Solo Winter Cold Camping and Bushcraft in Muskoka Ontario - My Self Reliance

Description

This video is about Solo Winter Cold Camping in Muskoka Ontario.

http://myselfreliance.com/my-solo-winter-camping-gear/

Like most crazy winter campers, I'm always seeking ways to improve my winter camping gear. This year, I purchased a few items to make my winter camping trips not only more enjoyable, but safer. Camping in temperatures that fall far below freezing is much more challenging than fair weather camping, and it can be life-threatening to go out with sub-standard gear, particularly when adventuring solo. To test my winter camping gear before setting out on a more extreme trip, I went snowshoeing and camping in Muskoka over the past two days. I'll be posting at least one video on the trip itself, and possibly more than one gear video.

Tags: winter camping,self reliance,my self reliance,camping,snowshoeing,outdoor gear,bushcraft

Video Transcription

you're a go home lake it's just north of the Gibson River and I'm heading out for just one night first night of the winter camping seasons January 30th today it's actually debated whether or not to bring snow shoes today even normal sucks in the truck when I got but stepping up still wear the floatation that could have come in handy I've got to my back pack is thirty six and a half pounds including about nine pounds of water about four liters actually going to adjust that cuz that's balancing but the Gators are almost to some learn my midseason what kind of mild season boots the murals but short then we will to there at six in chickens usually where the puller at Merrill polar eight inches when snow gets deeper and temperatures get colder but these breathe better for this so I'm gonna follow this driveway for a little bit then I'm gonna head so and try to set up camp down somewhere on the Gibson River maybe at that dam where the musquash dumps into the Gibson River the open water there which we good for getting water for drinking cooking but we'll see how this looks woman I'd prefer the colder temperature it's easier to regulate your body temperature than that and if you get cold you can get moving take it off or similar calories or something but when it's warm like this it's also damp so my issue right now I've dressed lightly for the for the track and the exertion as I am sweating I have one three layers total got one base layer which is poor tech thermal underwear gonna have this are Tareq's I forget what the proprietary fill is but it's just a thin fill of insulation and that's just a just a vest and it's got just fabric on the sites for offer for breathing this cortex jacket reads fairly well our character jackets pretty high-end jacket but what I need is either take it off or bed the pits because I'm starting to sweat already I've only put on the trail for her now still have at least the flowers to go that opens right up must be getting closer to 3 degrees because I am overheating already took off the wind Blair that was holding heat in the rain jacket take this vest surprisingly there's a big deer track I guess it's probably a big buck that didn't head to any yard deer yard least not yet January 30th not enough snow to force him to go to the earth so probably see sign of a few deer around even though this is not a protected area from severe weathers deer wouldn't be here in the winter unless it's mild we're a fox I think again it doesn't look like he got that gross but what was a gross I buried in the snow now the droppings from this one there for at least a day they'll do that dive right in the snow let's go cover them up Fox and smell that through this nice watch your campsite water down below close to the peak so that the cold air that settles at night settles down by the lake and not up here nice big rock thank you actually take alongside and have a fire flex off we're going down to the water to get water check this out come on by the map only and topography as I think I had a good idea where I was or each Bay or finger of the lake so I was heading the right direction the whole time check my compass it said I was going the wrong way completely like exactly opposite everything pulled it my phone I actually have signaled GPS worked on a blue dot is where I am half an hour ago I was up here so I didn't feel right I was on the right side of the rivers are the the Long Bay and so I figured yeah if I head south along that Bay had it dead down on there I'd be heading south but look at the compass here and look at the compass on the GPS it's pointing north

reason it's so big I have my sleeping bag like sleeping pad my sleeping bag liner and all beside this so here's my entire kit there's my bed so which for this kind of camping is perfect pocket boy that's long enough all this dry stuff on the trees is perfect for cutting that and I have felt like with the belt knife I can split as much wood as I need of this and there's my food extra clothing just miscellaneous camp here snow shovels clearing a spot for the fire there and for my bedding area you

you

it's 77 o'clock on Sunday morning it's very still out but look at the radar there's a big band of of rain coming in so I'm definitely going to pack up fairly quickly and get it anyway so calm right now you can hear those waterfalls of musquash River emptying into the Gibson River that's probably about a kilometer away that was too warm in the middle of the night on all the time it was but a fox game in it walked right through here I'm a light sleeper I actually was sleeping pretty well at that time but I could hear him walking around here so it turned over and looked up looked out and and he was standing right about here I talked to him looked at me then he turned around and went down over there oh yeah I can see where he went I'm down the face of the cliff but yeah actually he walked towards me yeah one thing worth investing in for winter camping is a good headlamp this is the Black Diamond I think this is the storm which is uh waterproof and also very bright I can't remember the candles candlepower but it's got a few different settings condemn that side lights remember all the settings and then red light which I really like for nighttime walking and if you're watching an animal or something they don't spook from the red light anyway in the winter he's a lot because it gets dark early tree last night it got dark at 5:30 it's just after 7:00 it's still not light now so the light gets used a lot in the summer I bring it but I don't think on my seven-day or three-day trips last year I don't think I used important maybe five minutes a trip if that some trips I didn't use it at all I just go to bed when it gets dark and I get up when it gets light but in the winter it's thought it's invaluable and should always use lithium batteries that don't freeze and they last long and have a backup set as well because you are gonna need this at this time of year down to the river to get some water make some tea and I remembered that the snow is too deep for these boots six-inch boots and snow is probably a foot deep so anyway instead of putting my snowshoes like to wear these Gators the great jump boots are perfect for these conditions I finally figure winters taller y'all raven pants are very good for these conditions as well you're very durable I wax them fairly recently so somewhat water proof water-resistant but slightly too warm maybe for the conditions grave plate as well as my synthetic and these this cortex they do breathe but still holds heat in my chest down to the river to get some water I was choosing a campsite last night one of the thing was keeping in mind is that it's noticeably cooler in the lower areas and it certainly is much colder down here than it is up right foot the campsite cold air flows down and settles into the lower areas so especially in this narrow isn't some real pocket with high ground all around it's all the cold air settles down into here so this is a sunset just very noticeably colder

but this is where the water is anywhere to get closer to the water their risk of going through the ice or just what icicles instead of all things this compass is still completely screwed up it's exactly the opposite so I'm heading where the arrow this arrow is pointed which is northeast and this is saying it's southwest if you were in a survival situation here's a good spot to set up snare for snowshoe hares in this case that's a fairly regular run not the not the most tracked I've seen but it's fairly steady back and forth of it so anyway wherever there's a narrowing spot like that it's an opportunity to make put a snare in there and had a couple of obstructions to force it through through your snare but back there and I'm sure if you follow this trail find other spots that are a little bit better you can Tiger that they go through Sun is out supposed to go up to six or seven or eight degrees and periods are rain that looks so you can see the green clouds on the horizon over there to the south but I'll probably beat them back to the Drakh so beautiful day for a walk