Carry Your Weight - Sleeping Systems

The last of the Big 3 Items you have to carry is your sleeping system. My and Roslyn's sleep system is an inflatable sleeping pad. sleeping bag, and extra clothing layers as appropriate, using left over clothes a stuff sack as a pillow. Our system has worked well for us so far. With our current gear we have slept reasonably well down to -3C while wearing a couple extra layers.

When picking out a sleeping system, there are a number of options for each part of it:

1. Sleeping Pad - no pad, self-inflating pad, closed cell foam pad, inflatable pad
2. Top Layer Style - sleeping bag or sleeping quilt (might be others we haven't come across)
3. Top Layer Fill - down or synthetic
4. Pillow - none, scrounged pillow, inflatable pillow, foam pillow
5. Extra Layers - what will you wear while under your Top Layer?

Sleeping Pads

Sleeping pads are a critical part of any sleep system. While some people do go out in the summer without sleeping pads, unless the weather is very warm and the ground very soft we highly recommend taking one. The purpose of the sleeping pad is to keep you elevated off the ground, which will both keep you warmer as an air gap will slow the pace of heat loss into the ground and it will keep you more comfortable since all the lumps on the ground will be smoothed out. Each type of sleeping pad has some different characteristics:

Closed Cell Foam Pads - Solid foam pad that is very rugged, though does not provide as much cushion as the other pad types. Closed cell foam pads tend to be cheaper, more robust, but less comfortable than the other sleeping pad types

Self-Inflating Pad - Self-inflating pads are air inflated pads that have a foam core inside them to force the outer skin of the pad open. Most self inflating pads take about 10 minutes to inflate on their own, and adding a couple breaths if your own gives them some extra plumpness. Self inflating pads generally pack down smaller than closed cell foam pads, though they are not as robust and can be punctured and made unusable.

Inflatable Sleeping Pads - Inflatable sleeping require you to blow them up, usually requiring 10 to 30 breaths depending on the size of the pad. Inflatable sleeping pads tend to pack down the smallest of the pad types. Like self-inflating pads, inflatable sleeping pads can be punctured and made unusable.

Other than size and weight, when picking a sleeping pad you also need to consider the insulation value of the sleeping pad, the R-value. The higher the value the warmer the pad will keep you.

Our recommendation for a sleeping pad is an inflatable sleeping pad with an R-value of 4 or more, and at least one inch thick. A sleeping pad like this will be more than you require for much of the summer, but will also work well in the edge season and help you extend your backpacking season. If you plan on only going out in good weather, you can benefit from getting a sleeping pad with an R-value of 3 or lower due to the smaller size and weight.

Top Layer

Your top layer is the other critical part of your sleep system and there are two major choices to make; Sleeping Bag vs Quilt and Down vs Synthetic. If you pick a sleeping bag you also need to choose between a Rectangular Cut and a Mummy Cut style bag. The choices largely come down to personal preference though there are advantages and disadvantages to each option.

Sleeping Bag - Sleeping bags are essentially a tube of material that you slid into or lay in and close with a zipper that enclose you in insulated material to keep you warm. Due to their construction, sleeping bags restrict movement more than a quilt and tend to be heavier for their temperature rating due to having more insulation and material.

Quilt - A quilt is essentially a blanket that you place over yourself, with the main benefits being less restricted movement and lighter weight for the same temperature rating. Quilts take advantage of the fact that any down or synthetic material you are laying on generally won't provide much warmth since it is compressed, and do away with the material to reduce weight. This does increase the risk of drafts getting in under the quilt compared to a sleeping bag, but many quilts are designed to wrap down around the sleeping pad a bit to help combat this.

Mummy Cut - A mummy cut sleeping bag is shaped in a body silhouette to reduce size and weight. This does restrict your movement even more than a regular sleeping bag would, but also reduced the number and sizes of cold spots inside your bag.

Rectangular Cut - A rectangular cut sleeping bag is shaped in a rectangle and offers less restriction than a mummy cut bag, though they weight more and tend to have more cold spots.

Down Fill - Down fill is a natural feather fill that offers better warmth per size than synthetic fill does. Down tends to be more expensive, does not work as well when wet, and required more care than a synthetic fill does.

Synthetic Fill - Synthetic fill is a manufactured fill that is bulkier than down for the amount of warmth it provides. It does retain some insulating properties when wet, is less expensive, and requires less care than down fill does.

When picking a top layer you also need to determine what temperature rating or fill power you want out to go with. Higher fill powers are warmer and are used for lower temperatures. Many top layers will have either an EN or ISO temperature rating however, so you do not need to determine what you want based purely on the fill power.

We recommend finding a top layer that has an EN/ISO Comfort Level (for women) or Lower Limit (for men) temperature rating about 5C lower than the lowest temperature you expect to go out in. In our experience, the temperature ratings are a bit optimistic. Otherwise, pick the top layer style and fill that best suits your sleeping and budget preferences.

Roslyn and I use a mummy cut sleeping bag rated to about 3C for the majority of the season, with Roslyn's being synthetic and mine being down filled. For edge season we have mummy cut sleeping bags rated to about -5C for the relevant temperature level, and the are both down filled.

Pillow

Pillows are a less critical sleeping item, but are still important for most peoples comfort. For a pillow you can bring an inflatable pillow, a small foam pillow, or a scrounged pillow.

Inflatable pillow - Like an inflatable sleeping pad, this as a small inflatable piece of fabric that you can roll us and store while hiking. They tend to provide the best results as they can be the size and hardness you desire.

Foam pillow - Foam pillows take up a lot of space compared to the other options, but if you can fit them in they can work.

Scrounged pillow - A pillow created from a left over sack of some kind and whatever you have to fill it. Scrounged pillows are usually sufficient, but add absolutely no weight or cost to your system.

Roslyn and I use scrounged pillows. We take whatever clothing we are not using and fill out sleeping bag stuff sacks with it to act as a pillow. We've found that this works well enough for us and recommend it if you are not a picky sleeper.

Extra Layers

Your sleep system also needs to take into account any extra layers you are going to be wearing. Base layers, socks, puffy jackets, and extra pants all come into play to help keep weight down by wearing them instead of taking a warmer sleeping bag. Lower temperature sleeping bags in the 5C and lower range also expect you to be wearing some kind of base layer to be comfortable in their expected temperature ratings.

A normal set of extra layers for us is a light top and bottom base layer to help with any drafts and to help wick moisture away. In colder weather, we also wear 1-2 pairs of socks, toques/hats, gloves, a puffy jacket and extra pants. With our warmer sleeping bags (comfortable to around 3C) and out cold weather outfits we have been able to sleep okay in temperatures down to about -4C.

Your sleep system is going to be one of the most expensive and bulky parts of your backpacking gear and should be well thought out. It will also impact your comfort levels and recovery a lot, so you should make sure it is adequate for your needs.

If you liked this or found it helpful, leave a comment or share this around so that we can reach more people to help them out too.

Back in the Saddle... err the Canoe - Lamprey Rapids Trip

Last weekend we headed out on another adventure, a canoe trip to Lamprey Falls. Depending on the route you take, it is between 12 and 14 km to get there. We had the pleasure of getting there in 16 km due to some detours!

The route we took on Day 2, wind was coming from the west.

Focusing on the route for a moment, you can easily spend the morning weaving through the islands and looking at the scenery on your way in to Lamprey Falls like we did. The water, pine trees, rock, and terrain is pretty classic Canadian Shield. There were plenty of bald eagles as well as other birds to look at while we paddled, and some of our friends saw a giant turtle in the water.

The campsite at Lamprey Falls is quite wonderful as well. There is a wooden shelter with a wood stove in it (presumably for winter use) as well as two picnic tables, a fire pit, and an outhouse. There's also room for 5-8 tents comfortably, but you could squeeze more in. On the north side of the campsite there's a great rock out crop for swimming and staying cool when its hot out.

In total we spent about 5 hours, 45 minutes  paddling, 3 hours 15 minutes on the Saturday in and 2 hours 30 minutes out on the Sunday. The winds were pretty calm both days around 8 km to 12 km. If the wind was coming from either the West, South West, East, or North East at 15 to 20 km/h it would add some time to the trip. You can shelter from the wind in the islands and along the shore, but the long channels north and south of the strip of islands in the middle funnel the wind and waves pretty well if the wind is blowing in the correct direction.

This was our first trip on the water since our mishap on Crowduck Lake and we were pretty nervous about Sunday as the wind was supposed to pick up to 25 km/h in the afternoon. Luckily, everyone with us was on board and we cruised out early enough in the morning to dodge it. Passing some other lakes on the drive home after the wind had picked up, everyone was glad we were not out on the waves we were seeing.

Roslyn and I think it was a good first step back into doing trips out on Manitoba's lakes and we are looking for a couple other trips to do this year still. We also want to do some practice on a day where there are  20 to 25 km/h winds just to get a feel for what its like so we are (potentially) more comfortable with some of the weather we get out here.

2020 Goals Update - The Summer We Cancelled All The Trips!

In February we published a post about our adventure goals for 2020. Now that the year is half over, here is a check in on where we are at how we feel about the changes.

Goal #1 - Travel 600 Adventure Kilometers.

This is a pretty straight forward goal, and we aren't doing too bad. Currently we are sitting at 271.9 km for the year, broken down as Skiing 30 km, Hiking 190.4 km, and Canoeing 51.5 km. 

The biggest thing getting in our way is trip cancellations. So far we have cancelled 3 trips worth of plans (9 days total), which meant that we were unable to do about 120 km of canoeing and backpacking that we had intended to do by this point. And honestly, while we really want to hit the new distance goal, the real heartache over it is just not being able to get outside.

The most ironic trip cancellation was needing to cancel our 5 day trip in Banff due to to much snow and avalanche issues, then cancelling the backup trip here in Spruce Woods Provincial Park due to a heat wave!

Right now we still have 4 more trips planned, which should get us around another 45 km of canoeing, and 75ish km of backpacking. The backpacking number may be much lower as part of it is a mountaineering course we want to take and exact travel distances are given. That would get us up to around 392 km, so packing in another 200 km somewhere between here and Christmas is doable, but might involve more snowshoeing and skiing than expected.

Goal #2 - Plan a Trip with a Resupply Point

Right now it looks like we are not going to have any good length trips to do this on this year. The mountaineering course we want to take provides all the food, and while we could force a resupply on a 3-4 day trip it just doesn't feel legitimate.

Goal #3 - Take a Class 1 Rapids Canoe Course

Cancelled as well! Due to Covid-19 we were unable to take this course so we will be doing this next summer. In place of it, we are going to try and take a mountaineering course and get out on a lake with the canoe to try out some YouTube tutorials on recovering from a flipped canoe and similar situations.

Goal #4 - Get More Involved with the Community

While the goal is a bit nebulous, we have been making sure to respond to as many comments on Facebook and our YouTube Channel as possible. We have shared our video about the Mantario Trail campsites with some backpacking specific pages to help others in their trip planning.

We are also planning on doing some more gear review videos to help people get a look at what is out there and how it all works.

All in all, we think we are doing pretty good given the challenges that are popping up with trying to coordinate any plans this summer. Dealing with the actual trip cancellations has been... a bit of a downer that we had to get over, but other than that the rest of the summer is looking good so far still.

Embrace the Suck! - It's Your Perspective the Counts

Something you hear a lot in the backpacking community is 'embrace the suck' or 'become comfortable being uncomfortable'. When we first heard these sayings, Roslyn and I figured that it was all about having a large amount of will power and overcoming difficult situations. That we would be able to power through the truly miserable moments and come out successful on the other side having suffered through it. And that is partially true. Over the last couple weeks though we have realized it's more than that.

For some background, we have been trying to plan out a trip for some of the weekends over the summer. One of the most consistent comments we've heard when talking about the weather is that it looks like we shouldn't go, or that its pretty poor weather to be outdoors. Roslyn and I were very confused about this at first. To us the weather looked okay, not good but more than reasonable for going outdoors in. The only thing that we would've wanted changed was the light rain that was in the forecast, about 3-5 mm per day.

It honestly took us 5-6 times to realize that to others, that level of rain made the trips we were planning cancellable. And looking back on it, we might have avoided doing some of our trips if the weather had come up like that in the past as well.

Roslyn and I talked about it a bit and we realized that to us 3-5 mm a day was not a big deal. We figured we were also willing to hike through small amounts of snow and sleet without really caring. It's not so much that we could bear down and will our way through the bad parts of a trip, but that those parts didn't seem all that bad anymore due to our accumulated experiences. Now we could easily get through the 5 mm of rain or sleet days and use our will power on the even worse days.

Anyone can do this. It will take time and practice, but you can slowly ease yourself into building up more confidence and a different perspective if you want to. We have realized that it's not much different than physical conditioning, you just need to go at your own pace and you can slowly expand your comfort zone.

Carry Your Weight - Shelter Systems

As one of the Big 3 items, your shelter system will be a significant portion of the weight you carry. The main shelter systems that you will come across are tents, hammocks, bivys, tarps, and cowboy camping. Each of these systems comes with a number of trade offs, but trying to keep them as light as possible is always one of the goals you should be trying for. This article is about a process you can use to help figure out which shelter system to use, and goes through how Roslyn and I went about deciding to use a tent.

The first thing you need to pick a shelter system is the following information about your backpacking habits: expected weather conditions, expected camping terrain, ease of setup required, and space requirements

The above pieces of information will drive what type of shelter you choose in the first place, the types of materials you will choose from, and help guide you when deciding between small differences in shelters. Here is how Roslyn and I addressed needing that information.

Expected weather conditions - Anything except for snow/sleet

Expected camping terrain - Anything from grassy fields, to thick forests, to beaches

Ease of setup required - We want something easy to use and setup.

Space requirements - We need room for two people and their gear. Gear can go in vestibules

Once you have the answers, you need to figure out which shelter types will not let you meet those expectations so that you can rule them out:

Expected weather conditions - With pretty poor weather conditions expected combined with the desire to always be able to dry out, tarps and cowboy camping were not possible as potential shelters.

Ease of setup - Given that trees are not a guarantee, hammocks were out.

Expected camping terrain - Due to expecting to use the shelter in varied and potentially damaging terrain we need something that can avoid damage (hammock, tarp, cowboy camping) or is strong enough to not care (thick floored tents, bivy's).

Space requirements - since we need room for two people and gear, hammocks and bivy's were out. We wanted to share the shelter weight so having individual shelters was not an option.

From the above hammock's, bivys, tarps, and cowboy camping were out, leaving us with just a tent as a possibility. We did revisit this a couple times, but in the end we always leaned back towards a tent. Once you've settled on a type of shelter system, you then need to research the different sub-types. In general though you will be comparing four criteria: cost, weight, durability, and comfort.

Knowing where you sit with each of the above four criteria is important, and you should figure it out before sitting down to compare different shelter systems (you can even figure it out before picking a type of shelter system if it helps). Here is how Roslyn and I viewed each of the criteria.

Cost - we were willing to spend more money for a better product

Weight - we wanted the tent to be as light as possible

Durability - It needed to be fairly durable, but we were willing to be more careful with the tent if it meant either a lower cost or lighter weight

Comfort - we wanted a tent that would keep us dry no matter what, had plenty of space, didn't have condensation issues, and where the fly would be able to flip up to expose more of the mesh for either airflow or star gazing.

This gave us the following hierarchy: Comfort > Weight > Durability > Cost

We then compared a few dozen tents, looked at hammocks and bivys, decided we still wanted a tent, and then looked at more tents. You should definitely take all the time you need to figure out what you are comfortable with buying, and going back and reevaluating your needs is always a good idea if you find yourself stumped after looking at a lot of options.

That's how Roslyn and I went about picking a tent, specifically the Marmot Tungsten Ultralight 2 Person, and hopefully the process will help you with figuring out what you want to buy as well.

Lessons Learned - Wind and Water Safety

Last weekend Roslyn and I went on a canoe trip. We saw that there was going to be some rain and heard that it was going to be windy, but decided that we had endured much worse while hiking and it wasn't going to be a big deal. The first day of our canoe trip was a blast, we dealt with the wind and waves, but it wasn't too bad and the challenge was enjoyable on the few 1.5 to 2 km stretches across open water. We had heard the wind was going to be worse on our second day, but didn't think it would be all that bad.

Day 2 of the trip we experienced 30 km (18.75 mile) per hour winds with gusts up to around 40 km (25 mile) per hour. We started out going into 2-3 foot waves, which were doable, but left us worried for the large open stretches of water. When we hit the open stretches the waves grew to 3-4 feet. The waves were at the very upper end of manageable, but the wind in the canoe was something we had never experienced before.

What we found out, and honestly what shouldn't have been a surprise, is that our bodies and the canoe act like a giant sail. When the wind catches the canoe it pivots the canoe, making it move so that the length of the canoe is perpendicular to the wind direction. This also makes the canoe perpendicular to the wave direction and the combination of the two makes it very difficult to keep your canoe properly pointed into the waves so that it does not roll.

We also had waves crest the top of our canoe a few times. As we were dropping down the backside of a wave, the next wave came along faster than our canoe could rise up and the wave washed over Roslyn in the front. The waves were still small enough that not a lot of water got in and there wasn't enough power to push Roslyn at all.

With all of the above in mind, here are the key Lessons Learned that we took away from the weekend:

1 - We do NOT know enough about safe canoe recovery. We do not know how to unflip a canoe, how to get back in a canoe after having fallen out, and we have never practiced anything like it.

2 - Wind is a separate issue from waves. Even in areas with manageable waves, the wind pushed us around an uncomfortable amount, at one point we could not maintain our course simply because the wind was pushing us sideways along otherwise manageable waves.

3 - Route planning is critical. While we did okay with this, we still learned that proper route planning can make or break canoeing across a lake.

From the above points we have formulated an action plan to make sure we are never in a situation where we are out of our depth. The following steps/rules will help us, and anyone else who is new to canoeing, avoid these types of situations.

1 - We are going to take a white water canoe safety course. We had already planned on doing this, but we are now 200% making sure it happens.

2 - We are putting strict limits on the amount of wind we will canoe in. For us, we have decided that if the wind speed is above 18 km (11.25 miles) per hour we won't go out on large bodies of water. We will still go out on either narrow lakes or rivers that don't have enough space for large waves to form,

3 - All route planning will be done with the wind direction in mind. We are going to make sure that if the wind is close to our 18 kph limit (about 12 mph) there will be a way for us to travel our entire route within 200-300 feet of the shore line/an island that will block the wind.

4 - We are going to plan an extra day into every trip. We can canoe about 25 km per day without many issues in decent weather. For a 100 km trip we would plan for 5 days instead of 4 days and then still stick to going about 25 km per day. This gives us some extra breathing room in case we need to stop due to the weather.

5 - For 2 day trips we are going to limit ourselves to about 10-15 km distances. Having a shorter distance means we can either take lots of breaks, take a longer shore line route, or get the riskier parts of a route done during breaks in the weather.

6 - We are going to be more willing to call off a trip. Having gotten used to hiking in pretty much all conditions we rarely want to cancel a trip, but being out on the water is still new to us and potentially a lot more dangerous.

We are going to try out the above rules for the rest of the summer and then adjust them as we become more comfortable and competent.

Rockwall Trail - Helmet Falls Loop

Date: June 28, 29, 30, 2019

Length: 11.9 km, 13.7 km, 15.2 km - 40.8 km total

Time: 6 hours, 9 hours, 7 hours

Elevation: 758m, 620 m, 438m

River near Paint Pots Trailhead

July long weekend 2019 we took advantage of the extra time off work and headed out to Kootenay National Park for a three day trip. Roslyn and I hiked the Tumbling Creek-Helmet Falls-Ochre River loop, which contains a portion of the Rockwall Trail. To get to the trail, we flew into Calgary with our gear, rented a car, and stayed at an AirBnB for the night. The next day we drove into Banff to pick up ice axes and bear spray, which you can rent there for a reasonable price from the outfitters. Finally, we drove off to the Paint Pots trailhead to start our hike.

Map of the Route, at the junction we went counter clockwise around the loop

Starting out at the Paint Pots Trailhead, we started hiking up the main valley. The Paint Pots is an area full of different clays used for pottery, and the bright colors shown in many of the soils was pretty interesting to see. The trail between the parking lot and the Paint Pots was pretty busy with people out for the day, but as we moved into the forest past the Paint Pots other people disappeared until we reached camp for the night.

Creek tumbling down the clay at the Paint Pots

One of the ponds at the Paint Pots

After getting into the forest past the Paint Pots, we had a wonderful morning climbing the mountain. A few mountain side glades opened up for us to get a great view through the trees, and there were a lot of different flowers to looks at in them as well.

Further up the mountain side, the trail started following a river. At times we were right beside it and then we would climb a couple hundred feet above it before it rose up to meet us again. The further up the mountain we ascended, the more waterfalls we could see as well. Most of them were only a couple feet across, with their streams flowing down into the larger river, but a few of the waterfalls were part of the river itself and were quite large and powerful.

One of the more powerful waterfalls we saw on the hike

Looking down on another waterfall from a bridge over it

About halfway through the first day it began to hail on us while we tried to eat lunch, and then hailed on and off for the rest of the day. During our second attempt at lunch, we also realized that we had forgotten our camp fuel... So cold food for three days for us!

We arrived at the campsite a bit before 5 pm and setup our sent and set about making supper. The camping pads along the trail are very well maintained, and the bear boxes, cooking area, and outhouses are well laid out. After supper we talked to a couple of other people around camp, and pretty much everyone was headed in the same direction as us; over Helmet Pass.

Day 2 we were up early to give ourselves as much time as possible to get through the snow we were expecting. We started up the mountain side early, starting to hit snow about halfway up. Once we arrived at the top, we stopped for a look out over the valley we had slept in and it was an amazing view. By the time we finished ascending near the approach to Wolverine Pass (which we didn't go through) we had been above the tree line on and off for a half hour and it was a crazy feeling to be up there.

View from halfway up the mountain side

Near the base of Wolverine Pass, we had our only moment of uncertainty. The trail went across a sheer snow slope with a fifty or so foot drop to a creek. We had seen another group forge the trail ahead of us, but it was still a bit nerve-wracking crossing the section. Making it across felt like a pretty big accomplishment though and the experience was pretty awesome.

The rest of Day 2 was basically spent grinding through a snowfield. For about half the day it snowed or hailed on and off while we walked. Fortunately a couple groups had gone before us, so the trail was easy to follow and we didn't post-hole too much.

Roslyn looking out at the Rockwall

Crossing one of the nicer bridges

Looking back on our travels of the day

Our favorite picture from the trip is the one just above. We stopped near the top of Helmet Pass to look back over what we had traversed through out the day. Our day started a few hundred meters below where the snow makes a white 'V' far off in the distance. We then walked through all the snow in the middle of the picture before entering the trees on the left and making our way down to a lake that is obscured by the trees in the center.

After taking the picture above, we finished out ascent of Helmet Pass and then began climbing down the mountain to the campground. The top of the pass was full of snow, but it was a great feeling to keep looking ahead as seeing less snow, then some clear patches of trail, and then all of a sudden there was no snow left at all and it was easy going from then on.

We arrived at camp at a decent time again, setup our tent, then walked over closer to the base of Helmet Falls. Watching the water fall 1000 ft to the base of the rock wall and just relaxing to the sound of it was one of the best moments of the trip.

Most of the way down Helmet Pass we could see Helmet Falls and took a picture

Day 3 we woke up bright and early to try and get to the car as soon as possible so we could spend some time in Banff before driving to our AirBnB in Calgary. Unfortunately, bright and early in the mountains means cold. It likely dropped to at least -3C overnight and when we woke up our tent poles were frozen together. Roslyn gathered our food and put most of our stuff away while I did my best to thaw everything out so we could actually take the tent down.

Once we were all packed up the day went pretty quickly from there. Descending was definitely faster than the climb up, and just as enjoyable. A couple hours into the day we started looking back more and more as the trees started obscuring our view of the snow capped peaks behind us. Around lunch we got our last glimpse of the glorious snow covered mountains before the trees cut our view off for good.

One of the many beautiful streams we came across

Roslyn looking out at whats ahead of us

The weather was great all day, no snow or rain, and it became steadily warmer as we approached the parking lot. The trip down along Ochre River was very nice and we met quite a few people going in and out around the Ochre Junction campsite.

Once we arrived back at the parking lot, we quickly put our gear away and headed into Banff. Once we arrived we got to experience walking through a packed townsite with tourists everywhere while carried out bear spray and ice axes. We received a lot of weird looks. After dropping the rentals off we went to the hot springs, spent some time walking around, and ate supper before starting the trip home.

If you want to see more of this trip, check out our videos about it on YouTube: Banff and Kootenay Hike - July Long 2019, Part 1