Which Sleeper Are You?

I enjoy getting up at sunrise to search for golden lighting to photograph interesting scenery. Usually it is less windy and before others are out and about.

Two days ago I photographed the full moon setting behind Carson Peak with June Lake in the foreground.

I also photographed the moonset at nearby Mono Lake’s tuffa formations just before sunrise last year.

By sundown I’m ready to relax and edit photos on a laptop and dream of tomorrow morning’s adventures.

It’s about 5:45 AM I love to get up just before the sun, get my fire going, sip on my cup of coffee, watch the sun rise, listen to the sounds of morning. Ahh camping that’s what it’s all about. Next trip July 4th weekend 3 days, can’t wait.

There something about camping that never made me want to “sleep-in”. Even if I wanted to now, it is impossible with a toddler in your tent

The earlier I’m up the better. I like to do the campstove coffee thing, too. I also sit back in my chair and experience the peacefulness of it all. There must be a bunch of us doing this while everybody else is asleep!

I’m not sure that there is a much better experience than to get up in the dead of the night, well after all of the other revelers of camping have finally laid it down for the night, and rekindling the coals from the evening’s meal, putting on a fresh new pot of coffee, and watching the great starry expanse of the universe unfold as I take in and view God’s handiwork of creation in the heavens. The perking coffee is suddenly done as time momentarily gets stopped in it’s tracks, and the small fire’s curls of flame, ebb in the predawn glow that rises in the east, seemingly out of nowhere.
Another day is fast approaching, and somehow the coffeepot is as empty as when I first got up, …four hours ago.
Good morning

Although young I am an early night-er and early morning sort of person. I like quiet campsites as I believe its about getting back to nature and enjoying the sound and peace of nature.

View my blog at Gone Camping UK

View my forum at GCUK Forum</a.

I am an early riser, whether I want to or not! Sun coming up, wakes me up. I get up, start the fire, perk my coffee, and usually have the first pot all to myself. I need that quiet, alone in the woods time, one of the best parts of camping for me…

When I’m camping I’m usually out in the woods to kill something. The demands of that pursuit include revising normal human activity in full daylight to the margins of darkness. It causes you to get up when you might otherwise lay around as you would at home on a day off with the wife (who happens to be a night person) in the morning.

On a related matter, I’ve read in a hunting or outdoor magazine a few weeks ago (only saw it once, and I don’t remember where) that the Obama adminsitration has decided to close the woods to disbursed camping so that only campgrounds will be open to camping. I wrote my Congressman (an expert on forest management based on his testimony to the congress in 2007 regarding logging activities) and asked him to investigate to see if there was any such limitation actually being proposed and to take away the administration’s power to make that decision.

If I’m wrong, I’d like to know it, but if I’m correct, then I’d want to mobilize everybody who doesn’t think that improved campgrounds are ideal spots to go camp or to take the family camping.

I’d suggest that it be a priority to check into this by everyone who is interested in camping in the manner that we’ve done as, for example, Boy Scouts (I was in the woods over half a century ago with Dad and also with the Boy Scouts.) It’s a legacy that most of us would want to pass on to our grandchildren.

Closing off the woods to the full use and enjoyment of its owners (the taxpaying public) can’t be worth the potential gains that those who would keep out of the woods evil human beings (the only evil species on the planet, according to several vocal groups who picked up their advanced degrees in biology by watching Disney classic films anthromorpizing deer, bear, beavers, rabbits, owls, etc.)

I tried to do a Google search about closing the woods to “disbursed” camping, but it was a fruitless effort. I’m possibly dead wrong about the administration’s initiative by virtue of the fact that I read all sorts of negative reports about Obama’s adminsitration that I can’t directly verify online. An example of that is that I apparently deserve the designation of “potential terrorist.” What I’ve read in several articles spread across many of the gun publications I read every months suggests that the new director of HSA has the notion that an old guy like me who has served in the military, votes for conservative political principles, can shoot straight, belongs to the NRA and owns more than a few firearms is enough cause to panic and attempt to cause panic to the general public. With this HSA administrator when panic is called for; panic will come.

My experience in improved campgrounds reveals that my home provides a more tranquil setting. My neighbors aren’t perfect, but at least they don’t stay up all night 20 feet away from my bedroom window with the stereo blazing away all night while their kids scream at each other. Compared to the “improved” campground experience an evening inside an apartment in the “projects” or a dorm room on Friday or Saturday night is tranquility.

I am a very light sleeper, and the slightest noise wakes me, especialy in an unfamiliar environment. I just have to be aware of whats going on around me, I guess.
So, in a oublic campground, the other early risers around the campground wake me up anyway, so I just get up. If I am out rock hunting somewhere, with no other campers around, I might sleep in a little longer. But tents heat up in the sun, so I have to get up as soon as it starts getting warm. Normaly at home sleeping in is about 7:30 0r 8:00. In the winter, I will slip out early and get the fire started, then maybe go get back in my bag for a half hour or so, till the fire catches.

We camp with 4 other families and my favorite time is in the evening after dark around the campfire. We have teenagers now and so they are all together in the camper watching scary movies (go figure) and the adults are around the campfires telling stories and catching up on our lives. We have even sat out there in the rain under umbrellas around a huge fire because we can’t stand to be inside. We don’t understand those who go camping and you never see them outside. There are always 10 -12 adults and we slowly drift away to bed. I am always one of the last and it is at least midnight or later. I would like to sleep to around 8 but alas there is always someone else’s little one on their little bikes on the road making lots of noise at six in the morning. We are a quiet bunch at night out of repect for others and where we camp at a state park, the sites are really nicely spaced so you don’t hear much from the others. I firmly believe the parents of little ones send them somewhere else to make their noise so they can sleep. We always kept our noisy little ones at our site in the morning, but it is obvious others don’t. But for us our campfire time is our favorite. The day is full of meals, dishes, running to and from the trailer for something or another, taking the kids to swim, etc. So no matter how you plan it you seem to be working or doing something all day. So after dark is our down time to enjoy the camping. Sometimes I wonder why we camp with all the work that is involved but we wouldn’t miss our campfire time. There are mornings at home when I let the dogs out, especially this time of the year, when the mornings are cool that I wish I was camping with our fire and friends. We always make a week of it the last week of October, our last camping for the year and we love it. So all I can say is LET’S PACK THE CAMPER AND GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!