- Joined
- Nov 27, 2004
- Messages
- 3,124
Next time, I'll have to remember to bring my camera.
This past weekend, I managed to get away for my first serious bit of outdoors time since the snow melted (which was last week
). The outing was in / on Blue Mountain (which is both a township and a mountain), near Collingwood, Ontario. The objective: Clear a network of hiking paths through the woods / wetlands on some private land. This involved cutting up trees that fell over the winter, cutting down trees that had not fallen but were too badly damaged to bounce back, navigating with a compass and marking a large main trail with several side trails. I was out for a total of eight hours on Saturday and six on Sunday.
This was a festival of chopping. My right arm and shoulder are paying for it today, but damn was it fun! I thought long and hard about my commitment to the one-year, three-knives challenge, but in the end decided that clearing brush with a 5" hollow grind would be madness. So I left my Delta 5 at home and hauled out my trusty BK-9.
I set out Saturday morning with a pair of work gloves, my BK-9, PSK, compass, canteen, and poncho. I left my camera behind, as I didn't want to be encumbered with any extra gear. Sorry guys! Having used my BK-9 for heavy chopping before, I knew that the handle would eventually cause a few blisters, even with the work gloves - so I cut a section of bike tubing and used it for extra handle padding. Despite this, I still developed a sizeable blister on the inside of my thumb. This necessitated a quick dip into my PSK for a band-aid and some tape, which seemed to stop the blister from worsening. I was cutting through a few different kinds of wood - old, dead, and brittle (but hard!) stuff from fallen or standing dead trees, and younger, healthier, green (but still dead or dying) wood from trees that were bent over from the weight of the winter snows. Temperature was in the mid-20s, which made me glad for the shade of the forest. After a solid day of work, I returned to the cabin to sip a nice beer (Innis & Gunn) and count the many cuts, scrapes and bruises that I had gathered. On the way back, I picked a bunch of wild leeks (which were everywhere) to enjoy with dinner.
I awoke Sunday morning to an amazing thunder storm (around 6 am). I love being in the woods in the middle of a good downpour, listening to the hissing of the rain through the trees, feeling the cool, misty air, and watching flashes of lightning rippling overhead. Awesome. The storm had brought cooler temperatures, and when I set out to work, it was a balmy 6 C - perfect bush-whacking weather! I waited until the thunder and lightning had passed, but it was still raining steadily when I left the cabin. I wore my MEC rain poncho / jacket, which kept my arms and torso completely dry (actually, it was so efficient at repelling water that the rain ran straight down it and began to soak my jeans around my knees, prompting thoughts about the merits of rain pants). Like Saturday, Sunday was spent chopping and splitting wood. The woods were beautiful in the rain and mist, and I loved the smell of wet pine and earth. My compass came in handy, as my goal was to clear a side trail that would link up with the main loop that I had cleared on Saturday - without some means of navigation, I would no doubt have become lost in the mist and wound up wandering in circles. I managed to complete my work and return to the cabin just before a new batch of thunder and lightning.
All things considered, it was a fantastic weekend. There was a moment around noon on Sunday, when I was standing in the middle of a beautiful marshy forest area, covered head-to-toe in mud, rain, and pine sap, having just chopped through a fallen maple, when I realized that there probably wasn't anywhere I would rather be. Again, I wish I had brought a camera, but it would have been a burden to haul around.
A few remarks on gear:
Once again, my BK-9 (Camillus brand) proved to be an amazing and dependable chopper. After two days of incredibly intense use - including chopping, splitting, batoning (gasp!), prying, and cutting - it was none the worse for the wear. The blade held a terrific edge. I touched it up with my pocket ceramic on Saturday evening, but it really didn't need it. The only critical comment I can give about this knife is that the bulky handle can cause some hot spots during extended use. I think that if the handle were slightly thinner and more rounded where it contacts the thumb, it would be more comfortable. The rubber tubing increased my grip, provided extra padding, and absorbed some of the shock when I swung into hard wood. From now on, I will pack a few extra sections of tubing in my kit when I'm hiking with my BK-9, as they come in handy.
Here are a few pics of my Becker, taken after it was given a good scrubbing.
And here's a shot of my EDC, which came along on this outing, but was used only for cutting survey tape.
I hope to get back to the area some time in the next few weeks, and I promise to bring a camera and take a few pictures of my work.
Thanks for listening, and all the best,
- Mike
This past weekend, I managed to get away for my first serious bit of outdoors time since the snow melted (which was last week
). The outing was in / on Blue Mountain (which is both a township and a mountain), near Collingwood, Ontario. The objective: Clear a network of hiking paths through the woods / wetlands on some private land. This involved cutting up trees that fell over the winter, cutting down trees that had not fallen but were too badly damaged to bounce back, navigating with a compass and marking a large main trail with several side trails. I was out for a total of eight hours on Saturday and six on Sunday. This was a festival of chopping. My right arm and shoulder are paying for it today, but damn was it fun! I thought long and hard about my commitment to the one-year, three-knives challenge, but in the end decided that clearing brush with a 5" hollow grind would be madness. So I left my Delta 5 at home and hauled out my trusty BK-9.
I set out Saturday morning with a pair of work gloves, my BK-9, PSK, compass, canteen, and poncho. I left my camera behind, as I didn't want to be encumbered with any extra gear. Sorry guys! Having used my BK-9 for heavy chopping before, I knew that the handle would eventually cause a few blisters, even with the work gloves - so I cut a section of bike tubing and used it for extra handle padding. Despite this, I still developed a sizeable blister on the inside of my thumb. This necessitated a quick dip into my PSK for a band-aid and some tape, which seemed to stop the blister from worsening. I was cutting through a few different kinds of wood - old, dead, and brittle (but hard!) stuff from fallen or standing dead trees, and younger, healthier, green (but still dead or dying) wood from trees that were bent over from the weight of the winter snows. Temperature was in the mid-20s, which made me glad for the shade of the forest. After a solid day of work, I returned to the cabin to sip a nice beer (Innis & Gunn) and count the many cuts, scrapes and bruises that I had gathered. On the way back, I picked a bunch of wild leeks (which were everywhere) to enjoy with dinner.
I awoke Sunday morning to an amazing thunder storm (around 6 am). I love being in the woods in the middle of a good downpour, listening to the hissing of the rain through the trees, feeling the cool, misty air, and watching flashes of lightning rippling overhead. Awesome. The storm had brought cooler temperatures, and when I set out to work, it was a balmy 6 C - perfect bush-whacking weather! I waited until the thunder and lightning had passed, but it was still raining steadily when I left the cabin. I wore my MEC rain poncho / jacket, which kept my arms and torso completely dry (actually, it was so efficient at repelling water that the rain ran straight down it and began to soak my jeans around my knees, prompting thoughts about the merits of rain pants). Like Saturday, Sunday was spent chopping and splitting wood. The woods were beautiful in the rain and mist, and I loved the smell of wet pine and earth. My compass came in handy, as my goal was to clear a side trail that would link up with the main loop that I had cleared on Saturday - without some means of navigation, I would no doubt have become lost in the mist and wound up wandering in circles. I managed to complete my work and return to the cabin just before a new batch of thunder and lightning.
All things considered, it was a fantastic weekend. There was a moment around noon on Sunday, when I was standing in the middle of a beautiful marshy forest area, covered head-to-toe in mud, rain, and pine sap, having just chopped through a fallen maple, when I realized that there probably wasn't anywhere I would rather be. Again, I wish I had brought a camera, but it would have been a burden to haul around.
A few remarks on gear:
Once again, my BK-9 (Camillus brand) proved to be an amazing and dependable chopper. After two days of incredibly intense use - including chopping, splitting, batoning (gasp!), prying, and cutting - it was none the worse for the wear. The blade held a terrific edge. I touched it up with my pocket ceramic on Saturday evening, but it really didn't need it. The only critical comment I can give about this knife is that the bulky handle can cause some hot spots during extended use. I think that if the handle were slightly thinner and more rounded where it contacts the thumb, it would be more comfortable. The rubber tubing increased my grip, provided extra padding, and absorbed some of the shock when I swung into hard wood. From now on, I will pack a few extra sections of tubing in my kit when I'm hiking with my BK-9, as they come in handy.
Here are a few pics of my Becker, taken after it was given a good scrubbing.
And here's a shot of my EDC, which came along on this outing, but was used only for cutting survey tape.
I hope to get back to the area some time in the next few weeks, and I promise to bring a camera and take a few pictures of my work.
Thanks for listening, and all the best,
- Mike
