The Novice Survivalist
A novice outdoorsmen learning camping, fishing, bushcraft and survival. "KNOWLEDGE IS A SURVIVAL SKILL"
A tough Winter, Its not Over Yet!
I find myself once again, at the computer. Well so what you ask, The date is February 3, 2019. That’s so what! Its Sunday, a day off, a day to be out and about doing those things I so enjoy. The last day of a 3 day off, break from work. And the average temperature out side right now is 7 Deg. F. Yet the sun is shinning and its 7 deg. To make matters worse the wind chill is -25 deg. Not a good temperature to be out wondering the bush.
This winter, my second full winter in Minnesota, has been tough for me. Surprising me not, alot of born and bread Minnesotans that I work with have agreed. That’s the worst part. Most people who hail from Minnesota are naturally hardy when it comes to winter. Growing up here winter is part of life. It gets cold and snows a lot. So what, lets go Ice fishing, snow shoeing and skiing.. BUT this winter well, its been tough.
A lot of Storms coming late in the season and dumping a lot of snow. Earlier on in the year, temperatures dropped in South Central Minnesota to a wind chill of -50Deg. Keeping even the less smart and hardier winter types indoors. The worst of it is the timing. The way to cold or blizzard conditions calendar has been set to my days off. This winter any decent day outdoors has been work days.
I enjoy the snow , especially fresh power out there and going out and walkabout in the quiet, truly beautiful scenes the snow leaves behind. Even (temperatures willing) camping over night. The joy. But this winter has seen little opportunity to get out.
Last winter walkabouts in the winter were aplenty, the snow on the ground manageable to walk in (With knee high gaiters) and access to most of my walkabout places open.
Yesterday I tried to take advantage a of reasonable temperatures and some sunshine to go out and complete a video review I had been chomping at the bit to get completed.
When I make a video review I like to not just show and tell, describe the pros and cons etc. I like to get outside and try it out. (My excuse to get outdoors) yes even I need excuses sometimes.
So I packed my winter Day pack up, Got everything together and headed out to the closed favorite place to do these review videos. To My horror There was a sign, Park closed!.
I tried to drive down the road a bit with hopes of finding a place to make the video and a quiet cuppa Coffee, one of my favorite things to do. Unfortunately not 100 Yards down the road it was closed. Totally covered in snow, It had not been plowed and a sign Road closed. Shocked I had to slowly maneuverer my truck ( No 4 wheel drive) around and head off to another favorite with the hopes of it being open.
It was. Fortunately The State Parks here can handle most weather conditions and this particular park is a local favorite snow shoeing park. I parked, got prepared (Gaiters, boot chains and pack together) and headed off to find a place to do the video. No sooner had I stepped out of the parking lot did I realize just how much snow there was on the ground. I come to this park regularly and am familiar with the trails etc. However, So much snow. First off it came up above my Knees (So much for Gaiters) and was slippery underneath to Boot. 50 Yards in I knew I was not going any further. Not without snow shoes anyway. Oh that’s right, I don’t own snow shoes. So trudged back to a bench and I assume a fire pit. The bench was almost under snow and the fire pit, well who knows where that was.
After clearing away a place to sit (set up my cameras), off the top of the bench/table ( about 2×2 feet space). I realized I needed some wood to try out my new Gizmo. Well this park has lots of small branches of wood lying about. ( In Minnesota you cannot cut
growing (Live) plants or trees, only use the waste from nature on the ground, dead wood only.) I looked around and realized I have another problem. The snow had covered it all. I was not about to start guessing where wood maybe and digging around in the snow. Fortunately I saw a small branch sticking up out of the snow. I raced off, Ok! trudged off to retrieved it and drag it back to my video spot. It was not easy.
I did get the video done, but truth be told it was not my best work. It was a poor presentation of the product and my ability to deal with the conditions, And the frustration level was so high I did not even make coffee when done. All in all, a bad outing. Something for me I seldom have. Any time outdoors is a good time, or so I thought. I considered coming back out and redoing the video, that is until I saw the temperatures I would be dealing with.
And so, I find myself once again, at the computer!. The weather channel on my phone is showing higher temperatures in about 2 weeks, I can always hope.
Hey But this is winter in Minnesota. Sometimes Good, sometimes bad. But always a learning experience for me.
Remember, knowledge learnt is a Survival skill.
Till next time
The Novice Survivalist
The Novice Survivalist 
Hi! This post could not be written any better! Reading this post reminds me of my good old room mate! He always kept chatting about this. I will forward this article to him. Fairly certain he will have a good read. Many thanks for sharing!
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