Plasch-Palatka trip 2

 Second trip with the plasch-palatka setup

After the first trip testing out sleeping in a plasch-palatka, the boy still felt it was a bit hard sleeping separately – even though we were only a few meters apart and on each side of the fire. So the plan for this trip was to try out the tent setup using two rain capes joined together.

Here’s the gear we brought. The shoulder bag held carving tools, fire-starting gear, and first aid. In the backpack: rain capes, cordage, pegs, water, cookware, fire pit, oil lamp, saw, machete, and axe. The bedroll is a wool blanket and reindeer hide.
And just for good measure – here’s a picture of the bedroll when rolled up tighter and neater. Looks and feels pretty good.

It’s a brilliant idea that you can combine two rain capes into one tent. I have a plasch-palatka in size 2 and one in size 3. Just for fun, I slept in the shorter half – and there was plenty of space. I pegged it directly through the grommets.

One trick for more room inside is to tie a small loop through the grommets before staking it down – it adds quite a bit of space inside.

The rain capes are designed to be pitched with a center pole, but to get more room I tied it up between two small trees instead. My tennis ball went up into the hood, cord wrapped around – and it stayed put.
On the inside, the back drooped a bit, so I propped it up using a 30 cm stick with a ball on it.

The boy went wild again with the machete on dock leaves and grass, and suddenly we had a soft floor in the tent. He sleeps like a rock on anything, and the ground isn’t really cold. But I think it’s good to practice these skills from the start.

Personally, I’m heavily dependent on a soft base – now that I only sleep on the reindeer hide. My back just gets too messed up the next day if the padding isn’t thick enough.

The idea came to me later, but I think it should be easy to hang a bit of cord from the top, threading it through the buttoned seam – and hang a lantern (maybe just a small UCO lantern) from the ceiling in the middle of the tent. I’ll try that next time.

This was the second time using the steel stove from Rödastjarnan, and I’m starting to really like it. It works great with small sticks, cones, and damp wood. Really good for boiling water and probably also for cooking food. I’ve had good results turning it into a Finnish stove – then it burns for quite a while.

But it’s way too heavy for solo trips or hiking. For that, you need something else.

My oldest son wants to start doing solo weekend trips and has been gathering gear for a while now. He joined this weekend to practice sleeping in a hammock. I’ve passed on some of my old gear now that I’ve gone fully old-school.

He had a good night in the hammock but can tell it’s a very different way to sleep.

It was a super cozy evening. It’s awesome having both boys with me in the woods. The youngest carved spears. The oldest worked on a birthday present for a friend. I carved my first spoon – way too big, way too “deep,” but a nice little evening project.

Now I want to try some kolrosing on pieces like that.