Sleeping not inside a tent – how do you deal with it?

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

I almost always sleep inside a tent. When I’m in there, my belongings are strewn all over the place. My hat, my glasses, my gaiters, my chapstick/knife/hand santizer (usually in my pocket, but when I sleep on my side, they’re in the way), my pee-rag, etc. I set all the stuff up around me so I know where the stuff I might need in middle of the night is located and then I don’t need a flashlight which might wake my partner.

Sleeping out, what do you do with all your stuff? If you just cram it into your pack, do you end up having to stop multiple times and unpack everything in your pack because your chapstick is somewhere in there because you forgot to put it in your pocket in the morning? When you have to pee in the middle of the night, do you have to turn on a light and dig around in your pack to find your pee rag?

I’m trying to figure out how people deal with sleeping outside a tent. It seems the worst thing is having to worry about where all your stuff is. If you don’t stuff it all inside your pack, you’ll worry with every little breeze that some of it will blow away. But if you just stuff it in your pack, you’ll have to spend a lot of time searching for things you forgot to put back in your pockets.

Am I hopelessly disorganized and messy? How does this work for you?

[Paul Wagner]

My stuff goes where it goes when I sleep in a tent.  Dirty clothes to the side, clean clothes as a pillow, headlamp with my shoes by my head, sunglasses with my hat near my shoes, etc…

Just no walls.

 

[Jeffs Eleven]

Yeah i turn my hat upside down and use it as a night stand. In the tent its in the corner above my head. I can always find it. Outside its the same. If its windy i put stuff in my pack and sleep next to it.

 

Ps  Hi Diane

[Jarred O]

Why is it any different? There is a floor (either dirt/rock or sheet) so organization should be the same. Nothing has to go in your pack.

If the issue is ground coverage just bring a larger piece of poly/tyvek.

If I was to make a guess it isn’t the floor/space management that is a problem for you (how could it, its the same) but it is instead the idea of a closed container cutoff from the outside by which organization is achieved. Perhaps I’m wrong.

[Ken Thompson]

Dinky stuff bag up by a shoulder. Headlamp and water on the other side. Everything else not being used in the pack where it usually goes.

[Jerry Adams]

yeah, wind will blow stuff away

I have a couple ditty bags I store stuff when packed and hiking, and the same next to me when I’m sleeping

Often there’s dew.  I’ll put stuff under a bush so it’s protected from clear sky so it doesn’t cool and have more dew

[Bob Shuff]

I get the conundrum.  Why have ditty bags when you have pockets?

I use a Zpacks multi-pack to organize those items I might take on a side hike, but it’s not stuffed full, so there’s room for knife, watch, etc. that I carry on me or in my pockets.  I also use my sleeping gear stuff sack, which is either a cuben stuff sack or an Exped Snozzle for my hiking clothes and other loose items if weather protection is warranted.  Those bags weigh a few oz each but help on other ways too, so multi purpose.

[Ryan Jordan]

@woodenwizard wrote:

I turn my hat upside down and use it as a night stand. In the tent its in the corner above my head. I can always find it.

This is pretty much the cornerstone of any organizational system for a tent or tarp shelter.

In my upside-down hat:

• headlight (sometimes I simply wear this to bed around my neck, if I take a really small light, like a Photon.
• eye drops (I wear night/day contacts)
• shop towel or bandana (kleenex during allergy season)

Next to the hat:

• bear spray (!)

On the non-door side of my floorless shelter (I typically use a small pyramid)

• Dirty/wet clothes:

Near the bottom of the door zipper:

• Shoes. I get up and pee at night, yes.

Near my head on the door side:

• Pot with 16 oz of water in it.
• Coffee grounds or Via packet in an odor-proof mylar bag.
• Stove.

That’s for the C. Fletcher-style AM cuppa.

[David Thomas]

I use the zippered pocket of my pack for most things.  The flashlight goes up and to my right.  My glasses are in my shoes, which are under the pack if it’s a clear night and might get dewy.

[Kevin Babione]

Hammock user here for another perspective…Everything except my headlamp is in its place in my pack.  The headlamp gets hung from the ridgeline right above my head for easy access if I need it.

[James Marco]

Yes, In my hat and just above my head (right or left.) Everything in my pockets goes in it. Glasses get rolled up in my bandana. A light is attached to a hair tie and slipped on my wrist/arm. There is a cord between the ends of my tarp that works as a cloths line. Damp/wet cloths are hung along with socks, as long as nothing drips. (Cloths don’t dry, but “less wet” works.) My pack is usually empty, so it is either under my feet or rolled up in a inside-out compression sack as a pillow.  Shoes are near the front. where I can slip them on as needed.  Rain jacket is often just hung on my hiking staff through the wrist strap.  Water, cook kit, etc are usually near the front corner, but, I need to get the bear bag anyway, so lounging around and making breakfast isn’t an option.

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

Your stuff doesn’t blow away in the wind? You don’t spend all night worrying about every breeze? Am I just shell-shocked from the wind on the PCT? Most nights on the PCT my tent blew down at least once. Other nights it was so windy I had to sleep out. Once I got up to pee and my whole bed blew away.

[Jerry Adams]

I have had my stuff blow away many times.  I think that is a valid concern.

“I get the conundrum.  Why have ditty bags when you have pockets?”

Or, why have pockets when you have ditty bags?  I never put any pockets on my backpacks.

[James Marco]

Piper, well, yes, sometimes. Not sure what you mean by wind. I usually stake my tarp down fairly tight, meaning three sides are well sealed against any wind: two long sides and the back. Only the front is open when there is any wind. (Of course, I don’t need to do that. There are 16″ lines at each stakeout point for better ventilation, if needed.)  On occasion the bedding (guilt, pad and ground cloth) has moved on a midnight run. I just put it back and went to sleep.

Anyway, I usually don’t see a lot of wind, between 30-40 mph sustained with a few heavier gusts (maybe up to 50-60mph) are more normal. Sometime more severe, but usually not sustained. Nothing like the PCT, I am sure. I did ride out a down burst once.. I couldn’t stand up at all in the wind for 15-20minutes…better than 100mph?…a bad storm where nothing stayed put, not trees, not my gear, not even rolly-polly me. I was mostly on hands and knees trying to look up and deciding if a tree would drop on me. This is not usual, though. Yes, my pants were brown. I guess I am still here though. Or, maybe you all are just figments of my personal hell as I lay writhing under a 50′ pine tree unable to breath…I can’t really tell from here.

[Jerry Adams]

30-40 MPH with 50-50 gusts is very windy in my book

I carry a wind meter and measure occasionally

30 MPH is quite windy.  If it’s that windy I’ll try to find a protected place.

I usually “hike high and camp low” if it’s windy

[James Marco]

Yeah,I do the same. But, finding a sheltered spot is a lot easier in the ADK’s, lots’a trees and hills to hide behind. Even on windy days, I can usually find a spot that is just breezy.

[Lester Moore]

Two things that really helped me simplify gear management in (and out of) camp:

1. Experiment with and adjust your skills, techniques and camping habits so you need fewer items of gear, or don’t need to access items as often or at inconvenient times. For example, try to collect a hand full of leaves before getting into camp for the night and leave the pee-wipes at home. Use your chap stick once before bed and then hang it with your food for the entire night. Practice replacing headlamp batteries in the dark, or carry a backup headlamp.
2. Have a place for everything and put everything you need quick access to in an easily accessible place. Any gear that may be needed at night is kept in the pack’s front pocket or inside the two large shoulder strap pouches (camera, glasses case, gloves, etc). Headlamp is always on my head at night under my balaclava so it’s always where I need it. Stuff I need to start hiking in the morning (gaiters, pants, etc) are in the front pocket. Shoes are on the ground under my elbows. If it’s windy, hang your pack or clip it to a branch or put a rock on it or sleep on top of it. And keep a large smooth rock near you on windy nights to lay over your sleep system while you’re answering nature’s call.

[Pedestrian]

About the only things I need access to at night are:  headlamp, glasses, water bottle. Headlamp and glasses go in the hat which sits by my head. If too windy, shove the hat under the sleeping bag and leave glasses and headlamp by my head out in the open. Everything else ‘s place in the pack. Water bottle off the groundsheet but within reach,don’t ask why ;). Of course shoes and socks by my feet.

I mostly cowboy camp unless the weather forces me to put up my shelter: either a Trailstar or sometimes an enclosed tent when with my wife – she’s not a fan of the Trailstar and will not cowboy camp at all.

I’ve also cowboy camped in snow at 10000+ ft in the Sierra in howling wind. I wore a down hoody and slept in a  0 F bag – the plan was to build snow caves – unfortunately there just wasn’t enough snow on the ground. I’ve no idea what I did with my glasses and headlamp that time – I was too cold to care. I had my pee bottle handy ;) and it looked and FELT way different than my water bottle, which was in my sleeping bag.

 

 

 

 

[Ben C]

Most of my stuff goes in my backpack.  If I need to access it, and it’s light enough to blow away, I will typically keep it on my body (if it’s not lumpy or pokey) or in an outside pack pocket.  It’s not going anywhere unless a bear makes off with my pack.

[Ken Thompson]

Part of the whole point for me not sleeping in a tent is that I found a place protected and don’t need one up.

[Dave Heiss]

I’m with Piper in that I need to know all my stuff is OK and in it’s place before I can relax my mind enough to go to sleep. In my tent I can quickly find everything I need in the dark because I know it will be where I put it. Cowboy camping, for me, is this theoretically desirable but realistically unattainable thing. I know myself well enough that I’d be awake all night, alert for sounds of wind, or animals, or rain/dew, or mutant zombie robber bugs messing with my stuff.

I would also wager a bet that tarp/bivy or cowboy camping backpackers are that fortunate subset of people who have the ability to fall asleep anywhere. If I could just tell myself “it’s time to sleep” – and then actually fall asleep – I probably wouldn’t need a tent. Or night-time organization. I’d be asleep.

[Don A.]

An interesting variety of approaches. It took me awhile to eliminate my excess stuff which made my life on the trail easier. I’ve always been a hat organizer myself.  Well, a hat and shoe organizer to be more accurate. I put my glasses and my hearing aids in my shoes.  I probably started doing that as wind protection. I hate sleeping with any thing in my pockets because invariably I’ll roll over on whatever is there and wake up.  I’ve lost a few things over the years due to wind so I try to be careful to not to leave anything out like a stuff sack or a windscreen that could easily blow away.  It always takes me a day or two on the trail to get totally organized.  Once I’m in the grove I don’t have to think about where stuff is because I’m putting it in the same spot every night.  That goes for cowboy as well a shelter camping.  There is always a chance of underestimating the wind factor. I’ve spent more than a few mornings searching for stuff in the morning, particularly on the PCT.

 

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

I guess I should learn to be more organized.

[AK Granola]

Or just enjoy your tent! I do like looking at the stars, but that rarely lasts long anyway once I’m in my sleeping bag, may as well be in my tent when my eyes are closed. If I get up to pee, I’ll get another look at the night sky, critters, whatever.

I have two dogs. One sleeps anywhere, the other *must* be under something or he won’t rest. I’m like dog two, I want my cave!

[David Thomas]

It’s not really a tent / no-tent thing, but one item I keep handy at night is a wristwatch – on my wrist.  Somehow, waking at night and not knowing if it is 10 pm or 4 am is disorienting in a way that disturbs my getting back to sleep.  So I wear a watch with a night light, usually a $24.95 Timex Expedition with “Indiglo” backlight (press the stem, get a very useable but not overly bright backlight).  Always in a women’s style because it does all the stuff that the men’s does but is less than half the weight.  And because I have skinny wrists.

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