25 years since I’ve gone camping. Got roped into it for next weekend. Stay warm tricks I remember include every thing stated before plus having a small meal before retiring. Digesting the food keeps you warm? Soup before sleeping, fresh night clothing, headwear, socks/booties. I’ll tell you when I get back.MTS
Some more tips: If you double the sleeping bags to sleep together, see if they can zip together, too. Many sleeping bags use compatible zippers. Also, if the two bags are of different thickness, put the thicker one on top.
If it’s really cold, you might want to get a bale or two of straw, too. Pull it all loose, and pile it on top of the bags. Wear extra layers under the sleeping bag, but only if it’s cold enough that you won’t sweat.
Also, always have something between you and the cold ground, but not a cot. As mentioned earlier, air will circulate around and under a cot, stealing your precious warmth.
If you’re really serious about winter camping, get one of those mummy sleeping bags. They have a drawstring around the top, and seal around your face such that everything else is covered.
Using these methods (without even the mummy bag), I’ve slept out in a tent in weather as cold as 30 below. Always make sure, though, that you can get to central heating, if necessary. Hypothermia can kill.
When you are getting into serious cold you should wear a balaclava helmet too, to reduce the heat loss.I’d suggest wearing thin cotton gloves just in case you happen to reach for something and find something metallic - saves becoming too well attatched to it.
You can get sleeping bags with foil inserts which help but my recommendation is to get either an air-bed, which is rather too bulky for the true backpacker, or an inflatable carrimat which rolls up smaller than the foam type.
Its worth taking some chemical heater packs with you.
I’m not sure of the trade name but they come in a plastic pouch which you bend to break an internal seal which allows two chemicals to mix which react and create heat.
Hmmm…a flocked airbed? Sounds interesting - and more comfortable than a cot! Trouble is, as I mentioned, we’re doing civil war reenacting and (1) we have so much crap to haul, we’re trying to travel light, and (2) cots are more “authentic” (though truth be told, NO cot and NO tent would be the most authentic). The guy in the tent next to us said he’d slept in his underwear, ON the sleeping bag, with just a wool blanket over him. He had also put straw on the ground (At these events they even provide the straw, but, duh, we didn’t think about it.) So I think the cold, damp air beneath the cot was the culprit. At an earlier cw event, we slept on one of those foam eggcrate mattresses with wool blankets and I was fine. But at the same event, I got bit on the arm by some noxious insect and it swelled up and hurt a lot, so I didn’t want to sleep on the ground anymore, and so got the cot. Anyways, all your suggestions are welcome and I’ll certainly be prepared next time. Thanks much everyone.
Gee if they supply bales of straw why not sleep on them?Beats the hell out of the ground and a cot both.
I think that the old timers slept on a straw tic.A big bag like thing stuffed with straw.Newer versions were stuffed with feathers.Make sure you stuff enough in so you don’t end up crushing it and end up on the ground.
I believe that a log cabin with a real bunk was the exception rather than the rule at first. They had to sleep on something and I’ll bet that it was a straw tic.