rodent chewed a hole in my bivy

Rude!

Did you have some food in your pocket?

impressive work of rodent perp

If someone sealed my front door with plastic and nylon I’d put a hole in it too.

I think you are lucky he didn’t poop in your bivy.  You know…to prove a point.

I’m lucky he didn’t chew a hole in my air mattress.

Although I think this was above the air mattress, more where my head was laying, but I never noticed anything.

That would have been exciting to feel a rodent next to my face

Had a mouse, shortly followed by a weasel in hot pursuit, run across my face one night. Rodent damage has been confined to gear in storage.

I spent a night with a mouse (meeses) running over my face. That was the last time I camped under a tarp. There had been a sign at the trailhead warning that mice were carrying the Hantavirus in that area.

It’s remarkable how large of a hole the mouse chewed. Wonder why he went after your bivy?

I must have put my bivy over where he wanted to burrow out of the ground.  Next time I’ll put it slightly over to avoid his hole.

Loosely related..On one of my trips, we rolled in late and my buddy put hit tent over a critters hole…

He spent a good part of his night playing whack a mole..

He just wanted to be friends.

On a serious note, I wonder if spraying the bottom of your bivvy and both sides of the polycro with permethrin or capsaicin or similar would have discouraged the critter.

On a not so serious note, they do actually make wide-grid fine-wire titanium meshes (like maybe 0.1mm wire in 6mm x 6mm grid) that could be used as “under armor” if you travel in Tremors territory. That would be an interesting MYOG project.

Again on a more serious note, I wonder what the lightest weight Kevlar fabric is, if for some reason you really needed a critter and HD penetration resistant groundsheet? You could make a ground sheet out of exploded car air bags (lightweight kevlar-like material) by cutting and joining panels with double sided PSA tape. Someone make a backpack from them if I remember correctly.

Greg P made that backpack.

what’s “HD penetration”?

Sorry, Heavy Duty

I’ve been camping for decades.  This was the first mouse to burrow up and into my bivy.  Maybe this is just a rare event.  And it had little downsides – didn’t affect this trip and I’m aleady fixing it with a bit of nylon and silicone.

I have had mice run across me in the night.  Whatever – mouse doing it’s thing.  Or chew into my quilt – again didn’t affect that trip and was easily repaired.

Right. In almost every context it’s silly to talk about a bulletproof ground sheet, but it did get me thinking of other scenarios (not just traveling in Tremors territory), like camping where there is nothing but rocks, or sharp rocky soil, maybe some volcanic soils, or maybe even in some desert situations. The worst cactus I ever encountered was the infamous “Jumping Chollo”. It would totally suck to pull into camp in the dark and inadvertently lay your bivvy and pad on one.

That reminds me of Yucca plants just north of L.A.

Don’t accidentally put your leg into one of them.  I swear they have poison tips.

Looking at the cactus pic, I just think “i love long pants!”

I like the way you think Jerry. Nothing bothers you, that’s why you’re always smiling.

> mouse are a hole .. bivy

Time for a Tyvek (absorptive) groundcloth with a border soaked in permethrin; mouse takes a strong whiff and rolls over on all 4s after doing a breakdance (it’s pretty bio-friendly and non-carcinogenic according to the latest).