How many bag nights in 2001?

“Around 118/125 nights....lost track of the days.

I spend a third of my life eating dirt and bugs...and sleeping on the ground...a guy could have a worse job....pretty lucky, I am, I am.”

“2001 was my first year backpacking. I spent 26 nights in a sleeping bag. 15 of those were backpacking nights. This year I hope to get out backpacking more.”

“My snowboarding nights are spent in a sleeping bag too. No condos for me!”

“ONE BAG NIGHT IN 2002, SO FAR!!!!!
I just bagged my first bag night! It was a beautiful ultra-starry night in Kingman County, KS. Hiked across the red bluff country east and south of Kingman and slept like a baby last night. We broke open some bales of straw, spread them out on the ground and had a wonderful bed. I almost felt guilty for being too comfortable.
Didn't even pitch the tent. Very little dew in the morning, and we took a dip in a pond for our shower.”

“This is your first bag this year?... we almost need to hold you a pity party... sorry to hear about your misfortune. Glad you had a good trip.

:)”

“I've only got 4 this year. Hope to up that a little later this year.”

“I have had only one bag night this yr so far but it was my first bag night since I was a Boy Scout many,many,many,many moons ago.”

“20 so far, backpacking.”

“Hey, hold your pity for someone who needs it. I'm guessing that this puts me in league with the ultra-hard-core-abo-dudes out there, huh?”

“2001 - It was about 18

So far this year, 14.

Does it count if I sleep in my sleeping bag on my living room floor???

Hey Birch - go back and read your 12/31/01 post on this thread... You weren't thinking you'd hit 25-30 this year. I'm guessing your much closer than you realized you'd be!”

“Dunadan, are you crazy? i can't believe you even call yourself a backpacker. i think we all know who should REALLY be banned now, don't we? you're nowhere near as hardcore as me, with 3 bag nights so far! HA! what a baby.”

“Lyra!!
Can you hear the teardrops hit the floor as I hang my head in shame?
I guess I was mistaken when I assumed that this would get me nominated to the TT Hall of Fame.”

“Perhaps if there is a category for "Latest First Bag Night of the Year", you might win that.”

“I've only got 11 bag nights so far this year. What can I say? The universe conspires sometimes. Here's to getting more backpacking time the second half of the year (July resolution?).”

“Hey Dun Dude... the smelliest TT'r award is still up for grabs...no one's seen any skunks this year..

(btw my dog has more bag nights then you)”

“Maybe I should change my name to

"Hiker, formerly known as a backpacker"”

“I'm just chuckling to myself. I only have 4 so far and they were all in developed CG's. However, I will surpass 80 this year, maybe 90, with most of them on the trail. I'm right on schedule. This was all planned. I'm not racing, just doing my own thing like I do every year. But eat your hearts out! I love to rub it in!”

“No, really, maybe you don't understand what I'm saying here. I really slept outside, in a sleeping bag, all night!
Please, hold your applause.”

“Did you carry the bales of straw with you or is Kansas really just one huge wheat field?”

“We ended up on the property of a friend who had some bales of wheat straw on a flat bed trailer near the pond. It was the most comfortable I think I've ever been while sleeping on the ground.
Yes, there is nothing but wheat, endless wheat. Wheat.
You should visit, sometime, Violin.”

“So you walked around the back forty? I am impressed.”

“Did you run an extension cord from the barn or did you really rough it?”

“I ain't gonna expose all my camping secrets to you lesser backpackers!
What else is there, than the back forty? This is Kansas, remember?”

“And, if you don't back off, I will have to resort to haiku!”

“"forty" being 40 square miles, of course.

They don't mess around with piddling acres in Kansas...”

“You know I’m only jealous because New Jersey is nothing but asphalt. I couldn’t find a soft place to sleep if I walked all the way around the block.”

“Though I know that all of you can sense the self-deprecation in my original post, and you know that I have a taste for attempting humor, I will try to insert some seriousness here.
I live in a state that has very little public property that would be large enough to really hike on. There is much that I find beautiful here, but in order to see it, you have to get the owner's permission or trespass.
Now, on much of the range land, the owners could care less if you walk out there, as long as you leave the cattle alone. However, it's not like you can go to a "trailhead" and park your vehicle and hike for days at a time. If I lived where some of you live, I might have many times the bag nights that a lot of you have. Since I don't enjoy camping out in my back yard, in order to go backpacking, I have to plan a trip to somewhere else.
Don't take this as a complaint, because it isn't. Just letting you know what the situation is here in the Wheat State.
Now, keep those Kansas jokes coming!!!!!”

“Do i keep track? no, i think i'm somewhere around 10, couple more maybe, i don't think i quite hit 50 last year, maybe this year, it's somethin to shoot for, but i guess i'll never know unless i keep track... sometime maybe i'll hit 300, we all need goals don't we :)”

“Hey, if you don't get 365, you can't call yourself a real backpacker!
This is going in the "Terms of Participation", soon.”

“Just leave them cattle alone boy.”

“Yes sir. Can I get a pinch of Skoal off of you?”

“well then, maybe i'll get 365... but i doubt it, we all need a few nights inside... a hotel, a relatives house, a fellow tt'er, :) 365 is beyond me”

“LOL at Violin!! (Pssst, and Dunadan didn't even mention the sheep.....and don't mention sheep to cattle ranchers!)

Dunadan's serious statement is also a correct one - there is very little public land in Kansas for hikers.

Dunadan - Have you gotten landowner permission to at least go summit the high point in Kansas? Sunflower Mt. or Hill or point, isn't it?”

“How many so far in 2002?

32.”

“Hey there, Cow Patty. I've been near Mt. Sunflower, but haven't stopped to walk out there. It is barely a rise in the ground, just a point of elevation. There was a great website that Liz posted a while back about this.
As a Kansan, I really should summit sometime.”

“I bagged a few.”

“You make me proud, Buddur.”

“Dunadan - You're disqualified for sleeping in the hay! That is, unless you had someone of the opposite sex with you. You do have a valid argument about Kansas. However, if you click on "Places" under "Sections" in the top right corner of this page, you can find two Kansas trails that we can accept, Elk City Lake Trail and Indian Creek (Overland Park) Bike & Hike Trail.

It looks like you need to invest in a little more travel time. In one day you can reach some good hiking country in several directions.

Hold it! -

You can hike in Kansas on the Santa Fe Trail. It runs across the entire state. You could even do the entire trail, about 1,000 miles. Someone from my college did it 8 years ago or so. He wrote it up and it was published in a newspaper in seriial fashion. However, a condensation printed in our college magazine stunk. That is why I am writing an article,Losing Myself in the Smokies.

So without any more excuses, let's see some real trip reports from you!”

“Yeah, I have thought about hiking the Santa Fe Trail. You might want to know that it is called Highway 56 in Kansas. Maybe I could hitchhike the Santa Fe Trail.
I appreciate your concern, Slimmer. I have been in the CO Rockies more times than you can shake a stick at.”

“I have 25 this year so far!

8)”

“I've got 22 . . . although not sure that means much, but 302 trail miles with that this year.

Crazy Mike: I'm closing in dude!!!

Dunadan: I left my tarp in the pack both nights this past weekend, so it was under the stars for me too!”

“Good luck!

8)”

“Dunadan, had you stood on that bale prior to breaking it open you could have seen ALL of Kansas. ;-)”

“Heck, I stood on the flatbed trailer and was looking into Oklahoma!”

“Man, some of you guys are ninjas! I only have 5 so far. :-(”

“By the end of the year I am going to have at least 50+

8)”

“I had a very young co-worker go out to the midwest farm stores to count inventory. She called me once very upset. I asked her where she was and she said " I don't know but there are cows standing next to the phone booth!".

You had to be in New Jersey I guess, to appreciate her anxiety.”

“;-)”

“23 (backpacking) for me, but I was snowboarding til June 3rd! Got some bag nights while snowboarding, so if that counts I'm at 59 bag nights.”

“SN - I think we can safely declare you the winner, in this years 'bag night' derby, right now”