Frothgar and Nemo's camp
Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2017 11:28 pm
This weekend was a Dagorhir event, Siege of the Azure Castle. It was an amazing event, tons of great fighting in a paintball arena complete with a castle and a village. Frothgar and I took our period kits to camp in (there were cabins available, but who wants to sleep in a cabin?), and we found a nice spot to set up camp that was away from all the hustle and bustle of the typical night life at a Dag event. Unfortunately, there was no place anywhere on site to set up where there wouldn't be anything glaringly modern, plus there was a definite lack of trees.
Here was my setup. Because there was only this one tree in the area to use (it was so old and rotten it was hollow), I improvised how to set up the end away from the tree. I ended up using my long upright pole tensioned out and braced in the front and back with guy lines. To keep the end closer to the tree in place, I used a clove hitch to attach one of my extra tent stakes to the line. Half my oilskin tarp is under me, and I shoved my pack frame in the back to tension it and give it a bit more of a slope. For bedding, I cheated and used a Therma-Rest, with the excuse that, if I wasn't at a campground, I would normally be able to make a bed of leaves or pine needles. On top of that were two wool blankets folded in half, then me, then two more wool blankets not folded, then a hair-on cow rug. I had an additional wool blanket/cloak that I used as a pillow but could have broken out if I needed it.
The bedding was perfect. It got cold enough for there to be frost on the ground and for my water bottle to start to freeze last night, but I was still warm enough to sleep. If I'm even the least bit cold, I can't sleep at all, so the fact that I slept while frost was forming makes the setup I used amazing. The cow hide isn't something I would normally take with me rangering cause it's so heavy, but if I think it's going to be cold I always take it with me. It doesn't necessarily provide a lot of warmth on its own; the fur is really patchy and thin and the leather itself isn't particularly thick, but what it does do is block the wind from cutting through my blankets and, probably most importantly for my personal comfort, it pins all of my other blankets down with its weight. That way my blankets stay sealed with the ground and don't fall of of me when I move. With the Therma-Rest, I probably could have dealt with only one blanket under me and and moved one on top of me, but what I did was fine. In terms of the shelter setup, I was expecting to be able to build a fire so I left it open (and accidentally set it the right way for where the wind picked up later on). In the future, I'm going to do less than half under me so that I can lessen the area rain can accidentally hit and pool on underneath me, and so that I can add an overhang to the top.
Here was Frothgar's setup, complete with the abandoned RV that was sitting next to a burned out building. I guess a lot of the property the paintball place used was an old farm and some of the buildings just aren't usable. Anyway, I'll let him tell everyone about his setup if he wants to.
Here was my setup. Because there was only this one tree in the area to use (it was so old and rotten it was hollow), I improvised how to set up the end away from the tree. I ended up using my long upright pole tensioned out and braced in the front and back with guy lines. To keep the end closer to the tree in place, I used a clove hitch to attach one of my extra tent stakes to the line. Half my oilskin tarp is under me, and I shoved my pack frame in the back to tension it and give it a bit more of a slope. For bedding, I cheated and used a Therma-Rest, with the excuse that, if I wasn't at a campground, I would normally be able to make a bed of leaves or pine needles. On top of that were two wool blankets folded in half, then me, then two more wool blankets not folded, then a hair-on cow rug. I had an additional wool blanket/cloak that I used as a pillow but could have broken out if I needed it.
The bedding was perfect. It got cold enough for there to be frost on the ground and for my water bottle to start to freeze last night, but I was still warm enough to sleep. If I'm even the least bit cold, I can't sleep at all, so the fact that I slept while frost was forming makes the setup I used amazing. The cow hide isn't something I would normally take with me rangering cause it's so heavy, but if I think it's going to be cold I always take it with me. It doesn't necessarily provide a lot of warmth on its own; the fur is really patchy and thin and the leather itself isn't particularly thick, but what it does do is block the wind from cutting through my blankets and, probably most importantly for my personal comfort, it pins all of my other blankets down with its weight. That way my blankets stay sealed with the ground and don't fall of of me when I move. With the Therma-Rest, I probably could have dealt with only one blanket under me and and moved one on top of me, but what I did was fine. In terms of the shelter setup, I was expecting to be able to build a fire so I left it open (and accidentally set it the right way for where the wind picked up later on). In the future, I'm going to do less than half under me so that I can lessen the area rain can accidentally hit and pool on underneath me, and so that I can add an overhang to the top.
Here was Frothgar's setup, complete with the abandoned RV that was sitting next to a burned out building. I guess a lot of the property the paintball place used was an old farm and some of the buildings just aren't usable. Anyway, I'll let him tell everyone about his setup if he wants to.