Winter Camping
Camping in winter can be pretty challenging. You don't realize how much you rely on the amenities of modern life until you try to put them behind you. Even setting up a campsite in summer is difficult sometimes. Getting clean water, finding places to go to the bathroom, preparing food, and even sleeping comfortably can be almost insurmountable challenges in good weather. With winter camping, you add a great many other difficulties to this already considerable list. Making your food, setting up your campground, and keeping your equipment warm and dry is much more difficult when there's snow on the ground and the temperature is plummeting below zero! Yet with the right winter outdoor gear and the right experience, winter camps can be one of the most exciting and fun activities imaginable.
The key with winter camping is to start off slowly and work with someone who knows what they're doing. As a matter of fact, unless you can take a course in winter camping or get some kind of instruction, I don't really recommend it. Instead of setting up a full-blown campsite, you can try winter RV camping to see what you think. A winter camping RV, although it doesn't allow you to get as deep into the backwoods, still gives you some excellent opportunities for communion with nature. You can get to remote campsites in beautiful locations where you can't find a hotel. Because there won't be as many people there during the winter season, you can find much of the solitude you need. Best of all, you can do this all while keeping safe and warm inside your RV. If you try that out and find it rewarding and comfortable, then you can get more serious about the activity.
The first winter camping trip I took was with a Boy Scout Troop. They taught us a lot about how to keep safe and warm. One of the most important things is to have good winter tents. Fortunately, tents have gotten better and better in the last several years. Nowadays, it is poss
ible to keep completely dry and warm inside a tent. One of the best ways to do this is to make sure that you don't have too much room. The more tightly packed you are inside, the more body heat you will have to keep you warm. Winter camping trips should have several people. That way, everyone can stay warmer and, if someone gets into trouble, there are other folks to help.
