Thought Id share some ramblings about a very enjoyable albeit chilly night out in some Kentish woodland last week. Its funny sometimes how things go at this time of year. The weather forecasts all said how night time temperatures would drop down to 2-3 degrees C and judging by a thermometer that we had, thats precisely what happened. But my camping buddies and I all woke up the next morning agreeing that the cold wind blowing through camp made it feel like we were camping in sub-zero conditions.
I think it just goes to show how important it is to think about what you need to take with you on your camping trips and to be prepared. For situations like this where you suspect the temperatures may drop lower than you think. Suffice to say, if you can be comfortable when camping out during the winter then you can walk home from those trips feeling quite content.
For me this was a camping trip with a difference. Truth be told, I probably shouldnt have gone camping as Id recently had a minor operation, the upshot of which meant that I am for a little while not allowed to lift any heavy weights! But having been signed off work for a short period, cabin fever had a firm grip on me. Id exhausted all my dvd box sets, Id read several bushcrafty books and watched countless bushcrafty videos on youtube. Id done everything I could to avoid the dreaded daytime tv.
Alas; word of an upcoming camping trip got me thinking about whether I could strip down my kit to the bare essentials and do a lightweight winter camp using nothing more than my 25ltr daysack. A rucksack which is happier transporting my sandwiches to work. Initially I thought Id only pop up for the day but when my wife was encouraging me to get out, I saw a challenge present itself and I thought this could be done!! I could wax lyrically about the kit that I took on this trip and how I managed to strip things back and why I took it. So I think I may post a separate thread about this in the Kit Chatter section as people often like to see what others are packing in their rucksack.
One thing I will say though is that the good folk on this forum helped me achieve my aim. Having spent all my time wild camping with either a tent or a tarp/hammock, I was keen to try out camping with just a tarp and bivvy and was able to swap some unused gear for a british army bivvy bag. I was really pleased with the bivvy bag that Id received and quite enjoyed going to ground for a change. Thanks again Copper_head!
Heres a few piccies of our set-ups. As you can see we all went to ground. One of my camping buddies had a simple a-frame shelter with his new Alpkit Hunka bivvy concealing an Alpkit down sleeping bag. My other mate was pitched in his tent and was trying out his new arctic sleeping bag no prizes for guessing who slept warmest out of us three!
I set-up my tarp (first pic) in what I believe is known as the Adirondack shelter. I quite liked this set-up as it gives you some good cover and plenty of weather protection on three sides. In my bivvy bag I had my thermarest foam mat and three season Alpkit sleeping bag.
The afternoon was starting to get a bit chilly so we got the fire going a little earlier than wed liked. I prepared some of the kindling while my buddies did the heavy lifting! On this occasion we had an upside down fire and it was lit using some tinder that was collected by my campmate on the way up to our camp spot. If I recall correctly the tinder bundle was made up of dead grass, clematis, bracken and old mans beard that had been stored in the pocket to dry worked a treat with the fire steel.
As we sat around the fire I was keen to practice some fire lighting with my flint and striker so I collected some bracken and combined this with some ruffled up jute twine that I carry in my fire kit. After some perseverance I managed to get an ember on some char cloth (theres definitely a knack to using the flint and striker) and I transferred this to my tinder bundle. After a few blows it quickly ignited. I still need to keep practicing that technique but it always feels good when it works!
After that I just sat about practicing feather sticks these things are harder to get right than they look. A sharp knife is essential and then you just need to get the feel for when the edge starts to dig into the wood. My feathersticks werent that impressive but they were good enough to accept a spark, again Id say it was another success but lots more practice required!
It feels good to look back and contemplate how your skills and knowledge of your surroundings evolve. A year ago I was lighting fires by throwing sparks on a cotton wool ball (Im not wishing to dis-respect this method by the way!) but nowadays Ive removed that from my fire kit and now try to use only natural tinders that have been foraged. Ive progressed to this stage by reading books and watching youtube but most importantly by getting out into natures classroom and giving things a go its the best way to learn!
Back at camp time was starting to creep up on us and my tummy was rumbling. It was dinner time! Now I can happily go on a camp without taking any kind of alcoholic refreshment but I certainly dont like to hold back when it comes to food! On tonights menu was jacket potato, cheese and a full rack of bbq ribs. It was by far the easiest dinner Ive ever cooked. Wrap it all in foil and chuck it on the very hot bed of embers that our upside down fire had provided. An hour later my dinner was ready and it was delicious. Meanwhile my camp mates were each cooking up some hearty stews the warm food was much needed for the cold evening that was to come.
After dinner, we stoked the fire up and spent the evening staring into its abyss and talking about general rubbish. We turned in at about 10ish. My night time routine at this time of year is to simply get a hot drink down me, change socks, get the long-johns on, roll my smock into something that resembles a pillow and wriggle into the bivvy/sleeping bag. I had a down jacket lying in wait should I need it and was glad I did because I woke up at about 1am feeling the chill from that cold wind which was blowing through the camp and the jacket was just the ticket. I had a pretty good sleep, the tops of my legs were cold but not so much to warrant me getting up to put trousers on. I sincerely apologise to my camp mates for my snoring as this no doubt compounded what had become a fairly challenging night. I will endeavour to pitch my tarp further away from you in the future!!
I know that my camp mates were feeling the chill as well, one of them woke up in the night to make a warm drink. I guess, while we all got a reasonable nights sleep, there were some lessons learnt by all concerned. For instance if I was able to carry my more usual kit then I would have had my wool blanket and would mostly likely have been very warm indeed. But by and large, I learnt that, with some thought and preparation, you can camp quite comfortably in the winter with much less kit than you think you need.
Come the morning we tidied up and ensured the site was left just as we found it. Having used this camping spot for the last four camps were very mindful of not wanting to keep re-visiting the site and causing any lasting damage to the area so our next challenge is to scout out some new camping spots within the area in which were able to camp.
Happy days!
I think it just goes to show how important it is to think about what you need to take with you on your camping trips and to be prepared. For situations like this where you suspect the temperatures may drop lower than you think. Suffice to say, if you can be comfortable when camping out during the winter then you can walk home from those trips feeling quite content.
For me this was a camping trip with a difference. Truth be told, I probably shouldnt have gone camping as Id recently had a minor operation, the upshot of which meant that I am for a little while not allowed to lift any heavy weights! But having been signed off work for a short period, cabin fever had a firm grip on me. Id exhausted all my dvd box sets, Id read several bushcrafty books and watched countless bushcrafty videos on youtube. Id done everything I could to avoid the dreaded daytime tv.
Alas; word of an upcoming camping trip got me thinking about whether I could strip down my kit to the bare essentials and do a lightweight winter camp using nothing more than my 25ltr daysack. A rucksack which is happier transporting my sandwiches to work. Initially I thought Id only pop up for the day but when my wife was encouraging me to get out, I saw a challenge present itself and I thought this could be done!! I could wax lyrically about the kit that I took on this trip and how I managed to strip things back and why I took it. So I think I may post a separate thread about this in the Kit Chatter section as people often like to see what others are packing in their rucksack.
One thing I will say though is that the good folk on this forum helped me achieve my aim. Having spent all my time wild camping with either a tent or a tarp/hammock, I was keen to try out camping with just a tarp and bivvy and was able to swap some unused gear for a british army bivvy bag. I was really pleased with the bivvy bag that Id received and quite enjoyed going to ground for a change. Thanks again Copper_head!
Heres a few piccies of our set-ups. As you can see we all went to ground. One of my camping buddies had a simple a-frame shelter with his new Alpkit Hunka bivvy concealing an Alpkit down sleeping bag. My other mate was pitched in his tent and was trying out his new arctic sleeping bag no prizes for guessing who slept warmest out of us three!
I set-up my tarp (first pic) in what I believe is known as the Adirondack shelter. I quite liked this set-up as it gives you some good cover and plenty of weather protection on three sides. In my bivvy bag I had my thermarest foam mat and three season Alpkit sleeping bag.
The afternoon was starting to get a bit chilly so we got the fire going a little earlier than wed liked. I prepared some of the kindling while my buddies did the heavy lifting! On this occasion we had an upside down fire and it was lit using some tinder that was collected by my campmate on the way up to our camp spot. If I recall correctly the tinder bundle was made up of dead grass, clematis, bracken and old mans beard that had been stored in the pocket to dry worked a treat with the fire steel.
As we sat around the fire I was keen to practice some fire lighting with my flint and striker so I collected some bracken and combined this with some ruffled up jute twine that I carry in my fire kit. After some perseverance I managed to get an ember on some char cloth (theres definitely a knack to using the flint and striker) and I transferred this to my tinder bundle. After a few blows it quickly ignited. I still need to keep practicing that technique but it always feels good when it works!
After that I just sat about practicing feather sticks these things are harder to get right than they look. A sharp knife is essential and then you just need to get the feel for when the edge starts to dig into the wood. My feathersticks werent that impressive but they were good enough to accept a spark, again Id say it was another success but lots more practice required!
It feels good to look back and contemplate how your skills and knowledge of your surroundings evolve. A year ago I was lighting fires by throwing sparks on a cotton wool ball (Im not wishing to dis-respect this method by the way!) but nowadays Ive removed that from my fire kit and now try to use only natural tinders that have been foraged. Ive progressed to this stage by reading books and watching youtube but most importantly by getting out into natures classroom and giving things a go its the best way to learn!
Back at camp time was starting to creep up on us and my tummy was rumbling. It was dinner time! Now I can happily go on a camp without taking any kind of alcoholic refreshment but I certainly dont like to hold back when it comes to food! On tonights menu was jacket potato, cheese and a full rack of bbq ribs. It was by far the easiest dinner Ive ever cooked. Wrap it all in foil and chuck it on the very hot bed of embers that our upside down fire had provided. An hour later my dinner was ready and it was delicious. Meanwhile my camp mates were each cooking up some hearty stews the warm food was much needed for the cold evening that was to come.
After dinner, we stoked the fire up and spent the evening staring into its abyss and talking about general rubbish. We turned in at about 10ish. My night time routine at this time of year is to simply get a hot drink down me, change socks, get the long-johns on, roll my smock into something that resembles a pillow and wriggle into the bivvy/sleeping bag. I had a down jacket lying in wait should I need it and was glad I did because I woke up at about 1am feeling the chill from that cold wind which was blowing through the camp and the jacket was just the ticket. I had a pretty good sleep, the tops of my legs were cold but not so much to warrant me getting up to put trousers on. I sincerely apologise to my camp mates for my snoring as this no doubt compounded what had become a fairly challenging night. I will endeavour to pitch my tarp further away from you in the future!!
I know that my camp mates were feeling the chill as well, one of them woke up in the night to make a warm drink. I guess, while we all got a reasonable nights sleep, there were some lessons learnt by all concerned. For instance if I was able to carry my more usual kit then I would have had my wool blanket and would mostly likely have been very warm indeed. But by and large, I learnt that, with some thought and preparation, you can camp quite comfortably in the winter with much less kit than you think you need.
Come the morning we tidied up and ensured the site was left just as we found it. Having used this camping spot for the last four camps were very mindful of not wanting to keep re-visiting the site and causing any lasting damage to the area so our next challenge is to scout out some new camping spots within the area in which were able to camp.
Happy days!
