Sleeping Around

Getting enough sleep is my life ambition. The proper amount of rest is vital to our mental and physical well being. Least that's what they say. Those perky well rested looking people on T.V.. The older I get, the less I view perky as a positive characteristic in anyone. Napping gets a lot of props for its health benefits too. Which is one of the few things I learned in school and still find useful. Might add it was not considered healthy at the time.

I have slept in some varied environments and slept pretty well at that. Even on the hose bed of 12-1. Back when Company 12 didn't have a bunk room.
If you have never slept anywhere more exotic than on the couch or the window seat of a long flight. Don"t fill too deprived. Getting to some of the places took some effort. It was also an effort to sleep at some of them too.

Many of us have the shared experience as children on a family trip of sleeping on the floor of a 50 or 60s era car. Using the transmission hump as a head rest. Come to think of it. I think the only car seat I had was one to give me a better view. Not to mention a better chance to launch through the windshield on impact.
Some places I've slept have been spectacular but safe. Like the Upper Saddle of the Grand Teton. Or high risk but common like Dick Millers study hall. As kids we liked too sleep out. We started with modest expeditions to the living room then to back yard, Where we could at least see the mountains. We gained a lot of experience in the backyard. Like sleeping on the actual slope of the hill. Don't work. Gravity does. Hardings port a ledge was not in production yet and we had little big wall experience. we eventually pushed to the knob and the crick. Then there was Boy Scouts. Our troop actually had a cabin. On the Gingriche farm.The first time I slept on ply wood was there. More notable was our Troops and the councils weather policy . Or lack of. It could not rain too hard or be too cold. I remember one Winter camp o ree sleeping in our 9 man army surplus filled a foot deep with straw. I doubt the guide to Safe Scouting would sanction this or that our Troop ever had a copy.

Which brings us to the one place or actually a method of bedding down I have not employed. Spruce boughs as a matress. Being a product of the 60s era Boy Scout handbook and several fine publications like Wood Craft or Wilderness survival. Real campers sleep on spruce boughs.Not a Therma rest or Ridgerest who must have spent long nights in anguish, praying Leave No Trace becomes a federal law. Stan S. still opines how great it was winter camping in the Adirondacks. Stack the boughs two foot high for the floor, after a night or too it compacts to around 6 inches. That would be a capital offense today . Being a Leave No trace trainer even if I got permission on private property to wack a few trees. I would feel guilty, after awhile I'm sure. Maybe.

When we slept over as kids we never actually roughed. Even on the living room rug we had sleeping bags and what ever weapons we could get. As an adult or semi adult being able to improvise came in handy, a lot.

While in the Navy . I slept on beaches ( sounds cool. not! ) steel decks, on top of wall lockers ( better to view the rats. ) aft compartments of landing crafts, The steps of several building. Then there was John boys floor.

John, can't remember his last name but like nearly all young men who grew up in the 70s is now forever known as John boy. Thank you Richard Thomas who also played Hank Jr in Living Proof. John and a constantly changing group of shipmates rented a house in Summersville S.C. Johnson another shipmate whose family has a farm in Columbia S.C. could get a pig to roast if we picked it up.

The following friday afternoon Johnson, Rick Denton and I left for the Johnson families farm. John boy and crew stoked the fire. I should mention this was February and cold. Also it was 1978 and there was a so called gas shortage. We skipped gassing up to beat traffic. I had a 1/4 tank which is more than enough to get to Columbia in a Datsun 200sx. It was leaving Columbia we noticed all the gas stations were closed at 7 P.M. I. 26 was dark and cold that night. How far will the needle drop past E before the big sputter started. We found a Shell station in Santee open. Not sure of the mileage. But it was a long way past E. I had visions of us setting along I 26 froze to the pig. As it was. Johnson s the only one who slept in the backseat with the pig.

Later that night we stuck the pig on the fire. Johnboy said he was going to bed and we could crash where ever we liked. I did not expect a bed and knew it was too late for the couch. I had hoped for a blanket. SURVIVAL TIP : KEEP SLEEPING BAG IN TRUNK. I slept on the hallway floor. Crawling back and fourth depending on the heater out put .

Climbers identify themselves with themselves by the major climbing area they frequent. Seneca Rocks W.V a 2.5 drive from Chambersburg , Pa was mine. According to local Seneca icon and purveyor of gear,instruction and B.S.. The average climbing career or obsession at Seneca lasts 5 years. John should know he started climbing at Seneca as a W.V.U. student in the early 70s. Soon after started selling gear out of a V.W. van. Then moved up town to the chicken coop behind Buck Harper's store.. I was working on my 16 year or there about when the move south happened. When it was warm enough to climb, at least semi dry and 40F. Seneca was a monthly, bi monthly or every week end depending on motivation and availability of partners. Tim G. and I made enough trips his wife became a competent outdoors woman and trail guide. This was back when we had to ford west branch of the Potomac . Now days Seneca has a genuine Forest service spec camp ground , visitor center and trails. Brand new in the 90s thanks to a couple floods, arson and Friends of Seneca.

In 82 you camped on Roy gap road where you could pick corn and use the restroom simultaneously. At least Roy Gap road got flushed at least once a year by the spring flood . Unlike camp slime the Gunks unofficial climbers camp ground near New Paltze N. Y. The only place I've seen brush wired and staked to the ground. To help the grass grow.
When you think climbing and camping trips. You imagine scenic I pristine sites. More commonly rock jocks flop along side the road where ever might be close and cheap.
late in the game I had a dodge grande caravan. Yank the rear seats out and instant camp ground anywhere. That was late in the game , first ten years or so I drove a Volkswagen.
V.W. s are THE two man climbing mobile. They haul gear, plow through the snow, good mpg. You can also sleep upright or semi reclining. I remember on night at the Chapel Pond Slabs parking lot. Pulled in 0230 A.M. The weather called for a high of 13 F. earlier that day. Then a big cold front would move in and drop the temp big time. It was 10 F then which would be the high for the week. I remember Larry setting there in his wool knickers stomping his feet every 5 min. Saying " I can't believe its this cold". It hit -30 F the next day. Pay back earlier that year Larry drove his vintage Scout on a gunks trip. Room for him to sleep in the back. I slept underneath it. In the rain. He did put the tailgate down. We took Jim Ruffs new Subaru wagon on a Ice climbing trip to the dacks. Jim slept in the back. I slept in the snow bank. Which was fine until Jim cranked up the wagon at 0500 AM and started filling my bivy sack with exhaust.
The Wallface trip would be one of the more unique experience. After the 5 mile hike in after dark under the lush forest canopy which blocked the light of a very bright full moon. Tim and I passed the time pondering what the guide book meant by camp at the height of land. Not a phrase you run across in guides everyday. Our guesses were correct and self evident when we reached the height of land and stepped out from under the canopy of the forest, and instantly staggered backwards. The moonlight illuminating the 800 foot rock face literally in your face. The guide reads camp at the H. of L. across a small valley from Wallface. Its more like a deep narrow ravine less than a 1/4 mile from the rock. Spent the rest of the night watching a light flicker in the center of the face. We thought some one must be doing an aid route and were spending the night on a port a ledge. No bear bag or bears to mess with. but , there wasn't any one there the next morning. Read Legend Of Wallface , Tales of the Adirondacks.
I remember in High School on a fishing trip to Delaware with my father and friends. The Captain of the charter boat also ran a bed and breakfast. How quaint. I shared a single bed with dad. No small guy. Around 2 A.M. the slats finally gave out and the mattress dropped. I decided then Holiday Inn or at least Super 6 was the way to go. Well I spoke hastily or thought to my self again with out thinking.
There are to many places to go that are no where. The more places I check off the list the longer the list gets. Some destinations have no creature comforts but plenty of creatures Sometimes you have to sleep amongst them. May not comfort you but it ma be comfortable if you work at it.