u/PennroyalTea

I’ll be camping at Jumbo Rocks in a week and wanted some more info as I begin packing. I’m an experienced hiker but have only hiked in the northeast, this will be my first time in a desert.

My main questions are:

- better to tent camp or car camp?
- if I tent camp, would a light fleece bag do or should I pack something for under 40 degrees F?
- better to wear hiking boots or trail runners?

I’ll be packing tons of water, sun block, UV shirts, hat, etc of course, but any info is appreciated. Thanks!

I (32F) am exhausted with the competitive behavior and disrespect I’ve experienced with some female friends time and time again.

I’m secure with myself and don’t put on a persona. I’ve noticed the people I end up having problems with do - they’re always trying to make themself seem more important, popular, and better than others.

I’m not afraid of confrontation or laying boundaries, but I give the benefit of the doubt and choose to take the high road most of the time. I’m here for a good time, not a miserable one, lol. I don’t wanna feed into it.

The same thing happens with certain female friends: treat me like an “other”, disrespect me, gaslight me, ignore me, make passive aggressive comments, one up me, etc. I do have some female friends who are super genuine and awesome, but I feel like I attract a lot of the toxic ones for whatever reason. I’m a very supportive friend and genuinely love uplifting others so I feel like they would like this..?

Then it ends up blowing up because they make a huge deal about my boundaries or something.

The latest person (Kayla, 28F) is driving me crazy. I’ve been ignoring her negative behaviors (sarcastic comments/back handed compliments/flirting with my boyfriend 35M/etc) but it’s difficult when she’s so ingrained into our friend group. She tries to act like the “queen” of our group and some people praise her like she is.

It always seems like she’s trying to compete with me for: appearance, popularity, creativity, and male attention. I receive compliments from people (usually our other female friends) and she sees it. We’re both creative and engage in similar hobbies. My boyfriend says she’s jealous she isn’t the only one getting attention now. Lately if she sees someone complimenting me she will go “ohhhh you’re soooo beautiful..” very sarcastically and roll her eyes. Now she touches my boyfriend inappropriately. Meanwhile she talks up every guy our group runs into in public. These guys don’t even hit on me, I’m obviously with my boyfriend, I’m no competition.

I just don’t know why some female friends treat me this way. Ignoring it doesn’t seem to work, they just ramp it up. I don’t want to lose my other friends either but this is stressful and it’s making me feel like I did something wrong even though I know logically I didn’t.