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Some things to remember when stealth camping: Never camp or enter property marked with Private or No Trespassing. Never camp behind a gate or fence - you could get locked in. Depending on the location, it could be a while before someone comes along to let you out. Camoflauge yourself. Cover your bike reflectors and other reflective surfaces. Cover your ...

Your best bet may be to take along a set of titanium shepherd-hook-type stakes (Vargo makes a decent set). Their advantage is that they are very narrow, so less likely to hit underground rocks. Further, the titanium is somewhat bendy in the ground, so you can often work them around rocks when they do hit (but they spring back into shape when you remove ...

You don't have to go on a solo trip to experience a little solitude. For example, you can go with a group, and when you're planning the trip, plan for a day during which you will go off on a solo hike, while the others stay at camp and fish or read or the like. Or perhaps it's a day where they all go off on a hike and you loiter around the camp alone. This ...

I like being out alone. Generally you have more time for introspection, for getting calm and enjoying what’s around you and inside of you. Of course there’s times when you have to deal with yourself and your fears when you’re out alone. Even after many nights that I have spent outside alone, I’m still a bit nervous when the sun sets. (I guess it’s an old ...

Depending on your activity level, access to water, etc, the types of food you carry should change accordingly. Some points to consider: Dehydrated foods are great in that they are light-weight since they have no water in them. But they might not be a wise choice if you are dry camping with no water available (e.g. in the desert) since you would just have ...

Have an emergency kit, and a first aid kit. Keep both of these on your person at all times, but at a minimum, keep the emergency kit on you. People have died less than a mile from camp because they left all their gear at the tent and went for a "short hike" Set up a some sort of check in system. These range from the simple cell phone to the fancy (and ...

A couple years ago, I ended up on a little island while canoe camping, and the tent pads were literally solid rock. Although this was far from optimal, I did my best to secure the tent by tying the tent cables to rocks, trees, etc. I'd consider this a last resort, but it got us through a fairly windy night. This solution works better if you can manage to ...

Solitude isn't for everyone - some people love it, others not so much - personally I prefer enjoying it with others, and there's other advantages to this too (such as from a safety aspect.) If you are going on your own you need to make sure you've got measures in place so people know where you are, and you need to make sure all your necessary skills ...

I'm afraid studiohack's advices are too cautious to be useful in practice. For example in Spain or Austria, almost every piece of land is private and/or behind fence, so you'd have to sleep on the track then. My personal experience (mostly from Europe; please follow here) is that it's not so hot. If you don't provoke the land owners, they are mostly very ...

Disclaimer - this is purely based on a bit of prior knowledge and augmented with some more research, I've never been to subsaharan Africa and don't really plan to ever wild camp there! Wild camping around that area verges along the more extreme side of wild camping - some may say it's madness, and there's obviously much, much more risk than wild camping in ...

In general, the time from high to low tide or vice versa is a little over 6 hours. This varies by location, of course, but it will get you in the ballpark. 12 hours and 15 minutes from high tide to high tide is little more accurate, because some places the low tide is early or late relative to the high tide. If you plan ahead, you can look up the amount the ...

One thing that should be obvious, but still is worth repeating: If you’re out alone, make sure you can get help when you need it. I recently went on a solo trip into the mountains in the winter and realized that something like hurting your knee in the deep snow can happen quite quickly and if you can’t get help, in the winter you’re in big trouble. Which is ...

Since your question is tagged with backpacking and wild-camping, I am assuming you are out in the wilderness. In that case, just hide your valuables prior to arrival at the beach. Just head 15+ feet off of the trail, and you should be trivially able to find a spot to hide a handful of stuff. From geocaching, even if someone was to know the general ...

A lot of it depends on the purpose of the knife, whether it will be primarily used for hunting, survival, or self-defence. What should you be looking for? Size, weight, but more importantly feel, how does it hold in your hand with an overhand grip (most common grip), and what about underhand grip (used mostly for picking at ice or stabbing). Will you ...

Part 1 - how do I deal with loneliness/solitude? For me, the key to not freaking out when I go out alone into the wilderness is feeling prepared. Usually on the first night of a solo trip, especially in bear country, I'm going to be nervous. I fight that by making sure I do everything correctly (as far as I know anyways!): food well secured away from ...

The math is absurdly complicated. There is no way you are going to be able to estimate the tides without substantial geographical and astronomical information. The brackish areas can be especially hard to predict, because their geometry can cause them to have more complicated cycles than the common twice daily cycle. From the Wiki Article on Tides: The ...

Sometimes, regardless of the pins, it's simply impossible to put pins into the ground no matter the technology. In such a situations, boulders may be your friend: Raising a tent between Baugevatnet and Sijdasjávrre, near Narvik, Norway, ~68.1°N, 1 October 2012. The ground was frozen solid and it was completely impossible to drive a peg into the ground. ...

Camping on a slope is really quite common, and while an extreme slope can cause problems a mild one shouldn't and is all part of the experience! I find it comfier to set the tent so I'm sleeping at an angle rather than rolling against one side, so that may be something to consider. Likewise if there's just a relatively rocky surface you should be ok - if ...

Most of the food I take on trips is low in sodium content by design, so I usually specifically plan on taking some overly salty foods. Like Jerky, although I have done Pringles on some shorter trips. I used to also take several small disposable salt packets and put one or two in my water bottle when filling up. That much wasn't taste-able, but I was always ...

I can not give a lot of information about hitchhiking but have spend a lot of time wildcamping in Europe. Sure most land is privatly owned, and most countries have regulations against it, but in most cases you will be fine and undisturbed if you take some things into account: Try to hide your tent, only set it up right before you want to go sleep. Find a ...

Before I saw this question, I had no idea the term stealth camping existed, but I have definitely done it a number of times, just backpacking, with a bike, and with a car. Yes, it's possible to do stealth car camping. I live in the US and most of my experiences have been in New England (where I live) and Arizona (which I visit every summer). New England ...

I have camped in the Okavango delta, Kalahari desert and on Kilimanjaro. I would not try sleeping outside, tent is a minimum. On one of the trips we had a 4x4 with a roof tent. That was very practical, easy to put up, and you felt a bit safer being off the ground. Some of the game reserves have camping sites. There is not much difference with respect to ...

I feel only qualified to answer the first portion of your question: When you are in a rural area, just ask if someone lets you set up camp on their property. Farmers often don't mind. Whenever I had the chance to do it this way I did. I sleep a lot sounder not thinking about police officers waking me up at 6AM and you are interacting with the local ...

You'd be much better off doing the research before you head into the areas - print off tide tables for where you are heading to and for the period you'll be there. Tide tables should be available on your local meteorological service's website - and should include things like average range of the tide. The actual range between low and high tide is dependent ...

Ad 1, 2: I'm surprised by what you say about being scared lone in wilderness. I have exactly the opposite feelings - like returing home. I can enjoy the trip very well being alone, I can be in contact with nature much more. I recharge energy this way. With my girlfriend it is very nice too, since she has similar perception of these things, but there are ...

Lots of good answers and ideas here. I backpack ultralight now. This is nice for a couple reasons, one of which is that sleeping under a tarp is a lot more comfortable than a tent, rain or shine. I didn't believe it until I tried it, but Ray J. is right on this one. The other nice thing about sleeping under a tarp is you can see all around you, ...

I would not recommend camping alone if you have not camped before. There is quite a lot of multitasking - in a group of 4 adults often every single one works simultaneously for an hour or so when we reach a campsite - and you could find yourself trying to do things in the dark (which is dangerous) or when you're too hungry to think straight. Next thing you ...

To ensure your valuables stay dry and clean (wouldn't want to short out any electronics like your car remote lock or phone if an unexpected shower comes along) you can use a waterproof bag (relatively inexpensive) or an Otterbox (or similar) - both found in kayaking section. To ensure that you are able to find your items that you have so cleverly hidden ...

You state that you wish to avoid bringing a hatchet. This implies a use on wood. If you want a small knife to use in this manner, look at these designs. If you want a big knife that is a functional compromise between a knife and a hatchet look at a kukri.

One of the most important aspects in a knife is choosing one that you'll actually carry with you. It's no use if you leave it at camp while hiking because the length is unwieldy for you to bring. In other words, it has to be one that you're comfortable with (weight, handle, size, length, etc). It's really more of a personal decision as the knife I prefer ...