We were on Seagull 9/24-30. High temps were mid 40's and it got down to mid 20's at night. Friday we had sleet and snow 3 times.

We were in two groups. One got fed up with the cold and came back. In our group, one of the guys cooked up what he called a super shelter. He stacked rocks on the fire grate, in essence making it into an oven. Then made a lean to out of a tarp, with the top of the tarp covering the fire grate to prevent rain. We stored firewood for the week under that. We kept hot coals going in that shelter for the entire week we were there. Temps in the shelter were 60's when it was 30's outside. 5 men and 2 boys in camp, all under the shelter when it was raining or extremely cold. Made the trip a lot of fun.

We are going to refine the shelter for next year, with solar lined tarp, mylar "window" between the sitting are and the fire, and "doors" on the side of the shelter. That will prevent the smoke problem.

Did you take a picture of it. Would like to see!!

Love to see a picture also if you have one...

Almost sounds like a trail sauna.... could have heated up some rocks in the coals and poured water on the rocks for a little steam.... probably would have even jumped in the lake after that!

It sounds like you accidentally discovered "hot tenting". Instead of trying the mylar to section off the fire, why not buy a portable wood stove and a fire resistant gasket for the wall of of your tarp? You'll be able to get way more heat inside your shelter, and almost no smoke or CO so long as you have minimal ventilation. The stove will also provide very dry heat, so you can dry off your clothes much better. Check out the stoves and gaskets at Snowtrekker.com There are plenty of Youtube videos on adding the gasket.

Or if you wanted, you could just rent a Snowtrekker tent from Stone Harbor in Grand Marais. It's easy to sleep in a regular summer tent after you've gotten toasty warm and dry in the community tent. Most people think of them as winter tents, but they are absolutely perfect in wet, fall weather. I have a 9.5 x 11 and hope to get it out of storage today, and just may get another week in the BWCA starting toward the end of next week.

On winter trips, I can regularly get my tent up to 90ºF when it's well below 0ºF outside.

Here are some pics. We found that the key is to just keep the fire going enough for hot glowing coals. . .takes little wood and throws off a lot of heat in this type of enclosure. Warm enough we did not have to have coats or fleece zip ups in the enclosure even in 30's temps. Next year we are going to try to add a mylar barrier between the fire and the sitting area to block the smoke. (guys in pics have coats on as they were going back and forth between other areas of camp and the shelter. When raining or in the evening, we didn't need them when in the shelter.

Wow

Great idea! One question: it looks like you've got a reflective solar blanket tarp on one side of the shelter, did that seem to reflect any more heat than the plastic tarp? I've never been able to tell any difference between mylar and plastic against my skin, but people report that with the higher temps and radiant heat of a fire, you can tell the difference, but I've never tried it. I've owned a similar mylar tarp to what you've got up and considered using it in a similar way about 2 weeks ago, but my trip mates decided a giant fire was the answer instead.

I visited with a gentleman several years ago at a campground who had a small stove in his tarp type tent. It was unique because he made the stove from a surplus ammo can. He said it was warm in the small shelter and used little wood. He also mentioned he made a larger one from a 30# LP cylinder for his bigger tent. I thought both would be handy but never sought out plans to make one.