Christmas comes and goes and my friend/Boss Dan gets a winter camping hammock rig from his family. He pipes up with hey lets do this winter camping thing on the weekend of Jan 18th, I have no plans so I say sure why not. The planning begins.
We are both trying out new gear and i have never done this and most of Dan's camping is of the car/snowmobile variety. So, we figure we don't wanna be far from the car so we have an escape rout. on my way back down from my Mt Meader hike I went through the closed Basin Campground and Cold River Campground. I figure that is about a mile from where we can park overnight lets try that.
The Friday before we are watching the weather and it is floating around 30 degrees and snow. if it looks like heavy wet snow we might not wanna do it, cold and dry is ok cold and wet could really suck. but we luck out and it gets colder. Dan is not available till after noon so we plan on meeting at the office around 12:30 or 1:00 and getting in his Jeep and heading up.
The snow is starting to come down as I throw my pack in the car we are right on schedule. Dan is going to swing by Dicks sporting good and grab something and look for a spatula I am going to swing by EMS and look for the same. I packed some eggs for breakfast and he had a fry pan. if we don't find one we can always boil the eggs.. The roads are getting kinda slick as drive over it takes me a little longer to get out to the mall than I thought. EMS had nothing I like and since the roads are crappy i don't look long and head over to the office. As I am heading along Payne Rd I see a white Jeep in my rear view, it is Dan, we get to the office at exactly the same time. We shuffle gear and I put my pack in the Jeep there is not much snow so I am debating weather or not to bother with then snowshoes and warm boots as opposed to my hiking boost and Microspikes. Dan suggests to just bring them both and decide when we get there.. So, after all the gear is stuffed in the Jeep we head out, ok a quick lunch at subway but we are off. I can feel the Jeep sliding around as we leave the subway parking lot and Dan throws it into 4 wheel we are off. It is slow going out to Fryburg where we stop at the Citgo to top off the gas and use the bathroom. I really don't wanna have to do #2 in the snow if I can help it. Rt 113 is beat up north of Fryburg. Even though they have been plowing it there are thick patches of ice that bounce us around. and when they say BUMP then mean it the Jeep lurches sideways as we hit the heaves and dips.
As we roll into the parking lot we see a couple of guys with a golden retriever getting ready to head out they have Snowboards on their packs so I suspect they are not gong the same way we are. a quick chat with them and we find out they are heading up the closed section of 113 and to one of the trails off that and are gonna snowboard back down. They also have info about where they pay envelopes are for overnight parking there is one at this campground and one at the historic house just up 113 past the gate. I put on the warm winter hiking boots and to COA I hike up to the historic house to get that one and Dan goes into campground to get one there. The air is nice and there seems to be a good snow pack still up here. Much more than I expected given the rain and warm weather we have had. I did not realize, though it seem obvious that the closed part of 113 is part of the ITS snowmobile system i grab the envelope and head back. Dan is putting his snowshoes out and getting his pack ready when I get back to the Jeep he had sunk up to his knees getting the envelope he got so we are using the snowshoes to do our hike, good thing I brought them. We get suited up and head in.
There is a definite packed snowshoes trail up the road and some prints of people who hiked in with out shoes and those footprints are deep I pick back and forth trying to keep on a solidish area so I don't sink too much but away from the uneven area where the non snowshoe people have hiked. The only sound is the crunch of the snow under our snowshoes and our breathing.
We had gotten above the snorm (snow storm) but as we hike in the snow has started up again it is so peaceful and pretty. I am realizing how much more i need to step up my workout regiment if I am going to do more of this backpacking thing. It does not take long for me to start to feel winded, this is a lot of work. I am really only half surprised I knew it would not be easy but I did not think I would be winded this quickly.
The basin lake and the gate to the campground is a welcome site. The other footprints have turned back or drift off toward the Lake. The snow is coming down more and clouds have covered most of the surrounding mountains. We decide to walk the full circle of the campground and look at all the sites before choosing one. There are no prints other than the odd bunny or squirrel. No one has been through here since the snow has fallen. There are a lot of nice spots, we need one with a nice flat spot for my tent which is easy, good trees for Dan's Hammock and some shelter from the wind. Well if there is wind, is is nice an calm now. We choose plot 14 there is a stream out back which burbles along and sounds great.
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| Plot 14 you can see the leaning tree on the right. |
The only issue is there is a very dead tree leaning precariously over where I want to put my tent.. Now normally I would not cut down anything and would only pick up dead fall for firewood but this tree will have to come down before the campground opens anyway so I don't feel bad "helping" it to the ground. With that done we hustle to set up before it gets dark. We still need to find firewood. but that we can do with headlamps if we have to.. My tent goes up nice and quickly. The "snow stakes" (canvas parachutists) don't fill me with confidence and the steaks are not getting much to grab so I use the freestanding option by putting my treaking pole in the ends. Once it is up I dig around it so I can get the streaks into something solid and I try to set one of the snow steaks.
Dan gets his Hammock up in about the same amount of time as it takes me to get my tent up and set up with the 2 camp mats and sleeping bag and all that.
Tent and Hammock up light failing it is time to go find some firewood. it seems that everything is wet and wet on the inside as well we gather a bunch of deadfall and haul it back to the camp fire grill. I get out my stove and set up my stove to make some hot drinks and we set about making a fire. It is tough the wood is all wet and we keep having to take my inflatable cap seat to fan it to get it to flare up for a bit. we put most of our spare wood on top of the grill so it might cook some of the water out
now that there is fire... sort of at least it is time for food. Both Dan and I brought Mountain House freeze dried meals.. I also brought a kielbasa but that is a lot more effort in cooking maybe I will eat that with eggs in the morning. I use the water from my hydration pack since I suspect that it could freeze overnight and that would be bad for it, or it could be. The freeze dried meal is not bad.. I mean it is not a home cooked meal or anything like that but for camp food I surprised. It is lightweight and easy and 1 bag, which they claim is 2 servings is just about enough for me. I expect if I had been really hiking all day I would want some more or some supplemental food. I will be buying more of these. After dinner it is a bit more hang out time and fighting with the fire. We got it going well enough about midway through dinner I found some hanging deadwood that was dry on a pee walk. We ran out of gathered wood and so it is time to hit the sack, as they say. I wander out into the dark for one more pee before going to bed and see a light through the trees... that is odd, there is no house there.. I listen... not a snow mobile there is no noise.. then I realize.. it is the moon coming up.. looking up a few stars are peaking through the clouds the snow has been coming down most of the evening so I did not expect to see the stars or moon but there they are.. I call Dan over and point out the light, I hesitate on telling him it is the moon, it takes him a min too to realize it.. I do not feel so dumb.
Photos are not working out in the dark so I just don't bother.
I crawl into my tent. pull my boots off and set them in the vestibule. I start to push around my gear in the tent I pulled everything in so it did not get lost if there was more snow overnight. It would be nice if I could have pulled my sleeping bag out of my pack without having to dump the pack now everything is everywhere. I get some semblance of order to the gear and get prepped for sleep. I take off the shell pants and my jackets, stuff my down jacket and a water bottle into the bottom of my sleeping bag and climb in. after a little shuffling around I fall asleep. I wake up in the middle of the night and crap I have to pee.. maybe it will go away.. no I have to get out and pee. I grab my phone to check the time.. 11:30 really?? sigh.. the moon is up and it is much cooler then when I went to bed. I get back to the sleeping bag and fall back to sleep I wake up a few times one time the opening of the bag is wet with condensation so I curl it out of the way so I don't breath on it. another time I am way too warm and sweating a bit so I pull off my base layer and stuff it to the bottom of the bag. I keep having to fight my camp mats to stay together and to keep my bag on them. I need to figure out how to fix that.
Dan got up at 4:00 and was not able to go back to sleep I heard him walk by but since he did not say anything I continue to doze on and off till about 6:00. I put some hand warmers into my boots to try to preheat them but did not wait long enough so they were not that warm when I put them on. good plan bad implementation. I crawl out of my tent, it is still dark, Dan is sitting on the picnic table reading with his headlamp. We make breakfast I have no inspiration to cook eggs so I make oatmeal and I forgot to pack real coffee so I do instant and burn my mouth.. The instant coffee is not very good not going to buy that again. Dan bought a Mountain House breakfast bag. which he said was pretty good. I really want to take photos of the campsite before we pack up but there is still not much light and my photos look like this.
with some photo fighting I get this
I suggest we go for a walk to the lake and along the trail a bit while we wait for the sun to come up. The wood are beautiful. and it is so peaceful.
We get down to the basin lake and follow the trail along the bank till we get to the picnic area just outside the entrance to the campground
After the little explore and the snow is starting to fall again so we head back to our campsite to take photos of our camp and to pack up. I have not tried my water filter yet and would like to. I will do that after we pack everything else up.
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| Our hidden little camp |
not a bad little camp for the first trip. Time to pack up.
Tearing down and packing up goes smoothly and uneventful
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| all packed up |
I pull out my water filter and am pleased to discover that the filter will screw directly onto my new insulated Hydoflask water bottle so I scramble down to the stream and drop the float hose into the stream and start to pump. I run some through and onto the snow to rinse it out before putting it on the bottle and pumping it full of water. It is not super quick but not bad I fill up the water bottle and climb back up I dry out the filter pack it up and pack it up... Dan has photos I will post them when he gets them to me.
The hike back is downhill and easy. It has snowed on and off the entire time and it is again to see us out of the woods. I will do this again for sure. I need to push harder with my workouts and do things a little different.
1. bring less water and use the filter for more of the water making the pack lighter..
2. I will prolly not bring the hydro flask and just bring the Dromedary bag.
3. resort my other backup kit bags so I don't have quite as much stuff.
4. try to get going earlier so I have more time in the light when getting to the campsite.
5. for the winter stuff I am thinking about a pull sled for my gear and if i do that I can bring a little dry wood and and it would be useful for gathering firewood.
6. see if i can put a zipper in my pack so i can get my sleeping bag out without dumping the entire bag.
7. bring a notebook so i can take notes for the blog right away.
8. bring something to read in the evening. since night is so long.
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