Everyone's Got A Story About Their Stanley
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Winter Camping in Wisconsin
The Chequamegon National Forest in northern Wisconsin issues a $5 permit to cut down a Christmas tree, and it's always a fun challenge to hike into the woods in late December in search of a presentable one.
The trip is an overnight mission I typically make alone. After hiking or skiing along the Ice Age National Scenic Trail, I make camp somewhere far off in the glowing winter night. The first time I went on this trip, the snow was already two feet deep and the top half was a weightless, swishing sparkle due to the extreme cold.
The digital screen on my GPS unit faded and gave out in the night air, and my breath put frost on my eyelashes. After I had set up my tent under a cedar tree and unpacked my roll and my sleeping bag, I was eager to open up my Stanley thermos and have hot chocolate.
The steam rose thickly out of the mouth of the thermos, and I could not believe that with everything else frozen into a hush around me, the chocolate was still so hot. It had been hours since I left the car, and even then the thermos had been in out in the cold trunk with the rest of my gear during the long drive.
Content to let it cool a bit, I put the steaming thermos down and left the tent to tend to some other things around camp. After a few minutes, my concentration slipped, and I absent-mindedly tossed something from my pack into the tent, tipping over the thermos.
I could not believe my error, or the fact that the chocolate had poured into a thin pool across the floor of the tent. How would I be able to camp with a wet tent floor? With a wet sleeping bag? I couldn't! I'd have to give up and hike all those miles through the night back to the car!
With these concerns still swirling inside my head, I searched through my pack to find the best way to clean up the mess. But to my surprise, when I reentered the tent, clean-up was quite easy: nothing was wet -- the liquid had frozen in a flash! All I had to do was pick up the thin sheets of chocolate colored ice. What had been kept piping hot in a Stanley thermos for hours froze nearly instantly in that winter night.
I lost the hot chocolate that year, but I gained a real appreciation for how a Stanley thermos truly keeps out the most powerful freeze.
Topics: Outdoor
