we're back!

[armymedic.2]

First let me start by saying, we had a blast. my dad and i got some real quality time in. i don't know if you watched the weather, but we had a really tough time too. we learned a lot, and shot very little. very much a mind over matter way of campiing in the catskills

day 1: we got to the gate at around 9 am. met a man there who could not beleive we were camping in the weather, but said to have fun. and be careful on the road. they pack it for snow mobilers, but it was slush as we went up. a balmy 40 degrees or so. bout a mile up to the top, and 4 wheel peel got us there just fine. we parked and hiked in about a mile and half. the packs were very heavy, and it was rough going in. rmeinded me of basic. there was 1 1/2 feet of snow on the mountain, and almost none on the bottom. of course, we had our hearts set on camping up top. made it thorugh the snow, got tent up, and after much trouble got a fire started with all the wet wood around. had to use balled up old pine needles as a starter, excellent material to use by the way. burns hot and fast. went out hunting for supper, saw no squerrils, no rabbits, no grouse, no tracks except for deer. barren ground. uh oh.
had a terrible nights sleep trying to stay warm.

day 2: woke up, stepped out the tent and landed on my rear. over night the entire mountain turned to ice. no more snow, it would not break under our weight. had some coffee, then slipped and fell all day looking for game. my dad and i both were battered and bruised by the end of the day, and my rifle tooka couple of rides down the mountain when i fell real bad. we got back to camp licked our wounds, amnd marveled that we had seen no game. we did manage to shoot some very small birds, which gave us some protien, and also made johnny cakes that night on the fire. flour salt and water never tasted so good. as we sat around the fire we talked about the road down the mountian and our increasing concern over making it down safely, as it is very steep on the low side, slipping off might be fatal, and definitely would injure us and wreck the truck. we decided to leave the next afternoon when the sun had a chance to hit the road. we went to bed hungry and dissapointed we would have to leave early, but it seemed the smart thing to do. awoke in the night to the tent caving in on us from the wieght of the snow that started falling. it caved in about 4 times, and eventually we slept with it on top of us. giving up on erecting it. we were exhausted. it ended up dumping about 8 new inches on us, giving us over two feet of snow and ice to hike out in. lucky for us the snow provided some tractin on top of the ice, and we made it down the mountain without serious incident. never did see a squerril or rabbit. unbeilievable. we saw three deer, but that did not help us as they were no longer in season. ill post some pics as soon as im done giving my daughter a bath. we had fun though, i strongly encourage this trip, just go somewhere without 2 feet of snow and no game!

 

[armymedic.2]

i forgot to mention that we used hot rocks the second night to help heat the night. worked pretty good. the rocks in bottom were cold, to keep the hit ones from melting the tent floor.
threee days and two night was plenty in these conditions.

 

[roundball]

i forgot to mention that we used hot rocks the second night to help heat the night. worked pretty good. the rocks in bottom were cold, to keep the hit ones from melting the tent floor.
threee days and two night was plenty in these conditions.

Glad you guys made it back out OK...settlers had it tough didn't they...

 

[armymedic.2]

freshly set up camp

the view to the stream from the fire pit

pop by the fire staying warm

our first meal in a while!

the snow won and the tent lost

tent heat!

 

[beaverbill]

:surrender:

 

[J.D.]

i forgot to mention that we used hot rocks the second night to help heat the night. worked pretty good. the rocks in bottom were cold, to keep the hit ones from melting the tent floor.
threee days and two night was plenty in these conditions.

Sounds like fun. Cold fun, but fun none the less.

It helps to place the rocks in canvas, "rock bags", then wrap in another layer of canvas if they are really hot. Place the hot rocks in your sleeping bag, blankets, or what have you, and they will usually last most of the night...if the rocks are big enough and hot enough. They should not be so hot that the heat scorches the canvas.

Our little group has gone out in primitive gear in 0 degree weather. It was so cold that the back of the rocks making up the fire ring had frost on 'em.

Each of us put three or four rocks in the fire to swap out when the one in the blankets got too cold.

One of our group neglected to swap out the rocks, pulling hot ones inside his blankes as the need arose. He had a small wall of rocks built on the inside of his blankets the next morning.

J.D.

 

[armymedic.2]

haha, i thought about putting a warm one in the bag. these started off red in spots they were so hot. probably gave heat for about 2 hours. it helped anyway! congrats to you with the primitive gear in 0 degree!

 

Congrats on your safe return from a camping trip of a lifetime.

Billy

 

[jethro224]

Good to hear you made a safe return. Too bad the weather and game didn't co-operate a little better. Sounds like a story you'll be tellin' your grandkids. :hatsoff:

If you ever do it again, a smaller tent would be warmer. Not as much space to heat so your body heat will build up better. :thumbsup:

 

[Halftail]

Nice lookin pictures Armymedic!Sounds like you had fun!

 

[Runner]

Sounds like a good trip to me!
A couple back, two guys walked into the January gathering at Old Mines and set up a canvas oilskin tarp shelter. They used braces along the sides of the opening and laced the oil skin to them. They won the traditional camp award. It was 5 degrees during the day that day and below 0 that night. Most folks abandoned their tents and spent the night in a log cabin with a wood stove. I drove 40 miles to the cabin and slept in a soft bed under a mountain of blankets. With the heat on, the floor still felt like it was burning your feet the next morning. Those two guys spent the night in their shelter. When I complimented one of them the next day, he said they had to build up the fire several times and warm themselves all over when they did. Be a hard way to live more than a few days!
Years back, we had a pregnant beagle not return one evening during an ice over snow type storm. I went out looking for her. I slipped and slid until I hit a tree in the back yard of the house I now own. I was lucky I hit the tree, or I was about to get the pinball ride to the bottom of the hollow. I could stand, but I could not go uphill at all. The ice was over 5 inches and wasn't impressed by my attempts to knock foot holds in it. I ended up cutting two sharp sticks and coming up that hill on my belly. The conditions you described are tough, and it is all too easy to get hurt.
Glad you made it back with a new treasured memory!

 

[Geraldo]

Glad to hear you got back and had some fun. It's disappointing to do so, but I think you were probably right to cut it short. I've been on trips in the mountains that went from fun to more of a survival trip in a very short time.

Look over you gear list and be ruthless. Bin whatever didn't work, didn't get used (except emergency gear), and what you wish you had had with you.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Glad you survived! Reminds me of the winter campouts I used to endure in Boy Scouts. I gotta hand it to your Pop. He's old enough to know what he was getting into. ;-)

Now, for a fun read, find a copy of "SOUTH" by Ernest Shackleton. One year stuck in the Antarctic ice . . . and then their ship was crushed. Another year dragging the lifeboats across ice flows and then six of the fittest taking one of the open boats out to sea to a "nearby" whaling station off South America. Incredably, all 28 of the group survived the whole thing! Brrrrrrr.

 

[BrownBear]

Looks like a great time well invested!

Next time out, here's an experiment I think you'll like:

Go ahead and take your tent as a "base camp" for the first night, but experiment with other shelters once you are there. I'll guarantee that almost anything you build will be warmer than the tent.

Keep your shelters small and think about a "thermos bottle" with insulated walls and door plug. Get your sleeping bags off the ground and that will help a bunch, too.

Up here we build small 2-man brush shelters just barely big enough for two and high enough barely to sit up in. Lay out the floor first with whatever will keep you off the ground. Then build the shelter up and over, with a small door. Insulate it with whatever.

From the looks of your firewood, you could skip the brush, cover it with those longer sticks and pile snow back over it. Tarps are good for wind proofing, but you need something to pile over them to keep your insulation from sliding off. Depending on the location and season, anything from snow to moss to leaves to grass can be used for insulation.

With such a small, insulated shelter the heat of two bodies will go a long ways to warm it up. When done right, you'll be amazed how much a candle or even a couple of hot rocks will finish the job.

It usually takes two guys 2-4 hours to build a shelter right, depending on the density and availability of building materials. Warm enough that it will be time very well spent.

There's a good reason former residents of the continent built "wikkiup" style brush shelters, and lots of historic foundation for this general kind of shelter building.

 

[armymedic.2]

thanks for all the comments guys. sounds like a good read that "south". i very much wanted to build a shelter the old way, but since you can't cut trees in the forest it would have been a problem. we did have a blast. i only packed one set of stuff we didn't use. tp and baby wipes! we were laughing saying you gotta eat to go! i had to use my medic kit in the first 30 seconds cause i whacked my finhger with the back of my machete putting in tent stakes. not bad, just a stupid cut along the nail that my dad laughed at me for, i think he said"if anyone could get hurt that fast it would be you" :redface:

 

[gmww]

Great story and I bet you two learned a lot while dealing with the tasks at hand. Wish I had done this with my dad. Oh well I got a daughter growing up. Maybe we'll do something and rough it. :thumbsup:

 

[uncrichie]

RUNNER, don't leave us hanging. What happened to the pregnant beagle??? Uncrichie.

 

[Runner]

Two-bits was her name, and that was about her worth as a hunting dog. She was back at the house long before I was!

 

[uncrichie]

Thanks, glad she made it back. Uncrichie.

 

[Flint311]

Sounds like a great time :thumbsup: I'd love to do that with my kids, but in the backyard, at first. I can see the day coming, but may have to work out the bugs myself first! Lots of good advise here. A lot made sense, based on experience with camping with my cadets, etc. Yup, lots of pics to share years down the road......Congrats!