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GETTING AWAY FROM THEM ALL Summer 2003 Issue It’s a contest requiring courage and endurance – Bill Layman’s fight against the crowds of biting insects that can crowd our northern skies. But as in any great challenge – wisdom is the better part of valour. Be smart – and take cover! Bill teaches you to ... Build a Better Bughouse! Story and photos by Bill Layman Freezing cold ... scorching heat ... clouds of blackflies and mosquitoes ... fierce unrelenting wind ... Vast landscapes stretching to eternity ... oceans of blue sky ... sinuous snake-like sand and gravel eskers that defy imagination ... herds of caribou and muskoxen … Everything about the tundra is big beyond belief. Such a landscape presents unique challenges to paddlers if they are to stay warm, dry and reasonably comfortable. When you walk through the swarm ... For Lynda and me, our kitchen tarp is a “must-have.” When we first ventured out onto the tundra we knew we would have to get out of the bugs at night when we cooked and ate. I looked high and low at various commercial bughouses and I couldn’t find a thing. Every model was suited to larger groups than us two. All were far too big, bulky, awkward to set up and generally unstable in wind. Thus began my quest to build a better bughouse. The seven trials Now, after seven major trips, I am pleased to report that our kitchen tarp has worked well. The tundra gods and goddesses have thrown everything at us that they can, from extreme weather to blood sucking nasties. After each trip, I’ve made small modifications to our tarp and I can now declare it (largely) a finished experiment. Perhaps the best testimonial to our kitchen-tarp’s functionality has come from the Inuit that we have met on our trips. Three times now hunters and their families have crammed under it with us to share our tea, bannock and dry meat. Each time the same inevitable question arises, “Where can I buy one of these?” I can’t count the number of times that Lynda or I have looked out into real bad weather or bugs and said, “How do people do it out here without one of these tarps?” A refuge from all that oppresses Originally built to get away from insects and rain, we soon discovered that our kitchen tarp is great for getting out of the wind, the sun – and some days, the just-too-damn-big tundra. We keep the tarp, prussicks and stake out pegs in an Mountain Equipment Coop (MEC) Serratus medium-sized compression stuff sack in our kitchen pack. The centre pole is attached to the rear canoe thwart with bungee cords. We pull it out at lunch if it’s too hot or too cold or too windy or too buggy. Truth is, there aren’t many days when it isn’t one of these. I haul out the kitchen pack and Lynda grabs our paddles and the centre pole. In five minutes we have our temporary shelter up. It’s funny how this small space feels like a refuge in the sheer hugeness of the tundra. On one trip down the Coppermine River we tagged onto another group of three couples. They were in the habit of grabbing a quick cold lunch. The day was very wet and miserable, so when we stopped for lunch, I convinced them to put up our tarp. In five minutes all eight of us were under it. The temperature under the tarp went up about 10 degrees as our body heat and the heat from our Coleman Peak stove warmed us. Warmed from the inside with soup and tea, and hidden from the sheer cold gray weight of the day, the mood in “the room” was soon chatty and happy. In under an hour and a half we were back on the water. Nothing had changed in the weather but we all felt recharged and ready for more. 15 steps to the bughouse Here’s a quick crash course on how to make one for your self. I started with an MEC Guide’s tarp. If you can find suitable rip-stop nylon at a good price, you could simply fashion it into your own tarp to start. Take a few minutes to look at the pictures of our tarp in action and to study the diagrams. This will help you get the idea of how it’s set up, where all the modifications are made and what they are for. The basic modifications to the tarp are listed below in order of construction. Diagram 1 will give you an overview of the tarp “roof” of the bughouse. Adding to the tarp 1. Sew black no-see-um mesh (it allows better visibility out) along three sides of the tarp (both short sides and one long side). The “drop” of the mesh to the ground should be about 12 inches (30 cm) longer than the length of your paddles. When the tarp is set up, you’ll put the bottom of the erected paddles onto this extra mesh in the corners to secure the mesh wall and stop it from blowing in on you. 2. Make 4 triangular reinforcing patches of rip-stop nylon measuring 6" (15 cm) on each side, adding a “twisted” webbing loop. (See A in Diagram 2.) 3. Sew these patches onto the tarp at each corner (see A in Diagram 1) stitching along the three sides and as well re-stitching over your “X in square stitching” that holds the webbing onto the patch. 4. Make 8 more triangular reinforcing patches of rip-stop nylon, adding a webbing loop. (See B in Diagram 2.) 5. Sew 4 of these patches onto the tarp, three on the back edge and one on the front (see B in Diagram 1) using the stitching instructions in Step 3 above. The remaining 4 will be sewn onto the optional side piece (or pieces) described in Step 14 below and shown in Diagram 4. Hoisting it up 6. Sew a reinforced square of soft leather (or heavy cordura) onto the tarp. (See Diagram 1.) Install a brass grommet through both the square and the tarp. The grommet hole is used for insertion of your centre pole. Grommet kits can be purchased from CAMPMOR. 7. Make two rip-stop nylon “paddle pockets” with a string closure. (See Diagram 3.) If this construction detail eludes you, take a look at the leg of a pair of blue jeans. The string closure detail is the same as the drawstring used to close a typical day pack. 8. Sew the paddle pockets onto the underside of the tarp in the two front corners with “X in square” stitching. (See Diagram 3.) It may help to glance at Diagram 5, which shows the final set-up at each front corner of the bughouse. 9. Add velcro to attach the optional “storm” wall: sew seven 4” (10 cm) male velcro strips onto both sides of the tarp. (See Diagram 1.) Weighing it down 10. Make a 12” (30 cm) wide rip-stop nylon sod flap the length of your tarp. 11. Make 4 rock flaps measuring 12” x 12” (see C in Diagram 1) and sew them onto the sod flap you made in Step 10 above. 12. Sew the sod flap onto the underside of the tarp (see Diagram 1) such that it can be weighted down with small rocks when you are under the tarp. The rock flaps (see C) will be on the outside and can be used to weigh the tarp down if the wind gets crazy. Adding stake-out points 13. Make 2 squares measuring 6” X 6” (15 x 15 cm) with a single webbing loop on each. (Use the sewing detail shown in Diagram 2.) Sew them onto the tarp. (See D in Diagram 1.) Storm walls 14. Make a side piece (or two) of rip-stop nylon, making sure it is about 12" (30 cm) longer than your paddle. Note that you will be sewing seven 4" (10 cm) female velcro strips to the top edge, which will attach to the male strips on either side of the tarp. (See Diagram 4.) Add convenience pockets 15. Make one or two inside pockets for odds and ends and sew them onto the inside of the tarp. (See Diagram 1.) Look at a shirt pocket for details. Keep the wind at your back The idea is to wedge the tarp with its back into the wind. Use your whitewater paddles and a nesting Eureka centre pole to erect it. As the weather gets worse you can add more rocks (C) and pegs (B) to the back. Using the wind pullouts (D), we attach extra guy lines that can be staked out: this stops the tarp from blowing in on itself. We also attach the side (or sides) to shed wind and use more ropes, rocks and pegs to stake out the front corners. If things get real bad — or at night when you go to bed — all you have to do is lower the centre pole and collapse the two paddles at the front corners. This makes for an easy set up later on. Just lift the paddles up, tip up the centre pole, and you’re back in business. Listen to the old guy On the topic of guy lines, take my hard-learned advice and use a narrow diameter cord, such as a 3 mm cord from MEC. Don’t get carried away, as you’ll be collapsing the tarp manually long before the guy line breaks. Pegging out To simplify pegging the tarp out, phone CAMPMOR and buy some 9 - 10" spiral design tent pegs or the more expensive 7075-T6 aluminum Northface 7" V-stakes (highly recommended!). Take a small hatchet for pounding the pegs into rocky tundra campspots and pound them in at a 45° angle to the line of tension. The Inuit will think you’re an idiot for having an axe, but trust me, the first time you mash your finger trying to use a rock you’ll wish you had one. For set up in rocky areas or when the wind is bad, guy the front of the tarp out to rocks as the Inuit would do. I have used their basic idea but added the idea of prussicks as shown in Diagram 5. Sewing it up As far as the sewing goes, I’ve got an old Singer treadle sewing machine that I refurbished. Short of a commercial machine, it’s the only way to go when you are sewing thick layers of material onto a tarp like this. It also works perfectly when sewing light sheer material like the no-see-um mesh. I tried to use our regular sewing machine, and it just couldn’t do the “thick” work. Lynda learned lots of new “run-on-four-letter-word phrases” as I tried to make it do my will. If you have an old treadle sewing machine or can find one, you can likely get it to a working state. Manuals and all the parts are still available. Trust me, it’s well worth the effort to get a treadle machine running. You’ll use it on lots of your other gear if you’re like me and want to keep tweaking your outfit. I haven’t taken the time to explain the basics of sewing. I assume you have used a sewing machine, know how to sew a flat hem (which isn’t really necessary but looks nice), and can sew a standard “x in square” stitch for added strength. Take a look at some of your other outdoor gear to get ideas and teach yourself. Or better still, maybe you can coax someone to do it for you if you took shop in school like I did. Good luck! I still haven’t convinced Lynda into doing “what- feels-like-miles-of sewing” for our next tarp. Bill Layman and Lynda Holland have lived in La Ronge for over 25 years. Look for trip reports at www.out-there.com Write them at PO Box 327, La Ronge, SK S0J 1L0. While there are many sources for the tools Bill uses, he recommends the following websites as starting points: • 6 foot EUREKA aluminum nested backpacker upright (centre pole) from CAMPMOR (www.campmor.com) • 9" spiral aluminum stakes and Northface V-stakes (CAMPMOR) • black no-see-um mesh and other fabrics from Outdoor Wilderness Fabrics (www.owfinc.com)((www.owfinc.com). • treadle sewing machine parts and manuals from Stepping Stone Quilts (http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/webspinner/quilts.htm) Tel: 912-638-7128 • guide’s tarp and miscellaneous items from Mountain Equipment Co-op (www.mec.ca).