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Life's interesting stories

For a southerner, love the stories and pictures. But if I ever see them in real life, I’m driving too early in the morning through the north, or soon to be dead
 
Eqwhipped said:
I will have to see if I can dig out some old photos, but if you have not spotted a trend you may notice I love the rivers of Michigan.

Some long time ago me and the best man from my wedding, Randy decided to go on a winter camping canoe trip. It is a rare wonder to canoe a frozen river. It's just incredibly peaceful and the ice formations are a site to behold.

We launched onto the river at 26 degrees f. The water was pure and clear, fish move so slow you want to reach in and grab them. As we paddled into state land to find a camping spot we just watched all of wildlife around us with awe.

The name of the game with winter camping is conserving heat and energy. So all the critters are fat with fall food and moving slow. We found a flat bit of ice right off the bank to pitch our tent and make camp.
The first night was crazy, I was as cold as I have ever been. Every breath was so cold it was like trying to breath ice water. When it's that cold you don't really sleep you just shut down but not really sleep, I believe it is called a state of twilight.
By morning we were exhausted with trying to sleep and all I wanted was hot coffee. I rolled over and what I seen was a million bright clear pearls hanging on the inside of the tent. As we slept our warm breath condensed on the tent and was now a wall of water.

We made the choice to use a camp knife and delicately slice the tent into a convertible to avoid getting wet. Then it's off to tend the fire and warm the body. We hardly spoke the whole weekend. Just cooked and stared at the world around us. Stary nights were just mesmerizing, lay back in the snow and just stare.

Have you ever seen when ice forms on naked trees and turns them into 50ft tall chandeliers? A whole forest of them with the morning sun will change a life.

We ended up leaving the next night but it was a weekend I'll remember for a lifetime.
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That's awesome! You can see some of the most gorgeous things in the world when you get the right weather during winter camping. Next time take a small propane lantern and hang it from the top of your tent, or find anywhere inside the tent where it is stable, it will prevent the frost-over and provide a tiny bit of warmth.

Viewing stars in zero ambient light is awe inspiring. @jfields and I experienced it one night while primitive camping in Pa. We had to carry the rabid coon deep enough into the woods to avoid attracting bears to our campsite.
 
Eqwhipped said:
I rolled over and what I seen was a million bright clear pearls hanging on the inside of the tent. As we slept our warm breath condensed on the tent and was now a wall of water.
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When I was in Boy Scouts, we did a hike from our base camp in the Pecos Wilderness right up to the tree line of what we called Pecos Baldy - not sure what peak it was. Anyway, our scoutmaster decided that we'd use big black plastic bags for tents. It was a black visqueen tube maybe 4ft in diameter, string some rope through it, tie to a couple of trees, seal it up on the end with clothespins. Gear and sleeping bags held the bottom flat, looked pretty much like 2 man tents.

It was mountain weather, showers in the evening and dipped right to freezing at night even though it was during the summer. Our breath condensed on the inside during the nights and our stuff was all pretty wet in the morning. We spent a lot of time trying to dry out our gear that as kids we would rather spend doing kid stuff on a mountain.

It got better. They decided that a hike to Santa Fe would be a good idea. Down off the mountain it was pretty warm, and the trek from Pecos to Santa Fe was pretty much high desert for a good bit. We were trashed by the time we got there, got a burger at a bowling alley and piled into the beds of pickups for the ride back. But there had been a storm back on the mountain while we were gone and the road to base camp was washed out. Spent the night packed like 10 kids per pickup bed with nothing but the light hiking clothes we started out with.

Still an overall fun trip, lots of miles hiking on that one.
 
CigarStone said:
That's awesome! You can see some of the most gorgeous things in the world when you get the right weather during winter camping. Next time take a small propane lantern and hang it from the top of your tent, or find anywhere inside the tent where it is stable, it will prevent the frost-over and provide a tiny bit of warmth.

Viewing stars in zero ambient light is awe inspiring. @jfields and I experienced it one night while primitive camping in Pa. We had to carry the rabid coon deep enough into the woods to avoid attracting bears to our campsite.
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I'm glad to hear you had that opportunity to see some of nature's wonders. And still are doing it today! I guess I need to get the kids some cold gear and a lantern, then try this again.
 
ChuckJr said:
When I was in Boy Scouts, we did a hike from our base camp in the Pecos Wilderness right up to the tree line of what we called Pecos Baldy - not sure what peak it was. Anyway, our scoutmaster decided that we'd use big black plastic bags for tents. It was a black visqueen tube maybe 4ft in diameter, string some rope through it, tie to a couple of trees, seal it up on the end with clothespins. Gear and sleeping bags held the bottom flat, looked pretty much like 2 man tents.

It was mountain weather, showers in the evening and dipped right to freezing at night even though it was during the summer. Our breath condensed on the inside during the nights and our stuff was all pretty wet in the morning. We spent a lot of time trying to dry out our gear that as kids we would rather spend doing kid stuff on a mountain.

It got better. They decided that a hike to Santa Fe would be a good idea. Down off the mountain it was pretty warm, and the trek from Pecos to Santa Fe was pretty much high desert for a good bit. We were trashed by the time we got there, got a burger at a bowling alley and piled into the beds of pickups for the ride back. But there had been a storm back on the mountain while we were gone and the road to base camp was washed out. Spent the night packed like 10 kids per pickup bed with nothing but the light hiking clothes we started out with.

Still an overall fun trip, lots of miles hiking on that one.
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That's a crazy story Chuck, glad y'all survived it! It takes a certain kind of person to go through that then say overall it was a good trip.

Hats off to you.
 
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