Garlington insulator to the rescue

[Hector]

Hiked a chunk of the Ouachita Trail last week. My BA air mattress failed the first night. I also had an Oware 40" x 60" x 3/16" pad. The first couple and last couple of nights were warm (40s-50s), so no problems, but it got down to freezing a couple of nights in the middle. I improvised a Garlington insulator from my poncho, filled it with leaves, and was actually warm down to 32F.

Had a great time. Spent part of a night on a shelter floor since I had the shelter to myself. Woke up around 10:00, staggered stiffly out of the shelter, put up the hammock by headlamp, threw in pad then bag and crawled in. What was I thinking? Leaves were at peak color, daytime temps were between 50 and 70, night time temps between 30 and 50.

Hammock-related notes: Need about 3 feet of 1" tubular nylon webbing to pad ropes at trees. Probably need to break down and get an underquilt before I do this again; they don't spring hard-to-find leaks.

Here are some photos of a couple of campsites. The tarp's up in the first one just to protect me from falling leaves and acorns. The second shows the insulator in place and stuffed. The last one shows the leaves in the detached poncho.

[jaiden]

I improvised a Garlington insulator from my poncho, filled it with leaves, and was actually warm down to 32F.

Thanks for the pics! I have heard GI mentioned but haven't seen pics before.

[buckowens]

Which tarp do you use? I am considering a MacCat, but have not decided yet. BTW, love the bookmark!!

[warbonnetguy]

nice, did you supplement with the oware pad or did the leaves work down to 32* alone?

[Hector]

I used the Oware pad, too, which seemed to work by itself, folded double, down to around 45F before the chill started really getting through. I was very glad I bought and brought it at the last minute.

I also wore a light jacket (seen in first photo), fleece balaclava and some wool sleeping socks. I wound up unzipping jacket and taking off the balaclava.

[Hector]

That's a Hennessey hex tarp, cheapest thing I could find with good coverage. A bit heavy, but they have a more expensive silnyl version. I put it in snakeskins and hung it with the supplied cordage and small Figure-9s I found at the local Bass Pro Shop after hearing them talked up here (bowline loop in one end, cord around the tree and through the bowline, then to the Figure-9). I'll replace the pullout cordage with some nice orange stuff I got from Ed Speer, as the thin black stuff is already starting to fray after one deployment. I used a bungee cord loop at the tieout attachment points to keep tension on the tarp. Need to take photos of all those attachments; they seemed to work well and were easy to mess with.

[nickelanddime]

The GI is definitely an easy way to keep things warm. It was under a month back probably when a buddy and I were up at grayson highlands and ran into Lone Wolf who said there was going to be a meteor shower that night so we setup out in the open in a grove. I slid one point of my sg 9x9 tarp under my sleeping bag and wrapped the rest under the outside of the hammock and back over the ridgeline and tied one shoe to it to keep it from sliding off then threw a jacket and some clothes in it and pushed it away from my face so I could see the sky.
It was so hot that I had to unzip my bag. The temp was right at freezing but there were some pretty good winds. Next I need to find someway that I won't have to leave all that warmth when nature calls at 4a.m.

[Just Jeff]

Get an extra Nalgene canteen. Or just a gatorade bottle. Best to mark this one clearly...

[nickelanddime]

heh, yeah, I saw a collapsible one that should do the trick awhile back

[Just Jeff]

I have two soft-sided Nalgenes...I bring them both on winter trips in case I need one in the middle of the night. Haven't actually had to go bad enough yet to sacrifice one, but it's there if I need it.