DouglasR
Well-known member
Well hey there guys,
My name’s Douglasr and I’m gonna tell you a winter camping story.
cast of characters:
Jimmy- One of my closest friends since JR high.
Met on the wrestling team.
From 6th grade to let’s say 2015ish we spent most of our time together consuming large quantities of beer, rutting, water skiing and engaging in overall destructive behavior.
Things have changed in the past 5 years.
He now makes his way as a successful, college educated man and new father.
Has done a few car camping/mountain trips with his wife and gone on 1 elk scouting backpack trip with me.
(special thanks to his wife for letting him go on the trip)
Renan- Renan is Jimmy’s friend. I think they build AR’s together? Before we picked him up as an alternate for this trip I’d only met him 1 time.
He’s what I’ll call a pretty standard Midwestern family man.
42 years old, enjoys the occasional beer.
Does no cardio.
Occasionally smokes cigs.
Great $*)Q!#@$ guy.
easy to talk to.
hell of a cook.
Never been backpacking.
MVP of the trip
day 1-
We loaded the car the night before and hit the road at about 4am.
Normally I’m a very slow and conservative driver (grandpa) but since I knew we were gonna have to set up tents in the dark after the 1100mi journey we were embarking on I was hauling ass and making jimmy and Renan rather uncomfortable.
(9 you’re fine, 10 you’re mine)
The roads were kinda shitty with snow and ice at various times during the trip.
When we were coming through Kansas City they got pretty bad and at one point we were in 4 lanes of traffic on ice and snow when all hell broke loose in front of us.
As cars started bouncing off the center divider and piling up on the path ahead of us, much to jimmy and renans surprise instead of jamming the break and screeching to a halt like the rest of the drivers I smashed down on the gas, hit the most snow covered lane and shot through the pileup and back out onto open highway like Earnhardt senior in 95’.
Renan grabbed the roll cage over his head as jimmy yelled
“This is the lane everyone’s crashing in
Doug hayduke yelled something back to the effect of
“No shit! That’s because they don’t know how to stay on the gas and hold the wheel straight! I’m going $*)Q!#@$ skiing!”...
Later that night, after hitting the beer store and dispensary we pulled up to the trailhead at idk 9-10pm mtn time.
(Side note)
Why are so many of the people who work at dispensary’s such douchebags?
I’m not a tuff guy, but the dude behind the counter at this one was 1 comment away from me inviting him out from behind his glass wall to give or receive a tooth inventory in the parking lot.
You’re selling pot, bro.
This shit should just be hanging next to the jack Daniels at the gas station. You’re not important.
*everyone is important in their own way. This guy was an asshole.
Back to the trailhead...
The car thermometer read 6 degrees and it was snowing slightly.
we put on our winter clothes, strapped into our brand new snow shoes, grabbed our packs and headed up the trail.
after approx 50yds jimmy said
“What about right here”
Maybe 100 yds later I look back at Renan and he’s really gasping for air and not looking so hot (pun intended) so we dove off the trail and into the trees in search of a flat spot to set our tents.
We found one and began the process of setting up winter camp.
We all had packable shovels and DouglasRDesigns
snow stakes which are masterfully crafted out of the highest quality pvc menards has to offer. 
None of us had ever set up a tent in the snow before.
There’s no such thing as “snowpack” in Illinois so there’s really no way to practice.
It’s definitely a little bit more work.
snow shoes or skis to pack down the snow where you want to set your tent and some form of a shovel to dig out a hole for your stakes are mandatory in my mind.
Another thing I think you really need is some form of an ice axe or in our case a standard harbor freight framing hammer to chisel your stakes out of the ice and snow when you’re ready to take down your tent.
DouglasRDesigns snow stakes grip the snow like Frank Gotch grips an apple and never give up and never let go and that snow can get really hard and frozen over a few days to where your shovel might not dig them out.
anyways, I’m in the middle of setting my tent up when I hear Renan say
“jimmy, I need some help man” and when I look up he’s laying inside of his pitched, but unstaked tent shivering his ass off and I’m like
“Rut-Roh”
We worked together and by the time we got our tents set up I’m pretty positive we’d all been up for over 24hrs.
As I stood there in the dark drinking a beer slushy I couldn’t help but think about something my stepdad (basically my real dad, boss and positive male role model in my life since I was 5) used to say when we’d be sailing our 1989, 19ft, soft floored faded paint bayliner across lake Shelbyville when I was a kid.
“I wonder what the poor people are doing”
I slid into my sea to summit reactor liner, north face wasatch 30 degree, western mountaineering versatile 10degree and rei all season bivy inside my tent and drifted off to sleep. (For like 3hrs)
to be continued...
My name’s Douglasr and I’m gonna tell you a winter camping story.
cast of characters:
Jimmy- One of my closest friends since JR high.
Met on the wrestling team.
From 6th grade to let’s say 2015ish we spent most of our time together consuming large quantities of beer, rutting, water skiing and engaging in overall destructive behavior.
Things have changed in the past 5 years.
He now makes his way as a successful, college educated man and new father.
Has done a few car camping/mountain trips with his wife and gone on 1 elk scouting backpack trip with me.
(special thanks to his wife for letting him go on the trip)
Renan- Renan is Jimmy’s friend. I think they build AR’s together? Before we picked him up as an alternate for this trip I’d only met him 1 time.
He’s what I’ll call a pretty standard Midwestern family man.
42 years old, enjoys the occasional beer.
Does no cardio.
Occasionally smokes cigs.
Great $*)Q!#@$ guy.
easy to talk to.
hell of a cook.
Never been backpacking.
MVP of the trip
day 1-
We loaded the car the night before and hit the road at about 4am.
Normally I’m a very slow and conservative driver (grandpa) but since I knew we were gonna have to set up tents in the dark after the 1100mi journey we were embarking on I was hauling ass and making jimmy and Renan rather uncomfortable.
(9 you’re fine, 10 you’re mine)
The roads were kinda shitty with snow and ice at various times during the trip.
When we were coming through Kansas City they got pretty bad and at one point we were in 4 lanes of traffic on ice and snow when all hell broke loose in front of us.
As cars started bouncing off the center divider and piling up on the path ahead of us, much to jimmy and renans surprise instead of jamming the break and screeching to a halt like the rest of the drivers I smashed down on the gas, hit the most snow covered lane and shot through the pileup and back out onto open highway like Earnhardt senior in 95’.
Renan grabbed the roll cage over his head as jimmy yelled
“This is the lane everyone’s crashing in
Doug hayduke yelled something back to the effect of
“No shit! That’s because they don’t know how to stay on the gas and hold the wheel straight! I’m going $*)Q!#@$ skiing!”...
Later that night, after hitting the beer store and dispensary we pulled up to the trailhead at idk 9-10pm mtn time.
(Side note)
Why are so many of the people who work at dispensary’s such douchebags?
I’m not a tuff guy, but the dude behind the counter at this one was 1 comment away from me inviting him out from behind his glass wall to give or receive a tooth inventory in the parking lot.
You’re selling pot, bro.
This shit should just be hanging next to the jack Daniels at the gas station. You’re not important.
*everyone is important in their own way. This guy was an asshole.
Back to the trailhead...
The car thermometer read 6 degrees and it was snowing slightly.
we put on our winter clothes, strapped into our brand new snow shoes, grabbed our packs and headed up the trail.
after approx 50yds jimmy said
“What about right here”
Maybe 100 yds later I look back at Renan and he’s really gasping for air and not looking so hot (pun intended) so we dove off the trail and into the trees in search of a flat spot to set our tents.
We found one and began the process of setting up winter camp.
We all had packable shovels and DouglasRDesigns
snow stakes which are masterfully crafted out of the highest quality pvc menards has to offer. None of us had ever set up a tent in the snow before.
There’s no such thing as “snowpack” in Illinois so there’s really no way to practice.
It’s definitely a little bit more work.
snow shoes or skis to pack down the snow where you want to set your tent and some form of a shovel to dig out a hole for your stakes are mandatory in my mind.
Another thing I think you really need is some form of an ice axe or in our case a standard harbor freight framing hammer to chisel your stakes out of the ice and snow when you’re ready to take down your tent.
DouglasRDesigns
snow stakes grip the snow like Frank Gotch grips an apple and never give up and never let go and that snow can get really hard and frozen over a few days to where your shovel might not dig them out.anyways, I’m in the middle of setting my tent up when I hear Renan say
“jimmy, I need some help man” and when I look up he’s laying inside of his pitched, but unstaked tent shivering his ass off and I’m like
“Rut-Roh”
We worked together and by the time we got our tents set up I’m pretty positive we’d all been up for over 24hrs.
As I stood there in the dark drinking a beer slushy I couldn’t help but think about something my stepdad (basically my real dad, boss and positive male role model in my life since I was 5) used to say when we’d be sailing our 1989, 19ft, soft floored faded paint bayliner across lake Shelbyville when I was a kid.
“I wonder what the poor people are doing”
I slid into my sea to summit reactor liner, north face wasatch 30 degree, western mountaineering versatile 10degree and rei all season bivy inside my tent and drifted off to sleep. (For like 3hrs)
to be continued...
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