Who's lived in their shanty for a weekend? What did you do right? What could you have done better? How cold was it?
I'm going to stay on the ice all weekend. Bringing a cot and cold weather bag. Just curious who's done it and how it went!
Thanks guys.
We did our first-ever overnight on Dec 28-29, at Henry's Lake in Island Park, ID. I went with IS member ammondude, who is my adult son.
We arrived at about 1:00 p.m. and after checking out two areas, we headed to our selected area to set up camp. Upon arrival, the temp was about 6 degrees F with winds light and variable.
For our first attempt, we chose a location was a quick snowmobile ride to a restroom and/or the SUV. After the initial unload, it took four more shuttle runs with the Jet Sled Jr. to get all our equipment onto the ice.
We planned to sleep and fish in our Eskimo QF6. Here's our camp:
In spite of the decent snow load on the ice (and thus potential for overflow), we drilled three holes in a corner of the shelter, two for jigging and one for the camera.
For sleeping, we were trying out a brand new set of Cam-O-Cot bunk beds, size L. Yes, that's a bunk bed cot, purchased for this very purpose.
On my level of the cot was a Thermarest Camp Rest mattress, a three-inch urethane foam pad, a zero-degree cotton duck bag, and a zero-degree mummy bag. Ammondude had the same setup, but his Thermarest was an original, his mummy was 20-degree, and he added a fleece liner. I used a full-size pillow and he used a camping pillow.
With camp set up, our attention turned to fishing and dinner. Smoked beef brisket and sauce reheated in a freezer bag, in a pot of water over the Sterno stove, was placed on some onion rolls for a substantial main course that worked out very well. Then some Tang mixed into the hot water for a beverage.
Had some fun jigging and at about 9:30 p.m. the ammondude ices this 3 lb. 15 oz. cutt:
A four pound fish flopping around in tight quarters makes for some excellent pandemonium! In the pic above you can see the bunk beds in the background waiting for us.
As the sun had gone down a breeze had kicked up to about 10 mph. With the eventual temp that night about -10F, that is a -30F windchill. Our heat source was a Mr. Heater portable buddy. In the pic with the cutt you can see a small patch of defrosted shelter above the heater. Until the next afternoon, that was as much of the shelter as got defrosted. The rest just continually built up a solid layer of frost.
At one point that evening we each took a turn to warm up our toes at the heater. It was a real life saver. Should have put some Toasti-Toes on to begin with. We managed our body temp well, but agreed that a little more heat would have been nice, especially in case of emergency.
At bedtime, we each made sure that our stomach was full and our bladder was empty. We changed into completely new clothing to go to bed: Underwear, jammies, sweats, socks, beanie, scarf. Even though we had a CO detector, etc. we decided to use the heater only if needed. We turned it off and went to bed. It never came back on all night.
We had left two in-shelter rigs in the water at bedtime. At 3:30 a.m. a fish hit one of our rigs and the ammondude woke me up but it was gone and we never figured out which one it had bitten. Other than that interruption, I slept very well for about 8 hours. I can't stay up all night like some of you guys and still drive home safely.
The alarm went off about 7:00. There we are at a trophy trout fishery, on the ice, with the auger only feet away, and I was so warm it still took me 15 minutes to get out of bed. At -10F, getting dressed in front of the heater was a real pleasure. And we didn't burn any clothing.
Most of the food was in an Igloo Island Breeze cooler with a 2 liter bottle of water. Cold breakfast included boiled eggs, grilled ham, Fruision drinks, etc. Nothing was frozen that had been in the cooler. Everything was frozen that didn't fit into the cooler.
A slow fishing day produced a four pound brookie:
and another nice cutt:
It's like 3 degrees F but the ammondude peels off layers to get a good Rapala pic.
Lunch was stew from the Sterno and hearty bread.
When the shelter warmed up in the afternoon, it was quite the indoor rainstorm. The fishing towels were a little outsized by the rain. This would have been problematic if we were staying a second night.
After running the heater about 8 hours total, the max reading on the CO detector was still ZERO PPM. Amazing.
By 4:00 p.m. we had made four more shuttle runs, were packed up and ready to head home, at 6 deg F:
Now to your questions.
Did Right: Sleeping system was A+. Down to -10F and no need for the heater. We both got a little extra warm by morning.
Snowmobile was a must.
Food was great.
Cooler with 2L water in it kept stuff from freezing.
Good old Thermos brand thermos kept water unfrozen the whole time.
Harbor freight cheap interlocking floor panels were AWESOME. Especially for changing clothes.
Glad we had the CO detector.
We love our Cabela's Ice Angler and Guidewear Extreme clothing.
To do Better Next TimeTake two snow machines. More gear per trip and a backup plan in an emergency. We'll be further from the road next time.
More cargo space. The selected solution is Jet Sled XL with cover and HD hitch, x2. Watching end-of-season sales.
More cooler space. A second Igloo has been purchased.
More heat capability. Big Buddy heater and 11-lb cylinder are on the way.
Bunk bed extensions already purchased (more space between the bunks). The ammondude couldn't even roll over in the night without bumping the old man on top. They should be standard equipment on those beds. Don't buy a set without them.
Bigger wipe-the-wall towels. Not engaging in the insulated vs. not discussion here. Suffice it to say that we choose 2 lbs. of towel over 15 lbs of insulation.
Still discussing at-the-camp restroom options. Not engaging in that discussion here, either.
Our camp was not mobile. I know Prospector and others have excellent mobile overnight setups, but this is a good method for us.
YMMV. Ammondude might have additional input.