Wood Trekker Update

Hey guys. I know I have been absent for a while. For those who have reached out in concern, no need to worry. Everything has been going great, I’ve just been too preoccupied to do much writing.

The only subject of note is that I got married in October to my girlfriend of five years, Tara.

Together with the new house, things have been busy. There is always stupid stuff to do, like this 200 gallon rain catchment system…

…which I use for my attempt at a small garden:

And of course, camping and such. Squirrel hunting with Rich:

Deer hunting, for which unfortunately I was lazy and missed opening weekend:

And hanging out with a cool bunch of guys at Hawk Mountain, PA, half of whom are named Mike.

That’s about it for now. Hopefully in the near future I’ll have some more time to get back to writing.

Trip Report: Classic Backpacking 6/18/16–6/19/16

As you guys saw in my last post, I’ve been doing a bunch of fishing on my more recent trips. I have also been doing some Clasic Backpacing. I haven’t posted much about the trips because they are fairly standard. The challenging ones were during winter, but now that the weather is nice, they are pretty standard, evin with century old gear. In case anyone is followign though, here is one from last weekend.

It was a very warm day. Temperture was supposed to be up around 85F (29C). I figured it would stay warm enough for me to bring Rhea along. It’s hard to bring her when it’s cold because I can’t keep her int he blanket with me, like I do when I’m carrying a sleeping bag.

This particular route required a lot of climbing. It was a quick ascent to above the tree line, and a bit down in elevation to the area where I wanted to camp.

For my summer Classic Backpacking trips, I’ve decided to wear cotton clothing. I had on a cotton shirt and corduroy pants. Reading through original sources, it appears that they wore wool year round, but it’s not practical for me. It is just too warm, and if you get some thinner wool clothing, it wears out way too quickly.

In the early afternoon, I reached my destination. I took my time setting up camp.

The tarp was mostly there for the shade. I didn’t make any type of brush pile for under the blanket. I didn’t need the insulation, and it doesn’t bother me sleeping on a hard surface.

The big benefit of doing Classic Backpacking in warm weather is that you save huge amount sof time both building a sleeping surface, as well as gathering fire wood to keep you warm through the night.

The down side however is water. I’m trying to keep true to the primary sources, and while writers like Kephart mention the existance of rubber bladders for water storage, and several of them talk about canteen, many carried no water storage at all, or just a single canteen, as I am doing. I have to say, they must have been very limited with respect to the terrain were they could travel. In this type of weather, I wanted to be far away from water sources, as well as higher in elevation. It’s the only way to survive the mosquitoes and the humidity. That however, combined with my single water bottle, necessitated that I make two lengthy trips down the mountain to a water source. I then had to boil it, which wasn’t fun in the heat.

The water trips took up most of the day. I used the time to check out the blueberry bushes in the area. Another month and they should be ready.

I was also lucky to spot a turkey. A month too late, and it appeared to be a hen, but still, it’s rare that I can get close enough to one to take a picture.

I kept the fire small; just enought to boil the water.

I fell asleep on top of the blanket. During the night however I got a bit chilled and had to toss it over me. I didn’t do the usual wrap, but just folded it over me. The night was short, and I got up bright and early.

I packed up and headed back. I tried to make my way down the moutnain before the heat really kicked up.

So, that’s that. A pretty uneventful trip. It’s how they have been lately. The weather has been very forgiving.

What Has Wood Trekker Been Up To?

Hey guys. I know I haven’t posted in a while. Nothing to worry about. I’ve just been very busy with work. I still go out on my usual trips, I just haven’t had time to write about them. It is a very time consuming process.

This past month I have mostly been focusing on trout fishing. I’ve been hitting the local spots with some friends.


Lower end of the Neversink River:

The Ramapo River:

West branch of the Croton River:

Even though water levels have been low, fishing has been half decent. I hope to get some more free time soon, so I can start writing posts again. Unfortunately, they are more time consuming than the trips themselves.

Trip Report: Classic Backpacking 2/13/16 - 2/14/16

"Happiness is the struggle towards a summit and, when it is attained, it is happiness to glimpse new summits on the other side." Fridtjof Nansen

Last weeks outing was uneventful, so I decided to skip the trip report, but this past weekend we lucked out with some actual winter weather, so I figured the trip would be worth shearing. I also wanted to test the limits of my current Classic Backpacking sleep system, and I figured this would do it.

I started out early in the morning. The temperature when I left the house was –7F (-22C).

It always sneaks up on you how quickly you can overheat in temperatures this low. Your instinct tends to be to wear as much clothing as possible, but once you start moving, you heat up very quickly. I was wearing my base layer, my wool “vest”, and my crew neck sweater with the anorak on top. It was very windy, so I needed the shell, but had to be move slowly so I wouldn’t overheat. One problem with this clothing system is that it’s annoying to layer up and down.

The temperature gradually went up during the day, reaching –3F (-19C) in the early afternoon. My bushwhacking took me near a small lake. I’ve done some some trapping there in previous years, and sign was all over the place.

Unfortunately I haven’t had much time to do it this year because I’ve been messing around with this Classic Backpacking thing.

I moved away from the lake, and up a small mountain, but not before punching through some thin ice near the edge of the lake. My left leg briefly submerged up to about six inches above my ankle. I quickly blotted it with snow, but my pant leg froze solid, and stayed that way until I got the fire going later in the day.

A I have been doing recently, I stopped early to make camp. With sunset at 5:30pm, I was setting up camp by 3:30. I picked the most sheltered spot I could find, right in the middle of a thicket of pine.

Camp was going to be simple. It’s something I have been trying to work out for the past few week. My goal was to use the blanket as ground insulation, and the comforter as a top quilt. I got the idea from an article I found by Horace Kephart titled Featherweight Camping in England. In the article Kephart describes the sleep system of T.H. Holding. While Kephart dismisses the sleep system as not suited for American campers, the description is worth noting:

“The ground-sheet is of light mackintosh. Over it goes a little "groundblanket" of thin cashmere, with eyelets at the corners, so that it can be pegged down. This is not only for the sake of warmth, but also to save wear on the mackintosh, which has to be very thin.

Mr. Holding's eiderdown quilt is only to cover with, not to roll up in. The Wigwam size is 5 feet 10 inches by 4 feet, to which is added a foot of cloth valance all around, which is pegged or weighted down so that the sleeper will not kick off his covering. These quilts are thinner than the domestic ones of down, and roll up into remarkably small compass.” Horace Kephart, Featherweight Camping in England, 1914

It is also the earliest depiction I have been able to find of a down sleeping bag in use when camping. 

Anyway, my plan was to duplicate this sleep system, except kick it up a few notches to make it appropriate for the temperature. I haven’t seen any references of T.H. Holding doing much winter backpacking.

I put my oil-cloth tarp on the ground. I left half of it folded up behind my back. My plan was to pull it over me if the wind got bad because the comforter I have is not good at stopping wind. On top I put my blanket, folded over in four It made for a sleeping platform bout a foot wide. On top I put the quilt, folded over in half. I pinned it to the blanket using eight blanket pins. The arrangement was too tight around he shoulders, so I had to stagger the comforter there a bit, leaving a small section on the side that had only one layer of comforter. 

The set up was quick, and the folded over comforter lofted up nicely. I gathered some firewood, and got to the numerous tasks I had to finish before nightfall: make water, fill up my canteen with hot water so I can use it under my comforter, cook food, dry out my pants and gloves, etc. I put on my second sweater, which was warm enough when I was near the fire. 

At this temperature everything takes much longer. Every object that gets even a little warm acquires a coating of ice that you then have to chip off. The pot is impossible to was. The moment you put any water in it, you get a coating of ice that you then can’t remove without heating up the pot. When you then put it down, half the forest floor freezes onto it. You can’t touch your canteen with uncovered hands because it will freeze to them. That’s why I usually don’t like metal canteens, but I don’t have a choice here.

When everything was done, I crawled into my sleep system, and prepared for a miserable night. I had gathered a small amount of wood and was planning on keeping a very small fire going all night long just in case. I had plenty of fire wood within reach.

The sleep system was an unbelievable success. Well, a success in the sense that it kept me alive during the night when the temperature fell to about –20F (-29C). I was supposed to be even colder, but I was in a sheltered spot, which kept the area warm, and more importantly, blocked the wind for most of the night. 

Before I go on, I don’t want to oversell any of this, in case someone else is thinking of doing it. Over the years I’ve gotten fairly comfortable with the difference for my own body between being extremely cold, and being close to death from the cold. When here I say that something worked, I mean that I wasn’t close to death. You shouldn’t interpret that to mean that I had a cozy night. 

On numerous occasions I got very cold and was shivering uncontrollably. It is in part due to the cold, and in part that my body tends to freak out at certain points when it gets cold, and it takes several minutes for it to stabilize. 

Even though I planned to keep the fire going, the sleep system was so “comfortable”, that I fell asleep for too long, and the fire went out. I decided not to restart it because getting out from under the comforter would be counterproductive. 

The main problem was that during the night I would tend to pull up my knees and curl up, which would push the comforter aside and open up gaps near my knees and my butt. Both would immediately get very cold, and I would wake up, straighten out, and then shiver until I warmed up again. The doubled up comforter, provided nearly five inches of loft, which made this surprisingly doable. 

I had some other minor problems. The comforter near my mouth froze due to my breath, even though I was trying not to breath on it. My pant leg apparently wasn’t completely dry, so it felt chill, although the comforter by my feet kept giving excellent insulation despite the moisture build up. In the morning when I opened up the comforter, I had steam coming out from my pant leg. 

Overall though, it was a very successful nigh, and I was very surprised by the effectiveness of the sleep system. The blanket folded over in four provided sufficient insulation from the ground, and the quilt provided excellent insulation on top.

There was only one point during the night where I was worried about making it. I don’t know what time it was, but the wind started coming through, and really cutting through the insulation. As I had planned, I tried to pull the second half of my tarp over me, but the oil-cloth was frozen almost stiff. It was like working with a hard piece of plastic. I’ve noticed it gets stiff in cold weather, but this was nearly unworkable. It was like putting a rectangular piece of plastic over me. Even when I managed to do it, the wind would just push it over. Luckily, the wind died down quickly. I lost a lot of heat because of the wind and because I was trying to mess with the tarp. The fingers on my right hand were completely numb, and it took me what seemed like a very long time to get my body warm enough so that I would not be worried about making it. I contemplated getting up to restart the fire, but I was shaking so much, that I wasn’t sure I would be able to. 

Anyway, I made it through to the morning. 

I gathered some small pieces of fire wood, and using what was left over from the night before, got a small fire going again to warm up.

My feet were in very bad shape. They were fine under the comforter, but after I shoved them into my frozen boots, I lost all feeling in them. I suspect it was a combination of the frozen boots and the socks getting damp from the moisture coming off from my not-so-dry pant leg.

When my hands were warm, I packed up and headed out. I was sure that my tarp was going to snap while I was folding it because it was so stiff, but it worked out fine. 

After about an hour of walking I warmed up and was able to feel my feet again. I had some home made venison jerky on the go.

By the earl afternoon I was out of the forest. I was very happy with the trip. The sleep system performed way better than I expected. If I decided, or had the money to make a winter specific sleep system, i.e. a folded up blanket for ground cover with a properly sized folded over quilt on top sewn to the blanket, I think one could have an excellent winter sleep system. Again, this is relative to 19th and early 20th century sleep system. If I had my regular sleeping bag and pad, this trip wouldn’t even be worth reporting. Considering I’m using 100 year old technology though, I’m happy with the results.

Trip Report: Classic Backpacking 1/30/16 - 1/31/16

"Surely, when one is going on a camping trip he does not desire to live just as he would at home, for in my opinion much of the pleasure of camping is derived from taking things just as we find them, of sleeping on a bed of boughs rather than on a cot, sitting on an old log rather than on a folding camp chair, and of eating off of the ground rather than from a table, in fact I think that most of the pleasure is in the novelty of the thing. And to the practical woodsman, this camp furniture is an abomination." Elmer Harry Kreps, 1910 

Again, I know not everyone is interested in these trip reports, and I usually try to give you only one per month, but I’ve been writing more of them because I want to keep you updated on what I’m doing as I am trying to figure out this Classic Backpacking thing I’ve undertaken.

My drive behind this most recent trip was to figure out a better sleep system. After my last trip it became clear to me that camping out with just a blanket, even if it’s a very good one, is not doable when the temperature is much below 32F (0C). While you can stay alive with the use of a fire, sleep becomes almost impossible as you spend your nights trying to maintain the fire, as your warmth is directly and immediately connected to it.

After my last trip Steve Watts recommended that I try a down comforter. They were in fact used at the time, and a cotton shell comforter, filled with goose or duck down, with sewn threw baffles would be period correct. “There is no doubt that, for comfort, economy of space, lightness, and simplicity, the down quilt has it.” Thomas Hiram Holding, The Camper’s Handbook, 1908 p.163

References to down quilts, comforters, and even bag designs can be found in the writings of most authors at the time. By the 1920s most well funded expeditions relied on down sleeping bags. Between the 1880s and the 1930, sleep systems evolved very quickly and by the 1940s down sleeping bags like the A. H. Ellis & Co down filled “Nordenskiöld” bag with water-resistant cover was available.
 
I have been resisting the use of a down comforter for two reasons. One, I wanted to see what could be done just with the traditional one blanket. Two, even though it was available, none of the authors seem to recommend it as their primary form of insulation. They seemed to resort to wool sleeping bags, woven fur blankets, etc, but none of them appear to have abandoned their other systems for a down filled comforter or sleeping bag.

But, furs are not a realistic option for backpacking, and a woven fur blanket that might be light enough is cost prohibitive. Wool blankets clearly weren’t going to do it, and I’m just not excited about doing too many cold weather trips where I have to be up all night feeding a fire. I also figured, if it’s good enough for the guy teaching classes on Kephart, it’s good enough for me.

So, I went to a local department store, and bought a cotton shell down comforter. It’s the thickest, cheapest, and smallest one I could find: twin size. I went home, made a stuff sack for it from a pillow case, strapped it to my pack, and headed out.

Then came my next big problem. As bad as the weather was last week, this week in my area we have been having temperatures as high as 40F (4C) during the days. Not exactly a good test for the comforter. I decided to drive north for a few hours in the hope that the weather would be cooler there. It was slightly better. When I headed into the woods, it was 24F (-4C). What I didn’t anticipate was how little snow there had been further north from me. There were barely any patches on the ground. It was disappointing, and a bit strange considering I was further north. I decided that because of the nice weather I should add some more difficulty to the trip, and camp out in an area of the forest where I only had hard woods.

Shortly after starting out I had to cross a decent size stream. Water level was high because of the warm weather. I stopped there for lunch and then did a pretty stupid crossing. I should have looked for a better spot to cross.

Crossing done, I spent a few hours backpacking. The drive had taken up most of the morning, so I didn’t have much time. When I found a level patch of ground in a hardwood forest, I got to setting up my camp.

Since I was in an exposed location, and winds were going to be a problem, I opted for a more sheltered tarp set up. I kept it open while cooking in the evening by flipping one of the sides over. 

I had my wool blanket with me. I folded it over and used it as a ground pad. At first I pulled some dead leafs together, but they were wet, and I decided to rely primarily on the blanket. Folded in two it’s almost as thick as a regular closed cell foam pad.

It quickly became apparent why authors during the Classic Backpacking period were reluctant to rely on down quilts. We all understand that down is problematic around moisture, but we, or at least I, forget how good modern shell materials really are. While not waterproof, modern down sleeping bags have shells that will resist a lot of moisture. The cotton shell on the down comforter does nothing of the sort. The moment it touches any moisture, it gets absorbed immediately. At first I thought of using different configurations with the blanket, but the blanket had to be on the ground to make sure the comforter doesn’t touch the damp ground. It’s a serious limitation that I have to work around. 

Before going to sleep I staked down the second part of the shelter, and wrapped myself in the quilt as I would in a blanket.

During the night it got down to about 18F (-8C). Not cold, but cool enough to test the comforter. It performed very well. Obviously it’s much warmer than a wool blanket. I slept through the night without the use of a fire.

There were some issues though. The wool blanket was not perfect as a ground pad. It worked fine, but I still felt some cold from the ground. I suppose I still need to use some bedding even with the folded wool blanket. Also, even though I had pitched the shelter to cut into the wind, as it usually is, the wind was blowing from every direction. The down comforter, while warm, is not particularly resistant to wind, and the wind cuts right through it. As a result I got cold several times and had to adjust. Overall though, not a bad night. 

In the morning I made my way out. I went a considerable distance off my previous path in order to cross the stream further up at an easier location. 

The down comforter turned out to be a pretty big success. Together with the blanket, using the blanket as ground insulation and protection from the moisture, it once again opened up the possibility of doing actual cold weather backpacking with traditional gear. The comforter is bulky, weighs 4lb 3oz, and the stuff sack and four extra blanket pins weigh an additional 4oz. It is very susceptible to moisture and doesn’t stop the wind too well. That however is a small price to pay for being able to sleep through the night.

So, that’s it. I just wanted to give you an update on the changes I have been making to my sleep system.