Bedrolls (again!)

[Greg]

Point of discussion:

How much 'blanket', and how much 'tarp' do you carry? Not including other tools/foodstuffs, what do you carry in your bedroll specifically for sleeping arrangements? Is this supplemented with any part(s) of your gear (ie. separate cloak?) Does it change with the seasons (and how)?

How well do you think your current setup works?

[Ursus]

Well lately I've switched to a viggo style leather bedroll cover that I desperately want to get pics posted of. My blanket you know well as you carry the exact same one lol. My ground cloth is a 7x3 linen oil cloth that gets folded into a super thin horseshoe that I wear across my torso in case I want to rig it as a poncho should wet weather hit while on the move. My cloak is a standard woolen cloak with an attached hood.

As far as contents go I've always disliked using the bedroll as storage for anything but a change of shirt, wools socks, and a knitted woolen cap. My gripe with using it as storage of course is that you've got to break down the whole roll to access anything. All my foodstuffs go into my lovely snapsack made by Elleth that belts at the small of my back. Were I going out for longer than two days I would bring my haversack as well for extra food storage.

The only thing that changes seasonally is my spare clothes change from linen to wool in the colder months.

There is a small trick to how my new pack comes together but after it is assembled I find it works well for my style of function on the trail. The whole assembly is light, easy to assemble and remove and has a certain vibe and silhouette not all that dis similar from movie Aragorn, just you know, functional. Pics soon, I promise lol.

[Elleth]

Mine is in the middle of a rolling overhaul, but in all honesty I don't see myself using it anytime soon.

The rolling miserable crud I've had for the last week after a rashy bite has put the fear of God into me re: Lyme, and even though doc says it's just plain flu, I'm much less inclined to take chances than I have been a long time. Southern NH is pretty much ground zero for Lyme, and this year is horrible for ticks - I can't even walk the logging road without picking a half dozen out of my clothes. So I don't think I'll be sleeping out anytime soon.

That said, I just finished sewing a linen tarp and I'm in the middle of sewing a cover for it: sometime this summer when it's warmer I'll give them an oilskin treatment. That leaves a proper strap (still unsure about how to close and if/how to decorate it) and eventually I hope a new blanket from our sheep.

I may be stuck inside with the crud, but at least I can still sew.

[Harper]

Mine is in the middle of a rolling overhaul, but in all honesty I don't see myself using it anytime soon.

The rolling miserable crud I've had for the last week after a rashy bite has put the fear of God into me re: Lyme, and even though doc says it's just plain flu, I'm much less inclined to take chances than I have been a long time. Southern NH is pretty much ground zero for Lyme, and this year is horrible for ticks - I can't even walk the logging road without picking a half dozen out of my clothes. So I don't think I'll be sleeping out anytime soon.

That said, I just finished sewing a linen tarp and I'm in the middle of sewing a cover for it: sometime this summer when it's warmer I'll give them an oilskin treatment. That leaves a proper strap (still unsure about how to close and if/how to decorate it) and eventually I hope a new blanket from our sheep.

I may be stuck inside with the crud, but at least I can still sew.

Good!

You beat me to it, Elleth.

We are all big boys and girls, but if your in a part of the country where Lymes is prevelant, it's not worth it guys. Then there are the co-infections and Powassan (causes swelling in the brain and spinal cord). I'm not going to lecture anybody, but I have seen the results of Lymes on any number of people. It literally can change a person's life. Again, it is just not worth it for a hobby.

Get something with a no-seeum net and spray it with pemerethin.


As an aside, look into Red Raspberry leaf tea with honey Elleth. It should help you a lot. Feel Better! Celestial Seasoning's Raspberry Zinger works, too. The part with the virtue is the leaf. Do you use Oil of Oregano? It is nature's strongest anti-biotic, anti-viral and anti-fungal. They are using it in cases where pharmaceuticals don't work. Oil of Oregano is an expectorant and clears the sinuses in seconds--literally. It also tastes horrible. These two are good to know about for flu.

[Kortoso]

I have yet find a combination that doesn't leave me shivering on a rock-hard ground. Although it depends on the climate and temperature.
Next year I may be trying out hammocks and mosquito nets. And leech socks too.

[Greg]

I have yet find a combination that doesn't leave me shivering on a rock-hard ground. Although it depends on the climate and temperature.
Next year I may be trying out hammocks and mosquito nets. And leech socks too.

Make sure you're thoroughly insulated in the hammock!
Two summers ago, I think it was, my brother-in-law and I camped in the Cedar Roughs wilderness area west of Lake Berryessa in Napa. We were near dehydrated during the day due to the heat, but it dropped down to 42 at night and the winds were up over 15 mph. He slept in a hammock and had the most miserable ~8 hours of his life, while I slept on the ground with a blanket under and a blanket over, and had one of the most comfortable nights I've spent in the outdoors, including modern gear trips. Since it's within 100 miles of your neck of the woods, I thought I'd toss it in the pot for reference.

[Elleth]

Thanks for the raspberry tea suggestion Harper - it's been a godsend!

I don't mean to give the impression I'm done with primitive camping forever: just that in this locale, in this season, with these conditions it's just not worth the risk. What I wouldn't give for a good modern eradication campaign.

Anyhow, I just completed some buckled straps, got a couple pretty skewers from Wulflund I intend to use as impromptu stakes, so once I finish the Aragorn-ish cover, buy or make a few lanyard toggles, and fashion a strap I'll be ready for pictures. Hopefully someday soon I can use the darn thing.

[Elleth]

Here's an in-progress sneak preview on mine:

merf-bedroll-in-progress.jpg (113.03 KiB) Viewed 14078 times

There's a medium-weight blanket in there, wrapped in a hand-sewn linen tarp. Both have been through one pass of the walnut dyebath - the tarp might get a second dunk prior to oiling, we'll see. Both blanket and tarp are wrapped in a very incomplete linen cover, and fastened with four buckled 1/2" leather straps - the latter using the same small buckles/d-rings I put on my needwallet.

I've a scrap of very coarse, somewhat open linen sackcloth I purchased ages ago intending to make grainsacks for a demo site. I'm considering sewing it up into a narrow ticking mattress like our own Kortoso demos here:




... although I don't know if it's rugged enough for the task. On the other hand, I don't want to push weight or sheer amount of fabric much more. The one thing that kept occurring to me as I sewed up the tarp was that as time-consuming as all that hemming has been in the modern world, in period the weaving alone would have made it a fairly expensive luxury. While I imagine the Dunedain of the late Third Age had access to considerably more dedicated outdoor gear than say the average Breelander, it still would not have been at all a trivial expense.

[Greg]

Looks solid!

I'm with you on the period expense...but there's nothing else for it but to assume that Middle-Earth, being decidedly NOT Medieval Europe, had an entirely different set of economic rules, enabling some textiles to be a little more ready-to-hand. Otherwise, we get wet.

Very wet.

[Kortoso]

I have yet find a combination that doesn't leave me shivering on a rock-hard ground. Although it depends on the climate and temperature.
Next year I may be trying out hammocks and mosquito nets. And leech socks too.

Make sure you're thoroughly insulated in the hammock!

Well, confidentially I was considering this for camping in the tropics....

[Elleth]

Looks solid!

I'm with you on the period expense...but there's nothing else for it but to assume that Middle-Earth, being decidedly NOT Medieval Europe, had an entirely different set of economic rules, enabling some textiles to be a little more ready-to-hand. Otherwise, we get wet.

Very wet.

Yup.

Honestly, I think in late Third Age Eriador, textiles would be *less* abundant than in real medieval Europe: there's just not as many people running looms day after day, but cloth wears out just as quickly.
On the other hand, certainly the Dunedain have more access to wildlife. There's a good argument to be made I should have followed Ursus' example and used a deer hide instead for my cover. (Maybe I'll even swap that horse midstream, we'll see)

All that said, people prioritize expenditures as they must, and keeping Rangers in the field from developing hypothermia is absolutely something that would have been done. All manner of things in our real daily lives are comparatively expensive: and yet we have them.

It's simply I think that walking into the Prancing Pony with an oilskin-tarp wrapped blanket might send more of a message than we commonly perceive. Most anyone can wrap some things in a blanket and head cross country: but the person who has dedicated the resources to even a scant shelter means to be outside.

[Ursus]

I'll kick in a few. I intend to do a full kit reviews as soon as time allows. My cover is goatskin dyed with a maple leaf/walnut dye mix that I concocted last fall. After the dye job I rubbed the whole thing heavily with dubbin several times. The ties are cut from the same hide and are stitched on at the rear to avoid having to fumble with/lose them.

The carrying strap is also stitched to the body and has a pair of slots cut at the shoulder and down by the hip. This allows me to run a leather tie through the slots and tie my quiver ad water bag straps together basically making one strap. Makes the whole load super easy to shrug on and off quickly.

I don't currently wrap my ground cloth around the blanket but instead wear it as a horse shoe accross my torso. This is for easy removal, should rain strike while on the move I can remove it and make a kind of wrap or poncho to go around the bulk of me and my gear.

My new water bag is a heavily revamped 2 liter bota bag that's been dyed, had a wooden stopper and waxed leather mouth installed, rubbed heavily with dubbin, and a new leather strap attached.

More detailed photos to come!

[Ursus]

Forgot one.

[Ursus]

Looks good! I always imagine the difference between a breelanders or other woodsmens gear and a rangers to be that a breelanders is bought or made from whatever is to hand. Whereas a rangers is purpose made and colored or dyed etc. to suit a very specific task.

Here's an in-progress sneak preview on mine:

merf-bedroll-in-progress.jpg

There's a medium-weight blanket in there, wrapped in a hand-sewn linen tarp. Both have been through one pass of the walnut dyebath - the tarp might get a second dunk prior to oiling, we'll see. Both blanket and tarp are wrapped in a very incomplete linen cover, and fastened with four buckled 1/2" leather straps - the latter using the same small buckles/d-rings I put on my needwallet.

I've a scrap of very coarse, somewhat open linen sackcloth I purchased ages ago intending to make grainsacks for a demo site. I'm considering sewing it up into a narrow ticking mattress like our own Kortoso demos here:




... although I don't know if it's rugged enough for the task. On the other hand, I don't want to push weight or sheer amount of fabric much more. The one thing that kept occurring to me as I sewed up the tarp was that as time-consuming as all that hemming has been in the modern world, in period the weaving alone would have made it a fairly expensive luxury. While I imagine the Dunedain of the late Third Age had access to considerably more dedicated outdoor gear than say the average Breelander, it still would not have been at all a trivial expense.

[Elleth]

Forgot one.

Oh my gosh that's nice!

Yeah... you convinced me, hide is the way to go.