rawklobster

I'll borrow from the great Wayne Dyer. "Feelings are not just emotions that happen to you. Feelings (like fear) are reactions you choose to have. If you are in charge of your own emotions, you don't have to choose self-defeating reactions. You have the power to think whatever you choose to allow into your head."

He also discusses the useless emotion of "worry." In your case, you're worried about something bad might happen on your trip by camping alone. "Worry is the contrivance that keeps you immobilized in the now about something in the future - frequently something over which you have no control. With worry, you use up those valuable nows, obsessing about a future event. You're throwing away the present moment."

Robert Burette - "There are two days in the week about which and upon which I never worry. Two carefree days, kept sacredly free from fear and apprehension. One of these days is yesterday... And the other day I do not worry about is tomorrow."

I hope that helps. I think the reality is that you have nothing to worry about. So, I invite you to choose not to worry about it and embrace being comfortable traveling alone.

Doug64

Good advice.
I started a long tour with a new sleeping bag. I did not inspect the bag as I transferred it from the original bag to my compression sack. On the first night of the tour I rolled out the bag and found that a whole stitch line across the top of the bag was actually sliced open by the machine rather than stitched. It drove me nuts for 3 months; luckily it was not a down bag.

B. Carfree

Good advice. However, the one time I encountered a situation that made me uncomfortable, I ended up being very happy I had no "out". My wife and I were doing a "shakedown" tour with our then-new tandem back in early '89. We were on a gravel road in the middle of nowhere when a pick-up passed us. The driver was drinking a bottle of beer and he stopped about a hundred feet in front of us. It was clear he wanted to talk to us and there really wasn't any way to avoid him, so we pulled up alongside and said hello. It turned out he was concerned for our well-being, what with it dumping rain and hail at the time, and stopped to offer us a warm place to stay for the night if we so chose. We got directions to his house and told him we'd be there in an hour or so.

About two-thirds of the way there, we saw him again, this time with his girl friend in the truck with him. She had just gotten off work as a sheriff's deputy and decided to come find us just in case we were tired of pedalling. We ended up spending a wonderful evening with this charming rice and tomato farmer and his deputy sheriff wife. They gave us useful local road knowledge (we were about to head up a road that was still snowed in) and invited us to stop back in whenever we passed through (only happened twice more).

Danny347

So to continue on with this thread, I'll be leaving in a few weeks on my own short tour and although I'll be traveling with a buddy for a few days, our paths will diverge and I will be on my own for a bit. The issue I was wondering more about is minimizing the risk of my gear or bike being stolen or something of that nature. An example could be what if I want to stop in a town and go into the grocery store for a bit, or stop at a restaurant where I have no view of my bike. I realize it's probably out of my control, but what do some of you more experienced tourers do in situations like that?

Doug64

We use medium sized cables and a good locks. It will discourage opportunistic thieves, which are the primary concern. However, in large cities the serious thief won't be slowed down by the usual precautions. Sometimes I believe we are a little cavalier on how we secure our bikes, but we've never had a problem. I keep my bar bag containing camera, wallet, phone, etc with me at all times. I usually don't worry about the rest of my panniers, even with a netbook in one of them.

In really sketchy situations I have a thin cable setup on my panniers to thwart the opportunistic thief. However, I have never used them





Sometimes we have had to get a little creative.



We stopped for lunch at this diner in Cleveland, OH, and planned on locking our bike outside. The server told us to bring the bikes inside or "they won't be there when you go out". I wasn't going to argue.

DropBarFan

At state park etc campgrounds you could arrive soon enough to check out who's camping where & pick a spot next to a responsible-looking family or such. State parks are often patrolled too. While there's a few notorious cases of women being attacked at remote hiking locations I haven't heard about such cases happening at state campgrounds.

Pompiere

I think I met the same woman in Ohio on Labor Day weekend. She definitely gets around!

indyfabz

I have one of these, only a shorter version:


Locking Devices | Locks-Cables & Chains | Master Lock® Combination Cable Lock, 72" - No. 8114D - Pkg Qty 4 | B1532926 - GlobalIndustrial.com

Very light.

Many times I don't lock my bike. I toured across PA a few years ago and didn't bring a lock. It's all situational. If I am in a small Montana town I probably won't lock my bike. If I am in Butte I won't let my bike out of my sight unlocked because of the meth-related petty crime. If I am camping in a U.S.F.S. campground that is down a dirt road 1.5 miles from the nearest highway I probably won't lock my bike. If I am camping in a city park or some other place with easy public access, like I was a couple of nights last month in South Dakota, I probably will. You can also ask to bring you bike into places like grocery stores. I have never been turned down on that front.

bikenh

One thing I haven't seen mentioned in the first page of replies...stealth camp and stay the heck away from the state parks. If you don't like the idea of camping there....DON'T. I been on the road since around the first day of summer and I haven't spent a penny on overnight accommodations. Nothing says the only place you can camp is at a campground. I've never spent a night at a campground while on a bike trip. If you don't like the idea, come up with other ideas that you might like better. The sky is the limit on where you can camp. Most of the time I camp out behind churches. I get there late and leave early. I don't ask permission and pretty much never see cams staring at me while I'm there like you will at any campground, state park or private.

ak08820

Besides safety, I have read in books by epic tour bike travelers that going solo made them very lonely.
When you ride, unless you are on a tandem, you are solo. If you go solo and just go about your business you could manage to live thru the entire tour without speaking with anyone.
That is the reason I still need to start a tour.
A well written ad on several bike touring related web resources or answering one could get you a touring companion.

indyfabz

Don't believe everything you read, especially if you have never actually toured. I have spent up to nearly two months touring alone twice and never felt the least bit lonely. One of those tours was in a foreign country where English was not the native language.

Yes. You could manage to not interact with anyone outside of purchasing necessary good and services, but I find I interact with locals more when I am alone. More than when I crossed the country with a group of 13. While touring solo I have camped along with couples and small groups. More often than not they interact mostly with themselves. Meeting and talking with locals is something I like about touring, and I find I do it a lot when I am alone. And I have most count of the number of offers of hospitality (e.g., beers, pie, hot tea on a cold morning) I have received when I have been alone.

Finally, there are many tales of people hooking up with strangers for tours and it not working out for various reasons. Touring with a stranger is not always an easy thing to do.

staehpj1

Yes, all quite true IMO.

staehpj1

It depends on the location. I typically carry a very small, cheap, and light cable lock. In some situations I lock and in some I don't. In rural small towns I typically do not bother. In bigger towns or cities, especially "bike friendly" ones, I am more careful. I don't leave my bike out of my sight when I see the risk as especially high. I have taken it into big grocery stores and just wheeled it up and down the aisles if I thought the risk was really high. You can also ask about parking the bike inside.

Another thing I do is ride with a bike and gear I can afford to replace. Then I accept that, while with reasonable care it is unlikely, there is a chance that some time in my touring career I might need to replace it all. I think that my relatively inexpensive bike with some bags of dirty clothes and used camping gear are not all that tempting to most thieves.

mm718

Below is the "solo woman" category at crazyguy.

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/...ategory_id=384

ak08820

This too, Solo Female Cycling Around the World: WOW (Women On Wheels)

Rob_E

More stories for encouragement/inspiration: Confessions of a Small Girl

This woman rode the Great Divide trail solo. She did find travelling companions as she rode, which was certainly aided by the fact that she was following a well-established route. And while she often met up with the same people at camp, it seems she still preferred to do most of her daily riding solo to keep her own pace and choose her own route. She even makes the case, once or twice, that it's not only an acceptable, but preferable way to travel.

I can certainly sympathize with that. Sometimes it does seems like it would be nice to have companionship on the ride, but the few times I have traveled with someone else, I am invariably either wearing myself out trying to keep up with them, or, less commonly, impatient with their slow pace. Every pit-stop, every meal in a restaurant, every campsite choice is a negotiation or at least a discussion. This is not to say that I wouldn't ride with others again, but there are certainly advantages to being on your own.

It also makes the point that if you travel a well-established route at something approaching an average pace, you may find that you are not always on your own.

essiemyra

thank-you for the sites of solo woman touring. I will be looking at those this evening. Soon, I will be going out on my own.

Alone is not the same as lonely!

indyfabz

Heh. Try it with 12 people. My first ever tour was ACA's unsupported group tour of the Northern Tier. A few in the group preferred less developed locations, like U.S.F.S. campgrounds. There was a larger contingent who wanted hot showers every night, which usually meant a private campground. Some worried that the facilities in city parks would be scuzzy. (Some really were. But on July 4th we passed on a town park to stay at a private place. Scores of young people partied and played loud music all night. The next morning we rode through the town where we could have stayed and discovered we had missed a beautiful town park.) When there were options, the private campground majority almost always ruled.

And don't get me started on the bigoted alcoholic in the group. Then there was the guy who would weasel as much as possible out of his weekly clean up duties. His M.O. was to toss one bag of group trash and then sneak off on his bike, leaving his partner to do the communal dishes. When we had to carry groceries he would rush the cart(s) as the shoppers came out and grab the lightest things he could find, like the nacho chips we often bought for pre-dinner snacking or a loaf of bread. We never figured out if he knew we all noticed what he would do and found it pathetic. If he did, he probably didn't care. One day he complained to another participant that me and another guy didn't help carry groceries because we had to ride to some town for bike repairs. When I found out, I reminded him that on the third day of the trip me and two other participants had ridden 16 miles round trip to shop for the entire group while everyone else hung out at camp.

After the tour ended in Maine I rode home. In many ways, I was glad to be on my own. While a group tour of that nature can be rewarding in many ways, it can have its downsides. The best advice I can give to someone is to try to not let other people's habits ruin your good time.

timdow

A bit dated, but another read for inspiration is "Full Tilt" by Dervla Murphy.

Napoleonx1145

I dread touring alone, although I am male, still it becomes more of a adventure to tour with a partner. My next ride will be all of Cuba this year
possible Dec/ 15 or Jan / 16. I am fortunate in that I am former Canadian military for 33 years. I am 60 years of age, bike is 2015 LHT Surly bar end shifters 11 speed 105s. I change the original 10 speed to 11.700c tires. The ride will be non camping, because I certainly have the means to support this ride and the Asia ride.
Although you meet so many more experiences riding alone.
Leo

MassiveD

If you are just scared of being alone, that is a mindset thing and can take some time to adjust. Even camping in your own yard can help with that, if you have one. You will hear noises out there that will scare you, but it is probably not a dangerous environment unless you share it with large gators or something.

I think the safest places to camp are often the scariest, like random stealth areas. If you can avoid being seen entering, these are the places others are scared to also go. And yet almost entirely safe, as far as other people are concerned.

cyber.snow

Interesting thread and lots of good advice. While I am also very new at touring, I learned a lot from the experts here. My plan is to do the Oregon Coast next Spring and am just starting to get in shape for the ride. Between now and then I will be doing some overnights and will purchase the equipment and try the light weight camping. On the shorter rides and trips that I have made, I learned that the bigger the group=the greater the chaos, confusion and tension. I would rather ride alone, pick my own trail and speed and enjoy the day. I have never had any problem out on several day fishing trips finding company to share a drink, campfire or swap stories. I agree with the OP, don't confuse being alone with being lonely.

Also I got a small frame bag to carry my cable lock in, but have taken the bike into stores and even restaurants when I wasn't sure about its still being there when I went back out...and that was on local trips.