My favorite drink is sparkling water
so in a genius move for my water bottle today i brought sparkling water. Ah.
Oh yeah! So here we are, welcome to the Crooked River and this is a snowy winter paradise.
So if you watch my live streams you'll remember that i was trying to go to Jenny Lake and
that didn't work out for me. Not only do i need to have the right gear for winter backpacking
but my vehicle needs the right gear for winter backpacking if i'm gonna get to any of these
trailheads. So i was heading to Jenny Lake which is roughly two hours north of Boise. It's by the town
of Idaho City. It's about 17 miles down forest road 384 to get to Jenny Lake but luckily the Crooked
River trailhead is only a mile down that road so i just adapted real quick, changed my plan and hiked
down the Crooked River and i'm glad i did because this is an awesome hike and a really awesome hike
in the winter time. Especially if you're from Boise. It's only two hours to get here and then the hike
is really easy and it's really adaptable. It's really beautiful and it just makes for a great
winter trip. You don't need snow shoes, you can go a mile, you can go five, there's really a lot
of options to this trip and you're along this river the whole time and if you actually want to
try winter backpacking there's a couple of spots along here that you can get to really easily.
So the first spot i found was 1.1 miles in. It's right after the bridge. That's the other thing about this
trail there's been a bunch of bridges built so you don't have to make any real serious stream
crossings. So about a mile in i found that first campsite and i debated staying there but really
i wanted to do some more hiking so i am now 3.7 miles into this trail and i have found my spot.
I will leave a link in the description below to Scott Marchant's book ,the one i'm using to guide
me on this trail and i will also leave a link to the forest service website if you just want to
find out where this is. So if you watched the last video i did with Brett. The introduction to winter
backpacking. We took a hot tent so i'm continuing that, continuing to learn how to winter backpack.
I've already made some changes from that trip to this trip. I left the stove to the hot tent
at home. Want to know why, go back and watch that video link in the description below card
up here. I am going to now try to survive out here without a hot stove and i actually think
i'll be more comfortable. It's raining right now, everything is starting to get soaking wet.
I better dig out my spot for my teepee and get set up and at least keep my stuff dry.
So at this point i am a little lost a little confused on this bathtub tent. It's up, i've
got some points secured, but it's like caving in on itself. There's a lot of loops on it
almost like i should have brought some extra guidelines for it. If i can't fix it it's not
the end of the world i mean, i still got everything i need but kind of annoying.
Well good morning i have survived the night. I found out last night what's so special about going
out in the winter time. It's because of the quiet. You have not experienced quiet until you've done
this. You're like no Jon it's always quiet when you go backpacking. It's not, it's not the same.
If you go backpacking in the spring, the summer nature is alive. You can hear birds chirping, you hear bees
buzzing, just all those little extra sounds of things that are awake and rustling. The winter
brings a quiet that is just deafening. The drips of the snow, the sound of the river, everything is just
so quiet it's so peaceful it's just like whoa. And i got just one of the best nights of sleep in my
life i probably slept 12 hours. Super warm, super comfy. I did not need the stove. My sleep system
is dialed in. If you want to see how i set up my sleep system i did a video on it last week.
Link in the description below, card up top. Honestly this teepee is kind of a pain in the ass. I would
probably if i did it over again recommend getting you know just the MSR Access 2 or a
simple mountaineering tent like that. On this trip i did bring gaiters and it did help. My feet are
drier, but they're not totally dry. So i think that i still need to improve on that and i think the
next step is just looking at better boots, but hey i'm not deterred. More lessons learned, more
opportunities to grow as a winter backpacker and i'll definitely be making some changes and heading
right back out. I do think i have my sleep system dialed in though so if you want to check that out
check out this video right here. More hiking videos with this playlist up top. Don't forget
to join me for live streams wednesdays at 7:00. Thanks for watching, i'll see you next time.