Uh-ehm!

Not all engineers would make that choice. Either in thier adult or larval(student) form.

hey groo he said girlfriend... I don't think he is aiming at having a child quite yet <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Still depends on the bike... What if it was one of the cheap one from toys'r'us?

Thought I would throw a rock into this quiet little pond of thought by sending you a link to Kifaru. These very lightweight tents are made to use stoves inside of them.
Oh and the idea about using a Nalgene bottle (Lexan) filled with boiling water really works. I slip it into an old boot sock so no one gets burned and find it is still above body temperature the next morning unless you are in pretty cold temperatures.

If you want a cheap solution and are willing to risk open flame, then get yourself a can of Sterno. It's clean burning (alcohol-based), and the larger (8 oz.?) size will give you 3 hours runtime which will probably last you the entire trip.

Regards, Vince

NO FLAMES OF ANY KIND in a nylon/polyester tent, please. Have you ever seen nylon burn? Have you ever touched the melted nylon while melting the ends of nylon rope. It is excrutiatingly painfull. If the material ignites, you simply will not have sufficient time to escape before your body is coated with burning melted plastic. Not pretty.

Cooking should be done in the open or under a tarp of sufficient height to prevent disaster. You'll know what I mean if you've ever seen a Coleman gas stove flare up underneath a low-lying dining fly - exciting!

If it is that cold outside I do not want to close off the vents in my tent because that will result in a tremendous amount of condensation on the interior surfaces of the tent and fly. If anything I tend to open the vents up even more. Having the moisture (being wet) is much worse than being cold.

The desire to have a tent's fly large enough to come close to the ground is to prevent water from entering the tent during driving rains, NOT to reduce ventilation in order to make the tent warmer.

The tent is there to protect you from precipitation, wind, blowing snow/rain, and small critters, it is not intended to keep you warm - that is the task of clothing and your sleeping bag & pad.

In cold weather tents are not for lounging, they are for sleeping. Get a warm sleeping bag and use it. If you wish to be more intimate, then get a double-bag or zip bags together. Do socializing while wearing sufficient clothing to stay warm.

Yes, while transitioning from sleeping bag to a clothed state you will get chilled, but that's just part of the "fun" of cold weather camping. Some people wear non-cotton long underwear while sleeping just to ease the trasition. Unfortunately mummy-shaped bags usually don't provide sufficient room for in-bag clothing changes, but you could try that too.

Please excuse my ignoarance, but I am a Florida boy. To me, anything below 50F is cold. And even in temperatures that northerners would find warm , I find that I wake up with a nasty cough and congested lungs. My body is warm, but my lungs suck in cold air all night.

Is there a solution for this, or is this something that you just get used to if you live up north?

You get used to it every year. Right now, I'd get a nasty cough and congested lungs if it hits 50F. But in February, that's toasty warm, I can go out in shorts and bare feet.

LOL polak, i'm not ready for children, although the 39-year old girlfriend has been for a long time. I'm 29 and we've been dating for 11 months now. On to our regular program, though.

Today, I purchased a Coleman Black Cat catalytic 3000 BTU heater. It is nice and sturdy, and yields quite a bit of heat. I'm sure 15 minutes of this will warm my tent very nicely! As I previously said, I will not be sleeping with this turned on, and I am the "safe" type so everything should turn out okay. Also, the cyclone venting feature of my tent will contribute to useful air circulation.

I will keep you posted since we're going camping this weekend. Temperature should probably go down to around 38F at night.

Ciao!


Bee

(Oh, btw... Sleeping in the same bag is an option, we might get to that when one of us gets a bag that zips on the right side instead of the left, hehe!)

In northern Minnesota we use the 18 hour heat packs, body warmers, to both warm a sleeping bag and to up the ambient tent temp. The tent temp is more mental than actual but it does work. They can be gotten at most "Marts" and/ or sporting goods stores.