There’s snow, it’s cold. Let’s go camping!

But a dead quiet site in February? That’s her kind of outdoor heaven.

“I’ve always been a cold preference person,” says Goddard, who has been a winter camper her whole life and has pitched a tent on private land and state forests in the past. Fortunately, she found someone who shares her love of the cold — her boyfriend, Gordon Clark.

He’s not as vehemently opposed to summer camping as his partner, but he does appreciate the unique perks of sleeping outdoors in winter. “When it’s hot, there’s no escaping it,” he says. “At least in the winter, if it gets too cold, you can always put more clothes on.”

Clark’s winter camping chops are even more hard core. Backpacking in the White Mountains and Presidential Range in New Hampshire, and climbing Mount Rainier in Washington are just some of the places he’s slept in the freezing cold, protected only by nylon tent and a sub-zero sleeping bag.

So when the two recently camped at a Tentrr site in Pond Eddy in the western Catskills, they found themselves in a far more luxurious situation than they’d previously known possible.

“I mean that’s truly glamping, having a wood-burning stove, having a real bed, having a light [and] a separate bathroom area where you don’t have to dig a hole in the middle of winter,” said Goddard.

It’s these little creature comforts that make winter camping feasible for more than just seasoned campers like Goddard and Clark. Campgrounds generally close in the fall and open in the spring, leaving just private and State Forest land available for camping, neither of which are user friendly for novice campers.

Tentrr’s mission to make camping more accessible, however, extends to winter. Out of 230 Tentrr sites in the Hudson Valley, about 10 percent are “winterized,” meaning they have a propane heater, insulated flooring and insulated tent fly — or even cozier features.

Hall Smyth, who has a trio of Tentrr sites in Pond Eddy along the Delaware River, winterized his tents with wood stoves, carpets with insulated rubber pads and electric heaters (he runs electricity to his sites). But he’d never rented them out in sub-zero temperatures until Goddard and Clark booked a site last month on a particularly frigid weekend.

At first, Smyth tried to talk them out their ambitious plans, as he did with another group in early January when Pond Eddy was forecasted to have below-zero temperatures. “It was going to be -5 which to me is as cold as it’s ever been since I have lived in this area.” Smyth convinced those campers to sleep instead in a cabin that he also rents. But Goddard and Clark were undeterred.

“It ended up being -9 and I told them the same thing, I said, ‘You know, you might not want to do this.’ But they’re really diehards.” Ultimately he had nothing to worry about. “They, in fact, had a wonderful time and were warm the entire time.”

Being prepared for a little discomfort

In truth, Goddard and Clark mainly camp in 30-degree weather. But Smyth’s wood stove kept things toasty.

“The wood stove creates so much heat, and the Tentrr retains it very well,” said Smyth, who says it can feel like 80 degrees inside with the stove going, even when it’s below zero outside.

He is happy to provide more supplies than normal for his winter guests, too. “One of the perks of winter campers is that they have my deep respect, so I usually give them free firewood,” he said.

The rest is up to the guests, and given Goddard and Clark’s expertise, they knew what to expect. While camping when it’s freezing means you don’t have to worry about lugging a cooler to keep things cold, you do need to worry about food freezing, so they kept things that might freeze in the tent. They also turned their water bottles upside down — “It freezes from the top down, like a river,” said Clark — so this ensured they always had some water to drink.

“There’s a certain element of discomfort that you have to sort of expect,” said Clark. One is being vigilant about keeping warm. “If a fire is out for 45 minutes, that sort of wakes you up and just jump up and throw some more logs on the fire,” he said.

And though they slept in their clothes, they brought plenty of extra layers to change into if needed. “The general mantra in cold weather is ‘cotton kills,’ because if it gets wet or if you perspire and it gets wet, it doesn’t dry,” says Clark.

“And that’s actually the biggest danger, not freezing, but getting hypothermia,” adds Goddard, who recommends moisture-wicking materials and socks and changing into them as soon as you get wet. Hot Chillys is a brand they like, along with Smartwool.

With all their essentials in place, all that was left to do was enjoy winter at its finest.

“We were right by [the Delaware] river. The moon was full. We had a big roaring fire going and we had hot cider and it was very, very peaceful and quiet,” said Goddard.

By day they hiked a towpath along the Delaware River, watching for bald eagles that come to the region to nest this time of year, and other raptors. “You can watch some fishing or stealing food from each other,” said Goddard.

Smyth, who is not a “diehard” like Goddard and Clark, still appreciates the beauty of camping in winter.

“The only sound you hear down by the river is that kind of cracking sound that comes from the water and ice and the trees when they move a little bit — that’s all there is. And similarly, the skies are big in the summer, but they’re that much bigger in the winter because there’s no canopy. It kind of magnifies the whole experience.”