>>2452094My parents started taking me camping when I was 3 months old in 1982, was later in the Scouts until I was 14
Then I started going on solo urban campouts (basically hobo larping/stealth camping) with a friend in the mid 90’s, way before the explosion of homelessness, and before the portmanteau “urbex” was in anyones lexicon. By the early 2000’s I started having more run-ins with security and cops, as well as deranged homeless, so I gave up my train hopping/hoboing.
Couldn’t do much hiking have I was trapped in a city and didn’t have really reliable transportation until 2006, when I bought a cheap commuter car (one of the best financial decisions I ever made; everyone around me was just dumping money into sports cars or lifted trucks). I actually got it with the intention of going on road trips that would include hiking. It’s been as far as Ocala NF, Shenandoah, GSMNP, and as far west as Las Vegas.
So when I got started is hard to say, because I started more traditional, daring, and hardcore trips in my early 20’s compared to what I did as a child.
