- Joined
- Apr 30, 2010
- Messages
- 1,499
My current school/clinical/work/family schedule has pretty much reduced me to the occasional lurker in the forum, but I still try to keep up. This week however, has found me with no school, and a few days off of work. So what does a man with serious cabin fever do? He packs up a few blades, his dog, his pack, and heads to the woods! This little day trip is just what the doctor ordered! Great scenery, a total fatwood score, fire in the snow, and a smattering of blade pron for you to enjoy!
Where I started...
My hiking companion Ahmi...
Here's my gear. I'll save you the pack explosion, but it consisted of cold weather clothing, rain gear, food, 2L Camelback, FAK, and PSK (of various goodies)
The blades for the day: BK2 (duh!), FBF 14'er (double duh!), and the MDTT necker from David Farmer. I had my Spydie Manix2 in my pocket, but I never remember to take a picture of it...
Stumbled across a great campsite - a lot of flat ground, a great little grove of live trees for hammocks, lean-to's, tarps, or whatever.
Plus this natural formation in the rock makes a great little fire pit...I'd be cautious with this, but during the dry season it would be pretty convenient!
The view from where I decided to eat lunch.
Same spot facing about 90 degrees to the left.
The higher I went, the more snow I encountered.
I sat on this stump to rest a few minutes and could smell the resinous, turpentine-like goodness that we know as fatwood (or pitchwood
)
So I took the BK2 and split a few good sized chunks off. Only took what I thought to be reasonable, and left the stump for others to use.
It was some pretty sticky stuff!
Thought this would be a good spot to practice some fire making. So I dug a small pit in the snow, lined the bottom with some dry wood (but left room underneath for airflow), created a nice tinder bundle from dry grass I gathered earlier in the hike, stacked a few small pine branches around it, and shaved some fatwood onto the pile.
A few strikes from the spine of my knife on the firesteel and POOF.
All around just a great day to be outside!
In a few days I'll be back to lurking, but there's still Beckerhead love coming from Colorado!
Where I started...
My hiking companion Ahmi...
Here's my gear. I'll save you the pack explosion, but it consisted of cold weather clothing, rain gear, food, 2L Camelback, FAK, and PSK (of various goodies)
The blades for the day: BK2 (duh!), FBF 14'er (double duh!), and the MDTT necker from David Farmer. I had my Spydie Manix2 in my pocket, but I never remember to take a picture of it...
Stumbled across a great campsite - a lot of flat ground, a great little grove of live trees for hammocks, lean-to's, tarps, or whatever.
Plus this natural formation in the rock makes a great little fire pit...I'd be cautious with this, but during the dry season it would be pretty convenient!
The view from where I decided to eat lunch.
Same spot facing about 90 degrees to the left.
The higher I went, the more snow I encountered.
I sat on this stump to rest a few minutes and could smell the resinous, turpentine-like goodness that we know as fatwood (or pitchwood
)So I took the BK2 and split a few good sized chunks off. Only took what I thought to be reasonable, and left the stump for others to use.
It was some pretty sticky stuff!
Thought this would be a good spot to practice some fire making. So I dug a small pit in the snow, lined the bottom with some dry wood (but left room underneath for airflow), created a nice tinder bundle from dry grass I gathered earlier in the hike, stacked a few small pine branches around it, and shaved some fatwood onto the pile.
A few strikes from the spine of my knife on the firesteel and POOF.
All around just a great day to be outside!
In a few days I'll be back to lurking, but there's still Beckerhead love coming from Colorado!
