Getting Cozy Outdoors: Common Items for Sleeping in Nature

When going out to bushcraft for a night or two, I am often asked. “What do I need to bring?” To me this is too open ended. Different people like different things, and people have different needs to be met. Sometime even the environment could make a difference or the climate. Instead of asking, "What do I need to bring?" ask “What do I need to fight?” The two biggest enemies to getting a good night’s sleep outdoors is the cold ground and maintaining your core body temperature.

When talking about ground cover, David Canterbury says in Bushcraft 101 on page 106, “Any ground pad must be thick enough when compressed to battle the effects of conduction (equalization of ground temperature to the body, causing heat loss)”

If you’ve ever noticed, heat tends to disperse to try and warm everything around it. You can see this when you put a hot pot on a counter top or a trivet. The heat from the pot disperses into whatever it is sitting on. The same goes for your body temperature when you lie on the cold ground. Anything that you cover your body with will trap your body heat. This is why you wear long johns in the field or long sleeves in the winter. These clothing items keep your body heat trapped in. On the contrary, this is why we wear short sleeved clothing items in warmer weather so our body heat can escape and we don’t become overheated. Your body also needs to be inclined. There are a couple of ways you can accomplish this such as resting your head on your pack or on your arms. In other words, your head needs to be going uphill, not downhill, or lying at 180 degrees. Another important factor in maintaining body temperature is a good shelter. We talked in a previous blog about pitching a tarp as a shelter, and if pitched a particular way, it will protect from the elements as well as trap your radiating body heat inside.

In nature you can make debris beds made of leaves and straw. The material compressed should be about 4’’ thick (or the size of your fist) to prevent your body heat from seeping into the ground. You could use a pile of rocks or a bundle of sticks to incline your head. The main thing is you want it to be as smooth as possible. You could even take the rocks or sticks and place leaves or straw over top of them to make it more comfortable to rest your head on. Debris shelters are built so small and compact. The smaller the area that is on the inside of your shelter, the better it catches your body heat. Another way you could build a raised bed, is by using long branches or a hammock to get your body off of the ground. It is also important to build a big enough fire to heat your shelter and prevent loss of your core body temperature. However, since we know that we are going outdoors, we can prepare ourselves by bringing some items along so we don’t have to worry about trying to do this the natural way.

The first item that I like to take into the field is a simple inflatable pool float. I like these because they can be packed completely flat, can provide you with a pillow, can be inflated manually and there is no need to carry a pump, I purchased mine at Walmart for about $5. David Canterbury also said on the same page as the quote above, that he does not approve of these as they are susceptible to punctures. However, I believe that if you take the time to clear your site, then you won’t have any issues with setting these up.

Last week I talked about one of the only advantages tents have over tarps is that they have a floor. Not a great floor, but a floor. However, while you are camping with a tarp you can also have a floor. By using the 55 gallon contractor black garbage bags. These are about 8’ x 4’ and can serve as an extra moisture barrier so you do not have to lie on the cold ground or ruin your wool blanket. These can also be used to store debris in to make a browse bag bed. I like to carry two; this gives me 64 square feet of flooring for my tarp. These cost $10 for a pack of 17 bags. These can be purchased at Walmart where you typically find your garbage bags.

The best way to maintain your heat in the field is to use a wool blanket. They hold insulation better and are even somewhat water resistant. They could even be used as an emergency shelter, but wrapping up in them works best. The biggest downside to wool blankets is that they can overheat you if you are not careful. You can often find U.S. army and military blankets at military surplus stores; either the brick and mortar or online stores. Amazon often carries these items as well, although it is hard to find one that is over 70/30 (meaning 70% wool). I purchases both of mine on Amazon

for about $30 each.

As we talked about earlier, keeping your head inclined is very important. In the field I always bring a pillow case. This can be used as a haversack, kindling pouch, or just a dump bag, and of course you can just use it as a pillow. In case I can’t find a suitable debris in the wild, I like to use a child’s arm floaties as an inflatable pillow. You can find one pack of two floaties is only $1 at Walmart and I simply inflate them and pile them into the pillowcase to be used as a pillow.

Finally, my 8’x8’ tarp, along with 6 tent stakes and a 12’ section of paracord folded in half with me. With all of these materials I will be able to erect a tarp shelter with any setup that I choose. For this blog we will continue to use the plow point setup that we talked about in the last blog. Click here to check it out.

One of the first challenges I found in Bushcraft when I was first starting out was finding a way to carry out all of my sleeping materials. There are many different ways to organize your gear, but for this blog we will be talking about the bedroll. Bedrolls can be tricky so following these steps should help. David Caterbury talks about it in Bushcraft 101 on page 22. To begin I lay my tarp out as flat as possible and section it out into thirds; this will be important later. Next, I lay my blanket into the middle third of the tarp.

 I had to fold my blanket in half to get it to fit as well as folding in the sides. Next, I layered in my pool inflatable, my two contractor bags, my pillow and all four of the arm floats. I also added at one end the 6 tent stakes. Now fold in the other two thirds of the tarp into the middle so they overlap the gear in the center. Next lay your 12’ of rope folded in half on one end of the tarp. You will then begin to roll the tarp with this in the middle; make sure it does not come out. Once you get close to the other side, fold the open end in on itself to prevent moisture from getting in to the precious gear on the inside. Once you have your bedroll completed, you want to take the loop end of the bedroll, and have the other end on the opposite side loop through it. Pulling it together and tying a simple knot will suffice. You’re almost done! What I like to do is to take a piece of paracord about 3’ long and tie a loop into one end, then, pulling the other in through the loop and cinch down the tarp to prevent it from becoming unraveled.

In the field I basically reverse the processes. Untie everything and make sure you keep up with your cordage. Pull the wool blanket off the tarp and onto the ground and set up your tarp in any configuration you choose. Use your 12’ of paracord as a ridge line or anything else you might need to complete your setup. Next, unfold the two contractor bags and place them as the floor of your tarp. Next, it may take you a little time, but you can begin to set up your bedding by inflating your inflatable pool float. Place the wool blanket on it and fold it in half. This will allow you to wrap up in the wool blanket later when you need to. After this you can address the pillows by either filling your pillow case with debris or inflating your arm floaties. This took me about 30 minutes to get everything set up how I wanted, the longest part being inflating the floats.

That is the end for this blog. In a variety of Dave Canterbury videos he talks about how, "A sign of a great woodsmen is their ability to sleep good in the woods." I hope that this blog can help you achieve that. Next week we will be ending this series with a review of a pocket tent. You wont want to miss it. As always feel free to comment, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.