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Things I learned while camping in the cold

Camping is a fun experience. Camping in the cold can be a fun experience if you’re not a party pooper. It can also be a character-building experience. If you’re prepared and don’t complain too much, congratulations. You win at camp. Here are a few other things I learned during my first ever camping trip.

1. It’s not that hard to stay warm. Coming from me, this is saying something. The adults had it right; wear layers and wearing a hat and gloves. Sleeping in a tent in the cold isn’t as bad as it sounds either. That’s what many blankets and sleeping bags are for.

2. Cooking over a fire isn’t that hard. It’s actually kind of fun; it gives an old-school feel to the experience.

3. Air mattresses are good things. We had one, and we made good use of it, along with the many sleeping bags and blankets inside the tent. The inflater didn’t work at first, so we wound up inflating it manually until it started working.

4. Being flexible is a very good thing. We had a propane stove, but when the propane tanks were empty, we went to option two: the fire. The next morning we cooked breakfast over a little grill we found while looking for more propane. Yes, we could have used the fire again, but we were out of firewood.

5. Putting up a tent isn’t as difficult as it sounds. The harder part is taking it down, cleaning off all the debris that made its way on the tent overnight, and getting the tent back in the little bag that it came in.

Overall, I’d do it again, though I’d highly prefer to wait until it got warmer. Just don’t tell my partner in camp that last part.

2 replies on “Things I learned while camping in the cold”

5. Putting up a tent isn’t as difficult as it sounds. The harder part is taking it down, cleaning off all the debris that made its way on the tent overnight, and getting the tent back in the little bag that it came in.

You couldn’t be any more correct. I HATE trying to fit it back in the bag because it NEVER goes back in as tight and as neatly as it did originally. Same with sleeping bags. It was a perfect marshmallow shape when you get it, but the the first time you try to re-bag it ends up looking like lumpy sack of racks. As someone with a few random cases of mild OCD, this is bothersome.

@JMattHicks We had that problem with sleeping bags, too. Those little bags look great at first, but then you realize they’re just an idealized image for sleeping bags. And we thought humans had it hard. It took two of us to get that tent back in the bag, and it barely fit back in there.

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