6/16-6/18 Prepper Camping Lessons Learned

A group of us got together and went camping about a month and a half ago, partially for fun, and partially to get familiar with our gear and put it to the test.  It was a good experience and we learned a few good lessons.

Probably the biggest lessons learned revolve around the fact we live in western Washington.  It turns out that it rains here.  Our chosen camp spot happened to be in a rainforest (we live in a region of temperate seasonal rain forests), so of course it rained the entire trip.  This was a actually a good set of conditions for us to end up in because of the learning opportunity it provided us.

My clothing was not appropriate for wet weather - I was wearing all cotton.  The first day we were there, it was drizzling lightly, so as usual, I did not pay much attention to it and when about the business of setting up camp.  I was not wearing my rain gear at this point.  Over the course of approximately 2 hours, I actually became fairly damp.  Fortunately, it was warm out, so I didn't really notice at first.  When I did finally notice, I put on my rain gear.  My rain gear is a nylon shell type of jacket, supposedly water resistant.  I found that it became soaked over the next 2 days and became completely ineffective.  I had changes of dry clothing, which I did change into every night before going to bed, so I was at least dry at night.  I would hang up the clothes I had been wearing to dry.  None of them ever dried out in the climate we were in.  As a result of the above, I'm considering the following.

1.  I need to improve my clothing system.  After reviewing the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) Fieldbook, I'm putting together a system based on their recommendations.  Specifically, they discuss wicking layers, warmth layers, and windproof layers.  I actually already have a lot of the clothing to do this, I just didn't bring it with me on this trip.  I have polypropylene thermals and regular shirts and underwear.  I have a good windproof outer jacket.  I'd like to add wool socks, hat, gloves, and sweater.  I'd also like to look at improved rain gear.  The heavier plastic gear is attractive, but it's not particularly breathable.  In addition, I want some large slip on, waterproof boots for wearing around the campsite.
2. I'd like to acquire a tent that will accommodate a stove.  This will aid in warmth of the tent, as well as drying out wet clothing and gear.

I bought a new tent for the outing.  It was a Coleman 10 man tent,  purchased at Costco.  According to the packaging, it was waterproof.  According to field experience, not so much.  We found that water was pooling on the bottom tent, and we were never really able to satisfactorily localize the source.  It seemed to wick in everywhere.  I took the tent back and got my money back.  As a result, I'm considering the following.

1.  I liked the large size of the tent.  I only paid $170 for it, so I figure that this is a "got what you paid for" issue.  I've been researching tents at Cabello's, and I think that the solution lies in one of their expedition tents.  They are large, appear to be reasonably straight forward to put up, and have the option for a stove.  There are also "walled" tents available with similar characteristics.  I read through the good and bad reviews of the tents, and if you throw out the best and worst extreme of reviews (I figure the truth is somewhere in the middle), the tents appear to perform well.

We got lost a few hundred feet from the camp.  Pathetic, I know.  Why did this happen?  Well, first of all, alcohol was involved.  That probably compounded our poor decisions.  Our intent was to walk down the trail and explore another campsite that was approximately 200 feet away.  Since we were just walking down to take a look and we were intending to stay on the trail, I didn't bother to grab my pack or put on my hiking boots.  We went down to the other site and looked around.  One of our party pointed out that this was the site of an old logging camp, so he suggested we look around for the concrete pads of the original building.  So we started tromping around the area.  In the woods we were in, the undergrowth was heavy with ferns.  The trees were also fairly dense and it was a heavily clouded day.  We were walking around as a group, when we became disoriented by all the greenery.  We thought we knew which direct the trail was, so we struck out towards it.  When we did not reach it in a timely manner, we stopped and considered our position.  None of us had a compass.  None of us had any food or water.  We tried looking for the sun, but we could not figure out where it was b/c the lighting was so diffuse.  We tried listening for the direction of the river that we knew was about a mile away, but we could not agree on the direction the sound came from.  There were 4 of us, so we decided to anchor the spot we were in and stretch out in a long line of people, keeping each other in sight, along a vector that we figured the trail was in.  We tried this method twice unsuccessfully.  Finally, we decided to try and follow our back trail.  This had not been our first choice b/c we figured this path was long, circular, and tortuous.  It turned out the following our back trail was not as easy we thought it might, but we were eventually able to find our way out using this method.  All in all, we probably weren't lost more than 20- 30 minutes, but it seemed like a lifetime.  As a result, I'm considering the following.

1. In addition to carrying a compass in my pack, I intend to keep one on my person.  This maybe on a string around me neck, or in one of the pockets of my clothing.  It's just stupid to be in the woods without one handy.
2. Obtain USGS maps for the area we intend to camp in.  They are free to download and can be easily printed at Kinko's or similar.  Laminating them would be good as well, however, that can be expensive.
3. Don't take excursions off of the trail when drinking.  Enough said.

We were able to gather firewood readily around the camp.  Most of the wood was actually fairly dry, as long as wood selected wasn't laying on the forest floor.  In general, trees that have fallen over, but are held up off the ground by something else made pretty decent firewood.  The only real issue was cutting up some of the larger pieces. As a result, I'm considering the following.

1. Purchasing a chain saw and adding it to the camp kit.  This will also require hauling fuel, which I'll need to consider when selecting the saw.

All in all, we had a pretty good experience.  I will say that we probably would have come home early if it had been cold outside, but fortunately the temperatures stayed in the high 50's and low 60's most of the weekend.  I'd like to make adjustments in my gear and try camping out for a longer period of time to test it out.  This will most likely occur next year, since my wife is in the third trimester with our new son.