The summer isn’t ove yet but I thought I would pictures from some of our trips.
Posts Tagged with camping
Canoe Trip From October
I finally uploaded photos from the canoe trip we did back in October. Grady, Emma May, my buddy Barry and I went for an overnight trip up Widgeon Creek. It was a lot of fun and we had great weather. The kids were nervous in the boat for about 5 minutes and then they settled in nicely. It was long before Emma May was helping to paddle using a plastic sword and Grady was shooting everything in sight with his Stormtrooper gun. You know, all the things that people usually do when going on canoe trips… Click on any of the photos below to go to the gallery.
The launch
Barry Trudeau
Black crowned night heron
The campsite
New Sleeping Bag?
This is a tough one. I’m in the market for a new sleeping bag and not too sure what to get. I currently have two bags. The first one I bought around 1990 and it was originally something like a 0 or -5C synthetic bag. I took it with me when I traveled the world in 1991 and it spent most of its time in a stuff sack. 18 years later and it’s safe to say that it is “punched out.” My son Grady used it last year but I don’t think it is warm enough for shoulder season camping. It’s still good for warm weather stuff though. My other bag I bought maybe 8 years (time flies!). It’s a down barrel bag from Taiga. It’s okay and rated to -7C. I don’t find it all that warm but what the heck. It think it’s a good bag for Grady now because he wouldn’t like a mummy bag. My daughter Emma May has her own +5C bag and it works well for her, and my wife also has a Taiga down mummy bag.
Ideally I want a bag that compacts really well. I plan on taking the family backpacking once or twice this year and there’s no doubt that I’ll be carrying most of the gear. Therefore the space savings of a small bag would be fantastic. Weight isn’t a huge issue, but obviously the smaller the better.
Where the decision gets tricky is when I consider coastal camping. This would include boat trips that I hope to do (canoe, kayak) as well as coastal hiking. I think it’s not that unlikely that camping may include some wet/damp sleeping bags at some point. If that is the case, then it is clear that a synthetic bag would be a much better piece of gear. On the other hand, even if I found a small, warm synthetic bag, it wouldn’t do much good if everyone else in the family were in wet down bags.
Currently I’m thinking along these lines:
1. rule #1 – the bag never should get wet. I already bought some waterproof stuffsacks that help mitigate risk
2. get a MEC Merlin -3C which is very small and not too expensive (4L and $230)
3. get a Mountain Hardwear Lamina synthetic bag which is inexpensive and not too bulky (10L and $140)