Well, winter camping didn’t go as planned. But it still happened and it was still fun!
We had a bunch of things we wanted to do in the city on Saturday morning so instead of driving an hour and a half out to our cottage property we opted for backyard camping instead! We headed out to the greenbelt first to let the dogs run around a bit. There is a really nice field in between trails where we don’t usually see any other dogs or people so we let them run around in there. After that, we headed back to the house to get all setup.
The best part about winter camping in your backyard is not having to pack a big pack and just carry out the necessities. We went winter camping for the first time in 2016 and as you can see in this blog post the packing list was quite extensive and required a full evening of planning, prepping and packing.
Mike set up the tent while I scarfed down lunch inside and then I got to interior decorate.
We like to lay down a flannel blanket first, then our thermarests, the camo blanket in the middle was for our youngest pup, Rogue and then in go the sleeping bags.
Mike made us a campfire, I pulled out our stove. I had Mike walk me through how to light it as he usually does the duties and I should know how. We made my go-to camping meal of freeze-dried chicken and lentil soup that I picked up from MEC. And voila.
After enjoying the campfire, one last trip inside to visit the washroom. Another benefit to backyard camping, I threw on my long johns and crawled into the tent. We couldn’t get Havoc to come anywhere near the tent so we left him outside and said, he’ll come in when he gets cold. Which he never does as part Husky. Finally at 1 am, we could hear him scratching at the back door and without his body heat, Rogue was shivering inside the tent despite a dog sweater and the blanket so in we went to our warm bed.
While we were slightly disappointed, more so to have sleep interrupted it was still fun to do and now we know we have to hunt Havoc down for body heat or he’ll be his stubborn self and stay out in the cold.
Have your best-laid plans ever not worked out? Did you still have fun? Would you still do it again?