Most people love camping, but everyone who does hates the bugs. We found the best way to go camping and avoid the bugs is…. go in winter.
Clayton has posted some great stuff of the site about sleeping in quinzees (maybe i spelled it wrong), but we usually sleep in a tent. Due to our work schedules, we frequently don’t get out to a good spot until around 5, and by then it can be getting dark. On Nov. 20th, we headed up to Hydraulic Lake (a favourite winter spot of ours, and Clayton too apparently). We got there with just enough light to get everything set up, but not the 3 or 4 hours needed to build a sweet quinzee.
Our tent was an old Northface 4 season tent. It was easily warm enough for the -15 or -16 night. We each had down sleeping bags from MEC (thanks for the gift card Clayton!) and good thermarests.
We snowshoed around the lake to Idabel Lake on at least a foot of fresh powder. On Sunday we hopped in the truck and headed up towards Canyon Lakes to attempt a snowshoe up little white. There was SO much powder and breaking trail was exhausting, but 1st tracks in the backwoods are always a great feeling.
We didn’t see many others up there, which was a big reminder to be prepared and able to get back down alone. Cell phone coverage is sketchy but does exist up there.
We ate tons of campfire cooked food and brought all the stuff (chives, bacon, cheese, sour cream, etc) to make the most incredible baked potatoes ever. The hardest thing was trying to keep the beer from freezing. We even got to do some snowboarding on the way back.