First Hike of 2010

Mistwalker

Mistwalker

Gold Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2007
Messages
19,049
Today was a good day for some things I wanted to do so I got up before sunrise, had a hot breakfast and headed out for the first hike of 2010.

I got up on the mountain just as the sun was coming up good.

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Even though it was about 17F up there, and there were some stiff breezes it was a really nice morning out.

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I made a new friend, his name is Steve and he is a "musher" who is into primitive fire starting so we talked for a while about techniques.

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There were icicles in all the water falls and all of the small marshes were frozen.

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I found a good bit of fatwood

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I found some fungi, some nightshade, and some berries still on some bushes.

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By noon I was ready to gather up some tinder and wood and make a fire to warm my bones. There was definitely plenty of good tinder about, and plenty of hardwood debris.

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All in all it was a good walk, and a good haul too.

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Great pics, and by the looks of them, a great day out too. I'm hoping to get out for a little something like that this weekend coming up. If we get a break in this bone-chilling cold.
 
357fan said:
Great pics, and by the looks of them, a great day out too. I'm hoping to get out for a little something like that this weekend coming up. If we get a break in this bone-chilling cold.
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Thanks man, glad you liked them.

Yeah it was great out there, but it's days like this that make me really glad I don't live up north :)
 
That Hawk/Hatchet is really cool!
May I ask who made it? Or, where did you get it?
Thanks for the pics, makes me wish the weather around here had been better lately.

Alex
P.S. If you would prefer to reply to email mine is: alex.vwrsi@gmail.com
 
Moses_3 said:
That Hawk/Hatchet is really cool!
May I ask who made it? Or, where did you get it?
Thanks for the pics, makes me wish the weather around here had been better lately.

Alex
P.S. If you would prefer to reply to email mine is: alex.vwrsi@gmail.com
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Thanks Alex,

The hawk is really cool. It's a Shrike by RMJ Tactical, and there is a thread here in the W&SS section I am working that is about it. Here is a link to it.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=703543

Brian
 
Working with the Shrike was the reason for the hike yesterday. I used it to spark the firesteel to ignite the tinder for my fire and at first there was still ice built up on the blade from chopping in the ice. In this video I didn't use any fatwood to start the fire but in the process of being a smart@$$ I hindered the process with a big piece of fatwood. I suppose that's what I get for being a smart@$$ :)

[youtube]4e4m80oVSCU[/youtube]
 
ratamahatta said:
glad to see you out and about brother!!!!!
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Thanks man. Lol, I was glad to see me out and about too :D It was a welcome break from all the holiday stress ...err I mean holiday cheer :)


WILLIAM.M said:
Great Post Bro

Thanks
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Thanks Bro, I'm glad you enjoyed it.


udtjim said:
I had a couple of these left over when I retired they are great for camping. Not to heavy and pretty cheap.

We won't be hiking here for a while, this last storm dumped 22 inches of snow on us. It will still be here through April.:mad:
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Thanks Jim, those Estwings are great little tools and yeah they do work great for camp work, I have one or two of them around here somewhere...but....I think I developed an allergy to them :D . After all the years of putting on roofs and hanging drywall I'm afraid if I pick one up again someone will drop a bundle of shingles at my feet.

The best story I have about one of those is once when I was still in the local here. I was on a remodel at the T.V.A.- C.O.C. complex and had an Estwing drywall hatchet in my tool pouches along with a Stanley heavy duty drywall keyhole saw, two different types of razor knives, an Imperial S-7 on the belt and a few other things in the pouches and I had a Hilti powder actuated nail gun in my hand and went to get something out of my personal tool box. As I was on a knee getting something from the bottom of the box I sat an estwing framing hatchet on the floor by the nail gun and the T.V.A. project manager walks up as says you can't have that here. I looked up at him and said it's a framing hatchet. He said no not that and pointed down into my box at the issue pilot survival knife. He said "you cannot have any weapons on T.V.A. property". I looked down at all of the sharp things on me and then said ok I'll take it to my truck at break. He said "no, the parking lot is still T.V.A. property". Sooo, I said ok I'll leave it at home tomorrow (of course I meant to just hide it under my seat and hope he forgot about it the lot was a gravel lot not fenced or guarded anyway). He said "no you have to get it off the property now!" I said but I live forty miles away across a mountain in another county. You mean with all of this stuff I have you're going to cost me a days pay over this little knife (there was more to it but close enough). He said "you can go home and make it back" and I said yeah just in time to get in two more hours. Then I said a few things about questioning his intelligence and his lineage (stupid SOB) and went home. When I came back the next day I found out I was being sent to Lookout mountain to work on the Brock mansion. I had left the knife at home for no reason and that dumb b@stard still had no idea what the Imperial S-7 on my belt really was.

But the whole point behind yesterdays hike was to spend time working with that hawk :)


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Great pics, Mist. I have to ask: is that the same area that I commented on as being so green during the summer? We don't have seasons out here like you do (it's brown, but leafy all year round), so I find the difference from one season to the other to be pretty dramatic.
 
dawsonbob said:
Great pics, Mist. I have to ask: is that the same area that I commented on as being so green during the summer? We don't have seasons out here like you do (it's brown, but leafy all year round), so I find the difference from one season to the other to be pretty dramatic.
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Thanks Bob, yep same area and yep very dramatic change from summer to winter.
 
Rockywolf said:
Like the shrike and pics /videos. Also, what Breeden is in above pic?
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Thanks Rocky, that's the Sojourner, I did a thread on it. It's become my regular hiking companion because of it's "sheeple-friendliness".. of course on this hike that was probably offset by the hawk but...*shruggs* ... :)


Rotte said:
Nice Mist. I need to get out...and soon.
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Thanks Bro, yeah it did me a lot of good. It's amazing how much stress one can let out chopping through ice and removing the rotten wood from around a large piece of fatwood :D


banana-clip said:
Great pics!!!
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Thanks man, glad you enjoyed them!
 
Wait, wait. You made a fire with out fatwood??? I don't believe it:p:D


Good stuff buddy:thumbup:
 
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