Hey. Remember me? I have been neglectful to say the least.

But I’m back. I went on a camping trip with my 11-month-old Scout troop and wanted to talk about my gear. We’ll tell more stories later.

We camped two nights on an activity field, waking the second morning to an inch of snow and more falling. I’m going to reflect upon the gear I used for the event with room for comments on what I might be looking for. I have certain priorities for gear:

1. It must fit a plus-sized woman with comfort and moveability
2. It has to work — and it has to work for me
3. It has to be cost-effective. It helps if we already have it.

Tent:

The tent I chose all on my own was my son’s Marmot Limelight 2p. This tent has a reasonable amount of room inside for me and my gear and was easy to set up in the cold and dark. Unlike the larger tent I stole from my husband for most camping outings (Marmot Argent 4p), this still has its own ground cloth and a fly that goes to the ground all the way around it. That was a major bonus. Please enjoy my living room practice set up.

I stayed dry in the tent despite some rain or perhaps sleet the first night and snow the second. No wind blew in, and my vestibule was also protected (though I did stack my boots on top of my tote the second night just in case, but to keep mud off the floor of my kid’s tent).

Verdict: I liked it. I am very awkward getting in and out of this since it’s not standing height and I’m overweight and clumsy. Le sigh.

Sleeping bags:

My choice of sleeping bag was the ALPS Mountaineering Blaze 20 degree bag. I was skeptical of the mummy bag, but Tim has this extra-long bag (because he’s tall) and it turned out to fit after a bit of an initial panic attack. The blue stripe on it was a very nice color, and sometimes you have to find the thing that helps.

This bag has enough room in the hips (though that was questionable at first) and has a drawstring that tightens OVER the shoulders (not around them) to hold in the heat. It then tightens around the head. Your pillow does not fit in that space to then tighten, at least not if you have the awesome pillow my mom got me for Christmas. Was it warm enough? Not sure because I paired it with the quilt that he got me to accompany this.

The ALPS Mountaineering Radiance Quilt gave me an extra 35 degrees. I guess? I don’t know. I needed the comfort of more layers. It has strings that go under your camping pad to keep it from wandering off. I used two sets and should have used the third but was operating in limited space and bandwidth for optimum usage. I liked the setup and the extra layers. On the second night this got too warm.

I’m not sure if this is mine or not but I’d like to steal it for my camping. A quilt is less confining and scary than a sleeping bag.

On the first night (27 degrees) I was chilled enough that I piled a tightly felled wool cloak on top. Did I need the warmth or the weight? Who knows?

Pillow

This pillow is brilliant. The Klymit Drift pillow has a shell to keep it clean and a soft jersey sleeping surface, shredded memory foam inside.

I love it but — it was a little too big for the sleeping bag arrangement. But this is the “large” and they also have a regular, so I might put that on my Christmas list and see what happens. It also doesn’t pack very small, but it’s really comfy. This is a keeper.

Sleeping pad

It’s cold so I needed the R value of the closed-foam sleeping pad I guess?

We have these in the scout garage, so sure.

Friends, this is going to be a hard no.

Each of these rolls is two of them. And yes, they did insulate me from the cold cold ground. But they were So. Darn, Hard. I felt like I was lying on wood. Or a hard rock. Or something else not comfortable.

I am not a youngster and I’m blessed with ample hips and I’m going to have to work to get to be friendly with this thing. Or (better) find something else.

Base Layer

We would be having fun outdoor adventures so I wanted some base layers so I tried a couple new things. Neither of these was really up for a cold winter outing, but one performed better than the other.

Lands End Thermaskin

These base layer pants feel soft when you put them on — and you don’t notice them — in any way. They don’t feel warm. They don’t seem to wick moisture or really do that much. I think I’d wear these if I was at someone’s house that they kept colder than I liked. They fit well enough, which is nice. I’m not going to throw them out but won’t probably wear them for outside activity. When I brought these in at the end of the trip and started to unpack, these were still cold to the touch, even after other clothes had warmed up in my house.

32 degrees Heat

The 32 degrees Heat Midweight Rib Baselayer Legging was about the same weight as the Lands End, but was much more comfortable. I bought these on a great sale, and they were comfortable and easy to put on and felt warmer. They had good stretch and came up high enough to not worry about them falling down. I bought a corresponding shirt from the 32degrees website and was quite happy with them.

Socks

The socks that make the weekend are the Smartwool Classic Edition Full Cushion hiking socks. In Bordeaux. Because I have standards and they’re pretty much Smartwool.

These socks are my favorite for almost everything. I slipped a lightweight everyday Smartwool sock on first for extra warmth. Yes thank you. My feet barely got cold.

I also have a favorite Smartwool 1/4-zip and would love to have another someday, but people don’t bring those back to REI very often. I got mine because someone had worn a hole in it from it rubbing against their belt buckle but they claimed it was torn when they got it. Whatever. Tim paid much less than retail new and I darned it and love it.

Campfire

We were camping on the activity field of a local scout camp, so a portable campfire was required. I of course went for the Solo Stove.

The Bonfire is portable, efficient, and easy to use. Our scouts stayed warm and didn’t leave a mess on the ground when we were finished. It went back into my car with no fuss, and we’re ready for our next adventure.

There’s much more to tell but at this point I need to go to sleep in my comfy bed with all the pillows and quilts and stuff but it was fun to try this out — and I’ll do it again someday! Get outside and enjoy the winter!!!