Striking out onto the vagabond road...
Hiking through a dense patch of undeveloped, wooded land in Spotsylvania behind Central Park, may not be the safest of ideas for a two night 'Tramp-Through' sleep out with just a Gortex mummy bag cover for a tent - but I plan on being unnoticable to the human eye. The black 50 below inner liner of the sleeping bag plus the dark GoreTex camo cover will blend me into the background. For a moments cessation in a spot out of the way of human traffic, I intend to throw this rig on possibly the soaked Earth (rained like mad the night previous). There is even the possibility of rain again tonight. I will be video recording my progress in an attempt at a totally mobile broadcast of this venture and its technology. Hopefully the load times won't interfere with this being a complete success. There are Starbucks near by, if need be and if a dour storm occurs - I should be completely dry in the Gortex cover (the mummy sleeping bag has room for the packback). This item has been proven at Mary's Outlook on Skyline Drive in Virginia. A burst Camelbak caused a sea of water to come to rest under my Gortex mummy bag cover. I floated, as if on a water bed, over the frozen rock and dirt of the terrain, very confortably. I never once got wet and we discovered this truth the next morning, as the sides near the outward part of the three man tent on my right had frozen, but my body heat from a two layer -50 degree mummy bag had kept the water at body temp underneath me. Quite an enjoyable trip, actually, even with temperatures that only allowed us to have our hands out of gloves for about a minute at a time. Hopefully, this will be on-going coverage test, as everything will be produced and uploaded '...on the road.'
Picking the patch to 'tramp' on...
After all this is an article about the gear which makes it possible to have such an adventure, even in the middle of civilizied America, with cars whizzing around and near you. There are spots completely accessible to a traveling camper that would be out of view from the casual passerby and yet have the camping or 'tramping' appeal. Let's define 'tramping' first. I had a young person ask me, what did I mean by 'tramping'? During the depression many men traveled the countryside looking for work or a hand-out via freight trains or just on foot. They were classified as tramps, they would plop down in the night by a railway and start a little fire and open a can of beans. You're typical image of the tramp. And so, I've modified that somewhat and have decided to hike a specific weight around my local county and find a spot to plot down. As regards fire, they must be allowed (open fires) where you are to make camp and if you're not sure - don't start one, simple.
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