I know a few were interested in my winter camping trip so thought I’d make a quick post on it.

We left after work on Friday and got up to Gooseberry Falls State Park around 10pm.  After dropping one vehicle off in Beaver Bay we finally got on the trail around 11pm.  What was supposed to be a 2.8 mile hike to the first campsite on the Superior Hiking Trail (SHT) ended up being 4.5 miles because the snow cover was so deep and there was logging in the area so we lost the trail several times.  Finally got to camp around 2am.  It was a bit chilly, but the movement kept us warm.  Nathan set up our tent and we went to bed almost right away.  The other 3 in our group eventually got a fire going and stayed up until 4 or 5am. 

My REI Zephyr 15 degree sleeping bag was awesome!!!  It would take me a full hour or so to warm up, just because my bum needed to thaw out, but once I was thawed it was nice and cozy.  It helped that I put hand warmers in my socks too

Saturday we started out from camp around 1pm and we had planned on snowshoeing around 7 miles.  Yeah, that didn’t happen.  The snowshoes were a lot more work than we anticipated and two hours in my hip flexor muscles were hurting so badly that I was on the verge of a breakdown.  I switched from snowshoes over to YakTrax and that helped my hips quite a bit, though the pain was still there. 

We ended up camping along the Split Rock River loop at a gorgeous site.  We were able to hike across the river and up an island that was like a giant cliff.  It had some sweet views from the top.  We got to this camp around 5pm and were able to get a nice fire roaring that we just chilled around until 10:30pm when we ran out of wood.  All of us had also brought some steaks and we cooked those on branches over the fire, they were amazing!!!  We cooked one steak at a time and used a hanky to pull them off the fire (none of us had brought plates) and passed the steak, each person taking a bite as it went.  It was fun and delicious. 

Saturday night was an even colder night than Friday.  I had a down vest with and pulled that into my sleeping bag to add another layer over my midsection/hips for more warmth, it helped a lot. 

Sunday up at 11am and out of camp around 2pm.  We thought we had a 3 mile hike out but were pleasantly surprised when it was just a mile.  We came out at a lot near Split Rock State Park and the plan was to hitchhike either north or south to either one of the vehicles.  We lucked out and there was a couple loading their dogs into their Tahoe at the lot and they gave 2 of our group a ride north to the vehicle in Beaver Bay and they came back for us and we were on the road in no time at all  

I would definitely do a winter trip again, but I would plan my mileage and then cut it in half.  We had initially planned to do 17-21 miles this trip (which is completely feasible in the summer) and ended up cutting it down to about 12 miles. 

I bought these snowshoes from REI on clearance a couple weeks ago for $110, they were great!  http://atlassnowshoe.com/snowshoe/elektra8-frs

Nathan rented a pair of MSR’s from REI.  He wanted to buy snowshoes but the only ones REI had left were uber expensive.