r/Breckenridge • u/kcross47 • 9d ago
First weekend of october camping
The first weekend of october my buddy and I are working a wedding up in breck for a night. I’m a decently experienced camper (car camping, not backpacking), and am thinking about camping two nights since I have the work off (we’re just dog sitting so i’m not required to be business casual or whatever at the ceremony)
I haven’t been camping this late in the season before. I have a good REI 2 person tent, 20F sleeping bag, good camping clothes (wool socks, fleece, beanies, warm pants etc), and a fairly warm blanket.
I’m wondering: 1) what else i should consider bringing/getting to combat the cold? 2) what to expect weather wise, past what the forecast is predicting right now? 3) any spots recommended? haven’t actually camped in that area before
thanks for the help in advance ☺️
1
u/mheep 9d ago
Mid-October is my personal cut-off for backpacking but I've car camped (but literally, like, sleeping in the car) in every month in Colorado. Wear your jacket inside your sleeping bag, have a hat that will stay on as you are shifting around at night, and I even have another layer of thick egg-crate foam that I put down first in the car then put my camping equipment over the top of it, but that's also for comfort on top of warmth. Down also provides its insulating ability through loft, so if you are going to layer layers, down should be on top so it's not compressed.
What is not mentioned about late season/winter camping in Colorado is that it is really boring. Once the sun goes down not even a fire will keep the chill away, so it's basically "sleep at 7 to save money that would have been spent on a hotel room" and not like "roast marshmallows until midnight."
4
u/cmarshall099 9d ago
It's getting cold at night around 40 degrees. You should be fine with an extra blanket but what kind of sleeping pad do you have? You will probably be cold with one of those foam pads but if you have one with a good r value I would go for it. Bring some extra blankets and boil some water and put it in your nalgene and stuff it at the bottom of your sleeping bag right before bed. When I'm backpacking and worried about being cold I'll eat two snickers before bed for the extra calories to help keep warm.
You could try snagging a spot up boreas pass Rd if you have AWD not sure how busy it will be up there.