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 Boundary Waters Quetico Forum
    Winter Camping and Activities
       Tis the Season
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Date/Time: 03/28/2024 01:45PM
Tis the Season

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Previous Messages:
Author Message Text
NotLight 08/19/2016 07:50AM

Following up on this questionable fire bowl idea, I bought four items:


Cheaper 20qt Mixing bowl (~1.5lbs)
Heavier duty 20qt mixing bowl (2-3lbs?)
Ikea tubular stainless trivet for a grill (will cut ends so they don't explode, ~0.5lb))
Storage bag (will use garbage bag as inner bag, this as outer)


I'm thinking this is lighter and more reliable for melting snow than my little white gas stove. And I can then make a fire on the lake and easily haul the ashes into the brush when cold and dump them. Transport in the bag, and then I can pack inside the bowl once it is in the storage bag, so in that sense the bowls take up almost zero room. Not sure if the bowls will melt, split causing a horrific eye injury, release toxic chromium vapors when exposed to heat, etc. Also not sure if the heavier or superlight bowl is better. But I'll give it a try.













CrookedPaddler1 07/12/2016 11:55AM
When I was guiding winter trips, we were told specifically not to camp on the summer camp sites and to find a spot in a bay and camp on the ice. I did typically bring a small metal sheet to build my fire on, but that was basically to keep the fire from burning down into the ice and getting really soupy. the ashes were disposed of in the boggy areas near where we camped.
Gadfly 07/12/2016 09:57AM
Do you typically camp at designated sites? We did on our first couple trips but now we only would as an absolute last resort. We always seem to find an area away from sites to set up that work fine. I would think that bowl would work fine but it might be easier to find an area away from designated sites to set up and have a fire.
NotLight 07/12/2016 08:36AM

I wonder if one of these 30 qt mixing bowls would work. Not super heavy, if you had a big enough bag or tarp to wrap it in, you could pack stuff inside it in the sled then I think and the bag would stop the soot. It's a little wide for the sled - but I could just bend it.
Gman42 06/21/2016 03:07PM
In the past we've used a metal trash can lid that worked well. The lid is pretty much useless afterward and needs to be discarded. One year we had one of our group members take a plasma torch and cut the bottom 3 inches off a 55 gallon drum and that worked great!


One year we did not have time to make anything so we gathered logs about 6 inches in diameter and laid them parallel next to each other to make a platform and had a fire on top. It actually worked better than it sounds.


The morning after we spread the ashes in the snow in the woods (LNT).
Jaywalker 06/21/2016 08:36AM
Last time I cold camped, which was a few years back now, I did try bringing a small (maybe 14 inch) pan that was actually part of a small, cheap portable grill. I don't remember it working very well. It was too small to be of much good, and I seem to remember it routinely melting into the snow at odd angles. It seemed something bigger, and maybe folding might have worked better.

Now days I hot tent. I bring a small metal shovel and can remove ashes and bury them in the snow some place out of the way.


NotLight 06/18/2016 10:57PM

Where I'm seeing old grills on the side of the road with "free" signs attached.

My understanding of the winter BWCA fire rules are, that you are basically supposed to make a fire on the lake (or, somewhere not in a designated campsite - meaning, on the lake). And then "dispose of the ashes". So I've been thinking of hauling along some kind of metal pan, ideally aluminum, on the sled.

How do you deal with those rules? Or does everybody just hot tent (but you have to put those ashes somewhere, right? - per the rules?)

Thanks.