Have the wall tent...now what else?

[hoochie]

Definitely a must. Last moose trip with wall tent we caught 21 mice around tent in first few nights. Nightmare if you don't bring traps.

I dont want to jinx myself, but in 4 years having a wall tent, never ever have we had problems with mice or rodents. the thing that drives me nuts is that at night flies get into the tarp and bounce off the walls. drives me nuts. they come in for the heat I guess.
the wood stove... best I can recall is getting about 3 hours sleep before having to add more wood. not the best nights sleep, but i am warm and dry.
My wife and i sleep on a queen size air mattress with a blanket underneath and a -18 sleeping bag over us like a blanket. woken up kinda sweaty in the morning and went outside for a leak.. it was like -18 or -19... I had no idea it was that cold outside, cause we were so comfortable in the tent.
internal frame tent, 10X12 with a 5' overhang out front.
I place plywood under the stove now as sometimes I have had embers hit the floor and almost melt a hole in it. tent has a water proof flooring that velcros to the tent itself.
love the wall tent, but its not for short trips, and it sucks breaking camp in the rain or heavy snow.

[Downwindtracker2]

If I had a couple of trucks for packing, I would have made a real stove instead of using a 22" tin airtight. It would have been a side opening, that photo of a used one looks pretty good. Needs a tight gasket fitting door and an adjustable air intake. A well stoked new 22" goes about 5 hours . As they get old or even once if they are overheated, they warp , letting more air in, thus a hotter shorter burn. Most hunters have little or no idea how to use a tin airtight, thus the nick name hippy killer. I've seen them glowing !!

[ActionJackson017]

One of those Zodis or equivalent look like a real awesome addition to our supplies for our wall tent. Heck, we've historically just heated up a pot of hot water on top of the wood stove and use a face-cloth with soapy water to "shower"... essentially it's just the dude sponge bath, but I tell you, when it's -10C outside even THAT is luxurious after a long day in the bush.. But wow, the Zodi looks like next level.

For those who have it - what do you do? Set it up outside obviously, but how do you shower using the unit outdoors? What do you stand on? I've always imagined getting 4 milk cartons and zap-strapping them together for a small platform to stand on to shower on top, but do you just shower voyeur style in the open and hope the squirrels aren't laughing too hard at the shrinkage?

And I completely agree with twoSevenO on having a good sleep system. I put a 4 inch memory foam topper on the cot, then nice thick flannel sheets on top. I have a -18C MEC bag and put a light -4C Coleman bag on top of that even, and I've found that to be the ticket. The 2nd blanket somehow traps the heat and makes the MEC bag function like a damn heated blanket. I honestly sleep better outside in the bush than I do at home.

[Aaron600]

This is the first year we got mice. Ill be buying a couple mouse traps for next season. We run our cots with a small hike/tent air mattresses with a -32 bag.

[blackbart]

The mice this year are bad. Really really really bad. But on the positive the hawk and owl numbers are way up!

[mpotzold]

I lived in a wall tent for 4 seasons in the remote Yukon wilderness in the mid 60's when a youngster.

Our camp had 2 sleeping tents & 1 a cooking/office tent.

The sleeping tents were heated by the big barrel wood stove & the cooking tent had a regular wood stove & a white gas stove(Coleman if I recall).
The lanterns used white gas.
Where the chimney joined the tent was fortified with asbestos lining. Never had a fire problem.

We always had a pail of water in each tent in case of a fire etc.

Remember when the temp dipped to minus 60 F & more(the gauge couldn't read it anymore) in the mid winter for many days. It was so cold that glass of water thrown out would instantly turn to ice.
The boots in the morning felt like they were made out of wood.

We tried to keep the fire on in the barrel stove all night.

Steel pegs were used to tie down the tents.

Never had mice,rat or other rodent problems inside the tents.

Burning evergreen branches got rid of the bugs.

Used a 5 star Pioneer sleeping bag.
In the winter had Stanfield's all wool total body long johns.

Never had a bear problem.
One of the FN guys shot a wolverine one evening that was extremely aggressive.

I have been a camper guy since the early 70's but if I was to stay in a wall tent again I would get an electric fence for bears.

[Cordillera]

Welding blanket for under wood stove. https://www.princessauto.com/en/deta...et/A-p8485245e

Good quality griddle for pancakes. This is pricy but worth every penny. https://overlandoutfitters.ca/produc...2-x-22-griddle

Lots of suggestions here about how to keep your tent warm at night. Another option is to sleep in a cold tent. Bring a good sleeping bag and insulated thermarest. Saves getting up at night. We use the wall tent as a pure dry tent and bring nylon tents to sleep in. Or one person sleeps in the wall tent. The dude who snores goes away from camp and the rest of us sleep well.

And my favourite...build a sauna. After your meat is hung and you have time to kill. Build a small structure out of poles. About five by five by five. Dig the ends into the ground. This works best on a nice sandy beach. Cover it with vapour barrier. Use thumb tacks to hold it to the structure. Make a dirty big fire for about three hours and heat a bunch of rocks. Use a shovel to put them into the shelter you just built.

This system demands a nice campsite on a lake or river. And a couple beers after.

[Bustercluck]

For those of you sleeping on an air mattress and not a cot, I suggest bringing a piece of plywood to put under your mattress it really stops that cold transfer from the ground to your mattress.

As for colder weather I really don’t mind sleeping in a nylon tent. I’ve stayed in -18 with just a klymit air mattress and a sleeping bag. It’s really not a big deal. Make sure just your face is showing out of your sleeping bag and two neck warmers, one on your neck and one over your forehead. The hardest part is putting your boots on in the morning. I haven’t figured that out yet. I’ve tried putting those hand warmer packs in at night and stuffing the top of my boots with socks and tried putting them in as soon as I wake up, but nothing seems to work.

the wall tent really shines when it’s raining and you want your gear dried out

[northof49]

Lots of good ideas, but nobody mentioned the 40 pounder of Forty Creek....cures all. Barely even notice the bear dragging you out of the tent...just seems like a dream!

[northof49]

And my favourite...build a sauna. After your meat is hung and you have time to kill. Build a small structure out of poles. About five by five by five. Dig the ends into the ground. This works best on a nice sandy beach. Cover it with vapour barrier. Use thumb tacks to hold it to the structure. Make a dirty big fire for about three hours and heat a bunch of rocks. Use a shovel to put them into the shelter you just built.

This system demands a nice campsite on a lake or river. And a couple beers after.

Done this many times. Sheet of plywood for roof and drape poly over and secure around bottom with rocks or logs to seal. Dig hole towards one end for dumping the hot rocks in. Good to have extra piece of plywood for shield for occasions when the odd rock explodes when adding water....had that happen few times. Sauna vacates in a hurry!!

We used to make them with a hippy killer as well and just drop water on the stove. No exploding rocks that way and vent pipe up thru the plywood. Those were the high end saunas. The ones with rocks were usually on the fly-ins