Not long ago in the comments some readers were talking about me setting up a guided winter campout up here in Maine. It surprised me to see it suggested because I’ve been thinking about offering exactly that.
Concept
Here’s my concept: a three day two night camping trip on wild land up here in Maine. We will NOT be staying at a campground with any amenities – I want to make sure that’s understood loud and clear. The trip itself will involve moving and setting up a large tent and personal gear, snowshoeing (if there’s snow) or hiking up some mountains in the area, classes on basic survival skills such as lighting a fire under cold/snowy conditions, using a firesteel to light a fire in those conditions, building a snow shelter, how to dress, and other things. Also we’ll be cooking our own meals and getting water from where we can find it as well as cutting firewood with small camp saws and a bunch of other small everyday tasks that make up living in a cold weather environment.
The trip would start on a Thursday evening or early Friday morning – either you fly in and I can pick you up or you can drive and I’ll give you directions on where you need to go.
Rough Itinerary
Friday: movement to campsite, set up camp, procure firewood, cook a meal and obtain drinking water. Bed down and sleep time.
Saturday: Wake up, breakfast, basic cold weather and survival classes (these will be hands on classes), lunch, hike to the top of one of the mountains in the local area (or some other activity), then back down to the tent for dinner. Then an evening snow shoe hike in the backwoods or across an open lake depending on snow/wind/weather. Back to the tent for an evening snack and then bed down and sleep time.
Sunday: Wake up, breakfast, strike camp and movement out to vehicles. If there’s time we’ll take a sauna at Jarhead’s to take the chill out of our bones.
Now, keep in mind this is all still very much in the planning/idea phase. If you’re interested in something like this please let me know. To start with I would keep it a very tight group – two or MAYBE three people in addition to myself.
Hard Work
This trip entails a LOT of work: hiking, snowshoeing, pulling and pushing, cutting wood, setting up things in the snow. If you can set up a tent in a half hour in warm weather it will take you 45 minutes to an hour in cold and snowy conditions. In other words you’ll need to be in somewhat decent shape.
This will also be a team effort. If you’re a lone wolf or don’t play well with others you might want to think twice about signing up. Everybody will have a job to do for the sake of the team and we need you to perform it in order to make this a successful endeavor.
Gear
I can provide packs, sleeping bags and mats, and some other basic gear. You will need to have a good pair of boots, polypro underwear, and warm outer clothing and gloves or mittens so as not to freeze your buns off. I’ll come up with a detailed gear list if there’s any interest in this concept.
What Do You Get From The Trip?
What do you get out of this? Solid winter camping experience, some adventure, and we’ll get to meet each other, which for me will be the coolest part of the trip – being able to meet some of the readers and commenters out there. I’m sure we’ll have a bunch of cool stories to tell after the adventure.
Who Is This For?
This trip is designed for the novice cold weather camper. If you don’t have any winter experience at all, or maybe you’ve gone camping through the summer and into fall and want to take it to the next step, this trip is for you. If you’re a skilled woodsman you probably wouldn’t learn a lot on this expedition, but if you want to come along for the fun and adventure I’m happy to have you.
Weather
This one is hard to predict. I’d like to run a couple of courses from January to mid-March and the temps during those times can range from the mid-thirties down to -20 at night. I would guess a night time average of between 5 and 15 degrees Fahrenheit, which feels a lot colder when the wind is blowing.
Sometimes there’s no snow at all and at other times it can take an hour to walk less than mile in the deep woods because it’s so deep. We’ll deal with it as we come to it.
Price
What does Jarhead get out of this trip? I’ve been doing some research online and found that prices range anywhere from $350 to $600 or more for a trip of this duration. I figure $400 a person is a reasonable starting price for this kind of trip since it’ll be in the winter – thus harder to manage.
So, if there’s any interest in this concept shoot me an email at jarheadsurvivor@gmail.com or shout ’em out in the comments below.
Ideas? Comments? Questions?
Sound off below!
-Jarhead Survivor
1 comment
What I would do is load up the packs, with a printed list of everything in it, drive away from the camp. Then stop by the side of the road and tell everyone out, then walk from the highway through the snow and woods to the camp. Just like if your truck/car got stuck or disabled and you had to make the rest of the way on foot.
Then hand everyone the list, let them read it for 5 minutes and go.