Testing

Last Friday, G-Man (my oldest son 10) and myself had the night open and free of any commitments other than my own selfish need to get outdoors. Typically he and his brothers have gymnastics on Fridays and we do pizza and movie night when they all get home.

This was also kind -of his first fat-bike ride in the snow.....on his mom's bike

getting warmer

  The gym was closed for the holidays so naturally, I conjured up a plan to go camping. This would be a short over-nighter to test my newly finished canvas pyramid tent and small wood stove, via fat-bike. It was nice and warm, with temps forecast-ed to only drop into the twenties, we were both excited.

I'm glad I brought this candle lantern, it's all we need for light 

the glow from just one candle.....and a long exposure on the camera 

 We got going kind of late on purpose, all we really needed to do was eat a little dinner and go to bed. I didn't want to have too much lounging around the tent, kids get bored with that sort of thing. So by 8 PM we did our short ride and had the tent set up complete with a good fire. I cheated a little and rode down to the site I had chosen in the daylight and dropped off some fire wood.

he thinks he's at home

 There was a ton of fire wood laying around anyway, but again when you bring kids, preparation is the key to having a good time. After getting the inside nice and cozy,I threw a pan of soup on top of the stove and just chilled out. The tent was super warm, and at an 8 foot diameter, surprisingly roomy for two people and all our gear. G-Man acted as if he were at home and lounged around bare foot in attire not much different than his pajamas.

way bigger than I ever thought it would be for an 8'dia hexagon

just chillin' and enjoying a morning cup of hot chocolate

 After dinner and shit load of snacks, I too was lounging and nodded off. It was nice and warm and the light from the single candle just sort-of put us to sleep. After the tent cooled down, we got up, situated our bags in a better position for sleeping, thew some more wood in the fire and went to bed. I have to admit I slept like shit, it got much colder than twenty, and my bag seemed to have a much higher temp rating than it was capable of. G-man on the other hand had no complaints about being cold or sleeping poorly, and that's all that really mattered to me.

sunrise

sleeping bag in the back, stove and tent up front,misc shit in the middle

  I got up at about sunrise and got the fire going again. At about 12-15 degrees F the tent warmed quickly and we got busy making breakfast, oatmeal first and cookies for desert. About an hour later we were back on our bikes and headed for home..... short and sweet .

heck yeah

       The stove and tent passed test #1 but will need to undergo a couple changes before I bring it out again, namely the zipper, and the addition of some short ground flaps to keep the edges sealed to the ground.  Until next time.........D Rider Out