Picking a camping spot

[caorach]

I've walked a lot, for many years, in remote spots but always come home at night so this year is going to be my first real experience of "wild camping" and, even, "bushcraft." To be honest there aren't any bushes but, none the less, I have a question.

How do you pick a good spot for your camp site? I don't just mean that "macro" stuff like being close to water but also, perhaps more importantly, the "micro" stuff like finding a bit of moorland that is flat enough to pitch a tent.

Almost all of the ground I spend my time on is bog in the strictest sense - i.e. ombrotrophic peatland with sphagnum as the main vegetation - and so it is prone to being very lumpy indeed. Even beside the lochs and burns it is often the case that the bank is lumpy bog and then falls 4 feet into the water with no "soft, flat, grassy bit" to give a comfortable resting place for the night.

Now, I'll slap the first person who suggests a hammock Look at the photos, you'd need to take two people with you to hold up either end of your hammock, or two trees. There isn't a tree for 30 miles.

This is a photo of typical moorland with "mud bottoms" where you might just fit a tent but which have 6 inches of water in the bottom or "hummocks" which can be above the water table but, as you can see, might make for an uncomfortable night.



Some more, general photos, of the planned area of attack:

 

[Goatboy]

Must admit that I'm not averse to the odd lump. They can be pressed to your advantage as a pillow. Some mats will help iron out the smaller lumps too. Even though lump it should be fairly soft and springy, so when sleeping out in similar terrain up in the flow country in Sutherland say I just look on it as a slightly lumpy mattress.

On the hammock front mates of mine have used stones or climbing gear in cracks in the rock of any escarpments or high enough protruding rocks as anchor points for their hammocks, so it can be done.

Keep looking as you walk, the eye eventually gets used to picking out suitable spots.

Main thing is to make sure your not lying in a water filled hole, even with a waterproof floor you'll get cold.

Cracking pictures by the way.

 

[caorach]

Cracking pictures by the way.

Glad you like the pictures, when you spend a lot of time out there it is hard not to come back with the occasional photo which is decent.

I'll be using a Banshee 200 tent (midges, wind, comfort, inexpensive, handy etc.) plus I have a Thermarest Neoair Xtherm mat so that will even out some of the small bumps. However, my problem is that most of the bumps are 18 inches tall However it helps to know that you've had success on the Flow. Off hand I just can't think of any decent looking potential camping spots that aren't either in 6 inches of water, a rocky jumble, or at 45 degrees to the horizontal. As you say maybe I'll spot some as I go along.

 

[Harvestman]

Basically, you need an area as long and as wide as you are, so you can sleep comfortably. A tarp or tent can then be pitched around that point, though it is easier with a tarp. If you are bivvying then heather is usually an indicator of the drier bits and is also comfortable to lie on in its own right. i have found that I sleep very well in a slight curve, so that my bottom is a little lower than my head and feet when I'm lying on my back - sort of a hammock position on the ground.

Knowing the weather forecast is important. Sleeping in a hollow when it is going to rain is a bad plan. The bumps in the terrain provide a lot of wind protection once you lie down.

I can see rocks in your pictures. Adjacent to those would be great, as you have some hard level surface then as well for your stove.

 

[nic a char]

"I can see rocks in your pictures. Adjacent to those would be great, as you have some hard level surface then as well for your stove"
Agreed + heather clumps to soften.
Show us pics of your trout please!

 

[ZEbbEDY]

those pictures make it look much flatter than it really is

an inflatable mat eases out a few of the bumps but otherwise i just try to find a torso sized semi flat /non swamp bit and pitch around that

 

[OurAmericanCousin]

I've spent plenty of overnights in airport terminals, bus and train stations comfortably sleeping across a few of those molded plastic bucket seats with armrests.. Its a skill you work up to.

The trappers held their yearly gatherings (rendezvous) in specific locations. They required plenty of water, grazing for stock, firewood, shelter from wind, and good drainage. Such areas were valued and sometimes used so much that they evolved into modern day settled areas.

Not just any old place would do.

Sometimes the prettiest places are best just visited but not camped in for lack of basic needs.

If not, find a way to work with what you've got. Just remember that almost anything dry outside is better than a row of molded seats in an airport.

Edit: To add, maybe a short walk into those hills might yield better conditions?

 

[Robbi]

Something like this would be above the humps and water ........just a thought.



http://www.amazon.co.uk/TecTake-hea...1425373195&sr=8-10&keywords=folding+camp+beds

 

[caorach]

Some trout pictures as requested! Actually I don't kill many trout and photograph even fewer as they tend to be eaten rather quickly so for about 25 years of walking this moor to trout I only have about 3 pictures of actual fish. The picture below was taken last season as I was sent to get some trout for lunch, hence killing them and getting a quick photo.

Again sleeping on the heather is impossible as because of the nature of bog the heather tends to grow on the hummocks, actually there is a sort of interesting process in action where the heather grows on the mounds and helps created them and this encourages certain types of sphagnum moss which like mounds so the mounds get bigger Heather is often waist deep with 18 inches or more of hummock at the bottom and 4 inches of water between it and the next hummock. Anyhow, unless I had a road roller it would be impossible to flatten out the mounds that the heather grows on in most places.

Now, as some have noted, if there are stones and rocks they often create some drainage and so this can result in flat and relatively dry areas, but these are very rare indeed as most rocks are under 4 feet of peat.

It's a pretty exciting place out there and with being totally new at this camping on the moor lark there are a whole new set of challanges

Anyhow, photos:

trout



a loch



a salmon, if a little coloured, but the honest truth is that it made good eating:



fishing:

 

[nic a char]

Thank you - lovely trout!
I meant pull up some heather to form a bed to soften rocks - mebbe not permitted in flows? Or take a self-inflating mat.
Never fished the flow country - usually Perthshire, Assynt, Sutherland - always eat a few too.

 

[caorach]

This isn't the Flow, it's Lewis in the Hebrides. Everything is permitted in the Hebrides

I should add that this particular loch holds fish into double figures so these are small trout for the loch, but great trout for lunch. Needless to say the small ones are also a lot easier to catch especially in bright and flat calm weather.

 

[redandshane]

Looks well worth spending some time finding the best pitch near that loch. Lewis you say? Bet that fish tastes better than Gugga
Surprised The Laird of Lewis and much esteemed moderator on this forum Seoras hasn't piped up yet

Nice pics by the way

 

[caorach]

Looks well worth spending some time finding the best pitch near that loch. Lewis you say? Bet that fish tastes better than Gugga

Anything tastes better than gugga, unless you like eating an old mop head that has been used to wipe the floor of the fishmongers.

It must be said that I don't see Lewis becoming a mecca for bushcrafting on account of the total lack of bushes. The truth is that there are now some areas of forestry and they are starting to come up nicely though they are mostly commercial sitka spruce type things. However, the places where I spend my time tend to be totally devoid of trees for many miles in every direction. This is part of what makes it such an interesting environment but a decent axe is't going to be something that I need to carry.

 

[nic a char]

"It must be said that I don't see Lewis becoming a mecca for bushcrafting on account of the total lack of bushes." = LOL! Tho I did see one once in Harris...
BTW Have you fished Plocrapool? Got some nice big brownies and sea-trout there - tho given the excellent fishing in Lewis I don't suppose you need to stray south into the land of the Herrachs

 

[caorach]

BTW Have you fished Plocrapool? Got some nice big brownies and sea-trout there - tho given the excellent fishing in Lewis I don't suppose you need to stray south into the land of the Herrachs

I've never fished it, though it is nice to go further afield sometimes and it certainly does make decent fish. In the end there is a limit on the lochs you can fish and everyone has their favourite and wonders why you've never made it out there, there are places I love to go that have people looking at me as if i'm mad but equally there are places that I either don't fancy or just have never had the time to reach out to. I would always pick trout fishing over salmon, for example, but many people prefer a chance at a salmon.

My record is 41 lochs in a fortnight and of those 35 were completely new to me. When I get the OS map out and mark all the lochs I've fished it hardly scratches the surface. I did some North Harris stuff last season as it is around 2002 since the last time I was down there:

 

[vestlenning]

trout

Those look great. How did you cook them (I got hungry)?

 

[caorach]

Those look great. How did you cook them (I got hungry)?

Unfortunately they weren't for my lunch, like I say I was sent to get them So, I've no idea how they got cooked but would guess the were wrapped in some tinfoil and stuck in the oven with a bit of butter.

 

[MikeLA]

with the kit you have especially a good airmat you wont have any problems. Just go for it and camp

 

[nic a char]

VERY nice light on those Harris pix...

 

[Mike313]

Something like this would be above the humps and water ........just a thought.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/TecTake-hea...1425373195&sr=8-10&keywords=folding+camp+beds

That was the first thing I thought of. I'd probably pack some sort of 'plate' to put under each leg to stop it sinking in the soft ground (pushing the tent ground sheet down in the bog).

One (slightly off-topic) question, I don't know much about fishing - the caption on the photo of the salmon describes it as "a little coloured" - forgive my ignorance but what does that mean?