My troop went to Camp Sidney Dew this year for the first time. Me and two of my friends did their adventure trek. We actually spent two nights at the camp. We did two whitewater trips and a 25 mi. backpacking trip on the AT. On our second day on the trail we climbed Mt. Albert, about 5,000 feet. ASL not actual climb! This was about a 1/2 mile form our campsite that night. It is a bald knob and it has an out of service fire tower. You can climb it, but you can't go into the top. You can still go about 60 ft. tall. Me, my 2 friends, and another guy decide that we want to sleep up on the fire tower. It was really cool, you have an unobstructed 360 view. We watched the sunset, then started to go to sleep. The staircase had 3 levels per se. The first two levels are just big enough for one person. The 3rd level had enough room for two people. I was on the top level. All of a sudden, my friend who was on the same level as me jumped up and said he thought he saw something. He grabbed his flashlight and looked around. He finally saw what it was, a mouse. I had heard stories of mice in the AT shelters, but I did not think about them being 60 feet up in a fire tower! I gave him my nalgene and told him to knock it off the tower so we could go back to sleep. He took it and started to look for it. About a minute later he jumps about 3 feet up and screams like a girl. He had shined the light down at his feet and the mouse was charging him. We then decided to exit the tower for obvious reasons. I had a friend get bit by a mouse in his sleep on a previous camping trip. I didn't want that to happen to me. I just brought my sleeping bag and pad down. I left my shoes and nalgene up in the tower and was going to get it in the morning. My friend was so shaken that he left his sleeping gear in the tower. So he and another guy are climbing the tower with flashlights and sticks trying to make it to the top. Every once and a while you would hear bunch of banging and yelling when they saw a mouse. It was hilarious. When he got to the top he decided to just throw everything down. He is 60 feet up remeber. So it is raining sleeping bags, pads, shoes, and nalgenes. It was a very memorable night.
stevenscout
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