I Just Can't Get A Break With This Weather!

We hit the mark for wettest weather on record a couple of weeks ago here in Baltimore and it just keeps on coming down. I rescheduled my weekend at Shenandoah River State Park a second time today due to rain. I was planning a solo trip (well 2 if you count my dog) but the thought of huddling under the tarp all day to stay dry just wasn't appealing. Next weekend is calling for 2 days of snow so I've pushed it back 2 weeks. I'm trying to decide whether I'm going to just throw in the towel for the season or if I should just go out and in spite of all the wet, cold mess. I don't mind cold - it's just cold and wet or cold and really windy don't appeal.

 

Finally we had a dry weekend in the Mid-Atlantic this past weekend (all the snow was south of us this weekend!). I decided to head out with a buddy to my favorite primitive camping at Green Ridge State Forest in western Maryland (see previous review). But it was cold at least by my standards. We got down to around 10 degrees on Friday night. I didn't get the furnace option so struggled to stay warm. I did use water bottles which were great but I made the mistake of not really zipping up all the way with the sleeping bag - I also had my down Rumple but didn't distribute it evenly - lessons learned. I had my golden retriever with me who helped warm the cabin. Saturday night I configured things a bit better and was pretty warm all night - zipping up all the way around and 2 large water bottles along with hand warmers inside my socks was the ticket to a warm night. It got down to around 18 or so.

The most challenging thing about camping when it's really cold for me is having to do the tasks that require me to take my gloves off. After about 3-4 minutes my hands became pretty numb then painful. It was a bit of a struggle to cook and do the tedious tasks needed over the weekend. I'm wondering how do those with more cold weather experience handle this issue?