Well my son and I decided to try a cold hike without UQ's. 1 week ago it was a nice day with a light breeze. When I got home and we packed up and left snow was gone and the sun was out playing nice. We got to Abrams and it was almost 7:30pm on Friday. Got to the site about 45 minutes later and the temp started dropping. Now I have to say this is the first time I've ever gone and someone else was at the site. Two gentlemen where there with a big fire going and having a great time. They had a couple of very nice tents and were well dressed for the night. We set up our hammocks and tarps and started to make a fire. Stinking wood was too wet and it was to late to forage around for anything major. So we cooked some food in the pot and sat down for a bit. We decided to turn in early at around 9:30ish. Temp was dropping, fast. Shivered all night long and when either of us had to use the mountain toilet it made for an event. Froze our butts off to say the least. No underquilts and the wind cut right around my tarp. My sleeping bag is good down to 20, but when we got up the next morning I found that my thermometer died at 17.

Although it was cold and we hated this trip, it was nice to get out. It was our first night hike and that was really cool. We learned a couple of things this time around. The biggest thing is that we need underquilts. The second thing is I need to modify my tarp to make the dang thing work right. So off I go. I'll start modding my tarp asap and I'll find a way to make a couple of UQ's.

All in all I love being out there, but I dont like being miserable doing it. Bleh!