Snow Storm Overnighter- January Canoe Camping 2023
Hey everybody, it's January 20th, 2023 and this is the Coffee Fueled Woodsman channel. Welcome
aboard. I'm Chris, this is Tilly. Up behind the camera is Johnny and Specka and as you can see
we're doing a tent one today. So a little bit about the trip, it's about minus one right now.
We are on the biggest lake in Nova Scotia, sorry the second biggest lake in Nova Scotia. We just
came across the biggest piece of water I've been on in that little canoe, in the roughest water
that I've been on in that canoe, on the coldest day and coldest water. So that was the roughest
water, the biggest lake, the coldest time of year that I've ever paddled. A lot of people went wrong
there, glad it didn't. We were pretty excited when we got to shoreline, unfortunately there's no way
around it. You got to cross the channel and the wind was out of the north and show a little bit
of that in the intro with all the choppiness of the water. Come here Savage, this is Specka.
She's a little bit crazy. I got to get moving. Talk to you in a bit. We thought the snow was
going to make a liar out of us, but here it comes. I'm just going to work at getting this pile of
branches reduced down to usable parts into separate little columns here, so we know what to burn and
when. Not so we know what to burn. Johnny's just grabbing some bigger stuff. You see my tent down
there. We just brought the canoes up and through there. Hopefully things don't get too buried.
She's starting to come down hard now all of a sudden. We got this tarp up just in the nick of
time. Kind of hobbled underneath, but I'm at the very base of it. We got quite a bit more headroom
further out you get. Well it's starting to come down a little heavier now. I just went and got a
little bit of firewood and Johnny's still out looking for firewood. We got quite a bit. We're
going to have to start bucking it up here in a minute. Well tonight's going to be chicken wrapped
in bacon stuffed with brie and bacon and some rice side dish things that you just boil in the
bag. They're pretty easy to put together. Then some peppers and some mushroom. I didn't bring
any onion. I just figured we didn't need it for this this kind of meal and it's all going to be
done in the dutch oven. So interested to see how that one goes. Never made it before. Watched it on
kind of the same thing on Simon a Bloke in the Woods, except for he did it with chicken thighs
just did the bacon and he baked it really neat like up on a trivet and then in a pan inside his
dutch oven. We're going to risk it and try to do it right from the dutch oven which reminds me I
gotta get a tripod. Well things are starting to get a little a little frigid. I had to put on my
my new wool hat put on a buff and I swapped out that down coat for my hand knit sweater my wife
knit me and Johnny's already got his coffee going. A little bit of this stuff I don't know
where you're watching from but if you can find this for your coffee it's delicious and I've
been farting around so I gotta get brewing up my uh my coffee. This is my little cat cat can
cat food can stove that Johnny built me based on a fairly popular little design that I had paid
money for at one point. Neither of us brought filters so we're either gonna have to drink the
water and hope for the best which I'm not too concerned about or we're gonna have to boil and
then drink the boiled water. I think I just drink it straight out of the lake not too worried about
it. All right well while I'm sitting here waiting for that coffee water to boil I got a couple of
things for Christmas. Got a new GSI infinity backpackers mug which fits directly into my
toke stuff. For those of you that follow the channel saw I think it was on my Kenemy
Canyon backpacking trip a couple years ago I left it too close to the fire while I was
just sitting around it and it melted it warped it right in. My mother got me a harmonica
in the key of G for Christmas which I'm pretty excited about and it's the special 20 by Horner
which means that it's got a plastic that's called the comb that black plastic stuff you're seeing
that's usually wood but it should be a little bit more robust
and key of G I mean I think I do play a few songs in the key of G so
uh in terms of some new gear that I'm trying out for this trip this uh outdoor research
helium down hoodie is a new piece of gear that I just ordered because my old gray one
had so many holes in it that there was no feathers left in the arms and this one I'm
not a big fan of the hood however the hood on this one and the shoulders are made out of
waterproof-ish material so I ended up going with that just for a little bit more robustness and
I've already switched out of it because of the snow it's very warm so the snow is hitting the
coats and it's melting so the sleeves are already wet you see Johnny's got like kind of the same
style coat his sleeves are all wet and stuff so I figured where I had other options I got this
Arcteryx Gore-Tex coat I figured I'd just put that on with the uh the sweater underneath and
that'll keep me nice and warm for the day. One of the longtime subscribers Matt he and I actually
met up in the real world and he ended up finding a bunch of different MRE meals
and so I'm all stocked up with those I'm really looking forward to trying those out
and really appreciate that Matt and he and I are going to try to get out for a trip
whether Johnny will be able to come or Dave or any of the other fellas we'll see but um yeah it'd be
nice to get out on a couple of nighter with him and show him some of the spots I know and he'll
show me some of the spots he knows. The good news is my right hip's really warm all of a sudden
All right well having some issues with the GoPro the battery on this one
uh for some reason it's just dying now I got a little uh battery brick I can plug it in
and charge it and film at the same time so if I have to I'll do that
um I figured I'll use it a little bit more with the snow coming down as it is
but uh the audio quality isn't going to be as good but I'm going to show you around the camp
oh Johnny's still cutting up wood to stay warm his tent back in the back there as you can
hopefully see it's coming down pretty good this is a fair amount of snow building up
and down here is me I'll walk you down there are canoes that's looking like it's holding up pretty
good I may shake the snow off it at some point I'll take you out to the water look at this
so we're in a little cove it looks I don't know it looks like maybe the waves have subsided
further out but can't really tell all right decided pretty damp feeling so it's time
to make some fire I just went down and shook all the snow off my tent
quite a bit but it's not really that bad it just keeps going coming down like it is
probably going to be okay stuff's a little damp yes yep
you stealing more firewood hey that's firewood
1 30 it's time for lunch gotta dry these bad boys out these are Costco gloves
Johnny brought us key and ham wait no corned beef we use the key here and he brought us a
wedge of some kind of cheese here and I've got ciabatta buns and spicy
aioli I think that's how you pronounce that you mind opening that that's a brand new all right
it's the key to success right there get your little nose out of there
I think it's all gonna come out look at that Johnny the beef popsicle so this was a pretty
last-minute trip for me and actually Johnny how long did you even plan this for it wasn't
very long he packed the night packed last night but he had planned on this sooner so
anyway he had the wherewithal to remember the hawk is cheesy see what heated corned beef tastes like
mayo uh no it doesn't matter we'll just put it just put it on top
oh because mine is a big big wedges
okay well lunch is had and I was sitting there in my chair half asleep so I decided I'm gonna
come down and climb in the tent set up the sleeping area bring the dog in with me
and maybe even have a little nap so yeah this right here my nemo tensor
long wide mat I'll get the attachment kit for the top quilt on and we'll have a little nap
try to keep my dog warm hey pupper oh man I've been laying here for about an hour or so maybe
a little bit longer it's uh 3 3 40 now Johnny went for a little hike and uh he got back came
to the tent until he wanted out that's where she was laying right here in this nice little cozy
corner I gotta get moving get up gotta make that tripod and start preparing supper so
I can hear the snow still going outside I'll show you before we go and my life jacket on this side
let's see what it looks like out there it's probably full of snow on this side
oh yeah Johnny says it's real windy out there too all right time to head up got the fools out there
okay I see one thing drawback from tent to hammock getting out is a bugger
definitely a lot harder than just getting out of the hammock
okay look at this
beauty Johnny's only got me out here the one night and I'm making him him and I food so he's
gonna stay the second night and I'm not sure what he's gonna eat probably could eat leftovers
by the looks of things there's this bag right here that I carried in has a lot of food in it
breakfast sausage for tomorrow maybe for tonight bacon for tonight and probably as well tomorrow
red pepper mushroom for the meal tonight chicken two fairly good size breasts a boatload of brie
which I will leave Johnny some if he wants it but I have a feeling I'll just be carrying it out
so this is the rice that we're going with for tonight and take these chicken breasts I'm
going to borrow Johnny's knife because mine is still in my backpack and I'm going to slice a
pocket into them stuff brie into there and bacon oh thanks Johnny and then we're going to wrap them
with bacon make a little thing of ziggy's brie I have never done this before Johnny
I take no responsibility uh Claire said just carve a little pocket in okay meat pocket too
successfully done stuff stuff stuff yeah they're wrapping never done this one piece
there it is all right so now we got to figure out we got there it is there
they've got to bake for about an hour in the dutch oven we'll start it like this and then
we'll build a tripod as it's kind of coming up to temperature okay I'm gonna throw these in
all right tripod is done we've suspended the crock pot with it just a the line that I used
to tie the top of the tripod it just drew longer did a little uh overhand knot at the bottom and
then used a prusik so we can move the pot up and down hopefully it doesn't slide that the line
coming down is pretty thin compared to the prusik itself so but so far so good and it's not a lot of
weight well we got the light on I'm not sure if you're gonna be able to see this or not but this
is what's on tap not for the whole night because uh a little pricey but my father-in-law Harry got
me that for Christmas this year even though it was a secret Santa I'm not supposed to know that
um and uh yeah a little bit more I brought the whole bottle I'm I'm taking the majority of this
back with me I actually got a really cheap Evan Williams bourbon in my bag or might be Jim Beam
or something but this is just for show needed the all the weight in the pack to get us across that
channel I gotta get the blood pumping so Johnny's gonna take me for a little hike
around to the uh the point of the peninsula that we're on that way I can see
the wind conditions but look at this snow that nice little water you just can't even see the
other side a little bit score it's up for a little walk grabbing some wood
we're back already mission accomplished with the wood and uh look at her
got that that's an aqua quest six tarp aqua quest six aqua quest tarp I don't know
it looks enormous quite a bit of snow built up from sliding off it's our little uh
a little cave gonna have to make some coffee all right so it's been about an hour we checked on
it 10 minutes ago it wasn't anywhere near really being done so we're gonna let it cook a little
while longer we may have to resort to dicing it up throwing all the stuff in with it and just
letting it cook like a normal stew type thing I'm not sure but right now I'm gonna put the veggies
on so I figured I'd show you there's a big thing of debris there I'm gonna throw that in as well
as you can see we put some charcoal on top
try to heat through a little quicker so far didn't seem to work that well we didn't we
didn't really have enough probably so do we want to just let's let's just start getting
I'll throw all the let's start throwing stuff in throw this piece of brie in for no reason
mushrooms it's like a almost like a broth in there yeah try to keep trying to leave this
for Johnny for his tomorrow night supper if he'll let me no yeah you sure just one
yeah that's a lot of food actually it's a lot of chicken okay 10 minutes setting a timer now
and I'll try not to put any ashes in it this time no promises but we have to put on the barbecue
sauce this is the stuff I use for this or this is what we're going to be using you can see that
there I don't know if the camera can pick that up oh yeah it's like it's just all steam all right
it looks good to me yeah so we'll just let it heat up for a couple of minutes
maybe reduce away we go but this is a problem the uh so cold out there is still brie in there
that uh oh thanks Johnny so cold out that you can't really film very well because all the
steam coming off the I think that rice disappeared in there didn't it did you put any in we definitely
should have put the second packet but look how much is going to probably be left over as is
this is it I'm not sure if it looks appetizing but it should be well Johnny tells me that he
really likes it the chicken is actually real turned out really tender so um it was a bit of
work though what time is it 6 30 it's yeah it's 6 30 we started cooking right around
I think you started preparing around 4 30 or so or maybe five um so it took quite a while and it
wasn't the easiest thing ever it didn't turn out perfect obviously I mean it'd be nice if the bacon
was crispy I don't think that's it wouldn't have been possible the way I did it but yeah the
chicken is very tender and uh the barbecue sauce and I might have put a little too much in but it's
all it's pretty good so uh yeah another win all right we are in bed there's the little pup there
I wrapped her up in my coat that's pretty good night I mean I know we're kind of heading to bed
a little early uh a little earlier than normal but that's uh you know to be expected in the
winter it gets dark so early it was dark at like I don't know 10 after 5 because of the the weather
so um you know cook once cooking's done you're done eating once you get a book or something to
do plus it's a little cold for sitting around the fire pit so kind of this is what you do you go to
bed so I know this one is looking forward to having a long winter's nap so as am I I'm looking forward
to like getting a good night's sleep in this tent hopefully that's what will happen I'll let you know
anyway good night from the tent good morning everybody it is seven o'clock and uh we just
woke up got a lot of condensation on this tent a lot of condensation on my bag I don't know if you
can see that um yeah a lot anyway it doesn't seem like a big deal since I slept uh nice and warm
and we slept like 11 hours which is excellent so anyway I'm going to start packing up the stuff
because I want to be able to zip out of here as quick as possible if the weather is right so I'm
just going to pack up the stuff in here and then go see Johnny looks like you got a little snow on
the top of the tent too a little bit of condensation up there as well just on our way over to check
how windy it is on the lake so Tillie and I are making our way through the morning winter
beautiful out here well it doesn't look as bad as yesterday yet it is wavy what do you think pupper
yeah it's too big well judge on what I just saw I think it looks okay um I'll get Johnny
have a look before we set off um maybe best to try to go up and not cross the widest part of the
lake like we did yesterday um but yeah we'll see look at this wow I gotta get this tent down
well Johnny seems to think the same as me it's not looking as bad as yesterday so as much as
I want to stay um I found out last night that I got to go work overnight tonight so um the bailout
option was to paddle down this shoreline and just go with the wind and then get Johnny's wife to come
pick me up she's only available till like 11 30 and I don't want to tempt fate because if I miss
that Claire doesn't have the car I do so there's no way for me to get out so I uh I'm kind of just
stressing out a little bit about the conditions so I mean if I was if I wasn't working I'd be
more relaxed about it be like ah whatever I'll just hang out paddle across and if I can't make
it then I'll go back down and you know have breakfast and all that but that's not to be
the case this time I'm gonna leave Johnny with the uh bacon and I'm gonna try to leave him a
couple of sausage and I'm just gonna pack everything else up leave him whatever he wants
and I'm gonna head out all right everybody well I pretty much packed everything up I know maybe
I'm stressing a little bit too much about that water but uh looking out and seeing that it's
not terrible yet I just want to get across it so it's unfortunate I'm missing a bacon and egg and
sausage breakfast with Johnny and a lot of coffee because that's what we always do but
there's always next time it's better to be safe I guess plus with having to work tonight I just
get a move on I think I said it already thanks for everybody that's continued subscribers and
continue watching and everybody that's new to the channel welcome aboard hopefully you enjoy
this kind of content and you'll keep following to see more thanks for watching all right all
thanks Johnny wave to the camera Johnny get across this hey