-40° Solo Camping 4 Days | Snowstorm & Hot Tent on the Ice

foreign [Music] for a lake where I'm hoping to try something new setting up my hot tent right on the ice the snow's getting deep so I'm breaking the trail to the lake with a light load first it's a short Haul on this little side road and then I can cut out into the lake there are a bunch of tracks in the snow so I'm setting up the trail cam here too as I come through with the rest of the load there's supposed to be a decent snowstorm tomorrow and there's an extreme cold warning for this trip so it's important that I pick my site carefully conditions are beautiful right now and I'm excited to experience hot denting on the ice for the first time I think this could be the spot okay here's the Moment of Truth whether this is even possible if I drill and the ice floods with water then camping on the ice is not going to be possible [Music] I'm gonna put my underwater camera down there as well and see what's up spool could use some oil okay it's not too deep but that's all right it doesn't have to be so with all the spots on this Lake why here it's supposed to be pretty cold tonight minus 20 or so and tomorrow a big wind is going to come in from the south blowing a pretty decent snowstorm it's gonna be milder tomorrow but gotta watch out for the wind because they'll be completely exposed here on the ice then tomorrow night the wind shifts to the West I'll be well sheltered from that here and then it gets really cold potentially mine is 30 with a wind from the north which will be really well sheltered from here so it's mostly about the wind and yeah the fact that the ice didn't flood here when I drilled means that this is a go it's finally happening yeah this is a beautiful spot totally quiet secluded no snowmobile tracks or anything on the lake so should be just dead quiet out here this is fantastic Sun's getting low and there's a ton to do because it's gonna be cold enough that I'll probably want to run the stove all night I brought in a little battery-powered chainsaw to get me started for the trip just spent the battery just cutting up this nice log this will keep me going for tonight and into tomorrow maybe even for tomorrow night so it's just a really nice Head Start foreign turning into a really pretty night crystal clear sky and little Moon got all my snow anchors here stick tent down with these and pack it with snow flying out the corners as well normally I don't even bother I just let the guy lines do the work especially because I'm sheltered in the woods normally not so exposed like this but when the wind kicks up I don't want to be worrying about the tent flying away especially while the stove is roaring thank you spot worked out perfectly lots of standing dead firewood another one for the bipod bipod will keep the pipe secure when the wind kicks up tomorrow always an exciting moment minus 20 just about Celsius plenty cold metal hurts to touch cameras are struggling so this is the payoff foreign I drilled earlier covered up with snow so it wouldn't freeze and I get to get water indoors what a privilege it's amazing like at home you'd never be excited about that but getting water in my heated home on the ice is just pure luxury let's try to decide what to have for dinner it's eight o'clock and I'm grabbing this I remembered I brought pierogies cheese and potato and brought a bunch of onion which is frozen into a block but you can get it anything more appetizing than the smell of onions cooking I don't think so hot chocolate appetizer I'm white too tired for a sip of scotch even oh my goodness yes foreign stars are really popping out though foreign foreign black bean burgers this morning again with some onion plus three outside gritty snow not that cold anymore but anyway it feels amazing to be in here and after I'm done breakfast I can finally start fishing from inside here like so excited about that the wind was really gusting for a while it's not bad now which is good this is the most exposed wind direction for me so yeah I'd rather have the win later draw water one more time here and drop my line in got my Sonar and nice fishing camera and a backup battery for the cylinder normally I can't bring these things on back country trips because they're heavy batteries are very heavy for that and I can feel it on the haul in here but I didn't have too far to go maybe kilometer kilometer and a half I'm gonna send the underwater camera down again too you could barely see anything yesterday in the sunlight yeah it doesn't seem like an overly special spot but hopefully I'll get lucky official Cruise along starting out with a little lipless crank don't know the species in here but most likely be Pike maybe walleye maybe perch so a little lipless crank like this will play for any of those even perch the guy ran into at the access point he said the next lake has Pike perch and walleye and he has some friends who fish this Lake and they didn't get any bites but they did see marks on their sonar so there should be some fish in here he also we talked about the weather a little bit and he's described the weather as milder today and then stupid cold after that right now the forecast on my satcom device is showing -34 for the low tomorrow so it's pretty cold set the range to 10 feet so I could get the most of the screen and I like the split frequency View and then you get 77 kilohertz there 200 kilohertz there pick up different things sometimes it's my lure there yikes pretty big gusts coming through now just half an hour ago I said it was calming down foreign this is why I normally set up in the woods so much more protected from this kind of stuff but anyway I'm glad to be here it's fun shelter is really well staked down so it's not going anywhere so far my first time capping on the ice has been absolutely fine no no issues even with the Wind but one of my other concerns was if there's a lot of snow on top of the ice it'll Force water up through gaps in the ice or holes like this I don't know if I'm imagining it but I feel like the water is a little higher in the hole now as the snow comes down you have to keep an eye on it there's a spot right in the bush where I can move if need be but hopefully not snow's starting to come down pretty hard out there there's a fish on the screen I was about to fall asleep I'm lifting up but you can still see the mark there he's checking me out foreign it's nice to see something hey Sean oh tiny pipe at least something happened I'm just going to release it right here it's too small for keeping there we go thanks buddy just switched up to the tube jig maybe half an hour ago first fish has come along on the sonar so who knows it probably would hit the other one too it's a pike but when you get so few chances it's nice when you connect to the chances you do get holy cow [Applause] foreign [Applause] foreign [Applause] snow finally let up it's turned into a beautiful evening before it gets dark I'm going to take one more tree there are three small ones here that choke themselves out and I just want to make sure I have plenty of wood to get through these really cold temperatures over the next three days I will only be here for two but over the next three it's not supposed to get above -20 so don't want to be caught without enough firewood thank you the wind started out South today then it came from the west and now it's that cold North Wind so I'll have my hot glove and a little silicone mitt to handle this elbow and it's still swirling a bit so I don't want to really shoot it to the South I'll just angle it to the South a little but kind of upright because if it swirls around it can blow smoke back out through the stove getting dinner on and tonight there is an appetite for Scotch and it's not my usual cheap stuff this is lateral egg from Aaron's family barbell and Cass cheers it's really nice doled out some onion rations in the hash browns they were quite good and I'll get my line back in the water after I eat this but nothing doing on the sonar over there I'm watching it foreign squeaky snow this morning brutally gold minus 27 on the thermometer but feels colder with this Breeze a lot colder actually and tomorrow is supposed to be much colder yet so back to the tent foreign drawback of camping on the ice there's water pooling around the stove normally the stove would melt snow but it would just melt down here it pools sun feels really good coffee beautiful in here but it's not actually snow melting it's water is pooling under the snow from my hole around the stove so that's a point off sleeping on the ice so far there's some real advantages here but I would say so far I prefer camping in the woods my kind of day cold sunny Camp's already set up I'm gonna cut up the rest of that tree from yesterday hike around the lake and then come back and fish in the tent foreign this narwhal cut foreign splitting the big pieces oh yeah come on [Applause] foreign piece to get into my stove which is not huge let's put that one huh that's interesting oh it's poop there's poop down there I almost touched it what a gorgeous Lake I never never considered this Lake I just found it and man it is amazing couldn't have worked out better oh that's a lot of weight [Applause] looks like something got scooped up here maybe that's what happened to the last one something got scooped up and it pooped as it got taken away some more tracks here decent size interesting wow that's Eerie it almost look like human tracks that went deep but lead to Nowhere there's nothing out that way wouldn't make sense and they fizzle out on the lake where the snow blew them over just based on the depth of them can only imagine it was moose another victim potentially foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign again okay it's not too Frozen last of the onion rations in there some burritos tonight [Music] some dinner good Mark [Applause] yep no lost and lost [Music] drag was a little loose Hooksett wasn't great yep still there oh it's stuck in the sonar yeah a little small pipe oh okay I'm gonna try and leave it in the hole or it's gonna make a mess no no no you stay in there stand there also just better for the fish stay in the water nice long pliers yeah well Pike thank you cool on to dinner Pike hands just in time for a meal but I've got some bows in here and rubbing the needles into my hands take that scent right off take out quite a few bones and once they're big enough they're it's not a problem to clean them but small ones the bones and meat ratio is just not great I'm not gonna keep that um these are my favorite nights in winter cold clear and calm it should be great Stars tonight yeah I love this one of the advantages of a cotton canvas tent like this is that it breathes really well got a couple of pans steaming on the stove you can see the steam coming through the canvas look at that wow temperatures plummeting [Applause] Suddenly It's almost minus 30. and it's just Twilight I keep coming in out of the tent to finish up for the day and film Twilight yeah it'd be interesting to see how low it goes so I got this infrared camera and I thought it kind of served its purpose I might try and sell it but keep finding different ideas for it that are kind of interesting got this one in a comment I'm gonna go outside and try it some serious cold just envelops everything and when I was cutting firewood earlier today I was thinking this should be enough and then I cut a few more rounds and then I cut a few more rounds after that because you just do not want to have to think about running out in the middle of the night and I think I'm good but it's so cold it just cast out but there's more wood I can cut there if I can leave here more I can go and cut more wood and that'll keep me warm too so it's fine at most it would be an inconvenience to have to do that in the night or early in the morning but yeah oh feels good to be horizontal oh [Applause] just went out one last time before bed brought in the last of the firewood check the thermometer this is officially the coldest I have ever camped it's minus 37. 38 even 37. it's cold previous coldest was -36. brutal out there [Applause] good morning it's just a hair shy of -40 it's just just about there what that feels like if you've never been in it nostrils freeze eyelids kind of freeze together stings the lungs but yeah it's it's raw and it's an experience glad to be here and to have the stove going I do have plenty of firewood left so comfortable enjoy the morning I'm not popping up until the sun's been up for a little bit [Applause] actually it's not even just shy of minus 40 it is minus 40. I had it leaning up against the tent so I could grab it when I was inside and I guess it has cooled down a degree or two now being away from the tent made it with the lack of sleep over the last three nights interrupted sleep and the temperature I would say this might be the most important coffee of my life absolutely amazing coffee and the cool thing about minus 40 . you didn't know this it's where Fahrenheit and Celsius are equivalent [Music] got some boiling water to use up why not one more time finally coax myself out of the tent after a second cup of coffee letting the fire die down got a lot of firewood left which is a little painful feels like throwing money away firewood is wealth out here but I'll leave it here maybe someone can use it who knows maybe I'll be back it's such a great spot [Applause] time to see if the snow anchors are still snow or if there's solid ice yup it's pretty icy come on there all right I was just burning off the last coals to get the heat shield which prevented a ton of melt but still there's a pretty significant pool here foreign all packed up got the site cleaned up the water here will freeze up in no time at all in fact my as fishing hole is already solidly frozen over and what a great four days I really had no expectations for this trip and it was kind of a perfect example of winter in the Boreal forest sleeping on the ice would I do it again maybe but to be honest I prefer in the woods there's kind of a sense of weariness that comes with camping on the ice so exposed and you get so much more shelter in the woods and then especially the flooding issue or potential that's kind of unnerving to wake up potentially in the night and have water filling your camping area when it's minus 35 minus 40 even my first time camping at minus 40. on the ice no less so yeah I kind of prefer in the woods but obviously fishing and drawing water from the hole is pretty cool but it's just more peaceful to set up in the woods anyway that was a great trip actually one of my favorite winter trips time to hold it though foreign made it back to the car now for the biggest question of all well let's start Aaron's on the road today and she would have been an hour away from me more or less if she had to boost me but this is much better what a trip

Channel: Lost Lakes

Views: 1,577,993

Keywords: lost lakes, camping, fishing, ontario, canada, bushcraft, backcountry angling ontario, winter, wilderness, solo

Id: bePRKQHqH_E

Length: 38min 0sec (2280 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 06 2023