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The worst night

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The worst night

Postby Lefty » 04 22, 2021 •  [Post 1]

What has made your worst night in the woods!
My father in laws worst night was after they continued to chase the rams on some mountain range in Alaska. A storm came up, and one fellow ran off .
They had the full hides from their rams , and he did get some sleep and stayed warm enough wrapped in the sheeps hides,, His biggest worry was what he expected to tell the wife of the fellow who ran off.

As a former Scoutmaster some of my worst nights are making sure the scouts stay warm. Once I gave up my sleeping bag and slept in the passengers seat of my wifes Mazda. My sleep was Ok, but my back was messed up for weeks,
A couple times melting snow soaked into sleeping bags, I spent 2-3 hours in the pickup drying a scouts bag.
Then there was the one scout campout; Locomotive Springs in Box elder county Utah. The 12 and 13 year old scouts forgot the poles for the tent. I had the scouts round up a big pile of hay to sleep in. It was getting cold, real cold. All the scouts in their bags by 9:00.
10:00 it was ten degrees below zero. I was checking boys every 15 minutes before I realized they were in a big nest. IF they got cold they wiggled to the middle of their nest, but even more amazing, if they were too warm they wiggled to the edge of the "nest" . I did eventually sleep. At sunrise it had warmed to one degree. These boys were up and doing what boys do! But a poor nights sleep of worry for me.

During an elk hunt in the desert. , The weather was to turn bad. So I put up two tents , my 3-man pop-up tent, and three man Spring bar,.Early in the evening, during the pouring rain, I knew I was getting sick, and just thought I should head home or crawl in the Springbar tent. The poles snapped on the pop up tent from the high winds . The wind picked up, recorded gust of over 70 mph that night. , My head-ache was getting worse, and worse, Bad night and morning. Early morning hours the wind died down I had elk outside my tent,.. I could hear the elk walking and feeding around me. I eventually fell sound asleep, and woke at 2 PM in the afternoon. The wind pulled up the pop up tent stakes and I never did find the tent.

And the 2nd time I elk hunted with a brother -in-law in Montana. He had built a nice new wood stove, and painted the stove with high temp paint the day we left for the hunt. During the night the paint was overwhelming me, burning my nose, eyes and throat. I couldnt stand it, and left the tent . Maybe not the worst night , but plain nasty for a few hours I had three good sleeping bags and had put up a separate tent for my personal gear. I did sleep well the rest of the night,
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Re: The worst night

Postby saddlesore » 04 23, 2021 •  [Post 2]

Years ago I did pack in hunt with two other guys into the Zirkel Wilderness in Northern Colorado. I don't remember the tent we had,but we also put up a leanto next to it for saddles and gear.2nd night out,I must have come dowm with some type of flu. I moved my bed roll out to the leanto, which barely kept the snow out,and proceeded to puke my insides out all night.
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Re: The worst night

Postby Swede » 04 23, 2021 •  [Post 3]

I have had some sleepless and cold nights in the woods. Once I could not make it out to my truck before it was dark, and I just had to stay put until daybreak. Whereas I have not forgotten that night, it pales in significance to the one that followed a late dinner, where the main ingredient was a can of Staggs Two Bean Chili.
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Re: The worst night

Postby Lefty » 04 23, 2021 •  [Post 4]

Swede wrote:I have had some sleepless and cold nights in the woods. Once I could not make it out to my truck before it was dark, and I just had to stay put until daybreak. Whereas I have not forgotten that night, it pales in significance to the one that followed a late dinner, where the main ingredient was a can of Staggs Two Bean Chili.

Ive had a few late night hikes, walk/packouts. Sitting down with food, and waking hours later, the food is cold, Im cold,,,, time to find a sleeping bag.

I had a forgotten nights sleep. Doc gave me some med and info "take them at 8:30 and go to bed"

I get back to my truck after an all day hunt, I startred headed for home, at 8:30 I take the meds,20 minutes later I could barely move, I maybe have been that tired a hanfull of times my whole life.
I Called my wife, Pulled out the tent, set it on the ground. I tossed my sleeping bag on top of the tent, took off my hunting clothes. crawled in the bag, woke 9 1/2 hours later to the sun in my eyes and frost on the bag,..
Talked to my doc,.. , he pointed out the warning label on the one med, laughed, said I was a lightweight and told me I didnt need them :shock:
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Re: The worst night

Postby Elkhunttoo » 05 01, 2021 •  [Post 5]

When I was around 14 my dad and I were in a tent about a mile from where a sheep herder had a grizzly tear his tent apart. It was only a few days after so in the middle of the night with a twig snap I came wide awake. Then another small break. I woke my dad up and he said, “do we have the rifle?” (It was right by us) I said “yeah, right here.” He then says “ok let’s listen for a second” and went right back asleep. Then another snap, and another. I woke him up again and he gave me the same answer. Then right back asleep. I was so scared and knew 100% that something was just 10-15 yards from our tent...after no sleep for the rest of the night I was up and out of the tent first thing. There was a really small spring next to the tent and the fresh tracks in the mud helped me find out a moose had made his way right by our tent in the night...I just remembered laying there thinking any second a grizzly was coming in the tent with us for hours
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