Re: [Paddlewise] lanterns and sleeping pads

> While it is certainly nice to have the comforts of home in terms of lighting
> and bedding, I see myself poles apart from this approach.  For several
> reasons.  First, on lighting, a lot of the camping I have done is commando
> style and you just don't want to show a lot of light that announces your
> presence.

Reminds me of a trip I took years ago among a group of islands in Southern
Japan. We were paddling in April or May. We had intended to go camping but
the inhabitants were overwhelmingly gracious and we always stayed at various
inns. (often spontaneously people would usher us into a car and whisk us off
to an inn miles away just leaving our kayaking gear behind). The inns were
very nice and the beaches fairly scummy so it was OK

Finally we decided that we had to camp at least one night. We had brought
all this camping gear and not used it. As we paddled into a village we saw a
likely beach about 1/4 mile away and decided on staying there. We refused
all the usual offers of places to stay and hiked to the beach. As dusk
arrived, a gentleman appeared lugging something quite heavy in one hand and
a bag of oranges in another. The oranges were for consumption.

In this part of Japan there were very few English speakers and we spoke no
meaningful Japanese so we just watched as this guy set down his burden. He
then fired this contraption up by pulling on a chord like an outboard motor.
It responded with a throaty growl. It chugged away. Then he handed us a
chord at the end of which was a 100 watt light bulb. He plugged the cord
into the device which was a Honda generator and walked away. The combination
of the sound and the light transformed the area.

One thing I remember about the light was how little you could see. It was so
bright in the vicinity of the light that your eyes became light adjusted and
suddenly everything beyond the circle of light turned ominously black. I am
of the school of minimal light needs (aided by the fact I do most of my
kayaking in Canada during the summer when there is plenty of natural light)

Because of the generosity shown, we felt obligated to run this thing for a
suitable period of time. Then, with the aid the the light, we were able to
figure out how to turn it off. The next day we lugged it back to the village
and just left it in the public square having no way of knowing who our
benefactor was but having little doubt it would end up back in the correct
hands.

It snowed lightly that night. In general, in our planning, we had thought
that since it was about the latitude of Los Angeles that it would be plenty
warm. In fact, the weather was not much different than one might encounter
paddling in the San Juans in April in Washington state. Some sun some rain
some wind and lots of very kindly (or concerned) people.

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