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Great time in New England. (pic heavy)
- Thread starter tonym
- Start date
It was AWESOME!
We headed in along the base of a ridge, following a deer trail to a little rise and found a place to set up camp. Lots of dead and down wood for a fire and we quickly (four guys, four methods) got one going. One of the things I wanted to accomplish was to make lunch in a dutch oven. Packing the oven in was not tremendously difficult. I think it paid off. Lunch was a chicken and rice soup flavored with garlic, onion, chicken broth and ginger. Simply, but delicious.
While lunch was simmering, we did some exploring. Check out this burl! Can you see Dick Proenekke (Alone in the Wilderness on PBS) sawing it off and packing it away for a bowl?
The guys' shelter looks comfy inside, but we got 6 inches of snow last night. Wonder how they fared?
We headed in along the base of a ridge, following a deer trail to a little rise and found a place to set up camp. Lots of dead and down wood for a fire and we quickly (four guys, four methods) got one going. One of the things I wanted to accomplish was to make lunch in a dutch oven. Packing the oven in was not tremendously difficult. I think it paid off. Lunch was a chicken and rice soup flavored with garlic, onion, chicken broth and ginger. Simply, but delicious.
While lunch was simmering, we did some exploring. Check out this burl! Can you see Dick Proenekke (Alone in the Wilderness on PBS) sawing it off and packing it away for a bowl?
The guys' shelter looks comfy inside, but we got 6 inches of snow last night. Wonder how they fared?
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2008
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- 9,491
Halo, great pics man. Thanks for all the info you shared, you sure know your stuff bro!
Your soup was delicious by the way, love that ginger in there!
I think the shelter kept the snow off the just fine, but I am pretty sure they would have been cold with that roof so high. We will see soon enough.
Gene wouldn't have been cold, but he is just nuts anyway!
Your soup was delicious by the way, love that ginger in there!
I think the shelter kept the snow off the just fine, but I am pretty sure they would have been cold with that roof so high. We will see soon enough.
Gene wouldn't have been cold, but he is just nuts anyway!
trip report;
Andrew and i got started from my house a few minutes late. we got on the road at about 8:30 AM on saturday. after driving for a while, chatting about gear and camping, and i dozed off a couple of times, we arrived at Gene's (gunknifenut) house without too much incident.
we got parked and geared up and hiked out to the spot, it felt like about half a mile or maybe a little less.
we wandered around for a few minutes and found a likely spot. we started by getting a fire going good and hot. Mike (Halo2) and i both started getting some lunch together while the rest of the guys collected more firewood and messed around with blades.
i had a recipe for some double onion and potato soup that i got from a backpacking magazine. the issue is that when i multiplied the recipe for six people, and combined all the dry ingredients at home, i had no way to break the recipe down to fit into the smaller pot that we had...so i had to guess. this resulted in watery mashed potatos with onions...not really bad but not all that great either.
Mike on the other hand created a culinary masterpiece...some sort of delicious chicken and rice soupy type of dish with ginseng to add a little bit of kick. this spanked the pants off of my soup thing. :thumbup::thumbup:
after everyone ate lunch, we all started on new tasks...some people continued collecting firewood, some people started working on the shelter, and some people continued experimenting with blades (which helped with the firewood supply).
Andrew and i got started from my house a few minutes late. we got on the road at about 8:30 AM on saturday. after driving for a while, chatting about gear and camping, and i dozed off a couple of times, we arrived at Gene's (gunknifenut) house without too much incident.
we got parked and geared up and hiked out to the spot, it felt like about half a mile or maybe a little less.
we wandered around for a few minutes and found a likely spot. we started by getting a fire going good and hot. Mike (Halo2) and i both started getting some lunch together while the rest of the guys collected more firewood and messed around with blades.
i had a recipe for some double onion and potato soup that i got from a backpacking magazine. the issue is that when i multiplied the recipe for six people, and combined all the dry ingredients at home, i had no way to break the recipe down to fit into the smaller pot that we had...so i had to guess. this resulted in watery mashed potatos with onions...not really bad but not all that great either.
Mike on the other hand created a culinary masterpiece...some sort of delicious chicken and rice soupy type of dish with ginseng to add a little bit of kick. this spanked the pants off of my soup thing. :thumbup::thumbup:
after everyone ate lunch, we all started on new tasks...some people continued collecting firewood, some people started working on the shelter, and some people continued experimenting with blades (which helped with the firewood supply).
i started out helping with the firewood supply. once i felt like the firewood supply was in good shape, i moved on to the shelter. i ended up doing what Tony did, climbing up in the trees to harvest thickly foliaged branches for the shelter roof and walls. made me feel just like Bear Grylls
we piled brush onto the shelter until it was pretty thick, and we made a nice thick mat of brush on the ground in the shelter. i dug out what would be a small fire pit, intending to put a pile of hot coals in there to try to warm up the shelter, but the walls breathed so much we decided to just skip it.
sadly, half of the troop left for home:
we sat around the fire for several hours chatting and eating sausage, cocoa, and chicken cooked over the flames of the fire. when we ran out of other food, Andrew decided to try toasting some of my toe jam on a stick... :barf:
not really. he just dropped a chicken bit into the ashes.
when we decided to turn in around 10:00, it had only been snowing for about half an hour or so, and it wasn't coming down too fast.
i woke up at about 3:15 AM today (sunday) and heard Gene outside getting the fire going again. i had to pee, so i dragged myself out of my sleeping bag and went out to warm up by the fire for a minute. while i was up, i heated a small rock in the fire to take back to bed with me. i got back to bed at about 4:00, and slept until 8.
Gene was up getting the fire going again because snow had come through the wall of the shelter and was collecting on him, and besides that he wasn't able to get comfortable. while we sat by the fire in the wee hours of the morning, Gene suddenly became very interested in my sleeping bag...
i was the first up after dawn, and i stumbled out of the shelter to see this sitting by the fire:
after trying his pulse and discovering that he was now a Gene-sicle, we decided to just leave him in the woods for the animals...
i melted, filtered (with a bandana) and boiled some snow for cocoa and a cup of instant noodles for breakfast, and had a granola bar to top it off. we stood around the fire for a while, then slowly started packing up and getting ready to go.
we took the shortcut back, through the swamp, and got back to the cars at around 10-ish.
some more misc. shots:
i melted, filtered (with a bandana) and boiled some snow for cocoa and a cup of instant noodles for breakfast, and had a granola bar to top it off. we stood around the fire for a while, then slowly started packing up and getting ready to go.
we took the shortcut back, through the swamp, and got back to the cars at around 10-ish.
some more misc. shots:
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Overall, this was a pretty successful trip. It was a nice area (thanks Gene). Since Simon and I did a practice night a few weeks ago I was more prepared. I think I layered my clothes better and had a much better shelter. We also had a lot of food, which helped keep us warm and keep people's spirits up. Our shelter was really too big to provide too much warmth but it kept us and our gear out of the snow (well everyone but Gene, somehow he still managed to get a little snowy). We could have easily squeezed two more people in had we moved our gear around.
To cover up the door we used Simon's space blanket.
The trip was a lot of fun, but its going to cost me. I saw so many nice knives (especially the custom ones) and a lot of nice axes. I may be doing some shopping later.
Simon, what happened to the picture of me posing in front of the shelter for scale? I was curious to see that one.
To cover up the door we used Simon's space blanket.
The trip was a lot of fun, but its going to cost me. I saw so many nice knives (especially the custom ones) and a lot of nice axes. I may be doing some shopping later.
Simon, what happened to the picture of me posing in front of the shelter for scale? I was curious to see that one.
Last edited:
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- Jun 9, 2006
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- 5,524
WOW...great pics you guys took. I'll go quickly..I'm tired..
Rumors of my death have been greatly exagerated!
Honestly, I wasnt having a good sleep, I was getting a bit of snow on me, dispite the awesome shelter, and my back was acting up...making it uncomfortable. AND..I tried going hard-core and not using a sleeping bag...(this might have had something to do with me hanging around the fire all night) I had a blast keeping the fire going..I even napped a few times.
My poncho and liner, over my winter gear made for a very warm guy next to the fire.
I had alot of fun seeing everyone, and the shelter build was really fun, I had never built one so big, so it taught me a few things...
Overall, it was a really awesome campout. Thanks to Marcelo, Sadie, Tony and Mike for helping with the shelter..even though they new they were leaving, that was really cool! Mikes lunch was fantastic..best camp dish ever!
The Axe is the King in freezing temps...we found later in the night that sawing frozen oak isnt much fun..and a good Axe handles frozen wood nicely.
The Koyote Passaround knife is awesome! I really loved the handle, very nice. The NWA Camp is a beast!!! Awesome knife also.
The temps dropped quite a bit after 3 AM..I believe somewhere around 10 degrees F. Simon, Andrew and my bro Adam all slept pretty well as far as I know..I heard quite a bit of snoring.
I was kept amused and a bit on edge by what I figure was a porcupine triming a spruce about 60 yards from camp all night..very noisy bugger..had me jumpy for a while. We saw deer sign all over, but not a lot else..squirel and coyote/ dog tracks also.
Awesome time.
Rumors of my death have been greatly exagerated!
Honestly, I wasnt having a good sleep, I was getting a bit of snow on me, dispite the awesome shelter, and my back was acting up...making it uncomfortable. AND..I tried going hard-core and not using a sleeping bag...(this might have had something to do with me hanging around the fire all night
) I had a blast keeping the fire going..I even napped a few times.My poncho and liner, over my winter gear made for a very warm guy next to the fire.
I had alot of fun seeing everyone, and the shelter build was really fun, I had never built one so big, so it taught me a few things...
Overall, it was a really awesome campout. Thanks to Marcelo, Sadie, Tony and Mike for helping with the shelter..even though they new they were leaving, that was really cool! Mikes lunch was fantastic..best camp dish ever!
The Axe is the King in freezing temps...we found later in the night that sawing frozen oak isnt much fun..and a good Axe handles frozen wood nicely.
The Koyote Passaround knife is awesome! I really loved the handle, very nice. The NWA Camp is a beast!!! Awesome knife also.
The temps dropped quite a bit after 3 AM..I believe somewhere around 10 degrees F. Simon, Andrew and my bro Adam all slept pretty well as far as I know..I heard quite a bit of snoring.
I was kept amused and a bit on edge by what I figure was a porcupine triming a spruce about 60 yards from camp all night..very noisy bugger..had me jumpy for a while. We saw deer sign all over, but not a lot else..squirel and coyote/ dog tracks also.
Awesome time.
mtnfolk mike
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- Mar 21, 2006
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- 10,040
awesome pics guys...:thumbup: that soup looks good.. i love dutch oven cooking... i bet it was nice and warm around, in that cold...
Mike, good thing that it was your glove and not your finger!
i would say that as useful as axes and hatchets are, they are far more dangerous than knives because of the huge amount of force applied at the same sharp cutting edge as a knife. caution is king!
i would say that as useful as axes and hatchets are, they are far more dangerous than knives because of the huge amount of force applied at the same sharp cutting edge as a knife. caution is king!