'Round The Block Balladeer

If you have never walked at night in the wilderness, I'd highly recommend trying it. Moon or not, it can be fun if you know your way enough to not get mixed up or lost. Try to avoid things that glow blue- green is ok. I used to go for strolls at Camp Josepho up in the Santa Monica Mountains when we camped with the cub scouts. I have been lost in the woods at night and that isn't fun. I was doing a Wilderness Survival Merit Badge with the Boy Scouts at Camp Whitsett up near the Kern River. You are supposed to go out and build a shelter from natural materials and then go back and sleep overnight in it. You don't get a sleeping bag or flashlight. I had settled for the night and some of the boys were doing pretend coyote calls to try to scare the other boys. Then I heard a real scream. I waited, trying to figure out if it was real or just more hazing. A couple of the boys came to find me. It turns out I was the only adult on the hillside. The Merit Badge Counselors had all left to go sleep in their cabins. I went to help. One of the boys had gotten freaked out and tried to crawl into another boy's shelter and then peed all over himself because he was frightened. I walked him back down to camp and to his Troop campsite and into his tent. Then tried to go back up to where the boys were trying to sleep in their shelters- now without any adult supervision. I got lost, had to back track a couple of times and an hour or so later finally found them. All I had under my bush was a space blanket that proceeded to rip length wise when I resettled. The long strips were not wide enough to cover myself.
It would not last forever, however. As the Merit Badge Counselors returned for us at 4:00 because they had to bring us back so they could lead a hike to Sentinel Peak for the sunrise. I had slept maybe an hour. I went back to my tent and slept through breakfast. Actually I used the experience as the basis of a scene in the book I'm peddling right now where our hero (Joe Strong) is trying to hike overland to get to his mistress.