What is you worst experience sleeping in a tent???

[Scouter.]

Me?

 

Waking up one morning at Philmont (in Staff Tent city) and finding a BAT INSIDE my tent!!!

 

After being told of all the diseases they carry, all I could do...was to cover my head and holler for help.

 

Some other staff members got it out.

 

I said I did not want to be a sissy , but ...and quickly stopped by a "Noooooo!!!! Stay put. You do not want to get bit by that thing!!!"

 

That is my Worst ...so far.

 

(And that ranks over seeing a black bear @ 4:30 one morning too).

 

Enjoy ;-)

 

Peace...S.

[eisely]

Four nights sharing a tent with another adult who was an olympic class snorer.

[SeattlePioneer]

I was backpacking into a remote part of Yosemite when I met someone coming out, carrying his tattered pack and gear in his arms.

 

I asked him what had happened.

 

He said he had been camping the previous night, with his food tied up in a tree, except for an apple he kept in his tent for a snack.

 

He was asleeep, trussed up in his mummy bag when a bear clawed open his tent, stuck his head in and grabbed the apple in his mouth.

 

Then the bear generally tore up his campsite looking for more food.

 

I believed him.

[qwazse]

All of those clear nights when I didn't need a tent, but went through the trouble of putting one up!

 

So many stars, so little time to count them ...

[perdidochas]

When I was in scouts in the late 1970s, my tent fell down on me (and my two tent buddies) in the middle of severe weather (tornado about ten miles away).

[KC9DDI]

perdidochas - Been there, done that (actually several times in one week. That poor tent went in the dumpster at the end of the week - after almost 15 years of service!)

 

It seems I always strike my tent under the one tree in the camp which houses a woodpecker. And the woodpecker apparently wakes up and starts going to town on the tree several hours before I want to wake up.

 

Maybe not the worst experience ever, but I did have a wild turkey fly/fall into the side of my tent at about 3am one morning. I remember being half-awake trying to identify a strange noise (which was apparently a gaggle of turkeys fighting/mating/playing/something), and then hear a loud "crash" into the side of my tent. Got up the next morning to find my rain fly covered in blood, and turkey feathers all around.

 

 

[le Voyageur]

Failed to make a village for the night during my trek across Kenya. Pitched camp in a boma (coral made of thorns to protect cattle), spent most of the night listening to those big cats that hunt the Tsavo...

[BluejacketScouter]

Laying on my back, without my glasses on, looking at the spider as big as my hand crawling on the outside of the netting directly above my face.

 

Putting my glasses on and realizing the spider was actually inside, not outside.(This message has been edited by BluejacketScouter)

[Stosh]

I was about 12 at the time....

 

Waking up in the morning and rolling out of bed before realizing the air matress you were sleeping on was actually floating.

 

Stosh

[Scoutfish]

When my son was going camping for the very first time as a cub scout, I bought a tent and two sleeping bags a week before - as a trial run.

 

Bought two of those 1/2" thick foam pads too.

 

Pitched the tent and by 6 pm , my son was beside himself just waiting to get in the tent.

 

It was April, so the temps dropped down to anout 39 degrees that night. Sleeping bags were rated to 20 or 25, nice , soft, warm. Air was crisp and clear.

 

It was perfect except thinking that pad would be comfortable.

 

Next week was the pack campout. Went camping with everything I bought plus a brand new air matress.

 

Set up the tent and that day and night it is about 78 degrees, humid and the air is thick. Gnats everywhere .

 

Miserable with a capitol M!

 

But at least it wasn't a big spider or bear after me.

 

[NealOnWheels]

Lightning striking the tree next to my tent. Could see a perfect outline of the tree right through the tent as if the tent was not there. Saw a fireball where the lightning ejected from a branch about 10 feet over my tent. And the sound was horrendous. The ground shook.

 

Shortly after that a camp staff member came and got us and said we needed to go to the dining hall to take cover. But by then the worst had already passed by.(This message has been edited by NealOnWheels)

[SMT224]

I was finally settling down in my sleeping bag after a busy day and all the Scouts had quieted down. Suddenly a Patrol came tumbling out of their tents crying for help as they all started throwing up at about the same time. Some didn't even make it out of their tents! Some actually made it out into the woods, some just out of the tent. It was a sound that immediately pulled me out of my slumber, into my clothes, and out of my tent!

 

Apparently they had just barely cooked their hamburger, because, as they said later, they were really hungry and didn't feel like waiting. It certainly was a learning experience, and made a huge "food Safety" impression on the Scouts. To this day, Scouts who were not on the trip still talk about it whenever anyone is cooking hamburger!

 

[Eagle92]

There's such a thing as a bad nite in a tent?!?!?!?!?!!?

 

Summer camp my 3rd year I took the absolute worst tent in the campsite b/c I was going to do HA program backpacking from Mon-Fri morning. Since I was going to be out the entire week. I thought I'd it wouldn't matter if I slept in a lousy tent one nite.

 

WWWWWEEEEEELLLLLLL it rained, it soaked through the canvas and dripped all over the sleeping bag. Miserable waking up, but worse I had to pack it up wet for the HA program. Once we got to the first station, about 1.5- 2 miles, I was able to hang it up while we did thework on the trail. But it didn;t dry in time fo the firsat nite and I slept in a emergency blanket going crinkle crinkle all nite.

[desertrat77]

It's a tie...two different trips, both involve bad weather (snow and rain), in southern Arizona, late '70s, winter, in cheap nylon tents of that era. There are some other drizzly winter nights in AZ that would round out a top five. Folks find it hard to believe, but it gets darn cold in the desert.

 

Though we moved to Alaska and I spent alot of very cold nights camping there, none approached the misery of those two AZ nights. Perhaps because we were better prepared in AK. No expensive gear, but made wise use of military surplus gear. In AZ, the aforementioned nylon tents, blue jeans, jean jackets, 10 dollar Kmart sleeping bags. Makes me appreciative of the gear I have now.

[Scouter.]

Desertrat77...OMG...that one reminds me of a really bad cold weather one I fad forgotten about.

 

Worse than the bat? Ummm...yeah.

 

Winter camping in North Dakota with Extreme Cold Weather sleeping bag...and I still froze sooo bad all night. Not to mention having loaded up on water that night and having to get OUT in the middle of the night to make a nature call. The morning camp fire was like paradise.