Staying warm at Martinak in mid-November 2019




Who is looking for pain? Chilly-weather pain, that is. Yeah, that's me! I decided to do an overnighter camping trip to Martinak, MD on 9 November 2019. The purpose for this trip was to test my gear and to put to use my cold weather skills. Here’s a quick recap.

AWESOME TIP: the Nalgene bottle filled with hot water and placed inside a sleeping bag is a great cold weather hack. It worked and kept me cozy through the night.

SKILLS TIP: I gathered pine needles and leaves and placed them around the tent to insulate - this also worked. I didnt feel a draft that I may have felt otherwise.



CLOTHING TIP: My layer system consists of Mountain HardWear compression pants, regular pants, t-shirt, White Sierra 100D fleece, and a synthetic no-name puffy. I also wore a fleece hat, a buff around my neck, and bakalava (while sleeping). Socks were Darn Tough duting the day, and REI Merino whool at night. Layers worked as I took stuff off and put stuff on throughout my trip.



As far as food, for lunch I made delicious loaded potato soup to which i added some veggies. For dinner I made herbs butter pasta. Both were made using my cook system, which consists of a 750 ml titanium pot.




The temperatures got down to 27 degrees and one thing that sucked was getting out sleeping bag in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. But it worked out. I worke up early and got the fire going again and made some coffee.

I enjoy these short overnite trips, as I get to get away and enjoy nature. Hope you found this post helpful. See you on the trails!

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