bivy vs tent in high winds

The other thing about leaving a bivy open to avoid condensation is bugs. Many people don’t mind this. and I really like having the ability to star gaze from the warmth of your sleeping bag.

But I hate ants and all the rest, especially as I tend to read by a headlamp while trying to fall asleep and that light attracts often weird looking bugs like nobody’s business. and mice.

I’ve had mice crawl across me at night. Provoking me to wake up and yell at it.  The times it didn’t wake me up I’m not aware of.

And they’ve chewed a hole in my sleeping bag.

when I haven’t hung my food properly mice have gotten into it.

I don’t usually have a bug problem.  Sometimes I’ll wear a netting head net (thanks Peter) or a 3 foot circle of netting draped over my head.

Doug said he saw a racoon approach me when I was sleeping in my bivy.  I wonder what would have happened if Doug didn’t yell at it.  That would have been startling to wake up with a racoon staring at me.

There used to be a bear and a racoon working in tandem at little yosemite valley. this is a very high use campground near the top of Nevada Falls and is a good jumping off place for doing Half Dome. The raccoon would go ahead and the bear follow after. the raccoon would go into tents and then so would the bear in some instances. I watched them at it one time. The raccoon walked past my clean camp and then the people at the nearby campfire were cooing, “ah, look at the cute raccoon!” And then I just said “bear” as one walked past me to their site and all hell broke loose. Not experienced hikers. I’m sure they were toasting hot dogs and such.

anyway the next morning I hiked for a while with a guy who was just using a bivy. The racoon and the bear had both stepped on/over him the night before. Oh, and a couple of cubs went up a tree just outside of this camp as I started hiking early in the morning. Hmmmm.

Needless to say both animals were highly habituated to humans. Also, I normally don’t camp there but I got a late start from the valley floor.

A collapsed tent becomes a bivy. Under high wind conditions, however, it will beat you to death all night. I know this from multiple experiences.

at Cape Disappointment State Park in southwest Washington the racoons are bad

several approached me from one direction so I ran after them yelling

meanwhile, another was getting into my open car door – stupid me, didn’t do that again

not afraid of me.  I had to have a stout stick and actually touch the racoon with it in order to get to run away.  And throw stuff that actually hit the racoon, like pinecones.

they left my sleeping bag in mid alone.  They could have got in and disrupted it.  No food there though.