Camping in May

Well, I am preparing to go camping on the second weekend of May.  My trip to take me into the interior of Algonquin Park for three days.  It will be cold but at least, the mosquitoes and black flies would hopefully be dormant still.

I will take the opportunity to try hammock camping once more and to use some of survival tools.  I will also try dehydrated food and will try making bannock again--the last time did not work out too well.  I hope it will rain hard but only after I have gathered enough dry wood to make fire, or I won't be a happy camper.

Nothing much to say at this point except that the excitement is mounting.

Winter camping

Last weekend, we had a fair dump of snow.  As I had been tied up virtually every weekend over the last couple of months, I decided to pitch my tent in my backyard to test out my winter setup before actually heading out there.

Ozark Trail Scout Junior Dome 2-person tent

The setup was simple.  The tent is by no means a winter tent but it was enough to keep most of the wind out.  I had two foam mats, one -30C mummy synthetic sleeping bag.  I was wearing a cotton t-shirt, a thermal shirt, a spring windbreaker, thermal underpants, wool socks, fleece gloves, and a fleece toque.  I placed my ski jacket under the sleeping bag to add more air between me and the ground.

The first night, the temperature went down to -6C inside my tent.  I was warm but my feet were cold so my sleep was not too comfortable that night.

The second night, I decided to insert in between the two foam mats a space blanket and made a bootie out of a fleece sweater for my feet.  Also, to protect my face from the cold, I wore a neoprene/fleece mask.  The temperature dipped down to -12C inside the tent but I was toasty warm that night.

I think I am ready for real winter camping.  I've got what I need to sleep comfortably in below -10C.  Now, I need to pick a place to go to.

P.S.  The cotton t-shirt is no way for winter camping (and it did get soaking wet after I finished shoveling our driveway) but as long as it's dry, it should be ok to sleep with.

Tent repair

After my last camping trip with friends to the Bruce Peninsula, I opened up the tent and dried it out on the patio in my backyard.  I accidentally punctured the floor of the tent.  I was thinking of simply using duck tape to patch the bottom and top side of the floor but it's probably not going to last and it would be messy.  The dust tape will pick up dirt and will probably not last too long.

I found a website that has a bunch of repair tips for tents:  http://www.mcnett-outdoor.com/repair-guide/tents/220.aspx

I'll sure try my seam sealer that I bought for the Ozark Trail tent to patch up the floor of this Outdoor Works Summit tent.

I will wait until spring to do this.  I won't be using this tent for winter camping and it's kinda wet and cold outside now.

Hammock resources

I ran across this one website that covers many aspects of hammock camping.  I thought I'd share the link in case anyone else might be interested in the subject and for my own future reference:

http://www.tothewoods.net/

Get out there

Hammock setup for resting along the trail.

Get out there, I tell myself if I get a chance.  My body is only getting older--my knees are definitely not what they used to be--so enjoy nature while my body can take the pain of hiking with a 60L backpack.

The temperature these days is hovering around 0C (32F).  It should not prevent anyone from heading out into local woods and spend a few hours kicking up the leaves.  For me, every time I get out there is actually a preparation for winter camping, and I realize now how difficult it could be at making food.  This time around, the wood I used was a bit damp inside so I got quite a bit of smoke and not enough heat.  I could not get my water to boil--yes, I could forage for dry wood but I decided the water was warm enough to cook up my instant noodle soup.  The other problem I realized I had was that my stove did not draw in enough air from the bottom, so I pierced a few more holes and hopefully next time, it will work better.  I also just ordered a mini fan from ebay.  I will buy some contraption to go along with this hobo stove (using the same idea as the Vital Stove) to force air into the stove.  Finally, one last thing I realized also was that I carried too many pots.  I bought a Chinook cook set.  It costed me over $60 and I have wondered since then if it was a good buy.  I have been using only the smallest pot and yet I have been carrying the entire set on my hikes all the time.  Next time, everything but the smallest pot will stay at home.

Well, winter has not arrived yet but I sure will prepare more for it.  Eventually, I will be able to do a winter camping trip in Algonquin or into some unmanaged crown land.

Hammock camping

I quite like this style now.  Yesterday, I was out on a hike.  I knew I would spent a few hours in the woods and had wanted to relax in there, so I brought my hammock along.  I also brought two tarps to protect me from the rain.  This time, I set up my camp along the edge of a creek at the bottom of a hill.  A tent would not fit well in this area with the slope and space and all but it works very well for a hammock and tarp!

Hammock and tarp setup by a creek.

Now, I just need to figure out how to lessen the bulkiness of my two backpacks!  I carry a photo backpack along with a 60L backpack for my camping gears.

Camping on crown land, part 2

My tarp-hammock camping setup.

So, yesterday, after lunch at the Mandarin with some friends, I started my way up to Big Orillia Lake.  The trip took me 3 hours, including a stop at Bass Pro Shop to buy an Ascent -30C mummy sleeping bag.  I arrived at Big Orillia Lake late, partially because of heavy traffic in Toronto and partially because the road I saw in Google Map is in fact a private road!  I was pissed but as the sun threatened to set within an hour, I had to hurry to find a way into the crown land I had researched earlier.  I got lucky and found a spot off the public road quickly to park my car.

Before lugging my large backpack in, I decided to do a quick survey of the area to find a place to build my campsite.  The first part of the land is populated by the maple trees, succeeded by pine trees bordering the lake.  While the evergreens maintain their luster green still, the maples were disrobed of their foliage.  Bare, naked, most of them.  The area was littered with maple leaves.  The ground yellow, orange, and red.  It was soft but wet.

Ascent -20F (-30C) Mummy Sleeping Bag

My first order of business after locating a place to set up my campsite was to lay down a tarp to keep everything else dry on top of it.  I then took about a minute or so to set up my hammock and another five minutes to put up a second tarp over the hammock.  I laid down a foam mat inside the hammock, followed by my new -30C sleeping bag.  Once the tarp and hammock were set, I was satisfied.  Darkness set in while I was setting up the tarp but now I had a shelter, and with it, some insulation from the elements but not food.

After repeated failures to start a fire in my hobo stove (everything was damp and I did not have any birch bark), I decided to dump half of an InstaFire bag into the stove to help with the fire.  From then on, the fire was more or less self-sustaining, enough at least for me to boil water to make some instant noodle soup.  I could not eat it quite yet as it was still too hot.  As I waited I looked up into the sky.  It reminded me of a night at a cottage.  While the darkness enveloped me, the sky was littered with star lights.  It was an awesome sight in the middle of the forest.  Again, while waiting for the noodles to cool down, I took out my camera and snapped some pictures of the sky but they really do not do justice.  The field of stars was just unbelievably clear up there.

It must have been past 8pm when I decided to call it a night—I wanted to take more pictures but I could get lost in the darkness if I had ventured out.  The sleeping system was good.  I felt really warm.  My feet were warm.  My hands were warm.  Everything felt great.  Until 3am.  I knew, even at 8pm, that the cold air was settling in.  I was breathing it in and out.  By 3am though, my body stopped producing enough heat to keep me warm.  My back started to feel a bit chilly, not cold, but chilly enough to feel uncomfortable.  By 4am, my feet started to feel chilly too.  I knew my body was not generating enough heat.  Every now and then, when I had to adjust my position in the hammock, I’d feel warm again as I had to use my muscles to push myself up one end of the hammock—oh yeah, I made one end higher than the other so I kept on slipping slowly down the hammock.  Anyways, the temperature must have dropped to -5C or even lower.  (When I finally got up at 6am to take pictures of the lake and the field of stars, it took merely 20 seconds or less for my exposed fingers to freeze so it must have been pretty cold.)  I should have added to my sleeping system my summer sleeping bag as an under quilt.  That should have kept me a lot warmer.

So, I think that was my *winter* camping in the bush! :)

Oh, I heard three howls.  I believe they were of wolves.  I also heard a couple of hoots.  Maybe there were winter owls around there?