Tag Archives: Ray Mears

Baker Tent Hunt – the half-dome shelter

In addition to the full size campfire tent and lightweight versions we’ve looked at, one of the simplest ways to achieve a ‘campfire tent’ setup would be the ‘half dome shelter’.

Source: Period Shelters -http://poisonriverparty.homestead.com/Shelters.html

In fact this construct was used widely in woodland camping by the North Eastern native American populations. One such construction was shown in Ray Mears series on “Rogers Rangers” an exploration of how WIlliam Rogers led expeditions and raiding parties in the early british military campaigns in the Frontier country with Canada, fighting both the French and the opposing native tribes. The demonstration by a descendent of the local tribes showed how a half dome shelter would be built. Interestingly the structure of the frame would be made at the camp site, from materials found thereabouts, whilst the covering was made from wide sheets of birchbark, which being the most valuable material as well as extremely lightweight, would be carried from camp to camp – a new frame simply being built as required at the next location.

Ray shows how with a fire built out front the shelter is extremely insulating, and practical allowing easy access in and out, and the ability to cook under cover using the fire in front of the shelter. These are all characteristics of the “Campfire Tent” or “Baker Tent” we were looking for.

That episode showed a beautiful end result of this technique – I am keen to try this technique, but using a tarp instead of birchbark.

So in searching for a modern version of this ‘half-dome campfire tent’ i began looking into surprisingly fishing “bivvies” which typically do have this half dome shape, as well as a rigid or semi-rigid frame built in. There are many types of these bivvies on the market, with the key differentiating from our point of view being weight and b8ulk, as we will want to carry this in a canoe, as well as portaging where necessary.

So clearly some of the larger more heavy duty fishing shelters, or “carp bivvies” or “brollys” as they are also known in the world of course fishing are not suitable in this case. The most interesting I found were these two:

The Fox Evolution XS Shelter/Bivvi.

This has a rigid, interlocking hooped frame which interestingly stays in place when the shelter is collapsed, making setting up and taking down very quick and simple, as well as great resistance against the wind. Also importantly this one can be set lower in bad weather, another feature of Bill Mason’s campfire tents – that of being highly adjustable to the weather conditions. Here’s a pic:

(a good review here) The downside of course here is that its still quite heavy at 4.2kg (if you compare to a tarp/pole/line setup), but even more importantly its bulky at 1.9m long (!) and 11cm’s diameter size when packed.

All the fishing bivvi info you’ll ever need is here at http://www.bivvies.co.uk/

The Wychwood Rogue Shelter.

This is the most lightweight of the bivvi shelters, with simple shock-corded poles in place of more rigid frames, but again the ability to change the shape significantly from wide open and high at the front very low and enclosed in bad weather. The shelter is extremely lightweight, has good fixings and guy ropes and is very easy to put up (once you’ve tried a few times – at first its quite confusing!). So this one really began to get our attention and we purchase one on Ebay for an incredibly cheap price of just £25, compared to the normal price of about £48. It was a brand new and unpacked one…and in fact the chap who sent it out actually sent out 5 in one box not realising it was a group – I let him know and he arrnged for the others to be picked up – we’re an honest lot here.

So the Wychwood shelter in backyard and canoe trip test turned out be absolutely excellent – the only downside that the poles although light, because they aren’t designed for canoe camping as such are quite long at about 5 foot, rather than being made up of shorter sections- and that does make it a bit big or rather long in the boat, although its no real problem.

The Shelter when set up really does make exactly the half-dome ‘campfire tent’ shelter we were after, and even looks very much like the native american shelters that inspired the idea. It’s a fantastic shape and has only one downside I can see – which is faced into strong winds it can take quite a bashing and become unstable – but if you’re on good ground for pegging this hasn’t been a problem for me even in extreme conditions, lowering the front egde means you can position it carefully in the wind, to get some downforce in play as well.

On less good ground for pegs it can be more of an issue. And in fact on a winter camp last year what were the most violent gusts of winds I’ve ever experienced anywhere on 3 continents hit our camp for a short while, probably half an hour only. Fortunately the direction was favourable, as the shelter got buffeted in the back edge forcing the structure down rather than taking it skyward! With some stones to weigh down the back, some extra pegging to a big log and some crossed fingers, the shelter actually withstood this onslaught, however lying in the shelter with all hell breaking loose around me and snow starting to fall (sideways) I was forced to consider ‘what to do IF it was going to fail’. In fact with this shelter there’s a good option here, and one which is actually useful part of the set-up in good weather too: by simply removing the poles you are left with an excellent simple tarp, again with good fixing point and a slight dome shape that helps enormously when constructing a tarp shelter. So the solution would have been to collapse the poles and just cover the swag with a very lower tarp cover, down and out of the wind behind the canoe.

Since then things have changed and although I haven’t yet tried constructing a shelter using sticks with this tarp, I have used it with canoe paddles attached to the canoe for stablity and that really works well – then you simply take the small rolled up tarp part of the shelter and its extremely minimalist as well as being very effective in both wind and rain, with enough room for two people and gear to sit out of the rain.

“Backyard Test” of the Wychwood shelter canoe-tarp rig:

And in use for real on a canoe trip:

So there you have it – the Wychwood shelter is our recommendation for the half-dome campfire tent shelter and as a canoe-tarp rig; so it’s a great buy for the price.

read more in our “Baker Tent Hunt” series.

Snowbound in a Campfire Tent

The Campfire Tent has been getting good use during this winter snow: kind of a ‘Backyard’ test for a snowbound winter camp here. The campfire tent proving itself again – giving great shelter from strong and bitterly cold Northerly winds, whilst allowing the openess for cooking, observing nature and snowbound views, and generally ‘messing about in tents’! In this weather the views have been absolutely stunning and I haven’t missed a thing – including a huge shooting star one evening. I set up just before the snow came in 10 days ago, and after the main snowfall the roof of the tent had about 5 inches of snow weighing it down – that’s a LOT of weight, and happy to say the canvas, stitching, poles and guys all stood up to the test. The pegs have been completely frozen into the ground so they aren’t going anywhere, which has helped in the very strong winds we’ve had. Walking the fields all the activity of nature is written into the snow in footprints – from tiny mice trails and bird footprints, to thin and whispy deer tracks and big badger prints – all the activity you’d normally miss in the dark is recorded for the following morning.

Also here is a backyard test of a new “Hekla 30 firebox“ from Tentipi, a great bit of kit I’ll write more about in detail later.. The tent itself is from Green Outdoor and features in the Winter Camp story below. For now here’s the video:

Tripod for Cooking – the Ray Mears Way

With some new Dutch ovens pots on there way to me via Fedex, I was interested to see Ray Mears in his Northern Wilderness series using a traditional tripod simply made from some branches found at the camp site. Ray explains how this was in fact the way the “Voyageurs” worked, saving weight by not having to carry a metal tripod. Again unlike the classic dutch oven tripod set up there’s no metal chain suspending the pots either – instead ‘Withy” or thin sampling branch twisted to make it more flexible was used by Ray in this example. Further withies were used to secure the tripod legs at the top – here’s some outtakes:

We’ll be trying this method at our next camp, once I’ve properly seasoned the new dutch ovens.

Ray Mears in Canada

Ray Mears northern Wilderness started this week on BBC2 – the first episode was a cracker. If you missed it you have 5 days left to catch it on bbc-iplayer.

Here’s Ray in his birchbark canoe, wrestling a rapid!

Ray Mears' Swag Camp

You can catch Ray in his swag bedroll in the Australian desert: on DaveJaVue channel tonight at 7pm if you have Sky TV. Here’s a couple of images of his desert camp from the show:

For more on swag camping, see our main post about “swag” camping here: “Me Ol’ Swagaroo”

Ray waking up in the Desert in a traditional Australian 'Swag Bag'

A beautiful desert camp spot for Ray Mears

Ray packing the Swag back in the 4 x 4.

We love swag-camping – if you want to get yourself a swag see our post on “Where to Buy a Swag in the UK” and also see our “Duluth Bedroll” post for a Canadian ‘swag’ option!

For more Ray Mears swag camping see this clip from his DVD from YouTube, showing 4×4 swag camping in places with a lot of biting insects, so a fully enclosed mozzie net features heavily in the swag he uses here – You’ll need to view full screen because there’s an awful lot of split-screen editing gone on in this one!

Re-Light My Fire: Using a FireSteel to re-start your Camp Fire

On a recent Canoe Camping trip I found myself without any dry tinder or kindling to hand in the cold early morning, and the small fire from the night before having burnt out during the night. I remembered a Ray Mears episode where he used a charred log from an old firepit and using a flint-striker he got a spark going into the blackened wood and created an ember that he blew into flames in no time at all.

So with that piece of TV-derived Bushcraft knowledge in mind I used my Swedish firesteel and tried the same thing. Ray had said that it worked best where there were white ash bits on the charred logs due to the “free radicals” which he said he thought “sounded like revolutionaries” (very droll Ray…;-)) Anyway, whatever they are I tried that and to my great delight with some focussed blwoing sure enough the spark began to glow right away and was soon building up a good deal of glowing red charcoal – shortly after that and after positioning some other twigs and and burnt stick-ends on top the fire suddenly burst into flames! We put the Kelly Kettle right on top and shortly after had hot coffee while the small fire took the chill off the early morning air in the valley.

I did some further ‘Backyard testing’ on this since and yes it’s a great technique especially when you’re staying more than one night in one place, but if you are travelling downstream each day then you can use it as I did to get your breakfast on, or simpluy take a small piece of the prievious campste’s fire with you (allow it to cool of course) and apply this technique at your next stop! Here’s some pictures of this simple technique in action:

CRUSADER MUG as Used by Ray Mears, Bear Grylls

I’d seen both Ray Mears AND Bear Grylls using this steel mug type so figure that’s a good enough recommendation for anyone. I also like this design: has some real advantages – the shape means it can be used as a cup or a bowl; you can clean it with anything to hand, sand, grass etc. (because its Steel with not paint or coating, unless you like the taste of PTFE, I prefer sand), and cook direct on the flames with it too.

It’s an army issue cup called the CRUSADER CUP CANTEEN. It’s an awesome piece of kit – you know it’s good if Bear Grylls takes it with him, as he travels with almost nothing! Only a knife, water bottle and this crusadar mug most of the time… it’s the ultimate example of “Get Tuff with your Stuff” minimal gear! The 0.75 litre capacity is incredible in a ‘cup’ and means it can be used for BIG drinks, re-hydrating dried food, collecting foodstuff in the bush, and for eating from – 0.75 litres of beef stew is enough for anyone, in one helping anyway! The design of the handle means it’s a really solid grip and also helps prop up the mug when used directly on the fire – being thin metal it also sheds any heat build up pretty quick. Designed to fit beneath the NATO ’58 pattern army water bottle, the Crusader Cup Canteen doubles as a drinking mug or cooking pot. Constructed from high-grade matt finished stainless steel. Compatible with the Crusader field cooking unit (also available separately). The mug also features handy internal measuring scale (0.25 l/0.5 l) ideal when rehydrating meals etc. Volume: 0.75 L (1.58 pints). Size: 13.5 x 10 x 10cm (5″ x 4″ x 4″). Weight: 290g (10oz).

Note: watch out for cheaper replicas, e.g. from Gelert – thay are NOT the real thing – but the real thing does come re-badged as a bushcraft item, but it’s made in the same factory – you can tell by looking for the serial numbers imprinted in the steel.

Prices from £15.00 each from StrikeForceSupplies.com, our favourite and local Army Surplus supplier – Friendly service, 15 years in the business and now with a new MASSIVE warehouse in Frome, Somerset chock full of gear…!

Here’s the Crusader in use on a recent Canoe Trip:

Coffee in the Crusader steel mug - out of the rain....

The Crusader mug used straight on the fire, cooking up some porridge for breakfast

Baker Tent Hunt – In Search of the Modern Campfire tent

Update: See our latest test of the Green Outdoor full size Campfire Tent.

We’re on a mission. To seek out the best modern version of a traditional canvas tent, the “Baker Tent”.

The Baker Tent- image from www.tentsmiths.com

The basic attraction of this kind of tent or shelter is that it provides a living and sleeping space that is wide open to nature and environment and views around you, and yet sheltered enough from the elements. IN addition the classic Baker Tent is flexible in design, with a porch/roof and side wings all of which can be adjusted to suit the weather conditions. The Baker Tent is also known as the ‘Campfire Tent” which also gives a clue to it’s main attraction, that you can place the tent in front of the campfire whilst remaining under cover and out of any wind etc. In hot climates bugs and Mozzies are an issue of course with an ‘Open Tent’ design and this fact is the main reason why many ‘conventional’ tents don’t offer an open option – they assume the need to close up and exclude any biting insects. Whilst of course you can use mosquito netting with this tent, and you would want to in a hot climate location, but here in the UK with our temperate conditions and lack of any really nasty biting insects the open Camfire tent can really come into it’s own (exception would be clouds of midges in Scotland at certain times of year!) .

Our hunt for a modern version is not limited to replicas of the original camfire tent design such as those made by hand at www.camfiretent.co.uk but also includes any tent or tarp shelter that provides the same basic principles or cover, flexibility and openness to your surroundings, and to your campfire. This traditional 19th century design of tent had been kept alive in book form by the Great Bill Mason canoe-tripper and author of “The Song Of The Paddle” and recently regained popularity through the TV broadcasts of Ray Mears.

We’ll be udating you as we research and find a way to build buy or make the perfect modern version of the campfire Tent, The Baker Tent.

Stay Tuned!!!

Wye River – October 2008

We’ve just returned from our Autumn Season canoe trip on our favourite UK Southern River, the River Wye. A four day trip took us from Herefordshire, past Ross on Wye, through the Spectacular Symonds Yat limestone gorge through to Monmouth, making camp on the river bank along the way. We caught the last of the year’s fine weather, though it was just starting to get cold at night. A fine fire took the chill away as the evenings got longer and smouldered through most of the night, making outdoor ‘Tepee-Livin’ perfectly comfortable: as Ray Mears says – “if you’re roughing it, you’re not doing it right!”.

Gear on trial included a Old Town Discovery 158 (15’8″ canadian canoe), Wychwood Rogue Shelter, Australian Swag (bivvy) bag, Vango 2-man dome tent, Swedish Army “FireSteel” fire starter, Marmot Coffee Press steel mug, Beechwood beaver-tail canoe paddles, Brando LED head-light (clips onto hat) and Musto Fleece.

A Full Report will follow, but here’s some highlights:

A lunch stop…

1st night’s camp site…

Moonlit night…

Symods Yat Gorge Campsite

OzTent – it ain't heavy…

Well, actually it is, and it’s bulky too The Oztent is not a tent for hiking, but if you’re overlanding in a 4×4 or on a canoe expedition this looks like a great piece of gear. A ‘traditional-style’ canvas and pole tent resembling the famous “campfire tent” of Bill Mason, or Ray Mears favourite “Baker Tent” the Oztent is designed to be pitched in 30 seconds, due to an ingenious design which partly explains the Oztent’s 1.6 metre (yes 1.6…) length when packed – but because the poles stay in place when packed it goes up superfast, with an internal locking mechanism it’s also super-stable and strong.

The Oz tent design is roomy enough to stand in and the open front, like the Baker tent, means a fire can be set outside leaving you sheltered and warmed by the fire.

You can buy the Oztent in the UK from distributor Boab.biz – see further details including Oztent accessories here: http://www.boab.biz/Pages/Oztent.

Lots of info on the Manufacturers site .

Path Of The Paddle.co.uk

Canoeing & Bushcraft