[pct-l] Critters

[Robert W. Freed]

I've had all of the standard encounters. Bears, bugs and rodents. The only times I have been scared. One: woke up and turned on the flashlight, nose to nose with a dear under my 6x8 tarp going through my back pack. I was sure it was going to be a bear. Two: fluttering and scratching in the night. Turned out to be bats flying in and out of a near by crack in the rocks. Both times my imagination was worse than reality.
Robert 

--- On Mon, 1/17/11, Cosmic Cat <cosmic.cat144 at gmail.com> wrote:

Critters. Ugh.
My only trouble was ants. Every once in a while I would sleep somewhere with the big carpenter ants. They would crawl inside my bag and I would wake up and squish them. It got to the point where I would search the prospective sleeping area and move on if I saw them. If they started crawling on my groundsheet, I would pick up and move even if it was dark.

This year I am bringing the luxury of a shelter with bug netting. Still plan on cowboying, but the shelter goes up at the hint of antsign.
On Jan 17, 2011 3:24 PM, "Robert W. Freed" <robert at engravingpros.com> wrote:
> I think you are underestimating the amount of water you lose through transpiration (sweat) at night. Even a light vapor barrier is going to keep your moisture from evaporating. You will wake up damp. The average person loses 2 lbs of water every twenty four hours.

> As for critters...  I just don't worry about it. 
> 
> --- On Mon, 1/17/11, Michael Pinkus <mikepinkus at hotmail.com> wrote:
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> I was thinking mostly of just putting a groundcloth down, sleeping pad, bag and then a light silnylon tarp over top to keep dew and light mist off. I'm worried about critters joining me in the sack though.....

> 
> Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 13:05:22 -0800
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] cowboy camping to Kennedy Meadows
> From: baidarker at gmail.com
> To: robert at engravingpros.com

> CC: pct-l at backcountry.net; mikepinkus at hotmail.com
> 
> Camping under trees is almost always dryer than camping out in the open, in terms of dew.  Except in the redwoods, where the mists condense on the needles and it rains all night sometimes when it's only fog elsewhere.  They're tall for a reason, they rake the low overcast skies of moisture, causing it to rain where no real rain may have fallen for months.  A redwood forest actually produces its own weather.  They're from the Jurassic, when the planet was in fact much mistier.   

> 
> In the Sierra, and deserts however, staying under tree cover meant a drier morning. 
> Shroomer
> 
> 
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