- Joined
- Jun 3, 2010
- Messages
- 1,516
The Polar Vortex is back. The forecast called -1F with a windchill of -15F. Not the coldest temps in the world but the wind was blowing. I hate cold + wind. I am not really setup for harsher hammock sleeping temps. If using my heated shelter that would be fairly easy as it is old hat. Loaded up the Kifaru EMR/E&E tossed the dice hoping for a warm night.
Took down this little, guessing maple for firewood. Planned on dragging that to camp. Standing deadwood is nice as it tends to be drier than fuel on the ground.
Despite having a polled axe broke up wood using two trees as leverage. This doesn't harm the tree and is helpful when my hands are getting numb. Normally 2-6 foot long sticks/logs are good enough as my preference is the method requiring the least amount of effort whenever possible. Sometimes I need to process my firewood more and other times even less than this. Just depends. To each their own.
Some of my packed tools and resources. Just for fun I decided to pack things harvested during this Autumn and Winter. No other food beyond the mandatory can-o-fish. It was just an overnighter plus a good part of the next day. I am in no danger of dying from starvation. Trust me.
The cutting tools used were a H&B Forge Medium Polled axe, Jeff white 1/8 inch thick Kephartish knife and a WCF striker neck knife with jute lanyard. Also had Yellow Birch bark, quartz and other rocks for striking. One of the downside to snow is rocks are harder to find. The steams are also mostly frozen over complicating things for those who enjoy "wild" flint and steel. There are ways to find rocks but didn't want to bother. Also have my backup old school fire kit in that brown leather bag just incase.
Speaking of firekits this was it. Chaga gathered the first week of February. Milk week ovum gathered in late autumn. The striker was the WCF necker/striker knife. In some ways it's kinda hard to tell the difference between my food and firekit. LOL!
Setting up the hammock. The biggest issue for me when using a hammock in cooler weather is cold back. Insulation from clothing, sleeping bag and blankets can get compressed under body weight reducing the R-value greatly. To combat this I took my Exped Downmat 7XS, below that an open cell pad, below that in the foot area my large green jacket liner, below that was a sil nlyon undercover to block the wind.
The wind really, really picked up. It was a biting cold. The effort to get the fire going as the dark moved in was simply not worth it considering I had a thick fluffy sleeping bag calling my name. Normally in my tipi I would cook then hang out regardless of weather but was too exposed with this setup as pitched to hang out in the open. The camp was in the middle of a gradual hill. On the pro side I didn't see any widow maker trees or branches about however it was windy. The snow was more like 6-12 inches of ice pack with deeper post hole areas. Could have pitched the tarp at more of an angle but decided the snow pack wasn't worth fighting to use pegs. Tied off to nearby trees. This was faster but made for a higher, less wind shielding pitch.
Crawled into my hammock using the fluffy down sleeping bag as a quilt. This saves me from fighting with it. Also as my back was already insulated this works rather well inside a hammock.
Only a few cold spots when the occasional elbow pushed higher up on the side compressing the bag's insulation. Only a slight hint of a breeze during the highest wind gusts. With some modifications I could get used to this however for me winter hammock camping is second fiddle to other methods.
Rise and shine. It was an ok night but didn't want to crawl out till the sun was well up. Hung the bag to air out in the sun. Speaking of sun despite being bright it wasn't all that warm.
My fire ready to go.
Old school methods worked unusual fast.
Water being boiled for Hemlock tea in the GSI stainless kettle. I melted snow for water.
Cracking those Autumn foraged nuts. Couldn't find a rock near the campsite with the snow so used the hammer back. Took it easy so not to beat the hawk/polled axe on the rock. Some taps on the Black Walnuts and Hickory nuts was enough to crack their shells.
As luck would have it the tab on my can-o-fish broke. I could have used the knife but my PSK has a little can opener. I consider my small Altoids PSK to be a possibilities pouch. As such it contains items that do on occasion get used.
Some of the kit employed during the outing.
The downmat 7XS was a stand out. It would have been a rough night without that. The Fenix HL20 1XAA headlamp has preformed flawlessly for years.
All packed up and ready to go.
Here is a video of the outing. Thanks for looking.
[video=youtube;9_K0APSkokc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_K0APSkokc[/video]
Took down this little, guessing maple for firewood. Planned on dragging that to camp. Standing deadwood is nice as it tends to be drier than fuel on the ground.
Despite having a polled axe broke up wood using two trees as leverage. This doesn't harm the tree and is helpful when my hands are getting numb. Normally 2-6 foot long sticks/logs are good enough as my preference is the method requiring the least amount of effort whenever possible. Sometimes I need to process my firewood more and other times even less than this. Just depends. To each their own.
Some of my packed tools and resources. Just for fun I decided to pack things harvested during this Autumn and Winter. No other food beyond the mandatory can-o-fish. It was just an overnighter plus a good part of the next day. I am in no danger of dying from starvation. Trust me.
The cutting tools used were a H&B Forge Medium Polled axe, Jeff white 1/8 inch thick Kephartish knife and a WCF striker neck knife with jute lanyard. Also had Yellow Birch bark, quartz and other rocks for striking. One of the downside to snow is rocks are harder to find. The steams are also mostly frozen over complicating things for those who enjoy "wild" flint and steel. There are ways to find rocks but didn't want to bother. Also have my backup old school fire kit in that brown leather bag just incase.
Speaking of firekits this was it. Chaga gathered the first week of February. Milk week ovum gathered in late autumn. The striker was the WCF necker/striker knife. In some ways it's kinda hard to tell the difference between my food and firekit. LOL!
Setting up the hammock. The biggest issue for me when using a hammock in cooler weather is cold back. Insulation from clothing, sleeping bag and blankets can get compressed under body weight reducing the R-value greatly. To combat this I took my Exped Downmat 7XS, below that an open cell pad, below that in the foot area my large green jacket liner, below that was a sil nlyon undercover to block the wind.
The wind really, really picked up. It was a biting cold. The effort to get the fire going as the dark moved in was simply not worth it considering I had a thick fluffy sleeping bag calling my name. Normally in my tipi I would cook then hang out regardless of weather but was too exposed with this setup as pitched to hang out in the open. The camp was in the middle of a gradual hill. On the pro side I didn't see any widow maker trees or branches about however it was windy. The snow was more like 6-12 inches of ice pack with deeper post hole areas. Could have pitched the tarp at more of an angle but decided the snow pack wasn't worth fighting to use pegs. Tied off to nearby trees. This was faster but made for a higher, less wind shielding pitch.
Crawled into my hammock using the fluffy down sleeping bag as a quilt. This saves me from fighting with it. Also as my back was already insulated this works rather well inside a hammock.
Only a few cold spots when the occasional elbow pushed higher up on the side compressing the bag's insulation. Only a slight hint of a breeze during the highest wind gusts. With some modifications I could get used to this however for me winter hammock camping is second fiddle to other methods.
Rise and shine. It was an ok night but didn't want to crawl out till the sun was well up. Hung the bag to air out in the sun. Speaking of sun despite being bright it wasn't all that warm.
My fire ready to go.
Old school methods worked unusual fast.
Water being boiled for Hemlock tea in the GSI stainless kettle. I melted snow for water.
Cracking those Autumn foraged nuts. Couldn't find a rock near the campsite with the snow so used the hammer back. Took it easy so not to beat the hawk/polled axe on the rock. Some taps on the Black Walnuts and Hickory nuts was enough to crack their shells.
As luck would have it the tab on my can-o-fish broke. I could have used the knife but my PSK has a little can opener. I consider my small Altoids PSK to be a possibilities pouch. As such it contains items that do on occasion get used.
Some of the kit employed during the outing.
The downmat 7XS was a stand out. It would have been a rough night without that. The Fenix HL20 1XAA headlamp has preformed flawlessly for years.
All packed up and ready to go.
Here is a video of the outing. Thanks for looking.
[video=youtube;9_K0APSkokc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_K0APSkokc[/video]
