Tentless camping (was: Thermarest bags)

>Also I spend an average of more than 75 nights a year sleeping out, never
had a problem with bugs. Have backpacked in the Grand
>Canyon, the Santa Catalina Mts. north of Tucson, and the Sahaura National
Monument east of Tucson, now spend most of my time
>in the Sierra Nevada Mts.


It was decades ago in northern Arizona that I was starting to fall asleep
in the desert, no tarp, just a ground cloth and a sleeping bag.  I
reflected on how close to nature I was, I could even hear the scrabbling of
an insect's legs as it crawled across my sleeping bag.  But then I said to
myself, wait a minute, that sound isn't coming from on top of the sleeping
bag, it's coming from INSIDE the sleeping bag.  And at that exact moment I
felt the crawl of insect feet across my lower back.

I was out of that sleeping bag in a flash, grabbed the flashlight that I
always kept handy (this was before I discovered headlamps), and saw that
the trespasser was a millipede.  I believe that millipedes don't bite and I
normally don't go out of my way to destroy insects but I wasn't about to
share my sleeping bag with an intruder so I squashed that millipede with a
rock.  And resolved never to sleep in the open again.

I actually have slept outside on a couple of beaches in Hawaii but the wind
and sand made setting up the tent a hassle -- and also kept the mosquitos
away.  Also by that point I already had over 100 mosquito bites so I may've
suffered a couple more on the beach but wouldn't have noticed.


--MKT