Browns Creek Trailhead winter camping fail

The month of November was a deceivingly warm month. It left me in the mood to get out and experience some winter weather. I’d been thinking of winter camping for a while, and thought it would be good to give it a try. While I’ve camped overnight in the winter, it was quite a bit different with a group of 20 people building snow caves. There was always something to be doing and a roaring fire around. This would be my first solo winter camping outing.

Another reason to get out was I needed to write a post. My one subscriber was complaining about a lack of content.

As with all experiments, there are successes and failures. This one was turned out to be mostly the latter!

The Plan for Winter Camping

Tanya and I have hiked Browns Creek before by going up to Browns Lake on a long day hike. The trail is a great hike with the Browns Creek Waterfalls along the way. The falls are a relatively easy 6 mile round-trip hike. I figured I’d go up the night before, camp near the trailhead, and then get some pictures of the falls during the winter.

Getting to Browns Creek Trailhead

Getting to Browns Creek from Littleton isn’t too bad of a drive at 2.5 hours. From Denver, you head out on 285 South continuing south at Johnson Village. Once you’re past Nathrop, head west on County Road 270. You’ll see signs to head south on CR272 to get to the Browns Creek Trailhead.

The conditions on CR272 were good without a requirement for 4-wheel drive at this time. Several vehicles have made the trip since the last snow making the road clear and snow-packed. There was only about 6-8 inches of snow on the ground.

Good beginnings

The temperatures were really nice when I arrived. It felt like it was about 40, although the thermometer said it was 30. There are several areas for dispersed camping around the trailhead. I found a place with a nice fire ring. Chaffee County and the USFS had lifted fire restrictions for the area so I was going to use a fire to help deal with the cold later. There was a spot near a tree without much snow allowing a reasonable place for my tent. Of course, I bent several tent stakes in the frozen ground. Note to self, use heavier stakes when camping in the winter and add replacements to my Amazon Wishlist. 🙂

With plenty of daylight left, I headed out on an exploratory hike. There was a trail marked on the USFS a little north of my camp that looked worthy of checking out. I couldn’t find the trail so I bushwhacked across an open area. It was great to be out in the woods again. No one else had been exploring this area since the last snowfall allowing me to see clear tracks from several animals. Most looked like they were deer and elk interspersed with rabbits, squirrels and other small animals.

Eventually I intersected with the Colorado Trail. One other person had been on this trail although after about a quarter mile their tracks stopped and turned around. After about 1.25 miles, I thought about continuing the loop made by following the Colorado Trail to the Browns Creek trail. In hindsight, I should have continued on so my feet would actually hit the Browns Creek trail. Instead, I headed back the way I came.

Back at Camp

Once at camp, I checked out other dispersed camp sites and scrounged up some more wood. It was good to use my backpacking saw and the busywork kept me warm. A stellar jay was the only companion, and he was nice enough to pose for a few shots.

The sun started to fade and the cold was starting to creep into me. I added a layer, started a fire, and got some pictures as the lowering sun created good lighting on the mountains. One mistake I made here was not adding enough layers. Because I was still warm from cutting wood, I didn’t realize how quickly I’d get chilled as the temp approached 20, which isn’t a terribly cold temp but does require layers!

Darkness and colder temps set it

As the sun set, the sky had some great coloring. Then the moon came up over the north-eastern ridge line with a bright orange color. My efforts at taking a picture of the moon were pretty bad. I had a hard time operating the camera because I was shaking from the cold. The beauty was amazing although, clearly, I hadn’t been monitoring my body temp well. I had a bad case of the shivers despite the fire, and the temp was still in the upper teens. It was going to get much colder!

There were a few options to address my shivers, hunker down in my warm bag, build up the fire and add layers, or do a hike to get my body warm again (or do all these!). For some reason, I didn’t feel like taking any of these options and the idea of my warm bed seemed to dominate my thoughts. We all know how this ended, I decided to head back. The coyotes were yelping and howling as I packed up giving me a nice sendoff, or maybe they were laughing at me. 🙂

Winter Camping lessons learned

It was disappointing to head back without overnighting. I’d been looking forward to hiking Browns Creek to get winter pictures of the waterfall. It did teach me a few things about this winter camping thing.

Clearly I need to be more mindful of my layers and keep ahead of the cold. I spent way too much time with only a light layer, shirt and pants without putting on a base layer or my down hoodie.

My equipment isn’t complete for winter camping. My bag and down hoodie have been tested with cold weather. I’m missing a heavyweight base layer which I learned is a necessity! My base layers have always been lighter since their primary use is skiing, a high-energy activity.

Next time, if there is one, I’ll camp a little closer to home and make sure I have a heavy base layer. Despite everything, it really was fun to get out and give the winter camping a try.