I spent a couple of nights on Bentshoe Lake in the Haliburton Highlands. It’s a nice easy hike from the car to do some gear testing. I got to test some gear I wasn’t planning on too.
I had a major stove malfunction just before going to sleep the second night. I used a compressed sawdust log and it expanded and pushed the baffle up to block the stove pipe. The tent was billowing with smoke and there was nothing I could do stop it or remove it from the tent.
Luckily I had the military surplus extreme artic sleeping kit that includes a waterproof bivy and two nested down bags. I normally just use the nested bags inside the tent and brought the bivy to keep the bags dry just in case. It’s a good thing I did, because with no way to stay in tent I moved my sleeping pad outside and slept under the stars. It went down to -6C and snowed a bit but I was comfortable and actually slept better without waking every time the stove went out. I may switch to a tarp system and leave the stove and tent at home next time.
Also, if it looks like you don’t need snowshoes… bring them anyway! I had to leave the sled in the middle of the lake and walk back to the car to get them.
