Midwest With Zest

Last week I began the tedious timeline of winter camping.  Some read it as if it were a horror story.  I can feel them cringing yet somehow they didn’t look away because I got plenty of aghast comments.  Other hardy winter lovers read it almost nostalgically; reminiscing over their own adventures in hardship.  Then there are the people who’s eyes brighten with naive interest and then narrow as they ask specific questions.   I can see the gears turning.  It’s both heartwarming and terrifying that I might inspire some to take on these challenges.

The story started at 2am, and last week left off at about 11:45am as we were finally pulling our pulks away from one camp to find another.   It was slow but fairly easy.  That day there were no portages.  The ice was thick.  The sun was bright.  The wind in places was uncomfortable but manageable.  We’d stop in wind protected spots to adjust layers, drink our warm water, snack out of our lunch bags (oat buckeyes, salami, cheese, date rolls, unwrapped candy bites), and pee.

Apparently somewhere in here Annalesa quietly got her tongue stuck to her metal zipper pull.  Later around the fire she explained; her hip was hurting from the previous day of snowshoeing and “I sometimes stick my tongue out when I’m concentrating.” And that’s why her tongue hurt now. Which we all got a lot of giggles out of.   Winter camping provides so many opportunities to laugh at yourself.

~2pm
We started considering camp spots.  Our first choice turned out to be windier than ideal.  Moving on we ran into overflow (wet slush over the ice, but under the fresh snow).  Looking for spots we kept checking the map and the ice and snow conditions.

3pm
We finally found a good place for camp.  We unloaded the pulks.  These are the tasks that get done: Continue reading →

A week ago Will and I had our sixth winter camping adventure together.  We’ve had all sorts of experiences out there.  Warm years, wet years, hard years, easy years… It’s always interesting.  This year we took Annalesa and I’m working on telling that story.  In the meanwhile…

There are two types of people when I share that I winter camp:

Some people are immediately horrified by the concept.  They recoil when I tell them as if I was sharing that for my vacation I was going to be suspended on cliff edge in a tank of snakes and spiders while publicly speaking naked.  Not only can they not imagine wanting to do something like winter camp, they don’t even want to hear about it.

Some people are intrigued and drawn to the idea.  These are the people I’m nervous will get inspired and head out there unprepared and end up in Type 3 fun (where someone dies, or close to it.)  They ask what it’s like and how things work and I often struggle to explain how much work it is.

Perhaps a timeline of a typical day would help.

~2am
I always have to pee in the middle of the night.  It’s extra hard if it’s -30º out there.  I got mentally prepared, and then found and put on my liner gloves (so not to get contact frost bite from touching things outside my sleeping bag) I unzipped both zippers of my sleeping bag, slid out of my liner bag, pulled out my big puffy jacket and put it on, swiveled around and slid my boots on, wobbled over to my pee spot, undid my fleece onesie, peed.  Then reversed the whole process, pausing only to reinflate my therm-a-rest.  Back in my bag I released one of my two hot water bottles (Nalgeens that were filled with boiling hot water right before bedtime) from their fully encapsulating koozies.  Ahhhhh.  So warm and cozy!  I fell back to sleep.

6am
I woke up because I’d been sleeping for over eight hours.  But was still dark.   Continue reading →