Seasonal Change At Curmudgeon Compound: Situation Report

The weather sucks and it’s screwing up my camping plans.

Seven months ago, I woke up in a tent and thought “this is good for me, I should do this more”. The decision was made, nature is good for the soul, therefore I would increase my camping time.

I have done less “more” than I’d like but more “more” than none. Life is the compromise between your intentions and your actions.

As the snow flew, I parked my dirt bike and spent an insane amount of money on a hot tent. Alas, there’s winter and there’s winter. This winter was not messing around. It was brutally cold for months at a time. (I spent my money replacing burst pipes instead of ice fishing!)

I set up my hot tent three times and spent a few nights “testing it” near my house. Where I live you don’t toy with winter until you know what you’re doing. It was less adventurous than I’d planned but I did ride out a genuine blizzard. In so doing I assured myself the tent is a fabric fortress. In my defense, the few brief “tests” were more winter camping than I’ve done in years.

Winter is not shifting easily into spring and at best it’s spring breakup; a time that’s neither winter nor truly spring. The forests are a wet muddy snow covered sponge and everything sucks. Remote travel was possible a month ago (if properly equipped) on frozen ice and it’ll be possible in a month-ish (when the land is dry). For now, like the log trucks, I’m temporarily grounded.

Note: In case you don’t know what the “log trucks are grounded” thing means, there’s a season in northern states where heavy trucks cannot legally (or practically) travel. This starts when the iced roads thaw and lasts through a soft muddy phase. Heavy vehicles can inadvertently tear the shit out of the soft vulnerable roads. Restrictions are lifted as the mud evolves back into dry roads. Even when travel is legal it’s impractical. Sometimes even small light vehicles are limited. Mud will mire a light jeep in the right conditions and a jeep can nuke a road quite handily if misused. Even foot travel sucks. Similar limits apply to ATV trails and (I think) horse trails; with a bunch of variation in practice and regulation. Lake ice still exists but it’s no longer sound. If you left your ice shack out there… it’s either already gone or will be soon.

To pass the time, I’m acquiring equipment for the summer. More on that in my next post. Stay tuned.