Winter Camping: The Problem with My Latest Winter Campsite

Description

In this video, I guide Joe Robinet, Kevin Parker and Brendan to my winter camping spot in Muskoka, Ontario. We set up camp, collect firewood and I leave them on their own for two nights, with a wolf howling across the valley as I depart.

Tags: joe robinet,joe robinet bushcraft,bushcraft,muskoka,ontario,canada,camping,survival,campfire,firesteel,les stroud,shawn james,my self reliance,survival skills,shelter

Video Transcription

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last winter I found a pretty good campsite for winter camping on my own had a nice backstop Rock backstop for wind protection and for flare reflection had running water very close by and it was pretty secluded so I had a private but the only problem with it is that I had to go a long way and when the snows deep would take quite a few hours to get back there so this year I wanted to find somewhere a little bit closer to the parking lot not quite as far so that it was more suited for single night trips I could get it out and back to the truck in one single night so in November I started searching for a spot brought my gun did a little bit of grouse hunting and hiked the ridges and found a spot a little bit closer to the parking lot I think I found a pretty good place to have a winter camp got this pond here which is gonna freeze solid you might be a couple little outlets or little drops between ponds at the Beaver Dam so I can get some running water so when Joe Kevin and Brandon told me they wanted to camp in the area I thought this is the perfect spot to set them up for a winter camp the only problem was they only had a couple of hours they got up late and it was a after 2:00 o'clock by the time we set it to the campsite and it gets dark around 4:30 or 5 o'clock so fortunately it was a pretty straight Ridge directly to the campsite that I had in mind so we were able to navigate across the snowy ridges without incident got there at a decent time and started setting up camp it's nice rock outcrop the type that I'd like to camp up against for wind protection and for fire reflection and seemed ideal to them too so we started setting up the water situation was a bit of an issue the pond was frozen down in the valley to the west there was the drainage from a beaver pond down into the main lake it was a bit of a hike down to the bottom of the valley on the east side the beaver pond was frozen and on the south side there was a little bit of trickling running water as you can see here the wind prevailing winds come from the West typically at the Northwest here because of these ridges the wind tends to funnel down off of the main lake from the north and once it gets in these ridges and hits some oat crops and tree dense trees it starts to swirl so you really never know until you experience wind from different directions so the problem was on this trip the wind switched around where the system coming in start to rain when switched and started coming from the east and the Northeast so the real issue with this campsite became two things one that the still not a great campsite for water to this low area down here is actually more protected so that with the prevailing winds coming across and buffeting the campsite when it was northeast really became a little bit uncomfortable for the guy so ideally I think what I'll do is when I go back I'll set up a camp down in the valley on the west side of the valley coming off the lake so when still gonna funnel down through that that long narrow Bay but if I get up on the west side of the valley halfway up the hill I should be able to find a sheltered spot and that drainage down into the main Bay of the lake should remain open it should be a little bit of what running water there year-round the spots getting a little bit more interesting down here I've got that high Ridge that I just came off of up there on this side to have that bay that I was talking with down through there that's got two fish in it and then here's the creek that feeds it so it's probably a little bit more of an ideal location so I'm going to go back Scout that area and probably set up a little campsite that I can that I can use for this winter

so what are you doing here you're making your own little camp tarp in an a-frame configuration we're in the Canadian Shield here and the ground is like moss and pine needles mainly here over bedrock so yeah it's nice and so you guys are setting up what to lean to is here to shelters with tarps kind of a diamond together and then have a fire against this rock that mr. Shawn with some ice add some rocks a little afraid to leave you guys alone here for the I know it'll pick one eye open around Joe really wishful with this part

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