Curious to see source references for statements in this article (but not enough to track down the book from which the article emanates).

cgod Good you had the opportunity to refuse serving with telling him why AND the opportunity to restore his customer status later. 😉

Thanks ButterflyEffect. I have yet to try a long distance backpack trip, mostly I just only hike less than two miles from car to remote camping site. To reduce number of trips for setting up and taking down camp and to handle hefty weights I use a sled. I'll try to post a photo of it. It's fashioned from a plastic automotive oil change thing from Menard or either Home depot. Note if you ever try a sled use something rigid to pull the sled not just rope otherwise when you stop it might continue and bump your legs. https://imgur.com/4L8vV81 keifermiller if that's not the direct URL to the photo I don't know what else. WanderingEng

Nice work zebra2. Tho I am fresh out of Yamaha tx81zs.

That's a funny one there psychoticmilkman

Yeah probably if there's enough snow to warrant snowshoes then hiking without them would be even slower. And if the snow is like knee high or more the snowshoes could save you from life-threatening exhaustion, right?

Thanks for your trip report WanderingEng. A thought about bushwhacking BRSF - there are areas that look okay from a little distance but once you step in whoa you're in a swamp jumping from hummock to hummock or even worse an actual deep bog capable of trapping you underwater. Hopefully your topo map would indicate these areas. There are some wonderful higher ground areas in BRSF though, some the terrain is highly varied making for awesome views. One place from a ridge you look down across a half mile pot hole.

Years ago there was a lookout tower near dam 17 SW of hwy54 & n settlement road but last time I looked it was down. Maybe the tower got rebuilt I haven't been BRSF for over 3 yrs.

Edited to add that some of what I said above may apply to the adjacent county forest land rather than technically within the state forest, especially the bog, which is on the west side of the forest. I am trying to remember the name of the road coming down from hw54, I am getting Wildcat/Spangler Rd. When I looked down into the waters of that bog it blew my mind. The water was perfectly clear to see a jumble of (cedar?) logs dozens of feet deep. Scary and beautiful, like much of nature.

Thanks keifermiller I will try to follow those instructions

A dreamlike encounter with three feral dogs. Probably this was during the early 1980s or late 1970s. On the near southwest side of Chicago in the ruins of what had been the Union Stockyards. I was browsing thru piles of old lumber hoping to collect enough to board up the windows of an enclosed porch (to make it even more enclosed, keeping out some of the cold). I was a few hundred yds from a large building that had only been razed about maybe 60% - part of the remains were yet three or four stories high, but with no external wall. From that building I heard barking and howling so I put myself on alert and kept a stout stick in one hand because the sounds of the dogs scared me (but not sufficiently to run me off). After a few minutes I saw a trio of what appeared to be identical dogs. Whether they came from the site of that barking and howling I will never know. They were not typical urban feral dogs, not skinny or filthy or mangy or battle torn, no they seemed in perfect health – robust, muscular, confident, even poised. They walked along in single file as if they had some destination in mind, not looking around or smelling the ground or even the air. They ignored my presence (thank God) as they passed and walked away. As soon as they were a comfortable (for me) distance away, I gathered up my stuff and ran to my car and left that area.

Later, whether in a dream or while awake I cannot say, I perceived those three wild dogs as representing remnant indigenous humans who had survived centuries of attempted genocide by colonizers and had actually thrived in the ruins of the colonizers’ society.

Then to compose a song I combined the 3 dogs with another symbol of indigenous survival – a tumbleweed aka pomme de prairie I had seen growing thru a crack in the cement pavement of a city street.

The song:

I dreamed the city was ashes

I dreamed the countryside was dust

I saw an old woman sweeping up

She said they ain’t killed all of us

I ain’t going to tell nobody what 3 wild dogs showed me

But they showed me something I heard about from tumbleweed

I was walking down the street I saw tumbleweed growing up through the concrete

She said my seeds find the cracks and my roots find the earth

Okay I’ll tell everybody what 3 wild dogs showed me

They showed me something I heard about from Tumbleweed

It might be after a long time or it might be very soon

You made us live on your edges

But we will survive your ruin

We will thrive in your ruins

end of song

So that is where the alias troischiens (three dogs twah shahn) comes from.

I'll try one image at a time. https://imgur.com/21HUSP9

ButterflyEffect and WanderingEng and mk, I think maybe I've learned how to post images.

https://imgur.com/21HUSP9

https://imgur.com/aEnK5cl

https://imgur.com/4L8vV81

https://imgur.com/AbsH2KT

Nope, they are not getting embedded, just only showing the links.

Thanks WanderingEng for the story and for the snowshoeing tips.

I always have my snowshoes along on winter camp outings but so far have never trodden over about two miles at a time on them. I just bring them in case the sky decides to dump a huge load of snow while I am afield.

Thanks ButterflyEffect for posting this snowshoe thing.

i am midwest, from Chicago. I can drive to Wisconsin's Black River State Forest in under about five hours under optimal conditions. (very close to interstate both ends).

For year round camping I have three types of tent. One is an ancient canvas center pop up umbrella pole tent. it is roomy but no smoke hole at the top. and it weighs a ton when dry and two tons when damp. its waterproofing is degraded thru wear and tear, also many rips and holes. The windiest place I used it was on a point of land into a little lake in National Forest in north west central (Taylor County) Wisconsin. That was in early spring the ground was yet too frozen to anchor the tent nicely; i used logs and misc the weights to hold it down but that wind had other ideas. Because of the wind I kept my fire very small which was tedious due to frequent tending. It was Spring per the calendar but still winter per conditions. I relied mostly upon clothing and bedding to maintain my body temperature. This was in a small but official campground that even featured an outhouse (sheltered pit latrine). It was so cold I wrapped a wool scarf around the toilet seat. also so cold a local farmer drove his pickup truck far onto the little lake with impunity to retrieve and bring home his ice fishing house. Sharing the campground there was a Jewish family ( I could tell by the attire and hair styling of the men) They saw me sawing and splitting firewood a few times. When they broke camp they come over and dropped a couple big armloads of nice split firewood by my tent. The Ice Age Trail it passes very close to that little campground.

The last time I used that heavy canvas tent was at Pigeon Creek Campground in Black River State Forest. It was Very Cold at that time and place. Like minus 28 degrees F at times, I hated that because I could not even take a short hike without my coffee freezing up. For heating the tent I had a home made stove. To prevent carbon monoxide buildup I used a small pipe to bring outside air into the bottom of the stove. I kept the stove just inside the tent door. I had a flexible aluminum clothes dryer vent from the top of the stove to the outside. One thing my homemade stove lacked was a damper, so I had in effect created a blast furnace which disintegrated a four inch thick log within seconds, and also got the exhaust vent so hot it started the tent on fire even tho it was not actually touching the canvas. Lucky for me the tent remained usable but I have retired it due to its great weight since I have switched from close to the car camping to walk far from the car camping. Another funny thing happened with that home made stove - I did not know that Coleman fuel was volatile like naphtha or gasoline, no, I thought it was on the order of kerosene, so I poured a little into the stove and dropped in a match - BOOM - a ball of fire blew off the stove lid (which hit me in the face) then the fire jumped out of the stove singeing my eye lashes and eye brows. That and the tent fire convinced to give up on home made stoves for a while.

Okay that was the now-retired canvas wall tent.

By the way I always want my tent to be big enough to comfortably stand erect and walk around at least in a nine or ten square foot circle just in case the weather or whatever keeps me in for a long time.

The other two types of tent I use for year round camping consist of plastic tarps.

For winter I have fashioned A-shaped tarp end and door flaps attached to a large tarp that has a ceiling smoke hole and closable side windows. The large tarp is suspended by a rope or long stick attached as a ridge pole between trees. Sometimes it seems there is a need to support the long sides too in a similar manner. This set up manages the cold wind issue well. But always be aware that NO shelter should be airtight when there is a fire inside. It has been reported that in the Far North more have died from carbon monoxide then from freezing within their shelter. So do not attempt to seal up every little opening That wind may save you from carbon monoxide.

For more moderate temperatures I simply string up a big tarp into an open ended A-frame, with the ends closed only during waking hours.

I want the ends open while I am sleeping so that bears or other wild ones can clearly see hear and smell from a distance Hey there is a human in there.

At these times I keep my food and anything else that might smell interesting in a cache at least over about 50 yards from where I will sleep. So far I have never strung my stuff up in the air, just only cached it in or on the ground in somewhat odor retentive packaging. It has never been stolen or even disturbed by animals large or small.

Of course in this Midwest Country we have only the black bears not brown or grisly like Out West. and so far I have seen no wolf coyote raccoon possum skunk etc tracks around my food caches. There are no wolverines as far south I as go.

So that is how I do four season camping in the Upper Midwest of North America. I hope I have not been way too wordy.

What kind of wintercamping setups do you use, ButterflyEffect, WanderingEng?

Wouldn't call it "going" snowshoeing but yes I have used snowshoes during winter camping. My snowshoes are the opposite of traditional they are plastic membranes riveted to aluminum tubes. Chosen at REI for practicality and low cost not for looks. I do have sentimental attachment to old fashioned tools & equipment but at the time I needed a quick and cheap solution. #wintercamping. I like winter camping due to no biting flies and no bears stealing your food and no crowds of people (except during gun deer season which is a short time).

Thanks mk

Hello. I'm glad I found hubski. Found it by Google searching Black River State Forest backpacking. Looking forward with enthusiasm to exploring hubski! #newtohubski