My New Bed

Sleeping on the ground is quite a change from sleeping on a thick cushy mattress. You find the hard spots both on the ground and inside your body and it takes a day or two to adjust to the change. That'll be the plan for the middle to end of this coming week. That way I can get some decent rest at PWYP instead of taking the better part of the event getting used to the ground.

The layers are as follows (top down) surplus wool blanket doubled over lengthwise, Wiggy's Overbag, Thermarest Ridge Rest Short, space blanket.

You can see that the wool blanket is plenty long and covers the entire sleeping bag/mat/ground pad to protect everything from sparks should I choose to sleep close to a fire. It also offers extra insulation doubled over like it is even though that is not the blanket's primary role.

Then, of course, the most important piece of my ground sleeping package--the Beans72 pillow. (Hmm...just noticed the pillow covers. I need one of those.) I have one of the King Size buckwheat pillows for my bed at home and the small travel pillow for camping and, well, travel.

I used to just use rolled up clothes, jackets, etc. for my pillow but would find myself without a pillow on cold nights when I needed the extra clothes to stay warm. The travel pillow doesn't weigh much and is well worth the extra effort to tote it to my campsite if I'm going to get that little bit of extra sleep that gives me that little bit of extra energy the next day and down the road.

I get fatigue-induced migraines so sleep is now a primary concern and I will do what I can to make sure I sleep comfortably each night in the field.

In the morning I "make" the bed by aligning everything and then folding it head-end down and foot-end up. This'll keep critters out.

The whole setup will work on the ground or in my hammock so this doesn't really nail down the shelter option yet. I am, however, leaning toward the A-frame lean-to I wrote about last October. This gives me good protection from the elements, allows me plenty of great views, is lightweight and inexpensive, and easy to pitch. Plus I can wrap the tarp around the rest of the bed components like a giant bedroll and have my entire shelter component in one handy, easy-to-transport package.

I'm off to read about tumplines.

Thanks for reading,


B