Cotton Camping

[rfolster]

Had an interesting topic arise from another thread and I'm looking for input from others. I know that we don't wear any cotton when paddling, even under a drysuit, because even perspiration will dampen it and cause you to feel or even be cold. I am curious to know if you bring anything cotton with you to camp, like clothing, bedding, etc.? My personal experience is that cotton seems to absorb any moisture in the air and hold onto it for dear life, giving it a clammy fell, so I don't use any cotton items at all. What about you?

[brambor]

Well, by definition there is need for cotton for the days when the temperatures are too hot. Right?

And in between too hot and cold is normal. Normal means you can wear cotton and you won't die. Normal means if your cotton garment gets wet or damp then the sun and your body heat will dry it out.

Once we realize cotton won't kill us we should also focus on how cotton functions on our body during various activities. Lounging around the camp, or casually walking around in cotton tshirt is totally fine. Paddling with a cotton tshirt on might be detrimental as the wet cotton clings to the body and could induce skin wear in most frequented folds.

Let's talk about benefits of cotton: around a campfire, cotton is much more spark resistant than synthetic garments.

And what about those pesky Northerners waxing their cotton garments to make them water resistant? :-) They must be onto something.

And what about those hardy Canadians using Cotton Anoraks camping in temperatures much colder than what we usually get to ?

[brambor]

I bring a cotton shirt to wear around the island when kayak camping. I find it more comfortable in the summer days than any other garment. That is as far as I will go for kayak camping.

[Michael_Crouse]

If we listened to all the warnings we would never wear cotton and the worlds supply of down must be unusable since if it's near moisture it immediately absorbs it, never dries out, and tries to kill you ;-)

Cotton in camp is fine, I usually wear synthetic but I tend to pick out stuff that's soft and comfortable, in other words it feels like cotton. As far as fire resistant fleece is horrible but wool is nice. The fire issue is big with me since my biggest fear used to be people who overprime their white gas stoves while wearing fleece. Treating a bad burn is not something I ever want to do.

[John Martinsen]

Used cotton in Baja, would dry out almost instantly down there. Jeans or Carharts are great for beach camping in the desert, hold up well to walking around near thorny brush. Long sleeve shirts, like an old dress shirt, work great for keeping the sun off while keeping cool. Have also used cotton t shirts in Alaska in the summer when the sun was cranking, until another system would come through with days of rain. Never slept in cotton always used silk bag liners. Otherwise I stick to wool baselayers with synthetic on top of that. Have been checking out the Scandinavian waxed cotton blend stuff, still uncertain but works a lot better than I thought it would.