firstly apologies for the lateness of this write up, things have been manic with me recently what with moving house and so on
So mid march i had planned a mini meet at my permission, originally Mesquite, Hastur and Xander were all coming, there was going to be a bit of kit admiration on all parts as Hastur had bought himself a double bit axe and various other bits, a nice venison stew was planned and a bit of banter
Hastur and myself had planned to do a warm up of the Boone challenge, i was all packed and ready with natural materials wool blankets and so on, then the forecast got a bit lairy so i reassessed and changed it for warmer kit,
that was the first stumble of the weekend,
next was that Mequite came down with a truly horrific chest infection/plague thing so he bailed fully understandable health is always a priority.
after that the weather got SERIOUSLY horrific, loads of snow and Hastur sensibly decided that driving in those conditions for a one night camp was a bit daft o he cancelled too, understandable mate and not a problem.
This left Xander and myself, now xander isnt a well chap at minute either so he only intended to come for the day and then head home, again fully justifiable.
after another reassessment and repack of my kit myself and xander headed up to the permission,
first of all i threw the shelter up, nice and simple adriondack wind shed, my set up of choice now, i left it high enough to accomodate xanders chair( error there but i will say more later)
i also built a reflector to bounce heat back into the tarped area.and rigged up a poncho to redirect some of the wind and incorporated a thermal blanket to help with heat reflection
we got the fire going, after my nightmare getting the fire going last time i went up on my own we were taking no chances and used a crackle log, cheating perhaps but it was silly cold and we wanted to ensure it worked first time no faff
i had read about using the branches of pine trees as a base to the sleeping area so i snedded off branches from a couple of recycled christmas trees and put this beneath my sleeping area, i put an orange survival bag on top of this then my bivi bag with sleeping bag and exped mat in it, no photos but again i will talk about this later on...
Xander loitered in the scenary
we spent a while chatting and drinking brews to keep warm then decided to get the food going, beef stew, nothing flash but Xander got to try out his Christmas present from me a nice big stew pot
we had a play ith Xanders new knife-tops B.O.B fieldcrat knife its a nice knife bit odd never used a micarta handled knife before
after a few hours the stew was ready
Chef Xander
dishing up
the stew (i ate three mess tins worth then drank the gravy that was left.....)
after dinner Xander headed home leaving me all on my tod
i rigged another reflective blanket (or it was a reflective sleep mat) over the reflector to bounce more heat into my shelter, sent a few pic messages to Hastur and Mesquite to show them what they were missing-i wont reproduce the replies here.....
huddled up under my blanket read for a while and turned in for the night
around four am i woke up absolutely ruddy frozen- the fire had burnt down to just fire dogs and where i had rigged the shelter for Xanders chair to fit there was too much excess space that i didnt need so had caused a cold area which was irksome.
Next time Xander you can make you own sheltered area mate
so at four am i forced myself out of my warm sleeping bag, rebuilt the fire watered a tree and shivered myself back to sleep,
i awoke around eight am to this view over my shelter
i had heard snow falling whilst in my bag the evening before but it was quite an experience waking up to it
this was the shot i took of my campsite in the morning
for reference the fire and reflector whilst effective were too far from my sleeping area to really have a massive influence on the temp of my sleeping, lesson one have fire closer, lesson two only have as much space used as necessary
Also the guyline you can see is in fact frozen solid
i was fortunate enough to have some pre cut fire wood in my shelter which at four am was really appreciated, it would not of been pleasent chopping/sawing wood at that time in the moring
the branches worked well as insulation however i did find myself slipping and sliding around on them during the night i can see the logic of having bed sides or logs to hold you in place when you use them.
after taking the photos i broke camp and got a lift home, cold but having had a good night out on my own. i checked in with Xander Mesquite and Hastur to reassure them A i was alive and B i hadnt come down with bells palsy again
apologies for the lack of pictures as my camera had not had a charge and i had packed the battery charger so had to use my phone camera
hope you have enjoyed my pics as much as i enjoyed the time out
next camp is going to be a better warm up for the boone challenge
So mid march i had planned a mini meet at my permission, originally Mesquite, Hastur and Xander were all coming, there was going to be a bit of kit admiration on all parts as Hastur had bought himself a double bit axe and various other bits, a nice venison stew was planned and a bit of banter
Hastur and myself had planned to do a warm up of the Boone challenge, i was all packed and ready with natural materials wool blankets and so on, then the forecast got a bit lairy so i reassessed and changed it for warmer kit,
that was the first stumble of the weekend,
next was that Mequite came down with a truly horrific chest infection/plague thing so he bailed fully understandable health is always a priority.
after that the weather got SERIOUSLY horrific, loads of snow and Hastur sensibly decided that driving in those conditions for a one night camp was a bit daft o he cancelled too, understandable mate and not a problem.
This left Xander and myself, now xander isnt a well chap at minute either so he only intended to come for the day and then head home, again fully justifiable.
after another reassessment and repack of my kit myself and xander headed up to the permission,
first of all i threw the shelter up, nice and simple adriondack wind shed, my set up of choice now, i left it high enough to accomodate xanders chair( error there but i will say more later)
i also built a reflector to bounce heat back into the tarped area.and rigged up a poncho to redirect some of the wind and incorporated a thermal blanket to help with heat reflection
we got the fire going, after my nightmare getting the fire going last time i went up on my own we were taking no chances and used a crackle log, cheating perhaps but it was silly cold and we wanted to ensure it worked first time no faff
i had read about using the branches of pine trees as a base to the sleeping area so i snedded off branches from a couple of recycled christmas trees and put this beneath my sleeping area, i put an orange survival bag on top of this then my bivi bag with sleeping bag and exped mat in it, no photos but again i will talk about this later on...
Xander loitered in the scenary
we spent a while chatting and drinking brews to keep warm then decided to get the food going, beef stew, nothing flash but Xander got to try out his Christmas present from me a nice big stew pot
we had a play ith Xanders new knife-tops B.O.B fieldcrat knife its a nice knife bit odd never used a micarta handled knife before
after a few hours the stew was ready
Chef Xander
dishing up
the stew (i ate three mess tins worth then drank the gravy that was left.....)
after dinner Xander headed home leaving me all on my tod
i rigged another reflective blanket (or it was a reflective sleep mat) over the reflector to bounce more heat into my shelter, sent a few pic messages to Hastur and Mesquite to show them what they were missing-i wont reproduce the replies here.....
huddled up under my blanket read for a while and turned in for the night
around four am i woke up absolutely ruddy frozen- the fire had burnt down to just fire dogs and where i had rigged the shelter for Xanders chair to fit there was too much excess space that i didnt need so had caused a cold area which was irksome.
Next time Xander you can make you own sheltered area mate
so at four am i forced myself out of my warm sleeping bag, rebuilt the fire watered a tree and shivered myself back to sleep,
i awoke around eight am to this view over my shelter
i had heard snow falling whilst in my bag the evening before but it was quite an experience waking up to it
this was the shot i took of my campsite in the morning
for reference the fire and reflector whilst effective were too far from my sleeping area to really have a massive influence on the temp of my sleeping, lesson one have fire closer, lesson two only have as much space used as necessary
Also the guyline you can see is in fact frozen solid
i was fortunate enough to have some pre cut fire wood in my shelter which at four am was really appreciated, it would not of been pleasent chopping/sawing wood at that time in the moring
the branches worked well as insulation however i did find myself slipping and sliding around on them during the night i can see the logic of having bed sides or logs to hold you in place when you use them.
after taking the photos i broke camp and got a lift home, cold but having had a good night out on my own. i checked in with Xander Mesquite and Hastur to reassure them A i was alive and B i hadnt come down with bells palsy again
apologies for the lack of pictures as my camera had not had a charge and i had packed the battery charger so had to use my phone camera
hope you have enjoyed my pics as much as i enjoyed the time out
next camp is going to be a better warm up for the boone challenge
