It was Christmas of 1996 that Matt and Jim decided to try winter camping. We met on Martin Luther King weekend at New York State’s Siamese Ponds Wilderness Area with gorgeous weather and hiked in 3 miles. A Boy Scout troop had hiked in before us and were staying at the John’s Pond lean-to, so we tented. Unfortunately, in an effort to lighten the load Jim left the tent stakes and, more importantly, the plastic tie rods in truck with the tent stakes. We camped on a hillside across pond where beaver had been working among the saplings. We used poles the beaver had cut to make an external tent frame holding the rain fly away from the tent. Matt made a reflector fireplace which provided both great cooking and a conversation fire. We sat up until about 8:30pm (it was dark by 5pm). We slept well and stayed warm as the overnight temperatures got down to 20 degrees. We got 2” of snow overnight and we listened it slide off the tent during the night.
We were hooked…since then the group known as WinterCampers.com have participated on over 36 winter camping trips…… here is a quick pictorial journey through those trips. The movie runs a little over 6 minutes and has a musical accompaniment – so either turn your speakers up (or off depending upon your situation).
WinterCampers Celebrate 14 Years of Winter Camping
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September 6th, 2011 | Category: Winter Camping
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