Ireland Day One

Well I'm finally here!! Ireland! I flew into Dublin this morning and it had been quite a trip. I arrived at Chicago airport at 10:30 pm, wasn't able to check in until 3:30 am, and waited for my flight to go out at noon. I was at the airport for 14 hours (Which I won't be doing again) with only a few hours of sleep. Needless to say, it was a long day. However, moving through the airports was a breeze.  

I flew out of O'Hare and had a 3 hour flight, landing in Newark. That's when the headache started. I new there was some type of transportation to JFK airport and was actually directed to the "Air Train" after picking up my bike from the baggage claim. The air train only took me to the train station where I took a train to 3 different stations before arriving at the JFK shuttle. The ticketing and shuffling from train to train was enough to make me give up.

It was pretty easy getting through the airport at JFK. Luckily, my bike was able to be checked at of all the airports for no charge. However, my bike bag ended up with a couple tears from rough handling. I was at ease after boarding, knowing this was the last flight before landing in Ireland. Not long after departing, we had our complimentary dinner which was nice. I was able to sleep most of the way, with waking a few times for comfort reasons. Prior to landing, we also had complimentary breakfast. 

Flying over Ireland was a thrill! I can now see why Ireland is associated with green. All but a few recently tilled farm lands was green. The green became more prominent as we got closer to landing. The cliffs were impressive as well. 

The landing was nice and claiming baggage and going through customs was a breeze. The original plan was to assemble my bike at the airport and ride to the hostel. Instead, I caught a cab. It always seems to take a bit to get used to driving on the left of the road. The cab driver was interesting to talk to. Better yet, he was fun to listen to because of his thick accent. When we arrived at the hostel, I tried to check in but the the desk person said I wasn't going to be able to check in until after 2. At this point, it was a little after 8. He did let me pay for the bed and let me use the key to the bike garage so I could assemble my bike. The bike went together easily and I was able to use my new panniers. I was able to get a locker where I could store all the packing materials for my bike. 

I decided that since I had a lot of time to kill, I would explore around Dublin (which was actually in my itinerary for today for after checking in). I caught onto riding on the left side pretty easily. However, there's a lot of one way roads and their road system and intersections are something complete foreign to what we have in the U.S.  I rode around for a while until I got lost. Not really lost but had difficulty finding where the hostel was. I knew about where it was at, but the issue was getting to it with all of the one way streets. I eventually got off the bike and walked it to the hostel. Ireland (and particularly Dublin) is very bike friendly. They have bike lanes almost any where and the roads that don't have "cycle tracks", the drivers are very courteous. Some streets are barely wide enough for a car whereas some streets have lanes wide enough to fit 2 cars. Regardless, drivers are always good about giving bikers plenty of room and often times give right of way to the bikers. The people here are very friendly. 

When 2:00 came around, I was able to check in an get the room key. The rooms are all locked with hotel style door locks. I took a quick shower which felt really good after spending almost 24 hours in airports. 

The room I'm staying in is a 16 bed mixed dorm. The room is small but it doesn't really need to be that big since I'm spending most of my time outside. The common room is pretty nice, as is the break room, game room, sauna room, kitchen, and library. I made a trip to the break room to access the wifi. By this point, I had 2 Dublin maps and bunch of literature on attractions. I went through my itinerary and marked each place on the maps. Then I was off. 

I grabbed my backpack with some of the snacks I had leftover from the plane, and started walking around. If someone is not used to the Ireland road systems, biking can be somewhat difficult, so I found it easier to walk around and now I know most of the places around the hostel. I decided to also take a trip downtown. 

Downtown was pretty cool. It was there that I saw some of the ruins of the city's original gates. I also was able to see many historical buildings, including Dublin Castle and a few cathedrals and churches. I'm sure my tour tomorrow will go by many of these but I will probably get a lot more history from the tour. 

As I was walking, I learned that the Irish have different ways of going about day to day tasks. They are a bit more relaxed and open than Americans. But I think my favorite part of Ireland so far is listening to the people talk. I love their accent. 

Well I was thinking it was close to dinner time so I walked around until I found a pizza shop that had an awesome deal on whole pizzas. So I stopped there and brought the pizza back to the hostel so I could eat here. I saw a great tea shop earlier, but when I went looking for it, I couldn't find it. I may have to go looking for it tomorrow. Even though we get free tea and coffee at the hostel, it will be cool having some good Irish tea. I would also like to get some to take home. 

This brings us up to where I am now. I can say that I am exhausted. I don't think I will have any problem sleeping tonight on that top bunk. Tomorrow is free breakfast so lucky I'm looking forward to that. 

"Didn't Expect This"

I think it's safe to say that the cold winter months are behind (at least in the midwest). This past winter was a great experience. I did much more camping and learning this winter than ever before. Winter camping can be a challenge, but a fun challenge. From keeping a fire lit, to hauling extra gear, to keeping warm at night. More thought has to be put into winter camping along with the extra gear required. Each year, when I winter camp, I run into unexpected problems and have to learn how to overcome them. Since this year I had more camping in, I thought I would share some of the things you may not expect on a winter camp.

Winter camping requires exprience to detemine what gear you need. When I first started winter camping, I would take my entire gear closet. Now I take the minimum amount needed. However, there is still extra weight and what seems to add the most weight is the sleep system. The sleep system is the most important piece of gear for your winter camp. We found that not having your sleep system well put together will make for a miserable night. It's important to, before the winter comes, find out what exactly you need to keep warm. I found that the particular sleep system I used works best if I put my coat inside and around my feet. I have a problem with my feet getting cold and that was one thing I had to learn to compensate for. While in our hammocks, my camping partner had troubles keeping his butt warm and had to find how to compensate for that. So before you go on a full blown winter camp, you should find what works best for you to keep warm. If you camp all year long, late fall is a good time to get out and discover what you need to improve on.

If you are starting out with winter camping, it's easy to over pack for the trip which adds unnecessary weight to your pack or pulk. That's why it's good to find out ahead of time what exactly you need for the winter camp so you aren't over packing. Some things, though, are good to have an excess of. it's good to have some extra fuel. I found that the cold weather, especially sub-zero, significantly decreases the pressure in fuel cans, limiting how much you can use. An extra stove is also a good idea in case one decides to quit.

Since there was only two of us camping, we narrowed it down to two stoves. Our first trip this winter, we started with three. With multiple people in your party, it's much easier to have each person cooking a different part of the meal. In our case, I was browning the meat as he cooked the noodles, then mixed the two into both pots. After dinner, we used one stove to heat water for hot chocolate while the other was used to heat water for our Nalgene bottles.

Our first camping trip this winter, we had a hard time keeping a fire going. In the sub-zero weather, or even around zero, the fire seems to go out quicker. With that being said, it's important to have enough fire wood for the night. I cut enough wood to overfill my pulk and that seemed to be enough for one night. If the fire goes out, it can be difficult to restart. I found that the fires started easier by using LOTS of little twigs and a fire starter. For a fire starter, we used cotton balls soaked in petroleum jelly. This works exceptionally well. As you collect wood, be aware that if it is frozen and has even minimal snow on it, you will have a hard time starting it. I found that the best wood to use is branches cut from dead trees. They seemed drier and started easier. You can also precut and store wood, then haul it in your pulk.

Fire is an essential tool for keeping warm in the winter, though proper dressing will provide adequate warmth. However, it's difficult to keep a fire going overnight without monitoring it. To keep warm in the sleeping bag, it helps to stuff your clothes in with you. This not only helps to provide insulation, but keeps your clothes warm for morning. We also boiled water over the stove and filled our Nalgene bottles. By putting the bottles in your sleeping bag about an hour before going to bed, you will have a very warm sleeping bag. We also boiled the water right before bed to keep them warm. We crawled in our sleeping bags around 10:00 and my Nalgene bottles stayed warm until about 5:00 AM. I used two Nalgene bottles, but I think this winter, I will use three or four. The one downside to this method is when the bottles cool down, they can actually make you colder than you would be otherwise.

In addition to the bottles, I found that placing a large space blanket between the hammock and underquilt helped to keep the hammock warm. I had enough blanket to also pull it over me to trap the heat. The downside is that space blankets are not breathable and can accumulate condensation. Condensation can be a problem with hammock camping. I found that in the morning, my sleeping bag and hammock was covered in frost. One way to combat this is to make a frost shield. This can be done by taking an old t-shirt and cut out the neck hole and a large square from the front. The neck hole can be placed around the neck and the end of the square can be tied to the ridgeline. This way, any condensation will accumulate on this and not the sleeping bag. 

This year, I also started bivy camping. Bivy camping is an experience if you have never tried it. I will post on bivy camping later, but what I do want to convey is that bivies trap heat really well. I did an open bivy camp this winter and found the bivy adds significant warmth.

When you camp in the cold, remember that your body burns more calories to keep warm. Therefore, it's important to eat at least one good meal a day. Eat something with high calories and protein. Throughout the day, it's a good idea to also snack on high calorie and protein snacks such as nuts or ClifBars.

Lastly, I want to cover hauling gear. I started out with my usual Teton pack. I pack my bag the same every time and found it convenient to pack it the same as I do in the summer, then pack all of my winter specific gear (sleeping bag, extra fuel, wood, etc.) in the pulk. It didn't take long for me to realize this gets very heavy. I eventually refined my gear list to just the essentials and used only the pulk. A pulk is so much easier to haul gear than a pack in the winter. In all reality, I don't take as much for winter as I do summer.

Even though these tips are intended more for winter, I decided to post them now and primarily for two reasons. One: because they are still fresh in my mind. Two: because they can also be used in summer months. Some summer months can get cold at night and for those living in colder regions, these tips will still apply. Remember that the best way to improve on your camping skills and learn these little tricks is to get out there and camp often.