1st time Camper - Question about sleeping bags

[gcbsdad]

Tomorrow afternoon we will be at Fort Wilderness Campgounds wth my sons Cub Scout Pack for two nights. We have a new 6 man tent and there will be 5 from our family using it.
My question is do you need a pad or air mattress under your sleeping bag?
I think I read somewhere that there is gravel on the sites. Is that true?
Have any of you slept on just the sleeping bag alone?
I have no probelm sleeping on the ground but gravel?

 

[JCJRSmith]

I have done both (slept on the ground or on a pad/air mattress). Trust me, you will be more comfortable on the air mattress.

 

[Thekidsmom]

I noticed you are from brandon. My sons cub scout troop will be at the Fort next week. We are from Riverview. Can you let me now how things were when you get back. Hope you have a great time. As for the site if you are staying in the group camping area, I was told that it is like a field, with grass.

 

[proudmomof4]

I noticed you are from brandon. My sons cub scout troop will be at the Fort next week. We are from Riverview. Can you let me now how things were when you get back. Hope you have a great time. As for the site if you are staying in the group camping area, I was told that it is like a field, with grass.

You are correct the group camping area is a field with grass, the individual sites are a type of crushed shell and sand mix. The group area does not have electric hookups so make sure you bring a battery operated lantern or flashlight.

I hope you all have a great time!

 

[tkd lisa]

It sounds like you've got your original question answered, but I wanted to comment on something you posted.

You say that 5 of you will be staying in a 6 person tent. Unless 3 of those people are pretty small, you may be very cramped. The way the tent companies define "capacity" is by the number of sleeping bags that will fit in the tent. They don't allow any space for gear. My son has a 3 person tent, with a substantial amount of additional "floor space" under the rain fly. And 2 people are pretty cramped in it (that's with all the non-clothing gear out under the rain fly).

I have a large family type tent that I used for my girl scout camping trips (they all like to sleep in one big tent whereas the boys like to have their own space). It's an 8 person tent officially. I do put 8 girls in there, but we have a separate tent for the gear, so the only thing in the big tent is sleeping bags, pillows, and one change of clothes for the next morning for each girl.

My general advice would be to take a small pup tent (assuming you have one) to put your gear into. If that isn't possible, then can you plan to keep all your gear in the vehicle? Pack all the clothing into single use bags (gallon or 2 gallon zip locks work very well for this), and just have the stuff you need immediately in the tent.

Happy Camping. Oh, and btw, I live in the Brandon area too!

 

[gcbsdad]

It sounds like you've got your original question answered, but I wanted to comment on something you posted.

You say that 5 of you will be staying in a 6 person tent. Unless 3 of those people are pretty small, you may be very cramped. The way the tent companies define "capacity" is by the number of sleeping bags that will fit in the tent. They don't allow any space for gear. My son has a 3 person tent, with a substantial amount of additional "floor space" under the rain fly. And 2 people are pretty cramped in it (that's with all the non-clothing gear out under the rain fly).

I have a large family type tent that I used for my girl scout camping trips (they all like to sleep in one big tent whereas the boys like to have their own space). It's an 8 person tent officially. I do put 8 girls in there, but we have a separate tent for the gear, so the only thing in the big tent is sleeping bags, pillows, and one change of clothes for the next morning for each girl.

My general advice would be to take a small pup tent (assuming you have one) to put your gear into. If that isn't possible, then can you plan to keep all your gear in the vehicle? Pack all the clothing into single use bags (gallon or 2 gallon zip locks work very well for this), and just have the stuff you need immediately in the tent.

Happy Camping. Oh, and btw, I live in the Brandon area too!

Howdy Neighbor. Well I posted a report that we survived the campout. Actually the 6 person tent we have is quite large. We borrowed a queen size air mattress and we had a single of our own. My wife and 7 yr old son slept on the queen, my 9 yr old daughter slept on the single and myself and my 7 yr old daughter slept on the ground. It wasn't that bad. We are definitely camping novices though. We parked about a 100 yards from our tent but we decided to keep our gear with us. If we really had to rough it I am not sure how we woudl have fared.