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back into the mountains. We got about halfway before we realized we weren't going to make it to the campsite that night. About that time we arrived at a lean-to shelter, which had a fire pit in front of it and we decided to sleep there for the night. Our beds were made of pine boughs, and we enjoyed the warmth of a large fire, and though it got quite cold during the night, I think the beer erased any notions we might have had that we were roughing it.

On another back country rock climbing trip, the group I was with had established a base camp next to a river miles inside the wilderness. We left the campsite excitedly, and hiked along the river to the crags. We climbed for the day, and then got lost on our way back to camp by following a fork in the river that wasn't the one we thought we had camped next to. While we were lost, we discovered a cave and decided to sleep inside it for the night. We built a roaring fire at the cave's mouth and covered ourselves with dead leaves to retain heat during the night, not realizing apparently, that an errant spark from the fire could have easily ignited any one of us. Everyone who wasn't with a mate fought over the tick infested dog that had accompanied us, for cuddling rights and the extra warmth of a sleeping companion.

I have many other such tales to relate to express what I might interpret as "roughing it," but again, to use that phrase to describe those experiences would just be my interpretation. Other people may say that they wouldn't even put themselves in a situation like any of those I have related. But life is a funny thing. And as much as you might try to plan against such eventualities, they can happen even when you don't want them to. I have never felt like I was roughing it when I have slept in the outdoors, no matter what circumstances were involved. I took a girlfriend camping for the first time that did nothing but complain about all the dirt. On the other hand, I took another girlfriend for her first time, and she really got into the spirit of the thing and had a great time. I married her.

"Roughing it" is all in how you look at it and how you accept it or don't. Some people don't consider sleeping in a tent roughing it when they go camping. But for me, compared to many of the other ways that I have slept in the outdoors, it's like a night at a Hilton hotel.

Learn more about this author, Jack Pine.
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