If you are on a trek, and you have no pack horse or mule to carry your riggin, how do you guys stay warm in cold weather?

I just carry a canvas ground cloth and a thin wool blanket, and one good Whitney. This is kind of heavy, but it doesn't always do the trick when it drops below freezing without a tent.

Sawbones,There are lots of ways to keep warm in the woods.But most do mean you have to carry more weight.If you want to carry one blanket and, I would pick the Whitney, here are a couple of things you could try....
1)before you put your ground cover down, place
couple of feet of dry leaves on the ground before you put your ground cloth down, and lay your folded blanket on top of the ground cover, then another couple of feet of leaves on top of that, try to ease into the blanket without disturbing the leaves,
or
2)find a large downed log, lay your bedroll parallel to the log, then build a fire pit in front of your bed roll, then build a reflector on the other side of the fire. Use either rotten logs or rocks for your reflector, this causes the heat from the fire to be reflected back onto your body.
I hope these help.

Mike

put something over the wool blanket to hold in your body heat. Think of the wool as the same as insulation in your home, it holds the warm air your body heat created, something over that like a very tightly woven canvas or a deer hide will break the wind n hold the air close to ya, therefore keeping ya warmer. In actuallity I guess ya just expect to be cold n sometimes very cold when out in winter, its just part of the animal. All the other normal ways also help, put on a hat, change to dry warm socks, build a reflector behind your fire to throw some heat your way. And as others have said bury yourself in leaves with as many or more under ya as ya got over ya.Just some thoughts YMHS Birdman

Well our unofficial motto in 2nd Recon Battalion, USMC was:
TRAVEL LIGHT; FREEZE AT NIGHT

They are right about the cloth cover for the wool. Wool breaths, and will allow air to hit your clothing, and cause evaporation. Most of the old-salts, lay down leaves, then set up the blanket, then bury the blanket in more leaves, and carefully crawl inside for the night.

You also have the option of making a leaf shelter, and building a small fire with a reflector on the side opposite your sleeping area to direct heat in. There is the option of heating a rock or two, about the size of standard bricks, and placing them inside a couple small canvas bags, and placing that at your feet.

You MUST MUST change your shirt, and anything linen or cotton before bed. You MUST have a wool cap or hat for your head, and a scarf too.

In UMSC emergency situations, or when we couldn't make a fire or some short of shelter, we'd sit "indian style", back to back, wrap both of our blankets (poncho liners) around us, and cover up with the ponchos. Not a good way to sleep, but you can doze and rest. I have done the same with a partner, two blankets, and piece of canvas. It will work, sorta.

LD

Sawbones, from what I can remember about that country out there in California ya'll are short on leaves but long on grass. Long stalks of dryed grass can be gathered and sorta' woven into a mat or blanket.

I'm afraid any written instructions I might try to give you on weaving hay would shove you into the dark, so you might find Ellsworth Jaeger's book "Wildwood Wisdom" a fantastic resource. There's a section on wilderness bedding that you might find useful. Its ISBN is 0-936070-12-9. The book was first published in 1945 and it has a lot of illustrations and some advice that I've found very handy.

Oh, and to go with Loyalist Dave's good advice on ways to stay warm, I'd like to add a few things I do before I wrap it up for the night.

Like Dave say's get out of the wet things and get your skin dry as you can. I like to do this while the fires going good and I'm making supper. Ill make and eat a good supper with some fat and complex carbs to go with it. Once supper is over, and before I crawl into my bedding, I'll do a little exercise to get my blood pumping so I'm warm but not sweating. Then I'll crawl into my bedding where my excess body heat will be held for a time by the insulation of my bedding. Works for me, it may work for you.

Again, like LD mentioned, if you've got a buddy trekk'n with ya' make a bigger bedding area and sleep back to back...or how ever you Californy folks like to conserve y'alls body heat.

a couple other things I forgot to mention is that if you have a bit of chocolate or something like maple sugar, eat a small portion right before ya hit the sack. The sugar will convert to calories that your body can use to create heat. Don't worry about the sugar keeping you awake, you should be asleep by the time it really gets your system cooking.Another thing is take a leak before ya roll up in those blankets, holding that fluid in your body is just that much more you're trying to keep warm. Empty out n ya save yer bodies fuel for keeping warm. like LD said useing warm rocks wrapped in a cloth works well as does digging a trench n burning a long fire then burying it in soil n bedding down on top of it like in the movie Jeramia(sp) Johnson, I've done it many times n it works well, just be sure to bury it deep enough so as not to catch yourself on fire during the night

My typical gear,(I only trek/hunt fall and winter), Cotton knee breeches,wool stockings, mocs, 2 oxnaburg hunting shirts, 1 wool hunting shirt(very cold trips), 1 linen hunting frock, a double wool waist coat, fingerless wool gloves and cotton head rag. We cold camp and I now use a light 5x7 oil cloth(bought from Blue Heron a few years ago) 1 surplus wool blanket. I make a bead of leaves and wrap up in my blanket & ground cloth. I use my waist coat and hunting frock as extra blankets. I leave a small gap in the blanket/oil cloth to allow moisture to escape. This keeps me warm enough to sleep down into the mid to low teens. Yes dry socks & shirts are a must. I have found I am much more comfortable in these items than I ever was in modern gear.
Chasing Crow

This thread relates directly to the other thread that asks what time period one would like to live in. I can't/won't trek anymore. Age is changing my body. I cannot tolerate cold like I used to. Plus, I take a high blood pressure medication that has the side effect of lowering ones resistance to cold. I'd be in a mell of a hess 'back then'.

AHA!
So that's where my cold tolerance went...high blood pressure meds...

Sparks

My experience: Large amounts of heat is lost to the ground. If you can insulate yourself from the ground, and have a decent wind break, its amazing how comfortable you can be. I usually use two cheap wool blankets on top of me and an oilcloth on top of that and wrapped under me. so all my wool is on top. With a very thick duff layer to insulate me from the ground underneath. 18" thick squashed down. Its a challenge and the more you do it, the better you get at it. If you move around much at night like I do, it makes it even harder to keep warm...also if you have a dog or a young son, you sleep together and that helps heaps!

Back in the day those fellers usually just dozed cold---it makes yu old before your time though...

OK fess up time: These days I sneak a quality backpacking foam air pad in my blankets, and that really does the trick. I can sleep in pretty cold air so long as the ground under me does not suck the heat away. shhhhhh. dont tell anyone ok?

Ya, my brother does the pad also. Helps keep him going with his suspect back! If it gives you a chance to get out, good deal.

I learned long years ago that the most important place for insulation is under you. One of the pleasantest nights I ever spent (alone, anyway) was under a rotten pine log. There must have been a foot of rotted wood under me with at least that much air space above. It snowed during the night, closing the "door" to my little cave, leaving a slot at the top of about two inches slowing air movement yet allowing some fresh air to infiltrate.

Sleeping without insulation under you is difficult at best.

Three Hawks

On top of all that good advice, I find a fur hat that folds down over your ears and neck is a great comfort. Mine has a bill on it that keeps the blanket off my face when I cover myself up except for an air hole.

Will

Here's what the French did in the 1750's when on the march or traveling the waterways via canoe and bateau. The were dressed in wool breeches, wool wastecoat, and heavy wool just-au-corp outer coat, or sometimes had the Wool Capote. They carried a French version of a backpack which was a 4 ft tall x 2 ft wide bag made of canvas or heavy tow linen, a leather strap was fastened on each side and the strap was worn over the right shoulder, and running under the the left armpit. These are bags huge and hold blanket, extra clothes, etc. They were officially issued one blanket OR one bear skin, but their packs had room for both. In camp they would make a bedroll of the blanket and pull the sack up over their legs reaching up to nearly the chest, effectively making a bivouac sack of sorts. Their heads were covered with the tuque double layer wool cap. Their just-au-corps coat served as an additional blanket.

They slept 5 or 6 to a tent when they had tents. When traveling by bateau they could turn them over for shelter. They also carried huge sheets of bark which they unrolled to make shelter. (Trees were different then, and bark sheets were easy to get.)

I have a bear skin I use for the chilly nights and boy is it warm!

quote:

These days I sneak a quality backpacking foam air pad in my blankets, and that really does the trick.

Actually, these days I like to carry a tick. A cloth tube that is about 7' long, open at one end, and about 2' wide. I stuff this with 1/2 bale of straw, shaken loosely, and then I use a leather thong to tie up the open end. This I lay down as a kind of mattress, and the straw compresses down to about 2" thick. Insulates and keeps out the damp. Very comfortable and correct for the history types. I have only gone trekking once since I made it, and stuffed it with leaves. Worked pretty good with them but they must be completely dry. When done you shake it out, and roll it up pretty compact. Sorta the foam mat of times gone by.

The key seems to be insulate from the ground, and keep the airflow through the blankets restricted, so you can heat up this air around you. The sleeping sitting up, back to back, is to limit contact with the ground for this very reason.

I saw a fellow at Prickett's Fort many years ago sleeping against a tree with one blanket, and he had put his pack or something under his backside to get it off the ground, again to get away from the surface that will sap the heat.

OH and for those folks out there who like a heat-up before bed..., you should try Niacin, with a little water to wash it down. It causes flushing of the skin unless you take a full glass of water with it, and you will get nice and toasty. You will find it among the OTC vitamins.

LD

quote:

Originally posted by Three Hawks:
I learned long years ago that the most important place for insulation is under you. One of the pleasantest nights I ever spent (alone, anyway) was under a rotten pine log. There must have been a foot of rotted wood under me with at least that much air space above. It snowed during the night, closing the "door" to my little cave, leaving a slot at the top of about two inches slowing air movement yet allowing some fresh air to infiltrate.

Sleeping without insulation under you is difficult at best.

Three Hawks

You are lucky you didn't have some big furry company try to join you that night.
History shows that many men survived incredible discomfort with minimal clothes and blankets.
At my age, I don't tolerate cold at all anymore and will just read about others adventures, current and historical.

A really good blanket is a help--I have whitneys and they are pretty good, but my Wilde is better [pricey, but worth it]. But, authentic or not, one blanket won't do it alone on really cold nights--a fire helps, shelter helps--all the tips above. I have gone into 1st stages of hypothermia three times in my life--twice when I had a decent modern sleeping bag! It ain't fun and it can kill you. Plan for the climate/weather--personally unless I had to I would not go out on purpose if the weather was predicted to be seriously too cold for my gear. First time I was in a foxhole on point in the USArmy and a norther blew in. I had only a field jacket, no liner, but I had buttoned a brand new on the market "space blanket" under my shirt--saved my life that night, wrapped around me. 2nd time I was in the Blue Ridge mountains hunting and my bag was only good to 20 degrees--it got below zero, the coffee pot froze solid on the fire embers. 3rd time was the worst, nearly did me in--I was in the high country in Calif doing geology--same darn 20 degree sleeping bag--once again the temp dropped below zero over night. These experiences taught me a lesson [should have learned after the 1st]--lessons that nearly cost me all, especially the last one. I even had a pup tent in the last one--did not help, and it was high desert--no plants or other stuff to pad with. PLAN AHEAD, USE YOUR HEAD.

quote:

Originally posted by sparks:
AHA!
So that's where my cold tolerance went...high blood pressure meds...

Sparks

Not a joke. Some of those meds, like Atenolol, do reduce tolerance to cold.

I wasn't laughing. My cold tolerance has dropped as I have aged, even though the warm/dry capability of my clothing has increased. Meds are the missing link.

Sparks