Coolest Place You've Ever Slept?

So I'm wondering about all the amazing and/or odd places you've slept over the years on your hiking and traveling adventures.

I'd absolutely love to sleep in a firetower or have a whole island to myself for a night. I've slept at the base of a waterfall before and that was quite a memorable experience for me.

Where is the most amazing, fun, or odd place you've ever slept?

(P.S. please keep related to the outdoors and not drunken exploits )

Can't say that I've really slept in an unusual place. I have slept on an island by myself a few times. Concluded that the small islands are not cool. Firewood is scarce and the bioload left by those who went before me is definitely not cool. Small islands are inappropriate for human camping. Large islands are tempting however.

Does -30F at Camp 13 Falls qualify?

Doug

DougPaul said:

Does -30F at Camp 13 Falls qualify?

Doug

Click to expand...

Hahaha, I'd say so.

I once tried to use a 30 degre sleeping bag when it was 12 degrees at the Hancock Campground. It was a COLD night, but certainly not -30

Odd? No. Sceret little place known only to me? No. But it was an AWESOME place to sleep.....Guyot Tentsite.

I know, not that "out there", but being a city boy I was amazed at all the stars you can see from there, and the sunrise is equally amazing!

Brian

On a beautiful day in March 2000 I did a southern Presi half traverse: up Lion's Head, down to the area of Lakes on day one, then over Monroe and Eisenhower and down the Crawford Path on day two. Details here.

The weather was perfect, and we had a full moon (almost!) that night. When we set up our tent a bit south of Lakes we saw the sun setting in the west and the moon rising in the easy, and reflecting off the ice that surrounded us.

A memory I will cherish to my dying day.

Smarts Firetower on the AT in the late 90's. Got up around 4AM to catch the sunrise and see colors in the sky.

The top of the Zeacliffs--solo--in a cramped one-man tent during an all-night wave of violent thunderstorms. Spectacular, but also very frightening.

Full winter, deep snow, high up on a bushwhack to a trailless summit in the ADKS.
The tent right on the deep snow over a stream. looking down the stream under the full moon at 2am it looked like the brook was a sparkling silver staircase disappearing below. And falling to sleep with the water gently gurgling 6' down underneath the tent bottom.

Several winters ago, myself and a few friends slept on the middle of Chimney Pond on the ice in nothing more than our sleeping bags and pads. It was a gorgeous night with the moon rising, no wind, and lots-o-stars. Definitely one of the most memorable places I have ever slept...

Sunrise Camp on Mt Adams comes to mind - the view doesn't suck

http://image30.webshots.com/466/7/77/22/2428777220101680372NiMOcw_fs.jpg

On the Iditarod Trail, during the race. When I say "on," I mean I could roll over and watch the teams go by, looking out through the tent door.

Not so much for where, but the experience of it, sleeping on top of wildcat last summer, on the back deck of the goldola building, I evidently interfered with a roost of saw whet owls, who took turns flying at me for much of the twilight hours. Simply awesome...

Also, the first night sleeping without a tent. 8th grade, middle of nowhere Iowa, more stars than this 'Jersey boy' could imagine. Thanks mom and dad!

Hmmmm

been a few. Maybe this one 10 years ago. My brother, best friend and I made our through to Queulat Parc Nacional in the northernmost reaches of Patagonia Chile in mid summer. It had been fairly warm during the day along the way - upper 70s, maybe low 80s. We pitched our little 3-man tent at the foot of a 1000 foot frozen waterfall. Both my amigos had come woefully unprepared w/ wool blankets they 'borrowed' from a lodge. I had a 35 and 15 degree bag. That night it misted, drizzled and snowed a little as temps dropped into the upper 20s. We cooked what little food we had out in the elements, then proceeded to ward off the cold with all the liquor we had. As usual, my brother had the lion's share. After giving my 15 bag to my friend, I woke to the sound of an avalanche and noticed my brother's teeth chattering, as he 'slept.' I put him in my 35 bag, w/ one wool blanket, and spent the rest of the night wide awake listening to the sounds of the forest, including a puma's wail and many other very, very strange noises - all foreign to me - as well as a few choice thundering avalanches, as I quietly froze under the other borrowed blanket. Oddly enough, even though it was by no means a comfortable night for me, it was nevertheless very enjoyable in a rustic sort of way - made me feel very alive. And, the warm forest hike in the dappled daylight the next day, though in some quite spooky terrain at times, seemed like nothing after that night...

Two come to mind

A night at Mineral King in the Seirras by a glacial lake.


July 7 on the anniversary of the Battle of Habbardton, camping on the battlefield. Someone said "Just think 200 years ago the British and Hessian were burying thier dead. It was a haunting solemn moment.

While attending Killington Adventure Wilderness Camp just a few years ago, one of our trip leaders decided to Bivy on the Castles on the Castellated Ridge below Mt Jefferson. I was a teen from NJ and thought this was really cool. At 10pm the thunderstorms started popping up and I learned a few new colorful words when one leader told the other what she thought of his idea now. In a pig pile under a tarp, no one slept. But in the morning when the sun broke over the undercast, I was hooked on hiking forever.

Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island of Hawai'i. You've never seen stars like you see them with 3000 miles of ocean around you.

Gale Head hut, outside on the lawn, while the Perseid meteor shower 'raged' overhead!

The Balsam Lake Fire Tower Cabin.

Out in the middle of nowhere with 'my' kids when I was a camp counselor, and what do you know? We saw the Perseids!

A lean to at Heart Lake when the lake was dead calm and all 5 major planets were visible in the sky as well as reflected in the water. Didn't have the camera!

* My first snowcave outing at age 13 testing my new sleeping bag.....it was -20 outside. This was back in Sweden in a snowpile I shoveled together during the course of the winter.

* On the way down Aconcagua, Rob and I decided to overnight at Casa di Piedro at a spot where you could see the fiery sunset over Aconcagua......made a poster of that sunset....unreal.....

* Waking up in a lean-to at Chimney Pond by a moose looking at you 10 feet away....

* On summit cone of Jefferson at around 5,700 feet with leaf in May.....facing the sunrise in the morning when opening the tentside.....

At Annapurna Base Camp on Halloween around 14.500'. Watching sunrise over Annapurna, priceless.