While this will shock nobody, I’ve come to the realization that normal January weather ain’t great for camping. There is a lot of snow, it is cold, and the nights are very long – nearly 15 hours of the day.

Last winter was exceptional. There was relatively little snow, what snow we had was more ice then snow. Camping when you have snow measured in inches rather then feet is a whole different beast. Many days last year in January had temperatures close to November or March norms then that of January.

I like spending nights out in the woods. I like having fire, looking up at the stars in the woods. I like traveling to different places. But with more typical January weather then last year, I recognize this may be a month where camping is not to be. That doesn’t mean I won’t take some day trips, but I also won’t spend tons of time camping in the backcountry.

But come March or maybe early to mid April, depending on how harsh the winter will be, I do plan to be back out. And certainly be May things will start getting nice, assuming the black flies aren’t that bad. There is bug spray for that. Eventually the backwoods road will open come June, and it should be a quite nice summer once again.

I kind of lucked out last year with the weather. But I guess a good cold, snowy winter isn’t that bad of a thing. It gives my truck a chance to relax, and for me to have more time at home to work on my blog and other things not in the wilderness.