When I was a kid, money was almost always tight.  With a large family to feed, there was rarely anything left for the kind of extravagant activities many people associate with a vacation.  As an alternative, we would go camping.  The highlight of most Summers was generally a trip up into the mountains to escape the heat and get away from the everyday grind.  Many of my favorite memories from this formative period in my life revolve around Alpine lakes and trails in North East Utah.

Unfortunately, work called me away from the Mountain West many years ago, and many of the places we’ve been don’t lend themselves to the kind of camping I find enjoyable.  I have nothing against KOAs and the like, but it just isn’t camping if I can hear or see direct evidence of civilization from where my tent is pitched.   Consequently, I’ve gotten out of the habit of camping.  However, I now find myself in New Mexico where the best of what’s available is off grid, and I feel an urge to get back to the pleasures I experienced as a kid.

Unfortunately, along the path of life I have been forced to stop and pick up a few extra unwanted passengers.  No, I’m not talking about my kids – they are beloved and welcome.  The unwanted passengers are things like a bad back and sleep apnea.  When it comes to outdoor recreation off-grid, these can be a major drag.  Being totally dependent on a machine to get adequate rest really complicates things if you want to get out away from the chaos of the world.

Over the last few months, I’ve had a few chances to experiment with ways to deal with at least the apnea.  Prior to heading out on my first test run, I did the obligatory Google search for ways to camp with a CPAP.  I discovered a couple of companies offering compact and battery powered machines that looked promising right up to the point where my insurance provider said they wouldn’t cover it.  Jumping in on my own to pay for a machine and enough battery to get through two nights at altitude was going to cost over $1000 – not to mention the weight and volume involved.  At this point I gave up the idea of returning to backpacking.  For the few nights a year I would use it, it simply wouldn’t be worth the cost.

Backpacking isn’t the only form of camping I like, so after further consideration I concluded that provided I can drive to wherever I plan to camp, a large (and incidentally very heavy) marine battery coupled with an inverter could provide the electricity I need for a few nights.  Even better, when coupled with a Harbor Freight solar panel kit it could theoretically run indefinitely.  This was a workable plan, especially given the fact that I already had a battery and inverter.

The first trial was a simple overnight trip with the youth group from church.  They were driving out Friday night, camping on BLM land for the evening, then going rock climbing the following morning.  Because it was only one night,  a failure in my method would be survivable even if I was extra grouchy the next day.   Upon arriving at the camp sight, I unpacked the battery, inverter, and the Darth Vader device (CPAP), ready for a solid night’s sleep out in the woods.

One of the more potent aspects of camping in the high desert is that it gets cold at night regardless of how hot it is during the day.  This night was no exception.  My sleeping bag did well enough keeping me warm, but I soon realized the CPAP had introduced a new complication: when running on battery, I can’t run the heated humidifier, and the thing is constantly blowing very cold air into my face.  That, in every respect, is a great way to stay awake.  This was a problem.

About three or four in the morning I managed a brief moment of clarity where I realized that the only warm air available was in my sleeping bag.  If I put the machine inside the bag I might get warmer air and be able to get at least an hour or so of sleep.  This worked better than I had anticipated, and I was able to fall nominally asleep until the very early wake up call broke the quiet in camp.  I felt I had found a workable solution.

Unfortunately there proved to be contingencies I hadn’t considered.  I just spent the last week off grid at scout camp and learned a few things.  First, the solar panels worked fantastically and the lights that came with them were a great convenience.  I also used the power to charge flashlights and two way radios.  It was a great convenience,  and I’m now converted to the luxuries of electrified camping.

The second, and incidentally most potent, lesson was to watch what I ate and be more careful in selecting menu items.  I made the mistake of eating a handful of dried apricots on the first day.  I love dried apricots, but they don’t love me.  In fact, they tend to abuse those around me in rather inconvenient ways.   However when I’m camping, I accept a certain degree of personal stink.  With that in mind consider that my CPAP sits inside my sleeping bag pulling air from around my body to blow into my face and keep my airway open.  If you’ve ever been the victim of a bed partner fumigating the sheets and venting them onto you, you MAY have a slight idea for how I passed the night.  Every escape of the horrid results of my culinary indiscretion was promptly collected by the CPAP and directed immediately towards my nose.  Oh, how I could smell it.  I could even taste it.  I felt like I could chew it.

At the end of the day the CPAP worked well and the trip was worth the effort, but I learned that beans, broccoli, cabbage, apricots, and all others of that gaseous lot are strictly off limits to all but the intrepid.