April overnight in the Hoosier

On the way to a work trip the other weekend I did an overnight, covering 13.25 very hilly miles. Some notes that a few of you may enjoy. 

Grimacing a bit because this is after the first crossing, as described below.

I did the Birdseye Loop in Hoosier National Forest, starting just outside the town of Birdseye, Indiana just minutes off I-64. By the brochure, 11.6 miles. 

See more: https://caltopo.com/m/96M7711

Nice stuff: 

• Great temp, no precip, etc. Near ideal conditions. 
• Distance is nice for navigating. Making plans to change direction in 1500 m is so much nicer than in 150 m for a change. 
• No one was there. Passed one group of horses nearly immediately, then no one else the whole time. It was great. 

Minutes after start of hike, day 2. This is why I sleep in the woods. 

• Pitch. Dark. I arranged to get there late enough I did a couple hours of the hike in the dark, and therefore had to set camp in the dark. No moon, hardly even distant radio towers visible, etc. Nice for a change and once again thermal really proved its value. 
  

Less nice stuff: 

• The Hoosier is recovered farmland; heavy land management, controlled burns and tree harvesting to bring back and more drought tolerant old growth traditional forest, but... many of the roads are just roads. So, gravel, straight up the side of a hill. For a kilometer. Some very nice bits but not all and it was sometimes more boring and tiring than planned. 

• It was an equestrian trail. 
• And it was rainy for days before, so there were not just ruts but maybe 40% of the total mileage was muddy. We hope it was all mud at least. 
• And, both the rain and horse-oriented means two water crossings were very tall so my boots overtopped. Enough that I didn't have a way to get dry so I got some hotspots on day two. Do not walk in wet boots. 

Some of my extra mileage was bushwhacking to scout for better crossings. This is as good as it got.

• The second river crossing was in the dark. And a River Crossing. Maybe 80 ft wide. With any current I wouldn't have tried, but I broke out white lights and my walking sticks and then found the deepest bit was near the bank, the rest wasn't that deep at all. Still, the start was terrifying. I do not suggest night river crossings. 
• The thermal remote battery didn't work for a bit (replugging fixed it) and that burned the onboard battery. Since it was so dark I really needed it so did a battery change in the dark. So, got to use the on-helmet battery etc which worked great. 
• Night is confusing even when good vision systems. I set camp in a needlessly dense and stick-strewn area as looking around, the woods all looked like... woods. But 100 yds on, visible from my campsite, was a much nicer site. 
• I also got a tiny bit twisted so slept at a 45° angle to my shelter. Set high, dry, it was fine but good note to double check angles in the dark. 

Sorry, too lazy in the morning to get up and take photos of my campsite so this is what you get. 

My kit:  

After some mis-steps as I optimized over the last year, no notes. Especially the shelter I have shared, and the sleep system I have noted but not described, made me totally happy. 

• Size and weight are very nice. Plenty of spare room, so easy to pack, easy to carry, and I was able to easily put the NODs and helmet on/in the pack as well. 
• Shelter (a Warbonnet GT in a OneWind Snakeskin) was easy to set up, I am as happy as I can be with the new cords, wraps, tieoffs, etc. 
• I set it high, and relatively flat. But not too high, and kept the stakes available so could have detached and dropped the sides and doors, if wind or rail suddenly happened. I am almost disappointed it didn't, so I couldn't try that in the dark. 
• I added a Tyvek ground sheet, and it was very helpful. I also might keep it (dirty) white instead of rattlecan camo. In the dark, even just in the shade of the shelter, it was easy to see where things were, my relative position. Since it will always be under or in the shelter, no serious camo risks. 

• Speaking of, the glowy PatchPanel was clearly visible all night (I am old, I get up a lot at night). Best glow stuff I know of. 
• I might need to get an inflator for the nice-weather Klymit air mattress. About half of camp setup time was inflating that. 
• The new quilt is an Enlightened Equipment Revelation 50°. I have long run a Paria quilt, but it's very comfortable down to near zero, which is too big and too hot in the other 3 seasons. This replaces that, and my woobie (a Snugpak Jungle Blanket) for general uses, plus is oversized so it can fit over the other quilt to bring me down to -10° or lower. 
• More than anything else I have done, dropping to this quilt changed the whole way the pack works, everything fit well into the Crossfire DG-3. Enough spare room I could likely have done a week's worth of food and clothes. Or a weekend and more ammo, tripod, optics, etc. 
• The quilt was super comfy, and I just tossed it over me and went to sleep. A few hours later I woke up a bit cold, so I — in the pitch black, by feel only — snapped the bottom up to make a foot pocket, stuffed the pad into it, and clipped around the rest of the pad. Even better conversion from rectangle to formal sleep system than I expected and a good stress test of that expectation.