OT: Post Campout decisions

[cbelt3]

After this weekend's Boy Scout campout which featured temperatures below 10 degrees F, I've made a decision. I am no longer the reckless explorer type. I am now the feckless vacationing type. I believe now that 'roughing it' may involve a cabin with a wood stove in it.

I also learned that my 43 year old Zero Degree REI sleeping bag isn't really a "Zero Degree" bag any more. I was very chilly last night. Perhaps I didn't have a Chihuahua with me.

[Jack D.]

Wus... you just need a bigger dog... :biggrin:

[freeradical]

http://www.coleman.com/coleman/colemanco...oryid=3000

[mattkime]

sleeping bag ratings are always optimistic. you just didn't didn't have enough sleeping bag.

cbelt, you've gone soft. you and your chihuahua army no longer strike fear into MRF members.

[Grace62]

I hear ya! Other than the cold how was the weekend?

You'd like this winter camping trip cbelt. Our troop is headed there in February - it's an annual tradition that especially the younger scouts like. Heated cabins and they do all the cooking. We also add a day of skiing at Crystal.

http://www.seattlebsa.org/Camp-Sheppard

Our troop also does the "pitch tents on snow" thing every year at Lake Wenatchee state park, which looks like this in winter. There's no sleeping bag on earth that will get me to sleep in a tent there. (I do show up for the day hike though, it's really beautiful.)

[Grateful11]

You could do what my sister did one night camping in the Appalachian Mtns. We had Army surplus Down sleeping
bags, my Uncle was a veteran and still lives near Camp Lejeune, Jacksonville, NC, he used to be able to get tents or
about anything you needed for camping. Anyway she wakes up the next morning and says she about froze to death and
we're like how could you have gotten cold in that sleeping bag, get this she slept between the zippered fabric outer shell
and down sleeping bag. It only got down in the 30's but no doubt she got cold, when all got a good laugh out of it.

[Racer X]

Add 20 degrees to a sleeping bag's rating, and its roughly correct. Mine is 0, and I can tolerate to about 20F. A friend has one rated at 20, and he says when there is frost on the ground, that's about as cold as he will tolerate his, so that's maybe mid 30s.

[cbelt3]

I guess the worst about it is that this same sleeping bag kept me nice and warm during a Boy Scout 'winter freeze out' in the early 1970's... when I was a Scout. And it was 30 below zero that night. And we slept completely outside without tents or any cover. It was one of the first polyester fill mummy bags back then. Either I'm more of a freeze baby (probably) or it's lost some of its effectiveness (possible)... Well, in retrospect I probably slept in every piece of clothes I had worn that day, including my insulated boots and down parka...

Other than that the campout was great.. the boys had fun, we worked on the Astronomy merit badge, and the seeing was awesome, except for the full moon. Moons of Jupiter were seen, many constellations were spotted, and a visit to a local University planetarium was a lot of fun... the lady that runs the program stayed almost an hour later with us, pointing out constellations, showing us the Southern Cross (I was the only one who had ever seen it), and generally having a blast with a group of very interested and knowledgeable boys..

And the Green laser pointer is PERFECT for pointing out stars (just keep it warm).

We had the whole State Park to ourselves at night, and we saw lots of woodpeckers and chickadees and bluejays, as well as several flights of Canadian Geese and a few flocks of ducks on the lake, which had skim ice stretching about 100 feet out in the morning.

Saturday morning a Labrador Retriever Rescue group came through with perhaps 20 Labs... the camp is a popular dog walking place. We were smilingly offered to adopt dogs to camp with us Saturday night, and one gent made reference to 'Three Dog Night', which got a smile from the dads. The boys had just finished breakfast, and smelled like Boy and Sausage, so the dogs gave lots of sloppy kisses.

My youngest son, who is not the world's best camper, said "It was a really good campout". Possibly because he was defacto "Patrol Leader" for the campout... he enjoyed a little power over the other boys. I'm glad he enjoyed it, and he showed a lot of self-motivation and willingness to pitch in, which is what Scouting is all about.

At the end of the day, me being chilly and a bit asthmatic is a small price to pay for my son's development into a respectable young man.

[btfc]

Sleeping bags definitely pack out. When I was guiding, after 2-3 years, my synthetic bag would have significantly packed out. Using compression stuff sacks and spending lots of times stuffed accelerated the process. Today's synthetic fills are vastly superior. Proper storage and cleaning help a lot. For winter camping I use a 10 degree down bag as a liner for my 0 degree synthetic. Most of my winter camping involves hot springs.

[Kate]

Get a motorhome!

Kate