January 2020 Wild camp: Winter Daypack Challenge

Every now and again I firmly believe that it’s good to test yourself and take a step out of that comfort zone. For a camping enthusiast like me, I think the daypack challenge is a really good way of doing exactly that. I’ve done this a few times now and it’s always proven to be a rewarding experience. 

This time, I’m making the challenge a little more difficult by doing it in the cold winter months.

What is the daypack challenge?

Well I don’t know if it’s a thing, but it’s a very simple concept that my camping buddies and I thought up. You head out on an overnight camping trip in which you are restricted to using a daypack sized rucksack (up to 40ltrs) to carry your camping kit. This represents a bit of a departure from the more conventional 60-100ltr rucksacks that many people use, particularly through the colder months. 

This is a challenge that makes you think a bit more carefully about what kit you need to take on your camping adventures. A really important point to note though is that this isn’t a survival challenge, it’s just a bit of fun!

For my challenge, I opted to use my 38ltr British Army issue Northern Ireland Patrol Pack. I enjoy using this pack as it is robust and I like the way the pockets help you to organise your kit. Like an amateur, I didn’t take any pictures of my kit loadout, but here’s a quick overview of what I packed:

• Shelter: 3x3m Superlight tarp by DD Hammocks along with cordage and pegs
• Sleep: Mil-tec bivvi bag, OEX Fathom two season sleeping bag, Exped Downmat Lite, Thermarest Ridgerest sleeping mat, Quechua Helium pillow
• Cook kit: Pathfinder cup which nests in a Nalgene water bottle, Eagle 0.7ltr kettle, Wildo fold-a-cups
• Tools: Casstrom Woodsman Knife, Gransfors Bruks Small Hatchet, Wilkinson Sword Pruning Saw, spoon knife, Mora 120 carving knife
• Miscellaneous items: First Aid Kit, Tissue paper, head torch, spare batteries, candle lantern, Swiss Army Knife, Spoon, bandana, leather work gloves, fire lighting kit, sit mat, ground cloth
• Spare clothing: Buff, beanie hat, fingerless gloves, wool socks, long johns
• Drink: 3ltr water, brew kit (tea, coffee etc), hip flask
• Food: Porridge sachets, bacon, bannock bread mix, instant noodles, cooked chicken, tin of rice pudding, chocolate bars

In terms of the differences between this kit and that which I take on my regular woodland camps, there’s two key items that I compromised on. 

First and foremost was the sleeping bag. I usually take a three season bag on winter camps, but I’ve recently discovered that I can get away with dropping a season rating because the bivvi bag usually adds some extra warmth to the sleep system. This is particularly the case with the heavy-duty Mil-tec bivvi bag that I’ve been using because it’s proven to be very good at abating the wind. Dropping a season on my sleeping bag meant that I was able to save a significant amount of space in my rucksack

The second major compromise was with my cook kit. I usually like to take a frying pan and a grill or pot hanging system, I also like to cook some decent food over the fire. For this trip, I simplified things by using my pathfinder pot to boil water and cook up some ramen noodles. 

For this challenge, I also opted to test my woodcraft skills by packing some bacon and bannock bread mix. Without my frying pan, I’d need to make something so to help me cook the bacon and bread. With that said, I did manage to squeeze my new kettle into the rucksack. This if you like counted as a luxury item, but those that know me, know that I’m rather partial to a decent cup of tea so it will be getting plenty of use!

Also of note was the booze situation. I usually take a couple of beers with me to enjoy around the fire in the evening, but on this trip I opted to leave them out and just go with a small hip flask of whisky. In all honesty, I didn’t really miss it and rather enjoyed a wee dram of single malt!

On the day, I met my ol’ mucker – Des bright and early and we walked into the woods under the cover of darkness as the Tawny Owls continued to 'twi-twoo'! I quite like these early starts to the camping trip as it means that you can really maximise your time in the woods. 

You almost feel like some kind of clandestine operator walking around the woods at this hour, but this practice seems to have become the norm for my camping trips with Des.

After a short walk, we made it to a new camping spot that we had previously recce’d and immediately started to gather some wood for the fire. The days preceding this trip were very wet and rainy indeed so we didn’t bother trying to faff around with primitive fire lighting techniques. Instead Des just used a firelighter to get things going. 

It really was a lovely camp spot, we stood there chatting while watching the sun peek its head over the horizon and as we chewed the fat, we made the mistake of taking our attention away from the fire. When we looked down, we discovered that it had it fizzled out. Oops a daisy! lesson learnt and slap on the wrist for both of us! Serves us right for using damp twigs. This time around we gave the fire more serious attention and used some dry standing twigs to get the fire roaring – normal service was resumed and the kettle went on for the first brew of the day!

We didn’t rush to set-up camp as the weather was forecast to be a lovely sunny, albeit cold, winters day. We spent the first hour or so just milling around camp and gathering dead wood for the fire. I also managed to source some decent stumps for us to sit on around the fire. 

As we set about pitching our tarps, our other camp buddies – Chris and John arrived. They were in a buoyant mood and have been relishing the chance to minimise their kit as part of the daypack challenge. I think we all agreed that Chris had taken things to the extreme with his minimal kit as he didn’t even pack a sleeping bag; I’ll come back to this point in a moment as Chris has form for this kind of behaviour!

The rest of the day was spent milling around camp, prepping more wood for the fire, drinking tea and preparing food. As I mentioned above, I needed to rig up a cooking system for my bacon and bannock bread. I kept things very simple for this by using some ‘Y’ shaped sticks that I staked into the ground beside the fire and another stick to act as a cross-bar. I de-barked the cross-bar to ensure that there was no nasty bugs or bacteria on the stick and draped my bacon over it. I also de-barked another stick so that I could wrap my bannock mix around it and hold it over the hot embers to cook.

Finally, I made a similar system with a larger set of ‘Y’ sticks and cross bar going across the fire so that I could hang my kettle and take some snazzy photos for Instagram!

In this situation I was able to use some freshly cut sycamore that was piled up from a recent work party. I’ve recently been volunteering with the woodland management team and have been helping them manage the sycamore population and replace them with native species of tree. This is something which is really helping the woodland to thrive because the sycamore can be a relatively fast growing and very invasive species of tree. By thinning out the sycamore, we’ve enabled lots more sunlight to break through the canopy and encourage new growth and habitat for the local wildlife.

Yum yum, in my tum! The bacon and bannock was a great success and proved what you can achieve when you apply a bit of camp-craft.

After lunch, I relaxed around the fire and finished carving a spoon that I had started to make on a previous camping trip from a lovely piece of seasoned Ash. I’m not one to rush when it comes to spoon carving! Meanwhile, Des was also busy crafting a basket from some clematis vines that he had gathered. I have to say that I was quite impressed with the end product and thought that I definitely need to give it a go soon.

A short while later, I was enjoying a well-earned cup of tea when I heard the rustling of foil. I thought for a moment that one of the fella’s was opening a packet of crisps to share around. How disappointed I was when I discovered that it was just Chris sorting out his sleeping quarters for the night! I mentioned earlier that Chris had taken this challenge to the extreme, and I really wasn’t exaggerating. Rather than a nice cosy sleeping bag, Chris thought it would be fun to test out his ‘survival bag’. This essentially is a big piece of foil/mylar that has been made into a sleeping bag.

As Chris wriggled into his survival bag, I couldn’t help but imagine what a bystander might think if they stumbled upon our camp at that time. I fear it may have looked like we were preparing to cook him for a nice Sunday lunch! A few hours at 180c should do it! Joking aside, Chris had some good logic to his planning. He had adequate clothing to keep him warm through the night and the survival bag would help retain that warmth. Added to this, Chris was planning to sleep beside the fire and could stoke that up at any point if he felt the urge.

At this time of year it doesn’t take long for darkness to descend on camp and the temperature plummeted as soon as the sun had set. These are the times when you really feel the benefit of the camp fire.

As we sat around the fire, Des thought it would be a great moment to record a podcast where we spoke about our experience thus far and the kit that we brought along on the daypack challenge. Des’ podcast is available to listen to on a few different media platforms so I’ll provide some links below, please do give it a listen and let him know what you think:

https://anchor.fm/des2

https://open.spotify.com/show/2SzvKXuMuyO27dGTdNAkwI

Time for bed and time to see whether my two season sleeping bag will keep me warm in conditions which were well beyond its comfort limits. I stripped down to my base layers, put on a clean pair of wool socks and zipped myself into my sleeping bag. Knowing the temperatures were set to drop below freezing, I ensured that I had extra clothing stowed under my pillow in case I needed a little bit of extra warmth through the night.

One of the joys of camping under a tarp is that you can usually give yourself a nice view of the night sky as you lay in your sleeping bag. Tonight was no exception and it was a wonderfully clear and starry sky. I won’t lie though, it was a cold night. I definitely wasn’t toasty warm in my sleeping bag, but neither was I freezing cold. For some reason my hips were a little chilly so I reached for my wool jumper and wrapped it around my waist - that seemed to work well. 

Every now and again, I’d stir from my slumber and hear Chris rustling around in his baco-foil!, occasionally getting up to fuel the fire. I wondered how he was getting on, but at the same time was reluctant to climb out from my bivvi.

I awoke to a crisp and frosty morning. This really was a glorious camp site, we could look across to our east through the woodland and marvel at the sun gently breaking cover. Chris was already awake sitting by the fire and I could hear Des and John stirring. Of course everyone wanted to know how Chris had got on in his over-sized crisp packet and there followed a thorough debrief around the fire! Suffice to say that he was fine and was happy to have kept the fire ticking over through the night. I don’t think he’d go as far as to say that it was his most comfortable sleep, but he definitely did something right because I heard him snoring several times through the night!

I’d like to encourage you all to check out Chris’ youtube channel where I’ve no doubt that he’ll share a video of his experience. He also has lots of decent cooking videos which will have you salivating, I’ll include a link to his channel here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtSb2DY2R4IeRICy-XCH3qg

Debrief complete and a couple of brews later, we all started to strike camp, extinguish the fire and clear up our mess. As always it’s hugely important to ensure that you take home any rubbish, clean up the fire scar and ensure that the land is left in a better condition than when you found it.

And that was the end of another camp and my first of 2020. I really enjoyed the daypack challenge, I’ve been dwelling on it quite a bit since returning from the camp and have considered that I could have stripped down my kit a lot more than I actually did. For example; I needn’t have bothered with the axe, carving kit, candle lantern, kettle or extra litre of water and that would have saved me lots of room in my rucksack. This experience has also got me thinking about adopting a slightly more minimal approach on my future camps and particularly when I intend to embark on a hiking trip.

I also ended up making a video on this trip and thought I’d drop a link in here. Let me know what you think, I’ve much to learn when it comes to film-making, but it’s quite an enjoyable process and I'm going to try and do a bit more in the future.

As always, thanks for checking in on my blog and making it this far. It’s fair to say that I’ve waffled on a bit with this post. Let me know what you think and please do feel free to subscribe so that you can be notified of my future publications.