Winter Camping at a Snowy Remote Location for the New Year

This week Toby and I are taking you west of Pequot Lakes, Minnesota. We're in 27,000 acres of tax forfeit land and I was back here a couple of years ago. I found a campsite. We're going to try and find it again. Unfortunately Google Maps doesn't take you here and you gotta zoom in really close on the maps and just follow forest roads to get to where we're going. And once you get back here Google Maps doesn't work anymore. Hopefully I can remember where this place is at. This forest trail is not too bad. The last time we were back here it was summertime so all of this looked different. Plus they're doing a lot of logging around here. Things have definitely changed. I was sitting at work on Thursday thinking this would be the campsite to go to. All of these trails will be frozen. I'd have no problems getting back here. But the temperatures have warmed up significantly the last few days. In fact it's 36 degrees right now. Insane. The weather channel is saying it might rain tonight which could make getting out of here a little bit tricky. Thankfully I got that Garmin inReach so if I don't show up to work tomorrow at least I can text the boss and let him know where I'm at. Wow this is really pretty out here. I'm hoping that we don't drive all the way back here just to find that there's someone camping down at the end of this lake. But it's always a chance that you take. You can tell by the tracks and the snow that we're not the only ones who thought about coming out here. Check this out. Looks like we're gonna be the only ones here. Let's check this place out. Come on Toby. It's nice to come out here and see that some things never change. We'll get this slide put out and then I'll show you the campsite. Campfire is gonna need a little bit of work but it's not too bad. A water bottle, shotgun shell, just a little bit of trash and then a shoe. That's been there for a while. How do you lose that? That will go in the trash. The rest of this we can burn. I think it's been too long since someone's been here. The ground isn't frozen at all. They're hunting vampires. We'll get this burned up tonight. That'll make it look better around here. The Foothill State Forest isn't too far away. All of this land is connected by ATV trails so it's very possible that we'll see someone out here tonight. So far I haven't heard anything. There's no houses out on the lake either. This spot is definitely getting used. I think this is the first time we've seen the sun in like three noise coming from the woods back here. Let's go see what this is. It stopped when I stopped. Right there's the bathroom. The sound was like one of those machines that guys used to hunt coyotes with. It mimics the sound of a rabbit in distress. That's exactly what it sounded like. Sounds like a dog crying. I'm going to disconnect this mic and let it play through the camera and see if it catches it. Toby's already back in the camper. He hasn't been feeling well the last few days but he was really excited to go camping this afternoon. That's why he came with. There's one thing that I did see when we were on that walk earlier. Maybe there's some coyotes running around out here. So I found these tracks right here. See how big my hand is and that's how big the track is. To give you an example I'll show you how big Toby's track is. You can tell that his paw print is a lot smaller. What do you think buddy? You want to try eating some supper? I got the good stuff. We got to keep it really simple for Toby. He's got a bit of a stomach infection and he's sticking with boiled hamburger and rice. I also got to give him an antibiotic here. Come on buddy. Here we go. Good job. I got a little bit left but he's also going to take that antibiotic. Let's see if he licks it up. Come on. Nope. I think I'm gonna have to hollow out a carrot. Sneak it inside of there. Yeah you take a nap while dad gets the fire ready. It is extremely dark out here tonight. It'll be nice to get this fire going. It's almost I think it's probably just because it is so dark. It's so quiet. The stars are out. It's probably 28 degrees out right now. You really couldn't ask for a better night. Man it is quiet out here. Make sure nothing sneaks up behind me will you? That fire looks ready for supper and if you're watching on Tuesday night well that means it's New Year's Eve. So tonight we're gonna make my favorite meal. Breakfast. When I think about camping this is the meal that I think about. Potatoes, O'Brien, bacon and eggs. Top it off with some jalapenos. I mean it doesn't get better than that. Step one is cutting up a pound of bacon. Step two, cook it over the fire. Nice thing about this recipe is it's really hard to mess up. If you burn the bacon that's okay. It only makes it better. I'm trying something a little different tonight. I'm going with a ceramic panel. See how this thing holds up on a campfire. I'm looking for a better alternative to Teflon and this might be it. So far so good. That looks really good there. Now we're gonna put in the potatoes O'Brien. The reason I like these is they've already got the onions and green peppers and red peppers in it. The potatoes are gonna cook in all that bacon grease. Oh it smells so good. We're gonna cover it up and move the fire over to the side because we don't want to burn it and we're just gonna cook on the coals for now. After about 15 minutes we can get the jalapenos put on. Oh you had to have heard that. They're gonna start barking here pretty soon. There's definitely coyotes around. This is looking great. I think it's ready for the eggs and I just go by feel here. We'll mix it up see what it looks like. I'm gonna go a little bit of salt and pepper. This dish actually tastes better with a lot of pepper. Well let's see how it's looking. This is the easiest way to do it. That way the potatoes don't get all mashed up. It's looking good. That looks delicious. I brought all my silverware into the house to get washed. So the only thing I have to eat with is this giant spoon. But look at how good that looks. Well I'm gonna finish this and then we're gonna go outside kicking New Year's right way by sitting around the campfire. What do you think Toby? Go outside or no? You're gonna have to stick really close to me if we do. By the way the ceramic pan? Yeah that's a winner for sure. You gotta go potty? Come on let's go potty. Let's go back up. You go to bed now okay? You hold down the fort in here. I'm gonna go make sure that fire gets put out. I was just sitting here thinking about all the different camping trips that we've been on in 2024. There's been a few and most of you have been right here with me. We've seen some beautiful places in Minnesota that's for sure. I think 2025 is gonna be a good year. For the rest of the night I think I'm just gonna let this fire wind down and we'll see in the it up last night. I think it looks better. With all the brush removed it looks much more respectable. So if you were wondering Christmas night, Wednesday, Toby ended up having a black stool and we kind of knew what was going on. Usually it means it's blood so we took him to the vet on Thursday or actually Mandy did. I was at work. Found out that he's got an infection in his stomach line. So they put him on an antibiotic. We got him on a pretty bland food and he's coming out of it. He's gonna be just fine. Also put him on an anti-nausea medication because he's vomiting every once in a while. So I think we're out of the woods and he's doing just fine. I think this morning we're gonna get him back home. I think he's on a squirrel right now. What do you see out there? I don't see anything. Well I think we just about got this video in the bag. You guys have been hanging out with Toby and me pretty much all weekend. We'll do this again next Tuesday but until then be kind, be honest. We'll see you down the road. Come on Toby. Let's go home. Good boy.