Things that go Bump in the Night

Lots of folks don’t like what passes for bathrooms on camping trips.  I’ve never had that problem myself.  I’ve had to dig my own trenches, I’ve used running water systems, I’ve used latrines, and I’ve had to carry my own waste out of certain areas.  There’s no sense in getting all hung up on something that’s going to be a pretty minor part of your day.  At least, that’s what I always thought until I had to use a latrine that screamed.

Being a brave soul, I marched off in the night with just my flashlight.  When I got to the latrine I realized that someone else was there as I could hear scuffling.  Which was fine, as it was a four-seat latrine.  But I soon realized that it wasn’t someone there, but something. And whatever it was was in the latrine!

Still being brave, I shone my flashlight down into the pit, only to see two eyes shining back at me.  Yikes!  The good news is that after I got over my scare, I could see that the owner of the eyes was a very bedraggled raccoon. And the park ranger got him out the next day by putting a log down for him to climb out on. But now I’ve decided – I don’t really like latrines.