Setting up camp above freezing, only to have the temperature drop to single digits ℉ overnight, means your tent stakes get frozen into the ground.
Raising awareness of state change—
• Store your water container upside down so ice doesn't prevent your pouring from it.
• Keep a smaller one in your sleeping bag with you.
• Consider traction devices for your boots, as the freeze-thaw cycle produces icy patches generally described as slipperier than hell.
It was a cold, windy, but beautiful weekend along the North Country Trail in northwestern Wisconsin.
There's a railroad track northeast of this campsite, from where you can hear the comforting sounds of ore trains passing in the night. Autonomous sensory meridian response.
A friend camping with us had helped develop this site as a volunteer with the trail association. He was rightly proud of it.
At Clear Creek campsite just east of the Minnesota/Wisconsin border, on the last day of meteorological winter, 2025.
