Solo Truck Camping on a Freezing, Windy, Winter Night

Welcome back to this week's video. Today Toby and I got you in Mille Lacs Lake County. We're in central Minnesota checking out another state park that offers winter camping. The winter days are finally getting longer, which is good because I always seem to roll into these campsites later and later. It's almost five o'clock, 14 degrees. We got to stop at the ranger station, pick up a map, and then we're going to find out where we're going to go camping. Sometimes even if you got a general idea of where these campsites are, it's not a bad idea to just stop and pick up a map. These parks often have a lot more than just camping. Bingo. Are you ready buddy? It's a three mile drive through the park to get to the campground. Once we get close, I'll take a look at the state's website and the map and find out what spots we can actually go camping at. Looks like the campground is this way. They offer both electric and non-electric campsites here. 25 bucks, 35 bucks, and they also have a few backpack sites as well. I'm not sure which way we're going to go yet. It really depends on how tucked in the trees we can get because the next few days it is going to be windy. They're talking gusts up around 35 miles an hour. So what I'm going to do is try and get tucked in the trees. Winter camping at established parks usually goes pretty smoothly, but on nights like this with cold temperatures and some wind, where you park can make all the difference. Well let's take a look at what's available. Looks like they've got eight campsites. Three of them are walk-ins, two of them non-electric, and someone's in site number 43 tonight. Let's just drive through the park here and see what these spots look like. Well first we're going to come up on the non-electric sites and the nice thing about these is they're on a back loop separated from the rest of the campground. Oh here we go. Look at that nice and flat fire ring and that picnic table is full of snow. Doesn't look like anybody's been here. The other site looks the same. We'll check out the electric sites and see if there's anybody there. Oh check this out. These are the cabins and they're available in the winter as well. It doesn't look like anybody's renting them tonight. I think it'd be cool to stay in one of these. Well some of these electric sites are pull-throughs. You could bring a trailer back here in the winter time and be really comfortable. Check it out. This guy had that exact idea. There's no need to put away the camper in the winter. I'll pull into one of them here. You can see what it looks like. Picnic table, fire ring, electrical box, and really easy in and out. Yeah this would work all right. But you probably already know where we're gonna go stay. The back loop spot number 68. I think that'll do. Tonight the goal is simple. Get camp set up, get warm, and then get ready to check this place out tomorrow. Come on Toby. It's windy out there this morning making it feel a lot colder than it really is. I was struggling to maintain a inside the camper last night so I brought the slide in. I could not get it above 60 degrees in here and the furnace was running non-stop. We've been out 20 below zero and I've been able to keep it cozy in here. Bringing the slide in helped a lot. The furnace finally did shut off and we were able to stay at about 65-66 degrees in here all night long. It's not that big of an issue. I still have plenty of space even with the slide in. I can get out the door. I'm probably going to leave the slide in most of the week as long as the winds continue. This morning, just checking out the park. This place is big. 10,000 acres. There's a lot of historical markers in this park. They also have a fire tower that's closed for the winter and a lot of historical markers are on groomed paths. So they take the walking trails during the summer, turn them into cross-country ski trails in the winter. They've got a device that they pull down the trails and cuts grooves for the skis so they don't want people walking down those paths. That doesn't mean that we're not going to still be able to explore this place. I want to check out those cabins too. I think that would be kind of cool. We'll get out of here just as soon as those temperatures rise up into the double digits. It's cold out there buddy. We got to get this jacket put on. You ready? Should we go? Let's go. I think we should probably start by cleaning up the fire pit and the picnic table. There's a 60% chance of snow today and I'm starting to see a few flakes. Oh no, I forgot my shovel. How did I let that happen? Time for the backup shovel I guess. We can make this work. I think this will do just fine. We can set up a fire ring and the picnic table. Let me show you what 25 bucks gets you at a state park campsite. A vault toilet and it's just right off the campsite. Very clean. Fully stocked. You can't beat that. I'd like to see what these cabins look like. I think it would be really cool to rent one. I can see how it'd be a really comfortable option. Pull up to one of these cabins on a cold windy night. Get right inside. Warm up. Not having to set up camp. Now we just gotta hope that's open. So far so good. Oh come on. We are officially locked out but thankfully we got the Arctic Fox to keep us warm. One day we'll rent one of these cabins. You want to rent a cabin, Toby? What would make them even better is if they had little wood stoves in them. That'd be so cozy. Check this out. A fish cleaning building. Well they got it locked up too. You can still see inside there though. That is one of the nicest tables I've seen. All stainless steel. It's got an instruction board on the wall back there too for flaying your fish. That's the one downside about visiting these parks in the winter time is so much of it is closed. The garbage containers are open though. That's good. We're gonna get back to the campsite, start up the fire and try and warm up a little bit. This will make the cold just a little bit easier to ignore. Good job. Well Toby lasted about 45 minutes out here and then I had to put him back in the camper. He was just getting a little too cold. I checked the cell phone because the high today was supposed to be 31 degrees and it only got up to about 15 and the high is actually going to be happening around midnight tonight. We are supposed to pick up between one and three inches of snow at about eight o'clock and they said it was going to be really heavy and really quick so we'll have to see what that brings. I was going to cook supper on the fire tonight. I still think we're going to be able to make that happen. I just got to get the coals ready. At least the wind has stopped. I think that'll do. It is about that time. Tonight I'm going to try making something that I've never made before but it incorporates my two favorite foods, hamburgers and onions. I watched a show the other day of this hamburger joint down in Iowa and they steam hamburgers with a big mound of onions on the top and I thought I can do that on the campfire with one of those grilling bags. First thing I got to do is take one big ring right out of the center. This right here is going to work perfect. I'll show you what we're going to do with that in a minute. The rest of the onion, we're just going to cut into rings. Add a little bit of salt and pepper and now here's where the magic happens. We're going to take this onion ring, put it in the bag first and the hamburger patty is going to go right on top of that ring. That big onion is going to steam the hamburger and these onions are going to go right on top. The whole thing. Now we'll just close it up. We're going to find a warm spot on the coals. The onions are going to steam that hamburger to perfection. Those coals are so hot. I think I'm going to try cooking on the grate first. Yeah, I think that'll work out too. I burned last week's meal. I don't want to burn this one too. The name of that hamburger shop finally came to me. It's Pete's Hamburger Stand in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. It's just right on the Iowa border. You'll have to let me know if you've ever been there or maybe you live close by, but these hamburgers looked absolutely amazing. I would definitely drive six hours to get a good hamburger. Speaking of that, this is smelling really good and it's starting to puff up too. That usually means we're getting pretty close to being done. It's like a jiffy pop. I think we can bring it in. Let's see what we created. The onions are done perfectly. Oh, that's going to be good. If you're not a fan of onions, you're probably not going to like this one. That is going to be so good. I'm going to enjoy this and then we'll go sit by the fire again. It doesn't look like we're going to get that snow that they talked about. Thankfully, the wind has died down and it's probably 25 degrees out, warmest it's been all day long. I'm just going to sit out here, enjoy the fire and call it a night. I'll see you in the morning. Should we go for a walk this morning? Go for a walk? Come on. I was awoken last night around three o'clock by the beeping of the refrigerator. I'd ran out of propane. Thankfully, I had a second tank. I know that there's ways that I can monitor those levels and I probably should start doing that. Thankfully, the propane has been lasting a little bit longer on these days when we're in temperatures above zero. I do have some horrible news though. I ran out of coffee yesterday, so now my body doesn't know that it's supposed to be awake. I noticed this the other day when we pulled in. Who was ever here before me thinking they must have been in a hot tent. That would be pretty fun. Although that style of camping does take a lot of work, I really enjoy the Sardic Fox and the nice thing is this morning there's really nothing to even pack up or put away. There's a quick trip about eight miles from here and that's where I'm going to go get my coffee. What do you think Toby? You ready to go home? It's about that time. Well, I want to thank you for hanging out with Toby and me for the last few days. It's been nice out. A little windy at first, but it was still nice. Next week it's supposed to get cold, so maybe it'll be a perfect time to rent that fish house and I can bring you there next week. Until then, be kind, be honest. We'll see you down the road.