Waking up on the trail in a shelter

[bamboo bob]

A handicap is not an excuse to be selfish. Unless there's a good reason to disturb people you shouldn't disturb them. People wake up at first light, some sooner. You'll wake up because of their activity even when they try hard to be courteous.

[Mick3y]

Several of you said, "out of courtesy" I should tent so as to not wake others if I use an alarm clock. Pardon me for saying this, AMAZING!!!
So let me get this straight, I have a severe handicap, and I am supposed to accommodate others? Shouldn't that be the other way around?
As for other suggestions, thanks for the idea on the vibe watch and the info on battery use for a vibe setting on the phone.

You're sense of entitlement has nothing to do with courtesy other than you're expectation that you receive it. It's not anyone else's problem that you can't wake up on your own but yours. There is no reason to subject others to your obnoxious alarm. If there are people in the shelter when you get there, it would be courteous for you to just move on and tent. However, with that said, you could also ask if anyone would have a problem with the alarm. It's good to know that an alarm is going to be waking you up if nothing else. Courtesy extends both ways.

[perdidochas]

If you'd like to get a good night of rest and not have to worry about getting up at a particular time like before daylight, at sunrise, 8am every day, how do y'all make sure you awaken at that wanted time?

I never thought of it before b/c I basically went to sleep and got up when I wished. Yet since my accident I've noticed that I sleep much better knowing I don't have to open my eyes to look at a watch, and instead an alarm clock will go off.

How do all of you do it? I'm asking b/c I'd like to carry a small alarm clock AND still sleep in the shelters, yet there will be days when I will do long miles and wish to get up and be gone well before any others would wish to be disturbed by my clock and/or my movements from packing up to leave.

BTW, I am extremely hard of hearing, so I wouldn't be able to hear the tiny alarm on a wrist watch. And I don't want to use a phone with an alarm b/c the batteries would be used up all night long, so a small alarm clock is best for me.

So again the question is, do any of y'all use any devices to make sure you awaken at a specific time each day while on the trail? And what do you use? If you don't use devices, by what means do you have to make sure you do awaken at a specific time if needed?

Well, a phone with all the antennas off (i.e. airplane mode) doesn't use a lot of charge, so taht could work. You could get a pillow speaker to wake you.

[Slo-go'en]

I'm sure you will find there is no need for an alarm clock. Since you go to bed so early in the evening, it's hard to sleep past dawn anyway. Plus there are always others who get up early and start to move around. Even if you can't hear them (which unfortunetly the rest of us can), you'll still sense them. In any event, you'll wake up when your body is good and ready for you to get up.

And of course, just because you may perfer to sleep in the shelter, you'd best have a tent since getting a spot in a shelter is hit or miss, especially early in the season down south. There is a good chance you'll end up in the tent more often then not and learn to perfer it that way.

[Different Socks]

Yea, I'll bite on this. Why does being deaf prevent you from sleeping in a tent again? I'd be annoyed if I heard an alarm louder than a watch alarm in a shelter, and god help you if you snoozed it. But if you walked around with this attitude of entitlement on the trail I'd probably do my best to get away from you, so it wouldn't be my problem anyway.

GOD DAMN!! What is wrong with some of you? I never said I was "entitled" to space in a shelter and I never said that I should be totally accommodated for my handicap. I also never said I was totally deaf. I said I have a severe hearing loss, and I even said I wear aids.
The OP says that I wish to stay in shelters when I hike and I am willing to accommodate others with better hearing by using something that is "not so loud" as to wake them up.
And yet several of the posting replies said I should sleep in a tent to accommodate everyone else w/o that type of handicap. Hopefully, the few numbers on this website that have this opinion of others with handicaps is also few in number when I do get on the trail.
Again, for those of you that gave me some ideas, thank you.

[Different Socks]

I'm sure you will find there is no need for an alarm clock. Since you go to bed so early in the evening, it's hard to sleep past dawn anyway. Plus there are always others who get up early and start to move around. Even if you can't hear them (which unfortunetly the rest of us can), you'll still sense them. In any event, you'll wake up when your body is good and ready for you to get up.

And of course, just because you may perfer to sleep in the shelter, you'd best have a tent since getting a spot in a shelter is hit or miss, especially early in the season down south. There is a good chance you'll end up in the tent more often then not and learn to perfer it that way.

Good response! I guess one benefit of having a hearing deficit is that if I wish to sleep in, the noise of others will not wake me up, just possibly the movements of equip and bodies.

[perdidochas]

Yes, they may have to, to answer your question!

I have seen it that almost everyone I meet will go out their way to accommodate a person whom is totally deaf, because to talk they have to get their attention first before they even talk to them. BUT, the same is not done for a person like me that has a hearing deficit and yet wears hearing aids. WHY? B/c those with normal hearing believe that like glasses, the hearing aids bring my level of hearing up to theirs.
So again, I ask, why should I be forced to sleep in a tent when I'd rather sleep in a shelter, just because I would have to accommodate others with good hearing?

Why should they be forced to wake up early because you want to wake up early, handicap or not? Courtesy goes both ways.

[Damn Yankee]

If you have an Ipod, phone or any other device that has an alarm clock and a headphone jack. Just put in the headphones and that way it doesn't wake anyone else up. If you have trouble keeping them in, wear a hat or something other to hold them in place. I lost my hearing in Iraq and had to do this while there.

[tagg]

GOD DAMN!! What is wrong with some of you? I never said I was "entitled" to space in a shelter and I never said that I should be totally accommodated for my handicap. I also never said I was totally deaf. I said I have a severe hearing loss, and I even said I wear aids.
The OP says that I wish to stay in shelters when I hike and I am willing to accommodate others with better hearing by using something that is "not so loud" as to wake them up.
And yet several of the posting replies said I should sleep in a tent to accommodate everyone else w/o that type of handicap. Hopefully, the few numbers on this website that have this opinion of others with handicaps is also few in number when I do get on the trail.
Again, for those of you that gave me some ideas, thank you.

With all due respect, you've been on this site for a long time and have quite a few posts - you could have predicted how this would turn out. Every shelter thread is the same.
I wouldn't use an alarm that others can hear if I was staying in a shelter because I know it would piss some people off and I generally try not to piss people off. However, I wouldn't stay in a shelter to begin with due to the fact that they are disgusting and are full of people who don't care if they piss other people off. That being said, I agree with Lonewolf. First come, first served. If they get there after you and don't like how you conduct yourself in a shelter, they can sleep somewhere else. GSMNP excluded, I suppose.

[Different Socks]

If you have an Ipod, phone or any other device that has an alarm clock and a headphone jack. Just put in the headphones and that way it doesn't wake anyone else up. If you have trouble keeping them in, wear a hat or something other to hold them in place. I lost my hearing in Iraq and had to do this while there.

Good idea, thanks!

[Starchild]

Perhaps a better suggestion if you must get up early is explain the situation to the person sleeping next to you, on either side of you, even the entire shelter, that you would like to get up early but don't want to set a loud alarm clock, so if they hear it and you don't respond if they can be so kind as to nudge you awake. I think asking for community support will go a lot further then just depending on yourself at their expense.

I believe this is more your reasonable handicap accommodation.

[Different Socks]

"First come, first served. If they get there after you and don't like how you conduct yourself in a shelter, they can sleep somewhere else. GSMNP excluded, I suppose."

Tagg, it may just come down to it that that is what I'll have to do.
BTW Tagg, you noticed that too huh?

[kennajm]

GOD DAMN!! What is wrong with some of you? I never said I was "entitled" to space in a shelter and I never said that I should be totally accommodated for my handicap. I also never said I was totally deaf. I said I have a severe hearing loss, and I even said I wear aids.
The OP says that I wish to stay in shelters when I hike and I am willing to accommodate others with better hearing by using something that is "not so loud" as to wake them up.
And yet several of the posting replies said I should sleep in a tent to accommodate everyone else w/o that type of handicap. Hopefully, the few numbers on this website that have this opinion of others with handicaps is also few in number when I do get on the trail.
Again, for those of you that gave me some ideas, thank you.

Yet you said this below. That would roughly make you a liar. Despite what you think, saying you have a severe handicap and that we're supposed to "accommodate" you is asking for an entitlement. I'm sorry you're so angry about it.

I have a severe handicap, and I am supposed to accommodate others? Shouldn't that be the other way around?

I'll spell it out. If you bring an alarm clock in a shelter with 10 other people and it wakes them all up, you're rude. I don't care what handicaps you have.

[Mick3y]

I'll spell it out. If you bring an alarm clock in a shelter with 10 other people and it wakes them all up, you're rude. I don't care what handicaps you have.

I don't see as to where a handicap really matters in this situation. Handicap or not it's rude.

[kennajm]

I don't see as to where a handicap really matters in this situation. Handicap or not it's rude.

That's what I was saying, but it comes out wrong on the Internet.

[Mick3y]

I knew what you were saying. I was just trying to clarify a bit, that's all

[tagg]

Yet you said this below. That would roughly make you a liar. Despite what you think, saying you have a severe handicap and that we're supposed to "accommodate" you is asking for an entitlement. I'm sorry you're so angry about it.

I have a severe handicap, and I am supposed to accommodate others? Shouldn't that be the other way around?

I'll spell it out. If you bring an alarm clock in a shelter with 10 other people and it wakes them all up, you're rude. I don't care what handicaps you have.

I agree that it would be rude, just like leaving your wet gear spread out everywhere, spilling your food in the sleeping area, talking loudly until all hours of the night, being obnoxious and vulgar, etc. - all of the other things that commonly happen in shelters. Anyone choosing to sleep in one should know going in that there is a good chance you will be sharing your space with a rude a-hole. If you sleep in your tent or hammock, you probably won't hear anyone's alarm clock. So even though it is rude, different socks has the right to set his alarm. Not because of his handicap, but because it's a shelter available to whatever kind of person wants to use it.

[StichBurly]

I don't see as to where a handicap really matters in this situation. Handicap or not it's rude.

I agree 100%.

[Different Socks]

Okay, so let me get this straight: If I come to a shelter and it has people in it already for the night, based on simple courtesy I should sleep somewhere else to accommodate them b/c I wish to use an alarm to assist my handicap that may or may not wake them up? So if I was a near blind hiker, you wouldn't assist me with pointing where the shelter was or where things are in the shelter or even to point out where something is that I dropped?

Based on all the negatives replies not to mention the "it doesn't matter whether I have a handicap or not" replies, I will have to be the first arrival at a shelter every day. Once again, this indicates I would have to change how I do my hiking to accommodate those w/o a handicap. And you all say I would be rude to use an alarm?!

[Starchild]

... I will have to be the first arrival at a shelter every day....

I suspect You want to set an alarm so you will be the first one at the next shelter. This appears to be what you want justification for doing, and I now strongly suspect you have already made up your mind to do this, and you are attempting here on WB to justify it, using your handicap as a excuse to not care about others.