A Trial Run

A few weeks ago I went to Vermont to test out my camping equipment for the first time. I’ve watched the movie Wild and I have no desire to find out my stove won’t work when there’s nothing I can do about it. I have a bit more freedom to solve a problem like that than on the PCT, but when I’m biking from Pittsburgh to Saint Louis I’ll be on a time crunch and I don’t need any added complications.

So I went up to my friend’s mom’s farm and tested out my accoutrements. I’m all about research, so I scoured the internet for opinions on what I should get. I had to debate whether I should get a down sleeping bag or a synthetic (I went with down because it’s and light weight). I chose an insulated inflatable sleeping pad as opposed to self-inflating for similar reasoning. I got a double-walled tent as I read that would make condensation less of a problem. The down side to down sleeping bags is they don’t keep you warm if they’re wet, so I felt the need to cover my bases. There’s that and without the rain fly the tent is mostly mesh. The idea of basically sleeping under the stars is too attractive to resist.

I went for a quick grocery store run and got a variety of foods I anticipate I’ll eat on the road and headed out. The benefit of going to this farm with my friend (Becca for those who might remember her from previous posts) was we had a safety net if the equipment didn’t work. I suppose I could have done this in my yard at home, but I live in a populated area and I didn’t like the idea of strangers walking by me down the sidewalk. We wound up meeting Becca’s friends Jen and Rob up there with their baby Henry. We were all at least partially vaccinated and this was an outdoor retreat.

Becca’s mom owns a B&B and when we got there, we helped set up a glamping tent. We tested out different food options on our gas stoves (most of which was surprisingly good), and that night we huddled around a small campfire. I don’t know what it is about camping, but my bedtime tends to be much earlier when I plan to sleep outdoors. Perhaps it’s simply that I’m sitting around in the dark? We put out the fire around 9 and went to bed.

When you enough time by a campfire and your skin is all flush from the heat, the minute you step away you feel frozen. It wasn’t quite freezing. It was firmly in the 40s, but when I went to bed that first night, I cursed whoever rated my sleeping bag comfortably suitable for temperatures as low as 30 degrees. I wasn’t frozen, but I was shivering, even with my jacket on. In addition, in the middle of the night, I got up to use the bathroom, tripped over the tent cord and fell right out of my shoes. I spent the rest of the night with chilly feet. I had planned to bring wool socks for the weekend and washed them especially, but they weren’t dry when I left and I left them behind. I’d fall asleep, wake up, check to see what time it was, and groan when I realized it was still the middle of the night. That doesn’t even touch on the position of my tent. it was flat in comparison to the hillside around it, but the entire night the sleeping mat drifted downhill and left me behind on the cold ground.

“The night was a completely different experience.”

The next night I went to bed with a cozy throw blanket, a pair of Becca’s wool socks on my feet, warmer sweatpants and a tent shifted 90 degrees. The night was a completely different experience. Save for a chilly face I was cozy all night and much happier in the morning. I bought a fleece sleeping bag liner immediately so I could be just as cozy on my trip.