So I'm sleeping in a 17' canoe shelter tonight

Posted by: Wolfcri

So I'm sleeping in a 17' canoe shelter tonight - 02/15/10 03:38 PM

Not sure if this is the correct sub-forum but here goes.

I saw my canoe sitting in the back yard all covered in snow... Hmm, I bet ya could sleep under that pretty comfortably.

About an hour later I had built walls reinforced with pine branches and put the canoe on top. It has a side entrance and enough room to sit up in. I made the floor highest at the end where my head will be and sloped it gradually down to the opening with a small drop off as a cold sink. I'll probably block the door off with some pine boughs. Should be interesting. I can take more pics if there is interest. Its not any great construction that a small child couldnt figure out. I am planning on covering the canoe with about 6" of snow for insulation after it settles in a couple hours.






Construction Assistant




And.. the tools required for building such a complex structure.

Posted by: Jimshaw

Re: So I'm sleeping in a 17' canoe shelter tonight - 02/15/10 04:00 PM

Nifty, I'm just not certain how many people canoe in the snow... goodjob
Jim
Posted by: Wolfcri

Re: So I'm sleeping in a 17' canoe shelter tonight - 02/15/10 05:04 PM

I've never canoed in the snow. Way to hard to paddle. But I have canoed when there was snow on the ground near the river. grin
Posted by: Dryer

Re: So I'm sleeping in a 17' canoe shelter tonight - 02/15/10 05:14 PM

Hey cool! I've slept under boats/canoes plenty of times, never in snow, but if you have snow for a shelter, all the better! Two souls and gear could easily fit in there, and it's bomb proof. Tell us how it goes!
Posted by: Wolfcri

Re: So I'm sleeping in a 17' canoe shelter tonight - 02/15/10 06:12 PM

I covered the whole mess with snow. I think its a lottle easier to see exactly how big it is now. I am wondering if it is too big to get warm inside. Theres also a blurry pic there looking up at the vent from the outside to the inside at the head end of the shelter. It might be a little big actually.



Posted by: phat

Re: So I'm sleeping in a 17' canoe shelter tonight - 02/15/10 06:15 PM

Looks like it should be fairly warm, and with a decent vent and a few candles downright homey.

Posted by: 300winmag

Re: So I'm sleeping in a 17' canoe shelter tonight - 02/16/10 02:23 AM

Covering the Grumman aluminum canoe entirely with snow was a GOOD idea. That 1st shelter looked colder that a witch's t!t. smile

Eric
Posted by: Wolfcri

Re: So I'm sleeping in a 17' canoe shelter tonight - 02/16/10 10:12 AM

Well, I survived. Actually it wasn’t that bad at all. It was cold. It did not get warm and snuggly inside the canoe-per dome. I woke up at 4am, 6am, and then to my alarm at 7:30 which I forgot to shut off, so at that point I got dressed and headed out.


Back to last night.
At around 1030 I headed outside to scrounge for some pine boughs for my bedding. My neighbor had a good chunk of one of his trees fall under the weight of the snow last week so I decided it would be best to use that for my bedding and leave live trees alone. I brought as much as I could carry in one trip and decided it would suffice. It didn’t but that’s ok.
The stuff I used was not ideal because it had small pinecones and the branches were about 3/8” to 5/8” in diameter. The pine needles were short and stubby and there weren’t many of them. I am not sure what type of tree it was. I have used much better kinds for bedding in the past. I think I should have doubled the thickness of the bedding too. It was about 8” thick uncompressed. With my weight on top I could feel the snow in a few places once I was in the sleeping bag but I wasn’t getting back up to get more.


I set out my sleeping bag which is a 3 piece military deal including the goretex bivvy. This step was easy with the fairly high roof of the shelter.


Here’s a pic of my little thermometer whistle contraption that someone gave me. It’s the only thermometer I have, come to think of it. I had set it outside to get a reading before turning in for the night. The time was about 11:23 at this point and the outside temp was about 38f.


I used pine boughs to block the opening. I had cut them from a tree in the yard. I should have used this stuff for the bedding.



Shoe rack.


Took my clothes off and got ready to get in the sleeping bag. I actually slept in a t-shirt and shorts. I never sleep in t-shirts and I remember why now. I felt like I was in a straight jacket all night. Here’s my stuff. Dickies and issued poly-pro’s.



My 60 hour candle that I only let burn for about 10 minutes. I bumped into it twice so I blew it out. I figured it was better to wake up cold than ON FIRE.


And to all the gear junkies out there. This one’s for you.
Most of this stuff is EDC stuff that I carry in the bag seen below. The fiskars shears I use on hunting trips and… to cut pine bedding. Victorinox cadet, breath-right strip (had my nose busted a few times), petzl headlight (best headlamp ever), bic with duct tape, and maratac AAA with sere compass (best flashlight ever). Oh, and my keys.


Just incase I couldn’t sleep, a nice calming book to read. And incase I did get really cold, some warmers. I used the small warmer for the small outer pouch of my bag to keep my cell phone and camera from any possible cold damage.


Here’s a couple more items I carry in my EDC bag. TP and wet-ones, and my little gizmo tin. Its sort of like the idea of a survival tin but has some emergency stuff and some stuff I might forget or need day to day.
It has: Tylenol, little swiss army knife, one AAA for my maratac flashlight, little sharpie, bic with duct tape, chap stick, chopped down bic pen, paracord, LED light, couple bucks in quarters, button compass, tums, john-wayne, cuff key, safety pins, life savers, matches, post-its, little container of vasoline, and water purification tabs all in a tin from a Colombia wallet.





Another time/temp check inside before bed.



That stuff fits in the rear mesh pocket in my bag. Don’t even know its there. A pic of the inside compartment and the smaller outside one. Theres another mesh compartment on the front inside the big compartment too. This bag holds a lot more than I thought it would. I have had 8.5x11” pads in there with a shirt and a nalgene at the same time just to give you and idea.






Here’s my favorite winter hat and the little petzl. I slept with the hat on.
[img]http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p157/wolfcri/CIMG1769.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p157/wolfcri/CIMG1772.jpg[/img]


All in all I slept OK. I think I would have slept better with a sleeping mat down. I was cold the few times I woke up but I think it was more of the feeling of sleeping on rebar from the branches under me that actually woke me up. I did not want to get out of bed this morning, that’s for sure. Heres a time/temp check when I woke up. Looks like about 38f.
[img]http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p157/wolfcri/CIMG1775.jpg[/img]

It rained for a good part of the night and we also got snow flurries. The roof of the shelter (bottom of the canoe) looked to have quite a bit more weight on it this morning from the inside. I didn’t get wet at all and the structure held up just fine.
Would I do it again? Definitely. I have had much worse nights’ sleep in much worse places. If I was camping out, it would get old after a few days but it would definitely keep you from freezing to death. If I had it to do over again I would change the design around a little bit. I think my vent was too big and I should have planned my candle location better so I could have kept it lit all night.
I hope this incredibly lengthy AAR for a pretty unexciting campout wasn’t too boring.
PS. The pooch slept inside.
Posted by: Jimshaw

Re: So I'm sleeping in a 17' canoe shelter tonight - 02/16/10 11:14 AM

It seems that you have slept on boughs before, You should use an insulated pad it does make a big difference, also why didn't you sleep in your fleece? That would make you warmer too. Contrary to old time thought, sleeping naked is not the warmest, and sleeping in cotton is the coldest. You could put a coat over you and be warmer too. Do you wear gloves in your sleeping bag? Light fleece gloves are nice to keep hands warm. and sleep in a hat as they say you lose half of your heat through your head.
Jim
Posted by: Wolfcri

Re: So I'm sleeping in a 17' canoe shelter tonight - 02/16/10 11:29 AM

Originally Posted By Jimshaw
It seems that you have slept on boughs before, You should use an insulated pad it does make a big difference, also why didn't you sleep in your fleece? That would make you warmer too. Contrary to old time thought, sleeping naked is not the warmest, and sleeping in cotton is the coldest. You could put a coat over you and be warmer too. Do you wear gloves in your sleeping bag? Light fleece gloves are nice to keep hands warm. and sleep in a hat as they say you lose half of your heat through your head.
Jim


I must be weird. I have tried sleeping in fleece and other materials but I sweat like crazy if I do. I dont wear ANY cotton except my dickies which are 66%poly 33% cotton. The T-shirt is a full sythetic.

I normally use a sleeping pad but the pine bed was a sort of dare. I will try the gloves out if I go on a colder night, thanks. I wore my fleece hat while I slept too.
Posted by: phat

Re: So I'm sleeping in a 17' canoe shelter tonight - 02/16/10 01:19 PM

Nice job.

Boughs aren't bad if you're cutting new ones which are thin and laying them down. Judging by your description they might have been a tad big. Putting a sleeping mat, even a thin one, on top helps a ton.

Also important to remember as long as you aren't wet, snow is a nice insulator underneath you, so a sleeping mat or two right on snow works too.

As some have mentioned, you're not gonna "canoe" in the winter, but realisticly what you're sleeping in is more or less like sleeping in a "snow trench" which you can then cover with sticks and a tarp with snow on top for the same effect.

I've used such shelters - and they are actually warmer than a tent. My only issue with them is dampness, not necessarily once they are up, but the exertion and snow digging required to make them in subzero weather. To do them I really need to have a full-on waterproof set of clothing with me, and ensure I don't oversweat while building it. Not to mention a lot of the places where I am (outside of the mountains) just don't get good snow for this type of thing in the winter.
Posted by: Dryer

Re: So I'm sleeping in a 17' canoe shelter tonight - 02/16/10 02:12 PM

38 degs. and you were cold? Couple of things....boughs let cold air under you. I've NEVER been able to keep warm using tree limbs. Dried leaves and hay/grass work well if you use a large volume of the stuff, but boughs make great summer sleeping, because it ventilates.
A foam pad or two would have kept you off the snow and trapped warm air. HAT! Big loose knit or fleece hat will keep you amazingly warm. Rag wool mittens (or socks) for your hands and some more socks for you feet. Plastic bags for the feet in a pinch.
My last hammock camp was 4 weeks ago in 27 deg. I was toasty with a 1/2 Ridgerest pad, hat, gloves, socks, thin wool long johns. I use my jacket (down) to cover my feet or block off cold spots. Most of us here use down bags as do I.

Anyway, thanks for posting your report and pictures!
Interesting stuff.