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- Feb 28, 2007
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Overnight Trip
I did a quick little stealth camping trip last night. I wanted to get back into the grove of things hauling a backpack around and also test out a new sleeping bag I just received, the MEC Gosling a +5 degree C down barrel bag I bought mainly to use as a blanket in hammock camping.
The signs of spring are certainly coming, with the spring peepers a-peeping and the pussy willows getting fuzzy .
But it still gets cold at night, and last night the thermometer dipped to -3 degree Celius, that was 8 degrees lower than my bag rating! More on that later.
As I arrived at the site I had planned to go to I was greeted by 4 deer. This guy stuck around to check me out since I had stopped moving when I saw them. Usually I cant do this with my dog around, but beta was left at home for this one.
Now, life would have probably been easier had I decided to hammock camp, but I wanted to go to ground given the lack of bugs and the weather forcast indicated clear skies all the way through, so my plan was to sleep under the stars. However, the ground was soggy, so I made a raised platform. The platform involved laying a bunch of logs on one another, stacked phragmities on top of that, covered it with a thick emergency blanket and my thermarest ultralight pad on top of that. It was comfortable and is detailed in the video. I anticipated having to do the raised platform and knew I was going to harvest phragmities so this time around I brought the right tool for the job.
Koyote leuku-chete, which is a large leuku or a short machete. This thing was great cutting through the phragmities stems and also limbing branches and batoning through wood. Ive had it about 2 years now. The blade length is 10, blade height is 2 and its 1/8 thick L7 steel. The handle is a combination of osage and walnut. A very tough blade that seen its way batoning through a hidden nail without damage.
I also brought along my little Bruce Culberson EDC blade. It made a great compliment to the Koyote.
I didnt want to start a fire during the day, saving that for night, so I made dinner using my canister twig stove and that new homemade SS pot I posted not to long ago. Dinner was a rehydrated indian dish. It was delish.
A shot of the sun setting and the full moon that came about. This got the coyotes a bit restless, maybe they just knew I had a big koyote of my own by my side!
After 9:00 pm, once it was fully dark, I started up my fire. Earlier during the day, I dug a pit about 4 deep using a garden trowel that I brought along. I saved all the top sod and put that aside so that I could replace it over the pit when I was done. The earth from the pit was pushed up along the sides as a protective barrier. There are no rocks on site so I needed to use the pit to make sure the fire was contained. I detail the pit construction in the video link.
Okay, so that night I turned in but knowing it was going to be around freezing and below the bag rating, I kept most of my layers on except for my soiled outer layers. I decided to not put up the tarp because the sky was still clear. I started periodically waking up at about 2:00 am where I put on a second pair of long underwear and socks but even after that I was still a bit chilled. There was no wind. Funny thing is, I was completely warm on the bottom part of me in contact with my pad and raised platform, but cool at the top. Not to the point where I was shivering, but I kept waking up then Id flip over to warm the cold part of me on the toasty ground side.
At about 5:00 am, some cock (a rooster) started crowing and woke me. At this point I decided to get up and make a fire to warm myself up really well. The fire had exhausted itself when I went to bed, but I was sure glad I had prepped myself extra kindling for the morning. I used that new firesteel kit Rick gave me to quickly get a new fire up to warm by.
Pretty soon, the sun started to make its appearance.
After packing up and eating breakfast, I made sure to douse the fire with plenty of water. Then I pushed the dirt back onto the pit and re-covered it with the sod I set aside the night before. After scattering the leaves, you wouldnt know I was there.
Then I backpacked back home which is about 3.5 km. On the way out, I found yet another deer leg hanging in a tree. Seems to be a common thing around here!
Also ran into some deer crossing one of the roads on my way through another park. Unfortunately, I had my camera on manual focus since doing all the low light shots earlier and I wasnt able to get them as sharp as Id like.
Parting shot of some phragmites as I came out of the bush and into the neighbourhood.
Thats about it. It was a good adventure and felt good to be toting around a backpack again. It is also nice to do a trip solo once in awhile. Last summer was the last time I did any solo overnighters. The bag didnt fully do its job under cold camping conditions but the temperature was 8 degrees C colder than its rating. I think it would do great at its rated temperature and above. At least now I know how much I can and cant push this bag.
I also have a video of the trip for those of you bored out of your minds enough to watch it. It does have some review comments about that Koyote short machete and some of the construction details of my raised platform. Hope you enjoy!
[youtube]ZdNL3fQnCMs[/YouTube]
I did a quick little stealth camping trip last night. I wanted to get back into the grove of things hauling a backpack around and also test out a new sleeping bag I just received, the MEC Gosling a +5 degree C down barrel bag I bought mainly to use as a blanket in hammock camping.
The signs of spring are certainly coming, with the spring peepers a-peeping and the pussy willows getting fuzzy .
But it still gets cold at night, and last night the thermometer dipped to -3 degree Celius, that was 8 degrees lower than my bag rating! More on that later.
As I arrived at the site I had planned to go to I was greeted by 4 deer. This guy stuck around to check me out since I had stopped moving when I saw them. Usually I cant do this with my dog around, but beta was left at home for this one.
Now, life would have probably been easier had I decided to hammock camp, but I wanted to go to ground given the lack of bugs and the weather forcast indicated clear skies all the way through, so my plan was to sleep under the stars. However, the ground was soggy, so I made a raised platform. The platform involved laying a bunch of logs on one another, stacked phragmities on top of that, covered it with a thick emergency blanket and my thermarest ultralight pad on top of that. It was comfortable and is detailed in the video. I anticipated having to do the raised platform and knew I was going to harvest phragmities so this time around I brought the right tool for the job.
Koyote leuku-chete, which is a large leuku or a short machete. This thing was great cutting through the phragmities stems and also limbing branches and batoning through wood. Ive had it about 2 years now. The blade length is 10, blade height is 2 and its 1/8 thick L7 steel. The handle is a combination of osage and walnut. A very tough blade that seen its way batoning through a hidden nail without damage.
I also brought along my little Bruce Culberson EDC blade. It made a great compliment to the Koyote.
I didnt want to start a fire during the day, saving that for night, so I made dinner using my canister twig stove and that new homemade SS pot I posted not to long ago. Dinner was a rehydrated indian dish. It was delish.
A shot of the sun setting and the full moon that came about. This got the coyotes a bit restless, maybe they just knew I had a big koyote of my own by my side!
After 9:00 pm, once it was fully dark, I started up my fire. Earlier during the day, I dug a pit about 4 deep using a garden trowel that I brought along. I saved all the top sod and put that aside so that I could replace it over the pit when I was done. The earth from the pit was pushed up along the sides as a protective barrier. There are no rocks on site so I needed to use the pit to make sure the fire was contained. I detail the pit construction in the video link.
Okay, so that night I turned in but knowing it was going to be around freezing and below the bag rating, I kept most of my layers on except for my soiled outer layers. I decided to not put up the tarp because the sky was still clear. I started periodically waking up at about 2:00 am where I put on a second pair of long underwear and socks but even after that I was still a bit chilled. There was no wind. Funny thing is, I was completely warm on the bottom part of me in contact with my pad and raised platform, but cool at the top. Not to the point where I was shivering, but I kept waking up then Id flip over to warm the cold part of me on the toasty ground side.
At about 5:00 am, some cock (a rooster) started crowing and woke me. At this point I decided to get up and make a fire to warm myself up really well. The fire had exhausted itself when I went to bed, but I was sure glad I had prepped myself extra kindling for the morning. I used that new firesteel kit Rick gave me to quickly get a new fire up to warm by.
Pretty soon, the sun started to make its appearance.
After packing up and eating breakfast, I made sure to douse the fire with plenty of water. Then I pushed the dirt back onto the pit and re-covered it with the sod I set aside the night before. After scattering the leaves, you wouldnt know I was there.
Then I backpacked back home which is about 3.5 km. On the way out, I found yet another deer leg hanging in a tree. Seems to be a common thing around here!
Also ran into some deer crossing one of the roads on my way through another park. Unfortunately, I had my camera on manual focus since doing all the low light shots earlier and I wasnt able to get them as sharp as Id like.
Parting shot of some phragmites as I came out of the bush and into the neighbourhood.
Thats about it. It was a good adventure and felt good to be toting around a backpack again. It is also nice to do a trip solo once in awhile. Last summer was the last time I did any solo overnighters. The bag didnt fully do its job under cold camping conditions but the temperature was 8 degrees C colder than its rating. I think it would do great at its rated temperature and above. At least now I know how much I can and cant push this bag.
I also have a video of the trip for those of you bored out of your minds enough to watch it. It does have some review comments about that Koyote short machete and some of the construction details of my raised platform. Hope you enjoy!
[youtube]ZdNL3fQnCMs[/YouTube]
