[philmont] Innies vs Outies

Brought back great memories as a young Scout camping in wet, soggy, clothing
and wet soggy sleeping bags with dirt and mud 3 inches thick on my wet
boots.

Thanks Heavens for modern equipment.

1. I carry my own tent. Dependent upon the season, in summer I
use one with netting so I can watch the stars. Can't sleep outside at
Philmont but nothing like sleeping under the stars and waking up and seeing
where they are now, (unless I rolled over then I panic wondering what
happened to the sky!) 13 nights in my sleeping bag this year and no tent
yet!

2. I check my tents once a year and re-UV and waterproof them.
Nikiwax and Granger both have great products for this. I just did four
tents today and one yesterday. (The neighbors are now convinced I'm nuts.
Especially the ones that washed their trucks the whole time I was washing
tents, with a really dirty truck.)

This gives me the opportunity to check for holes (found 2) zipper problems
(found 1) lines, (made sure all tent lines were reflective) and poles. (use
the poles, just don't count them..) Also is a great time to remember how to
set up a tent you haven't used in a while. Sort of embarrassing to put a
rain fly on backwards, but better in the driveway then in a windstorm on a
trip.

3. Roll/fold/stuff everything back up and make sure the outside
of the bags are well labeled. (I don't want to talk about a boundary water
trip with one tent and another set of poles...) I carry poles in a separate
pole bag. They can be strapped on the outside of my pack and have a
tendency to last longer because I see them. Also makes it easy to split the
weight with someone else.

5. I drop my pack to my feet and grab the rain cover. I keep the
rain cover real handy, on top and available without undoing much. I throw
the rain cover off where I'm going to lean my pack. Keeps the pack off the
ground and collects things that I drop or that fall out of the pack. Easier
to not dust off clothing and spend 20 minutes looking for something small in
the sand/leaves/pine needles..

6. I don't use a ground cloth. I spend 15 minutes on my hands and
knees looking at where my tent will be pitched. I look for rocks, sticks,
anything that will poke a hole in my tent floor. I also look for ants when
I'm in the southwest. I tell everyone it is because I don't want to harm any
part of nature. The real reason is the little suckers can bite hard and can
get into any tent! I also look for things that by 2:00 am will smell like
excrement, skunk cabbage in the east, etc. Bad smells can go through a tent
floor but not out the netting at the top of the tent. I figure out which
way is east and set my tent up with the door facing the east. I tell
everyone so I can see the sunrise. The real reason is 90% of the storms out
here come from the west.

7. I pull out my pad if it requires inflating and throw it in the
tent. I grab my sleeping bag and throw it in near the pad along with my
pillow. (Yes I carry a pillow!). I leave the sleeping bag in the bag. I
only unroll it when I climb in to go to bed. Stuffed in a stuff sack the
chances are zero that a bug, scorpion/snake will crawl in (I've seen it
happen, the scorpion I mean) and less damage if someone dumps soup,
spaghetti or dinner in general on my bag (seen that happen way too many
times.)

Then I relax.

8. Before I crawl in the tent I reach in and tighten the valve on
m pad. No use letting it lose all the air it gained by sitting on it as I
get in. When I crawl in my tent I un-stuff my sleeping bag and throw it at
the far end of the tent out of the way. It will inflate/puff up sufficiently
ok. This keeps it out of the way of dirt, tent mates, etc. I get ready for
bed, lay out my bag, grab my pillow and look at the stars. (Unless it is
raining, then I growl and wonder where the rain fly is.)

If you want a great ground cloth, steal the shower curtain. It is heavy
plastic that stops rocks. Easy to replace and you can cut them with
scissors to fit. (Tell your spouse the shower curtain thief struck. He or
she will know it's a Philmont thing..) Lay the shower curtain out in the
driveway and hose it down. Take a brush and detergent (biodegradable) and
scrub it down and hose it off. Let dry and set up your tent or map out the
Philmont tent dimensions with a marker and cut 1 or 2" smaller all the way
around.

I have no great double entendres regarding extra protection, sex and camping
like John did. I am in awe!

Jim Moss

From: philmont@troop47.com [mailto:philmont@troop47.com] On Behalf Of John
LeBlanc
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2007 9:49 PM
To: philmont List Member
Subject: [philmont] Innies vs Outies

Ground cloths.

Open says me, the proverbial can of worms.

Being that I was a Scout in the days before tents had sewn in bottoms, we
used ground cloths extensively.

At Philmont in 1959 as a Scout, I used my official BSA poncho as my ground
cloth under my sleeping bag. What did I use for rain protection after the
tent was set up and before retiring? Of course, the poncho. We set the
bedrolls on a layer of crossed sticks built like a log cabin fire lay to
keep them up off the damp ground until we crawled inside the tent and
carefully spread out the poncho and unrolled the bedroll. Attention to
detail kept us dry then and will keep you dry today.

OK. there are two schools of thought on a ground cloth used with tents with
sewn in floors.

Innies and Outies.

Inside

Both have advantages over the other but the purpose of it is to keep one's
bedding dry and for that duty, the choice location of it is INSIDE the tent.
This is contrary to convential wisdon, but it works and works well.

Inside, it is protected from sharp sticks and rocks by the tent floor and
you don't have to worry about dripping water on the top of the edge running
on top of the ground cloth and under your tent floor and soaking through to
wet your sleeping bag as surely as a bad dream does.

During one of those frequent monsonnal downpours that occur on occasion in
the mountains of Philmont, you can pull the edges of the inside sheet of
plastic up into the shape of a boat and remain nice and dry even though
water is seeping in the bottom of the tent which it WILL DO.

Outies

The only thing a ground cloth does better outside under the tent floor is to
keep the tent floor clean. That is not the purpose of it, but if your
vanity insists you do this, then by all means do so, but be aware that at
some time in the future in the middle of the night when you wake up in a wet
bed, just remember that I told you so.

When the ground cloth needs repositioning, which they all will, if its
OUTSIDE, then guess what, you got OUTSIDE in the rain to fix it. Not a
smart idea is it?

This outie thing probably got started by a mother admonishing her son to
"keep your tent tidy and clean sonny!". For Petes sake, tents are washable!

Tyvek or Plastic

Many prefer Tyvek, but heavy plastic will do very well indeed. The choice
is yours.

Double coverage

Some choose both innies adn outies. This is quite similar to using two
forms of birth control and if it's that's important to you or fear of
wetness is scary and the thought will ruin your day/night, then by all means
consider carrying the extra but unnecessary weight of double protection.

Don't go just on my word, give them both a try in a real rain, vanity not
withstanding, and tell me which works best.

John LeBlanc

Philmont crew 1959 and 2002

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Received on Wed Jun 6 02:07:17 2007