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One key to staying comfortable while on your backpacking trip in the wilderness is to keep warm. As a matter of fact, it is more important to keep warm to prevent hypothermia or frostbite if camping in the wilderness during the cold months. Therefore, it is a matter of staying healthy and not dealing with any health-related emergencies instead of only staying comfortable. Even the summer nights can get chilly when camping at high altitudes. You know that unless you bring a generator to your tent, you will have to find ways to keep warm without relying on electricity. You have to remember that those in history found methods to keep warm in the wilderness long before electricity was a thing. Let’s find out how you can stay warm in your tent without having access to electricity.
Bring A Sleeping Bag Cover With You
If you are mountain biking, you will have extra weight to carry by taking a sleeping bag cover, but it may be well worth it if you want to find a natural way to keep yourself warm. However, here is the catch with that. Before you go to bed to use the sleeping bag cover, you should do some intense exercises such as crunches or pushups. You generate heat from doing that, and the cover will help restore the heat you generate. Therefore, the heat will stay within your cover, so it keeps you comfortable. In addition, you will not be shivering in the cold with the cover. However, if you don’t want to drag that sleeping bag cover with you, there are other methods for keeping warm.
You Can Use A Foam Mattress
If you don’t mind carrying a foam mattress on your biking trip, then you can use that to stay warm too. The foam will retain heat after you exercise and generate it; the foam mattress will absorb it through conduction and provide the heat to you to stay warm. These mattresses are light to carry and great to take on your camping trip. Of course, you can also use a mylar blanket.
Mylar Blanket Is Another Option
When the day is warm or hot, your body will radiate heat so that you can stay relaxed and comfortable. However, when the temperature goes down to 68 F or 20 C, your body begins to lose heat, and you can get cold at night. Even during hot summer days, the temperature goes below that at night, and that is why you can get cold in a tent. If you use the mylar blanket, that can help restore your heat. The blanket will reflect the heat radiated back to the body again. Therefore, you will not lose nearly as much heat if you utilize the mylar blanket. It would be best if you wrapped it around your body to help maintain as much body heat as you can. Laying on this blanket will defeat the purpose because it becomes a conductor. Therefore, it will keep the heat away from your body. Wrap it around you instead.
You Can Also Eat A Meal That Is High In Calories
You need to keep your caloric intake high when camping and mountain biking so you can use up the energy you need to make it enjoyable. Extra calories will also help provide a lot of heat so you can keep yourself warm. However, choose your high caloric foods wisely. That does not mean eating buckets of fast food. There are few nutrients, and too many simple carbs and trans fats will cause you to lose your energy quickly and make you feel worse.
Instead, choose high-calorie nutritious foods such as nuts, dark chocolate, trail mixes, dried fruits, and meal replacement bars. If you eat plenty of those before going to bed, then you will be able to stay warm. However, you don’t want to eat them right before going to sleep, or you can end up with an upset stomach, ruining your night. Therefore, you won’t have the energy to hike the next day. If you don’t want to risk that, there are still other ways to stay warm at night in your tent.
Sleep With A Hot Water Bottle
A hot water bottle can produce a lot of heat and keep you warm. All you need to do is heat water in a pot on a stove or over a fire. The good news is that a hot water bottle will remain hot for a while. You can keep the bottle a few inches away from your skin, and the heat will radiate towards you. That will keep you warm and comfortable, and sleep with it in your sleeping bag. You may find this method one of the most effective ways to stay warm. You can also use foot and hand warmers.
Foot And Hand Warmers Are Useful
Don’t forget to bring foot and hand warmers as you would be happy to see that they keep you warm and toasty. You can reuse many of them, which is why they are popular. If you take a more extended trip, then this is what you will want to do. There is heat conduction from the pouch of the warmer to your hands or feet. That is why they work so well. Not to mention, they are lightweight and easy to carry on your backpacking trip. You may want to add feet and hand warmers to your list of items to pack for camping.
Conclusion
As you see, there are several ways to stay warm, so you do not end up with hypothermia or frostbite overnight. However, it can become freezing in the tent, which is why you must take precautions to stay as warm as you can. In the old days, campers used candles in tents, and you can still do that if you wish, but it is a hazard. Not only is it risky for causing the tent to catch on fire, but it is also the cause of toxic fumes for building up in closed spaces such as the tent. Therefore, it is much better to utilize the recommendations above.