Hey guys, when you are taking those butt busting long kite excursions, what's in your pack?

Me and John V took a SICK trip this last season to Lake of the Woods MN (saw kiteyakker and relatives/our friends in the beginning and end). I got a cheap Bushnell GPS off woot this past fall and we logged just under 50 miles.... I think that counts as long haul lol.

We brought:

kite pack,
military surplus folding shovel (excellent snow-based kite stake btw),
camelback - I wore mine inside my jacket, thinking about trying in the pack
First Aid Kit
Extra Gloves
Extra Socks
Extra (thicker) Balaclava/neck gaiter
GPS
Helmet Cam is on the list for this upcoming season
Extra Layers

Proposed additions (need some advice)
Digital Camera - too busy kiting or worth it?
Bundled Rope - I would never kite on marginal ice lakes, but other uses?
Tow Sleds? - For really really long excursions haha tents, etc
Two-way radio to a teammate? and then an earpiece for it?
Binoculars? any use? didn't seem like a whole lot needed it when we went

Let me know what you guys think, and also any sweet long-haul locations, lake or land based that you know of in the midwest. We're breaking personal records this season

We started making gear for a long haul trip. Haven't done it yet due to life getting busy, but in our test runs, we found that two radios would be a big bonus. We had white out conditions in one test and we were far enough apart that we could see each other. I put my kite down to go smaller and my buddy couldn't even see me. Radios would certainly be a great safety feature. Then you have batteries to deal with. We wanted to get small solar panels to mount to our sleds we built to keep batteries charged. For the sleds we used old creek boats. The displacement hulls work good because they keep the selds from tipping. My buddy put a snowmobile hifax along the bottom of his to make it track better and keep tight in the turns. We use poles from Ed at skipulk.com. He makes the best pulk towing system, I highly recommend it. His pulks are sweet too. One of our guys bought his high end sled to use and it's nice! Since us midwesters are mostly looking at lake travel with sleds, you can't beat it. You can bring all kinds of crap and be set. Even hot tents for drying out gear and hanging out in your t-shirt after trekking all day. In our test runs, I found if you have to travel upwind the whole way, it was faster just hiking it. Plan your trip with prevailing winds so that you don't have to hike the whole way and leave room for no wind days. If you get a good day of kiting, you can have a layover day. Also... Beer freezes. Better bring the hard stuff. Here's a pic of my buddies sled.. can't find any in action at the moment, but they really do work:



Let us know when you go. maybe we can finally put all of our gear we put together to use on a trip with ya. Ohh, and you really should get some tele skis. We got touring skis. Like XC skis with scales on the bottom and metal edges. Then you can trek when there is no wind. WAY better then snowshoeing it. Plus you can use them while kiting. Get a soft boot for trekking, but stiff enough for kiting. Like a tough leather boot or something like the Scarpa T3.. which they don't make anymore. But there are other options. Just a light 3 pin binding works fine. I got Voile bindings and they work fine. They have a removable heel strap that you can choose to use or not.

Start planning now, it'll take a while to collect all the toys you'll want for a long trip in the snow!

I have tossed a road flare in my bag when I have gone on my own . It happened to be in the trunk and I was mostly visible from the road so it seemed like a good idea ?

I was dumb enough to think my cell would work

wow that got my stoke on.....

Yea we will have to get together sometime. We threw around the idea of kiting on lake Winnipeg or Manitoba one of these times for a full weekend. They are both obviously huge. Also the red lakes (if you wanted to meet more in the middle).

Most of us are boarders, and although it did take a long time to get upwind, we still made excellent progress on lake of the woods. We started at the south-west ramp and upwinded to springsteel where we had lunch and booked it back downwind (35 mph ). Sleds and radios would be our biggest advantage items if we really wanted to stay on the lake for a long time. We could haul for 10 miles or so to the middle, then drop the sleds, do some freestyle and setup the tents to get warm again. That sounds pretty sweet

I'll post on the meet up when we are thinking about going places this winter

Road Flare... nice

Also! some blinking LED's on a stand or something for night time so a snowmobiler doesn't tear through the tent (and us) and night doing 97mph .

What did you guys use for tent heaters? Food suggestions? Ice Auger?

I just sold my Snowtrekker tent to my buddy because with the little kids, I couldn't see getting much use out of it with the family or I'd have little kids with burn marks all over them. Check it out:



It uses a little wood stove and MAN they are nice. Probably the best hot tent money can buy. They pack up small too. It can be -10 outside and 70 degrees inside. Our plan was to kite from Waroad MN to Kenora across LOTW. It was going to probably take us 2 weeks I bet. All those little island would most likely tear up the wind and trekking would be involved. Plus, you need a border crossing permit. Lots of hoops to jump through and red tape, but someday we'll do it.

If you bring a sled, you can pack steaks! The cold will keep them chilled. Otherwise standard issue freeze dried goods pack up small and only need boiling water to cook. I like BACON and recommend it for winter camping. Get your food load up before bed and you'll stay warm buring all that fat. You can wax your board with the grease... haha, probably not the best idea, but maybe! See if you can get a bear to chase you on your kite following the bacon grease trail.

If you insist on boards.. Get a split kit and some skins. Saw that board in half. If you're only basecamping from a tent and kiting, then it's not a big deal, but if your 2 kite days away from your car, and you have no wind to make it back, that could easily be 3-4 days walking and if you're in snowboards boots, you might as well lay down and die. Or at least be prepared to have a miserable trip back. At least bring the snowshoes. But you know as well as I do, you can kite in lighter winds on skis then with a board. I prefer a board too, but for long distance travel, skis are just so much more useful.

My buddy has an old blog site from when we started this idea. Originally it was going to be in the BWCA, but it's illegal and we couldn't argue our way in and didn't want to stir up any problems. In those cases it's best to say.. OK and move on. He talks more about his pulk there and some other ranting. When BWCA shot us down, he pretty much gave up on it, but there might be something useful in there for you:

http://crossingthewindigo.blogspot.com/

Quote:

Originally posted by rudeboysaude Our plan was to kite from Waroad MN to Kenora across LOTW.

:wow::wow::wow::wow: Holy.....

Flare is a good idea. I would get the ground and gun kind too. They sell them at walmart. I bought a SPOT for hunting and I think it might be a good idea. Works to communicate with home too and can be used to track your progress. I send a message a couple of times a day and my wife knows I am ok and has an accurate last known location. Of course you can send an emergency message too. I think it would be amazing to do a trip like that.

How well would a solar charger work on batteries at that temp.

When talking about radios I use the garmin rino series. Sends your location to your buddy. My bro in law was hunting with a friend and they got seperated. He drove up and down the back roads until he got a response. the gps led his friend straight to him.

Gona need this. It even fits a Reese Hitch. On sale now at Northern Tool.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200308541_200...

check out the other pics.

Quote:

Originally posted by Hardrock Gona need this. It even fits a Reese Hitch. On sale now at Northern Tool. http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200308541_200... check out the other pics.

You guys kill me lol.... Didn't even think about it though... Will add TP and some handwarmers for the after effects

But man for real Kenora is so so so so far..... Like holy damn! It isn't impossible, just so much more than i was expecting.

Do you guys know about the yogaslackers team?

Quote:

Originally posted Hardrock Gona need this. It even fits a Reese Hitch. On sale now at Northern Tool.

"Not for use when vehicle is in motion."

I just love disclaimers.... truly.

The Top Gear boys used this on there Arctic trip (episode actually had some snowkiting in it) and Clarkson started to slowly drive away while May was using it.

ATB,
Sam

hey guys, another question for you or really for anyone that has camped in really REALLY cold weather!

Do you "need" a tent heater or hot tent? Thing is....we dont have one lol, and we still wanna camp outdoors at night... so what does it take to camp in potentially -20 F weather at nights?

Honestly it can even get worse than that. I'm just hoping our camping days arent when a cold front comes through

ok so just had an interesting idea. Tent heaters are more or less propane fired and inside the tent (kinda scary in my opinion) or fires outside the tent, which then heat and feed hot air into the tent. So my question is as follows. These items are more or less pretty expensive either way.......

Would it be crazy....

If I got a car radiator, drained and flushed the fluid, hooked up a dryer hose to each outlet. Pointed one outlet into the wind, and the other into the tent with some insulation. Now the logic is the fire heats the radiator and the air inside and is forced through the system with ram air from the upwind tubing.

Open to suggestions on the heatable device, i fear the radiator has too small of inner plumbing and can't take fire temps....

Even in the Army I never happened to be out in anything below zero F. We had double wall tent with a heater in it. A nice diesel heater. If I was going out in that cold of temp I would probably try to bring one of those catalytic heaters with propane bottles. You may even need it for first aid against hypothermia. Otherwise, a personal snow cave might do better than a tent in -20F. You could just ask Bear Grylls.

Here are some links to past treks (non kite) across Lake Winnipeg. They might give some insight into their gear, conditions and experiences...

first and only solo winter ski trip - 1985
One Million Steps - 2001
Marathons on Ice - 2004

And for those not keen on the winter camping thing maybe a stay at the...
Lakeview Resort Gimli

or the...
Radisson Resort Hecla

flyboy15,

I took a look at your website about a month ago. I have recently got into the powerkite hobby with hopes to transition to snowboarding on the lakes in the winter. I am from northern Minnesota and stumbled upon your website while searching for local kiting events.

I have some advice to offer to you for a overnight trip on the lake. I have done a fair amount of winter camping and other activities. A heater is not a necessity if you have the proper sleeping bag. However, the proper sleeping bag is going to be big and take up alot of room in your sled. I once slept outside in -10F in the cargo bed of a military truck. The sleeping bag was a mummy style with 3 layers. The inner layer was some type of poly fill, the middle layer was a synthetic down fill, and the outer shell was GoreTex. I stayed nice and toasty. The only problem is having to get out of the sleeping bag in the morning, burrr.

A propane heater inside a tent isn't as scary as scary as you may think (ice fisherman do it all winter long). Coleman makes a range of "catalyst" propane heaters, they "react" with propane, creating a flameless heat, and produce no carbon-monoxide. They do burn oxygen however, so still require some venting. The venting is minimal, and about any softside tent will be drafty enough. One thing to consider is the amount of propane you would have to pack however. I think is would be more effective and require less space then your radiator idea though.

Would your plan be to set up tent on the open ice? Winds (even light winds) could be your downfall if so. Best to get some tree cover. In a wooded area, you would also be able to start a campfire for warmth in those.many hours of darkness you will have before bedtime.

Making a snow shelter is also a possibility. I have done this twice. Once I simply shoveled down in deep snow, piling what I shoveled out around the outside of my hole, effectively making a wind break, then setting up a small nylon tent in the hole. This worked fairly well, I used no heater, but the temps also stayed above 0F that night. Another time a group of us made a snow cave. I should preface this by admitting we cheated slightly by using a snowplow to make a snow bank about 6 feet tall. There was 5 of us in the group and we made 3 caves, after enough digging, the 3 caves became one large cave internally. After finishing digging, we lit a heater and warmed up the inside. Eventually the inside walls became "slushy" at which time we stopped the heater, and using our hand smoothed out the walls, packing the slush. We then went about our day letting the cave get cold again. When returning in the late afternoon, the slushy walls had frozen to solid ice, making a super strong shelter. I recall walking around on top of the shelter afterwords without damaging the interior. The ice walls also allowed us to warm up the interior without them melting as easy. We had the shelter heat to near 70F in the evening. While sleeping we kept some candles burning inside coffee cans as our only heat source. If I recall correctly it was 50F plus inside in the morning. I don't recall the outside temp that night, but I do know is in the middle of January (in northern MN).

No matter what type of shelter you choose, one key thing is to NOT sleep on the the ground. Heat rises, and cold air sinks. Any draft in the shelter (there WILL be some draft) will introduce cold air, which will sink to the floor/ground. This will create an pocket of cold air on the floor. Even being 6" off the floor will make a HUGE difference. I realize you can't pack everything, but you should consider a cot of some sort. I have seen some that pack up pretty small.

I have rambled on long enough for now, but would be happy to discuss further. We could trade advice at some point, see as how I would like to get into snowkiting.

One last thing, You mentioned possibly going the the red lakes...STAY OFF Lower Red Lake and the western portion of Upper Red Lake. That is reservation land, and the tribal police will lock you up, and confiscate your belongings. The portion of Upper Red Lake not on tribal land is still a substantial area, and would be a nice area for some day trips. There a handfull of resorts open in the winter for ice fishing also, making a point-A to point-B back to point-A day trip feasible. I could suggest going from Roger's to West-Wind and back, or vice-versa depending on the wind. If you ever do go to Red drop me a PM, I would love to meet up, even if only to observe, Upper Red Lake is only about a 1/2 hour drive for me. Upper Red Lake also usually have ice heaves, and with enough fresh snow to smooth them out would make some insane jumps.

How about a space blanket sleeping bag cover.

http://www.overstock.com/Sports-Toys/Space-Sportsmans-Green-...

Suggestions on how to stake a kite on a frozen lake? We're getting down to the final details now!

Ice stake/screw.

I always remember to bring my common sense and good judgment!:bisou:

and the medical insurance card