Hello ladies and gents,
Took a couple trips here lately. Didn't know if I should put this in trips reports or under camping so decided on here.
Trip #1 was on Labor day weekend. Short trip on the water, only about 14 miles on the river over three days with an in camp day on Sunday. Included the whole family, Me, my wife and the 3 girls. Alysa(10) and Shannon (9) were in there Old Town Otters, My wife and Caitlyn(3) were in my "Cheap Canoe" and me in my 16' Blue Hole canoe. Also included a freind of mine and his wife. We loaded up the canoes with enough gear to outfit us for a month (Hey, it was my wife's first trip "roughin it" so cut me some slack, haha). Des Moines River was flowing at about 1000 cfs and slow. Had a great time and the wife wants to go more, mission acomplished! (She had no problems with the "Cheap Canoe" even with a 3 year old and gear on board)
Trip #2 was last weekend and was time for some experiments. The friend from the first trip and me decided on a solo trip. Also, no thanks to you guys and all your talk of hammocks and homemade stoves decided to see if we could cut some weight from our gear.
He had his Eureka bivy tent (he also back packs) and I dedcided on a Walmart 5 mil tarp and a homemade "tyvek" bivy sack.
I dumped my Coleman single burner gas stove and made a "Nimblewill's Nomad" wood burning stove. Mine is similer to the one at Zen Stoves but I modified the dimensions and the air slots so It could double as a stove base for a 1 pint paint or stain can stuffed with cotton balls and filled with alcohol (HEET).
My pack and all gear with food for 2 days (no water) weighed in at 27 lbs. (It did include an air matress, 1/2" closed cell foam pad and a dang heavy 9 lbs, 30 degree Walmart sleeping bag). Maybe not as light as a back packer would like but still better than the 2 canoes worth of gear I took over labor day and it all fit in 1 large drybag. My friends gear, with his hightec back packing gear, stove etc, also weighed in at 27 lbs. Hmmmm.
We went on the same trip as #1, camped at the same island, only this time the river was flowing at 3600 cfs and fast. I took my "Cheap Canoe" and he had his kayak. Another couple he knows joined us for the paddle but didn't camp.
Things again went great. Temps dipped down to around 40 that night with no bugs and a full moon. The coyotes sang to us from time to time.
Time to analize the new homemade gear:
Love the new wood stove. Mine is made from 18 ga. sheet steal (it's what I had on hand but heavier than they recommend) and weighed 15 oz. Worked great!, Never failed and boiled 16 oz. of water in around 7 min using wood. Didn't take the pint can with alcohol on this trip but test at home boiled 16 oz of water in around 10 min. Folds flat and stores in a "tyvek" envelope I made for it. From now on the gas stove will be held in reserve and only used for car camping. Wood stoves rule!
The tarp and "tyvek" bivy sack had mixed reveiws.
Plus Side: Had lots more room than my friends Bivy tent and I am confident that I could survive the worst rains and still stay 100% dry with the 2 of them combined. I don't think I have ever been 100% dry in any tent during bad storms. With temps around 40 and the sleep gear I mentioned above, I was very warm in the bivy sack, definetly added warmth. The tarp, steals stakes and bivy sack weighed in at 4 lbs, about a wash with most 1 man tents.
Down Side: Bivy sacks suck to get into, even more so with a low hanging tarp above your head. Don't know if it's worse that a bivy tent but not a lot of fun. Also when we packed up in the morning the exterior of the bag had a couple damp spots. I assume this was from sweating in the night. Not really wet but definetly damp. We didn't have any bugs that night but would prefer a tent if bugs are bad.
Conclusion: For quick over night trips I think I would take both the tarp and the bivy but only set up the tarp up and crawl into the bivy sack if I had to due to rain or low temps. The bivy can still be used as a ground cloth under the bag when the weather is good. If I was camping in trees in the summer I would want a tent because of bugs. For family trips and extended camping I would take a tent.
BTW: Sorry, no hammocks for me, I'm a belly sleeper and camp on sand/gravel bars away from trees when the rivers allow.
Our goal on the trip was not to reduce our weight to the levels of the Ultra-light backpackers but to reduce our load to a more managable weight/size level so when I have to hump my boat over a portage in the future I won't have to make 5 trips., Have I ever told you how much I hate to portage, YUCK!
Stove Sites:
http://wings.interfree.it/html/main.html
http://zenstoves.net/Wood.htm
Thanks for all your help and entertainment with the boats and camping. A real joy to go down river and camp with boats and gear you make yourself. Everyone I have canoe'd/kayak'd with had had loads of questions about the boats and most of them take them for a spin and leave saying, "I got to make one of them this winter". As for the stove, my friend from the trip called today and wanted the web site for the plans to make one, he was starting tonight
!
Chris
Took a couple trips here lately. Didn't know if I should put this in trips reports or under camping so decided on here.
Trip #1 was on Labor day weekend. Short trip on the water, only about 14 miles on the river over three days with an in camp day on Sunday. Included the whole family, Me, my wife and the 3 girls. Alysa(10) and Shannon (9) were in there Old Town Otters, My wife and Caitlyn(3) were in my "Cheap Canoe" and me in my 16' Blue Hole canoe. Also included a freind of mine and his wife. We loaded up the canoes with enough gear to outfit us for a month (Hey, it was my wife's first trip "roughin it" so cut me some slack, haha). Des Moines River was flowing at about 1000 cfs and slow. Had a great time and the wife wants to go more, mission acomplished! (She had no problems with the "Cheap Canoe" even with a 3 year old and gear on board)
Trip #2 was last weekend and was time for some experiments. The friend from the first trip and me decided on a solo trip. Also, no thanks to you guys and all your talk of hammocks and homemade stoves decided to see if we could cut some weight from our gear.
He had his Eureka bivy tent (he also back packs) and I dedcided on a Walmart 5 mil tarp and a homemade "tyvek" bivy sack.
I dumped my Coleman single burner gas stove and made a "Nimblewill's Nomad" wood burning stove. Mine is similer to the one at Zen Stoves but I modified the dimensions and the air slots so It could double as a stove base for a 1 pint paint or stain can stuffed with cotton balls and filled with alcohol (HEET).
My pack and all gear with food for 2 days (no water) weighed in at 27 lbs. (It did include an air matress, 1/2" closed cell foam pad and a dang heavy 9 lbs, 30 degree Walmart sleeping bag). Maybe not as light as a back packer would like but still better than the 2 canoes worth of gear I took over labor day and it all fit in 1 large drybag. My friends gear, with his hightec back packing gear, stove etc, also weighed in at 27 lbs. Hmmmm.
We went on the same trip as #1, camped at the same island, only this time the river was flowing at 3600 cfs and fast. I took my "Cheap Canoe" and he had his kayak. Another couple he knows joined us for the paddle but didn't camp.
Things again went great. Temps dipped down to around 40 that night with no bugs and a full moon. The coyotes sang to us from time to time.
Time to analize the new homemade gear:
Love the new wood stove. Mine is made from 18 ga. sheet steal (it's what I had on hand but heavier than they recommend) and weighed 15 oz. Worked great!, Never failed and boiled 16 oz. of water in around 7 min using wood. Didn't take the pint can with alcohol on this trip but test at home boiled 16 oz of water in around 10 min. Folds flat and stores in a "tyvek" envelope I made for it. From now on the gas stove will be held in reserve and only used for car camping. Wood stoves rule!
The tarp and "tyvek" bivy sack had mixed reveiws.
Plus Side: Had lots more room than my friends Bivy tent and I am confident that I could survive the worst rains and still stay 100% dry with the 2 of them combined. I don't think I have ever been 100% dry in any tent during bad storms. With temps around 40 and the sleep gear I mentioned above, I was very warm in the bivy sack, definetly added warmth. The tarp, steals stakes and bivy sack weighed in at 4 lbs, about a wash with most 1 man tents.
Down Side: Bivy sacks suck to get into, even more so with a low hanging tarp above your head. Don't know if it's worse that a bivy tent but not a lot of fun. Also when we packed up in the morning the exterior of the bag had a couple damp spots. I assume this was from sweating in the night. Not really wet but definetly damp. We didn't have any bugs that night but would prefer a tent if bugs are bad.
Conclusion: For quick over night trips I think I would take both the tarp and the bivy but only set up the tarp up and crawl into the bivy sack if I had to due to rain or low temps. The bivy can still be used as a ground cloth under the bag when the weather is good. If I was camping in trees in the summer I would want a tent because of bugs. For family trips and extended camping I would take a tent.
BTW: Sorry, no hammocks for me, I'm a belly sleeper and camp on sand/gravel bars away from trees when the rivers allow.
Our goal on the trip was not to reduce our weight to the levels of the Ultra-light backpackers but to reduce our load to a more managable weight/size level so when I have to hump my boat over a portage in the future I won't have to make 5 trips., Have I ever told you how much I hate to portage, YUCK!
Stove Sites:
http://wings.interfree.it/html/main.html
http://zenstoves.net/Wood.htm
Thanks for all your help and entertainment with the boats and camping. A real joy to go down river and camp with boats and gear you make yourself. Everyone I have canoe'd/kayak'd with had had loads of questions about the boats and most of them take them for a spin and leave saying, "I got to make one of them this winter". As for the stove, my friend from the trip called today and wanted the web site for the plans to make one, he was starting tonight
!Chris
