“If you’ve got the warm gear, you’ve got it made.” This was the mantra that got me through many of my early winter camping experiences in the wilderness areas of Kentucky and Tennessee. In those Southeastern environs, you never know what you’ll get in the winter wilderness – mild temps and sunny or twenty below with freezing rain encapsulating the landscape in a cocoon of ice – all extremes are fair game. Much of the time, I didn’t even use a tent in those days, electing instead to sleep in “rock houses,” the characteristic deep overhang features of many cliffs in the region, used by camping parties for millennia.
Regardless, the thing I learned to love the most about winter camping in such a populated Eastern State is that everybody else stays home! I could visit the most popular trails with their spectacular waterfalls and stone arches, and I could camp a half-mile from the trailhead without seeing a soul outside of my party all weekend. Deal with the cold and the rest is easy.
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