Winter Camping

After discovering this site last year I decided to give winter camping a try.  After a bit of research I found a U.S. Army surplus five man arctic tent from calarmy and a Yukon Stove from aasurplus to go in it. 

Here's the tent set up for the first time in the back yard.  It's amazing how warm the tent gets with the stove going.

Our first trip winter camping was a weekend up at the Pinery Provincial Park with Steven, his cousin Ben and I.  We arrived on Friday evening and registered at the self serve kiosk at the main gate.  There were a number of other people in the park mostly in yurts and campers.  We picked a spot off by ourselves but not too far from the washrooms.

The first night was a little wet as the temperatures were around the freezing mark.  I had removed the liner to reduce weight but the result was that any water that leaked through the canvas at the seams would drip down on us as opposed to having the liner and diverting the moisture to the outside walls.

The next day we went for a hike down to the shoreline which is normally packed in the summertime but was deserted now.  The beach was littered with what appeared to be rocks but was actually chunks of ice that had been worn smooth.  I was amazed at how Steven seemed to handle the cold with only a shirt and hoodie.  After the hike we made a trip to the toboggan hill for some fun.

The skating rink at the toboggan hill looked more like a swimming pool due to the higher than normal temperatures.

That night we spent playing Monopoly, roasting marshmallows and eating popcorn.  The temperatures dropped overnight and unknown to us, a major winter storm hit the area.

The next morning we packed up to go home but made a quick visit to the toboggan hill where the ice rink was now under a blanket of snow.