S9O

After a nice early evening meal with the fam and my dad at Mayan Cafe,  I decided to get my camping jones out and do a stealth S24O near the house. I shan't divulge the location, but I had been scoping an appropriate spot, one where I might not be seen by friend or foe. 

I will now point out the slightly alarming transition of my mother into that which is similar to her brothers. She tried to engaged me ever so slightly about handguns and creeps in the night and whatnot. Yes, there are creeps. Yes, they do sometimes do things. But, no, in no way do they make me want to own a handgun for S24Os.

I grabbed the minimum goods: bivy, pad, silk sleepsack, light, stove, cup, coffee "stick", book. I forgot three key ingredients to the fun: fire (had it, didn't pack it), fuel (never had it), bug spray (had it, didn't pack it). The short ride over was very pleasant and my entry point to stealthland was devoid of folks when I arrived. The beauty of the bivy is how quickly you can set up. The ugliness of the bivy is the threat of rain, or in this case, mosquitos. I failed to pack the bug spray and near the woods the biters were heavy and feeding on me like ticks on a deer. I had had notions of reading by the trailing light and headlamp, but to expose much skins was certain exposure to the buffet.  As the pics below suggest, I did peek out and take some pictures of the cloud formations overhead as the crepuscular light enveloped the folds of earth.

I didn't sleep terribly given that I was using only the 3/4 thermarest built more for climbers than for my mass. I did have to sleep ensconced inside the bivy than preferred b/c of the mosquito quotient. Around 4.00am- early- I sort of woke up. As I gazed at the dark night I saw a shooting star directly overhead, a sign to rise and move on with my adventure. I pitterpattered about and packed up, wishing I had some fuel for a very-early-in-the-morning coffee. Instead, as I sneaked out of my "spot" I though of whether the nearby McDonalds might be open for a ridiculously early coffee and breakfast. I crept past the truck idling silently, its yellow parking lights two flaming eyes in the night. Maybe Mom is right; maybe there are creeps.

MickeyDs was closed until 6.00, so I casually pointed homeward to finish my S9O. Later, still early, I did go back to the Golden Arches for some bad coffee and worse breakfast. Next time I'll do a little better stocking the wagon for the long journey.

And I'll buy a Bug Head Net. Maybe even today.