Woodsbound Outdoors
Hot Tent Camping in an Appalachian Snowstorm
12/1/2024 | 23m 11sVideo has Closed Captions
I traveled to the Laurel Highlands during the winter to try out my new hot tent and wood stove.
I traveled to the Laurel Highlands during the winter to try out my new hot tent and wood stove. To transport all my gear, I used my Jet Sled. After I get a fire going in the wood stove, I make some beef stew before going to bed. I cooked some pancakes in the morning with some coffee. Even though the weather outside is cold, the tent stays very warm inside with the fire.
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Woodsbound Outdoors is a local public television program presented by WQED
Woodsbound Outdoors
Hot Tent Camping in an Appalachian Snowstorm
12/1/2024 | 23m 11sVideo has Closed Captions
I traveled to the Laurel Highlands during the winter to try out my new hot tent and wood stove. To transport all my gear, I used my Jet Sled. After I get a fire going in the wood stove, I make some beef stew before going to bed. I cooked some pancakes in the morning with some coffee. Even though the weather outside is cold, the tent stays very warm inside with the fire.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipMuch colder and will continue to overspread the region today behind a strong cold front.
Significant snowfall is expected across the Laurel Highlands and the higher terrain areas of West Virginia.
Accumulations are expected elsewhere.
So there is a snow storm in the forecast.
We're supposed to get some really nasty winter weather tonight, so I figured it'd be a great night to test out the hot tent.
To find a good open, flat spot for this tent.
So that's most of the stuff.
Now we have to go get the woodstove.
Normally I don't bring this much stuff camping, but I've been waiting for a long time to test out my hot tent in the snowy wilderness.
And now we're going to find out tonight just how good it is.
Whoa You know, I guess I could have taken my backpack off at the campsite.
Made my life a little easier.
I forgot to do that.
So it stopped snowing for a little bit.
Starting back up again.
It's supposed to get heavier as the night goes on.
Tents all staked out now I just have to put the floor in and the woodstove.
There is a piece that goes to this, so you can't put the woodstove on top of that with the floor on.
I'm just going to unzip some of the floor because I'm going to stack some wood here and also walk around here without getting the floor all we It's really coming down now.
Tents all set up now.
Let's go find some firewood.
There's a fallen tree over here.
I'm going to go cut up.
Load up some logs into the sled and fire up the wood stove.
We're going to get nice and warm.
There we go.
If you're looking for a good saw, get yourself a silky big boy for winter camping.
A good saw is worth its weight in gold.
It should be good enough.
We got some kindling firewood.
Let's take it back to the tent.
So, another way you can do this.
Put one log down like this.
And one log right in front of it and see where it lands.
You get some small pieces of kindling.
Some fat wood too.
It's getting warm in here already.
I'm just going to stack this wood close to the wood stuff so that the heat will dry out the wood.
Then when I'm ready to burn it, it'll burn a lot better.
Should be plenty for one night, but I still might go cut some more.
My pants and my boots are starting to dry out.
You see the steam coming off that firewood?
All right, so we're going to make some beef stew.
Sounds really good right about now.
So the first thing we need to do is cook the meat a little bit to just brown the outsides of it, and I'll make myself a spatula because I always forget one.
Wouldnt be camping.
If I didn't forget 12 things.
Looks good enough.
I'm going to add some sea salt to the beef.
It's been a while since I made beef stew.
It's one of my favorite meals to eat this time of year.
Camping in the winter months.
You can't beat it.
So once it's brown, set the meat aside.
I'll just put it on this lid and I'll cook the vegetables.
So in my food bag, we have some onion and carrots chopped up, potatoes, flour.
I'm going to add the onion and carrots.
A lot of times I use celery to but didn't have any this time.
Add some flour to those vegetables now.
This is going to thicken up the stew a little bit.
Mix that in real good.
Add some water now.
I'm going to add some beef bouillon cubes.
Now we're going to put the meat back in there.
And bring it to a boil.
Beef stew seasoning.
It is so comfortable in here.
Even with the door wide open.
It's like 70 degrees.
This is nice.
If I shut the door, it'll heat up in here fast.
Gets a little too hot.
I'm used to primitive camping.
This is.
This is more like an Airbnb.
I'm not sure if the camera could pick up that sound or not, but there's a pack of coyotes howling off in the distance.
Potatoes.
We'll add these now.
That smells great.
It looks like it stopped snowing for now.
That's some flurries.
That's about it.
Let's check on this stew.
That is looking good.
That's been simmering for about two hours, Thats it, that's about done.
This is the worst part of making stew.
Is waiting for it to cool down before I can eat it.
I'm hungry.
Wouldn't be winter camping without hot chocolate.
So we have a lot of beef stew here, but it's because I'm going to eat some tomorrow to.
This is good.
Puff of smoke.
Time for some Swiss Miss.
Well, I'm going to eat a little more here then go to bed.
And then the rest of it.
I'll put outside, see if I can hang it from that tree.
Just because I don't want any animals getting through it.
I got some line tied to this piece of wood here.
We're going to give it a throw.
Perfect.
This would be high enough.
Let's get back in that tent.
It is cold out here.
Some people ask me if I have a problem with animals when I'm camping.
Not usually.
Sometimes raccoons will give you problems.
They'll come take your food if you leave it out.
But bears, usually they'll keep their distance.
Same with coyotes.
They're more afraid of you than you are of them.
Still, though, you don't want to leave food laying around your campsite.
So I got my sleeping pad here that I'm inflating a little extra insulation in case the fire goes out and gets really cold in here.
It doesn't hurt to have a carbon monoxide detector if you're using a hot tent like this.
I have the windows open for some ventilation just to be safe.
Well, I'm going to bed.
I'll see you guys in the morning.
I might throw a big log on for overnight.
That should last at least for a few hours.
Sounds pretty windy out there.
Fire went out in the middle of the night.
Fire's been out for hours, and it's still 55 degrees in here.
Still got some hot coals in there.
Oh, yeah.
It's snowing pretty good now.
Well, the snow showed up again.
It is cold out here.
So I'm going to go get that beef stew out of the tree.
Warm it up.
I'm going to have that.
I'm going to make some pancakes.
Stew.
Still there up in the tree.
Good.
So I'm going to go cut some more firewood.
Can't hurt to have some more.
I'm going to go find my fallen tree.
Good.
Beef stew is about thawed out.
Awesome.
I'm going to make some coffee, but I'm a little low on water, so let me get some snow out here.
It takes a lot of snow to get a good amount of water.
It's been boiling for about a minute.
I just use these K-Cups sometimes.
Just add it to the hot water.
I had to come out here and cool down a little bit.
My pancake mix.
Extra protein pancake mix.
I could have added a little more water to that.
Pancake is served.
Yeah, I use this lid as a plate.
Works for me.
Add a little butter on there.
Some people say I eat too much butter, and it's probably right.
And we're going to have some bourbon aged maple sirup.
And my favorite sirup is made by a local guy.
But this will do.
A good bit of snow on the ground.
Some pretty heavy winds out there and that wind chill is brutal.
Well, unfortunately, I have to get out of here.
Drive home.
Hopefully these mountain roads aren't too bad.
All right, so I'm going to make two trips, maybe three.
Let's get out of here.
Even putting that in the bag, just going to let that dry out later.
And brush off some of the snow.
Well, it's been fun.
Thanks for watching and hope you guys enjoyed the video.

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