Lying on the ground protected by three or four pounds of nylon and goose down is not the best way to deal with wukilars, but whattaya gonna do?
As my dad has always pointed out, keeping the covers up to your chin at night prevents the kidnappers from getting you, and not letting your leg hang over the side of the bed means that nothing can grab you by the ankle. And as we all learn from the movies, when the ghosts and monsters are in your room, you pull the covers over your head to protect yourself.
It seems to work. I’ve never been accosted by wukilars, dust bunnies, witches, ghosts, or kidnappers.
Which is odd, when you think about it.
Human burritos.
Human burritos.
Bear food. Took some scouts camping and it was the very first time for one of them. Never been in his life and we had the usual safety brief about no food in tents etc… Boys go to bed and a parent and I are the last to bed. I am putzing around and the next thing I hear is that new scout screaming for me saying the there is a bear by his tent. The parent comes bolting out of his tent in only his shorts and a flashlight gonna fight that bear. We open up his tent and he is hyperventilating near tears. Get him to calm down and start asking what he heard and he is describing a bear growl that didn’t make sense and and about that time the parent clears his throat cuz his allergies are making his sinuses run. Oh that boys eye grew large and started hyperventilating again cuz the parent was behind him. Finally convinced him it was the parent clearing his throat but he was not going to sleep in his tent cuz his tent buddy slept through the whole thing. He ended up sleeping in one of the cars and we had a great story to tell when we got home. Best scared camper story I got.
Never been scared while camping. Frozen, miserable, and hating every second of it, but never scared. On the other hand, when I was growing up, my bed was two feet from the door to the main attic. I kept that door locked. Especially when my younger brother insisted on watching Johnny Quest just before we went to bed…
Johnny Quest caused you problems? I do admit to being six and having demonic eyes glowing at me one night, I was petrified in bed until it got light enough to see my closet door knob which had a dent in it was sitting just right to get the street light being picked up in it and looking like those eyes…. camping? Frozen, what I swore was a monsoon, and mosquitos and bees getting into the tent. Being taught that the really super sized mosquitos (if sitting on your hand a few inches of leg spread) were ‘mosquito hawks’ and actually after the mosquitos after me….
One time, and only one time I just threw my bag on the ground and crawled into it. Every little rustle of leaves in the night woke me and I imagined a wolf or boa constrictor (in Colorado) trying to get me.
Being inside that less than paper thin nylon fortress makes me feel safe.
What I can’t see won’t hurt me.
Worst camping experience for me … winter camping.
-20C/-4F … 10′ from the fire as I was one of the youngest.
Thin sleeping bag as I was in a group home.
Expected to ‘wash’ daily with the wonderful snow.
It was a 4 day camping, and I hated it.
NOW … now that I’m 280lb I crave the cold.
Back in the mid 80s a couple coworkers and I went turkey hunting in Oklahoma. They slept in the back of the small pickup truck while i unrolled my sleeping bag between the fire and the firewood. Whenever I’d get cold enough to wake up I’d reach to one side and grab a piece of firewood, then to the other to put it on the fire. The next day when we went into the woods we saw a set of rather large tracks, most likely feline, about 50 feet from where I’d been sleeping outside.
Covering yourself with the blanket/bedcover/sleeping bag may work with boogie men but does nothing to keep a very determined chihuahua at bay.