It was planned as the weekend that we experiment with a bunch of winter camping techniques, particularly towing sleds and building (and sleeping in!) an igloo. So, igloo kit and sleds went into Lee's jeep and we headed on off to Cyprus Lake on the Bruce Peninsula for our adventure. The igloo kit is this one, and I checked out an igloo made with one at Mew Lake three weeks ago. The sleds are made from Canadian Tire kiddie sleds, using a modified version of the design found on this site (I dispensed with the rigid poles given that we weren't planning on anything but gentle terrain).
We made a few mistakes. We neglected to watch the igloo making video. We forgot the backup tent. We got a very late start due to some forgotten boots. We assumed the road into the Cyprus Lake campground would be plowed - this was not the case, which added 5 km to our trip in. We (I) figured that an igloo blocked all wind for its occupants, and thus it wouldn't matter if we built it in an exposed place. We had all of these mistakes to compensate for, and lengthened the odds by not stopping to properly hydrate. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that, very early in the igloo construction process (in minus thirtysomething windchill, by the way) our fingers were no longer responding properly and our communication skills ceased to exist.
The one rule that we didn't break, though, was that if you're not confident in your situation, you get out. The lure of a warm hotel room (and a pint of beer...) was enough to convince us that safety really did come first, and we hooked the sleds (which worked like a charm, though there will be a couple of modifications) back up and hiked out. We did stop at Singing Sands and watched the sun go down - and confirmed that we made the right decision when the temperature dropped rapidly at sunset.
People who sleep in hotels can have winter adventures too. On Sunday, we had one of the best snowshoe outings ever. We parked at Dunk's Bay and followed the Bruce Trail to Little Cove. There was lots of powder, and the trail went inland and thus we were nice and warm (this time, we made sure we were properly hydrated and kept adjusting clothing to never be too hot or cold).
Little Cove was a highlight of the winter for me. I saw the smooth ice that filled the entire cove, and it took no time at all to ditch my snowshoes and start goofing off. Lee needed a bit of convincing that the ice was safe (and wasn't overly impressed by my jumping up and down demonstrations, particularly not when I did them in close proximity to where he was standing).
In this rare instance, my northern Ontario upbringing brought an outdoorsy advantage, since northern bush kids are good at driving in the snow (not to mention extricating ditched vehicles from snowbanks) and, it turns out, much more confident in their skills to assess lake ice than BC kids are. I merrily made my way out to the rougher ice (and kept jumping up and down). Lee got over it.
We continued along the trail toward Driftwood Cove, and found a sheltered, sunny spot for a break. But the lure of the ice was more than we could resist for long, and we were back in Little Cove within an hour. There was just too much cool stuff to explore.

What a great day! You couldn't ask for better weather (given that we were dressed for it, and heading back to the Princess for tea after - no frozen hands today, except when I had to warm the camera battery up. It was much too cold for my little digicam to want to play without extra coaxing).
We now have a list of things to watch out for on our next winter camping attempt (and I have some ideas on ways to keep my camera warm when my body heat is not enough). Stay tuned...