Permethrin on clothes and Marathon 35% DEET worked in some nasty mosquito country ... but if you have the pheromones that attract mosquitoes, you may be out of luck.

Tape the legs of long pants with duct tape. Too tight on the inside to get in and too slick on the outside for a toehold.

When to want to make camp before sunset...

I AM SO ready to run away to the woods this weekend. I'll be in Pilot Mountain this time. I don't know how much hiking I'll do. It's been a stressful week and I need some relax time, but the idea of eating lunch on the some cave like spots I remember from last time is attractive. I'll have to go through my pics. I don't know how much of a view it has if you don't climb up. And you can't climb the pinnacle anymore

I'm hoping it'll be cool enough to cook on the fire with hobo packs, but I'll bring some back up soups just in case. After all, I have plenty from the hurricane.

I am nervous about the site. The pictures online don't show much. But, then I think, as long as I have somewhere to hang my hammock, I'll be good. I'm crossing my fingers that the bugs won't be bad here. I just want a nice non-stressful outing

HOOOOLY SHIT! I may not see rain until I leave this time! And I get to light a fire cause it's not gonna be hot as satan's buttcrack!!

Nice!

Have fun and be careful.

Whats a hobo pack?

20-30 minutes? No wonder my potatoes weren't done.

Also, apparently it takes me 2 hours to make a fire. Yesterday I messaged my friend for help. Got it lit right away with her help. This morning was a little harder. More smoke than fire. Apparently I picked the shitiest of the bunch to start with. Other logs are burning fine. Gonna need to buy more wood

I used to gather tinder and stuff it in a water tight bag for the morning fire. One of those $3 fireplace logs from Walmart works even better. Chip pieces off. They sell it in a pack of finger sized sticks if pressed for room. Down here I gather pine straw for the tinder. By the time I am ready to cook the pine ash has disintegrated.

It wasn't the tinder, sadly. I got that lit a couple times and it burned for a few minutes, but the wood itself just WOULDN'T light! I'll have to check out the fireplace logs. I was thinking of trying to make my own firestarter, too. Cause, why not :D

This is my last official camping trip. I'm cancelling the one I have to back pack into. It's not far, but the more I think about it, the more I am dreading it. I am not excited, so why do it? I'm thinking of hitting it on my way to the airbnb I am staying at for gorges state park. If I had someone to do it with, that would be different.

For the past weekend, though, I had a lovely time. I read and had a fire. That was IT. It was just what I needed. No hiking, just relaxing. I have some pictures on my phone, I just need to get the uploaded so I can download and attach :rolleyes: I actually cooked food! It was great!!

I also had a weird thing happened. I bought a new sleeping bag a while back, but hadn't tried it until this weekend. I used it (probably too soon) and noticed the next morning the outer shell was wet as was my air mattress. Is it like pulling my sweat away and out? Should I be concerned? Should I put something on the air mattress to protect it?

It's most likely just dew. Depending on how airtight your tent is, some mixture of your breath and the general humidity condensing.

It was only on the bottom of the sleeping bag and on the mattress, only where the two meet. If it was the dew, wouldn't it be everywhere? (I missed this clarification in my original post, sorry)

My tent is 100% NOT airtight. There's mesh coverings in the ceiling and at the floor. There's also two "windows" that I had partially open to let in the air when I slept.

Condensation.

The sleeping bag has loft, to trap air and better retain heat, except where you're laying on it compressing it. Body heat radiates through the bag more easily there carrying moisture (water vapor molecules) from your skin and trapping it along with ambient moisture, between the warm surface of the bag and cooler air mattress, where it condenses into water molecules.


Either that or it's a bladder control issue. :p:

In case you meet a moose... remember they don't knock you down and run away, they tap dance on you.