In my younger single days, I sometimes got into misadventures. Youth and inexperience combined with a dash of recklessness is not a good thing, but can be tempered if one is at least prepared. Like going canoeing when scattered thunderstorms are predated.
It was a nice summer day, and my girl friend of the time and I were going to spend it out on the water of a local lake. Had met Suzy that school year when her family had moved down from New York to the Washington D.C. suburbs in Maryland. Suzy was a born and bred city girl from Brooklyn, and was intrigued by the woods and countryside of Maryland.
Packing a lunch and some ice tea in a small cooler, we hit the water and were paddling for about an hour. Or to put it more accurate, I was paddling while suzy lounged back getting some sun while clad in a scant bikini. I didn't mind, paddling a canoe on a calm water wasn't hard, and I had a nice view to admire. Perfect afternoon, so what cold go wrong?
About an hour of slow leisurely paddling on the long narrow winding lake, we had almost got to where I knew a very good picnic/swimming spot was, when a Maryland Natural resources patrol boat came roaring around the bend and slowed as he went by.
"Big thunder storm coming, you've got about 20 minutes!" the ranger yelled at us. Then he took off to find whatever fisherman may be out. Suzy looked at me a bit panicked, and asked what do we do?
Well, I thought back to the Boy Scout days with our scoutmaster Mr, Van, and had an idea. I paddled over to the wooded shore and we pulled the canoe up all the way out of the water. I told Suzy to get up the woods and wait for me. I grabbed my pack that always had the Boy Scout essentials in it and turned the canoe over so it wouldn't collect the rain. Then I joined Suzy up in the woods. By this time it was getting a bit ominously darker and you colud hear a very distant thunder now and then. Suzy was in a panic, and saying "We're gonna die, aren't we?" I told her no such thing.
I had my knife. A Victorinox pioneer, a zippo lighter, and my pack. In the pack had a rolled up army surplus poncho, a roll of jute twine, and some other odds and ends like first aid kit, flashlight, towel. I got to work.
In the scouts, Mr. Van and taught us to take down small trees with a pocket knife by cutting a V notch around the base and then bending it over until it snapped at the stress line. I used the Pioneer to cut the notch. The flat ground little Victorinox blade made short work of a sapling about 8 or 9 feet tall and about an inch and a half thick. Big enough for what I wanted. Once down, I used the SAK to trim off the branches and laid the sapling in the fork of another small tree that was convenient. Using the twine, I tied the sapling into the fork. Then I made tent pegs from the branches I had cut off, and used more jute twine to tie down the Pancho over the sapling so we had a low little pup tent like shelter. By this time the thunder was loud, and storm almost ready to break.
Suzy was still scared, and was thinking she wished she was back in Brooklyn, but we crawled into the shelter as the first rain started to fall. It escalated quickly onto a full blown summer thunder storm. Rain poured down, but in our little pup tent shelter we stayed pretty dry. One end was almost on the ground, the high end was only a few feet up but sheltered by the sappling trunk and only a little rain drifted in on the breeze. Suzy was trembling a bit, this being a totally alien experience for the city girl, so I did my manly best to comfort her. She seemed agreeable to that so we spent a pleasant time in our little shelter.
Like most summer storms, this one moved on after about 20 minutes or so, the sound of the thunder moved off, and the rain slowly let up. Suzy was totally amazed at how well we had rode the storm out, and that she didn't die. We had some sandwiches and ice tea from the cooler and had our picnic right where we had sheltered. A Victorinox pioneer, some jute twine, an army poncho from a surplus store, and some tree branches whittled into tent pegs was all that was needed.
A high dollar tactical wonder knife could not have done any better.
It was a nice summer day, and my girl friend of the time and I were going to spend it out on the water of a local lake. Had met Suzy that school year when her family had moved down from New York to the Washington D.C. suburbs in Maryland. Suzy was a born and bred city girl from Brooklyn, and was intrigued by the woods and countryside of Maryland.
Packing a lunch and some ice tea in a small cooler, we hit the water and were paddling for about an hour. Or to put it more accurate, I was paddling while suzy lounged back getting some sun while clad in a scant bikini. I didn't mind, paddling a canoe on a calm water wasn't hard, and I had a nice view to admire. Perfect afternoon, so what cold go wrong?
About an hour of slow leisurely paddling on the long narrow winding lake, we had almost got to where I knew a very good picnic/swimming spot was, when a Maryland Natural resources patrol boat came roaring around the bend and slowed as he went by.
"Big thunder storm coming, you've got about 20 minutes!" the ranger yelled at us. Then he took off to find whatever fisherman may be out. Suzy looked at me a bit panicked, and asked what do we do?
Well, I thought back to the Boy Scout days with our scoutmaster Mr, Van, and had an idea. I paddled over to the wooded shore and we pulled the canoe up all the way out of the water. I told Suzy to get up the woods and wait for me. I grabbed my pack that always had the Boy Scout essentials in it and turned the canoe over so it wouldn't collect the rain. Then I joined Suzy up in the woods. By this time it was getting a bit ominously darker and you colud hear a very distant thunder now and then. Suzy was in a panic, and saying "We're gonna die, aren't we?" I told her no such thing.
I had my knife. A Victorinox pioneer, a zippo lighter, and my pack. In the pack had a rolled up army surplus poncho, a roll of jute twine, and some other odds and ends like first aid kit, flashlight, towel. I got to work.
In the scouts, Mr. Van and taught us to take down small trees with a pocket knife by cutting a V notch around the base and then bending it over until it snapped at the stress line. I used the Pioneer to cut the notch. The flat ground little Victorinox blade made short work of a sapling about 8 or 9 feet tall and about an inch and a half thick. Big enough for what I wanted. Once down, I used the SAK to trim off the branches and laid the sapling in the fork of another small tree that was convenient. Using the twine, I tied the sapling into the fork. Then I made tent pegs from the branches I had cut off, and used more jute twine to tie down the Pancho over the sapling so we had a low little pup tent like shelter. By this time the thunder was loud, and storm almost ready to break.
Suzy was still scared, and was thinking she wished she was back in Brooklyn, but we crawled into the shelter as the first rain started to fall. It escalated quickly onto a full blown summer thunder storm. Rain poured down, but in our little pup tent shelter we stayed pretty dry. One end was almost on the ground, the high end was only a few feet up but sheltered by the sappling trunk and only a little rain drifted in on the breeze. Suzy was trembling a bit, this being a totally alien experience for the city girl, so I did my manly best to comfort her. She seemed agreeable to that so we spent a pleasant time in our little shelter.
Like most summer storms, this one moved on after about 20 minutes or so, the sound of the thunder moved off, and the rain slowly let up. Suzy was totally amazed at how well we had rode the storm out, and that she didn't die. We had some sandwiches and ice tea from the cooler and had our picnic right where we had sheltered. A Victorinox pioneer, some jute twine, an army poncho from a surplus store, and some tree branches whittled into tent pegs was all that was needed.
A high dollar tactical wonder knife could not have done any better.
Last edited:
Must have been a small hole that let go. I'll get another as soon as I can. Far too useful not to have. Until then I have my poncho which is a great little backup.
