- Joined
- Oct 26, 2000
- Messages
- 6,104
Took a quick trip to Cheaha yesterday, determined to turn 40(the auspicious occasion occurring some time between 2:30 and 3am today) in my bivy in the woods, instead of at home. As it turned out, I didn't use the bivy, and turned 40 on a rock in midstream...
Hit the sack before sundown, got up about 3:30 this morning, and hiked out in the dark.
Hadn't done any night hiking in awhile. It was only about 4 miles, and lots of fun. I saw a bobcat for a brief instant, not 15ft. from me. Just its eyes and the shape of its head over a log before I spoke to it, and it took off. The next hollow over, I heard what sounded like kittens mewling. Maybe the wind, an active imagination, or the bobcat's den?? Since I'm old now, I can't be wrestling wild catamounts in the dark, so didn't explore this further.
Got to use new stuff for the first time. 5x7' ground sheet from BCUSA, my Big Agnes Air Core mattress, and some Icebreaker 200wt. merino wool tops that I picked up at an obscenely low price.
The forecast called for highs ~60, with 40F as the low, so I thought I'd be fine in the 40* bag that's kept me warm below freezing with another pad in a bivy. Apparently an air mattress with a r-value of 1 in the open on cold rock is another story. Before the night was over I was glad of bringing the long sleeve version of the t-shirt I was hiking in, and was wearing the pants that I'd stuck in the bottom of my sleeping bag, too.
Don't know what it actually went down to, but the thermometer in my truck showed 38* as I was driving home this morning.
One cool thing about the air mattress is that I found you can wedge stuff under it. The rock wasn't flat, so I ended up with a shoe wedged on one side to keep things level, the other under the top of the pad, raising it like a pillow, and my pack under my feet to keep from sliding. Pretty sweet.
Hit the sack before sundown, got up about 3:30 this morning, and hiked out in the dark.
Hadn't done any night hiking in awhile. It was only about 4 miles, and lots of fun. I saw a bobcat for a brief instant, not 15ft. from me. Just its eyes and the shape of its head over a log before I spoke to it, and it took off. The next hollow over, I heard what sounded like kittens mewling. Maybe the wind, an active imagination, or the bobcat's den?? Since I'm old now, I can't be wrestling wild catamounts in the dark, so didn't explore this further.
Got to use new stuff for the first time. 5x7' ground sheet from BCUSA, my Big Agnes Air Core mattress, and some Icebreaker 200wt. merino wool tops that I picked up at an obscenely low price.
The forecast called for highs ~60, with 40F as the low, so I thought I'd be fine in the 40* bag that's kept me warm below freezing with another pad in a bivy. Apparently an air mattress with a r-value of 1 in the open on cold rock is another story. Before the night was over I was glad of bringing the long sleeve version of the t-shirt I was hiking in, and was wearing the pants that I'd stuck in the bottom of my sleeping bag, too.
Don't know what it actually went down to, but the thermometer in my truck showed 38* as I was driving home this morning.
One cool thing about the air mattress is that I found you can wedge stuff under it. The rock wasn't flat, so I ended up with a shoe wedged on one side to keep things level, the other under the top of the pad, raising it like a pillow, and my pack under my feet to keep from sliding. Pretty sweet.
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It's like having nothing at all on your back!
):
