How To Stay Warm When Camping Out, Tips and Tricks

Many people go on hikes and all they worry about is how to keep warm or cool during the hike rather than paying attention to how they will do it when sleeping. They temperatures can change drastically from what they were during the hike to 4:00 in the morning. The main key is to layer up but don’t do it to the extent that you will be sweating when you go to sleep. If you sweat right away when you are going to sleep, you may not realize it then but you add to the vapor content in your sleeping bag or onto your clothing. When the temperature drops, that vapor will chill as the temperature goes down and it will cause your body temperature to drop, also. Depending on the conditions, you can potentially put yourself at great risk of a cold related injury. Follow these steps to make your stay in the outdoors the best that it can be.

• It may seem like a good idea to cover your head with your sleeping bag to cause your head from getting to cold, but don’t do this. It will cause vapor to get inside of your bag and it will loose insulating qualities.
• If you end up getting wet during the day, take those clothes off and put on new ones. Hang the wet ones out to dry and in the morning put the dirty clothes back on. This will help make sure that you are sleeping in dry, warm clothes every night. It is ten times better to be moving and wet rather than sleeping and wet.
• Airing out your sleeping bag everyday is a good idea. Airing it out to release the mustiness will help keep it dry.
• When starting the preparation for a hunt that you will be walking a long ways for or hiking during the winter, spray your feet three times during that first week with an aluminum chlorohydrate antiperspirant and after that first week, once a week. It will stop your feet from getting as wet and sweaty as they would before leading to the prevention of foot coldness. Also, rub your hands with Hand Sense. It will help keep your hands dry and warm inside your gloves.
• Carry a fire starting utensil anywhere you go. You never know when you may get lost and need to start a fire for protection and warmth.

Camping out can be a lot of fun if you prepare for anything that you may be hit with. Use common sense when packing and remember to use all of your resources when camping out.

Emily Flory

Born and raised in Iowa, I have been an enthusiastic outdoors woman from a very young age. From the very beginning my dad had me throwing a line in the water and following him out into the woods to sit and wait for that big Iowa buck to walk by. By doing all of this, I was raised country and always will be.

 

With my home being positioned literally in the boondocks surrounded by timberland and no one else around, I had a pretty good opportunity to make the best out of my resources and my love for the outdoors came when I scored my first whitetail from my backyard.  Seeing that 8 point buck come hiking up the path from the riverbed, this little girl’s life was changed forever. Since then, I've had the chance to score some nice whitetail and have also developed a love for bird hunting as well. If it flies, it dies in my case. I love the challenge and will continue broadening my trophy room around the United States.

 

If it wasn't enough to grow up in an area of heaven like this, we of course needed to put some of our experiences on TV as well. Starting in November of 2010 my family aired the first episode of Outdoors on the Farm, a Farm Journal production. Hosted by Chip Flory, aka the wonderful dad who is the reason why I am the way I am, my family along with our pro staff have been able to put a unique twist on the usual hunting show. OOTF brings farmers and hunters together to maximize their habitat by explaining and teaching what they can do around the farm to increase their profits and quality of their land and even more importantly, how they can have more fun outdoors on the farm. The most important people in my life are my family and to be able to experience this with them is more than I could ask for.

 

Outdoors on the Farm airs every Thursday at 7:30 a.m. (central time) and Saturday at 10:30 a.m. on RFD TV. You can also view any of our episodes on our website at outdoorsonthefarm.com at any time. Be looking out for our 2nd season to start in Fall of 2011 and check out our blogs to keep up with the Flory family and our pro staff!