Northern Va "Ranger" camping trip - rescheduled

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Taurinor
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Northern Va "Ranger" camping trip - rescheduled

Post by Taurinor »

I don't know how many of ya'll live anywhere near the Washington DC/Maryland/Northern Virginia area, but I figured I'd put this up here.

I'm the organizer of a Meetup group for Fantasy-inspired hiking and camping, which is obviously heavily influenced by this forum. I'm organizing an overnight camping trip at Prince William Forest Park, which is a National Park near Quantico. They have tent-only group campsites, and I've reserved one for one night from September 5th to the 6th (Saturday to Sunday of Labor Day weekend).

It won't be as intense of a trip as the ones some members of this forum have been on, since you can drive up to the site and there are waterpumps and toilets and the like. I'm personally going to hike to the site from the visitor center or another parking lot, but some members of the group have small children and others have medical conditions, so I didn't want anyone to miss out if they wanted to come.

I'll be doing the trip in my ranger kit, but I expect some members will use modern equipment. That's why the ranger part is in quotations in the subject.

All and all, it'll be pretty low-key, but it'll be a good opportunity to test out gear in a low-stakes situation. If anyone is interested, you can find the full details in the Meetup event here. Message me or post here if you're interested.
Last edited by Taurinor on Fri Sep 04, 2015 7:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Northern Va "Ranger" camping trip - Labor Day weekend

Post by Straelbora »

Sounds cool. I'm too far away, but am hoping to do something similar here in central Indiana, possibly in October.
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Re: Northern Va "Ranger" camping trip - Labor Day weekend

Post by bjaurelio »

I'm close by (I live in Alexandria), but we have family coming into town to visit this weekend. It definitely sounds like fun. Definitely post future camping trips. Maybe I can make a future one.
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Re: Northern Va "Ranger" camping trip - rescheduled

Post by Taurinor »

I had to reschedule this trip - my buddy got sick and can't make it, and he was the only person I managed to get signed up. My fiance worries if I camp alone, so I'm pushing it back to the weekend before Halloween (all the better for running around the woods in funny clothes).

Prince William Forest Park is pretty booked up, though, so I'm looking for a new place. Anyone familiar enough with the area to have any suggestions?
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Re: Northern Va "Ranger" camping trip - rescheduled

Post by Rysgil »

I think we should start thinking of this idea again.
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Re: Northern Va "Ranger" camping trip - rescheduled

Post by Taurinor »

Funny that you should post this now - I've actually got a trip up to Caledon State Park scheduled for this weekend, 4/9 - 4/10. It'll be a mix of people in garb using primitive gear and people using modern clothing and equipment. Of course, right now the forecasts are calling for rain/snow Saturday morning, so things could get interesting.

If you're interested, I run a Meetup group out of Richmond, but we go to some of the parks in NoVa.

http://www.meetup.com/Richmond-Fantasy- ... d-Camping/

https://facebook.com/groups/richmondfan ... andcamping
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Re: Northern Va "Ranger" camping trip - rescheduled

Post by Rysgil »

Well hell, I've already got a commitment for this weekend.
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Re: Northern Va "Ranger" camping trip - rescheduled

Post by Taurinor »

Don't worry; there will be other trips. I just need to get better about sharing them here!
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Re: Northern Va "Ranger" camping trip - rescheduled

Post by Taurinor »

Since this got bumped back up, I figured I'd post pictures of last weekend's overnighter at Caledon State Park here. I shared these with the Facebook group, as well, so I apologize for any déjà vu!

Caledon is in northern Virginia, on the southern bank of the Potomac River. It has a hike-in/paddle-in primitive campground, which consists of 6 sand tentpads. Each of these have a fire ring, lantern pole, and a picnic table, and there is a porto-John, but no potable water. Everything has to be packed in and packed out. It makes for a good "Ranger lite"-type camping trip, because it requires hiking in with gear, but the pressure of selecting an appropriate campsite isn't there and the rangers usually cruise by in the evening to check on everyone.

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It's about a 3 mile hike from the parking lot to the campground. We took the Hampstead Road trail up the the Jones Pond loop. The trails are gravel and well marked, so there's not much of a chance of getting lost. Gravel can be rough on turnshoes, though.

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4 adults and two children ended up coming, but only two of us went in kit with primitive gear. I wore my Breelander kit with the addition of some thigh-high leather gaiters. I wore my bedroll in the way Greg described. Since the low overnight was forecast to be 28 degrees F, I added a second half-blanket to one I usually carry in my bedroll, so with the half-blanket I use as a cloak, I had two wool blankets. The portmanteau served as a pantry. I'd like to get a bean boiler to carry in it, but since Bob over at Backwoods Tin hasn't been accepting orders (as far as I can tell) I carried my ceramic cookpot in my market wallet. With cold weather in mind, I used the other side of the market wallet to carry a wool surcote and a modern wool neck gaiter and sweater. I secured the market wallet under my haversack strap and used my rolled-up cloak to pad it a bit. My costrel is still acting up, so I used a gourd canteen.

My friend uses Viking garb (or Dwarven, if you prefer) - a wool kappenrock-style jacket based on the Hedeby find, linen Russ pants from Linengarb.com, wool leg wraps and turnshoes. On the hike in, he rolled up most of his gear in his tapestry/groundcloth or carried it in a canvas drawstring backpack.

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Caledon has a lot of old growth deciduous forest, which is very pretty this time of year.

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The wind off the river was fierce, so we picked the tent pad farthest from the water. There were some shrubs and small trees between the pad and the river, which formed a decent barrier. The sand that makes up the tent pad will suck the heat right out of you while you sleep, so we piled up a bedding of pine needles before setting up our tarp.

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For warmth, the two of us shared a tarp shelter. We weren't able to set it as taut as I would have liked because we had to run a line between trees on either side of the 20' pad to tie the peak off to. I used my 8'x8' tarp to cover the pine needles, and his 12'x10' tarp made the shelter.

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There was enough room inside for two bedrolls, and we stored our gear up by our heads. The portmanteau made a quite reasonable pillow!

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Cooking over embers is a little difficult in a fire ring with a grill, because it's hard to get the pot in the embers while keeping it upwind of the fire. The wind was blowing from the side the grate was on. I was able to keep most of the ashes out of my food by positioning the pot off to the side, but it never really came up to a boil. Fortunately, I don't really mind slightly crunchy lentils.

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I cooked lentils in rehydrated pocket soup (Jas Townsend has a video about making it). It won't win any beauty contests, but with a little salt it was quite tasty.

I was worried about the cold, but between all the layers I brought and the tarp setup, I actually found it to be quite tolerable. I think worrying about getting too cold kept me up more than the actual cold. My friend said e could have used one more layer of wool, though - his undertunic was cotton and he only had one (very nice, but still just one) wool blanket.

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My friend's pack setup gave him trouble on the way in, so we built a Roycroft pack frame at camp. The branches we used were probably a bit thicker than they needed to be, but he chose to trade carrying a bit of extra weight for peace of mind that they wouldn't break.

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The pack frame held up well on the hike out, and he's planning to improve it a bit by carving notches to seat the wood together before lashing. The head park ranger asked us what we were doing on the way out, but in a curious way, not a confrontational way. She has friends who reenact and LARP, evidently, so she knew enough to ask if what period our gear was from.

Overall, I think it was a very successful trip. I'm happy with my current gear set-up, and my friend has some ideas for some refinements on his kit. The cold wasn't as bad as I was afraid it would be, but I'll still probably aim for warmer weather for my next adventure. I definitely need to do some more walking in turnshoes - my feet took a little more of a beating than I'd like, especially if I want to start doing longer treks (no blood blisters this time, though!) I also need to practice breaking down wood with a tomahawk more.

We're already talking about doing a more dispersed-camping style trip up to the mountains, maybe in the summer, so I'll try to post updates on how that planning is going on the forum!
Last edited by Taurinor on Sun Jul 23, 2017 10:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Northern Va "Ranger" camping trip - rescheduled

Post by Udwin »

Very shiny. Even if it's just a single-nighter it's always great to see folks out and about inna woods.
-Your Bree kit looks better everytime I see it! Are my eyes playing tricks, or have you darkened the marketwallet?
-One question on your portmanteau--is there a reason you carry it with the flap opening downwards (instead of opening up towards your chest)? Does that make it easier to get into while walking? To my eyes, it looks likely to catch rain,snow,leaves,&c.
-We butchered a pair of roosters the other day, and I made some pocketsoup from their smoked carcasses and feet--So much more gelatin than from beef neckbones! Between the smoke and salt, it's much tastier than the beef pocketsoup. Definitely worth trying.
Personae: Aistan son of Ansteig, common Beorning of Wilderland; Tungo Brandybuck, Eastfarthing Bounder, 3018 TA; a native Man of the Greyflood, c.850 SA
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Re: Northern Va "Ranger" camping trip - rescheduled

Post by Taurinor »

Thanks! Putting this kit together has been a rewarding (albeit lengthy) process, tweaking it as I get more comfortable in it and better understand what I need to get out of it.
Udwin wrote:Are my eyes playing tricks, or have you darkened the marketwallet?
Yes and no! I think what you are thinking of is my convertible snapsack, which was untreated cotton canvas. This market wallet is unbleached linen that I waxed, which darkened it a bit.
Udwin wrote:One question on your portmanteau--is there a reason you carry it with the flap opening downwards (instead of opening up towards your chest)? Does that make it easier to get into while walking? To my eyes, it looks likely to catch rain,snow,leaves,&c.
Good eye - I had it upside down by mistake on the hike in. Early on I had thought to wear it that way for the reasons you described, but it didn't actually help with access that much, and had all the problems you described. I fixed it for the hike out, though :mrgreen:
Udwin wrote:We butchered a pair of roosters the other day, and I made some pocketsoup from their smoked carcasses and feet--So much more gelatin than from beef neckbones! Between the smoke and salt, it's much tastier than the beef pocketsoup. Definitely worth trying.
I'll have to try that! I just used bone-in beef shank for my first batch because it was easy to get (Whole Foods carries it) and relatively inexpensive. Now that I know I can successfully make it, though, I'm definitely going to experiment with future preps.
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Re: Northern Va "Ranger" camping trip - rescheduled

Post by Udwin »

Ah, that's it! As I haven't had much firsthand experience with either snapsacks or marketwallets, I still get them confused. One of these days I'll get them straightened out.
And just curious--how do you pack your pocketsoup? I haven't had the time to put together a container for mine yet....thinking about a mini-parfleche of sorts.
Personae: Aistan son of Ansteig, common Beorning of Wilderland; Tungo Brandybuck, Eastfarthing Bounder, 3018 TA; a native Man of the Greyflood, c.850 SA
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Re: Northern Va "Ranger" camping trip - rescheduled

Post by Taurinor »

I made my container at the last minute, so I ended up using a tiny linen bag that I dunked in melted beeswax to make it more water resistant. The cloth was saturated with the wax enough that I could just roll down the top (sort of like the resealable bags they sell coffee in) and the heat of my hand made it all sort of stick together. I'd love to say it was on purpose, but it was more of a happy accident. The tiny bag went into my lentil bag so it didn't get lost.

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This obviously wouldn't hold a lot of soup, but for a short trip, it worked fine.
Last edited by Taurinor on Sun Jul 23, 2017 10:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Northern Va "Ranger" camping trip - rescheduled

Post by Udwin »

Ha, that's great. Simple enough!
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Re: Northern Va "Ranger" camping trip - rescheduled

Post by Willrett »

Great pics and only a couple hours from me. I am in Western Maryland in Cumberland. Maybe one of these days if I ever find time to do anything I will have to join you.
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