Sorry, no pics, I forgot the digital camera at home (along with the hi-lift jack)...
My friend and I decided on Friday that we were going camping on Monday since I finally had two days off in a row and the Air Force says he has to go to Lackland AFB next week for tech school... SO I packed up my Jeep and he packed up his Explorer and off we went to the place we scoped out this summer but never got to go to (it was July and there was snow... and a huge wreck that took 3 days to clean up).........
Weather wasn't too bad, it was around 37 degrees when we arrived... we drove down the road to the campsite, and were displeased to find it buried under a huge drift... So we decided to drive up to the top of the hill to another campsite between two big rocks... But not before Josh's 03 Explorer got stuck in the snow... We spent about an hour digging, using his come-along, and pulling with my Jeep... Finally, we tried pulling again, and I pulled the hell out of it till it came out, and we were on our way...
The tent went up with no problems, but the fire wouldn't start using any of the techniques we knew... so we busted out the Kerosene... I thought we were going to die the way the entire pit (and a few inches surrounding it) went up in flames
But hey, it got the fire going... Grilled up the steaks, had some smores, hit some golfballs into the darkness, and called it a night...
My sleeping bag zipper broke, but that's okay, I just wrapped it around me. Boy it's nice having a -40 degree sleeping bag... I was nearly uncomfortably hot while the wind was blowing the tent over to nearly hitting my head... Finally got to sleep well from 1-7 AM. Otherwise, I slept about 20 minutes of every hour from 9 till 1...
Got up this morning and had a turkey, roast beef, egg and pepper jack cheese sandwich, broke everything down, collected all the golf balls we could find, and went out for some wheelin' since we had 2 hours before we decided we would leave..........
Wheeling was rather uneventful, except the fact that I got stuck 3 times in about 4 feet of snow... Josh didn't get stuck of course, since I was leading the way and he could see when I got stuck and go around to pull me out... Except the third time. I was going up a hill and around a curve and got stuck a few inches from dry ground... Pissed me off to all heck... That took a while to get out, and I had to crawl through the windows since the snow was halfway up the doors... After that, we decided not to risk it since the snow kept getting worse, and the only tracks we were seeing were from ATV's.... so I said I needed a lift kit and we turned around and came home...
I haven't been camping in over a year.... and haven't gone camping in the winter for several years... it was quite a blast, and just reenforced my opinion that winter is the best time to camp. No fire bans to deal with, not a lot of people to bother you since there's snow everywhere, and it makes the 4wd trails in the area challenging for a change... Oddly enough, I get better cell phone service out there than here in town. It's roaming, but still better reception...
My friend and I decided on Friday that we were going camping on Monday since I finally had two days off in a row and the Air Force says he has to go to Lackland AFB next week for tech school... SO I packed up my Jeep and he packed up his Explorer and off we went to the place we scoped out this summer but never got to go to (it was July and there was snow... and a huge wreck that took 3 days to clean up).........
Weather wasn't too bad, it was around 37 degrees when we arrived... we drove down the road to the campsite, and were displeased to find it buried under a huge drift... So we decided to drive up to the top of the hill to another campsite between two big rocks... But not before Josh's 03 Explorer got stuck in the snow... We spent about an hour digging, using his come-along, and pulling with my Jeep... Finally, we tried pulling again, and I pulled the hell out of it till it came out, and we were on our way...
The tent went up with no problems, but the fire wouldn't start using any of the techniques we knew... so we busted out the Kerosene... I thought we were going to die the way the entire pit (and a few inches surrounding it) went up in flames
But hey, it got the fire going... Grilled up the steaks, had some smores, hit some golfballs into the darkness, and called it a night... My sleeping bag zipper broke, but that's okay, I just wrapped it around me. Boy it's nice having a -40 degree sleeping bag... I was nearly uncomfortably hot while the wind was blowing the tent over to nearly hitting my head... Finally got to sleep well from 1-7 AM. Otherwise, I slept about 20 minutes of every hour from 9 till 1...
Got up this morning and had a turkey, roast beef, egg and pepper jack cheese sandwich, broke everything down, collected all the golf balls we could find, and went out for some wheelin' since we had 2 hours before we decided we would leave..........
Wheeling was rather uneventful, except the fact that I got stuck 3 times in about 4 feet of snow... Josh didn't get stuck of course, since I was leading the way and he could see when I got stuck and go around to pull me out... Except the third time. I was going up a hill and around a curve and got stuck a few inches from dry ground... Pissed me off to all heck... That took a while to get out, and I had to crawl through the windows since the snow was halfway up the doors
... After that, we decided not to risk it since the snow kept getting worse, and the only tracks we were seeing were from ATV's.... so I said I needed a lift kit and we turned around and came home...I haven't been camping in over a year.... and haven't gone camping in the winter for several years... it was quite a blast, and just reenforced my opinion that winter is the best time to camp. No fire bans to deal with, not a lot of people to bother you since there's snow everywhere, and it makes the 4wd trails in the area challenging for a change... Oddly enough, I get better cell phone service out there than here in town. It's roaming, but still better reception...
