Winter bush tent Many Rangers were recruited from the New Hampshire frontier, and were highly skilled in surviving outdoors in various extremes of wilderness conditions. Bush Tents of Pine boughs were built around a central fireplace, and served the Rangers as shelters on winter scouts, and for the experienced Ranger were "but the work of half an hour at the most".

The Rangers who went on the winter scout patrols, not only had to worry about the French and Indians. The many extra perils facing a Ranger in the Adirondack Mountains were temperatures that often reached 40 degrees below zero, snowblindness, bleeding feet, hypothermia, and frostbite.

Things got only worse the more they neared the enemy positions, as fireless camps had to be endured. Therefore any opportunity to make a camp and build a small fire and have a warm drink, would have been greatly appreciated.