We originally had plans to travel to Broken Bow, OK for Thanksgiving to meet up with our friends from Popping2Tops for a long weekend. Unfortunately they had to cancel because of an illness. We decided at that point to save Broken Bow for when we could all get together and enjoy it as we had planned.
We spent Thanksgiving Day at home enjoying a day of football and FOOD! It rained most of the day anyway so it was nice to just do nothing and let the day waste away.
Friday, around mid-morning, we hit the road to Big Hill Pond State Park near Pocahontas, TN. The campsites are primitive but well kept. There are hiking trails, a lake with canoe launch, a 70’ observation tower all within the 4138 acres of timberland and hardwood bottomland. It was nice to have a campsite less than 2 hours away and to arrive by noon and set up camp in the daylight. We cooked skottle pizza for lunch around 1:30. Although it was a little chilly, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
We had the campground to ourselves for the entirety of our trip. As the sun started to go down we hunkered down inside our ARB screen room that attaches to our ARB awning. With a little help from our buddy heater we had a very comfortable night listening to football on the radio. Once the ballgame was over we bundled up and climbed up into the RTT for the night. The temperature dipped into the upper 20’s Friday night.
With some very careful planning, our gear kept us as warm as we have ever been on such a cold, clear night. We are loving our cold weather gear combination of 0° bags & down blankets. I think we would have still been warm had the temps been 10°-15° cooler, I am glad they weren’t though lol.
We woke up Saturday morning after a restful night of sleep. I built a fire and we set up our Coleman Oven on our Camp Chef stove and enjoyed some crispy orange rolls. Hopefully next time we can hit the temperature just right for less crispiness. After enjoying a yummy breakfast we decided to pack up and head back home. I will be coming back on Christmas day to camp in my tent for one night and get a little hiking in.
It was really nice to have a laid back, albeit short, trip for a change without a lot of travel time on the highway. The drive over was very pleasant and relaxing with a lot of cool landscapes to take in a long the way. We hope to throw in a lot more of these kinds of trips in 2022.
-Overland Curmudgeon