- Joined
- Apr 25, 2007
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Went for a quick overnighter last night, basically car camped at a local wildlife management area with a nice lake. Fish here often in the warmer months but it's still covered with ice right now. Was a solo trip and with sunset at about 6PM, there was a lot of time for thinking by the time I finally turned in after 11PM. Fortunately or unfortunately, my deep thoughts tend to still be rather shallow so bear with me on this one.
First things first, got the tarp set up. Wind was supposed to be SW last I checked before heading out, so I set up the tarp pointed that way in the diamond setup.
Which leads me to my first deep thought... More of one of rocket's laws of camping. No matter which way the wind is blowing when I set up the tarp, it will be blowing in a different direction by the time I turn in for the night, and a different direction again by morning. The wind was more or less westerly when I set the tarp up. While I was sitting by the campfire, the wind turned about straight east. Sometime in the night, it ended up being mostly a south wind. This morning the wind was from the SW. Drives me a bit batty...
With the warm weather lately the ground is pretty soggy. Set up in as dry a spot as I could practically find, but it was still pretty muddy. To counteract this I collected a bunch of native grasses (mostly indian grass and switchgrass) to make a bit of a bed. Didn't get enough to have much insulation value but it did keep my bivy from becoming chocolate coated.
Tarp with sleeping bag/bivy thrown in.
Staking the tarp down was a bit of an interesting experience as the frost has not gone out all the way yet. The top 3-4 inches of the ground are mud, and the rest is ice. Had to beat the pegs into the ground. After getting stuff staked down, the warmth from the pegs had melted some of the frost and they all moved, which required me to reposition the darn things a couple times. The top of the ground did refreeze overnight which kept things from moving around too much.
Took a few minutes after getting camp set up and firewood chopped to watch the very end of the sunset and watch the first couple stars appear. Decided to do a few black and white shots.
There was a flock of geese at the lake that made noise CONSTANTLY. They did shut up for an hour or two at night, but then there were dogs barking and yotes singing and an owl hooting. Lots of animal activity.
My curiosity finally got the better of me and I bought a mountain house freeze-dried meal on the way out. Turns out it was pretty tasty (had the spaghetti flavor). Still overpriced if you ask me but they'd be useful for my fishing trips where camp cooking takes a distant backseat to making the most of fishing time.
At least one of my other deep thoughts while staring at the fire was the concept of getting into a sleeping bag on a cold night. When it's 25 degrees there's nothing better than getting cozy inside a nice, warm sleeping bag. However, sleeping bags are not of themselves warm. No, when it's 25 degrees outside, your sleeping bag is a balmy 25 degrees also. So, you take off all your insulative clothing, maybe even the rest of your clothes so you can slip into your long johns, and jump into Mr. 25 Degree Sleeping bag... and involuntarily scream like a 13-year old girl. I do believe this is one of the greatest evils man endures in the outdoors.
Slept quite well overnight... Wind stayed very calm and it got considerably cooler than I had expected. Was supposed to be in the low 30s but got to the mid-low 20s instead. Stayed plenty warm though.
Lots of frost on the tarp in the morning.
Only real issue I had is one I've been having for quite a while... My Marmot Never Summer bag always gets horrible condensation when the temperature is below freezing. In the bivy, under tarp with no bivy, or in a tent, the degree varies a bit but it always has some condensation on it. This morning the torso portion of the bag was soaked. I know this picture is just around the head opening but trust me that was not the only place where there was condensation.
Still drying out the last of my gear now. Weather is supposed to be pretty clear for the rest of the week so I may head out again later on.
First things first, got the tarp set up. Wind was supposed to be SW last I checked before heading out, so I set up the tarp pointed that way in the diamond setup.
Which leads me to my first deep thought... More of one of rocket's laws of camping. No matter which way the wind is blowing when I set up the tarp, it will be blowing in a different direction by the time I turn in for the night, and a different direction again by morning. The wind was more or less westerly when I set the tarp up. While I was sitting by the campfire, the wind turned about straight east. Sometime in the night, it ended up being mostly a south wind. This morning the wind was from the SW. Drives me a bit batty...
With the warm weather lately the ground is pretty soggy. Set up in as dry a spot as I could practically find, but it was still pretty muddy. To counteract this I collected a bunch of native grasses (mostly indian grass and switchgrass) to make a bit of a bed. Didn't get enough to have much insulation value but it did keep my bivy from becoming chocolate coated.
Tarp with sleeping bag/bivy thrown in.
Staking the tarp down was a bit of an interesting experience as the frost has not gone out all the way yet. The top 3-4 inches of the ground are mud, and the rest is ice. Had to beat the pegs into the ground. After getting stuff staked down, the warmth from the pegs had melted some of the frost and they all moved, which required me to reposition the darn things a couple times. The top of the ground did refreeze overnight which kept things from moving around too much.
Took a few minutes after getting camp set up and firewood chopped to watch the very end of the sunset and watch the first couple stars appear. Decided to do a few black and white shots.
There was a flock of geese at the lake that made noise CONSTANTLY. They did shut up for an hour or two at night, but then there were dogs barking and yotes singing and an owl hooting. Lots of animal activity.
My curiosity finally got the better of me and I bought a mountain house freeze-dried meal on the way out. Turns out it was pretty tasty (had the spaghetti flavor). Still overpriced if you ask me but they'd be useful for my fishing trips where camp cooking takes a distant backseat to making the most of fishing time.
At least one of my other deep thoughts while staring at the fire was the concept of getting into a sleeping bag on a cold night. When it's 25 degrees there's nothing better than getting cozy inside a nice, warm sleeping bag. However, sleeping bags are not of themselves warm. No, when it's 25 degrees outside, your sleeping bag is a balmy 25 degrees also. So, you take off all your insulative clothing, maybe even the rest of your clothes so you can slip into your long johns, and jump into Mr. 25 Degree Sleeping bag... and involuntarily scream like a 13-year old girl. I do believe this is one of the greatest evils man endures in the outdoors.
Slept quite well overnight... Wind stayed very calm and it got considerably cooler than I had expected. Was supposed to be in the low 30s but got to the mid-low 20s instead. Stayed plenty warm though.
Lots of frost on the tarp in the morning.
Only real issue I had is one I've been having for quite a while... My Marmot Never Summer bag always gets horrible condensation when the temperature is below freezing. In the bivy, under tarp with no bivy, or in a tent, the degree varies a bit but it always has some condensation on it. This morning the torso portion of the bag was soaked. I know this picture is just around the head opening but trust me that was not the only place where there was condensation.
Still drying out the last of my gear now. Weather is supposed to be pretty clear for the rest of the week so I may head out again later on.
:thumbup:
