Tarps at Night!

   Sleeping out in the open was a wonderful thing while hiking the trail in 1980. The "Canadian Crawler" and I put our sleeping bags side by side and soon fell fast asleep. I woke a few hours later and felt something. What was that?! There it was again....it felt moist....almost wet. Then I realized what was happening. It was beginning to rain! The "Canadian Crawler" couldn't do anything because he didn't have a tarp or a tent. But I swung into action. I jumped up and grabbed for my pack. I reached into my boot and found my flashlight (I would keep it there at night so it wouldn't get lost and I could find it quick.)
   Digging around in my pack I found my tarp, some rope, and the small aluminum stakes that went with it. I started stringing up a line from the tree at the head of my sleeping bag down to the ground a couple of feet below the end of my sleeping bag. I had to put the small flashlight in my mouth because I needed both hands. The small flashlight just fit in my mouth and I held it between clenched teeth. After the center rope was secured, I threw the tarp over it and began putting in the stakes and tying off the corners and sides. All the time the rain got harder and faster! Finally the tarp was up! I put a big trash bag over my pack so it wouldn't get soaked, then I squeezed under the tarp with the Canadian Crawler. He was VERY glad to have a hiking partner with a tarp!
   We slept fairly dry that night. The next night it was clear and beautiful. We camped in the open again and fell fast asleep. In the middle of the night I woke up and felt something. What was that?! There it was again....it felt moist....almost wet. Then I realized what was happening. It was beginning to rain! Here we go again!!

   2011 update: this morning I weighed in at 171.8 pounds! That is 15.0 pounds lost in 100 days! I have less than 7 pounds left in order to reach my goal and 46 more days. That means I need to lose just a fraction over one pound per week for the next almost 7 weeks to get down to 165. I went jogging again this morning. My wife baked some awesome homemade bread (with fresh ground wheat). I'm eating good and trimming the pounds!