First Ice Camping Trip

A warm room, comfy bed, good food, and the whole family there. What could be better? How about catching some fish through the ice while you’re sitting on your bed!

After years of Darrell trying to convince me to go winter camping, and me refusing, something changed this year and I was more than happy to head out in the freezing temps to go camping. However, we didn’t want to just camp on land, we wanted to try our hand at ice camping. Ice camping is basically sleeping in your ice hut and fishing all day and all night (in between naps).

We watched so many YouTube videos from fellow anglers who had gone ice camping. I had completed Camper Christina’s Winter Camping for Beginners course, and I read Kevin Callan’s Complete Guide to Winter Camping, and figured we were as prepared as we could be and just needed to get out there.

Before Christmas I had found a group of lakes I wanted to check out north of Sudbury, so we decided to make that our first ice camping destination. After a whole lot of packing, unpacking, and repacking (we had more gear than our truck wanted to hold), we headed for the highway with some excited dogs in the back seat.

New experiences tend to trigger my anxiety, so on the drive I kept myself busy by annoying Darrell while repeating all the things we had talked about before leaving. The temp was dropping to -30C overnight, would the hut stay warm enough? Did we have enough clothes? Would the dogs be okay with their blankets and boots? Did we forget anything that we should pick up in Parry Sound? Would there be a pile of snow?… On and on. It’s a wonder he puts up with me.

The lake we had chosen was stocked with splake, was near a major road, and had some unmaintained roads/trails heading to it that we hoped were drivable. Our goal for this trip was just to have the experience of spending a night on the ice with the dogs and see how it worked out. We didn’t want to hike in very far and we were hoping there wouldn’t be many other people around.

There was more snow there than we had at home, and we weren’t noticing a lot of people out fishing on the lakes we drove by. We hoped that wasn’t a sign of poor ice. It was dang cold with a high of -18C that day, but the sun shone and the beautiful sights made the trip worth it no matter what.

We arrived at the lake and found the road in was passable, so we continued through a forest dominated by white birch and spruce trees, to arrive at a parking area between two lakes. It looked like a postcard and I was so thrilled to be there! The lake we originally planned to fish had a few huts set up on it, so we followed a trail to the other lake and found it unoccupied, the perfect place to let the dogs stretch their legs and to have our first ice camping experience.

Each of us dragged a sled packed with gear, and wore a backpack on the walk across the lake. We somehow got everything out in one go while the dogs raced from one smell to the next and played in the snow. The ice was thick enough that it took the whole length of the auger to get through it, with at least a foot of it being beautiful black ice. I felt myself relax after the holes were drilled.

Not knowing much about this lake, we drilled several holes to find a decent spot to setup the hut. It became apparent pretty quickly that the area we were in was shallow, about 5 feet of water, but with the sun starting to go down and the temp dropping, we needed to get the hut up and get us out of the cold, so we picked a spot and got going.

Setting up our Otter Vortex Resort for the first time on a lake was an interesting task. We learned quickly that we should have brought a bigger shovel. Once we got the snow cleared away and the hut up, Darrell set about securing all the anchoring ropes, while I laid out foam mats for the floor and got the heater running to warm up the dogs. They had no clue what was going on and were getting hungry.

Getting everything setup for the first time took longer than I had anticipated. The floor didn’t go down as smoothly as I had hoped. The way we wanted to set up our cots to keeps the dogs away from the fishing holes didn’t work (spoiler alert – two of them managed to step in a hole), and getting the cooking gear, heater, fishing gear, bathroom bucket, and other bags organized took a lot of trial and error.

Funny enough, we found ourselves laughing and smiling through the chaos. We were on a lake! Fishing! Camping! In the winter! Woohoo!

Once the foam mats were down and the heater on, it didn’t take long for the hut to warm up. I had my jacket off in no time. The dogs claimed the cots and had a nap. We dropped some jigs and small spoons down the hole and fished for a bit, with no luck.

Camping is no excuse not have great meals, and we had plenty of those. For dinner we had a beef stew, followed by toasted westerns for breakfast, and chicken fajitas for lunch. The dogs got plenty of treats in addition to their food.

We weren’t sure were the dogs would decide to sleep for the night – on the cots with us, or on the floor. They choose the floor mats and since their blanket had gotten wet earlier, I gave them my sleeping bag to lay on. I was plenty warm in my awesome DSG jacket and bibs. We’ve since bought the dogs a cot of their own to sleep on, though I suspect Molly will still choose the floor.

We did run the Big Buddy heater all night. Or tried to anyway. Propane tanks and hoses don’t like -30C and we ended up having to bring the tank inside and warm it up, so there were times without heat. The insulated hut and warm clothes made that bearable. I was super leery about running the heater all night and did a lot of research on it. We brought a carbon monoxide detector (I’d like to pick up a second one), and the vents on the hut were open and working well judging by the heat you could see escaping them from the outside. We also cracked the door a bit at times. I checked the CO monitor frequently and hoped it was working. We had inadvertently set it off a couple of times earlier in the day, much to the detriment of my ears, so I really didn’t need to worry.

Starting your day on the ice is pretty neat. You can immediately drop a line down and do some fishing. You get to see a beautiful sunrise, and chances are you don’t even have to get changed. I’m lazy and enjoy that part. It was partway through breakfast when Darrell jumped across the hut, scaring me and the dogs, to wind in our first fish of the trip, a little perch.

Not long after that he had another fish on. This one put up a great fight and was making him work for it when the line broke. Uggh. Pretty sure that was one of those splake,

After that heartbreak we spent some time exploring the lake. What a shallow lake it was proving to be! I managed to catch some perch but found myself spending more time taking in the surroundings than anything else. I could hear people over on the other lake. I watched as crows flew by. I looked at tracks that hadn’t been left by our dogs. It just felt so right to be out there.

We returned to the hut and fished some more. Darrell thought it would be better to take a couple lighter loads back to the truck, instead of cramming everything back into two sleds. I wasn’t going to argue. It was easier to slowly pack up and keep the dogs in the hut where they were warm and not barking at the two other anglers that had shown up.

Eventually we had to call it a day, pack up our home away from home, and head back to the truck. I wasn’t ready to go. The fishing may have been slow, but the experience was amazing. We drove back through the birch trees and out to the road, heading south and away from what is now one of my favourite places.

Ice camping opened up a whole new world and has caused us to spend more money on gear. We’ll be doing a lot more of this (hopefully, and I mean the camping, not the spending money). Being able to have the dogs with us was amazing, I wouldn’t trade these trips with them for anything.

If you’re thinking about going winter camping or ice camping, I highly recommend it! Just do some research first so you’re prepared. And maybe don’t choose a -30C night for your first trip if you can help it.