St. Cloud Times — Crowded, while winter camping in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, means seeing a couple of skiers glide past your site.
For a group of friends with experience teaching winter survival skills at the Boy Scouts’ Northern Tier High Adventure Base in Ely, the annual President’s Day weekend excursion in the BWCAW usually means solitude and camaraderie, set in the comfort and warmth of a hot tent — a canvas tent heated by a wood stove. There’s time to swap stories and tell jokes. But most activities center on survival.
Keeping warm. Cutting wood. Setting up. Preparing food.
Everything takes longer in the cold. With stiff fingers, even a task as simple as lacing up a pair of snowshoes can take 30 minutes.
Chuck Rose, 54, a St. Cloud State University professor who teaches environmental science, is relatively new to the group. He provided a written rundown of how the weekend unfolded. For him, the outing starts with a 4½-hour drive from Sartell to the meeting spot about 20 minutes outside Ely.
