Winter Camping
So this past weekend, Nick and I headed to Black River Falls State Forest for a weekend winter backpacking trip. I had never been backpacking in the winter before, but Nick had gone many times and I'm lucky enough to have a big brother who does the same, and was also willing to loan any extra gear we needed. :)
We completely lucked out with the weather. It was perfectly just below freezing and mildly in the teens at night. In fact it was almost too warm, as we'd rather have things stay icy than melt, since you can just knock the ice off of your gear, but wet gear just makes you cold. We got up there on Friday afternoon, donned our snowshoes and packs and hit the trail for a few hours before stopping to set up camp for the night while it was still light out. The first thing we did was gather firewood, which was super easy since we were in a pine forest and essentially the bottom branches of every tree we could see were dead and waiting to be broken up and put into our toasty fire. Nick got the fire going and made dinner, while I set up the tent, and we settled into hot drinks and food. A few lessons were remembered that night.. such as don't burn the food packet with the directions on it until *after* you're done cooking (oops), and exactly how fast dry pine wood burns. We had been pretty proud of our fire wood pile, until an hour later, we had completely burned through it. Thankfully the trees had plenty more branches to donate to our cause and we enjoyed happy warmth for a few more hours.
The next morning was sllloooww. Winter camping really isn't all that difficult, it's just that everything seems to take a million times longer to get done, either b/c you have to stop and warm up your hands, or lines are frozen, fabric is stiff, or you need to scrape ice off of things. However, after some hot breakfast and drinks we got camp packed up and were once again on our way. Since we didn't get as far as we wanted the first day, and we wanted to camp on top of a mound/peak that night, we changed our course and decided to follow a snowmobile trail for a bit and then rely upon our compass to get us the rest of the way through the woods. The day was great with just a light snow falling, and we barely came across anyone on the trails.
And when we finally got to head off trail... it was a blast making our own way, enjoying the views and seeing all the animal tracks we encountered. According to the number of turkey tracks we saw, you would think that only turkeys lived there.. however with our loud snowshoes, we didn't see a single one :P We finally reached our destination after a steep climb, enjoyed the view and then proceeded to gather firewood. Not wanting to recreate the previous nights 'adventures' we made sure to gather a massive pile of firewood, then set up camp and make dinner. Since we had a little extra time before sunset, I made an extra fancy 'couch' between two trees with a pile of snow, freshly cut pine bows, foam pads, and a reflective wind block with a mylar sheet. And I finished it off with a handy pile of firewood to keep the fire toasty, and yummy bailey's minis for refreshment :) Again we enjoyed the night and finally cozied up in our tent for the night.
The next morning went much more quickly, as we didn't have to worry as much about keeping the tent and our sleeping bags dry (since we were heading home). After another hot oatmealy breakfast we started hiking. Going downhill is soooooo much faster than up :) We quickly found our way back to the main trail and enjoyed the sun as we hiked our way back to the car. Since we were making great time, I had fun taking extra pictures of all the different animal tracks we encountered. We think we can identify almost all of them, but I left them unlabeled so people can guess.
Overall it was an awesome time, and I can't wait until I get to give it another try :D The full set of pictures can be found here.
From Winter Backpa...
From Winter Backpa...
From Winter Backpa...
From Winter Backpa...
We completely lucked out with the weather. It was perfectly just below freezing and mildly in the teens at night. In fact it was almost too warm, as we'd rather have things stay icy than melt, since you can just knock the ice off of your gear, but wet gear just makes you cold. We got up there on Friday afternoon, donned our snowshoes and packs and hit the trail for a few hours before stopping to set up camp for the night while it was still light out. The first thing we did was gather firewood, which was super easy since we were in a pine forest and essentially the bottom branches of every tree we could see were dead and waiting to be broken up and put into our toasty fire. Nick got the fire going and made dinner, while I set up the tent, and we settled into hot drinks and food. A few lessons were remembered that night.. such as don't burn the food packet with the directions on it until *after* you're done cooking (oops), and exactly how fast dry pine wood burns. We had been pretty proud of our fire wood pile, until an hour later, we had completely burned through it. Thankfully the trees had plenty more branches to donate to our cause and we enjoyed happy warmth for a few more hours.
The next morning was sllloooww. Winter camping really isn't all that difficult, it's just that everything seems to take a million times longer to get done, either b/c you have to stop and warm up your hands, or lines are frozen, fabric is stiff, or you need to scrape ice off of things. However, after some hot breakfast and drinks we got camp packed up and were once again on our way. Since we didn't get as far as we wanted the first day, and we wanted to camp on top of a mound/peak that night, we changed our course and decided to follow a snowmobile trail for a bit and then rely upon our compass to get us the rest of the way through the woods. The day was great with just a light snow falling, and we barely came across anyone on the trails.
And when we finally got to head off trail... it was a blast making our own way, enjoying the views and seeing all the animal tracks we encountered. According to the number of turkey tracks we saw, you would think that only turkeys lived there.. however with our loud snowshoes, we didn't see a single one :P We finally reached our destination after a steep climb, enjoyed the view and then proceeded to gather firewood. Not wanting to recreate the previous nights 'adventures' we made sure to gather a massive pile of firewood, then set up camp and make dinner. Since we had a little extra time before sunset, I made an extra fancy 'couch' between two trees with a pile of snow, freshly cut pine bows, foam pads, and a reflective wind block with a mylar sheet. And I finished it off with a handy pile of firewood to keep the fire toasty, and yummy bailey's minis for refreshment :) Again we enjoyed the night and finally cozied up in our tent for the night.
The next morning went much more quickly, as we didn't have to worry as much about keeping the tent and our sleeping bags dry (since we were heading home). After another hot oatmealy breakfast we started hiking. Going downhill is soooooo much faster than up :) We quickly found our way back to the main trail and enjoyed the sun as we hiked our way back to the car. Since we were making great time, I had fun taking extra pictures of all the different animal tracks we encountered. We think we can identify almost all of them, but I left them unlabeled so people can guess.
Overall it was an awesome time, and I can't wait until I get to give it another try :D The full set of pictures can be found here.
From Winter Backpa...
From Winter Backpa...
From Winter Backpa...
From Winter Backpa...