First night under the stars
On my way out to the camp site, I realized that there was impending wet weather.
I was going to be hiking in for an hour or so before I would be setting up
camp, so I had pared down on my gear(no van...). I was passing a dollar store
and pulled up. I was planning on getting some sort of tarp or ground cloth
before heading out into the wilderness.
It was late August, just in time for the first set of Halloween items to be
on shelves, or perhaps the things that didn’t sell last year. I searched
the store, finding things that I wanted, some that I was going to use that
night, some on spec. But no where could I find anything on the shelves bigger
or stronger than plain clear garbage bags. I grabbed a box and headed with
that and my other booty to the register when I passed the costume selection.
Right there on the top hook was what I was eventually going to use.
The black vinyl, 4mm thick vampire cape, 2 for $1.00.
I must have looked inane as I checked out the size of the large capes (48”
by 70”) against the 2mm thick garbage bags (20 gallon, 30” by 40”)
and searched for several that had unopened packages. I still bought the garbage
bags, because I believe you should leave places cleaner than when you got
there.
Back on the road, I was laughing at myself for what I had just bought. The
orange and black packaging with the badly made-up model on the front was staring
at me from the passenger seat. When I pulled up to the ‘Park and Hike’
next to several other vehicles, the skies were clouding over and I was tempted
to not hike out. I pulled up my socks, literally and figuratively, and stuffed
the few recently bought items into my pack before I headed out into the woods.
About an hour later(45 minutes really), the sky spat at me. I had not arrived
at the spot I had scouted out a few weeks earlier, but it looked like I would
not get there before the skies really started to pour. I went off the trail
by about twenty yards or so and found a gently sloping clear area under some
oak trees and a few maple saplings. The impending rain held off until I was
able to set up a little of my camp for the night.
I decided that I was not going to 'brave the elements'. I had not brought
a tent with me, so I had to improvise.
Lets see if I can describe this. I have tied onto my pack a poly propylene
rope
that keeps my sleeping bag duffle(I still have not invested in a stuff sack)
held onto my makeshift pack. This rope
has a quick release fixture tied on the end that has come in handy, especially
for hanging the pack up in a larger sapling tree, as I did that afternoon.
I poked a hole through a garbage bag for the rope and hung the pack with the
garbage bag shroud up above where my sleeping bag eventually wound up. I kicked
the few rocks I saw out from under the pack area and made sure there weren’t
any really big or sharp things laying in wait for me.
Cape #1 came out of it’s packaging and went on the ground momentarily.
I checked to see how big it really was and was elated. I had another piece
of rope and I used that and another tree to lever the sapling down so that
the pack was hanging about six inches above the ground. I then broke out the
handy-mans(and woman's) helper, duct tape. And more garbage bags. I taped
the two capes together along long sides with the collars at opposite ends.
I started to hang the vinyl on the sapling, covering the backpack in the process,
when the first real rain started to come down. I furiously taped the vinyl
to the tree and then took some of the clear garbage bags to complete the triangle-tube
of man-made materials.
I sat in the hurriedly made shelter, breathing in the formaldehyde and other
fumes, listening as the rain hit in full force. There I was, no fire, no light
except the grayness coming in through the plastic and still having to setup
my sleeping area.
I undertook one problem at a time. Luckily, the area was not under a burn
restriction at the time, so I stuck the last garbage bag in the roll over
my clothing like a rain poncho, setup a fire ring and gathered some wood
for a fire. I had not planned on making a
fire,
but even in summer, you can need them for warmth, as well as cooking.
I put several of the larger pieces of wood in under the plastic to keep
them dry as I set about using an old candle stub in the tinder to get it
going. That is the best cheat I know of for lighting a fire, especially in
bad weather. With the fire going, and another scouting around for dead wood
and leaves on the ground, I had fuel enough for the fire for about an hour
or so. That took care of fire, and light.
I was starting to really like the clear plastic for the ‘door’ area
of my ‘tent’. The fire was about five feet away in the ‘clearing’,
but I still had the reassuring light, and a bit of warmth, coming through
the plastic.
With light taken care of(since then, I always have a mini-mag on my *key-chain*),
I contorted things and myself in the ‘tent’ so that I could unroll
my sleeping bag, liner, and get out my ‘night clothes’. It would
have been fine, if I had not been in a space smaller than a standard linen
closet - sideways. I was worn out in a few minutes of wrestling with the bags and stuff
and took a time-out. That was when I noticed that there was a little bit of
condensation on the inside of the clear plastic. I opened up the ‘tent’
to the rain for a while by taping up the bottom of the garbage bags, but there
was air again.
Note: Duct tape and plastic garbage bags do not come apart once joined...
It took a little more wrestling, but I had the sleeping area arranged in
time for me to get more fuel for the fire. I put my boy
scout pan out in the rain to gather some water. I moved it to under
the drip line of the plastic after I came back from tromping through
the wet woods looking for dead wood on the ground. If I had been thinking,
I would have put water on before I had tried to set up house in the ‘tent’.
It took a while to add more wood to the fire without the wetness smoking
me completely out of the woods. I added some water from my canteen and
put the pan with lid as close to the fire as I could. I have since decided
to carry a small tripod of a pot holder with me to go with the cooking
supplies I have. I warmed the water, but I would not say I had gotten
it up to a boil. I made a tea-bag to go with the power bar and juice-box
I had packed in for dinner. It wasn’t
much, but it was my first time trying to camp completely by myself. I did
not know what to expect, but I obviously had not planned as well as I
could have.
It became dark, as night is apt to do, and stopped raining eventually. I was
able to keep the fire at a low glow for several hours before I fell asleep.
In the morning, I used one of the garbage bags to clean up what I had brought,
plus some garbage I found from other visitors and struck camp. I was able
to make it back to the van in less time than I had gotten to the temp camp
site and went home.
I think I was picking little twigs out from my hair and pack for a week afterwards.