While living outdoors camping, you can not help but be surrounded by wildlife. Viewing birds, squirrels, deer, opossum, and other animals are a great blessing and can add to your fun. Of course there are certain things to do when camping to make the experience more enjoyable.

Never approach wildlife. Wild animals can be strong and fast. They especially get agitated when defending themselves or when they feel their offspring are threatened. Cornering a wild animal will definately increase their feelings of vunerability so back away slowly. If you’ve got young children along, make sure you keep an eye on them and teach them to call for help if necessary. Read the rest of this entry »

Ingredients: ham, sweet potatoes, apples

Instructions: Cube ham, potatoes, and apples. Then wrap each serving in foil. Make sure it is tightly closed. Throw on your campfire’s coals and cook for about half an hour. Turn halfway through for even cooking. Apples add to the sweetness and replace butter in the recipe. They also give some moisture so the food isn’t so dry.

Due to the cold temperature, it’s hard to keep your frying pan warm enough to brown your hamburg. Thus cooking meat can be tricky in the winter. Pepperoni and deli meat can provide you with necessary protein.

Instant soups and stews are quick and easy to make and come in lots of flavors to satisfy everyone. You can even use your insulated mug to eat or drink the soup out of. Read the rest of this entry »

For lunch, a mix of foods work well. Some foods you may want to include dried fruit, raisins, granola bars, trail mix, meats, nuts, cheese, and even some cookies and candy including chocolates. I’ve found that pepperoni and cheese on crackers is always popular.

You can prepare this ahead of time and provide each person with a personal lunch they can snack on throughout the day. You’ll want to cube or slice the cheese ahead of time so you’re not biting into a big frozen chunk. The meats can come from lunch meat or any leftover breakfast bacon. Peanut butter on crackers or a bagel sandwich (lunch meat or peanut butter) will provide you with some protein, fats, and carbohydrates. If you are staying at your camp, as opposed to going on a hike, you could actually do some cooking and have a hot meal. This will provide the campers with a rest period however make sure to keep everyone warm during this time as people may get cold if they just lull around camp for too long. If you want to go with a hot meal, take a look at the simpler dinner ideas such as soup as supplement additional food as needed. Read the rest of this entry »

First rule to remember is that while winter camping, you need to pack and eat a lot of food. It is estimated that your body requires at least 4,500 calories each day because of the extra energy needed to keep your body warm. Depending on your health, body metabolism, age, and sex over 5,000 calories may be burned. Paradoxically, your appetite may be less due to these same winter factors.

You may need to encourage yourself and those in your care to eat. The best way to do that is to plan an appealing menu. So let’s talk about what to pack. Read the rest of this entry »

Using a bivouac sack (also known as a bivy sack) with your sleeping bag will increase your comfort while sleeping. Since you will lose much heat to the ground, it is very important to use a sleeping pad, perhaps even two. This will insulate you from the ground and keep you warm.

If you have a mummy sleeping bag make sure you close it up so your eyes, mouth, and nose are exposed. Breathing into your sleeping bag, will wet it and decrease its ability to keep you warm. If you have another style of sleeping bag, sleep with a hat on. Read the rest of this entry »

Drinking water is crucial to preventing hypothermia during your winter camping trips. What follows are some tips to help you stay properly hydrated in the winter.

Although lakes may be frozen solid, a stream or spring might still be flowing. Since low temperatures don’t kill all possible parasites, the water still needs to be boiled or filtered.
However, melting snow to water form takes time and energy, make sure you fill all your water bottles whenever you are near a running supply. Read the rest of this entry »

Ingredients:flour tortilla shells (small), peanut butter, chocolate chips, and mini marshmallows

Instructions:Apply peanut butter on tortilla shell and throw on some chocolate chips. Add some marshmallows and then roll up like a burrito. Wrap individually in foil and cook on grill for about 5 minutes.

Ingredients: bread, cans of cheese whiz, butter or oil

Instructions: Spray cheese whiz on a slice of bread and cover with another piece to make a sandwich. Spread butter on the outsides of each slice of bread and grill on your skillet. When one side becomes golden brown, flip it and cook the other side.

Helpful tip: Make earlier in the trip before the bread gets a chance to become too scrunched or not so fresh. Also leftover cheese whiz can be eaten with crackers as a snack.

Choosing your campground location for winter camping is very important. Of course you have the usual campground regulations and proximity to other campers but winter camping adds a greater challenge to your vacation.

Avoid low laying areas as that is where the coldest air will settle. On the other hand, you also want to avoid high ridge tops where the winds may wreak havok with your tent and possibly create snow drifts. Read the rest of this entry »