Integral Design Sil Shelter part 2

The bug inner has a pole cup which allows it to be supported by a walking pole (like the outer). The temptation here is to place the pole in the cup for the inner and then place the inner cup into the outer cup. This is not a good idea as it limits the height the pole and provides no gap between the inner and outer at the top of the shelter. To overcome this I added a short length of string to the tie out point on the top of the bug inner’s pole cap and them simple tied this off to the pole which is placed in the outer cup.

This shows the normal peg out of the closed doors.

Doors, I had read on the net that someone had fitted a zip to the doors rather than just overlapping them, of course after much searching I could not find it again although I did find a reference which mentioned adding Velcro to the doorway. I pegged the two doors out straight and found the cut / design would not allow me to have the doors position as if zipped and not have way too much loose material as can be seen in the photo. So I abandoned the zipper idea and had a play with alternate methods of keeping the doors closed.

Here both doors are pegged out in line with the ridge. This results in the lower edge of the door being loose, and whilst there is peg loops on this lower edge they will not take up the slack.

The overlapping door is a great way to keep it simple and reduce weight, but it does make shutting the door from the inside a little hard. Of course there will be lots of times when you would want the door open at night. However with the bug inner’s front being right up against the opening and if there is a likely hood of rain the door may need to be shut. As I mention earlier the design of the door pieces does not readily allow for a zip to be fitted so after a bit of play I came up with a simple method to close the door from the comfort of the inner. By using a spare rope with line-lok and two pegs I was able to achieve a simple pulley system to pull the door closed and lock it there. This idea will clearly need a few field tests to judge if the stepping over the loose open door is practical.

I have used a spare guy line to achieve this pulley. In normal use the peg would go at the red X. But here the pegged is “fixed” to the line-lok which means the line-lok is always in the same place.


This photo gives a full view of the pulley arrangement. The red circles show the placement of the two pegs. The guy line runs around the front peg (which is hard to see in the grass) and the line-lok is “attached” to the rear peg.

Integral Design Sil Shelter part 1

I have had the IDsilshelter and its matching bug inner for a while. I had pitched it in the backyard a few times but when I used it in the field I was having mixed success. I felt I was not taking the same care and attention when I was pitching it in the field, so after my last trip I felt there must be a better way. Like most bushwalkers it was off to the internet. The ID web site provides a users guide for the sil-shelter but the information on pitching the bug inner together with the sil-shelter was lacking, in fact it was next to useless. So it was back to the drawing board.

I checked the measurements on the web and found them to be very similar to mine. So after working out the expected spacing between the inner and outer, I set the peg straps on the inner to 10 inches, pegged it out on the ground, at this point I checked that the distance between all 4 pegs matched the calculated values (which they did). I then placed the outer over the inner and the peg loops on the outer nicely lined up with the pegs for the inner. So far so good, but when I went to fit my walking pole (set to 44 inches) I found the inner (which I had centred in the outer) was too far forward to allow the pole to stand straight. Readjusting the peg loops on the inner to 13.5 inches front and tighten rear loops to take up the slack allowed the pole stand straight and resulted in the space between the inner and outer at the rear down from 5 inches to 1 inch. This distance at the rear was measured in a straight line, in practice it is greater as the centre rear peg out loop is pulled away from the inner rather than straight down.

Previously at the rear of the shelter I had used a second walking pole to lift the rear of the shelter externally, this time I used two different length poles internally. The wall height at the center of the back is 15inches so I selected a pole of 16.5” and 19.5” these two lengths are based I what I had laying around at home, and a desires to provide a few inches of air gap at the rear to help with air flow and therefore condensation. Whilst the photos don’t show the final pitch at the rear I was very happy with the results and will be sorting a light weight trial pole of around 19 inches for my next walk.

General view showing the clearances when pitch higher at front by extending the outer (and inner) tie down loops.

This shows the air gap provided with a 49.5 inch pole.

The peg loops provided on the both the inner and outer do not lend themselves to pitching the outer a few inches off the ground (as suggested in the users guide). This height is to allow for increased air flow, as can be seen in the photos. I added loops of 8 inches to each peg out loop. This extra length allowed me to try two different pitches, one with the same height pole (44 inches) and a second with the pole adjusted to 49.5 inches. The higher pole certainly allow for better clearance from the ground but lower pole with the pegs pushed out further provided a more protected pitch.

The yellow 8 inch extension to the peg out loops

I will cover the bug inner and door in a later post.

Overnite to Mt Mcleod, Mt Buffalo National Park.

Sunset on Mt McLeod

The wet and stormy weather for the days preceding the walk had us loading our packs with all of our wet gear and preparing for a stormy night in camp.

The wet weather in early September had also effect the Reservoir Rd, the damage caused by the rapid water flow required it to be closed to vehicle traffic, and this meant we had an extra 6km to walk.

So with our starting point moved to the Eastern end of the Reservoir Rd we donned our packs and headed off. The Reservoir Rd is quite flat so the walking was easy going and gave us a gentle warm up. Parts of the road still showed the damage from the huge rain fall in early September.

Stopping at the beginning of the Mt McLeod jeep track gave us time to enjoy our morning tea before heading off again. We only needed to walk a short distance up the jeep track before reaching the Eastern end of the Alternate Track this track takes a different route to the jeep track saving a climb and descent of 140 metres.
The Alternate track also provided us with a pleasant change to walking on the jeep track as the narrow foot pad contoured around. This section of track had two creek crossing one of which with the recent rain fall was little challenging. The Alternate track rejoins the Mt McLeod jeep track around 5km from the camp area and at an altitude of around 1200m.

The jeep track has a few steep sections, but as always these provided an opportunity to stop and enjoy the view and thus made these sections easy going. The views from this part of the National Park are no less spectacular than elsewhere in the park. Rocky outcrops of peaks such as Mt Dunn can be seen to the east. Plus as normal on Mt Buffalo we walk thru and around plenty of marvellous rock formations. Much to our surprise a bike rider court up with us and stopped for a brief chat before peddling his way to Mt McLeod.

About 5 hours from the cars we arrived at the designated minimal impact camping area. The camping area is situated at the southern end of Del’s Plain at and altitude of 1400m. The original plan had us heading up to Mt McLeod after setting up camp but after discussion we decided to relax and enjoy the beauty of the snow grass plain over a cuppa.

After a pleasant meal and lively conversation we headed off to bed with alarms set for an early start. It seems I had only just nodded off to sleep when the alarm went off at 4.45. With breakfast in our pack and head torches on we head off to see the sun rise from the summit of Mt McLeod. The climb up to the summit finishes with a rock scramble but the walk was well worth it we arrived in time to see the lights of Myrtleford, the sky turning pink above Mt Bogong, and mist in the valleys (if only I had brought the camera). We spent some time soaking in the beauty before consuming a light breakfast on the summit and returning to camp for the pack up and the walk back to the cars.

The return trip was via the same path as the day before, but as usual walking the opposite direct provides a whole new view to look at. The return trip was walk at an easy pace and had us back at the cars around 5 hours from leaving the camp site.

After all our concerns about the chance of thunderstorms, it never rained….

A not well pitched Integral Designs Sil Shelter

Kitchen

Mt Buffalo, South Buffalo View Point

The plan was to walk out to The Back Wall in the Mt Buffalo National Park. However the wet spring had made the track difficult to follow in places and the local Park Ranger advised against it. So the amended trip took us out to South Buffalo View Point.
This lookout like the Back Wall provides both views North to some of the classical Mt Buffalo location such as the popular climbing site The Cathedral. Whilst in the opposite direction the distinctive Mt Cobbler is visible, further round to the West the plains around Wangaratta can be seen and on a clear day the Warby Ranges are visible and the now de-commissioned Lake Mokoan.
The walk is quite easy with no long steep climbs and only a very small amount of rock hoping to get to the lunch spot. The distance is not very long at around 8km and could easily be extend by first walking out to Dickenson Falls before returning to the cars at the former Tatra Inn site and morning tea. This easy trip would add another 3km to the walk and provide views to the East.

Salisbury Falls, Wenhams Loop

I would not have thought I would be back at Salisbury Falls quite so quickly, but when the opportunity to walk with people from other walking clubs came along I could not pass it up.
Regardless of following in our foot steps from a few weeks earlier the bush still provided a different look and feel.
Whilst it had rain earlier in the week the track was a lot drier and there was less water coming over the Falls. This time instead of take the short route from Mt Warby to the Alpine View Track, we continued onto Lunch at Wenhams, (a drive in camping area). After lunch we continue north along the Friends track, stopping at Kwat Kwat lookout for the stunning views before reaching the Alpine View track. Towards the end of the Alpine View track we “attacked” by A Grey Fantail which we believe was protecting us from its nest, as I said at the start it’s always different.

Salisbury Falls and Mt Warby

Like the Moonlight track walk the recent rain heavy rains made this a completely different walk to the other times I have walked through here.
Salisbury falls which I have only ever seen with a trickle going over were running very well. After lots of photos we headed off up the track to the top of the falls it was here we stopped for our morning tea and to take in the views.
Following the track to Mt Warby provided us with more wide flowers, Grass trees and water to look at. The views from Mt Warby are limited but before reaching the summit the bush does open up to good views to the south, which provides a look at Mt Glenrowan from an angle which it is not normally seen.
After Mt Warby it was off down the Alpine views track this track provides some great views across the Ovens Valley towards the Alps’ the only problem is you also need to look were you putting your feet :) The Alpine views track eventually joins up with the Mt Warby track, it is then a simple natter of back tracking past the falls to the waiting cars.

Chick Hill and Moonlight track

The weather for this walk was quite cool with snow forecast down to 500m! However we were very lucky with only one short shower of rain requiring the putting on of rain jackets. The highlight of this trip had to be the water falls along Moonlight track, they provided plenty of photo’s for the group and a very pleasant spot to eat our lunch.