The Mummy Sleeps Soundly (NOT)

I finally used the last of a Bass Pro Shops gift card I received as a thank-you for working until 5AM one "night." I proudly selected a SlumberJack 30o Mummy bag. It was shiny and light and packed down incredibly small in the included compression pack.

MAN! Was I ready to go hiking.

I forgot it had been a long time since I had slept in a mummy bag. AND that was in a nice comfy 1950s era down-filled army garage sale special... ON A COT.

I wanted to toss and turn, but I could not. I was in a mummy bag. I wanted to sit up and stretch, but I could not. I was in a hiking tent that is the very same basic dimensions and shape as a mummy bag. I wanted to lay down flat, but I could not. I did not see the root ball to that grass clump when I pitched the tent. My bad.

Modern camping technology did not play nicely with me on this trip. Last week I made an impulse buy and pimped-my-maglite for about $5.99 with a push button on-off switch and a LED conversion. BUT... when I tested the batteries at the trailhead, I somehow managed to twist the new LED bulb leads and short the whole thing out. So when we got to Clarity Tunnel, I had a very warm, very dark mini-maglite. Of course, Clarity Tunnel is just over 500 feet long and runs roughly East-West. As long as the sun is up, it is probably never too dark to walk through Clarity.

Now the little Korean-war era camp pot I borrowed from Katrina... that worked great. It packed up nicely, sliding over the bottom of my wal-mart clearance army-style canteen. I probably have one or two of those stashed somewhere in Minden. Before my next hiking trip, I am going to need to visit either Dad's shed or an Army/Navy store.