Natural Insulation options

Uinta

Uinta

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I am planning a winter camp into an aspen forest. I would like to build a shelter but the trouble I see is that there will be very limited natural materials available for insulation. Aspen leaves are about as thin as tissue and will be soaking wet. There will be no available spruce or pine. Any suggestions? I am paking a tent, tarp, pad and wool blanket to help but in a worst case senario, what options would one have from nature?
 
Conifer boughs, grasses, leaves n cattail stalks is what I use around here. Not having those, what do you have? Grass grows in most of our aspen woods. WI sure is nice for the variety of plants n terrain.

I like Myke Hawke's idea of principles vs lists. We all know the twin points of insulation are dead air space n dryness. What's available that can fulfill those requirements?

Worse case, even though those leaves aren't optimal in your eyes, you may need to settle for them.
 
Uinta said:
I am planning a winter camp into an aspen forest. I would like to build a shelter but the trouble I see is that there will be very limited natural materials available for insulation. Aspen leaves are about as thin as tissue and will be soaking wet. There will be no available spruce or pine. Any suggestions? I am paking a tent, tarp, pad and wool blanket to help but in a worst case senario, what options would one have from nature?
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My advice is to know your area; and from what you're telling us there is not too much there for bedding. Cut out some other stuff and pack in more, say a Therma rest AND a closed cell foam pad and maybe some newspapers. Cold ground is really about the worst thing for me: If my back is cold, I'm really cold!

My favorite thing is camp cooking, but on my recent overnighter on Jan 6, all I took to cook with was a tin can and a Sierra cup. Most of the rest of my gear was bedding, and I wish I had brought more!
 
Around here there are lots of fur bows available for bedding/insulation but, there is also an abundent supply of dead ferns. these are also a good source for natural bedding/insulation. they are easy to collect providing they are not burried uder snow. not sure if there any in your area or how much snow is down but just thought I would share.
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the spot I am planning to go is my family's property. I am very familiar with the area which is sadly why I am not depending on nature to provide. It's been 20 years since I was up there in the winter. If memory serves there will be standing dead trees and everything else will be buried under the snow. (7,500 ft). May have to look at building a quinzee.
 
I grew up in CO, so I know the aspen forest you're talking about (here in WI, we tend to have more grasses, etc. available. One of the above posters mentioned ferns though... Bracken ferns were about the only type of bedding available to me when I taught college survival courses in the fall, so that's what we used. be careful when harvesting them though, as the stems are razor sharp and will really slice you open if you just grab them and pull! (cutting with a knife or machete is safer). They pack down quickly, but will offer adequate bedding for a night. Other than that, or being in more of a mixed area where you can get spruce or fir boughs, carrying in a pad is a better bet.
 
I noticed last year even tho we had plenty of cold there was enough snow on the ground to prevent the soil from freezing much below 6 inches or so . I know this because I was trying to dig a Dakota fire pit to heat my shelter .
My thoughts now are to dig a dugout and build a fire at one end . This may not be possible in your AO due to soil conditions etc . but people have been digging in for millenia when building material was sparse .
 
+1 on the ferns.i used them to make it through a 7 deg night comfortably in my hammock one time.i filled all the stuff sacks and pouches i had with me with them and stuffed them into my hammocks pockets.i also filled a large garbage bag with some and set that atop me to augment my blanket.this was in the spring right after snowmelt.
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a different trips insulation.cattail fluff and marsh grass.
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last winter i made it through an -18 deg night comfortably partialy insulated with natural materials.i had bags of cattail fluff,and a hammock chair that was two layers of nylon ripstop about 3x5 feet ,with one end open it formed a bag.i had filled this bag.i walked around the woods and filled it withwatever i found that was dry,a few leaves that were still on the tree,goldenroad tops,mullien leaves,grass,rearly everlasting, birchbark,ect.whatever was sticking out of the snow.i got about 4 inch of loft in it.i covered up with it and a 32deg sleeping bag and stayed toasty.
the bag
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the contents,the ziplocks were in my hammocks pockets
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so bring some bags.fill them with whatever is dry and cozy up to and under it.
bill
 
Insulation

Don't forget snow. Not under you, but piled around the sides. You can pile the wet leaves out there as well. Did you mention a waterproof ground sheet? Keep dry, change clothes. Soft evergreens gathered off the trees under you will help.

Wool will generate heat if damp, but don't get wet if possible. Another body helps too. I've camped in -10 degree weather outside, and the interior of the tent was +50.
 
Did you think about a fire bed. Dig out a pit the size of your body and about 6 to 8 inches deep where your going to sleep for the night. Build a fire over the complete dug out and build a nice coal bed about a inch or to thick. Recover the pit with the dirt from before and pack it down good so no air gets down to the coals. After about 15 minutes this bed should be nice and warm for most of the night. Its a great alternative to collecting insulating material or when its not availible.
 
When camping, it is important to take plenty of food and water to remain nourished. These items should be easy to store, easy to carry when out on the trail and easy to keep fresh.
Camping is an excellent way of recreation, which not only helps you to relieve stress, So it is necessary to take care of the Food,water, proper clothes to warm yourself and tent etc that are of light weight easy to carry.
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Do you copy this info from a book and post it here? I have read all 5 of your posts and they are all text book answers that we are all aware of. Are you some kind of bushcraft robot?
 
So here is my experimental winter shelter I'm working on . About half done so far .( thought I could dig it in one afternoon) The idea is to dig a small cave in the back of this walk out basement type hole .
I will drill down from the top into the back of the fire cave . That hole drilled into the back will act as a chimney which will remove the smoke and create draft over the frre .
In addition I will trench down the middle of the hole between the two bunks to the exterior to provide a path for combustion air . This trench may be covered with a layer of sticks and soil .
I am excavating this into a secondary river bank ( a bank which was left behind when the river changed course)
Will cover with tarp or bark .

IMG_0883.jpg
 
Soaking wet leaves are better than nothing, so long as you have a waterproof sheet over them. The ground will be a lot colder than the leaves.
See if you can't cut the outer, thinner branches of the aspen trees. I have made beds using the branches of broad leaf trees before.
 
Stopping along the way to pick up some bedding from areas leading there is also an option unless you only want to get it from that site. Just a thought. Be safe and have a great time!!!
 
Uinta said:
I am planning a winter camp into an aspen forest. I would like to build a shelter but the trouble I see is that there will be very limited natural materials available for insulation. Aspen leaves are about as thin as tissue and will be soaking wet. There will be no available spruce or pine. Any suggestions? I am paking a tent, tarp, pad and wool blanket to help but in a worst case senario, what options would one have from nature?
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Know your area. Where are the coldest and warmest places to camp? Top of a ridge? In the valley? Best place is usually somewhere in between. Ridge is subject to wind. Valley retains cold. Shelf half way up is usually best. Open exposed areas, points on lakes, cliff tops, etc, are good for summer camping. Keeps the bugs off. Tight young fir forest is terrible in summer and great in winter. A sand beach, that looks so nice and inviting in the daylight will freeze you solid at night. A tarp reflector and a fire will do wonders to keep you warm. When it is just way too cold, I've spent nights propped against a tree, my blanket around me, a small smoldering fire between my legs. It will keep you from freezing, though you may want to wash the smoke out of your blanket when you get home.
 
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Uinta said:
I am planning a winter camp into an aspen forest. I would like to build a shelter but the trouble I see is that there will be very limited natural materials available for insulation. Aspen leaves are about as thin as tissue and will be soaking wet. There will be no available spruce or pine. Any suggestions? I am paking a tent, tarp, pad and wool blanket to help but in a worst case senario, what options would one have from nature?
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A few options:

1) build a raised bed, roughly 6" off the ground. Fill the gap underneath with any brush you can. The stagnant air will become your insulation. A nice lean-to over it with the fire next to you is ideal. It will help trap the warm air in your quarters.

2) fill a garbage bag with leaves and brush and use that as a sleeping pad. The leaves are wet and likely cold, but the thick layer between you and the ground will still be an improvement.

3) dry the leaves out around your fire while laying a twig foundation down under your sleep space. The twigs (in a few cross-layered levels) will create the same dead air effect, thus insulating you. Put the dry leaves over it for more of a comfort effect.

4) build a rectangular fire, 6" below ground. Once burnt to coals, spread them evenly and put a thin layer of dirt back over the coals. Build your bed upon this. The heat from the coals will have pushed moisture away and thus will keep the ground warmer. Some have also placed rocks under these coals, as they hold heat well. Make sure the rocks are dry at the start so they don't shatter.
 
If there's enough snow, or you have something to shovel it with, a quinzee is a very good option. The air can get well below zero, but the coldest the snow can get is 32* F, and a quinzee can be heated with a candle to be very comfortable. When we lived in Colorado I was an ASM and the Scouts went on their winter camp out at Kenosha Pass, about 13,000 ft., in January. We had lots of quinzee experience and they work very well.
Be sure to take a space blanket to put under you and a rain poncho to go over you, as the interior walls and ceiling, if not shaped right, can drip on you.
 
I was just researching milkweed for its edible properties and read that during WWII thousands of children were put to work collecting Milkweed fluff since kapok was controlled by the Japanese . It went on to say that milkweed fluff is better insulation then goose down .

So if you have a little time on your hands .
 
We forget Nature isn't always this cornucopia of materials readily at hand. Native peoples had trade routes no less impressive than our interstate highways today to acquire lithic cores ( A known communal activity of Oetzi the iceman's community) medicinal plants had to be discovered often by chance and the ideal of some bushcraft uberman naked with a knife emerging a month later in a tailored bearskin suit and gaining 20 pounds is dangerous. Anyone who has read about Iishi' the last wild California Indian knows the terrible situation that found him unconscious in a stock corral. Sometimes what you have is what you have.
 
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