It's been a long time since I've managed to get outside the city. My research keeps me pretty busy, and I've also had to deal with some wedding planning chores.
We set out pretty early to beat the traffic. The forecast was cloudy with a 70% chance of a thunderstorm, but I decided that we should chance it... plus I think that there are few things as peaceful as walking through a forest when it's raining... as long as you manage to stay reasonably dry.
The woods were deserted on account of a poor weather forecast, and a generally gloomy morning.
We made our way over a small mountain, and then up the side of a brook that turned into a series of waterfalls as we went further up.
When we reached the top of the ridge, we had a quick snack, and got to breathe in some very cool, light air. Then we made our way down the ridge, until we got to see our mid-hike destination.
We got to the lake, and met a very nice couple with a beautiful and exquisitely well-behaved young german shepherd. After having some lunch by the lake, we found the trail we would use to head back... which turned out to be very rocky.
When we took a break, I decided to give my Landi field knife in green micarta a little workout, as it was the first time it got to see the outside world.
Unfortunately, at this point my camera battery decided to die... which was unfortunate, but not unexpected, since I've been forgetting to charge it for a month or so.
Nonetheless, I practiced making fuzz sticks and starting a fire in wet conditions. The knife easily sliced up some sticks, scraped some bark shavings, and split a 2" branch using another as a baton. In no time a small fire was burning. Satisfied, I put the fire out with a stream of water from my hydration pack, thoroughly soaking everything to make sure that no spark could escape. The knife took the punishment very well, with no discernible damage to the edge. Furthermore, when I got home, I found that the knife was able to cleanly slice magazine pages, despite being batoned through a hard knot (took me a couple of minutes to get through that thing).
Overall, we got some very necessary R&R, and had a chance to breathe something other than toxic NYC air.
Finally, big thumbs up to John Landi for a fantastic knife.
We set out pretty early to beat the traffic. The forecast was cloudy with a 70% chance of a thunderstorm, but I decided that we should chance it... plus I think that there are few things as peaceful as walking through a forest when it's raining... as long as you manage to stay reasonably dry.
The woods were deserted on account of a poor weather forecast, and a generally gloomy morning.
We made our way over a small mountain, and then up the side of a brook that turned into a series of waterfalls as we went further up.
When we reached the top of the ridge, we had a quick snack, and got to breathe in some very cool, light air. Then we made our way down the ridge, until we got to see our mid-hike destination.
We got to the lake, and met a very nice couple with a beautiful and exquisitely well-behaved young german shepherd. After having some lunch by the lake, we found the trail we would use to head back... which turned out to be very rocky.
When we took a break, I decided to give my Landi field knife in green micarta a little workout, as it was the first time it got to see the outside world.
Unfortunately, at this point my camera battery decided to die... which was unfortunate, but not unexpected, since I've been forgetting to charge it for a month or so.
Nonetheless, I practiced making fuzz sticks and starting a fire in wet conditions. The knife easily sliced up some sticks, scraped some bark shavings, and split a 2" branch using another as a baton. In no time a small fire was burning. Satisfied, I put the fire out with a stream of water from my hydration pack, thoroughly soaking everything to make sure that no spark could escape. The knife took the punishment very well, with no discernible damage to the edge. Furthermore, when I got home, I found that the knife was able to cleanly slice magazine pages, despite being batoned through a hard knot (took me a couple of minutes to get through that thing).
Overall, we got some very necessary R&R, and had a chance to breathe something other than toxic NYC air.
Finally, big thumbs up to John Landi for a fantastic knife.
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