Winter Camping

Winter camping is a hoot. Huge fire and hang out in the carharts, campfire cooking, etc.
Sleeping warm isn't an issue so long as you have a good down sleeping bag and a sock hat.

Love winter camping while hunting. Brother and I camped in the Deem wilderness several times in the late season. Also hunted late camps with a nephew a few times, and in North Dakota with friends, where it can become winter with a wind shift anytime after the first of September.

As I always say when people hear about it and think we're nuts..."Hey, no bugs, no snakes, no crowds...what's not to like?".

I have come to prefer a jug inside the tent to a bracing midnight stroll away from the tent, when nature calls. Especially in ND rattler country. Get back to sleep much quicker. The quart-sized ones that honey comes in are the ones I prefer.

Second the wool stocking cap. My coldest-weather bag is a good synthetic filled mummy, but we are usually canoe camping and taking the roomy tent and have room to pack more gear, so we like taking two cheaper bags that are more roomy. More flexibility when the expected temps/winds change, and more comfort.

A small sack full of chemical handwarmers has helped a lot a few times. So has using the propane stove inside the tent, not all night, but for a while to take the chill off and maybe again in the morning to heat the breakfast water for instant oats and coffee.

Always kind of wanted to get a small stove for the tent, but never wanted to tie up the money to do that the easy way, for the limited times we'd use it. For practical purposes, the propane two-burner and small electric overhead LED lantern are hard to beat on the nights when being outside around the campfire gets too uncomfortable to be fun anymore.

Current tent is a cheap 10x12 from Wallyworld, the one before that was about the same. Each lasted several years of western truck camping and more local truck and canoe camping in all weather with good durability and comfort. Second one is about worn out now, but so is the owner, not sure if I'll replace it 8^).

We used a more backpackable 7x7 one trip, and slept in it just fine, but the lack of room to stand or sit or fix meals became uncomfortable when the weather turned nastier, so we carried the bigger tent after that with no regrets.

I like to get off the ground more as I get older, so I now take a piece of 3/4 inch plywood my height and just under two feet wide, and place it across a couple of plastic totes that I pack my gear in. Makes a great sub for a cot and takes up less space in the canoe or truck, and I can roll out of it without getting charliehorses after a day of hiking. Good place to sit and makes more floor space in the tent as well by using the space under it.