I was reading the posting and replies started by Mike B and thought I would share an old trip we did a few years back.

In February 2006 my girlfriend and I did a one night trip to Whitefish Lake. Snowshoed in on a Saturday and made camp on a ridge overlooking the lake. Hiked Centennial Ridges trail the next day. I do not recall the daytime temperatures (I think about -10 to -15 deg C or so) but when we checked at the Visitor Centre the next day they said the reported lows the night before was -33 at the Visitor Centre and -32 in Bancroft. We slept in a tent, in -20 degree feather/synthetic(combo) bags on inflatable thermarests overtop of those yellow rollup camping pads you can get at MEC. We were pretty warm up until about 5 am when the cold started to get to us and woke us up. There was a neat layer of frost above our heads on the tent ceiling that kept falling on us as we slept. Kept getting the frost falling down our necks when we moved about and dressed the next morning. We buried our water in the snow which stopped it from freezing but when we made breakfast it started to freeze pretty fast. I poured a mug to drink, turned to fill a pot and light the stove and by the time I turned back to drink the water (I figure about 3 or 4 minutes) I had to break the surface ice skim to get the water out of my mug. The water ended up being too cold and we had to put extra water in the pot to get it warm enough to drink and brush our teeth. The toothpaste foam kept freezing on the brushes and we had a pretty good giggle out of it. Good thing we had metal camp mugs as the night before we had a tetra-pak of wine and we had to place the mugs almost in the fire to stop the wine from freezing.

Here are a few pictures.....

Gearing up
[IMG][/IMG]

campfire
[IMG][/IMG]

glowing tent
[IMG][/IMG]

tent with flash
[IMG][/IMG]

oooops, I accidently posted before I finished adding my pictures. To fast on the mouse I guess.

We forgot to bring any utensils (they were there on the kitchen table when we got home) so we made a stirstick and spoons.
[IMG][/IMG]

tent next morning
[IMG][/IMG]

cooking dinner the night before
[IMG][/IMG]

I am used to seeing this sign a bit higher...
[IMG][/IMG]

unknown pond off of the trail
[IMG][/IMG]

sitting by the fire
[IMG][/IMG]

Hi DogByte

So that's what winter camping looks like .....

Looks like a lot of fun. Questions, how long of a hike did you take from your car to your site? Did you carry your load or use a sled?

Jeff P
http://algonquincanoeing.blogspot.com/

I almost forgot, is that a 4 or 3 seasons tent you used?

Jeff P
http://algonquincanoeing.blogspot.com/

I do not recall the quoted seasonal type of tent. It was likely a 3+ season. It is a North Face tent with window panels but no bug screen. There is a bugscreen door in addition to the normal door.

We parked at the entrance to Coon Lake campground (Rock Lake road). Snowshoed in and "kinda" followed the Centennial Ridges trail (lots of snow and hard to follow at times). We camped about 100 metres off trail (hard to find spots to dig in and set up camp). It took us about 2 hours to get to the spot where we set camp. Likely a 20-30 minute hike to the same spot in summer. That first hill climb out of the trail head at Coon lake campground was a killer in winter. The trail was obvious at times but sometimes we felt like we were breaking vigin trail.

Derek Specht
http://www.ABRweb.ca .. Algonquin Backcountry Recreationalists - Caring for Algonquin's Backcountry

I'd wondered what Centennial Ridges was like in winter. Now I know. I imagine that first hill definitely would be hard, snowshoes or not.

I've never taken on any of the trails during the winter; just Spruce Bog in April.

Nice pics Dawg. Thanks fer sharin.