Cold weather camping

[PanelDeland]

Nice set-up kings. I spent a 4 day weekend with a army bag and a 8X10 tarp. It rained the whole time and there were about 30 people and everyone was soaked but me and an old cowboy who swept out his horse trailer and slept in it. Luckily we had a chuckwagon cook team cooking for us. Some good eats. They were #1 7 years running for sourdough biscuits. They made some mean cinnamon rolls in a dutch oven also.


I took scouts winter camping one weekend. They had Polar Bear badges the next meeting. You start out with zero and have to earn 32 points for that badge. You get one point for each degree below freezing.

I've camped a lot but never realized how much of a rookie I was until I met a co-workers son. He would take off to the Co. mountains and be gone 3 weeks. He drove a 4X4 as far back as he could get, then used the four wheeler for a base camp (chained to a tree) and snowshoed back to where he wouldn't see anyone for at least two weeks. By himself, usually in Jan. He would sometimes go twice in a year.

I'm old enough and stove up enough to want a camper like Coley's or a big Teardrop to camp anymore. I don't sleep good on hardpack anymore.

[kingsolver72]

Originally Posted by PanelDeland

Nice set-up kings. I spent a 4 day weekend with a army bag and a 8X10 tarp. It rained the whole time and there were about 30 people and everyone was soaked but me and an old cowboy who swept out his horse trailer and slept in it. Luckily we had a chuckwagon cook team cooking for us. Some good eats. They were #1 7 years running for sourdough biscuits. They made some mean cinnamon rolls in a dutch oven also.


I took scouts winter camping one weekend. They had Polar Bear badges the next meeting. You start out with zero and have to earn 32 points for that badge. You get one point for each degree below freezing.

I've camped a lot but never realized how much of a rookie I was until I met a co-workers son. He would take off to the Co. mountains and be gone 3 weeks. He drove a 4X4 as far back as he could get, then used the four wheeler for a base camp (chained to a tree) and snowshoed back to where he wouldn't see anyone for at least two weeks. By himself, usually in Jan. He would sometimes go twice in a year.

I'm old enough and stove up enough to want a camper like Coley's or a big Teardrop to camp anymore. I don't sleep good on hardpack anymore.

Sounds like good times. Yeah, I'm by no means an avid cold weather camper...novice as a matter of fact. It's probably colder when its raining as opposed to snowing/ dry cold. I'm going out Saturday with just a sleeping bag. Supposed to get down to 12f and 1 to 3 inches over night. I would do campers and cabins. Great fun.

[Coley]

Actually, some of the best camping you can do is if you plan for a 'rain weekend' camp out....and let everyone know to plan for some rain and cool, etc.
Then what happens is everybody usually steps up and plans for rain and inclement weather.
The next thing you know people have great tarp solutions, and warm food, lots of dry and warm stuff, extra firewood, dry kindling, propane heaters, board games for around the fire, etc etc......then.....what usually happens is....it doesn't rain, lol. (always count on murphys law)
Which is a great bonus so everybody wins either way.
Its when you plan for beautiful warm sun...and the weather fails that everyone is disappointed....but not if you plan to compensate for weather ahead of time.

All good
Coley

[Grumpy old man]

This is my suggested version of cold weather camping !

[Palf70Step]

[harpo231]

We could camp Grump !!

[kingsolver72]

Ok, so I went out last night with just my sleeping bags, (I aquired a bivy bag)... no tent and no fire. Temps dropped down to 14f and wind out of the north at 10-15 making it feel like 2f. This is a nice system weighing in at around 10lbs. Not an ultra light Appalachian Trail bag for sure. It was misting all night and there was frost on the ground in the am. I stayed warm and dry. Actually I was too warm at first. Some condensation on the inside of the bivy around the top of bag, where I was breathing.
Back in the day used a mummy bag or wool blanket.
So this has been a good learning and testing of the system. I'm getting a good feel on how to use it.