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First night out and some kit decisions

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outdoord

Banned
Aug 2, 2012
65
0
United Kingdom
Completed my first over night camp yesterday.

Me and my son took a DD 3x3M Tarp with the one corner tied to a tree and the 3 corners pegged out with a stick in the center of the tarp to hold it up.

All went well until when cutting a stick in the rain with a swiss army knife and cut into my knuckle, but i cleaned it up and carried on with the night. Then around 11pm the rain started followed by thunder and lightening until around 5am for a very unsettled night. Got up around 6am with a wet tarp i think because of condensation as at around 3am we untied the corner from the tree and pegged it to the ground due to heavy rain in a storm.
Got up, made some porridge and went to make some supernoodles, then realized the extra 2 liters of water was on the table in the house along with the other metal mug. So had to make meals one by one then clean out and repeat which took a while but worked out OK.

What i think would of been very usefull is one of the reusable space blankets- does anyone know where i can purchase one?

Other than a bit of 'bad luck' (silliness and rushing) all went well. Was a foggy morning but the view was nice.

Packed everything up, left the camp at around 8 and walked home.. got in around 9. Went straight to the garage and hung all the kit up and straight into bed.. :rolleyes:

Not a bad night but weather was forecast dry and was a nightmare and i can currently see the knuckle in my middle finger :(

Any help with the space blanket would be appreciated too! Also thinking of making a little pot cosy for porridge and noodles.. any advice?

Obviously- this post lacks pictures as when coming home the camera, sons cook kit and 2 liters of water was on the table.

Thank you.
 
Happens to the best of us.
To help remember what kit you need I have a checklist using a free program called Sherpa, see this thread for details.
I'm sure the knife incident was a mishap but this little tutorial I found helpful when I started and used it to train my 12 year old on knife use and safety.

You can get a pot cosy kit from BackpackingLight but I have made my own. The material is a roll of bubble wrap foil lined on both sides. It's called Thermwrap and is also available from B&Q. It's on a 5M roll for £15 and the roll of foil tape is £5 although you can use silver gaffa tape if you have any.
There's a tutorial on making it (compliments of BackpackingLight) on Youtube.

It's said to be equivalent to 4 inch thick polystyrene in insulation terms and would make a good re-useable survival blanket too imo. I plan to use a length of this as underlay in my hammock when it gets colder.
 
Dont know about the blanket, i would look at any climbing websites for that sort of stuff.

Although it wasnt much fun you have had some very valuable experience which only comes from making a few errors.

Well done for getting out there and staying with it.

A tip for getting out the door with all your stuff, i set myself up a loading square on the floor, use to be tank tape but swmb gets the hump with the damage to the carpet.

Set a square(or any shape you like) to bit bigger than the size of all your stuff that will be needed. now the rule is if anyone comes along with those little extras and stuff that is not packed, they must go in the square.
Hopefully that keeps all the stuff in one place and if the square is empty then all stuff should be packed.
 
Last edited:
Thank you for the replies!

I am going to make something up on Microsoft Excel for the kit list.. although i only forgot the camera!
The cut was a silly mistake, i was cutting okay but rushing to get out of the rain and slipped along the bark and into me! Ouch.
Will look into making a pot cosy, just thinking it will be easier to have a tub for the food, tip water in and leave it and will also save fuel :)

Thank you.
 
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221004771...WAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_500wt_689

I got one of these after some good advice. I fold mine in half so silver side is down and up then my bivvy bag goes on top with sleeping mat and dos bag inside.
Because it has eyelets it can also be pegged to be used as a wind break or wrapped around you as an emergency blanket.

Better luck with the next trip and enjoy each and every one for what they are come rain or shine.
 
outdoord said:
Completed my first over night camp yesterday.



All went well until when cutting a stick in the rain with a swiss army knife and cut into my knuckle, but i cleaned it up and carried on with the night. Then around 11pm the rain started followed by thunder and lightening until around 5am for a very unsettled night. Got up around 6am with a wet tarp i think because of condensation as at around 3am we untied the corner from the tree and pegged it to the ground due to heavy rain in a storm.
Got up, made some porridge and went to make some supernoodles, then realized the extra 2 liters of water was on the table in the house along with the other metal mug. So had to make meals one by one then clean out and repeat which took a while but worked out OK. the kit up and straight into bed.. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...


Sounds about right for a first overnighter :) many of us have been there but it's what you learn that counts & if after that you want to do it again, then I reckon it was a success.
 
Sounds a great time out, signs of a good bushcrafter, missing kit and bad wetaher and not packing up and going home, well done on you both.
Also hoping your son has the bug now and be an up and comming bushcrafter. good results.

many more happy camps out.
 
Thank you very much everyone..

Yes its the bigger tarp style space blanket i am after, will look around for green but if not will get the orange, thanks for the links! :)

I am looking forward to getting back out soon, just need to get a little more kit together. Forgot to note in the First post my son also had a bad luck night- as well as forgetting his cook kit when he was sleeping his feet went outside the tarp :rolleyes: and he knocked the UCO candle lantern over..

Better luck next time.. :)
 
Damn.

1. Always always always cut away from yourself.
2. Sound like you need to invest in a better knife.

... lol

I always carry a space blanket and a space smock just for emergencies I've never had to use them but provides a little piece of mind.

I bought one years ago I cant even remember where from ... but having said that they're not difficult (or expensive) to find I dont think I paid more than £5 for either ... and i noticed the other week the local garden centre sells them in the camping section.

Hope this helps :)

oh and from experience you get knowledge ;0) cant avoid the mistakes you haven't already made
 
One thing about space blanket, if you wrap it round you its dam noisy!!!! its like being in a crisp packet!

Sounds like you did most things right and now have the bug, better knife and more of them;)

Sandsnakes
 
No insulation needed but a groundsheet would of been fantastic. Thinking if i get the space type it can be multi purpose.

Axe is not needed, only took a swiss army knife for opening things but used it for a prop stick, was my fault as i was in the rain and in a rush to get out of it.. :o

Will not happen again!
 
Well, we, well most of us tend to learn by our mistakes, so mistakes are good to have as they teach you better ways of doing things, but it must be great going out and doing such with your son, good on you and good for him too, I wonder how many would do such.

As a kid, I used to camp in the garden regularly with tents made up from well knackered tents with no poles or pegs so used garden implements for poles and bricks for pegs., the sort of tent with no ridge pole in all weathers and even one winter an igloo made up of a really big snowball we rolled up the road into my back garden then hollowed out, the damned thing was there for weeks after the snow had all melted each day getting smaller until one day we kicked it in.

But if you go there with something to chop something, may I recommend a billhook, a very useful tool that can be used around the garden too, mine lives in the back of my car, so it is always where I am be that work or play and it gets used often, ( But for the billhook afficienadoes, it is a Devon pattern made by Morris at Dunsford, a rather old carbon steel blade one needs a stone to sharpen with as the farmer's own does little, with a modified I don't know what kind of wood handle, modified so I don't lose my grip on it as I have done before I modified it with a spiral twist carving)
 
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