Finally went ice camping

Finally made it out to one of the local walleye lakes and went ice camping. Good thing that I have a large sleigh cause I had a lot of extra stuff. The only thing that I wish that I brought was a 20 pound propane bottle. The 1-pounders don’t last when the Big Buddy is set to high. I did have a cold night as I tried to ration my propane. I ended up catching 6 small walleye, which I released. My plan was to stay until this evening, but since I ran out of propane and was tired (lack of sleep), I packed up at 10:30.

The biggest challenge was staying warm at night. The big buddy would have done the job with enough propane. I had a little fan that I hung from the ceiling. It did a good job until the 4 AAA batteries died at 1:00. I also had a self-propelled fan that I placed on top of the heater. It worked ok when the heater was set to high, but not very well on low… especially when the temperature bottomed out early in the morning.

Overall I enjoyed the trip, caught some fish and learned a few things along the way.

I wanted to post a couple of photos but the uploads failed :(.

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Originally Posted by Sam Menard

Finally made it out to one of the local walleye lakes and went ice camping. Good thing that I have a large sleigh cause I had a lot of extra stuff. The only thing that I wish that I brought was a 20 pound propane bottle. The 1-pounders don’t last when the Big Buddy is set to high. I did have a cold night as I tried to ration my propane. I ended up catching 6 small walleye, which I released. My plan was to stay until this evening, but since I ran out of propane and was tired (lack of sleep), I packed up at 10:30.

The biggest challenge was staying warm at night. The big buddy would have done the job with enough propane. I had a little fan that I hung from the ceiling. It did a good job until the 4 AAA batteries died at 1:00. I also had a self-propelled fan that I placed on top of the heater. It worked ok when the heater was set to high, but not very well on low… especially when the temperature bottomed out early in the morning.

Overall I enjoyed the trip, caught some fish and learned a few things along the way.

I wanted to post a couple of photos but the uploads failed :(.

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Glad you had a pretty good time. There's nothing worse than being cold at night. We gave up on the propane heaters a long time ago. They burn up too much fuel and the heat output isn't high enough. We bit the bullet and bought a small wood stove and put a flap for the stove pipe. It made all the difference. They can be bought for under $200 from Cabelas.

Nice trip Sam-did You fish all night?
What was the temp.?

i was out few times winter camping in ht e past,the night temp was not lower then -3 .
We cold camp though.In a deciduous forest,no canopy,rolling land.

Had nothing special, just a 25 years old Wal Mart 3 person tent,and a tarp, covering 3/4 of the tent.
Each of us had our own tents/accommodations.

The night was pretty good in a warm sleeping bed.No regrets of not having fire in the tent.

Next time will try few nights in a row-to see how that works.

Nice Sam, did you sleep on a cot or a sleeping pad?

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Originally Posted by trimmer21

Glad you had a pretty good time. There's nothing worse than being cold at night. We gave up on the propane heaters a long time ago. They burn up too much fuel and the heat output isn't high enough. We bit the bullet and bought a small wood stove and put a flap for the stove pipe. It made all the difference. They can be bought for under $200 from Cabelas.

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A friend of mine has a small wood stove but hasn’t tried it, nor does he have the flap. Do you have to stoke the fire all night?

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Originally Posted by gbk

Nice trip Sam-did You fish all night?
What was the temp.?

i was out few times winter camping in ht e past,the night temp was not lower then -3 .
We cold camp though.In a deciduous forest,no canopy,rolling land.

Had nothing special, just a 25 years old Wal Mart 3 person tent,and a tarp, covering 3/4 of the tent.
Each of us had our own tents/accommodations.

The night was pretty good in a warm sleeping bed.No regrets of not having fire in the tent.

Next time will try few nights in a row-to see how that works.

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I had 2 tip ups in the shelter. One of the walleye’s was 6” long and didn’t trigger it and ended up getting tangled in the other line. What a mess to deal with at 2:00 am.

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Originally Posted by dean.f

Nice Sam, did you sleep on a cot or a sleeping pad?

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I slept on a cot with a pad from a lounge chair. Thicker/firmer pad would have been better but I was limited to what I could bring out.

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Originally Posted by Sam Menard

A friend of mine has a small wood stove but hasn’t tried it, nor does he have the flap. Do you have to stoke the fire all night?

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Tending the fire a couple of times through the night is definitely a requirement the same as any stove. How often depends on whether the fire is damped down or left to burn full bore. As for sleeping and keeping warm,your idea of using a lawn chair pad is good,but,it helps tremendously if you roll a piece of foam carpet underlay (vapor barrier side down) between the you and the pad making sure that it's slightly wider than your sleeping pad and bag.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sam Menard

Finally made it out to one of the local walleye lakes and went ice camping. Good thing that I have a large sleigh cause I had a lot of extra stuff. The only thing that I wish that I brought was a 20 pound propane bottle. The 1-pounders don’t last when the Big Buddy is set to high. I did have a cold night as I tried to ration my propane. I ended up catching 6 small walleye, which I released. My plan was to stay until this evening, but since I ran out of propane and was tired (lack of sleep), I packed up at 10:30.

The biggest challenge was staying warm at night. The big buddy would have done the job with enough propane. I had a little fan that I hung from the ceiling. It did a good job until the 4 AAA batteries died at 1:00. I also had a self-propelled fan that I placed on top of the heater. It worked ok when the heater was set to high, but not very well on low… especially when the temperature bottomed out early in the morning.

Overall I enjoyed the trip, caught some fish and learned a few things along the way.

I wanted to post a couple of photos but the uploads failed :(.

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Looking into the photo situation, Sam. We'd love to see your pics.

PS: Testing.
Attachment 44418

Sam have you tried shrinking your photos?

Funny you mentioned the 1 lb tanks and the Big Buddy heater. I snowshoed into my cottage yesterday with my 7 year-old son. We fired up the woodstove, but he was cold while it was heating the place up, so I took out my Big Buddy heater. Normally I connect it directly to the central propane system or a 20 lb tank if I am staying overnight and plan to use it a lot, but since we were only there for the day, I just screwed on a 1 lb bottle. You are right, they don't last long on high. I also found that it shut off by itself at one point. I thought the bottle was empty, but it seemed to just be too iced up. I put it on medium and it worked fine.

What was the temperature at night while you were camping?

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Originally Posted by MeghanOOD

Looking into the photo situation, Sam. We'd love to see your pics.

PS: Testing.
Attachment 44418

Sam have you tried shrinking your photos?

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Sharon, no I haven’t tried shrinking the images, what is the max size to post photos?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by trimmer21

Tending the fire a couple of times through the night is definitely a requirement the same as any stove. How often depends on whether the fire is damped down or left to burn full bore. As for sleeping and keeping warm,your idea of using a lawn chair pad is good,but,it helps tremendously if you roll a piece of foam carpet underlay (vapor barrier side down) between the you and the pad making sure that it's slightly wider than your sleeping pad and bag.

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Thanks for the tip, I’ll look into it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rf2

Funny you mentioned the 1 lb tanks and the Big Buddy heater. I snowshoed into my cottage yesterday with my 7 year-old son. We fired up the woodstove, but he was cold while it was heating the place up, so I took out my Big Buddy heater. Normally I connect it directly to the central propane system or a 20 lb tank if I am staying overnight and plan to use it a lot, but since we were only there for the day, I just screwed on a 1 lb bottle. You are right, they don't last long on high. I also found that it shut off by itself at one point. I thought the bottle was empty, but it seemed to just be too iced up. I put it on medium and it worked fine.

What was the temperature at night while you were camping?

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According to Environment Canada, the temperature at the weather station 20 kms away bottom out at -13C at 6:00 am. It felt colder on the ice though lol. By 0900, the sun started to warm up the shack rather nicely. I was tempted to stick around longer, but the fishing shuts down completely during the day.