Tenting re-cap (Blog 27 of 30)

(Note: If you have not read blog #26 below, you may want to do that first)

So my tenting experience in three words:  Awake.... freezing..... sweltering!

Actually "awake" is more a function of both "freezing" and "sweltering".

First off, though I was in the backyard, I wanted to make this as much like what I would do if I was on a bike trip.... minimalistic.... only using what I would carry with me normally.

Things started well.  I was warm enough and fell to sleep quickly, but I woke up at 2 am because I was cold.  Fortunately, my sleeping bag is a "mummy" type with a drawstring at the top, so I cinched it up tight around my neck to keep the heat in.... that worked well.... for a while.

At 4 am I woke up again because the temp had dropped 5 degrees (according to my phone which I took out there to be my flashlight) to 8 degrees, but it said it felt like 6.  The part that felt like 6 to me was the wind that was blowing through my tent.  Like most new tents, the body is mesh and then you cover that with a solid rain fly.

Now, maybe it would have worked better if I had used the ropes that come with the fly to secure it tighter to the ground, but I didn't so the wind was blowing under the fly, through the mesh and freezing my head.  I cinched the drawstring on the sleeping bag a little tighter and told myself that most of the time the wind would not be blowing at 79 km/h (seriously) at night!

Then the sun started to come up and I could feel the tent getting warmer...... ahhhhhhh...... until it got warm enough to cook nachos in there.... so I was out of bed and had everything rolled up and put away by 9 am.

Verdict:  I think it will work.  Everything was comfortable enough.  It will likely be warmer in July than now so that will be better.  If the cheap zippers on the tent don't break, we will be good!

As Megan noted..... only by tenting in Saskatchewan can you get frost-bite and heat stroke all in the same night!