I'm Off Winter Camping

So you're reading this from the comfort of your warm home (hopefully).  While I'm headed north to the frozen tundra that is the upper part of the United States.

It would definitely be worth it if this is what it looked like at night.

I googled tips on winter camping.  It wasn't very helpful.  Things like have a sleeping bag for 30 degrees cooler then the weather you're in.  I haven't seen a bag below zero, so that doesn't help.  Actually, we sleep inside two zero degree bags.  Also tips like use antibiotic wipes every 5 days to give yourself a "bath".  Well, we'll be gone just a little over 5 days so I'll pass on the baby wipe bath and wait until I get home.

And then I decided to take this quiz from Scouting Magazine on winter camping knowledge.  I scored a 45%.  Not a good sign.

Of course, there is all the planning on having appropriate ways to make fire and things for emergencies in case someone falls through the ice (not likely) or gets eaten by a bear (also not likely since they are all hibernating), but I would feel completely ridiculous without my own stuff, because I just know that if I didn't bring something, then inevitably something would pop up and then I'd need it and I would be wandering the wilderness while Chris is fishing and all hell would break loose because I got lost and all I had was hard candy.  Not to mention that while I was googling I discovered that there was a fairly large shooting in the Boundary Waters Wilderness in 2007.  And since we are essentially going to be almost to Canada, I have these grand visions of stumbling upon some type of terrorist trafficking into the US from the frozen wasteland.  Okay, not really.  That would make a good book or movie plot though....

Don't you just envy me?

Also Chris popped this idea to me today: let's build and then sleep in a quinzee.  Which is a fancy term for a pile of snow you build, let it settle for a few hours and then dig out your sleeping area, and then sleep in for all the rest of the nights.  Like this.

Except I already told Chris in no uncertain terms am I building and then sleeping in a dome of snow.  First of all because I am slightly claustrophobic, and secondly, I have terrible visions of it caving in on me like an avalanche and then dying because I can't breathe.  Even though I know that if you sleep in a quinzee, you can get the temperature up a lot higher than what you can in a tent.

Who's in for winter camping next year??