The calendar currently says it is winter. Looking out the window, not so much. We did have a short cold snap in Idaho and we headed out and about shortly thereafter to get in our first camp of 2024. The snow was already melting, the ice at Winchester Lake was already quickly turning to slush, but we’ll go ahead and call it a winter camp anyhow.
So far this year winter in our slice of Idaho has been a non event. We maxed out with about 6 inches of snow and that quickly melted. For someone that looks forward to winter activities like snowshoeing and ice fishing it’s been a bit disappointing. We are stuck with the short cold grey days, but none of the upsides that winter should bring.
Winchester State Park is one of the few spots that stays open for the winter in this neck of the woods. There is a trail around the lake that is groomed for cross country skiing, but by the time we arrived the melt was in full progress, so a hike it was! From all the tracks there are a ton of deer that use the trail as well.
There were several groups of ice fishers out on the lake, but we stuck to the shoreline. Catching little perch is fun, but with an elevated risk of ending up in the lake, it didn’t seem THAT fun.
We had the entire campground to ourselves so we were left with our choice of sites for the night.
As we sat by the fire and the sky grew dark a couple owls provided the soundtrack for the evening.
Overall it was a good outing, and with January under our belts we are well on our way to 12 months of camping in 2024. But, we can’t keep looking out the window at the mud for all of February. It may be time to go find spring a little early since winter doesn’t seem to want to cooperate. We’ll let you know what we found in the next post.
