
Had a truck pull into my deserted primitive camping area on national forest land around 2 AM and stop right next to my tent. Now, in context, I was camping alone, this was a designated camping area, and I was the farthest back from the road, a good 200 feet. I had no fire going. Still visible from the road, though. Anyone just wanting to turn around could have done so right at the front. Around 2 AM, this truck comes in, drives all the way back to my tent, and stops right next to it, just sitting there. I could tell the type of vehicle by the silhouette its headlights cast through my tent. There was absolutely NO legitimate reason for anyone to do that.
So I'm there, in my small A-frame tent which I'd made the bad judgement of setting up with its door towards the road (thus providing me no cover to exit), and all I can do is sit there in my tent with my AR15 at the ready, freezing my butt off in 39 degree weather because I had to crawl out of my sleeping bag and was just in my underwear, knowing if they mean harm and there's more than one person I'm almost certainly dead because I'm a sitting duck. Note: I had the AR15 in the tent with me because it was bear country. Fortunately for me, they probably decided there wasn't anything worth stealing and left after a few minutes without getting out of their vehicle. All my valuable stuff was locked up in my SUV and all I had visible was some cookware and a small camp stove.
I learned a few things from that. One, get a bigger tent that I can more easily move around in and it's quicker to get out of, and two, always set your tent up with the door facing away from the road to provide some degree of concealment if you need to exit.
Remember, folks: not all predators walk on four legs. Some walk on two.
