Winter Camping

 Jason has always wanted to go winter camping. I did for a time, but then I changed my mind after living here for as long as we have. I do love to play in the cold and snow, but sleeping in it, probably not.

Jason got to go a few years ago with the Young Men and had a blast! The past couple of months he helped plan and carry out another one, this one Austin was able to go on! They had a few Zoom activities to prepare and talk about how to keep warm while sleeping. Jason did a good job with that.

At first, we were worried about the fast rate the snow had melted around our house the few days before the campout. We had a ton of snow, but some temps in the high 40s and low 50s, plus a little rain, and that snow melted fast!

It turns out, there was plenty of snow for them there and I think it being a little warmer than expected (temps in the high 20s overnight), made it a good first time for Austin and some of the other boys.

They played snow football the night before and had a campfire to go along with the food they each brought for themselves, (chili for Austin). They slept well with all the right equipment, including warm water bottles. There was a big breakfast the next morning, provided by the leaders, and then they went sledding. Apparently, Austin was too tired to go sledding, so maybe he didn't sleep as well as I thought!

Meanwhile, that morning, I took Erik on a little hike at Maybury because I heard it's fun in the winter and we hadn't gotten over there yet while there was snow on the ground. We had so much fun! Erik said he likes it better hiking there in the snow than at other times. We ended up getting home right after Jason and Austin, and we took more pictures than them:)

The moon at the campout.

The layout of the tents. See, plenty of snow!

We could have gone down the paved path.

But Erik wanted the real adventure, so we hiked on the dirt path, which was covered in snow and some ice, but it wasn't too slippery.

He was hot of course, but I was cold!

I tried to get a picture of the black squirrel before he ran away, but I was too slow with my gloves on.

P.S. For my last post, I had forgotten about the pics I snapped after the huge snowstorm we got. They were hiding in my phone, somehow, and I couldn't remember exactly what pics I had taken, though I thought I had taken more of the crazy snowfall. So here you go!

Unfortunately, we had our canopy up because our neighbors leave theirs up and we wanted to try it since we're home more often and can use it when the weather is decent. We were removing the snow as it came, but we just got too much that night and I don't think we had cleared it right before. Ooops!

They say we get 20 lbs. of snow per square inch here.

Very deep!