Sleeping in the Woods: Day 3

The storm blew the tents rain fly askew and made a nice puddle. I thought I could sleep on the cot with just the wool blanket (wool is supposed to be warm even when wet right?). Well, I woke up after a couple hours and just couldn't fall back asleep when cold and damp. I suppose I could have done it, but not when I had a modern insulated bedroom just a short walk away. So I started walking back. It was about midnight, and despite a low 3/4 moon and lots of stars I could not see well enough to walk over rocks without breaking something. Also, a damp t-shirt is very cold when its 50 degrees. In the dark the very remote possibility of being chomped by a cougar is no longer remote, it is right next to you. So I stumbled back to the tent and set out once more equipped with a dangley LED lantern, a .22 pistol that got in the puddle and would only be good for one shot until I could clean the rust out of the magazine, and wrapped in the wet army blanket. In all reality, to any hypothetical cougar, I would be the monster in the dark, a dark flopping shape casting shadows in all directions, clomping over the rocks.

But the next evening I returned with to find the blankets I had propped up with branches had dried and it was very nice.