Winter Camping?

[phade]

I've done it a couple times. it's pretty fun when you are a younger adult, but I really don't have much desire to do it now.

 

We had small 1-2 person pack tents. We also used a couple tarps to roof and block the prevailing wind around the tents and fired up the small candle lanterns. They produce more heat than most people realize. We usually slept with our boots in our bags to keep them from freezing. Instead of hunting, we would fish and try to catch dinner. Funny thing is I don't eat fish, so I was catching other people's dinner. I ate food I brought.

[Two Track]

Remember to not put boots too close to a fire, melting boot soles stink and you lose tread.

 

If they have steel toes, well lets just say some people learned the hard way about having steel-toed boots get hot by a fire.  They were bootless for awhile.

 

On one winter outing there was a trail shelter.  Used that for gear storage and shelter to cook under.  Someone over-filled a backpacking stove and it leaked onto the shelter floor unseen... that is until the stove was lit and the floor too. It was smothered out in 1 minute with fresh snow, but did cause a bit of excitement with everyone's packs in there.

 

 

[Robin]

I tried it with my downsized wall tent, maybe if I was younger I'd go again, pulling the toboggan in was hard and then it was a long night, I slept without the stove on, but my sleeping was good, just a long night alone.

 

 

 

 

 

[Robin]

But the food was good on the wood stove

 

Edited February 28, 2015 by Robin

[Fantail]

Sometimes, you just feel like camping..

Edited March 30, 2015 by Fantail

[Fantail]

Having issues posting youtube so just the links ..

 

https://youtu.be/fa2gAoWyPKU 51 sec - early March camping

 

https://youtu.be/B9QcTTP0pYM 120 sec mid Nov 14 camping

[Red]

Did a weekend trip this weekend in bradford pa Allegheny state park willow bay we had 16 guys out there we spent the weekend sitting around a fire telling stories and jokes its a great time each year.

Edited March 30, 2015 by Red

[Lawdwaz]

Did a weekend trip this weekend in bradford pa Allegheny state park willow bay we had 16 guys out there we spent the weekend sitting around a fire telling stories and jokes its a great time each year.

 

Awesome Red!  Must have been chilly in the temps we had, I saw it was zero in Arcade this morning!  I used to hunt across Rt 321 (I think thats right) from Willow Bay.  Only late season flintlock stuff but it was a blast........

 

See any deer?  I don't think there are many down there anymore, the state has really whacked 'em in that area.  How about ice fishing, you guys do that?

 

Any pics from your weekend?

[Lawdwaz]

Having issues posting youtube so just the links ..

 

https://youtu.be/fa2gAoWyPKU 51 sec - early March camping

 

https://youtu.be/B9QcTTP0pYM 120 sec mid Nov 14 camping

 

I like those but you sure aren't roughing it TOO bad! 

[First-light]

I have to post my picts if I can find them. 10 degrees a foot of snow in the Catskills just a shitty nylon tent and a great propane heater we called "Bertha" Hunt all day come back warm up around the fire in bed by 8 with Bertha blasting away. Everyone took their turn shutting it off and the only body part exposed was an area to breath from. The mornings ware hard….lol Never trade that time for anything!

[Red]

We had to put up a 20x30 tarp to block the wind that was coming across the lake. We took a small hike and just hung around the fire the ice w as very thin you could toss a small rock right threw the ice. We didn't see any deer there but on the way home today there were deer in every field along the 219. I seen well over 100 on the way home. This morning was very cold. The only pics i got were of my brother in-laws truck practically on its side in the ditch he was going a little to fast hot ridding yesterdayevening and took an icy turn at 45 i was in the back seat i thought it was hilarious but it wasn't my truck lol 1.5 hrs of shoveling and yanking with one of his buddies trucks got his truck out and were sitting back by the fire.

Ive never hunted in pa but I've always wanted to go there and give it a try. Ive honestly never seen a deer while traveling threw pa and i go threw a few times a year.

[Doc]

Hey......Maybe next year I'll break out the winter camping gear and try to break out of the cabin-fever mode. I'm not exactly a green-horn at winter camping, but haven't done it in a few decades. As long as I don't find myself in some of that minus zero crap.

[Rhwrhwrhw0426]

I read the James Michener book `Journey` this winter. Camping all winter long in northern Canada sounds terrible.

[Doc]

I read the James Michener book `Journey` this winter. Camping all winter long in northern Canada sounds terrible.

For me winter camping would be a short term diversion, not an endurance test. I don't doubt for a minute that spending a winter camping in that kind of extreme climate, would truly be properly labeled as "terrible" ..... lol. I would like winter camping to be something that helps to cure cabin fever, not create it.

[DirtTime]

Not in a long time. As mentioned, long cold nights. You don't really sleep, you doze. Keeping the fire going is a priority. I had thought about getting gear for cold weather camping again, then I came to my senses.

I would love to have even an acre of land, put a 10x14 shed on it, insulate the inside, get a good 12 hour generator and two 1200 btu electric heaters ( maybe a wood stove ) and call it home for two weeks during deer season in November. Not really ruffin' it, but not the Hilton either.

[Doc]

Sounds like our hunting camp on top of the hill. Accessible only by ATV or on foot. Kerosene heater, propane lights and stove, car battery for radio, carry-in water (dry-sink),  bunk beds for two, kitchen table, 2 easy chairs, and a few folding chairs, all in a 12' x 12' cabin.

 

 

Add in a bunch of tents, and it makes for some great family gatherings too.

[DirtTime]

That's all ya need Doc. Classic deer camp. Might be a small cabin, but that's what it's about! I would use fold up tables and chairs, that way if we had a 3rd or 4th guy we could use cots for them to sleep on. 

[GreeneHunter]

Doc .... That's like a dream cabin .... never sell it !

[Doc]

Ha-ha ..... It's only slightly better than a tent, but we have had great times and great hunts there. It is just a little less than a mile from the house, and on top of a very high, steep, hill that I have named the "Killer Hill" because of its steepness and the fact that it claimed one cardiac neighbor victim. However, when I am not still-hunting my way to the top, I have hacked an ATV trail zig-zagging up the hill go get building materials, camp supplies, and passengers up to the cabin.

 

Very quiet up there  and stuck just into an old growth section of huge hemlocks and oaks at the edge of a 200' deep, shale walled, straight up and down, ravine. For many decades we have called that section, the "Dark woods" because very little light ever gets down in there because of the hemlock over-story. Not a wonderful feeding area (except for the acorns when in season), but a great bedding area, especially when the gun season turns on. The deer feel quite secure in the dim light and all the downed logs.

[Lawdwaz]

That'd be a cool cabin for a lot of different get togethers besides hunting. I'm thinking a snowshoe hike in and an overnighter would be the cats meow.

Nice pics doc, thanks.

[Doc]

Ha-ha .... back when most of our family members were a lot younger, the cabin had weekends when it was surrounded by tents, relatives, jillions of kids, and all kinds of activity in the summer, when it was no problem talking people into a weekend family gathering on top of the hill. We are a hearty lot, climbing that hill just to camp and sit around the campfire. It was a great family gathering place, but I'm afraid that we have outgrown a lot of the non-hunting uses now. Sadly, a lot of the older family members are gone, and the younger ones really don't get off on that sort of thing anymore. Even a lot of the hunting is being done out of the house now instead of the cabin. Just one more thing going by the wayside.

[DirtTime]

Doc, did I ever tell you I am your long lost nephew? LOL