The past few weekends have been very busy as I've been competing in billiards tournaments. Friday afternoon I headed towards Bauline for an afternoon/evening ice fishing, I'd be joined later in the day by my buddy Mark French. He and I planned a couple outdoor adventures this weekend, but with rain in the forecast for Sunday we decided to begin our weekend a day early!

Today I chose to take Project Powertek REV as I still don't have tracks installed on the Argo, plus it's great to log another test flight on my new custom made tow bumper!

Since my last hot tent outing a few weeks ago I've made a couple changes to my Pelican Trek 60 sleigh setup. The diesel heater is so economical on fuel I left the five gallon can of extra fuel in the truck, having topped off the tank in the heater. Last week I purchased the optional soft cover for my sleigh, this will keep my gear clean and dry during the ride in. Lastly I strapped the shelter on top of my other equipment using a ratchet strap instead of bungee cords which made the load much sturdier.

I'm pleased to say that everything stayed perfectly secure on the ride in, nothing moved even a single inch!

The weather today was sunny but very windy and quite cold at -10ºC plus wind-chill, perfect conditions to justify setting up the Woods Arctic-4 ice fishing shelter! Instead of setting out fishing lines I decided to first set up the shelter and heater so I had a nice wind-free place to bait hooks and assemble the Automatic Hook Setting ice fishing rigs. As it was so incredibly windy, I took the shelter out of the bag then immediately installed one corner anchor screws so it wouldn't blow away down the pond.

Next I popped out the four sides and the roof, turned the shelter so the door faced away from the wind, then installed the remaining three corner anchors.

Because it was so windy the shelter was moving and shaking a lot! I installed additional tethers to the two windward sides the shelter which made it much sturdier. Lastly I scooped up snow and threw it along the skirt all around the shelter which anchored it even more and stopped drafts from coming inside.

Next I set up my diesel heater the exact the same way as my last trip. For all the details, tips and tricks check out my product review: Vevor 8kw Diesel Heater

Ice conditions have improved a lot since my last trip. In that time we received some rain plus 100cm of snow. This past week brought strong winds and double digit freezing temperatures which froze all of the old slush, water and slob completely solid. Today the ice auger ate its way through 12" of ice, 3 inches of slush then another 10" of solid clear ice.

With lines set it was time to retire to the warmth of the shelter and get the Dr.Si collapsible kettle boiling on my GSI Pincacle stove for a cup of fresh brewed coffee in my GSI Commuter coffee press.

Outdoor temperatures on my last outing sat around -2ºC with very light winds, today it was very windy and -10ºC. Last time I maintained temperature inside the shelter on setting 2 which is two green bars, today I ran it on setting 5, (with the highest setting being #9).

Later that afternoon French arrived on his beautiful Can Am Outlander 6x6. Snow conditions are well packed and frozen solid after our week of freezing temperatures. The bike even on tires rode problem free all day.

My cordless drill adapted ice auger still continues to work very well, we would be hard pressed to go back to a manual ice auger after all these years drilling holes with the Milwaukee FUEL 18v drills!

With French's lines all set out it was time to retire once again to the warmth of the hot tent, boil the kettle, and start throwing on some grub!

First I put some water on to boil and threw in one of the Meals Ready to Eat I made at home, the same one as on last trip.

Next up was another bag of frozen homemade turkey soup.

Lastly was one of our crew favourites, frying up a pack of our homemade Wild Game - Jalapeño - Cheddar Cheese moose sausages which as always were absolutely stellar!

Around 9:30pm we decided to call it a day and started packing up for the journey home. First I set the diesel heater to the highest setting and let it run about 15 minutes as recommended by other users to burn off carbon inside the burner. Meanwhile we started packing away cooking gear, hauling up fishing lines and getting everything laid outside. Next the diesel heater was switched off which will automatically perform a cool down cycle, after which the exhaust system was dismantled and the unit placed back inside the storage tote.

French didn't have a ton of gear with him today, so I partially loaded my Pelican sleigh and we threw the rest on his bike for the ride out which saved us some time in the cold, dark and wind. All in all it was another epic fun day in the country, stay tuned as we have a new adventure planned for tomorrow!

Cheers, MIKE

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