reuben
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Gonna need more Camels at the next refugio...
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Post by reuben on Apr 6, 2016 6:31:12 GMT -8
I've got a python that I sleep with every night, even when I sleep in a hammock. Does it ever wake up?
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tigger
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Post by tigger on Apr 6, 2016 7:01:47 GMT -8
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Post by tipiwalter on Apr 6, 2016 7:14:25 GMT -8
Snakes never bothered anyone, either.... Why would they? Just don't put the bedroll next to rotten logs. Ants, scorpions and all kinds of things live in them. If you're truly paranoid a sleeping bag cover in breathable material does the trick. This is just not true. Me and my backpacking buddy Johnny B were camping on Upper Creek in Pisgah NF several years ago and we called it a night around the campfire and returned to our separate tents. Johnny found a copperhead curled up on the ground in his tent vestibule by his tent door and we had to lift it out and move it into some doghobble away from camp. One time more recently I was camping in my tent and heard a rustle in MY vestibule and it was a snake passing over my boots in the vesti by my sleeping head. PLUS, does no one else get noseeums and/or midges in the summer? These pesky motards are tiny and leave an itchy bite and the only relief at times is to be inside a zipped up tent. AND on occasion black carpenter ants like to roam everywhere at night and will commonly crawl over anyone w/o the protection of a tent. They only bite when crushed by body movement etc.
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daveb
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Post by daveb on Apr 6, 2016 7:39:45 GMT -8
Snakes never bothered anyone, either.... My phobia says you're wrong and you're trying to get me killed. Shame on you! BTW, from my backyard a couple of weeks ago.
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tigger
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Post by tigger on Apr 6, 2016 7:52:18 GMT -8
Y'all are backpackin' where I ain't a goin' anytime soon unless I get stupid and get on Neked and terrified.
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trinity
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Post by trinity on Apr 6, 2016 8:14:44 GMT -8
BTW, from my backyard a couple of weeks ago. We lived in Conroe (north of Houston, for you non-Texans) for 3 years, that whole area is just lousy with venomous snakes, copperheads in the wooded areas, cottonmouths near water, and the occasional timber rattlesnake as well, though they're not nearly as common. Most people around the country have no idea how abundant venomous snakes can be in parts of the southeastern US. Are they a real threat? Not really. But I certainly don't blame people for not wanting to sleep outside of a tent in those parts. Here in central Texas, there are much fewer snakes, but an abundance of scorpions, which I regard as the only legitimate concern for sleeping in the open air. Those things can leave a mark. Again, statistically unlikely, but a valid concern.
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Post by tipiwalter on Apr 6, 2016 9:07:10 GMT -8
I remember my time in Texas when the tarantulas came out in force and liked to walk across warm roads. They were everywhere and lived in holes in the ground covered by a small web.
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almostthere
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putting on my hiking shoes....
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Post by almostthere on Apr 7, 2016 6:54:29 GMT -8
OF COURSE it's regional.
You live in the jungle, I don't.
I don't have those critters here. Rattlesnakes in California don't care about us.
Which is why IT DEPENDS. IT DOES.
Where is the most important thing.... I'm not going where copperheads live. And no, we don't have midges, or no seeums, or tigger's python.
So YES IT IS TRUE. SOMETIMES.
It is also true that people need psychological safety, and "durable" tents provide that.
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gabby
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Post by gabby on Apr 7, 2016 7:15:13 GMT -8
REI has plus sizes of the HalfDome and QuarterDome that give some wiggle room without too much extra weight. I have a friend who is "basketball-sized". He has one of the Plus HalfDomes. Loves it. I've got a python that I sleep with every night, even when I sleep in a hammock. Uh, innuendo - if not straightout braggin'... AND on occasion black carpenter ants like to roam everywhere at night and will commonly crawl over anyone w/o the protection of a tent. They only bite when crushed by body movement etc. Fireants are the bugs I don't like in Central Texas. They are EVERYWHERE in all the state parks around here, along with the only thing that can apparently hold 'em at a distance: those giant "red ants" which build mounds a yard and a half across. Enchanted Rock, up in the hill country, has both in quantity. My phobia says you're wrong and you're trying to get me killed. though they're not nearly as common This is where I quote the book "Why Big Fierce Animals are Rare". Predators have to have a "prey base" (like most Christians :^) ), so they are limited in number by the amount of food they can get. I'm sure it's "seasonal" as well as "locational", but that probably doesn't mean you can't plop down on a nest. But, you have to watch that kind of stuff... Outside of "reproduction cycle" sort of stuff, I don't expect to see dozens of mountain lions in one place, though the encroachment effect of mankind could cause perturbations. It is also true that people need psychological safety ...and this is the crux of a lot of what ya'll are sayin' here. Me too. Scaredy cat. But I usually (usually) know better, and realize that my own self is the thing I'm letting get to me.
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zeke
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Post by zeke on Apr 7, 2016 7:25:19 GMT -8
If it weren't for the no-see-ums and the mosquitoes here in Fl, I would be cowboy camping all of the time. In the Sierra mts, I cowboy camp or tarp camp, depending on rain probability. Gone are the days where I have to put up the tent every night.
I woke up once in the Grand Canyon, with a dead scorpion at my elbow. It wasn't there when I went to sleep. I never got stung, so I have no idea how it died, if it wasn't from asphyxiation from being too near my pit.
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tigger
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Post by tigger on Apr 7, 2016 7:51:29 GMT -8
Sometimes, people need tents that can handle a storm, or enough space to hang out in during a storm, or the sanity to avoid bugs, or wind, heat, or a plethora of other issues. Pythons...are just something some of us have to live with.
If the Arctic has taught me one thing, it's that not all tents are created equal. I have never experienced the pleasure of such a quiet shelter as when I slept in a Mountain Hardware Trango 3 in raging 70 mph wind/snow storms. I wouldn't haul it around for 3-season use...but dang that is a nice shelter.
Most of us have quite a few shelters in our quiver to deal with different environments. The shelters picked out by the OP are decent generic shelters.
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trinity
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Post by trinity on Apr 7, 2016 7:55:02 GMT -8
Predators have to have a "prey base" (like most Christians :^) ) Ouch! I demand that this entire thread be moved to TPA! Your point about predators is true, of course, but I have been astonished at the numbers I have seen of copperheads and cottonmouths in parts of the southeastern US. In good pine forest during the right season, copperheads can be practically everywhere, at surprisingly high densities. Likewise, I have been places (Brazos Bend State Park comes to mind, if you've ever been there) where cottonmouths are practically ubiquitous. These are, I suppose, places of unusually high ecological productivity which can support large predator populations. I have never experienced such high population densities of any species of rattlesnake, though I believe there are areas of west Texas where Rock Rattlesnakes are extremely numerous.
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amaruq
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Post by amaruq on Apr 7, 2016 11:30:40 GMT -8
You won't find many folk here who camp without at least a bug net of sorts. Sure, it's possible to cinch a sleeping bag around your head exposing only your mouth, but by morning you're going to have awfully itchy lips.
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