Central Oregon Winter Camping, December 2010, Day 1

Well, this is quite overdue (months!) but I thought you'd enjoy this blast from the recent past anyway.  I had several days off in December, and used my time off to take a winter backpacking trip to Central Oregon.  I could count on days of cold rain or snow in the Western Oregon Cascades, and decamping to Central Oregon would at least give me a chance for interesting, maybe even sunny weather, though I was guaranteed cold weather, and the chance of a transportationally crippling snowstorm was ever-present.  More on that later!

First, I had to get there.  From Eugene, I drove over Santiam Pass to Bend.  The weather was great, but the roads were all sorts of conditions.  In this photo conditions weren't so bad, but later they were covered by deep snow.  I chained up and white-knuckled for hours through winter wonderland.  

My first destination was a recently declared Bureau of Land Management Wilderness Area called the Oregon Badlands.  I've back country camped here one time before, in the summer.   
 

I arrived in the evening: 3 pm.  No, that's not a joke.  With the sun setting at 4:27 that day, I had only an hour to get out a few miles to a campsite.  I made my way out from my car through a dispersed woodland of juniper and sagebrush, while the moon set to the east.   

 

My campsite this night was beside a rock outcrop called Flatiron Rock.  It's not quite flat, but it is rock.  From there I enjoyed a sunset of chilly temperature and warm colors:

After sunset I headed back down from the top of the rock to set up my tent and cook some dinner.  On the positive side, the long nights (15 hours from sunset to sunrise) allow plenty of time for rest.  On the negative side, that's a long time to lay down on meager sleeping pads and try to stay warm. 

Observed low temperature in nearby Bend this night was 13F.  I was a bit cold, even in my sleeping bag, so the next few nights I packed an extra jacket, baselayer and gloves, which did the trick quite well.

 I got back up, retrieved my food (hanging from a bear bag on a nearby juniper), and threw a few granola bars into my pockets to thaw them out.  I headed up to Flatiron Rock to see the sights. 

The Badlands is a flattish area between ridges and mountains, bordered by roads on all sides.  It's only about 15 miles east of Bend, and as more and more people find out about the trails on the land, it will grow in popularity.  It seems to be more popular even than the first time I went out there.  I've especially noticed that it's well-used for dog walkers.  Here's a view to the West, with the Three Sisters and Mt Bachelor on the horizon. 

Juniper and Basalt rock:

 

For this trip I decided to use a more snow-worthy shelter.  Tarps are great, and many tarps are strong enough for snowy conditions, but I didn't relish the thought of fighting spindrift all night during a snowstorm.  Given the chance of a real storm on this trip, I thought it'd be worth buying a more enclosed shelter.  I found this Golite pyramidal structure to be quite adequate for winter camping in normal conditions (as I later found out).  It's not exactly a tent- there's no floor and no tent poles.  So it doesn't weigh too much, and it breathes (exhales, really) much better than a traditional two wall tent, because it's not airtight.  It is open to airflow around the bottom and through two vents at the top.  In very cold temperatures, the air temperature in the tent is low enough to allow condensed moisture from my exhalation to freeze harmlessly onto the tent walls, even if the ventilation at the floor level is covered over by fallen snow.  This night, with clear skies, I just left the front door of the shelter open.  I still prefer a tarp (better views), but in winter time, this shelter is much more open and fun to use than a heavy, closed-up double wall tent.  

 Day two is coming up. . . soonish.