Did you check the weather report when you last went winter backpacking? You probably did, but I am sure there are some who are thinking “Weather report? How about cold and snowy – it’s winter!” However, cold and snow are not the only aspects of the weather. You may actually be in more danger if there will be a warming trend while you are out in the wilderness.

Getting wet when the temperature is just over freezing is far more likely than when it is far below freezing. Getting wet, and then cold because of it, is one of the primary reasons people die in the wilderness in winter. A down coat might keep you warm down to zero, but it might also become almost worthless in a steady freezing rain. You need to be prepared for the specific weather you are likely to see.

More Winter Hiking Tips

Stay as dry as you can. Getting wet is what kills you in the winter wilds. Proper preparation means more than just bringing a rain jacket, though. You also have to avoid letting too much snow melt into your clothing. Jeans are the worst for this, and should never be worn when backpacking in snow. You also need to monitor your perspiration. It’s easy to get wet from sweating during a hard hike. This sweat will chill you fast once you stop moving. Remove those layers as you warm up, to prevent sweating.

Have proper clothing. What should you have with you when hiking? Avoid cotton, for starters. Synthetic underwear, like polypropylene, is a great invention, in all it’s newest forms. “Wicking” pants and tops work well. Always have a hat and gloves. Dry socks can prevent frostbitten toes, and are a good idea even for a day hike. Down coats and vests are the best – if you can keep them dry.

Bring enough water. Eating snow is an extremely inefficient way to get water into your system. Bring water and keep it from freezing. This might mean keeping your water bottle inside your coat, or next to you in your sleeping bag at night. One of the primary problems that climbers of Mount Everest have is dehydration, by the way, and it can contribute to hypothermia.

Bring a heat source. Many of us get by backpacking with no stove in the warmer months, eating cold foods only, but in winter a cooking stove is a necessity. It isn’t just that you will appreciate having hot food. You will need a way to melt snow and ice for water. Always have enough matches, and a lighter too. A fire can easily be a lifesaver if you fall into a stream of lake and need to get warm and dry.

Learn some basic principles of cold weather survival. Maybe you won’t remember that you can turn a light jacket into a winter coat by stuffing it full of cattail fluff from the nearest swamp. However, if you understand how dead air space insulates, it will seem obvious to you that you can use a pile of dry leaves or grass as an emergency blanket. Once, while backpacking along the Manistee River in Michigan, setting up my tent on a pile of dry bracken ferns allowed me to stay warm with no sleeping bag when it was almost freezing.

Think about these things before you are out there. Proper preparation is what will make your winter backpacking trip a safe one.

Copyright Steve Gillman. To get the ebook

I stood at the observation point on the balcony at the Visitor Center overlooking the great Mendenhall Glacier at Juneau, Alaska. Before me was a beautiful scene. The glacier reflected in the large lake. Ooh, ahh. Both to the left and right were mountains. It was a beautiful clear day. I watched the people too, walking around taking photos, and looking at the scenery before us and at the displays in the center, just a few feet away.

A constant roar came from a tall and full waterfall to the right of the glacier. Once, the glacier covered the waterfall. No one was aware of its presence before the glacier receded. I looked closer at the base of the waterfall. There seemed to be a sandbar and people walking on it. With my binoculars I traced the path they must have taken below me. It crossed large sandbars separated by streams and covered with bushes. I found the general location of the beginning of the path. A ranger told me that there was a way to get out there, but it wasn’t official, and that it was a little steep at one point. I decided that the best way to see such a beautiful place was up close, so I decided to try it. My mom and my husband were along with me. I told them I wanted to try the path, and asked if they wouldn’t mind just hanging around waiting for me since they didn’t want to join me.

Into the bushes I went. Immediately, I had to scramble along steep wet slate under the cover of brush. After following some wrong trails and trying again, I found myself in the large bush-covered sandy area heading towards the waterfall. I jumped little streams and plotted my course across to my goal. My last obstacles were climbing a large rock, and then traversing a 20 ft. wide stream dotted with well-placed stepping stones.

I walked right up to the roaring waterfall, and even climbed up along side it a ways on large rocks. Walking away from the waterfall I encountered a large cloud of mist that emanated from its base. I walked out along the sandbar towards the center of the lake and found a large rock to sit on. I had a snack, enjoying being present in this amazing location — surrounded by the lake and flanked by a glacier, a grand waterfall and mountains. I met people too. Some kids were climbing up much higher than I had on the rocks. A gentleman from Germany took my photo, and I took a photo of two girls out on their own adventure.

After an hour of ‘hanging around,’ I turned back. I crossed the creek, climbed the rock, and then looked for hikers emerging from the bushes to find the best path back. A couple times I had to stop and wait for new hikers so I could find the path again. The sun was setting, the floating icebergs were glimmering on the lake, and I enjoyed every moment of delay.

My entire trek took about two hours — worth every moment. My husband and my mom were very understanding and said they enjoyed the visitor center and the scenery (which included me through the telescope!) I’m glad I had the courage to ask for that time. It would have been easy just to do the scheduled tour, and to take no risks. William Shedd once said, ‘A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.’ I find that when I go further, it makes all the difference. It creates treasured memories.

About The Author

Paths began to beckon Theresa when she was 12, visiting the Bridger Wilderness in Wyoming. Walking, dancing, and movement are a part of her, nourished by John Denver*s musical challenge for her to *fly.* Join her *walking with women* Life Discovery Tours.

Learn more about Theresa Gabriel – Women Summit LLC

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It has begun. The Central Mexican yearly ritual has finally arrived, a month late I might add, and life as we know it has changed and will be different for the next 10-12 weeks.

The rainy season is here.

I wrote about it two months ago. I told of my not-so-excited-anticipation of this yearly and, unless you want to leave and go to the desert for 12 weeks, unavoidable act of God. The rainy season changes EVERYTHING.

1. When it is the dry season, you can leave the house on a moment’s notice with nary a thought in your head about it. I mean, you can be impulsive.

“Oh, Honey let’s run out and get some ice cream.”

“Let’s do, sweetheart and while we’re out, let’s go to a movie!”

“Super! Let’s go!”

This little scene is on hold now for the next 12 weeks.

2. You cannot leave the house together—ever. Someone has to stay home, at all times, keeping vigil over the leaking windows. You see, Mexican homebuilders, for reasons known surely only to the Almighty, build windows to leak. Now follow me carefully here.

Central Mexico has had, since God created the heavens and the earth, a rainy season. Central Mexican homebuilders know this. They teach this in catechism. Nevertheless, they build windows that leak like Niagara Falls.

The pre-rainy season activity, which is sometime in the middle of April, is to lay in a supply of new terrycloth towels and waterproof tape. You must have the towels to stuff around the windowsills and the tape to plug the new holes that miraculously appear each rainy season.

3. We have birds. Oh, dear God, we have birds in outside aviaries in the back of our house. We have to be on the alert, day and night, for the tornado-strength winds, hurricane-force rain, and lighting bolts that could incinerate a bus so we can risk life and limb to keep them safe.

We do have large and ample caging with tarps big enough to cover most American Sports stadiums, protecting the birds. But here is what we are up against.

We have to keep the tarps in the ready position to be able simply to pull down over the aviaries when the rain begins.

“Why don’t you just keep them covered all the time?” you ask.

The reason is that right before the daily storm hits, the air heats up to being able to boil water. This would, of course, cook the birds. We cannot have that at all. Therefore, we have to pull all the tarps up so the birds can have air to breathe and not cook. Then when the rains hit, we have to run out there and pull the covers over the whole aviary.

4. Washing clothes—don’t ever get my wife started on this nightmare. Each rainy season the water that comes out of the taps turns a nice nicotine brown. This is because the mountain rains are so heavy that they overwhelm the city’s water purification plants with muddy river water.

(This notion of a “water purification plant” is an oxymoron since you cannot drink the water anyway unless you want some amoebic parasite taking up residence in your gut!)

We combat this issue with a water purification system for which we paid dearly, making it possible to drink from the tap. But this does not work for the washing machine.

So my poor wife washes clothes that will have a brown tint to them until the rainy season is finished.

Life as we knew it has now changed. This is our third rainy season. It is an easy trade off.

I know what you are thinking,

“Why do you live there if it is like this?”

Two reasons:

1. It only lasts 10-12 weeks.

2. Does the name “Osama Bin Laden” ring a bell?

Doug Bower is a freelance writer, Syndicated Columnist, and book author. His most recent writing credits include The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Houston Chronicle, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Transitions Abroad. He is a columnist with Cricketsoda.com and more than 21 additional online magazines. He is also a writer with EzineArticles.com with a readership of almost 6,000. He lives with his wife in Guanajuato, Mexico. His newest books, Mexican Living: Blogging it from a Third World Country can be seen: CLICK HERE: lulu.com/mexicanliving lulu.com/mexicanliving

The Confederation Bridge stretching from the New Brunswick province of Canada to Border-Carleton joins the province with the island.

The bridge has meant a change in the way of life for residents of the island. Many more people are venturing across to take in the peaceful, fresh, pastoral hills and sparkling harbors of prince Edward Island. For such a s mall place the province is well known for much of its character including the delicious lobster, the potato, the distinctive red soil and a world famous red head which is called Anne of green Gables.

Lucy Maud Montgomery who is the author of the novel Anne of Green Gables, was born in New London located in Prince Edward Island. Her novel is set in Cavendish where Green Gables House and the surrounding lands also described in the novel can be visited today. The entire island seems to have an Anne theme for visitors to enjoy. Much of the island is still as green and enchanting as Montgomery described it almost a century ago.

The capital city of Charlottetown while modern for the most part, retains its small town look and feel. Province House which is a neoclassical sandstone building, is a National Historic Site in downtown Charlottetown. It was there that the fathers of Confederation met in a room on the second floor in 1864. The room remains as it would have been during the work on creating the Dominion of Canada. The beautiful structure which is originally a courthouse is also a current Provincial Legislature. The Confederation Center for the Arts adds drastic contrasts tot eh downtown with a large modern exterior. Inside there are a museum, art gallery, library and theater.

The article was produced by the writer of masterpapers.com.
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