I know what you’re thinking – and you can get your mind out of the gutter! This is about my first time spending the night by myself in a hot tent. Over the years, I have been on many different winter camping adventures – cold tenting, shelter building, in yurts, and yes, hot tenting with my friend Christina. However, I have never spent the night in a hot tent by myself, left to manage the stove and keep warm, until now. So read on to find out how I fared – OK, I wasn’t exactly completely on my own as Christina was camping right next door in her other hot tent in case I needed help, but she left me alone so I could show myself that I could handle it.
This adventure started when Christina invited me to help her demo her two homemade hot tents at the Winter in the Wild event in Algonquin Park (I will be writing up a separate blog about that next week). I knew that this was going to be a a great experience that I couldn’t pass up, so I made all the plans and on the Friday night I headed north to Algonquin, making a quick stop in Whitney to pick up a wheel barrow of wood along the way – a tip I learned from a fellow outdoor person online – to go along with a couple of eco logs I purchased the week before. The stove that I was using is a Princess Auto barrel wood stove, which I was told has some operating quirks, so I knew that if I was able to get this stove working for me this weekend, then I should be able to conquer others. At around 6pm I arrived to my site with the tipi hot tent already set up, stove and all.
THIS is awesome 
The only space was my front seat 
All set up at night
Even though I had watched Christina’s videos on the tipi build/set up and would have been confident in getting it ready, I was very thankful that Christina was getting all the gear ready because this tent is her first home made build, and I didn’t want to make any errors in setting it up. Since she had taken care of the tent, my jobs were to organize my gear, get the wood ready for the evenings burn, and set up my bed. Everything had to look good for the festival on Saturday because there would be a lot of people checking out the tents.
My Set Up
Inside the tent was set up so that I was sleeping on the one side, with my feet towards the door, and the other side had my chair and a little table. The wood was piled in the corner with a second pile under the stove for easier access in the middle of the night.
Stove and bedding 
Slippers for inside the tent 
Got wood? 
Table and Chair 
Box for night stand
Night One
After a great supper and getting caught up with all my outdoor people attending this festival weekend, it was time to go it alone. The stove was not yet lit and it was my job to get it going to keep me warm that night. Christina talked me through the process of operating the stove – what vents to open and when etc. – and in no time I had the stove roaring. The fire was going strong and the temperature started rising on the thermometer as heat was billowing from the sides. From next door, Christina spoke words of encouragement and happiness as she could hear the fire crackling in the stove. Success! The fire was lit, now I just had to keep it going throughout the night.
Seafood Pasta
I slept well that evening and only got up once to stoke the fire at around 3 am. I did wake up again just after 5 am but I was nice and warm in my sleeping bag, so I didn’t get up to put any more wood in the stove. Just shortly after 7 am, I was awake for the day and the stove was burning with just coals, so I added a couple of logs and soon the fire was going fully again. We had opted to eat breakfast together in Christina’s other hot tent, as the stove in that tent burns hotter and was easier to use to warm up our food. We were both happy campers that morning as I had made it through the night successfully.
Breakfast by Christina 
Good morning selfie
Saturday’s Events
During the day, I had to keep the fire going for the Winter in the Wild demonstrations, and was happy that I had smoke billowing from the stack and warmth in the tent for visitors to experience. I was feeling comfortable about keeping the fire going, and even had many compliments from visitors about how nice it was inside.
Good Morning 
Morning Walk 
Demo time (Photo by Christina)
After a long day of hosting visitors, we again we opted to eat supper in Christina’s tent (the plan was to have breakfast the next morning in my “house”), which was a delicious meal of chicken stew. Yum Yum. Her chicken stew was just what we needed to warm our bodies from being outside all day.
SOOOOO YUMMY
Night Two
After some more socializing in the warming tent, it was well into the wee hours of the morning before we headed to bed. When I got to my tent, the stove was completely out and it was getting cold in the tent. I made quick work of the stove and got it burning again, but it was just not warming up inside. I kept moving around to keep my body warm, but I had a feeling it was going to be a long night for me.
I was up at 1:00, 2:00, 3:00, 4:30, 5:30, and 7:00 when I finally got out of bed. Ya….that was not a good time. I was cold throughout the evening even after checking the fire multiple times to make sure it was burning. The thing was, the stove was burning hot, it was just not able to warm up the tent to a comfortable temperature – probably because the outside temperature that night went down to -30 degrees Celsius, and when I checked the temp at 7:30 and it was a balmy -26!
Before we headed to bed, Christina gave me a little bit of advice – since breakfast was suppose to be in my “house” the next morning, she suggested that I prep a pot of water, and during the early hours when I would have to add more wood to the stove, place it on top to warm up. That way by the time we were ready for breakfast, the water would be nice and hot for tea and hot chocolate. BEST SUGGESTION EVER!!! At my 5:30 wake up I followed her suggestion and we had nice hot water ready to go. However, we ended up in her tent for breakfast since my stove and tent was just not warm enough. Breakfast again was super yummy, and the tea hit the spot to warm me up.
Yes I’m fully dressed!! I was not warm yet.
Given the cold temperatures overnight, it wasn’t surprising that when chatting with a bunch of other people later that morning, they were all feeling the effects of the cold night as well, and many were also having issues keeping their tents warm. It wasn’t just me!! I did feel a little relief knowing that I was not the only one, and it wasn’t a rookie issue.
Although this trip had it’s challenges, I had lots of help and support from friends, and I’m happy to say my first couple of nights alone in a hot tent were a success. Be sure to check back next week for my take on the Winter in the Wild Festival as it was my first time attending this event.