Monday, November 3, 2008

Winter Camping

I think that I have been officially initiated to Wisconsin. Mary and Adam took me camping this weekend, and let me tell you, you've never been camping until you've gone in Wisconsin in the month of November! Luckily, we had a warm snap come through and the lows were only in the 40's! But, I have to say that with a LOT of layers, and a LOT of fire, it wasn't that bad. Winter camping survival tip #1: Bring more clothes than you think necessary! For sleeping I had on two pairs of socks, leg warmers, long johns, insulated pants, an under armor shirt, t-shirt, sweatshirt, gloves, ski ear muffs, a hat and I slept in a mummy sleeping bag, and it was STILL cold! It wasn't too bad though, my face was about to fall off, but once I fell asleep I didn't really notice. Winter camping survival tip #2) DON'T drink a lot of water because waking up and having to climb out of your semi-warm sleeping bag into freezing cold air to go use the bathroom is NOT pleasant! Winter camping survival tip #3) Bring self-heating hot chocolates (you can buy them at Walmart for $1) for immediate warming up after you wake up and while waiting for the fire to start. Which brings me to the final tip. Winter tip #4) Bring a boy scout to start your fires for you! haha.....
Saturday morning we made french toast and bacon for breakfast. YUM-O! After clean-up we headed from our camp Mirror Lake to Devil's Lake where we went hiking for most of the afternoon. We climbed to the top of a hill/mountain? I'm not sure what the elevation was, but it was HIGH! and so much fun! The weather was perfect for hiking-in the upper 50's, and the trees were still beautifully full of fall colors! The lake was gorgeous and the sky was wonderfully blue








All in all, the cold was totally worth surviving through, because this was a really fun experience. There's nothing better than sitting around a campfire late at night and being able to look up through the trees and see a clear sky spotted with stars, hear no noise pollution from the city and know that there is beauty all around you!












Happy Camping!

2 comments:

Bill and Freddie Ann said...

It looks beautiful! But I'd rather be in my own bed and stay nice and warm! :)I'm gald you are having fun though!

Martha said...

Your pictures are beautiful! It sounds like you had lots of fun dispite the cold. We went camping in WV 2 years ago in October and we had a cold snap in the upper 20s at night and let me tell you... your tips are spot on (esp. the don't drink too much b/c waking up in the middle of the night and having to crawl out of that "warm" spot is no fun!)