north of 60 said:awsome slofr8. where are ya from. I do this every winter to bring in the newyear. With a few holes in the ice.
Hi,
I'm south of you in northern Maine. I can only imagine the cold you have.
I'm the only one that sleeps in the tent. We had just snow shooed out for hot chocolate and wine. for the picture. Might be a couple years before the boys are big enough to spend the night. The picture was taken about a 1/2 mile behind home on my land. I would set up for a day or two just to get used to the whole thing. Find out what I need and what I can do with out. Then pack it all up again. I found out the weak link in my set up was my sleeping bag. Even two bags wont cut it and keeping the fire going all night got old so I got a -40 F bag and life is good! Here is a (blurry) picture of a thermometer at the tents ridge line. It was single digits out and 105 F here and about 70 near the floor.
The tent is designed with out a floor and I put a piece of bubble insulation that also keeps things dry and put a canvas down on top of that for the floor. Then a wool blanket. Seems to work good but it'll take a trip or two to know for sure. It's amazing that it can be below 0F out and I'm in there in long johns and socks. Best of all, NO BLACK FLIES
I had a late season solo trip planed last year and the death of my dad changed that. After that the weather didn't get cold enough on my days off to tempt me to go. I don't want to go and get wet. I can do that on my spring canoe trips.
So... this year I'll make it happen. My first trip will be about a 45 minute drive to the end of the tar. Then another 15 or 20 miles by snowmobile on old logging roads to a nice spots near a beautiful river. I don't plan on fishing but want to be near the river for water.
Maybe I'll post some pics.
Take care, Dan.