Longest nights

Your article on camping during the winter (“Chill out, campers,� Feb. 6) was amusing for the incidents it left out. The missus and I were among eight campers in a 93-site campground at the east entrance to Pinnacles National Monument during Thanksgiving. Temperatures roared into the mid-70s during the day. At night we tucked into bed at 5:30 p.m. and rose at 8 a.m. -- 14 hours of darkness.

In the morning we shook about a sixteenth-inch of ice off the fly of the tent. The hiking was terrific, the rangers were delighted to have us and the people we met on the trail were cheerful and eager to share their experiences. But the night was pretty long.

Paul Connolly

Los Angeles