The best thing about early spring camping isn’t waking up to a thin mantle of snow coating your tent/sleeping bag and the desert for as far as you can see. Or embracing the cold, harsh reality of the moment when the notion of hot coffee overpowers the urge to remain cocooned and cozy. Or rummaging through your duffel for toothbrush, toothpaste and that toasty balaclava you could have sworn you packed.

But they’re close.

Solitude tops my list. But abundance of wildlife and going against the recreational grain are right up there. And I’m pretty partial to the crunchy black shell that forms around roasted marshmallows. My 16-year-old son and I took to the High Desert for a bit of low-key adventure among the sand and sage. We ended up car-camping on the back side of Pine Mountain in a scattered stand of pines on the cusp of a flat, open valley floor.

We kept it simple, stringing a rope between two trees and slinging a tarp over the top for some minimalist A-frame protection. Then we set about enjoying the scenery, plinking (thwacking?) plastic Mountain Dew bottles with an air rifle and, did I mention, enjoying the scenery.

Funny, out there, it doesn’t take much to hold a body’s attention. Hours that would be considered empty and boring sitting around home are spent gathering kindling or scanning the hillside across the valley for critters. My teenaged son spent the equivalent of three ‘Seinfeld’ episodes honing the end of a couple long sticks to spear-like points – one to skewer hot dogs, the other to accept marshmallows. Who needs reruns of ‘The Osbournes’ when you’ve got the BLM (Bureau of Land Management)?

There are dispersed primitive campsites – the ones with a dirt road into a fire pit and a flat place to pitch your tent – scattered across the desert. And this time of year, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding one that’s unoccupied. The way I see it, the keys to camping this time of year in Central Oregon are staying warm enough and staying warm enough.

Take more than you think you’ll need in the way of warm clothes and sleeping gear, and by all means use a closed cell ground pad for insulation. And what’s a camping trip without plenty of food? Go for it. You can count calories when you get back. Of course, whenever you head out, always pack sunglasses, a first aid kit, a flashlight, maps and a compass, matches in a waterproof container, a cell phone and a knife. And a high-clearance, four-wheel-drive vehicle (with a full tank of gas) expands your range and options immensely.

The weather can turn on a dime in April, turning the dirt roads to mush or ice rinks, depending on the temperature. A permit is not required to camp most places in the desert. But good stewardship is. Be sure to leave your campsite as clean as you found it and gather only downed timber for firewood. Better yet, bring your own. We enjoyed the campfire for a few hours, talked of bears and terrorists and tropical beaches, and turned in before 9.

And woke up to a world of white, knowing we’d remember this scene long after the shivering stopped.