I’ve been meaning to try out the bits and pieces I have for sleeping – tent, mat, pillow, sleeping bag etc, but keep putting it off for one reason or another. Yesterday was the last Saturday of the Easter holidays, so it was SmallBoy’s (12) last go at sleeping in the garden before going back to school (until next weekend at least)…
So in the afternoon sunshine, he stuck up a nice 2 person tent, with a proper mat, sleeping bag etc.
Setup
For that authentic on-the-trail experience, I waited until after dark and set mine up from my bag in the light of a headtorch.
First lessons:
- Get a dimmer headtorch (or at least one with a dim light). A “normal” one even on minimum brightness is a huge beacon if you’re trying to sneak up a tent in a wood etc.
- Wear gloves while setting up the tent… maybe. It might make things a bit awkward, but it’s worth a try next time.
- I need to paint some coloured markers (e.g. nail varnish) onto the poles, the tent footprint and the clips for the other parts of the tent so it’s easy in the dark to know where each corner is. It didn’t take long to figure out to be honest, but anything to help make it quicker and easier to set up would be good.
Total time for setup – footprint, poles clipped in, tent inner clipped on, outer attached and pegged – was less than 10 minutes, but it’s getting quicker each time.
Sleeping
I was on the AlpKit Cloud Base mat which takes 11 breaths to inflate (leaving you a tiny bit light headed, but that’s quite fun!). I was using a sleeping bag an liner I borrowed from my sister to try out – a SnugPak Traveller and SnugPak silk liner.
Even thought it was out in the garden, I wore roughly what I’m intending to wear for a night when doing the SWCP – I put on long running tights, socks and a fleecy top.
The temperature was supposed to drop to 2C.
So how did it go?
I got an hour sleep, then woke up cold at around 12am.
I rolled left and right, lay on my side, my back, by front. I got colder.
I brought the pillow inside the sleeping bag, got into a foetal position and tried to breathe warmth into the sleeping bag. It didn’t work… I got colder.
At 4am I checked the temperature on my watch. It had dropped to -2C. I was very, very cold.
I aborted at 0530 when the sun was beginning to show as I figured this was about the time I would be getting up on the trail anyway (a bit later in time-of-day terms, but the same from a sunrise perspective).
So, what did I learn?
- When a sleeping bag has a comfort rating of 7C and a limit of 2C, then if you try to use it when it’s -2C outside, you will be cold.
- I need a warmer sleeping bag.
- A silk liner does make a difference. It’s small, but it’s there.
- Having the pillow inside the sleeping bag stops it trying to run away in the night
- The AlpKit Cloud Base is pretty comfortable – it didn’t deflate in the night and worked for both side and back/front sleeping.
- Bring a hat for sleeping in!
Climate
I’ve just looked up the climate information for where I am and where I’m going, so here’s what I can expect:
Home:
April: 3C – 14C. OK, so last night was -2C, so I have to expect drops of maybe 4-5C from below the climate average.
September: 8C-19C. Accounting for drops, it should be >3C in September.
But that’s pretty irrelevant, as I won’t be at home, so what’s it like in a few other places on the trail:
| April (°C) | September (°C) | |
| Minehead | 6-14 | 11-19 |
| St Ives | 6-12 | 12-17 |
| Penzance | 6-11 | 12-16 |
| Exeter | 4-13 | 10-19 |
| Poole | 6-12 | 12-18 |
It’s looking like in September it shouldn’t be less then about 5C (10C minus my random 5C offset).
But I still need a warmer sleeping bag.