[Rhodes22-list] 2003 Polar Bear Winter Camping Trip

[Steve]

Hey Roger,  Sounds like a cold trip.  I am a little
surprise with you on this one.  With all your years of
experience - you did not offer to craw into Brenda
sleeping bag and politly offer to provide body heat:-)
 I am just shock; shock I say:-)
Steve




--- Roger Pihlaja <cen09402@centurytel.net> wrote:
> Hi Everybody,
> 
> Well, I just got back from our annual Polar Bear
> Winter Camping Trip.  This year, we went up to Six
> Pines Ranch in Farwell, MI.  Farwell, is about 40
> minutes west of my house in Sanford, MI.  We had 16
> Scouts & 4 adult leaders along.  Farwell had about
> 4" of snow on the ground, which is not enough to
> build snow shelters.  So, we packed in all our gear
> & stayed in backpacking tents on top of the snow.
> 
> The big activity on Saturday afternoon was horseback
> riding.  Brenda Acklin, one of the adult leaders in
> my Scout troop, is friends with the owner of Six
> Pines Ranch.  The owner gave us a really good deal
> on the trail rides & invited us to camp overnight on
> his land.
> 
> Everybody got their fill of horseback riding. 
> Dinner on Saturday night was a potluck venison stew.
>  Mr. Woodgate contributed the venison & the rest of
> us packed in the potatoes & other veggies.  The
> owner & his family joined us for dinner.  The stew
> was really good.
> 
> Saturday afternoon was cloudy, not too cold at about
> 27 deg F, but with a 10 -15 mph wind blowing.  The
> forecast called for 1 - 3" of snow overnight, but
> the storm missed us.  Instead, about midnight, the
> sky cleared off & the temperature plummeted.  Sunday
> morning dawned bright & clear, but cold, about 4 deg
> F.  The wind was still blowing, so the wind chill
> was quite nasty.  I was OK with a ski mask &
> goggles, but I felt sorry for some of the Scouts
> that were unprepared.
> 
> The Scouts played a rather rough game of Capture The
> Flag after it got dark.  There's lots of "stuff" to
> trip over in the dark in a horse pasture, but plenty
> of room to run around.  By about 9:00 or 10:00 PM,
> most of them had had enough & were in their tents. 
> I cinched my goose down mummy bag up until there was
> nothing showing but a "blow hole" & didn't know
> anything until about 4:00 AM. 
> 
> Brenda came down with a touch of the flu overnight,
> probably not helped by the bitter cold.  She woke up
> early Sunday morning nauseous & with a fever.  Mr.
> Woodgate took her home.  Fortunately, we had an
> older Scout with his driver's license to drive Mrs.
> Acklin's minivan home.  After the sun came up, we
> built a fire, had breakfast, broke camp, came home. 
> We all managed to squeeze into 3 vehicles when we'd
> arrived in 4.
> 
> Except for Brenda, the rest of the troop made it
> thru the night pretty well.  This was their 1st
> Polar Bear for 4 of the Scouts.
> 
> Roger Pihlaja
> S/V Dynamic Equilibrium 
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