At home ,every little noise wakes me up. I can't sleep with the tv on or any noise around. But when I'm camping all the sounds help me sleep. I love the sounds of nature, especially rain on my tarp. I'm out in minutes! I usually camp near creeks or running water too. It usually drains out the other sounds.
No good story like the ones above, but, to answer your question...
...try to sleep outside 1 or 2 nights before you go into the woods. This may help in getting your mind used to going from indoor, mechanical sounds to outdoor natural sounds. Even if it's cars or dogs or planes in the distance, it's different than your room. Or, you could play nature sounds on your radio/phone/sound machine.
If this doesn't work and you do bring earplugs, only use one(similar to DaddyDaddy deaf ear). This will help to reduce/eliminate some sounds while allowing you to still hear the boogieman coming to tickle you. Use a hammock pillow to put your unplugged ear into to muffle the sounds, not eliminate them. This may help you get used to the sounds of the woods until you don't use the plugs anylonger on multiday hikes.
Coyotes and owls are my favorites. Hearing ChuppaCabra on a hike in LWRSF in South Florida a few years ago was just awful. We couldn't identify that sound and made me have dreams enough to wake Olddog that night.
Enjoy and have fun with your family,before they have fun without you
If fox show up around your campsite, you're in for a long night.
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Ralph Waldo Emerson
SilvrSurfr that's a great story!
Always last to the camp site.
When I was about 10 years old we were at a campsite in Maine and a herd of spooked cows ran through the camp during the night. Our tent was untouched, but several others were knocked down. I don't think anybody was hurt but people were definitely freaked out. I don't remember hearing the cows, but the screaming people woke me up. It is one of my most memorable trips, I also ended up in the ER later in the week.Originally Posted by SilvrSurfr
A couple of years ago some deer slept right next to my hammock. I didn't hear them come in, but I almost needed a fresh set of clothes when they jumped up and took off after I startled them when I sat up in the hammock. I'm also deaf in one ear and I sleep on the good one, sometimes it would be better to hear some more of the night sounds.
I always take my iPod + earbuds with me on backpacking trips. After the sun goes down, I climb into my hammock to get warm and comfy and listen to books on tape or podcasts. You can adjust the volume to mask some of the backwoods noises, yet the earbuds will not prevent you from hearing an important noise such as a branch cracking.
I find the podcasts work best for me. I program in just one at a time, so that if I fall asleep the iPod shuts itself off after 45-50 minutes or however long the podcast program is. Audiobooks are great (A Walk in the Woods is an old favorite), but if you fall asleep while listening you'll wake up hours later and have difficulty figuring out at what point in the book you dozed off.
Anyway, works for me.
p.s. I use a jacket/case for my iPod that has a clip, and attach it to my ridgeline, that way the iPod is up and out of the way when I toss and turn.
p.p.s: and iPod can double as an emergency flashlight when getting up to water the trees in the middle of the night. Just wake it up and use the screen as the flashlight. Not real bright, but good enough to get around.
Last edited by kwpapke; 03-10-2015 at 12:55.
Natural sounds in general don't bother me at all. I kinda like them. People talking, cars, kids screaming, that stuff annoys me. I have had nights where the coyotes were a bit unsettling though.
That's one reason I enjoy backpacking as opposed to camping at campsites: no noise from other campers who feel like being noisy all night.
As far as nature sounds go, I found that they were much more disconcerting my first few times backpacking. I thought every noise was a huge bear roaming outside my tent. (Although I have had a bison inspect my tent at night once... that had my heart rate going for a while). But after a few trips, I got more used to them and they don't bother me anymore. They still wake me up a few times a night, but then I just go right back to sleep. It's part of the experience
Boy I struggle with sounds in the woods at night. I am not at all afraid of animals getting me. I think it's like sleeping in a new house. You hear every creak and groan and every time the refrigerator kicks on for the first week or so then you sleep right through it. The sounds of crickets, frogs, coyotes, birds etc don't bother me at all. Leaves rustling and anything that sounds like foot steps or snapping twigs makes the adrenaline pump through my veins instantly though.
If it's breezy at all and my tarp makes noise it wakes me up every time so far. I will eventually get tired enough and be able to sleep through a few sounds but I don't ever sleep anything like I do in my own bed. I think for me the worst part is noises that I can't identify right away like animal calls. Wind noises and movement like sounds are impossible for me to ignore so far. So I can see where more time out might get me used to hearing and filtering out "normal" sounds but right now it has to be very quiet in terms of rustling leaves and such and not windy for me to get much sleep.
It is encouraging to hear other people's stories. Makes the night seem more friendly somehow (aside from getting trampled by cattle) and I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who gets freaked out when I hear noises that sound like foot steps. I think practice and just getting myself out there more often is what will help the most.
Unfortunately, I currently live in a student apartment complex, so hanging in the yard is out of the question until I head back home for the summer.
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