TL;DR: First time visiting the winter camping Symposium. The Winter Camping Symposium attracts a really cool group of like minded people; everyone in the group is very friendly, respectful, and willing to compare notes on winter camping (or any other type of camping really).

Day 0:

Jackson and I were originally planning on camping at a Cart-In site at Tettegouche state park at the same exact time interval that the Symposium was occurring; but the Monday before the Winter Camping Symposium – Lake Superior experienced record waves and sustained winds. Going into the weekend it was also foretasted to snow. Given the Cart-In reservations which would have made it harder to transport Jackson and the necessary camping gear and the risk of snow — I ended up signing up to go to the Winter  Camping Symposium at YMCA Camp Miller in Sturgeon Lake, Minnesota instead of the original trip to Tettegouche’s Cart-In campsites.

Because of the previous trips I took in close succession prior to this trip I wasn’t quite prepared for another trip; I still had gear drying out in the basement from the SHT hiking trip.

Prior to the trip I cut down a bunch of 2x4s and some hardwood pallet wood that I had laying around in my shop to stove size — I hauled these in Vegetable boxes from our CSA box and 5 gallon buckets.

Non-Comprehensive Gear Overview:

• Seek Outside 8P Tipi
  • Liner Installed
  • 10″ Spike Nails
• Seek Outside XL Ti Stove
  • I am considering getting a second stove for base camping situations where weight is not a concern; this stove leaks far too much air through the damper, seams, and door of the stove that wood burns far too quickly with this stove.
  • I am also not liking the spark arrestor on this stove; while I was burning hot and clean for most of the time while I was on this trip — the spark arrestor get really plugged up Saturday night and lead to quite a bit of frustration at bed time for me.
• FOHOZ: Titanium Backpacking Stove (link)
• Nate’s Sleep System:
  • Thermarest Base Camp Sleep Pad
  • 20 Degree Sleeping Bag (Thermarest Sarros)
  • Reactor Sleeping Bag Liner
  • US Military Surplus Gortex Bivvy Bag
• Jack’s Sleep System:
  • Thermarest Base Camp Sleep Pad
  • US Military Surplus Sleep System
    • Goretex Bivvy Bag
    • Intermediate Sleeping Bag (Green)
    • Cold Weather Sleeping Bag (Black)
• Coleman Trail-head II Camp Cots:
  • I scored a killer deal on Amazon Warehouse Deals for some Coleman Trailer II Camp Cots — I paid 1/2 price for ONE cot, but they shipped TWO  cots for the price of half a cot.
  • While not totally necessary, these cots made the trip really comfortable; I didn’t need to setup vapor barriers on the ground, and I didn’t need to bring a camp chair because the camp cot does all of that. Another nice thing about these cots is that they have all of the extra storage on the sides of the cots for keeping electronics off the ground, keeping flashlights close, and for trying out gloves and hats. When weight/space is not a concern, I will be bringing these cots.
  • The other thing I found nice about the cots is that they get you at the same level as the wood stove in the tent, keeping you at a more consistent temperature throughout the night.

Day 1 (Thursday – October 26th):

Arriving at the Winter Camping Symposium all you need to do is look for someone in a bright red stocking hat to find out more information about where you should setup your Tipi — When I was arrived, given I was with my kid they advised me to setup in the field where it is more quiet and where the early risers are. Though I eventually found that people setup on any piece of open ground at the YMCA camp.

When got to the YMCA at about noon and had our tent setup in about an hour — working with a preschooler to setup the Tipi certainly slowed me down a bit.

I did get a nearly perfect pitch on the Tipi without any adjusting, though if I set in the doors any more, my pole would not have been tall enough to keep the top of the tent up and taut.

I installed the liner on the side of the tipi that we were sleeping on, this materially cut down on the amount of condensation that we had to deal with in the tent.

Jack in the Seek Outside 8p Tipi on the Coleman Trailhead II Cot, reading a book, with his stuffed animal — BTW, I totally do not recommend putting a stick on the top of your stove for an extended period (like shown in this picture).

After setting up we hung around our Tipi and watched the others setup — I kind-of felt out of place as when I setup the field was pretty much all white canvas tents, the majority of those tents being the snow trekker brand of tents.

One of my tent neighbors was a named Jim, he came over to my tent and was talking about how his daughter and son-in-law used a similar tent when they camped for a year in the BWCA. I probably didn’t hide my excitement when I said “Oh! David & Amy Freeman!” — I’ll be honest I haven’t had the means to give money to the campaign to save the BWCA, but I followed the Freeman’s on Instagram, bought their book, and have probably been an annoyance to more than one friend about the risks of sulfide mining on the edge of the BWCA.

The tent neighbor on the other side of our Tipi was a keynote speaker Don from way the hell up in Quebec who had a custom lightweight canvas built out of the same special canvas that the Snow Trekker tents are built out of. The iterative innovations that went into Don’s custom tent and his custom stainless steel stove were amazing.

Don’s Custom Tent on Saturday Afternoon

Another fellow from Canada setup on the other side of Don from me – he was from Canada also. Something seemed really familiar about this guy when I heard him talk and saw him setup his Snow Trekker tent — it turned out he is “Hoop” from the WinterTrekker YouTube Chanel, the BWCA forums, and WinterTrekking.com. This guy is also kind-of a legend to me, for a while my kid and I were watching his YouTube videos where he did a long solo canoe trip in a Woodland Caribou Provincial Park.

We had dinner in our Tipi and walked around a bit in the evening; Jack tuckered out pretty quick and he watched some of the Cars 3 movie that I had downloaded on the Prime Video app on my phone.

Jackson Watching “Cars 3” inside of his sleeping bag, in the Seek Outside 8P tent

Very early Friday Morning – I think the light from to compose this picture came from the military grade chem lights that I had suspended from a ridge line at the top of our Tipi

Day 2 (Friday – October 27th):

Jack and I slept good and warm throughout the night; though I was not consistent about keeping the stove going throughout the night. There was quite a bit of wind during the night, and it sounded like it was raining, ice pelting, and eventually snowing throughout the night.

I was really surprised how quiet the night was; early in the night you could hear some husky’s howling and there was a rooster that would occasionally make some noise throughout the night and morning. But, given the density of people camping it was amazing how quiet the campground was — this group was really friendly and respectful of each other, it was great.

Once the sun came up we could see quite a bit of snow piled up on the edges of our tent (something, I wasn’t totally expecting for this trip – though we were prepared with snow gear based on the forecasts).

Once waking I got the stove fired up and heated up from my sleeping bag and waited for the the motivation to come to get out of the sleeping bag.

We had our breakfast (I think I had my traditional Mountain House Biscuits and Gravy) — We also had some precooked bacon and Jack wanted to have rice.

Jackson eating bacon for breakfast on Friday morning

Once we completed breakfast we got ready for the day; Jack was really excited to checkout the snow as this was the first substantial snow he had seen this year.

We would intermittently go outside and play in the snow, hang out around the bushcraft demonstration area, and then go inside to warm up. Jack found other kids to play with throughout the day.

There was always coffee and hot water available inside of the large building; the coffee was surprisingly good.

We had lunch in our tent and dinner with the large group in the evening. Our dinner was pretty cool because we got to chat with quite a few different people during the dinner, including David & Amy Freeman for a couple of moments.

In the foreground of this picture are David Ellis’s Cowboy Style Canvas Tents

Vendor tents on Friday Morning

The field on Friday morning

Friday afternoon lunch

Bushcraft demonstrations on Friday afternoon

In a talk with Jackson

Friday night on the field

Our Seek Outside 8P Tipi – I should have put the pull outs on the other side of the tent, but – lesson learned: “when snow is in the forecast, put on the pull outs”

Don’s custom canvas tent Friday Evening

Day 3 (Saturday – October 28th):

We slept good and warm through Saturday night. I kept the stove going for more of the night then I did in the previous night.

We got ready for the day quickly — all Jack wanted to do is get outside and see his “friends” (the kids that he met the previous day).

We attended some sessions and cycled outside intermittently for Jack to play outside and then cycle inside for him to dry off.

We ate dinner with the large group, and then hung around for the door prizes and raffles. Jack won two stuff sacks from Cooke Custom Sewing.

Breakfast Saturday Morning

Breakfast Saturday Morning

Jackson

Our Seek Outside 8P Tipi on Saturday Afternoon

Jackson in the Snow

Don’s tent

Hoop’s Tent

Tents on the tour de tents

Tents on the tour de tents

Tents on the tour de tents

The other Seek Outside 8P that had the pole fail

Tents on the tour de tents

Tents on the tour de tents

Tents on the tour de tents

The chicken pen

A Yurt on the tour de tents

Jack with the Chickents

The field at the 2017 Winter Camping Symposium

Day 4 (Sunday – October 29th):

On Sunday we packed up pretty rapidly; Jack played in the snow a bit more and then played with some of the kids that he met during the trip.

We made it home in the early afternoon and strung up our gear in the basement and windows of our house to dry out.

What I learned:

• From Hoop on camping in -40 temps:
  • Layer your sleep system in the cold weather, you have a temperature gradient from body temperature to the exterior temperature. Keep your down sleep system closer to your body and layer a second synthetic sleeping bay over the goose down, and then a 3rd bivvy sack for frost to accumulate on.
• From Don:
  • Small individual stuff sack bags for each tie out point on the tent
    • This keeps cords from getting tangled
    • It makes it very clear to a newby that might be camping with you where that cord is (and where it goes) and where it attaches to
  • Divide the tent with a mylar blanket to reflect heat to the sleeping quarters
  • Fill a soup can with cement to bend stove pipe with a mallet
  • Bending a stove yourself out of stainless and rivets is possible
  • Use 2 cheap kid’s sleds with a tarp secured between the two for a simple pulk sled
  • Take a kid’s crazy carpet sled cut it into some circles and drill some holes in it and attach some rope to make a snow stake for deep snow
  • Dig deep into the snow under the tent to make seating and warming areas that put your hands and body that the level of the stove
• From the Bushcrafters:
  • How to start a fire with a bow drill
    • Hint: the bow is not bow shaped
    • Hint: Bic lighters and Ferro rods were invented for a reason 🙂
  • Diamond willow fungus is supposed to relive migraine headaches.
  • There are various teas you can make with ‘wintergreen’ found in Minnesota and ‘Balsam Fir’
  • How to fold a cup out of waxed butcher paper
• From Ryan Fox:
  • When possible only harvest dry standing (fully upright) wood, Ryan thinks of trees as increasingly wet with proportion to how parallel they are to the ground.
  • What words for layering/gear for one person might not work for another person as some people are huge heat generators, sweat alot, (et al.)
  • Wool is preferable in really cold camping because it wicks moisture away from the body and creates a place where frost can form
  • Wool is not flammable which means you can really get in close to a fire and dry out
• In General:
  • An axe is pretty much required when running a wood stove in the winter (felling trees and splitting rounds)
  • The other gentleman that had a older Seek Outside tent had his center pole fail, it was suspected that the failure was due to a swell that is integrated into the four dog stove pipe (bringing more heat closer to the Seek Outside’s center pole) which removed the temper from the steel the pole was made from over time causing it to fail
  • A large bow saw (think: 30″ blade) is pretty much required in cold weather
  • Get a second liner for my tipi
  • Canvas mitigates some of the issues with condensation that you have with silynlon temps (but you are taking on 3x-5x more weight)
  • I want to get a fourdog stove
  • I’d like to get a snowtrekker tent
  • I’d like to build a couple of toboggans and/or pulk sleds

Conclusion:

I really enjoyed visiting the 2017 Winter Camping Symposium — I am hoping I can make this an annual event and bring my wife and kids each year going forward to it. I am also coveting the SnowTrekker tents; though even if I had the money for a SnowTrekker tent I am not sure what size I would go with given the size of my family and the variability in my camping trip’s group sizes (I guess I “need” 2 of them, ‘eh?).

I am excited to get out and camp in the winter.

Note: I do these ‘trip reports’ primarily for myself — I hope you as the reader get some value out of it; but really this is an exercise is me organizing my own thoughts surrounding the trips I take and moving those lessons forward the the next trip I take.