With the success of our previous trip we decided to try for 2 nights out rather than just 1. The messages went out to rally the troops, and 3 people replied to say they would be going. Excellent. We have a plan.
Friday rolled round and as I started to pack my Brompton for a weekend in the woods, my twitter feed brought to my attention a severe weather warning. Not looking good for a 32k cycle ride to get to the RV. As the rain and wind battered the flat my housemate took sympathy on me and offered me a lift most of the way.
With the lift allowing me to leave later, by the time I started the ride the rain had stopped, and the sun was trying to shine through. I had a pleasant 7k ride to the woods.
The downpour had soaked everything, this was going to make a damp start to the weekend. Step 1, fire.
I had a brief forage for small dead standing in the immediate area round camp, poured a cap full of meths on it, and added a match. Repeating this a further two times got the fire going nicely, I quickly hid the evidence of my cheating, before sitting back to enjoy the fire and await the others.
Lyn was first to arrive. We had a discussion about where would be best to setup our camps. Decisions made, Lyn put up her tent, and I through up my tarp.
My camp.
Lyn's camp.
Eventually Jim arrived, and started to pitch his Marquee um, Trailstar. As he did I pointed out the dead branch above. We concluded that it would be best to bring it down. Thus we had a quick game of how many bushcrafters does it take to throw a peg (best improvised weight I could find at short notice) attached to a piece of string, over a branch... Answer is 3...
Shelters up, branches made safe. Time for a brew.
I am still on the search for the best cook pot for various circumstances, and had brought with me a selection. After much discussion we concluded the collective now for camp cookware is an indecision...
An indecision of pots.
Lyn pulled out her [thread=132795]grill[/thread] to cook her dinner, while I wrapped mine up and threw it in the embers.
Dinner cooking, beers opened, we sat back to watch the sun go down, and enjoy the peaceful woods.
Part of the conditions of our permission to use the woodland we were in was that we cleared some of the fallen trees that were blocking some of the paths. So on Saturday morning while I was still waking up, Lyn and Jim went for a walk with a saw.
Saturday was spent exploring the wood and collecting firewood. A bit more firewood than we actually needed in the end...
Fortunately as we are planning to come back here, we stashed some of the wood to make things easier next time.
I also took the time to experiment with my brew kit. The evernew burner I have is very thirsty, and I have been playing around with Jim's Starlyte stove. I had a play around with the various bits of kit I had to find a brew kit I was happy with. I think I'm converging on a hybrid of evernew kit and starlyte burner.
Jim had kindly left me his RAB Silwing tarp to play with, and I'd brought my RAB Siltarp 1 along. So we spent a while experimenting with the two tarps. The Silwing is nice, but I'm not sure it's as versatile as a rectangular tarp. In the woods I was able to see that the Siltarp 1's colour is a really good match for the undergrowth. I may have to use it more...
Saturday night heavy rain was forecast, so in the dying hours of day light we both spent a few minutes storm proofing our shelters. Making sure the pegs were in properly, tightening guy lines, and putting everything that could go in, in dry bags.
The rain took it's time to arrive, but when it did, it did so enthusiastically. By the time I work in the morning there was a heavy pater of rain upon my tarp. I checked everything under it was dry, checked my bivi bag was dry, noticing a small amount of condensation in the foot area, then rolled over and went back to sleep. Eventually the rain petered out to just the occasional drop falling off the wet trees. I checked the inside of the bivvi bag and it was all dry.
The rain had completely extinguished the fire, and we decided the exfil, rather than lingering around trying to cook breakfast. As I packed up I noticed that everything was dry apart from my tarp, and the corner of my sleep mat where I had moved during the night. My sleeping bag was nice and dry, which was the important thing. My tarp however was very wet on the outside, so I stuffed it in the front of the bag to keep it away from everything else that was dry. Camp packed up, we cleared the firescar, and leaving the campsite as we found it, wandered back to civilisation.
An excellent weekend, and a good test of storm proofness of our various shelters. Now looking forward to the next trip out.
Julia
Friday rolled round and as I started to pack my Brompton for a weekend in the woods, my twitter feed brought to my attention a severe weather warning. Not looking good for a 32k cycle ride to get to the RV. As the rain and wind battered the flat my housemate took sympathy on me and offered me a lift most of the way.
With the lift allowing me to leave later, by the time I started the ride the rain had stopped, and the sun was trying to shine through. I had a pleasant 7k ride to the woods.
The downpour had soaked everything, this was going to make a damp start to the weekend. Step 1, fire.
I had a brief forage for small dead standing in the immediate area round camp, poured a cap full of meths on it, and added a match. Repeating this a further two times got the fire going nicely, I quickly hid the evidence of my cheating, before sitting back to enjoy the fire and await the others.
Lyn was first to arrive. We had a discussion about where would be best to setup our camps. Decisions made, Lyn put up her tent, and I through up my tarp.
My camp.
Lyn's camp.
Eventually Jim arrived, and started to pitch his Marquee um, Trailstar. As he did I pointed out the dead branch above. We concluded that it would be best to bring it down. Thus we had a quick game of how many bushcrafters does it take to throw a peg (best improvised weight I could find at short notice) attached to a piece of string, over a branch... Answer is 3...
Shelters up, branches made safe. Time for a brew.
I am still on the search for the best cook pot for various circumstances, and had brought with me a selection. After much discussion we concluded the collective now for camp cookware is an indecision...
An indecision of pots.
Lyn pulled out her [thread=132795]grill[/thread] to cook her dinner, while I wrapped mine up and threw it in the embers.
Dinner cooking, beers opened, we sat back to watch the sun go down, and enjoy the peaceful woods.
Part of the conditions of our permission to use the woodland we were in was that we cleared some of the fallen trees that were blocking some of the paths. So on Saturday morning while I was still waking up, Lyn and Jim went for a walk with a saw.
Saturday was spent exploring the wood and collecting firewood. A bit more firewood than we actually needed in the end...
Fortunately as we are planning to come back here, we stashed some of the wood to make things easier next time.
I also took the time to experiment with my brew kit. The evernew burner I have is very thirsty, and I have been playing around with Jim's Starlyte stove. I had a play around with the various bits of kit I had to find a brew kit I was happy with. I think I'm converging on a hybrid of evernew kit and starlyte burner.
Jim had kindly left me his RAB Silwing tarp to play with, and I'd brought my RAB Siltarp 1 along. So we spent a while experimenting with the two tarps. The Silwing is nice, but I'm not sure it's as versatile as a rectangular tarp. In the woods I was able to see that the Siltarp 1's colour is a really good match for the undergrowth. I may have to use it more...
Saturday night heavy rain was forecast, so in the dying hours of day light we both spent a few minutes storm proofing our shelters. Making sure the pegs were in properly, tightening guy lines, and putting everything that could go in, in dry bags.
The rain took it's time to arrive, but when it did, it did so enthusiastically. By the time I work in the morning there was a heavy pater of rain upon my tarp. I checked everything under it was dry, checked my bivi bag was dry, noticing a small amount of condensation in the foot area, then rolled over and went back to sleep. Eventually the rain petered out to just the occasional drop falling off the wet trees. I checked the inside of the bivvi bag and it was all dry.
The rain had completely extinguished the fire, and we decided the exfil, rather than lingering around trying to cook breakfast. As I packed up I noticed that everything was dry apart from my tarp, and the corner of my sleep mat where I had moved during the night. My sleeping bag was nice and dry, which was the important thing. My tarp however was very wet on the outside, so I stuffed it in the front of the bag to keep it away from everything else that was dry. Camp packed up, we cleared the firescar, and leaving the campsite as we found it, wandered back to civilisation.
An excellent weekend, and a good test of storm proofness of our various shelters. Now looking forward to the next trip out.
Julia
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