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- Jan 7, 2003
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About 8 oclock, after a quick breakfast of oatmeal and coffee cooked over alcohol stoves we cached the packs and headed up to the ridge. The sky was overcast and thick fog rolled through the valley obscuring all distant landmarks. Very little of the previous days water run was visible.
Today was to be a long hike in which they mastered compass navigation without a map. The middle elevation valley to the south of us is a place I have traveled very little and I wanted to explore it. Andre told me, This time you just hang back and let us do all the navigation.
Valcione had apparently been very impressed with our water run the day before. He brought his little notebook and kept a running record of their course and even drew little sketches of landmarks he wanted to remember.
We headed off up the valley into an area I had never been to before. Off in the distance there was a deep valley with a dense forest cutting across our line of travel. These valleys are deceptive in that they normally hide a deep ravine in the center. The forests are dense beyond belief, choked with vines and bamboo, and are nearly impossible to cross without a machete.
We had talked about aiming off the day before after their slight navigational confusion. This time it was a necessity. Across the valley forest there was a clearing we wanted to shoot for. I had Andre aim for a lone tree on the hill opposite well above where the clearing terminated in a sharp point cutting into the jungle. We didnt want to shoot for the point and miss it so we aimed off to come out to the left of where we wanted to go.
I gave them some initial instruction about how to navigate in dense brush with one guy up front cutting and the other navigating from behind him. I only have the first guy do the chopping to protect him from getting chopped. I tell them the ugliest sound in the forest is the sound of fingers landing in the leaves.
This forest turned out to be just what I had wanted. It was so dense you couldnt have thrown yourself through it. Valcione led the way with his 16 inch Tramontina and Andre told him where to go. After a few minutes of chopping the land fell away and what had looked like a level walk turned into a steep decent through vines, bamboo, roots, ferns, and leaf mold. I was in heaven, I couldnt have asked for a better challenge for them.
Valcione chopped all the way down to the creek at the bottom and we refilled the canteens. After a less steep climb and another hundred meters of chopping we broke out right on target.
Further on we came to another ridge and another valley beyond with a deceptively flat forest in the bottom. On the opposing hillside almost a kilometer away there was a large outcrop of rock. I still wanted to teach them about signal mirrors.
This time they were on their own. I had them sight on the rock and told them that I would signal them with the mirror when they got there. Then they were to check out the far side from the top of the next ridge and come back when they saw me signal again with the mirror. I gave them the digital camera so they could record their adventure.
It took them forever to break out the other side. I was actually getting worried, I knew they were in the thick of it and more climbing than walking. Finally they came out and made their way up to the rock. I signaled to them and they moved off to explore the ridge.
I moved up the hill to just below the top and signaled them after about a half hour. Soon they were moving through the brush and boulders in a straight line for me. I sighted their line of march so I would know approximately where they would come out of the forest on my side.
Again I waited and waited. Finally I heard this shout of triumph drift up from the valley, but far below where they should have been. They were either very lost and had just found themselves again, or they had just found a restaurant. Eventually they came up from the forest in that direction soaking wet and I got to find out their story.
All day long I had been reminding them to do a little touch check on their knives and machetes to make sure they were in the sheaths. This is a habit that has to become a reflex. Valcione had chopped their way down into a steep ravine; they even had to climb down on vines to get to the bottom. There they switched places and Andre did the chopping. Sometime later, Valcione saw Andre check his knife and did the same and discovered he no longer had a machete!
On their way back they decided to hike back down the creek and search for it and they found it stuck in the ground where he had sat down. That was why they were shouting.
They were soaked from the belt down so I had them strip off their boots and dry their socks a while before we hiked back. Off over the town of Ouro Preto 13 km to the south a thunderstorm was dropping so much rain that the mountains were obscured. We hustled to get back to camp. On the way a sliver of wood poked right through my jungle boot bruising my foot but thankfully not breaking the skin.
We got back about 3:00. The thunderstorm never did reach us. Mac
Today was to be a long hike in which they mastered compass navigation without a map. The middle elevation valley to the south of us is a place I have traveled very little and I wanted to explore it. Andre told me, This time you just hang back and let us do all the navigation.
Valcione had apparently been very impressed with our water run the day before. He brought his little notebook and kept a running record of their course and even drew little sketches of landmarks he wanted to remember.
We headed off up the valley into an area I had never been to before. Off in the distance there was a deep valley with a dense forest cutting across our line of travel. These valleys are deceptive in that they normally hide a deep ravine in the center. The forests are dense beyond belief, choked with vines and bamboo, and are nearly impossible to cross without a machete.
We had talked about aiming off the day before after their slight navigational confusion. This time it was a necessity. Across the valley forest there was a clearing we wanted to shoot for. I had Andre aim for a lone tree on the hill opposite well above where the clearing terminated in a sharp point cutting into the jungle. We didnt want to shoot for the point and miss it so we aimed off to come out to the left of where we wanted to go.
I gave them some initial instruction about how to navigate in dense brush with one guy up front cutting and the other navigating from behind him. I only have the first guy do the chopping to protect him from getting chopped. I tell them the ugliest sound in the forest is the sound of fingers landing in the leaves.
This forest turned out to be just what I had wanted. It was so dense you couldnt have thrown yourself through it. Valcione led the way with his 16 inch Tramontina and Andre told him where to go. After a few minutes of chopping the land fell away and what had looked like a level walk turned into a steep decent through vines, bamboo, roots, ferns, and leaf mold. I was in heaven, I couldnt have asked for a better challenge for them.
Valcione chopped all the way down to the creek at the bottom and we refilled the canteens. After a less steep climb and another hundred meters of chopping we broke out right on target.
Further on we came to another ridge and another valley beyond with a deceptively flat forest in the bottom. On the opposing hillside almost a kilometer away there was a large outcrop of rock. I still wanted to teach them about signal mirrors.
This time they were on their own. I had them sight on the rock and told them that I would signal them with the mirror when they got there. Then they were to check out the far side from the top of the next ridge and come back when they saw me signal again with the mirror. I gave them the digital camera so they could record their adventure.
It took them forever to break out the other side. I was actually getting worried, I knew they were in the thick of it and more climbing than walking. Finally they came out and made their way up to the rock. I signaled to them and they moved off to explore the ridge.
I moved up the hill to just below the top and signaled them after about a half hour. Soon they were moving through the brush and boulders in a straight line for me. I sighted their line of march so I would know approximately where they would come out of the forest on my side.
Again I waited and waited. Finally I heard this shout of triumph drift up from the valley, but far below where they should have been. They were either very lost and had just found themselves again, or they had just found a restaurant. Eventually they came up from the forest in that direction soaking wet and I got to find out their story.
All day long I had been reminding them to do a little touch check on their knives and machetes to make sure they were in the sheaths. This is a habit that has to become a reflex. Valcione had chopped their way down into a steep ravine; they even had to climb down on vines to get to the bottom. There they switched places and Andre did the chopping. Sometime later, Valcione saw Andre check his knife and did the same and discovered he no longer had a machete!
On their way back they decided to hike back down the creek and search for it and they found it stuck in the ground where he had sat down. That was why they were shouting.
They were soaked from the belt down so I had them strip off their boots and dry their socks a while before we hiked back. Off over the town of Ouro Preto 13 km to the south a thunderstorm was dropping so much rain that the mountains were obscured. We hustled to get back to camp. On the way a sliver of wood poked right through my jungle boot bruising my foot but thankfully not breaking the skin.
We got back about 3:00. The thunderstorm never did reach us. Mac
