I'm looking to break into winter camping with my three sons. We love camping, skiing, and fishing, so I'm thinking of combining all three into a winter camping adventures. Does anyone know where I can get my hands on a used canvas tent? Money is tight, so I'm looking for something at a reasonable price. I found plans for constructing a d woodstove. Any suggestions. Thanks

Ben's Backwoods (you'll have to google it) has a canvas tent under his "yardsale" link for $400 shipped.

Have you considered renting a stove tent from Piragis in Ely or The Canoeist in Two Harbors?

I have been talking with Mike at the canoeist in Two Harbors. I plan on renting a couple tents from them this winter. They seem like good people and are willing to help put you on some fish. Rental prices are more than fair too, especially if you are going out for 3 or more days. They are not limited to just tents either, they have everything you would need for a winter camping trip.

Thanks all! Will check out the sites. Rentals may be a good way to check out gear.

and if you like what you see the canoeist sells off its rental tents at the end of the year for a fair price.

tg

Reliable tents and tipis out of Montana is having a winter sale. One of the best deals is the Teton (10'x10' canvas wall tent) for $350. No, I don't work for them. I've seen used tents going for more.

opps go to www.reliabletent.com to check it out. Just thought I should pass some info back the other way.

We found our canvas tent on Craig's List last year in Minnesota. Sent him extra $$$ to ship it and then we basically built our own tent poles (the original poles were 2X4's anyway so replicating them was easy), and came up with our own stakes (12" spikes from the hardware store). I think the tent cost $200 + shipping and we've got $50 or so in the poles and spikes.

We also built a wood stove from plans we found online. Worked fine keeping the tent warm. I would have redesigned the door though. We take short winter trips so we haul wood rather than spend our time cutting frozen logs. Set a can of beef stew on top and it is an easy hot meal.

That said, this year we are switching to propane. No one wants to stoke a wood stove at 3:00 AM when it is 10 degrees. We figure switching out a propane tank is more likely to happen and hauling propane is a heck of a lot easier than hauling wood.

GOOD LUCK & HAVE FUN.

Winter camping gear can get very expensive if you buy all the gear.

Rob is my trip partner I agree with all he said. This time of year is a little harder to come by a canvas tent. If you do want to go the propane heater route it opens up options on the tent. As I have told Rob the propane heater feels a little like cheating to me but it will make things a lot easier this year. You can put a propane heater in any tent really, we went canvas originally because the tent had a stove pipe opening. Canvas holds heat better and breathes to let moister out. Over the course of this last summer I have seen many older canvas tents available on craigs list many for less than $100 but most if not all did not have the stove pipe opening for the wood stove so they would have to be modified. This changes if you use propane for your heat source.

The best piece of equipment that you will need is your sleeping bag. Rob Bought a nice winter bag that seems to work great for him. I went cheaper with the army surplus intermediate cold weather bag. Then put my old summer bag inside of it. The key is you need to have a bag that cinches up around the head and shoulders to keep all heat inside the bag. When I put the summer bag which is bigger on the outside of the army surplus bag I was cold through my shoulders. When I put the summer bag inside the army surplus bag I was toasty warm on a much colder night. I am sticking with this set up for this year.

Jerry