Tag: camping

Is it Better to Drain the Water from a Cooler?

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Coleman-48-Quart-Chest-CoolerContinuing with our common camping questions, here is another one that will give you an almost 50/50 split when you poll your friends. As the hours and days pass, your cooler filled with ice slowly but surely gets replaced with water. Is it better to drain this water out or keep it? From a pure physics perspective, it is better to leave the water in unless it is making the items in the cooler soggy or you have to carry it around a lot and you want it lighter.

What Coleman Says

Don’t drain cold water – Water from just-melted ice keeps contents cold almost as well as ice and preserves the remaining ice much better than air space. Drain the water only when necessary for convenient removal of cooler contents or before adding more ice.

What Igloo Says

During use, it is not necessary to drain the cold water from recently melted ice unless it is causing contents to become soggy. The chilled water, combined with ice, more readily surrounds canned and bottled items and will often help keep contents colder more effectively than the remaining ice alone.

Why You Should Not Drain Out the Water

  • Water makes better contact with all your food items keeping everything bathed in coldness
  • The more cold water you have the more energy the outside environment must exert to warm up your food.
  • Once all the ice is melted the water continues to act a a heat sink

Is it Warmer to Sleep Naked in a Sleeping Bag?

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Mod.SleepSystem
Naked?

You actually hear this question more often than you think you would, with it usually followed closely by the followup question if everyone should get naked and huddle for warmth as an effective warming secondary strategy. When you are camping in cold weather, is it actually warmer to sleep naked than to sleep with your clothes on? The short answer to this is only if the only clothes you have are damp or wet, if not, then probably not. Each person is slightly different and your exact conditions will be different, but unless you are an experienced camper, just go to sleep dressed in dry layers.

If you are anything like me, you will have to pee at least one time in the middle of the night. Trying to put all your clothes back on without leaving the warmth of your sleeping bag makes sleeping naked almost not worth it just for that reason.

One common mistake is placing your dry clothes next to your wet clothes within your backpack. In no time at all, your dry clothes are now your damp clothes.

There are exceptions to everything though. If you are doing high altitude camping with a really good sleeping bag, then you could actually be better off sleeping naked.

Reason to Sleep Naked in a Sleeping Bag

  • All your clothes are damp
  • You sweat a lot in your sleep and will soak your dry clothes
  • You have a sleeping bag that works best when you are naked
  • There is someone else in the sleeping bag with you

Reasons to NOT Sleep Naked in a Sleeping Bag

  • None of the reasons to sleep naked apply to you

Camping in Style: Five Gadgets to Change Your Outdoor Experience

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Going camping can be a lot of fun, and getting away from the stress of modern life is a great way to unwind. However, often times you don’t want to be completely cut off from modern conveniences. Luckily, there are a number of portable tech gadgets that you can bring with you on your camping trips to make the experience much more enjoyable. Here are five gadgets to change your outdoor experience.

Solar Powered Lantern

When night comes around out in the woods, you sometimes want a little more light than the campfire provides. Instead of fumbling with a flashlight at your campsite, you can make use of a solar charged lantern that will give you plenty of illumination. Keep it in full sun all day to have it charged and ready for night.

Solar Powered Lantern
Whetstone 36 LED Solar and Dynamo Powered Camping Lantern

Satellite Phone

When you are out in the wilderness, it is always a little scary to not have any way to call for help if you need it. You can avoid this situation by using cordless phones that will work anywhere. A satellite phone does not need to be in range of cellphone tower, and it only needs a clear space to get a signal from space to function.

satellite phone
DeLorme AG-009871-201

Survival Tablet

The Meet Earl Survival Tablet does it all. It is a GPS device, radio, thermometer, weather sensor, barometer, compass, and walkie-talkie. This amazing device does everything you could possibly want with the possible exception of pulling in your favorite sports channels from Bell.

Grill and USB Charger

The BioLite Campstove is one of the neatest tech devices you can take camping with you. It is a stove that you can use to heat up your food and beverages. While it is heating your food, the heat is also being used to charge the battery in the device. This battery has a USB port that you can use to charge any electronic devices you have with you. It is a brilliantly designed, dual-purpose tech device.

BioLite Campstove
BioLite Campstove

Solar Shower

One of the unfortunate things about camping is that you get kind of grungy over the course of your trip. This can become a problem if you are on a long camping trip. You can stay clean if you take advantage of a solar shower. All you have to do is fill it with water and leave it in the sun, which will allow you to take a hot shower daily.

Solar Shower
Viking Nature Solar Camping Shower Bag

There is no need to live like a savage on a camping trip. Make use of these cool tech gadgets to bring your next camping trip into the 21st century.

Cold and Exposed: Five Essential Tips Every Hiker Must Know About Surviving in the Cold

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Every hiker’s worst nightmare is being stranded cold and alone in the depth of the woods. Few people know how they’ll react or survive in such extreme conditions. By following a few tips and tricks, you can ensure that you are prepared with the essentials for combating the cold.

1. Building a Shelter

Constructing a shelter is the first way to get out of the cold and reduce your exposure. The most common type of shelter for this circumstance is the lean-to. Constructing a basic lean-to with branches and shrubbery will protect from wind, rain and snow. In order to insulate and keep generated heat inside the lean-to, be sure to pack snow around the exposed areas. This will create a shelter that will protect from most of the elements you’ll experience in the cold. Another great tool for shelter is the use of a fallen tree as cover. This requires expending less energy in gathering resources, but does require energy to dig a hole out from under the fallen tree.

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5 Tips And Hints For The Perfect Camping Trip

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Camping is certainly a great way to relax and to let off some steam after a stressful week at work. If you are fond of a good-old fashioned camping trip and you want to make sure that everything goes according to plan, then the following tips and hints will help you enjoy a safe, exciting and comfortable camping experience:

1. Set Up The Camp Before Dark

First and foremost, it is important to decide on the most suitable place where you can install your tent. This basically depends on how much time you plan to spend there – you can find thousands of campsites, state and national parks where you can relax without anybody bothering you.

If you want to enjoy extra comfort, then opt for places where amenities are provided as well, like showers or grills for a delicious barbecue. One thing is for sure, though: you must set up the tent and everything else before it gets dark. Find a spot close to a reliable water source where you can shower and wash the dishes.

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5 Lightweight Backpacking Tents Every Camper Should Consider

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Going for an outdoor venture is a great way to spend your leisure time. For you to have a great time, you need to pack wisely and the most important thing to pack is a good tent. Finding a good tent for that weekend vacation or holiday can prove to be challenging or tiresome with all the false advertising out there. You need to carefully pick out the best backpacking tent putting into consideration a number of factors. These factors include the type of climate, weight, ease of set-up, space, and cost among others. A good tent needs to be well built, stable, worth its price and lightweight. For those who travel light, below is a list of carefully chosen backpacking tents that will help you make the most out of your outdoor voyage:

1. Sierra Designs Lightning HT 3-Person Ultra-light Tent

The Sierra Designs Lightning HT 3-Person Tent is a lightweight tent that offers enough space to comfortably hold 3 people. The tent is spacious with an internal area of 40 square feet. In addition to this, it also has 2 vestibules for easier entry and exit as well as a color-coded D-door. The vestibules provide room for extension allowing even more internal space.

It also features PVC-free seam tape as well as a super seal floor for added durability. The tent is very easy to assemble due to its ultra-light but strong clips. For those camping in rainy areas, the tent’s floor comes with 70D nylon body material that provides waterproof properties up to 3000 mm. The tent has mesh walls that allow star gazing during the night and offer increased airflow inside the tent. Ventilation inside the tent ensures that your tent does not get stuffy and condensation does not occur. Built with state of the art DAC swivel hub poles, the tent is more than able to withstand high winds when camping. Weighing only 5.1 pounds, this is a lightweight tent that every camper travelling light must consider.

Click Here to Read the Full Review Directly on Amazon

2. Eureka Solitaire 3-Season Tent

Eureka Solitaire 3-Season TentThe Eureka Solitaire tent is a great and inexpensive tent to travel light with. The tent is extremely easy to assemble and covers 21 sq. feet of interior space. Priced at only 90 dollars, this solo tent ensures that you not only have adequate space inside your tent for your sleeping bag but also room for your camping equipment. The tent is extremely lightweight at only 2.9 pounds and small allowing camping over long distances.

Campers will also appreciate its 70D nylon taffeta material that ensures water resistance up to 1200 mm. Built with durable fiberglass of 6.3 mm thickness and full panel mesh windows, the Eureka Solitaire was designed for serious campers. To top it off, it comes with a zipper on the roof for easier exit and entry.

Other notable features include its large mesh roof for improved ventilation and a two hoop bivy-style that gives the tent its natural standing posture.

Click Here to Read the Full Review Directly on Amazon

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