Made of the soft body wool of the South American llama it is about twice as light as any other wool of equal thickness. As sold by many outfitters the cloth cover is waterproof but this should not be. To get the greatest warmth it is necessary to have not only the blanket porous but the covering as well so as to throw off the moisture which otherwise condenses and chills the occupant of the bag. But the sleeper must be insulated from the ground’s cold, moisture, and wet and hence the waterproof browse bag or thatched balsam bed used under the sleeping bag is recommended. Any blanket combination can be made into a serviceable sleeping bag by folding lengthwise and securing one end and three-fourths of one side by blanket pins or by sewing.
You will of course not carry a mattress with you on the hike yet it is really necessary that you have some sort of browse thatching, waterproof sheet or pad to insulate you from the bare ground. The bed springs par excellence of the woods are of thatched evergreen boughs or balsam. This, the trapper’s bough bed, is largely poetical with campers in sections of the country where balsam, hemlock or spruce are not available. It is difficult to make but when properly constructed furnishes a mighty comfortable place to lay tired muscles at night.
Collect a heap of boughs “about the size of a small house,” according to Moody, stripping off the fans with the hands, using only the lighter tips. Build on the ground a quadrangle of poles somewhat larger than the intended bed and retain this in place by ground stakes. Beginning at the head lay your larger fans convex side up and butts toward the foot much as you would shingle a house with the bushy stems overlapping. Over these lay a similar cover of the smaller fans with the butt ends beneath the layer already placed, leaving the fan ends curving up and down toward the foot of the bed. When done place over all the floorcloth and blankets. As the boughs get pressed down and the bed becomes hard they must be replenished.
The ground cloth is to a tent what a floor is to a house. It keeps out dirt, vermin, dampness and wind and in cold or wet weather, besides being an absolute health necessity, it will add greatly to one’s comfort.
The ground beneath besides being wet and cold is hard as a board for sleeping purposes, hence some sort of pad is needed. Nothing meets this requirement so well as the so-called browse bag or tick. It is preferably made of waterproof balloon silk or paraffined muslin (a rubber blanket or poncho is too heavy) size 2½ by 6½ feet and weight 1 pound. It is open at the foot end and at each camp is stuffed with hay, grass, leaves or other browse dry or wet. The bag weighs but little, takes up small compass when rolled for the pack and is useful in packing. It is quickly made into an acceptable bed mattress each night and emptied each morning.
With the filled browse bag beneath you the under side is always dry and warm and the upper side is attended to by rolling yourself up in the blanket. For traveling through a rough swampy country and for mountain work this is absolutely necessary for a restful sleep.
The bag may be composed of a 7 by 8 foot sheet with grommets 3 inches apart on one end and the sides and when not serving day duty as a pack cloth or in the emergency bivouac as a tarpaulin leanto shelter tent may be worn like a Mexican serape or rain blanket over the shoulders. It can be made into a browse bag by folding the sides together and lacing the ends and side with a string of number 36 tarpon line. Or the tarp or shelter cloth may be laid over a collected layer of browse next to the ground. With a browse bag one can rig up a good bed pad in much less time than it takes to shingle browse.
To sleep warm outdoors the ground should be as dry and warm as possible. This can be accomplished if need be by a fire built over the intended bed area, the embers raked away and the bed made thereon. The browse bag is then filled and flattened over the heated spot. There is some knack in arranging your covers about you to fit snugly and keep out the night cold. It can be done by a simple trick so as to entirely eliminate the necessity of a sleeping bag.
Lying flat on your back on the browse bag cover yourself with the blanket, kick up your feet rigid from the hips so as to bring the blanket foot end draping over and under the feet, returning the feet to the tick roll the body to the left side and tuck the blanket edge under your right side, reverse the turn and do the same under your left side. Lower the feet, wrap up the shoulders and go to sleep. The blanket is now drawn about you snugly above and below and there is no exposed side to let in the cold air and in rolling over the blanket will tighten about you.
In an emergency one can sleep in most any kind of weather by following a certain Indian method. He carries but one blanket but does not use it to wrap around his body. If the night is not too cold he lights a rather large fire and warms the earth, then he rakes away the coals and lies upon the bare warmed ground pulling the blanket over him. In extreme cold in addition to the above ground warming he heats a large stone before bedtime, rolls it on the ground, curls himself around the mound, and pulls the cover over him, lying with his feet to the fire. He neither wraps the blanket about him nor lies upon it relying on the warmed earth for warmth below.