White Christmas From Backyard Bedroll Camp

[Tipi Walter]

I spend another night in the backyard but this time it's Christmas Eve into Christmas Day with actual snow at 20F---cold enough. Mt LeConte gets 1F.

Bag of choice is WM Puma rated at -15F---and used as an unzipped quilt---

Best Christmas gift? Sleeping outdoors while Santa makes his rounds---and sleeping with the Most Beautiful Woman in the World---Miss Nature.

[TwoSpirits]

Haha! Spent the night out back myself. Temp got down to 10°, but I was so comfortable, I had to be bribed with Christmas waffles to come in....

Merry Christmas, and God bless us -- every one.

[Tipi Walter]

Haha! Spent the night out back myself. Temp got down to 10°, but I was so comfortable, I had to be bribed with Christmas waffles to come in....

Merry Christmas, and God bless us -- every one.

Good to hear. Nothing quite like sleeping outside under the vast sky of open space.

[JNI64]

Cool, very cool some would say cold!

I see you have your electric bear fence around.

Do you ever cowboy camp when you're out on your 3 wk trips?

[Tipi Walter]

Cool, very cool some would say cold!

I see you have your electric bear fence around.

Do you ever cowboy camp when you're out on your 3 wk trips?

It's just a regular barbed wire fence. I used to cowboy camp all the time in the 1980s but rarely do it now on my trips. Last time was in 2017. Too many surprise rainstorms at 3am.

[illabelle]

Our Christmas Eve tradition is sleeping on the living room floor in the light of the Christmas tree and the warmth of the blaze in the fireplace.
Of course I used my inflatable mat and my EE quilt.

[colorado_rob]

Well done. I've always said, "He who spends the most nights outdoors, wins". You win!

(hopefully, I'm a close second place....)

[Slo-go'en]

We got 3+ inches of rain and it warmed up to nearly 60 overnight. All the snow has melted, like 2 feet of it. The streams are overflowing. Impressive. Winds were extreme too, lots of trees and branches down. What a mess.

[JNI64]

I spent another night on the couch, with dog......
68F the Costco quilt of choice...

And sleeping with my best friend in the world!!

[Tipi Walter]

Day After Christmas UPDATE---

An even colder night produces an early morning at 10F---coldest yet of the season here in TN---

[TwoSpirits]

Tipi, I think you could open up your Backyard Bedroll Camp for business.

[Leo L.]

Walter, on your last pic something doesn't look right.
Where is the frost? After a night of clear sky there has to be a cover of frost over the bag.

[Tipi Walter]

Walter, on your last pic something doesn't look right.
Where is the frost? After a night of clear sky there has to be a cover of frost over the bag.

This was taken several hours after I moved the bag out of a covered area. Sometimes in blowing snow I set up outside on a porch under a roof---



Other times I set up a tent in the yard and crash---



Several years ago Tellico Plains got hit with a cold snap and I set up my old Keron tent in the backyard---

[Leo L.]

Right...
Frost is one of the problems I have no good way to deal with, when sleeping under the stars, just like you show in your pics.
(which I do on a quite regular basis - just for the fun of it).
Dew and frost is one reason why I'm usually sleeping under the eaves nowadays, and not straight out in the open.

One night last Jan. I slept on a bald mountaintop at 1.500m (50000ft) and was using a 2 Person Gore Tex bivy bag.
This worked perfectly fine, had all the other stuff in the bivy too so the sleeping bag and the pack was not frosted over the next morning.

[Tipi Walter]

My best back yard camps are in "permanent" tents set up until they rot and fall apart. Here are couple in the yard outside Tellico Plains---


This is an old Iron Mountain 9x7 dome tent set up on Chickasaw Creek close to Tellico River.


One of my more fancy camps was a Cabelas Xtreme Weather Tent using a Mr. Buddy propane heater for intermittent warmth on cold mornings. Gas canister visible in pic.


A better shot of the Cabelas monster. Redefines what it means to "sleep in the backyard."

[Leo L.]

Looks, hmmm, great? Cool?
The EasyUp in the back sure is a nice addition.

Anyway, I really aprecciate your attitude, I'm always my wife telling your stories and showing your pics to keep her hot for the next trip.

[Tipi Walter]

Right...
Frost is one of the problems I have no good way to deal with, when sleeping under the stars, just like you show in your pics.
(which I do on a quite regular basis - just for the fun of it).
Dew and frost is one reason why I'm usually sleeping under the eaves nowadays, and not straight out in the open.

One night last Jan. I slept on a bald mountaintop at 1.500m (50000ft) and was using a 2 Person Gore Tex bivy bag.
This worked perfectly fine, had all the other stuff in the bivy too so the sleeping bag and the pack was not frosted over the next morning.

You can solve the frost problem---as you well know---by setting up a tent and just leaving it up in the yard for the winter season. Problem is, UV damage will destroy the tent in a couple months.

I quit using bivy bags back in the 1980s for several reasons---1) I was too constricted and always got too hot no matter how cold it was---and if I unzipped the bivy my bag would get covered in wind-blown sleet and wet snow. 2) On the coldest mornings I often found frost between the bivy and the shell of my sleeping bag---thereby negating the Frost Avoidance Issue.

[Tipi Walter]

Our Christmas Eve tradition is sleeping on the living room floor in the light of the Christmas tree and the warmth of the blaze in the fireplace.
Of course I used my inflatable mat and my EE quilt.

My backpacking buddy Hoppin John strings up Christmas lights in all his backpacking tents---small battery powered things---and he's always trying to get me to have them to add to my already obscene pack weight. There are super nice but I'm not carrying them.

[Leo L.]

I had the same issue with other (single-person) bivy bags, and never liked them.
Then one time in late autumn we invited our friends (so we were two couples) to sleep on top of a local mountain and they used said Gore Tex bag, and didn't have any issues. We slept in the open and were soaked by dew.
So next Jan I borrowed their Bivy and tried myself, as seen on the pic above.
It worked! Rarely any frost or dew inside the bivy bag.
I really can't explain why, its just a fact that it worked.

As for stationary tents in the yard, this would be no good option here around.
But then, under the eaves is just perfect for me now.
All I love is the low sounds of the night and the wind and an occassionally raindrop in the face the gets blown in.
You put it much better using the words "to love Mother Nature"!

[Tipi Walter]

All I love is the low sounds of the night and the wind and an occassionally raindrop in the face the gets blown in.
You put it much better using the words "to love Mother Nature"!

I call her Miss Nature. My latest thought is---"Ya gotta dance with the Woman who brung ya." Or something like that.