This on is about my son. Back when everyone was really worried about spotlighting from a vehicle I got these backpacks and rigged up using small tractor batteries for using a spotlight. The entire package weighed about 25 pounds. My son was walking along the side of the road north of the rest area on Hywy 277 abd spotting the downhill side of the road. I was driving up and down the road making a point to check on him each pass. One pass I did not see him, so I stopped to check on him. After I got out of the truck I listened for a minute, not hearing anything I called out his name. I heard a weak response from 40 or 50 yards down the road. After getting there I saw him lying on his back 20 or 30 feet down the hill shining his light up at me. He was just lying there looking up at me with a pathetic look on his face. Immediately I asked him if he was hurt and when he responded with a "No", I could not help but start laughing. Turns out that he was walking down the road and decided to look straignt up at the stars without his light on because they were so bright. Well, while looking up he let the weight of the backpack and his disorientation cause him to loose his balance and he went over backwards right down the hill. When his fall was cushioned by the plant life and he had stopped rolling, he went to get up and realized the predicament he was in. Turned out he was right in the middle of a big prickley pear patch. He could not reach onto anything to pull himself up without getting a hand full of thorns. So, I had to make my way down to him and give him my hand to get him out. Does not sound too difficult until you think how hard it was for me to get down there while laughing uncontrollably. Needless to say the fun was just begining. When I got him to the top, he started complaining of pain. The pain was from a million (exageration)spines that were in mostly his hands and butt. The hands were not a big problem, we just removed them. The but was a different. Without the benifit of daylight we had to have him drop his pants and we used the headlights while removing the spines. We obviously could not get them all that night so he was uncomfortable to say the least until we could get him home. I did not stop collecting that nite and neither did he. I think he was still having spines pop out of him 2 months later. He never used the backpack again.