My Camps So Far... (Pic Heavy)

[Phaestos]

Well, I've been on here for a few months now, since August last year in fact. Everytime I go out, I try to make a point of taking at least a few photies of my little camp area, i.e. a tarp, my bag and the occasional hammock

I figured I should finally post them in their tiny entirety because you're all nice people and you'll humour me...I hope

September 2012

Giants Seat

My first foray in Bushcraft, I originally took a tent and my tarp, with the intention of kipping in the tent, and getting used to setting up a tarp. I never even got in the tent. Maddave, bad man that he is, offered me a hammock to try out, and BOOM! I was hooked.

My first tripod too! If I recall correctly, Dave Bromley quite avidly said something along the lines of "That's brilliant!" There were possibly some expletives in there as well, but you have to think of the children in these posts...

A big thankyou to everyone at this meet for a) giving me a fantastic starting point for bushcraft, and b) suffering through my Stanley Holloway monologue. I WILL do part 2 to Albert and the Lion at some point!


October 2012

Middlewood Vertical Smoke 2012

I think a memory burned forever into my mind is that of Wayland blowing on his battle horn in an attempt to scare the bejesus out of those guys walking the ghost field. I upgraded the hammock this time, with my own underquilt too!

I knocked it up out of a 3 season mummy bag and it's done me proud so far. The foot-well has a zip in it so it can become a sleeping bag again too. Of course, at this point, I didn't realize you could turn the hammock over so you didn't have to use the mozzy net, hence the crushing of it by the UQ. Thanks to MentalNurse for that gem of knowledge.

And, the obligatory fire pictures. This may be the only place where my camera phone actually does fairly well!

November 2012

Drew's Birthday Bash

My first cold weather camp. Of course, for all my preparations and fretting, it never really dropped below freezing when I was there. Regardless, it was my first bivvy too. No hammock. I invested in a Thermarest Women Trail Lite from Evilbay for £30. For some reason noone was touching it was barge pole, I assume because it had "women" written on it, i.e. more insulation. Their loss, I'm warm! It did however solidly rain so I was happy for the groundsheet AND a bivvy bag.

My sleeping system. Alpkit Hunka XL Bivi Bag, Trekmates Space blanket, Themarest Women's Trail Lite, Army Issue Arctic Bag. What you can't see here is a wool blanket, and a fleece one. Yeah...I was warm. Cheers to Ratcatcher on this trip for telling me about the rolling of cold air downhill. Boy did that help!


December 2012

Ribble Valley Cold Weather Bivvy

A full write up of this trip is here http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=99098&page=9&p=1195466

Once again, I didn't drop below freezing. It did however become my hardest camp yet. Winds, rain. got sodden through and got to the stage of shivering. I was damned thankful for my over-the-top sleep system then. It taught me a fair bit, and I like to think it's a good achievement.

My shelter. A snake hole?

Big thankyou to CharlieFoxTrot for the use of his ash poles on this trip. Saved my shelter.


January 2012

Middlewood

A great time, as usual. Met up with people I hadn't seen in far too long, and got back in the hammock. I'm getting faster at putting it all up, and with the help of MentalNurse, I got the hammock modded so it should be even faster next time.

Well, that's it really. Just a few pictures and thankyous. Hopefully I'll start taking more pictures, if I can remember, and regale you with more tales! Oh, a final mention goes out to the Tactical Coathanger. One of these days I'll do a post on 101 uses for a metal coathanger, and amaze you all. If you've been on a camp with me, you'll know what I'm on about

Cheers

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

Good stuff.

 

[vizsla]

Very nice mate, if there's one piece of advise I can give you it's don't set fire to the crate in the last pic no mater how cold you are!
good pics chap

 

[copper_head]

Some nice digs there

That UQ mod looks great.

 

[Niels]

Thanks for sharing this

 

[maddave]

The boy done good !!

 

[Elen Sentier]

Grand . Looking fwd to the "coathanger" ... The underquilt looks good too.

And a question, well 2 actually ...
1 - how tall are you?
2 - how do you manage to get your tarp up so high?

I'm a diminutive and podgy 5'4" and can't lift my right arm properly ... do hope you have a good technique I can borrow

 

[Phaestos]

Grand . Looking fwd to the "coathanger" ... The underquilt looks good too.

And a question, well 2 actually ...
1 - how tall are you?
2 - how do you manage to get your tarp up so high?

I'm a diminutive and podgy 5'4" and can't lift my right arm properly ... do hope you have a good technique I can borrow

Thanks im 6ft bang on but I too have arm issues. I actually loop the cord round the tree then pull it tight before tying any knots. That way I can use the tension to stop it slipping down the bark while I actually tie the knots much lower down, then pull them back up high when done. Only works with the evenk though. The winch knot i use for tension of the ridgeline pains me cos I have to tie it fairly high. Hope that makes sense

 

[bivouac]

OK, you lose a few points for outrageous namedropping but more than make up for it by introducing a Stanley Holloway monologue. Nice one.

 

[udamiano]

nice photos thanks for sharing

 

[Phaestos]

OK, you lose a few points for outrageous namedropping but more than make up for it by introducing a Stanley Holloway monologue. Nice one.

So many rules! Nah, I just like to thank the people who help me. Kindness is kind of rare these days and I feel its better if someone can actively recognize they've done something nice rather than wonder. Thanks for the comments bud. Holloway rocks

 

[bivouac]

So many rules! Nah, I just like to thank the people who help me. Kindness is kind of rare these days and I feel its better if someone can actively recognize they've done something nice rather than wonder. Thanks for the comments bud. Holloway rocks

My tongue was planted firmly in my cheek, of course. And if your friends liked Albert and the Lion, i expect they'll go wild for Sam Small in 'Sam, pick oop tha' musket'.
This out and about forum is my favourite on BCUK. I love reading posts about people's setups and i particularly enjoyed yours. Cheers.

 

[Elen Sentier]

Thanks im 6ft bang on but I too have arm issues. I actually loop the cord round the tree then pull it tight before tying any knots. That way I can use the tension to stop it slipping down the bark while I actually tie the knots much lower down, then pull them back up high when done. Only works with the evenk though. The winch knot i use for tension of the ridgeline pains me cos I have to tie it fairly high. Hope that makes sense

Yes it does, ta. I try and do something similar but the loss of 8" makes a difference! I sling the hammock straight over the ridgeline too as this gives me another 4". With tensioning it is where I could use some mechanical help so am thinking about that.