New Trip Report posted by heavycanoe

Trip Name: Winter camping - non bwca - northern wisconsin.

Entry Point: Other

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Nice report! Long winter nights! ...wish there were pics

The Whisker is a special place. Prior to it being deemed wilderness, my family deer hunted it. I still occasionally deer hunt there, though the population is low due to non-managed forestland. It's a special area and Riley Lake is beautiful and unspoiled.

Rob here...finally chiming in. Thanks for recording this Jerry.

We have a habit of taking on new challenges that are just beyond our pay grade. It is not for lack of planning. We obsess about these trips until we have spent hours upon hours e-mailing. The problem we have is that very often it is like Ray Charles describing a rainbow to Helen Keller. We figure out the best possible way to tow a kids' sled filled with 50 pounds of gear...never realizing the whole kids' sled idea is horribly, horribly flawed.

The next winter trip went easier with newly built sleds but we still had our share of adventure including the statement, "Guys...the tent is on fire". Don't worry...no major damage.

Our next, over planned, over reaching, sure to be adventure is tackling a PMA (in the summer). Look for a report next fall.

RoJo

P.S. I swear I won both games of cribbage and no one can prove otherwise...

Great report. Sounds like a neat area worth checking out. I'll remember to not use the kid sleds on my first winter camping trek. I mean, what are you supposed to use otherwise, right?

What kind of tent did you two spend your night in? I wish there was more fishing action for you guys, but sometimes it just doesn't work that way. Your pace seemed really slow cause of the hard work, i'm taking note of that just so I don't plan to get farther than I can in one day.

Thanks for sharing.

Yep. Winter camping operates under a rather different rule book! Before I teamed up with the 'Winter Wolves' (See fishing on thin ice...) I would winter camp using only a backpack and snowshoes. When I did try your approach a few years ago with a tobaggan I had the same problems with tipping every 5 feet.

Otters sleds and similar are worth their weight in gold.

Nice to see someone reading this trip report from last year.

Rob I gave you credit for winning both games of cribbage but I'm just saying that you kept score. coincidence? That is for the readers to decide.

Brown Bear this being our first winter camong trip and trying to go a little less expensive we bought a used canvas tent from craigslist. it is the kind of tent you might use at a civil war reenactment. I used to have a link to the website. It is heavey and weighs about 35lbs dry. The really bad part about the thing was the 12ft 2x4 centerpole. A 12 ft 2x4 straped to the top of your gear on a kids sled seems comical now. At the end of the trip we cut the thing in half before leaving.