Tag Archives: camping in the snow

Winter Camping in Pennsylvania’s Most Remote Forest

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Backpacking, Hiking & Winter Tent Camping with Snow in Pennsylvania’s Hammersley Wild Area.

FTC Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a commission for purchases made through some of my links.

For this early December backpacking trip, I set out to hike a 3 day, 20ish mile loop in the mountains of north central Pennsylvania.  I created my loop by using a portion of the Susquehannock Trail System, some off-trail bushwhacking, and a ridge hike along the adjacent Twin Sisters Trail.

My weather conditions were forecasted to have some fresh snow, temps mostly in the 20’s and a potential for freezing rain as the temps rose further into the trip.  While this was a pretty wide range of possible conditions, it also wasn’t terribly cold, so I was still able to pack somewhat ultralight and minimal.  My camping target for day one was down in the hollow along the banks of Hammersley Fork. On day two I planned to head up to the ridge and camp in the area devoid of trees due to a forest fire back in 1962.  Due to the potential lack of trees, I swapped out my typical hammock setup for a single person tent and sleeping pad to keep my campsite options flexible.

The Hammersley Wild Area is the most remote swath of public land in Pennsylvania, with some spots over 5 miles from the nearest road, which combined with the season, I hoped would make for some rather secluded camping.  Conversely, this area is also a haven for public hunting, so I made sure to wear some blaze orange and remain somewhat quiet and on the trail until I got further away from any road access, as it was the middle of PA deer hunting season.

This trip video was sponsored by Dr Prepare. You can get 10% off their 178Wh Portable Power Station by using code STDP10 with this link.

Route Overview – Stratton Pond Vermont Backpacking Loop – Sintax77

Full GPS track data, including campsites, etc, for this trip and many others can be downloaded on my Trip Data Page.

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Winter Camping with a Pulk Sled – Adirondacks Deep Snow & Icy Summits

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Join us for 2 days of winter camping, backpacking & snowshoeing with a pulk sled in the deep snow of the Adirondack mountains.

For this winter camping adventure, we’ll be using a DIY pulk sled to setup up a base camp in the Giant Mountain Wilderness.  Day one will be dedicated to building camp and settling in, followed by a summit attempt of Giant Mountain on day two.

Our winter pulk sled will be used for group items such as campfire cooking gear, stoves, steaks and other food, additional firewood, our tent, etc.  In addition to the sled, Mike, Frank and myself each have a backpack for personal items such as cold weather clothing options and other gear. A list of notable gear can be found at the end of this post.

Route Overview – Roaring Brook to Giant Mt – Sintax77

No permit is required to camp in the Giant mountain wilderness, but there are rules and regulations regarding backcountry camping. You can find more information on the Adirondacks Park Giant Mountain Wilderness website here.

Full GPS track data, including campsites, water sources, etc, for this trip and many others can be downloaded on my Trip Data Page.

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Winter Hammock Camping in the Smoky Mountains

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Join me for 3 days of Winter Hammock Camping, Backpacking & Hiking in the Smoky Mountains. 

For this winter camping adventure, I’ll be doing a Gregory Bald Loop Hike, incorporating campsite 13 Sheep Pen Gap, campsite 113 Birch Spring Gap, and a hike to the Shuckstack Fire Tower.  This is my second backpacking trip to the Smokies, but due to the shorter winter days, ice, and snow, I’ll be slowing the pace down a bit compared to my previous hammock camping experience there.

Route Overview – Gregory Bald Loop – Sintax77

A backcountry permit is required for all campsites in this area. You can reserve them for $4 per night on the Smoky Mountains National Park website here.

Full GPS track data, including campsites, water sources, etc, for this trip and many others can be downloaded on my Trip Data Page.

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Winter Camping with a Sled

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For this Backpacking Trip, we use a Pulk Sled to go Winter Camping in the Deep Snow of the White Mountains.

Mike and I originally planned to do a long overdue return trip to Mt Crawford for some winter backpacking and camping, but as is usually the case, the notorious weather of the White Mountains thwarted our efforts.  With a higher summits forecast from the White Mountains Observatory calling for -60° wind chills due subzero temps combined with high winds and gusts upwards of 90 MPH, we opted to stick to the lower elevations instead.  So we shelved our higher elevation idea to camp on Mt Crawford, and instead started scouting for a new location on the fly.

Basically, we were winging it in terms of trip planning, but fortunately I was armed with a full set of White Mountains AMC maps to keep up safely prepared on whatever trail we ended up cast upon by the winter hiking gods.

In the video we do some snow campsite selection and setup, tons of firewood collection, snow furniture building, campfire cooking, trail sledding on the rather steep Airline Trail, and overall just plain having a fun time out in the snowy woods of New Hampshire for a few days.

Downloadable GPS data for this trip and others can be found on the Trip Data Page.

Winter Sled Camping Route Overview – Sintax77

Time of Year
Mid February

Parking Location
Appalachia Trailhead Parking Lot
44°22’17.6″N 71°17’19.9″W

Trailhead
Appalachia Trailhead on Presidential Hwy (Hwy 2), Randolph, NH

Trails Used, Day One

  • Valley Way Trail
  • Randolph Path
  • Airline Trail
  • Setup Camp near Airline Trail
  • Located in the middle of the triangle formed for the Airline, Randolph Path, and Valley Way Trails.We used this campsite with significant snow pack on the ground so leveling out a decent platform for a tent was no problem. Based on my experience in this general area on previous summer trips, I would assume it would not make a very accommodating tentsite without snow, due to the steep and rugged terrain.

Day 1 Mileage: 2 miles
Day 1 Elevation Gain: 1,122′

Winter Sled Camping Day 1 Elevation Profile – Sintax77

Trails Used, Day Two

  • Airline Trail
  • Return to vehicle at Appalachia Trailhead Parking Lot

Day 1 Mileage: 1 mile
Day 1 Elevation Gain: 6′ (pretty brutal, I know)

Winter Sled Camping Day 2 Elevation Profile – Sintax77

Notable Gear Seen and Used in the Video

AMC White Mountains Full Map Set
‘Camp’ brand backpacking Snow Shovel
MSR Whisperlight Universal Stove (we were using white gas)
MSR Flex Skillet
Coghlan Camp Grill Grate
Nemo Losi 3p Tent
Z-Lite Sleeping Pad (Yellow pad used for bench, I stacked it on top of a Big Agnes Q-Core SUL pad for sleeping at night)
Therm-A-Rest Pro Sleeping Pad (Mikes sleep pad)
Hammock Gear Burrow 0° Top Quilt
Scandinavian Gear Backpack (my red pack)
Gregory Palisades 80 Backpack (Mike’s pack)
MSR Denali Ascent Snowshoes (my grey snowshoes)
Atlas 10 Snowshoes (Mike’s snowshoes)
Coghlan Fire Sticks (Fire starter used on day 2)
Sled – I’m honestly not sure what brad it was, but below is a pretty highly rated, heavy duty gear sled listed on Amazon.