- Joined
- Feb 28, 2007
- Messages
- 9,786
Rick, his cousin (Canoeguy), Eric (Normark) and I took a little time this weekend for some winter camping at a local haunt. Rick and Canoeguy arrived Friday morning and Eric and I came in Friday afternoon and packed out early this morning. Temperatures were in the -5 to -10 degree Celcius range, not overly cold, but quite humid and also periodic windy conditions. On and off snow, but nothing heavy.
Rick and Canoeguy were aching to try out the Kochansky supershelter. The first night it was built as per instructions using plastic sheeting and 2 heat sheet blankets with a fire in front and reflector wall behind. They found that their shelter would get nice and hot but was too big the first night and wind/drafts would whisk away their heat. So the Saturday they shortened the shelter so that it would fit just the two of them and also insulated three sides using phragmites reeds. The phragmites were also placed on the floor and extra reeds bundled into army ponchos to serve as bed mats.
They reported being much warmer during Sat. night after insulating the outer walls and bolstering the door with an extra tarp. Rick and Canoeguy came in pretty minimalist. Canoeguy had a maxpedition butt pack and his blanket roll with his homade capote, wool undershirt and wool pants. Rick had all of his stuff in his medium Alice pack. I came in with a 60L pack busting out at the seams. Normark had a sled packed with enough stuff to keep him going for another 2 weeks
Both Normark and I decided to go with tarp/sleeping bag set ups. I was using a -12 degree Celcius rated synthetic bag from Mountain Equipment Co-op. This bag is over 10 years old and starting to lose some of its loft. My wife just gave me an early Christmas give of a vapour barrier (Integral designs made of sylnylon). That thing is great and really added the warmth. I didn't even get sweaty inside like every says you do. I know for a fact that I would have been more chilled without it as I've used this bag before under similar conditions and needed to wear additional clothing to keep warm.
Slept on top of a 1.75" thick REI-brand knockoff of a thermarest and used a Grabber brand (thick type) emergency blanket as my ground sheet. The thermarest wasn't quite enough ground padding and I wish I had brought an extra foam pad with me. It wasn't horrible, but there were cold spots on my hip when sleeping on my side. Saturday, I took Rick's example and harvested some of the Phragmities reeds and made a flooring under my tarp. Placed my ground cloth on top of the reeds and then I was super cozy Sat. night.
Aside from the super shelter, we didn't do all that much bushcraft. Hell, Rick even started the fire the Friday night with a lighter
I gave him a chunk of fatwood to keep it going I did manage to pop of a coal just for fun using sassafras and an ash spindle. We walked around a few times. Cooked food over the fire and just enjoyed spending some time in the bush. Really relaxing and fun weekend!
A weird stick Canoeguy found with the strangest ring structure on the inside.
Probably the must functional edge tool we had was the full size buck saw that Normark brought. It helped to process the large (8"-10") diameter oak logs used to heat Rick and Canoeguy's shelter through the night. I brought a S&N Hudson Bay axe and there were a few tomahawks. Of course a few knives as well.
Rick Marchand - maker of $800+ knives mostly uses a $15 opinel....
This is his main fixed blade he carries.
I took a bunch of video but that will take me a bit longer to edit and get through. I'll append the video to this thread once I get around to it. Hope you enjoyed!
Edit - Here is a compiled video of our adventure. A bit long, but there is some really interesting footage of the supershelter and its construction.
[youtube]zQODITeWBHc[/youtube]
Rick and Canoeguy were aching to try out the Kochansky supershelter. The first night it was built as per instructions using plastic sheeting and 2 heat sheet blankets with a fire in front and reflector wall behind. They found that their shelter would get nice and hot but was too big the first night and wind/drafts would whisk away their heat. So the Saturday they shortened the shelter so that it would fit just the two of them and also insulated three sides using phragmites reeds. The phragmites were also placed on the floor and extra reeds bundled into army ponchos to serve as bed mats.
They reported being much warmer during Sat. night after insulating the outer walls and bolstering the door with an extra tarp. Rick and Canoeguy came in pretty minimalist. Canoeguy had a maxpedition butt pack and his blanket roll with his homade capote, wool undershirt and wool pants. Rick had all of his stuff in his medium Alice pack. I came in with a 60L pack busting out at the seams. Normark had a sled packed with enough stuff to keep him going for another 2 weeks
Both Normark and I decided to go with tarp/sleeping bag set ups. I was using a -12 degree Celcius rated synthetic bag from Mountain Equipment Co-op. This bag is over 10 years old and starting to lose some of its loft. My wife just gave me an early Christmas give of a vapour barrier (Integral designs made of sylnylon). That thing is great and really added the warmth. I didn't even get sweaty inside like every says you do. I know for a fact that I would have been more chilled without it as I've used this bag before under similar conditions and needed to wear additional clothing to keep warm.
Slept on top of a 1.75" thick REI-brand knockoff of a thermarest and used a Grabber brand (thick type) emergency blanket as my ground sheet. The thermarest wasn't quite enough ground padding and I wish I had brought an extra foam pad with me. It wasn't horrible, but there were cold spots on my hip when sleeping on my side. Saturday, I took Rick's example and harvested some of the Phragmities reeds and made a flooring under my tarp. Placed my ground cloth on top of the reeds and then I was super cozy Sat. night.
Aside from the super shelter, we didn't do all that much bushcraft. Hell, Rick even started the fire the Friday night with a lighter
I gave him a chunk of fatwood to keep it going I did manage to pop of a coal just for fun using sassafras and an ash spindle. We walked around a few times. Cooked food over the fire and just enjoyed spending some time in the bush. Really relaxing and fun weekend!
A weird stick Canoeguy found with the strangest ring structure on the inside.
Probably the must functional edge tool we had was the full size buck saw that Normark brought. It helped to process the large (8"-10") diameter oak logs used to heat Rick and Canoeguy's shelter through the night. I brought a S&N Hudson Bay axe and there were a few tomahawks. Of course a few knives as well.
Rick Marchand - maker of $800+ knives mostly uses a $15 opinel....
This is his main fixed blade he carries.
I took a bunch of video but that will take me a bit longer to edit and get through. I'll append the video to this thread once I get around to it. Hope you enjoyed!
Edit - Here is a compiled video of our adventure. A bit long, but there is some really interesting footage of the supershelter and its construction.
[youtube]zQODITeWBHc[/youtube]
Last edited:
Looks like you guys had everything under control, & that shelter probably felt like the Holiday Inn when that wind kicked up. Good shots, great area to practice just about anything you would need to. Thanks for letting us go with you.
