thusby
Well-known member
I thought I would throw up a little recap on my recent winter camping jaunt across the BWCA since many of you have expressed interest in winter camping. We hit a great weather window that was pretty atypical for end of February. Normally we half freeze to death.
We worked up our sled loads for the way out. I recently got into a nice larger sled so I double stacked rather than pulling the doubles like my partners on this expedition.
Conditions were great for skiing in with pulks so that was our method for this adventure. A lot of times we will have slush on the ice this time of year and you don't want to be caught in skis out there with slush freezing to them. In the past we have snowshoed out but got lucky this year.
We got a two-part camp set up this year to avoid having to move the stove between the sleeping tent and the shanty. We packed in a small stove to cook and boil water in the shanty and a larger titanium for sleeping at night.
We fished 3 days with some pike suckers we brought in with us. Jigging a chubby darter also worked well. We ended up with a dozen pike, 9 smallmouth and 5 walleye for the trip. 4 of the walleye came in the last hour of the last day. Getting it all figured out right before you leave is kind of a bummer but we had plenty of fish to eat.
After we finished finding wood and sawing/chopping our swede piles in the morning we had some time for recreation. We polished off the mornings by doing some recreational skiing.
This ends up being a trip that I dread and get excited for every year. Had a blast as always. If you have any questions about equipment etc., feel free to hit me up.
We worked up our sled loads for the way out. I recently got into a nice larger sled so I double stacked rather than pulling the doubles like my partners on this expedition.
Conditions were great for skiing in with pulks so that was our method for this adventure. A lot of times we will have slush on the ice this time of year and you don't want to be caught in skis out there with slush freezing to them. In the past we have snowshoed out but got lucky this year.
We got a two-part camp set up this year to avoid having to move the stove between the sleeping tent and the shanty. We packed in a small stove to cook and boil water in the shanty and a larger titanium for sleeping at night.
We fished 3 days with some pike suckers we brought in with us. Jigging a chubby darter also worked well. We ended up with a dozen pike, 9 smallmouth and 5 walleye for the trip. 4 of the walleye came in the last hour of the last day. Getting it all figured out right before you leave is kind of a bummer but we had plenty of fish to eat.
After we finished finding wood and sawing/chopping our swede piles in the morning we had some time for recreation. We polished off the mornings by doing some recreational skiing.
This ends up being a trip that I dread and get excited for every year. Had a blast as always. If you have any questions about equipment etc., feel free to hit me up.
