staking, dirty pants looking like a hobo in town. Make it clean & easy. For a bit of warmth on your face or security throw your raincoat over your head or pull it down hammock ridhe line. Anyway ..yeah ..happy trials & trails!
As always Great ! I'm watching as I am getting ready to head to the AT. Took care of 2 miles back a few years ago and said to myself and the Thru Hikers I WILL DO THIS one day. And that day starts in April 14 ish ! ! AKA ROCKY
My dad grew up on Black mountain (KY) a and when they went hunting they never slept in anything. Just the ground. And he said one time they woke up in the morning seeing lines in the loose dirt. And they were confused, so they looked around them and saw a snake. Just a black snake, but he said he never just slept on just the ground again. Lol
A tent is a personal space and it is something that you get comfort from. If you look at a real cowboy bed roll there is a lot of tarp. As a kid I camped with a bedroll and spent two very shitty nights using a tarp laying over me with stick holding it off my head.. I like sleeping out in the open.. but sometimes I set up a tent and sleep out of it because I am timid in my old age...
Great videos. A knowledgeable person who doesn't come across as arrogant. Pleasant voice and able to explain things in an easy to follow way. Pleasant to look at also !
I loved using a polycro sheet for my tent and cowboy camping on the AT last year. Heard about it from another UA-camr and his advice was to buy the heavy-duty window insulation film (twice the regular thickness) and cut it easily to size. Weighs nothing and lasted all 2000+ miles.
In Australia they call it a Swag (bedroll). I'm not form there and I prefer the hammock (I have them with and without mosquito net) but if there's no trees I do have a piece of tarp (cheap one they use on construction sites to cover up stuff cut to body+ size) as ground protection and a waterproof bivy bag. In colder times I have one of those reflective windshield protectors against freezing for trucks or cars as ground protection. Very cheap, light weight and pack up pretty small. I always have one of those mosquito head nets with me. Since I'm a tree hanger by preference and like the more wet climates I also have a tarp or a poncho I can use as a tarp. The one thing I rarely use is a tent. I did buy one in Colombia (a cheap small one) because of a bit more privacy (I was with a women) but after sleeping in it one night we only used it for putting the luggage in and for when we needed some privacy. We slept in the hammocks. But seeing the sky at night and sunrise is really pretty.
I've been cowboy camping for decades.... mainly because I didn't want to buy or carry a tent..... I'd lay my rig on a ridge and go to sleep.... If it looked like it might rain, I'd just throw a poncho over me.... I've never been rained out, although I have woken up with about four inches of snow on me in Spring in the White Mountains... In fact, I'm thinking of just ditching my tent, carry a tarp or a heavier poncho and just keep it simple.... It's a lot easier, and, it's less expensive....
I have cowboy camped year round for the last 50yrs. I use a loose tarp fly in rain only. I do have tents but only use them on the beach do to human animal issues. Always cook & store food/smells out of campsite. Had bears walk around others & thru camp many times with no issues. Note mice, bears, etc go to people with food/smells. Love to show others the tracks around them in the AM. Haha…
Just want to say: this video is an excellent example of the breadth, relevance, and detail in your videos. I subscribe because you consistently create the most organized, comprehensive, and instructive videos on hiking out there. Well done! Thank you for your efforts and intentions.
This is my dad's first cowboy camping experience. He was backpacking up in the mountains with some friends, who were all in their early teens. When they got to where they were going to spend the night, they were to tired to set up camp and decided to cowboy camp. My dad was about 10 feet away from his friends, (no clue why.) They were all asleep, accept for my dad. When all of a sudden he hears crashing in the bushes, big crashes. Frightened he pulls his sleeping bag up over his head and froze. He could hear it walking in his direction. It stopped right beside him, he could feel it sniffing him and then a hard pressure on his elbow. Whatever it was pulled him up into a sitting position, held him there for a couple seconds and let go. He flopped to the ground like a dead body and didn't move until morning. When they got home, they found out that there was a grizzly bear in the area. So yeah, my dad got bit by a grizzly bear. Safe to say my dad doesn't camp without a tent anymore, LOL.
I'm thinking I would have emptied my 10mm at that point. I know, I'm very wrong for even thinking such a thing, but it IS what I'm thinking. Maybe I wouldn't even do it, but I'm thinking it.
Ive slept in my chair in front of a fire and that is the closest to cowboy camping I will ever come. The night time creepy crawlies are only part of the reason. I like the feeling of crawling into the tent, getting ready for bed and falling asleep in a familiar place. It makes the day feel like it's coming to a close and gives a sense of time passing. If I just slept on the ground, it wouldn't feel like the end of the day, the routine is important to me. I've slept many times with the fly peeled way back and having the giant sky over you is awesome, but those little walls just make it feel like home.
The permetherin is great stuff, I have watched a tick crawl off my warm Permetherin-treated sweatshirt sleeve to go onto a cold metal car window sill. It is absorbs into the skin 20 times less than Deet. I work in the wild during the thick of tick season and ALWAYS spray my gear with the stuff -- I have found far fewer ticks than other untreated crew members -- never had one attach. Still looking for a spray to keep Grizzlies from attaching. . .
My daughter and I really enjoyed cowboy camping while thru hiking the AT last year. We did it mostly in the fall, so the bugs weren’t too much of an issue. We love your videos Dixie! 😘
In addition to the wonderful night views, you alluded to the other mental and emotional benefit of cowboy camping when you described one of the "features" of using a tent. When I cowboy camp I'm not as separated from nature. There's something special about being more immersed in nature, after all that's what I'm out there for isn't it?
Cowboy camping is one camping experience that makes me stick with a sleeping bag instead of a quilt - too many places for crawling biters to gain access to fresh meat. A simple envelope style breathable bivy with an opening for your face would help (or a hammock, which I use 99% of the time along the AT and other eastern trails). I used to sleep on the ground, and enjoyed cowboy camping and tarp camping.
It actually helps to create a barrier around your body even if only 2 inches. I had to prove this to someone cause they didn't believe it. But they saw one of those spiders crawl up to the top..move it's legs in air and then went right back down. You'll probably still get some insects, but nothing like you would without a little tarp wall. I learned it from someone who cowboy camps frequently.
Thank you for this! I use a Borah gear ultralight bivy and love it! My worry is bugs and rodents and that helps me feel protected enough while still being present to my surroundings. I've read about people using a tent, shaking it around, to frighten off a bear that was getting too close. When you talked about snakes it reminded me of a great story in Craig Childs' book: "The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild". It is well worth reading! Thank you again! All the best, Scott
I once cowboy camped with a friend on a cliff overlooking a small, azure-blue and white-water river. After a day of water fun and lots of drinks we set a fire, ate, pitched our blankets and had a few more drinks. We woke late the next morning in the middle of 1,000? 2,000? sheep, grazing their way down the river cliff.
You are so thorough. 3 years ago I was cowboy camping on the south side of Roan Mt. on a big rock because there were no flat spots. I got bit on the head several times by I don't know what. It was worth it. Also, Eastwood and Wayne are the same in greatness.
Dew on the sleeping bag can be minimized if there is an evening breeze or if you camp in an area where you have a natural canopy (trees with leaves/needles) over you. Polycro is a duff magnet, not sure about "polycryo". Hammock (+1) w/non-deployed snakeskin tarp for cowboy camping.
This is about critters. This past January I was on the AT in PA with friends. One friend always brings his Chocolate Lab Charlie who we let "roam". One morning my alarm clock was hearing the leaves rustle. I opened my eyes and said "good morning Charlie" as he was nose to nose with me. It was the best wake up I have had on the trail and it would not have happened if I was in a tent. Charlie likes me. Racoons will run from me. Don't sweat it. Where we hike they know to run from us.
Maybe not what was intended, but if you can sleep on top of a picnic table, most critters will leave you alone. I did have a critter visit my camp near Flagstaff AZ and I threw my boot at it. Turns out it was a striped skunk. I was lucky not to get sprayed. Another time, in Tennessee, I went to bed under the brilliant starry night. No bugs without a light source btw. I woke up to a familiar smell, RAIN! There were no stars in the sky. I threw everything together and made a bee line to the showers, where I ate my breakfast. Lots of throwing when I go camping lolz. So, kudos if you can find anything elevated to sleep on, or use smoke from a fire (I didn't have a stove, so I used a fire for cooking) to keep the critters and bugs away.
You are so right about having that false sense of security. I have tried several times to sleep out, but just can't get past it. As a kid I use to sleep on my grandparents porch. The possums, and the coins would wake me up, and freak me out. They wouldn't of hurt me, just always unexpected. Keep on keeping on! Flat lander from Kansas
Hey Dixie, On a Field Training Exercise at Ft Bragg NC, mid summer, we had a night of black out. No flash lights or fires or smoking. My buddy and I dig a 2 man foxhole and slept in a gentle rain with a poncho over the top My buddy elbowed me gently later on and in the quietest whisper said my name, with fear in his voice. “There is a snake crawling on my leg. What should we do?” I suggested the hole was not big enough for the three of us. “If we bust out and jump, on three, we have the least chance of being bitten! I whispered. 1,2,GO!” The USArmy Training staff were not impressed but no one within a mile had so much as a match to see what kind of snake if it was still on the hole. We walked the line of defense (infantry battle exercise) and the reaction was like July 4th. Thousands of rounds by our opponents fired of blanks in rifles and 30 cal Machine gun cadence. I’m not traumatized rather entertained by the memory. But camping I never pick up any clothing or put on shoes or boots without checking. The snake was looking for cover from rain just like us. And being from the South I’ve never Cowboy camped without being rained on but maybe one night. I like having my territory clearly marked for critters and rain.
Pines are also good trees to shelter under to sleep, I haven’t done it but I know that it is possible from hearing my father talk about it, the part giving the most shelter being the understory branches next to the ground.
Did enough "cowboy camping" in the Marines 50 years ago bugs snakes heat rain you name it, setting in a muddy water filled hole in the ground soaking wet even with a poncho funny thing though I'd do it all over again
My grandfather loved the Marines for that exact reason. A mortar crewman in the '50s, he said he was camping for a living, he just didn't like camping without Gram!
Oh yeah, March 1963, desert exercise at 29 Stumps. It was a real challenge setting up the CP tent at night in 25+ mph winds. Us lowlife enlisted had to sleep outside in 35 deg weather with only a field jacket for warmth. How about Case Springs at CamPen, Northern Area on Oki? And later in the 'Nam. No fond memories for sure. NO, I would not do it again.
We had to smoke the hell out of our area for a while on a summer overnight hike! I've always referred to it as "sleeping under the stars" and Norwegian it's "under open sky"
I used to cowboy camp (not while hiking) mostly for 3 reasons 1) time, 2) dew, and 3) less work. The way I did it was I removed my air mattress and tent canopy, using the pack as a pillow. The tent canopy was for bugs. The next morning you rolled those 2 items up and you were done,
1) String snake-skinned tarp overhead, but don't deploy it. If it rains, deploy takes seconds, not minutes. 2) Dew wets out insulating layers out West. Reduce dew by blocking night-sky, with a) foliage overhead, b) a reflective layer (Tyvek has an aluminized version that breathes), c) prevent air-flow contacting the insulating layer (bivy), d) clouds also block sky-shine, as long as it doesn't rain. 3) Bugs/critters. Bivy or embrace-the-suck? 4) Cowboy camping's the best out West where it rarely rains. Nothing compares.
I've "cowboy camped" for years on backpacking trips/motorcycle trips when the weather is right. Why take the time to set up & breakdown a tent when you don't have to. Like you said, cooler weather is key for keeping the bugs away. I hike with friends that absolutely refuse to sleep outside of a tent/shelter due to their false sense of security that a tent provides when it comes to wildlife, bears etc. Nothing like waking up in the middle of the night peeping through your tightly drawn mummy bag to see the star filled sky or at first light having your sleeping bag covered in frost. Everyone should try it!
Went on a kayak camp trip, was sharing a tent with a very loud snorer. Decided to sleep on the ground next to the fire. 5 or 6 barred owls landed in the trees around the campsite and had a conversation above me for a few hours. Now I bring earplugs.
I used to cowboy camp at girlscout camporee because we would have so many people out anyways it was a much more convenient way to camp a lot of people than having everyone in their own tent. It made for a good slumberparty experience. It was also way less nerve racking because my friends were their with me. So if you're really scared of cowboy camping, maybe do it with a whole group in close proximity for the first time so that you feel less alone. This can also be fun if there's something like a meteor shower cause you can all point out the cool stuff to each other, or if you just have someone who's particularly knowledgeable about astronomy.
Cowboy camping is awesome! Even without the mat on leaves when it's cool. In the cool snakes aren't going to leave there warm home. The only time I ever heard of that was as a teenager ( I'm 66 now), my father talked about when his brothers were teenagers (He's the baby at 89 now) and it was a case of boys will be boys if you know what I mean. Trust me there has been plenty of opportunities for that to happen down here in ga. Never happened in all the years I've been camping and fishing at the river to my neighbors or my family. Luv your videos. Keep um coming.
cowboy camping is one of the best experiences a human can have! i definitely know what you mean about “being a part of nature, not just passing through” ha ha i have controlled shooting stars with my excitement, i know we are all creating this beautiful masterpiece together! blessed hiking i love you! thanks for the show! eternally grateful!
LOL. My Dad was a cowboy. He worked in the the Owyhee Mountains of Idaho and would go out for two to three weeks at a time. He took me with him one summer when I was eleven. We never 'cowboy camped'. Why? Three reasons: scorpions, mountain lions, and pack horses. The first may seem overblown until you consider where we were- half a day to a days ride from the corral where we left the pickup and another half day drive to the nearest doctor. The second was a real danger. They hunted the cattle we herded and our horses. Sleeping outside was too dangerous. Third, horses need more than grass to live on, especially when they are worked hard. We had a string of six horses that rotated between being ridden, carrying supplies, and resting (no rider or cargo). The two pack horses carried feed for the horses, salt licks and fencing supplies, a supplies for my Dad and I. We slept on cots in a canvas walled and floored cabin style tent. We cooked on a white gas fueled Coleman stove; mostly canned foods and pancakes. My Dad and I could set up/tear down camp in about fifteen minutes. I remember him telling me it would take him about twenty minutes by himself, so I am not sure I was a huge help, lol. No campfires due to the danger of starting a wildfire. Long days (twelve to fourteen hours each), scorching summer heat, hard labor, blistered hands and saddle sore for days. Got bucked off twice, the second time into a barbed wire fence (the scars are still visible forty plus years later. It was the best summer ever.
Finally, a topic I can speak to. As a dedicated hoopless goretex bivysac user, almost all my backpacking is cowboy camping. I roll out my sleeping pad, roll out my bivy sac and I'm done. In the morning, I reverse order and I'm getting in 5 miles before I'm awake. The sac keeps out bugs, rain, critters, adds a layer of insulation. I keep my pack beside me with a rain cover over it. I chose synthetic bags to keep warm even if wet. I do carry a 12 x 12 nylon tarp weighing 1lb and recommend hanging it as a precaution. Just move under it if needed. That means staying below treeline unless very sure of weather. I developed this system to do ultralight before gear specifically designed for ultralight existed. It was pretty inexpensive as well. Hope that helps!
Re: cuddly snakes
I volunteered at a nature center in high school and one day this woman came in looking shaken carrying a plastic box. She handed it over quickly and said "please take care of this"
It was a good sized western king snake.
Apparently she woke up having fallen asleep on a couch on a four seasons porch to find the snake cuddled up with her for warmth.
Since he wasn't a native species in our area and was super friendly (maybe an escaped pet?) we kept him for naturalist talks on our back office where he got to get fat and happy and live a pretty chill life.
Respect to her for staying calm and wrangling that bad boy. Can't say I would have known what to do in that situation
Speaking of cowboy camping opportunities, have you penciled-in any plans to through-hike the Hayduke or PNT over the next few years? A few years back I was cowboy camping on High Divide in Olympic National Park at a perfect spot to catch the sunrise. I woke up after a great night's sleep and was startled to find that an entire herd of elk had crept in to completely surrounded me. A ranger later said they do that a lot - and effectively use humans as a means to discourage predators from bothering them. Happy to oblige!
The spider on the bag constitutes the beginning, middle, and end of the cowboy camping discussion.
justalurkr Haha!!! Same here. 😂
they just want to cuddle ;)
New Mexico has tarantulas the size of dinner plates. Saw one cross the road on the way to the Gila cliff dwellings. It’s a tent for me, dawg!
In that case, don't go camping at all.
Harmless daddylong legs. Not exactly a spider.
A fox came to me at night while I was cowboy camping and stole my shoes , lucky for me I had them tied together , so the small fox couldn't run with them too far.
It was a bit scary as the fox was sniffing my head and I was using my shoes as a pillow. once he grabbed one pair and ran off the other one bumped my head waking me up. I used my flash light and saw him trying to run with my shoes, I didn't bother running after him. the other shoe was probably bumping into him as well.
As a librarian, I am impressed by and appreciate your organization of the timecodes for topics in the description. Love a good outline.
For real though. Organization level: final boss.
I just remembered. My first backpacking trip with my Grandmother when I was 5, she just spread a blue tarp on the ground, put our sleeping bags down on it, and folded the tarp over the bottom of the bags. Great memories!
Thank you!
Scott
One of my buddies likes to talk about the "tarp taco" where, if the rain comes up, you just pull the tarp over you for a bit. Not the best idea if prolonged rainfall is in the forecast, but a simple contingency for weather.
what a nice memory :)
@@laur-unstagenameactuallyca1587 Yes, My Grandmother took my brothers and my cousin and I backpacking every summer from the time I was 5 through high school years. We have many happy memories! Now my cousin and I take his kids each year.
@@PassifloraCerulea Yes, and if you roll up in the tarp it is a "tarp burrito"!
I had a wild bull snake that used to curl up with me all the time in the texas panhandle. As soon as I would light the fire he would crwal out and up into my lap. He really liked to stretch out across the drive way before I'd get home. He was not a pet. Wild as could be just at great rodent control and never got rid of him. Never had an issue with rattlers either.
One of the few times I've cowboy-camped was while in the mountains of southern Arizona. The forecast was clear for the quick planned overnight. So, I left the tent at home and set up on a ridge with expansive views to the east and west. It was a beautiful star filled night with all the expected attributes of sleeping out in the open. But, sure enough around 5 in the morning, while sound asleep on my back, I felt a single splat of water on my forehead. After that one drop of water, and a couple of others, I was, literally, awake and fully packed in less than 10 minutes. Only a few more drops fell and the sun was coming up. The wind and clouds were coming from the west and provided me with a spectacular colorful sunrise. Turning around I was face-to-face with clouds rising up and over the ridge at eye level. What made the moment so special was that I shot the best roll of film in my life. Every picture was a painting of mountains and clouds. If I had been in a tent, I would have been oblivious to the raw beauty. If you click on my youtube avatar, the banner photo on my page was taken from that morning.
all that beautiful bright green contrasts with that ominous rolling cloud. Nice.
@@abcsandoval All of the green shades are from Aspens, Ponderosa Pine, various oaks and some Juniper. The highest peak (hidden by the clouds) also has spruce. It's hard to believe that the forested peak is 9466 feet in elevation and is just 7 trail miles from the Mexican border.
Great story!
Galiuro. I hike Mt Wrightson a few times a year ( I live in Tucson). Where were you ?
@@michaelharris4503 In the Huachuca Mountains. The ridge in the story is above Miller Canyon on the east side. The Arizona Trail goes right across the ridge to the west side of the range and goes north from there. The overnight hike I did was in 1997.
Dixie, met you on my 2016 hike of the AT. You was hanging with the 7 member family that did it 2015. I think. Like your videos. Keep it up girl. Take care and keep one foot in front of the other.
Howdy, Dixie! A few years ago, we did a Living History horseback trip, in which all our gear was based on 18th century items. It was a "Hunt, or Starve" Scout, in which we covered 130 miles in the mountains of South Eastern Idaho, using only map and compass to guide us. We were allowed only 6 ounces of jerked meat, and 1 1/2 cups of parched corn, each, and everything else we ate had to be gathered, hunted, or otherwise found in Nature. We slept in our clothing, wrapped in our saddle blankets, with a small bit of painted canvas to shield us from rain and cold. It was an exceedingly hard, and yet amazing trip!! I can send you some photos, if you would like to see a glimpse of what we did. THAT trip, was "cowboy camping", at it's extreme!! Thanks for the great video on this topic, and God Bless! - Doc Mark
Cowboy camping is the norm in Oz where we use Swags and I mostly camp for work. Had a wild camel come through one night when I was out one night on my own.., all I saw was this huge shadow looming over me and could see it’s breath in the air..so I just hid under the swag and was as quiet as a mouse 😅. Camels are like elephants, very dainty on their feet. So it had a good sniff over everything including me and eventually slowly left camp.
Thank you for doing a vid on this. I've been cowboy camping 35 yrs. ever since I left boy scouts as I hated carrying a tent.
In the southwest, no snakes in bags, no bears sniffing me, and I've seen way more shooting stars and meteor showers. Just get a good bag that resists wind. Wind can be an issue so your ground cloth should be big enough to wrap up like a burrito.
Great video Dixie. Lol the "snake ex" comment.
Can't beat "cowboy camping" (in UK known as bivvying short for bivouacing). An excellent book is "The book of the bivy" - very helpful.
Some extra tips - use a bivy bag to keep sleeping bag dry; keep stuff organised & in dry bags so not spread out in case weather turns; unless have bug net, do minimum daily body tick checks. Final tip - relax & enjoy true freedom - mother nature has the best TV / social media!
Only issue I've found with bivvying is the condensation on a morning. It's fine if you have time to dry things out, but if its hammering it down and you have to pack up quick sharpish it's a pain in the arse
My most memorable cowboy camp would have to be along the river. All I had was sleeping bag and food. Slept out under the stars in the raft. One of the most comfortable nights of sleep I can remember.
I started cowboy camping just because I thought putting up a tent was odd when I was there to enjoy nature and also, why the extra work? That was my mentality.
I also found out that few can soak your blankets in the morning so now I sleep on a tarp with half exposed so when I wake up before dawn I can pull it over me and wake up dry.
Or if it gets windy or rainy at night I put the tarp over me and sleep soundly.
Great video! Thanks for covering the topic so well!
I have cowboy camped, rarely, on the AT (spectacular view of Halbop Comet) and on local camp outs in Ohio as the morning dew levels can virtually soak the top of your bag. We mitigate this by sleeping on a ground cloth big enough to wrap yourself like a taco toward the morning. Cowboy camping was much more doable out west, specifically Big Bend NP, where the lack of morning dew and low humidity all but eliminates wet gear in the morning. On a windy night cowboy camping in Big Bend, however, my gear and I woke up pretty gritty (particularly my mouth, nose & eyes) from blowing fine sand. Every once in and a while, and in the right weather conditions, it is great to experience the great outdoors up close and personal!
Love your work, as always. Your advice about camping on a trail. Back in 1993, my daughter and I camped on our mining company (wilderness) property in southern Utah. We were awoken by an airplane landing less than 100 feet from our tent. Sand Wash Air Strip by Nine Mile Canyon, Utah
. Lat./Long. (DD) 39.830786°, -109.930908°, Elev. 5376 ft. It was then I found out river (Green River) rafters were using our property as a staging area. Good advice.
It's funny, growing up my church always had a girls camp for a week up in the Lake Tahoe area in CA. From the age of 12, we all had to cowboy camp (unless it was raining) every night. It never seemed strange to me because that's just what we did. Now as an adult I'm grateful for that as I don't mind "roughing it". Another great video Dixie 😁
Dixie! Nice video, you have a lot of great ideas and suggestions about how somebody can ease into trying out cowboy camping. One thing you didn’t mention in your video but is a great piece of gear is a bivy sac! You’re protected from nature, they’re typically waterproof, they protect your gear, and you can zip yourself in should the weather take a turn for the worst! They also help to insulate you from the wind. Keep up the great work!
I just can't with all the bus. Did 850km hiking in Italy just now and could not have a single night without the net. But I did put net only (like the netted bivvy option you describe) sometimes and it was perfect. What I'd like to find now is a self-standing lightweight netted bivvy, meaning one I don't need pegs to make it stand. Useful on concrete ground, hard rocky ground, or ... church courtyards, yup, been there too.
If you want to try cowboy camping but ease into it, try setting up your shelter, but don't sleep in it. Set up to sleep next to it or a short distance away, and see how it goes. If it starts to rain or get windy, you can always just pick up your sleeping pad & bag and get inside your already set-up tent.
I'd recomend a ground cloth large enough for you to fold over or roll up in it in case of rain or for just a little more warmth.
I just call this sleeping under the stars. To me cowboy camping would involve horses and a pot of beans cooked over a fire. And cattle.
I used a Fjellduken Jerven Extreme bivy type bag lasy year on a cross country motorcycle tour. It's heavy by the standards of ultralight backpacking equipment, but it incorporates several pieces of equipment in one. It's big enough to crawl completely inside, but it can also be used to make a shelter or even a hammock. I was able to sleep in the temperatures in the thirties (°F) although it was not entirely comfortable. I also used a emergency tarp as a ground cover to protect my investment. It was nice to be able to just throw down my camp without all the work of setting up a tent.
I learned the hardway to prepare for bad weather when i was up in the swedish mountains and they had predicted good weather so i just picked the most beautiful spot(no tent spot around) and a snowstorm rolled in. Had to hike about 5-10min during the night in the snowstorm to find a place to put my tent. Lesson learned!
But a lot of great tips, preparing to fly over the Atlantic to hike the appalachian next year and your videos help alot!
Cowboy camping was typically done with a group-one person continued to stoke the fire to keep it going and rotated out after an hour or two. Plus sleeping out required heavy canvas bag- if it started to rain you just flipped the canvas over you. Also in the old days- everyone is armed- conservation of large predators was unheard of nor encouraged.
My favorite cowboy camp, sleeping on a bluff over looking a lake in the high cascades of Oregon. no electric lights in miles staring up at the milky way, pondering the universe. priceless
An awesome experience in anyones book! The vastness of the universe is astonishingly mind blowing!
I did the same thing and had the same experience when I backpacked in Colorado. I cowboy camped by Lake Dillion, there was no light pollution at all for miles. I could see so many stars and I even seen an object enter the atmosphere glowing red. It was simply amazing and pictures couldn't do justice.
@@bdickinson6751 research flat earth... I can help. There is no universe but a hard firmament that all the stars are in. It proves the Bible to be true. A few hints: star trail videos make a perfect circle with a stationary polaris. water level, the moon is its own local light as is the sun and clouds can be seen in front of and behind it.
@@someoneofgods2620 why are all the other planets globes?
"If you think about your exes, I'm sure some of you have already cuddled with a snake at night!" hahaha I'm dying. Thank you, Dixie!
Lauren Roerick that was the best comment ever lol
Predbeau101 because having an ex is exclusive to women?
Forget SNAKE, I cuddled with the devil for 5 years, and still kept my soul, somehow.
@@superCappy27 he never said that
I wonder if that was in response to something I had read... I hope so, and if so, clever!!
Happy Days
Stumbled on one of your videos a little while back and since then have watched dozens of them. All entertaining and educational.
Now here's the 1st one for me with the ink still wet on it...... ~ jumping up and down ~
I always set up my tent before cowboy camping. That way when the weather changes in the middle of the night ( Murphy's Law ) I have some where to run and hide.
I cowboy camped in the Sierras except when there was snow. I didn't even have a pad. I didn't know any other way. Bugs are mostly active in the evening and then went away later.
I spray permethrin 10% on my jeans to repel ticks. It works very well.
"Cowboy camping" is how I learned that down has no loft when wet.
Polycryo is just heat-shrink window wrap. Buy at the hardware store, much cheaper than the UL websites and you get a large enough piece to split with a few friends. Surprisingly tough, highly recommended.
I recently started using a polycryo / bugnet bivy / A-frame tarp combo, and one of the nice things is it gives you flexibility to use any combination depending on conditions, though camping out east we get such heavy dew I don’t think I’d try camping without the tarp even on a clear night.
I may have to try this sometime. Helps that living in New Zealand means no dangerous animals to worry about (never seen a snake, none in country). Down side is it rains here. A lot.
Have you gone (Ozzy) bag camping? I know they weigh a ton, so just curious. One advantage of cowboy camping, if you are expecting high winds, you can camp in a bush, under low hanging trees, or in a depression. I learned cowboy camping the old fashion way, Search and Rescue. In the summer only one in 10 brought a tent. Suggestions, place a tarp over you ground barrier, then sleeping bag, then fold the tarp over top. This way it will collect the dew. And if it starts raining, just pull the tarp over your head.
One of my favorite things... sleep under the stars with my iPhone and the app "NightSky"... incredibly educational watching the earth rotate against the background of stars, finding constellations and star names, even specific information on each star giving size, brightness, distance from Sol, etc... when you wake in the dark, every thing has moved... all of this gives a person a real understanding of physical astronomy. Bring a large backup battery pack just for this purpose... it's WORTH the weight!
In the U.K. we call it Wild Camping but it's the same thing. I love it because the simplicity puts me there with nature and nothing in the way. The stars are awesome and the sense of calm I get is wonderful. I always camp solo by choice, but then we don't have bears.
Now you've done the Camino you should try the South West Coast Path in England; plenty of wild camping opportunities there and stunning scenery.
I spent years cowboy camping on river trips, but lost my taste for it. I also went to bed drunk most of those nights and rarely do now, so there might be a correlation in there somewhere.
Use bivouac bivi bags for sleeping without tents
They are breathable and waterproof and don’t need a groundsheet
And a poncho with that will keep you completely waterproof
Hey, I have been a cowboy all my life and didn't even know it. We always called it 'sleeping out'.
When I graduated from high school I got a motorcycle and 'cowboy camped' all over the US, Canada and Mexico. The best part, other than stars, is meeting all the animals, big and small. The only problems I ever had were from the two legged kind. Most animals are interesting to watch and even bears can be dealt with but the worst are skunks. Those little buggers get kind of ornery and don't leave until they are good and ready. The scariest are large wild boar but if you surprise them they are hilarious, bucking and snorting and farting and running in all directions. In South Georgia the locals were terrified that I was going to sleep on the ground and told me I needed a 'grass rope' to put around my sleeping bag to keep the snakes out. In the Canadian Rockies a neighbor left his cooler inside his tent and I watched a grizzly go in his new back door and take the cooler out his new side door. We ran her off a couple times but she just kept coming back. The Rangers finally 'moved' her. Raccoons are the best, so intelligent and the opossums bring the whole family. Flying squirrels and birds, you miss all that in a tent.
Badass! What bike were you riding?
@@road_king_dude Kawasaki 900
Borah bivy makes a good sack for cowboy camping. If the weather & bugs are at bay, you can sleep with the head net section off (and I often do). If the weather & bugs start attacking, pitch the tarp and/or zip up the head net section & go back to sleep. The water resistant cover helps keep the bag dry when the dew hits. I'd caution the practice in tick areas, though. I've always been fine in the Sierra high country. The only time I've ever gotten a tick bite while cowboy camping (didn't zip up the bivy) was on the CA coast. I now use a fully-enclosed tent setup out there.
Years ago, I was a Wildland Firefighter. We spike camped (Cowboy) on a regular basis; the best advice I learned to give is always check for bug holes when you select a spot. It only takes one anthill to learn this.
One summer in the Northern California, I woke up to something crawling in my sleeping bag- on my chest. I reached up to my pack to grab my headlamp, pulled back the flap of my sleeping bag and turned on the light. 2 Scorpions. 10 years later I still get the willies.
That false sense of security is me for sure. When I was hiking in Big Bend National Park I just couldn't bring myself to cowboy camp. I know a bug net isn't going to stop a Black Bear or Mountain Lion(which they have in the park), but I still felt safer with those walls around me.
I did leave my rain-fly off though, so that I could stare at the stars on the moonless nights.
It's not a false sense of security. Those animals don't know what a tent is. They smell something but because of the size of the tent it confuses them. A tent provides some real security from bears and cats. It can take them many minutes to even figure out that it's just a thin sheet.
You forgot about the most important part of cowboy camping - your horse. He keeps you warm and keeps an eye and ear out.
My most memorable semi-cowboy camp, in my tent without the fly, next to a river in the hundred mile wilderness in September. I had a small view of the sky and stars and the sound of the river... my best night on the trail ever. 😊
How do you not have more subscribers?!!? You are very thorough and cover tons of topics. Keep it up!
What I've learned about Dixie from watching these vids- do not disturb her sleep unless you have a cup of coffee in your hand.
I once cowboy camped on a tiny beach next to a river, in Northern California. The stars were amazing, and I purposely kept myself awake as long I could, to stare at the sky. Another time, I was car camping and decided to camp outside the tent, but on my cot. I woke up in the morning to the most amazing pre-sunrise, with a tiny sliver of moon low in the sky.
" speed bump for a grizzly bear" 😆 I'm from the south too Dixie, I love your ability to explain things, using mental images! "Priceless" please keep the videos coming
Very good video. Clint Eastwood is a real veteran too. A bug net over a boonie hat works very well for a variety of situations. It makes silk blazing tolerable. At FT Huachuca, a rattler slid into the bag of a girl from GA back in the 70s. It bit her in the morning. She calmly beat the everloving out of the snake and got medivaced to a hospital. She stayed there for 3 days. That very impressed all of the rest of us. Good Luck, Rick
I like the idea of sleeping in a hammock without a tarp to get used to it!
Jason Geiser with a bug net
This is the way we camped when I was a kid, and as I got older.
On top of the blanket or bag in summer.
Under the blanket or in the bag in spring & fall.
A tube tent if it rained.
I slept outside on a weekend trip in the Red River Gorge Area and contracted ehrlichioisis from a tick though I can't be positive it attached during the night. I love sleeping outside but I hate the ER more
Spent many nights with just a tarp for shelter, when I took an outward bound course we had a 12x12 plastic sheet for shelter and used our iceaxes as tent poles.
I'd say that the way you camp depends on where you live, hike, and backpack. In my senior years, I primarily hang my hat in the US Northeast. The old saying is "If you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes". The reason the NE US is so green is because we get a lot of rain. We use to get more snow too. I always check the weather forecast before heading out to the bush, and back in the dark ages, I carried a weather band radio to warn us of thunderstorms coming our way later in the day. I still have and and still use it. I use Maps and compass, and keep track of where I am.
I was never interested in Cowboy Camping, too many bugs, spiders, snakes, etc. In order to get a view of the stars at night I bought a Mountain Hardware tent with a large clear window in the top of the fly, and we had a clear view on top of our favorite spot on top of a Plateau thru from the front of our tent too. Awesome, safe, dry, and no bugs. You only get in what bugs you let in.
As I've gotten older, I prefer to Car Camp. Set up a base tent, and do day hikes around the state forest or wild area all day, go back to the base camp at the end of the day, get cleaned up, eat, and veg.
When I was younger none of us could afford a tent so cowboy camping is all we did, and a lot of it. Of course I grew up in San Diego so we were camping in Laguna’s or the desert or my favorite, the beach, and it hardly ever rained. Today I still love cowboy camping as my preferred method of sleep for so many reasons. I love seeing the stars as I fall asleep, I don’t have to wonder what’s making the noise outside of my tent, and especially when I get to camp and I’m really tired it is so much easier. Finally, it’s so much easier if you have to get up in the middle of the night to pee.
Love to cowboy camping. I find that it allows me to camp in hotter weather because at night there is a little more wind to keep me cooler. So it adds one more season of backpacking.
Had a kid wake up after a night camping in an open lean-to... with porcupine quills all over the foot of his sleeping bag. Seems the porcupine snuggled up to him to get warm for the night... and the kid didn't even wake up cause he was used to sleeping with his cat at home. Yup, I'd be concerned about other critters too. LOL
Wow,that's a good story
Sleeping with a prick. You see it all the time...
Like the bubble-wrap car-windshield thing, pair with a no-floor tent or tarp. Some sleep envelopes have a pretty durable pad sleeve as well, where its fabric may help protect the pad. Pad designers are creating more robust sides to inflatable pads or models more specific to durability. Great video. I personally cowboy camp alot if I am not in my hammock. The mummy-shaped well-insulated pad fits into a super-small 6 oz hammock, this way on steep slopes or over marsh I can set right up. I have my tarp ready in its "snakesl skins" for deployment. Ground or hammock I believe in snake-skin type items for rapid tarp deployment & control. I hate the stake: crawling around the ground tring to stake stuff. A pile of stakes poking holes in a $100 raincoat. Loosing stakes. Try pounding in stakes anywhere below freezing. Go cowboy camping with a tarp or hammock & forget wearing out your hands & knees staking, dirty pants looking like a hobo in town. Make it clean & easy. For a bit of warmth on your face or security throw your raincoat over your head or pull it down hammock ridhe line. Anyway ..yeah ..happy trials & trails!
As always Great ! I'm watching as I am getting ready to head to the AT. Took care of 2 miles back a few years ago and said to myself and the Thru Hikers I WILL DO THIS one day. And that day starts in April 14 ish ! !
AKA ROCKY
Neil Rockwell Good luck!
Yeah, the snake cuddling piece kind of did it for me. I live in rattlesnake country and that is the stuff nightmares are made of. lol
My dad grew up on Black mountain (KY) a and when they went hunting they never slept in anything. Just the ground. And he said one time they woke up in the morning seeing lines in the loose dirt. And they were confused, so they looked around them and saw a snake. Just a black snake, but he said he never just slept on just the ground again. Lol
A tent is a personal space and it is something that you get comfort from.
If you look at a real cowboy bed roll there is a lot of tarp.
As a kid I camped with a bedroll and spent two very shitty nights using a tarp laying over me with stick holding it off my head..
I like sleeping out in the open.. but sometimes I set up a tent and sleep out of it because I am timid in my old age...
Great videos. A knowledgeable person who doesn't come across as arrogant. Pleasant voice and able to explain things in an easy to follow way. Pleasant to look at also !
I loved using a polycro sheet for my tent and cowboy camping on the AT last year. Heard about it from another UA-camr and his advice was to buy the heavy-duty window insulation film (twice the regular thickness) and cut it easily to size. Weighs nothing and lasted all 2000+ miles.
In Australia they call it a Swag (bedroll). I'm not form there and I prefer the hammock (I have them with and without mosquito net) but if there's no trees I do have a piece of tarp (cheap one they use on construction sites to cover up stuff cut to body+ size) as ground protection and a waterproof bivy bag. In colder times I have one of those reflective windshield protectors against freezing for trucks or cars as ground protection. Very cheap, light weight and pack up pretty small. I always have one of those mosquito head nets with me. Since I'm a tree hanger by preference and like the more wet climates I also have a tarp or a poncho I can use as a tarp. The one thing I rarely use is a tent. I did buy one in Colombia (a cheap small one) because of a bit more privacy (I was with a women) but after sleeping in it one night we only used it for putting the luggage in and for when we needed some privacy. We slept in the hammocks. But seeing the sky at night and sunrise is really pretty.
When I was a kid, like early teens, we just called it camping. None of us had a tent. Thanks for another great video Dixie. You're still fantastic!
I've been cowboy camping for decades.... mainly because I didn't want to buy or carry a tent..... I'd lay my rig on a ridge and go to sleep.... If it looked like it might rain, I'd just throw a poncho over me.... I've never been rained out, although I have woken up with about four inches of snow on me in Spring in the White Mountains... In fact, I'm thinking of just ditching my tent, carry a tarp or a heavier poncho and just keep it simple.... It's a lot easier, and, it's less expensive....
I have cowboy camped year round for the last 50yrs. I use a loose tarp fly in rain only. I do have tents but only use them on the beach do to human animal issues. Always cook & store food/smells out of campsite. Had bears walk around others & thru camp many times with no issues. Note mice, bears, etc go to people with food/smells. Love to show others the tracks around them in the AM. Haha…
Just want to say: this video is an excellent example of the breadth, relevance, and detail in your videos. I subscribe because you consistently create the most organized, comprehensive, and instructive videos on hiking out there. Well done! Thank you for your efforts and intentions.
You just gotta love Dixie for using words like “sleepy stupor”.
This is my dad's first cowboy camping experience.
He was backpacking up in the mountains with some friends, who were all in their early teens. When they got to where they were going to spend the night, they were to tired to set up camp and decided to cowboy camp. My dad was about 10 feet away from his friends, (no clue why.) They were all asleep, accept for my dad. When all of a sudden he hears crashing in the bushes, big crashes. Frightened he pulls his sleeping bag up over his head and froze. He could hear it walking in his direction. It stopped right beside him, he could feel it sniffing him and then a hard pressure on his elbow. Whatever it was pulled him up into a sitting position, held him there for a couple seconds and let go. He flopped to the ground like a dead body and didn't move until morning. When they got home, they found out that there was a grizzly bear in the area. So yeah, my dad got bit by a grizzly bear. Safe to say my dad doesn't camp without a tent anymore, LOL.
Wow that's a story,would end camping for me ,n dont think tent going to help
I'm thinking I would have emptied my 10mm at that point. I know, I'm very wrong for even thinking such a thing, but it IS what I'm thinking. Maybe I wouldn't even do it, but I'm thinking it.
so cool
Ive slept in my chair in front of a fire and that is the closest to cowboy camping I will ever come. The night time creepy crawlies are only part of the reason. I like the feeling of crawling into the tent, getting ready for bed and falling asleep in a familiar place. It makes the day feel like it's coming to a close and gives a sense of time passing. If I just slept on the ground, it wouldn't feel like the end of the day, the routine is important to me. I've slept many times with the fly peeled way back and having the giant sky over you is awesome, but those little walls just make it feel like home.
The permetherin is great stuff, I have watched a tick crawl off my warm Permetherin-treated sweatshirt sleeve to go onto a cold metal car window sill. It is absorbs into the skin 20 times less than Deet. I work in the wild during the thick of tick season and ALWAYS spray my gear with the stuff -- I have found far fewer ticks than other untreated crew members -- never had one attach.
Still looking for a spray to keep Grizzlies from attaching. . .
My daughter and I really enjoyed cowboy camping while thru hiking the AT last year. We did it mostly in the fall, so the bugs weren’t too much of an issue.
We love your videos Dixie! 😘
In addition to the wonderful night views, you alluded to the other mental and emotional benefit of cowboy camping when you described one of the "features" of using a tent. When I cowboy camp I'm not as separated from nature. There's something special about being more immersed in nature, after all that's what I'm out there for isn't it?
Cowboy camping is one camping experience that makes me stick with a sleeping bag instead of a quilt - too many places for crawling biters to gain access to fresh meat. A simple envelope style breathable bivy with an opening for your face would help (or a hammock, which I use 99% of the time along the AT and other eastern trails). I used to sleep on the ground, and enjoyed cowboy camping and tarp camping.
It actually helps to create a barrier around your body even if only 2 inches. I had to prove this to someone cause they didn't believe it. But they saw one of those spiders crawl up to the top..move it's legs in air and then went right back down.
You'll probably still get some insects, but nothing like you would without a little tarp wall. I learned it from someone who cowboy camps frequently.
Thank you for this! I use a Borah gear ultralight bivy and love it! My worry is bugs and rodents and that helps me feel protected enough while still being present to my surroundings. I've read about people using a tent, shaking it around, to frighten off a bear that was getting too close. When you talked about snakes it reminded me of a great story in Craig Childs' book: "The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild". It is well worth reading!
Thank you again!
All the best, Scott
I once cowboy camped with a friend on a cliff overlooking a small, azure-blue and white-water river. After a day of water fun and lots of drinks we set a fire, ate, pitched our blankets and had a few more drinks. We woke late the next morning in the middle of 1,000? 2,000? sheep, grazing their way down the river cliff.
You are so thorough. 3 years ago I was cowboy camping on the south side of Roan Mt. on a big rock because there were no flat spots. I got bit on the head several times by I don't know what. It was worth it. Also, Eastwood and Wayne are the same in greatness.
Dew on the sleeping bag can be minimized if there is an evening breeze or if you camp in an area where you have a natural canopy (trees with leaves/needles) over you. Polycro is a duff magnet, not sure about "polycryo". Hammock (+1) w/non-deployed snakeskin tarp for cowboy camping.
This is about critters. This past January I was on the AT in PA with friends. One friend always brings his Chocolate Lab Charlie who we let "roam". One morning my alarm clock was hearing the leaves rustle. I opened my eyes and said "good morning Charlie" as he was nose to nose with me. It was the best wake up I have had on the trail and it would not have happened if I was in a tent. Charlie likes me. Racoons will run from me. Don't sweat it. Where we hike they know to run from us.
Maybe not what was intended, but if you can sleep on top of a picnic table, most critters will leave you alone. I did have a critter visit my camp near Flagstaff AZ and I threw my boot at it. Turns out it was a striped skunk. I was lucky not to get sprayed. Another time, in Tennessee, I went to bed under the brilliant starry night. No bugs without a light source btw. I woke up to a familiar smell, RAIN! There were no stars in the sky. I threw everything together and made a bee line to the showers, where I ate my breakfast. Lots of throwing when I go camping lolz. So, kudos if you can find anything elevated to sleep on, or use smoke from a fire (I didn't have a stove, so I used a fire for cooking) to keep the critters and bugs away.
You are so right about having that false sense of security. I have tried several times to sleep out, but just can't get past it. As a kid I use to sleep on my grandparents porch. The possums, and the coins would wake me up, and freak me out. They wouldn't of hurt me, just always unexpected.
Keep on keeping on! Flat lander from Kansas
Hey Dixie, On a Field Training Exercise at Ft Bragg NC, mid summer, we had a night of black out. No flash lights or fires or smoking. My buddy and I dig a 2 man foxhole and slept in a gentle rain with a poncho over the top
My buddy elbowed me gently later on and in the quietest whisper said my name, with fear in his voice. “There is a snake crawling on my leg. What should we do?”
I suggested the hole was not big enough for the three of us. “If we bust out and jump, on three, we have the least chance of being bitten! I whispered. 1,2,GO!”
The USArmy Training staff were not impressed but no one within a mile had so much as a match to see what kind of snake if it was still on the hole.
We walked the line of defense (infantry battle exercise) and the reaction was like July 4th. Thousands of rounds by our opponents fired of blanks in rifles and 30 cal Machine gun cadence. I’m not traumatized rather entertained by the memory. But camping I never pick up any clothing or put on shoes or boots without checking. The snake was looking for cover from rain just like us. And being from the South I’ve never Cowboy camped without being rained on but maybe one night. I like having my territory clearly marked for critters and rain.
OH boy do I have some similar memories at Fort Bragg. The chiggers were terrible! The snakes, while poisonous, were few and far between.
Thank you for this video. You have actually given us some great insight into a shelter system we have been designing.
Pines are also good trees to shelter under to sleep, I haven’t done it but I know that it is possible from hearing my father talk about it, the part giving the most shelter being the understory branches next to the ground.
Did enough "cowboy camping" in the Marines 50 years ago bugs snakes heat rain you name it, setting in a muddy water filled hole in the ground soaking wet even with a poncho funny thing though I'd do it all over again
Ditto
Semper Fi, brother.
Nobody know what it's like Semper FI Brother
My grandfather loved the Marines for that exact reason. A mortar crewman in the '50s, he said he was camping for a living, he just didn't like camping without Gram!
Oh yeah, March 1963, desert exercise at 29 Stumps. It was a real challenge setting up the CP tent at night in 25+ mph winds. Us lowlife enlisted had to sleep outside in 35 deg weather with only a field jacket for warmth. How about Case Springs at CamPen, Northern Area on Oki? And later in the 'Nam. No fond memories for sure. NO, I would not do it again.
We just called this "sleeping outside " in olden times. Fond memories of cooking steaks over a firepit. Not so fond memories of the mosquitoes.
We had to smoke the hell out of our area for a while on a summer overnight hike! I've always referred to it as "sleeping under the stars" and Norwegian it's "under open sky"
exactly; in our days we did real cowboy camping without available mosquito nets, permethrin & all the glamping todays generations calls "camping" lol
I used to cowboy camp (not while hiking) mostly for 3 reasons 1) time, 2) dew, and 3) less work. The way I did it was I removed my air mattress and tent canopy, using the pack as a pillow. The tent canopy was for bugs. The next morning you rolled those 2 items up and you were done,
1) String snake-skinned tarp overhead, but don't deploy it. If it rains, deploy takes seconds, not minutes. 2) Dew wets out insulating layers out West. Reduce dew by blocking night-sky, with a) foliage overhead, b) a reflective layer (Tyvek has an aluminized version that breathes), c) prevent air-flow contacting the insulating layer (bivy), d) clouds also block sky-shine, as long as it doesn't rain. 3) Bugs/critters. Bivy or embrace-the-suck? 4) Cowboy camping's the best out West where it rarely rains. Nothing compares.
I've "cowboy camped" for years on backpacking trips/motorcycle trips when the weather is right. Why take the time to set up & breakdown a tent when you don't have to. Like you said, cooler weather is key for keeping the bugs away. I hike with friends that absolutely refuse to sleep outside of a tent/shelter due to their false sense of security that a tent provides when it comes to wildlife, bears etc. Nothing like waking up in the middle of the night peeping through your tightly drawn mummy bag to see the star filled sky or at first light having your sleeping bag covered in frost. Everyone should try it!
Went on a kayak camp trip, was sharing a tent with a very loud snorer. Decided to sleep on the ground next to the fire. 5 or 6 barred owls landed in the trees around the campsite and had a conversation above me for a few hours. Now I bring earplugs.
I used to cowboy camp at girlscout camporee because we would have so many people out anyways it was a much more convenient way to camp a lot of people than having everyone in their own tent. It made for a good slumberparty experience. It was also way less nerve racking because my friends were their with me. So if you're really scared of cowboy camping, maybe do it with a whole group in close proximity for the first time so that you feel less alone. This can also be fun if there's something like a meteor shower cause you can all point out the cool stuff to each other, or if you just have someone who's particularly knowledgeable about astronomy.
Camping without shelter in Scotland is not usually practical, but I have gone out locally with just a small tarp and slept up under the stars.
Cowboy camping is awesome! Even without the mat on leaves when it's cool. In the cool snakes aren't going to leave there warm home. The only time I ever heard of that was as a teenager ( I'm 66 now), my father talked about when his brothers were teenagers (He's the baby at 89 now) and it was a case of boys will be boys if you know what I mean. Trust me there has been plenty of opportunities for that to happen down here in ga. Never happened in all the years I've been camping and fishing at the river to my neighbors or my family.
Luv your videos. Keep um coming.
cowboy camping is one of the best experiences a human can have! i definitely know what you mean about “being a part of nature, not just passing through” ha ha i have controlled shooting stars with my excitement, i know we are all creating this beautiful masterpiece together! blessed hiking i love you! thanks for the show! eternally grateful!
Fibonacci, blessed hiking to you too.
LOL. My Dad was a cowboy. He worked in the the Owyhee Mountains of Idaho and would go out for two to three weeks at a time. He took me with him one summer when I was eleven. We never 'cowboy camped'. Why? Three reasons: scorpions, mountain lions, and pack horses.
The first may seem overblown until you consider where we were- half a day to a days ride from the corral where we left the pickup and another half day drive to the nearest doctor.
The second was a real danger. They hunted the cattle we herded and our horses. Sleeping outside was too dangerous.
Third, horses need more than grass to live on, especially when they are worked hard. We had a string of six horses that rotated between being ridden, carrying supplies, and resting (no rider or cargo). The two pack horses carried feed for
the horses, salt licks and fencing supplies, a supplies for my Dad and I.
We slept on cots in a canvas walled and floored cabin style tent. We cooked on a white gas fueled Coleman stove; mostly canned foods and pancakes. My Dad and I could set up/tear down camp in about fifteen minutes. I remember him telling me it would take him about twenty minutes by himself, so I am not sure I was a huge help, lol.
No campfires due to the danger of starting a wildfire. Long days (twelve to fourteen hours each), scorching summer heat, hard labor, blistered hands and saddle sore for days. Got bucked off twice, the second time into a barbed wire fence (the scars are still visible forty plus years later.
It was the best summer ever.
For the head bug net, if you wear a peaked cap or sun hat underneath, it will keep it off your face.
That's what I do indeed. In always wear a big brim hat during the day but bring a cap and the head net for sleeping with the mosquito's.