Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting What’s your most miserable night in the woods

Took my boys on a winter overnight, when they were ages 6 and 11. They were veteran pack in campers at that age but not in the winter.

I broke trail back into our property with snowshoes and they followed along. We set up camp on the edge of some white pines with hardwoods across the small clearing. We cut pine bows to build up a layer under the tent, then shoveled snow up around the sides of the tent. Tent plus all the bags and wool blankets we had was cozy in that arrangement, despite no source of heat inside.

We spent the evening before bed around a goodly sized fire and cooking food. In the morning we built the fire back up and cooked a good breakfast, then headed home.

The boys were never miserable, but I was that night, all night. See, I was under threat of divorce to not let a single f'ing (her words) thing happen to the wife's boys. I stayed awake all night listening to them breath, and snore, prepared to bail at a moments notice if something went sideways. Nothing did and they were just as happy when they woke up as they were going to sleep. I spent the entire night warm and cozy in my bag fighting every second to stay awake. That was a LONG miserable night. Still ended up divorced, but not over that.

To this day they recall that overnight as one of the coolest things they ever did when they were kids.

Oh, and it got down to 35 below that night, a might chilly..........