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Shelter Etiquette
Published on Jun 13, 2011
There are certain unspoken rules that apply to people sharing a shelter in the wilderness. They include, but are not limited to, such things as: Clean up after youself, keep your gear tidy, and don't pitch tents inside shelters.
More often than they should be, these rules are broken. It's common to believe that things are different in the wilderness; but, in reality, the same courtesy you would expect in the civilized world should be extended to the backcountry. However, people tend to believe that since, unlike everyone else, they've been hiking all day and exterting themselves, they are entitled to be rude. Every man believes his burden is greatest.
The infraction that has most recently irked me, is the violation of quiet time. To me, I don't expect much. Quiet time is the time from when everyone goes to bed (not to preceed sunset) until you can get up and move about without a headlamp. This is otherwise known as night. If I were to talk loudly and incessantly until the late hours of the night, or blare a stereo, I would most definitely be considered rude. People are trying to sleep and sleep is essential on the trail. This brings me to my most improtant declaration:
Snoring is your fault. Fix yourself, you are wrong. Nobody likes it.
The morning after I left a shelter to sleep in my hammock, I heard someone say, "I think he couldn't take the snoring." This was after I tried until 1 am to ignore it. I could hear it even though my iPod was at what I consider a ear-damaging volume. It was every breath, relentless like a chainsaw. I shouldn't have to learn how to take it. If the condition was due to sleep apnea, I might understand...get a C-PAP machine, because if you stopped breathing/snoring in the middle of the night, I definitely wouldn't recessitate. I would just be grateful for the peace and quiet and slip into REM quicker than you can say....ahhh.
So to all the snorers out there: Please learn how to breathe before you decide to share acommodations with others. You are the epitome of annoyance.