The two guys who I went with are room mates. One of them is an avid winter camper(Steve), and the other is more of a summer camping man(Andy). Andy is also in the ROTC up here, so he had some military equipment he was going to use. We thought it would be OK. Unfortunately he didn't really have adequit boots, his GI snowshoes binding buckles were worn out and wouldn't stay tight, and his LC2 pack belt wouldn't fit around him and his winter clothing.
The hike in was problematic. The trail to White Deer Lake is supposed to be about 3 miles long. We managed it in four hours. We got to the old Cyrus McCormick settelment site and decided to camp there for the night. We dug an 8 by 10 foot pit in the snow, which was about 3 feet deep. We just strung a tarp up over the pit and spread out our sleeping gear.
On the hike in Andy, the ROTC man, must have tripped and fallen at least a dozen times. He was soaking wet by the time we got to our camping area. When we finally got to the camp site and cooled down a little he began to get cold. His GI combat boots and BDU pants were both soaked. We dug down through a 5 foot snowbank and made a fire to warm up by. It was in such a deep pit that the fire wouldn't draw that well most of the time, and almost smoked us out. We made a quick pot of chile and boiled some water for hot Nalgene bottle bed warmers. When we hit the sack I realised that I should have taken my thinner yet wider sleeping pad. This one I had borrowed form my dad wasn't wide enough so I hung over and onto the snowy floor in one spot. We all slept pretty well. The other guys were in GI arctic sleeping bags and on GI sleeping pads.
In the morning my sleeping bag was still warm, but my canvas over bag was frozen down where it was touching the snowy ground. We all crawled out, got our warm outer clothes on again and made some scrambled eggs and corned beef hash for breakfast. Steve and I took a short hike to get a look at the island on White deer lake. Andy stayed back at camp. It didn't take us a half hour.
When we got back Andy blew the whistle. He made us aware that he thought he had reached his limit. His clothing wasn't entirely adequit and he wasn't comfortable spending another night. We all agreed to hike out that day. I personally wasn't at my physical limit yet, but I was approaching my comfort limit. I also feel that it was a very good decision on his part to let us know.
So, Andy discovered that his BDU pants had frozen solid over night. He dug out his spare sweatpants and put them on. He put on dry socks and his slightly damp boots, then tried to put on his GI snowshoes. On the trek in I had used 550 cord to help lash his snowshoes on his feet. Now the straps on the shoes were frozen solid in place. He couldn't get them on. So, Steve let Andy borrow his commercial snowshoes and hiked back along the packed trail in boots. I took a little extra load from both of them seeing as I had good snowshoes on. We set off back over the trail to the car. It had snowed 4 inches the night before and the temperature had dropped from the mid 20s to around 12. The trail was mostly easy to follow, but with snowshoes and a pack on I think 3 miles was a very good workout for me. Without snowshoes on Steve set a pretty fast pace, so we made it out in half the time it took us to get in. Andy didn't fall nearly as much as on the way in.
My sleeping gear consisted of a canvas over-bag, a 5/8 inch closed cell pad, and an experienced Coleman 0 degree Holofil mummy bag. My clothing was as follows; Duofold wool long johns, US Military winter wool boot socks, a Woolrcih shirt, Codet wool hunting pants with suspenders, a Codet wool vest, an M-65 Army field coat with liner, chopper mittens with wool inserts, and a Woolrich ear flap hunting cap, and LaCrosse Iceman pack boots. I had to shed quite a bit of that on the hike in. On the hike out I was hot, but kept most of it on. We were leaving after all. It didn't matter so much if I worked up a sweat.
We both thought Andy would be able to get by comfortably with his gear. I guess it depends a lot on the mentality of the user as well as the quality of the gear. If he hadn't fallen so much he would have been a lot better off. He was soaked through his BDU pants and polypropoline underware by the time we got to camp. If his snowshoes had been more dependable he would have been fine. The ROTC gets hand-me-downs from the national guard up here so the snowshoe bindings were pretty much beyond their expected life.
Now that we are back in our dorm Andy is feeling fine. He wasn't injured, but I think he will look into some better equipment before he goes winter camping again. Steve and I might take some of the extra food and go for another overnight campout somewhere closer to home. It wasn't a bad experience for me, but I think Andy learned some important lessons about winter camping the hard way on this trip. I just hope he doesn't get too discouraged and will give it another try with better equipment and more mild conditions.
