The Woods

Black hands with lots of soot!

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My gawd was my propane lantern 🏮 plugged up with black soot and mud!

I’m hoping my bath of carburetor cleaner will get it humming along again! I smell so wonderful and my hands are so black. Can’t really test it inside or today but hopefully before I go camping next time. ⛺ But both me and my kitchen stink.

Not sure why it got plugged up by the generator is pretty simple in the propane lantern to take apart and clean unlike the liquid fuel appliances I have. With propane lantern it’s just a simple nozzle, not a generator tube. Propane after all is a gas when it leaves the tank, doesn’t have to be heated to a gas. The soot could have been the air intake restricted by mud plugged it or because most of the time I operate the lantern at low, below the stoichmeteric ratio.

I’m still looking at getting an electric rechargeable LED lantern 🏮 mostly for backpacking and in the tent. The glass is fragile and if I bring either the liquid fuel or propane lantern it’s heavy. Plus I can’t have it in the tent for winter camping. Sure that would have to be recharged daily but with the solar in my truck that ain’t an issue.

Winter Camping Advice

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Somebody asked me for some tips for making winter camping more enjoyable ☃ …

  • Bring a snow shovel and rock salt. 🥄 Both in case your vehicle gets stuck, if your campsite is icy, and to shovel out things.
  • Be careful not to burn the tips off your boot on the fire, 🔥as when your feet are cold you might be tempted to stick them too close to the fire.
  • Put a tarp under your tent to make it more waterproof, 💧and shovel out around the tent.
  • Dry boots are important. 👢 Waterproof your boots. Consider wearing plastic bags in your boots.
  • Wool socks 🧦 are very worthwhile
  • Long johns and dress in layers, 🩳 it’s easy to get hot in woods while working, especially chopping wood.
  • A plastic kids sled can be handy for dragging gear back, 🛷 but try to get any heavy loads in the center and low to ground to keep it from flopping around.
  • I really love my Big Buddy Heater hooked to the 20 gallon tank. ♨18,000 BTU of heat on a cold morning or evening is wonderful just sitting out next to it with a hot meal or coffee.
  • The heater is nice and toasty in the tent too. ⛺I do keep a hunting knife on me in case of emergencies, along with a carbon monoxide detector. I usually only need it for a few mintes on in the tent to make it very comfortable, and it’s always off before I go bed.
  • I really enjoy something baked with soup or macaroni cheese in cold weather, 🧀 along with lots of hot coca.
  • Colorful Christmas lights, candles, and decorations 🎄 adds color to a campsite on a long winters night.
  • Good heavy sleeping bags, stacked makes it quite comfortable sleeping 🛏 in the tent even in a very cold night.

Blank Post #773

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The age old question for winter camping is … do I sleep in a heated tent or my truck?

Winter Camping

Truck Cap

  • Resistant to heavy snow, ice, wind
  • Doesn’t need to be dried out like the tent if it gets wet/snow covered
  • No set up or take down time for the tent
  • Truck cap can leak a bit in heavy rain
  • Usually plenty warm once I’m under the covers
  • Have access to the main power board so I can easily switch on and off lights
  • I won’t bring the heater near the truck due to the fire risk. If I burn up a tent or sleeping bag, it’s not the end of the world, I have a hunting knife to cut the tent in an emergency.

Heated tent

  • Even in quite cold weather, with wind, rain and temperatures in single digits, the heater can make it toasty in a few minutes inside — warm enough to strip down and sit above the covers, although at that point I usually turn down the heat
  • Usually drier then the truck cap as the heat in the tent keeps the water evaporating off the top and sides of the tent, although sometimes snow can melt and pool in part of the tent
  • Gets cold relatively quickly when the heater is turned off
  • Can be drafty on a windy night, even with the heater on as wind blows under the fly
  • Colder then the truck cap when I wake up in the middle of the night or in the morning, at least until I can spark up the heater
  • If I want electricity in the tent, I have to run a power wire from the truck to the tent

The heated tent is definitely more comfortable in the winter then truck cap. But it’s a real pain if I have to take the tent home, wet and dry it out. Even setting up a tent for one night is a lot more work then the truck cap. For multi-day camping trips in the winter though, the tent is the winner.

Raccoons Rack Up a Growing Number of Subway Delays

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Raccoons Rack Up a Growing Number of Subway Delays

A Saturday-night delay along the L line in Brooklyn marked the latest in a growing number of subway service disruptions pinned on raccoons, according to internal incident reports obtained by THE CITY.

“The culprit was determined to be a raccoon underneath the train,” @nyctsubway tweeted after the operator of a Canarsie-bound L reported striking an animal near Broadway Junction, activating the train’s emergency brakes.

It was, according to the reports, the 11th time this year a raccoon-subway encounter ended with a service snag.

That’s up from five raccoon-related subway disruptions in 2018. In 2016, there only was a single report of raccoons affecting service, when a train operator said he let go of an N train’s master controller after being startled by three of the critters at the 18th Avenue station in Brooklyn.

Trapping and a strong fur market could help reduce the number of nuisance racoon in New York City.