heading out for a quick hike

[Bushman5]

10 deg Celcius, monsoon rains + fog in the mountains = perfect day for a hike in BC's North Shore mountains. push the comfort levels!

I am NOT lugging 45 lbs of knives this time , just my SY SOD, SOG GovTac, Handley Bladesmith TAC-EDC. Greasing the CDN combat boots with a tin of "British American Chemical Company" shoe wax (early 1918 tin of shoe wax i got from great grandpa) as we speak, and throwing on my Ventile SAS smock over my surplus CDN Forces fleece. Topping off with a wooly hat and mittens. Got my Simon alcohol stove , paired up with a homemade 1 liter coffee can Billytin for making a brew trailside. For animal and soft target (humans) control i have a modded Riflemans hawk. Bunch of other gear too, survival belt kit, tarp fak etc etc etc (Skammer/Fonly i'll be fine.... )

Skills i'll be doing:

- FIRE: since its an ocean of rain coming down, i thought perfect time to get a fire started. Here on BC's WET Coast mountains in weather like this EVERYTHING is soaked wet. But there are lots of old cedar stumps, that if you pull off the outer bits the inner parts are bone dry and split into kindling nicely. Going to get a fire going using my belt fire kit (firesteel, PJCB)

- NAVIGATION: strictly map (topo) and compass, my buddies GPS aint working in this heavy forest canopy or cloud cover.

- WATER: gathering water is easy in this weather, pull out the garbage bag, tie off two corners to two branches and let the rain run down into the billytin.

- FOOD: brewing up a cuppa to drink, got trailbars for trail food. I spent the whole morning chowing down carbs and high fat foods (butter, peanut butter) for energy release (heat) later in the day.

trip report later when i'm back today! Its goign to be a hard and fast hike, and i have marinating chicken legs to BBQ when i get back (yea i BBQ 365 days a year, sun, rain, fog, snow)

 

[SpookyPistolero]

Sounds like a good time amigo! Enjoy, and do take some pics if you get a chance! (Though I can appreciate that sometimes a camera is an unwanted nuisance when you just want to hang out in the bush.)

 

[ratamahatta]

better see some pics brother!!!

 

[Fonly]

Man you need a camera!

I'll see if I can scroung around and sent one to ya.
Also, what size feet do you have? if you dont want to tell me on line you can e-mail me.

Ill try and get you a pair of standard issue gortex's.


Oh yeah, you the LAST person I would worry about in the woods. But I would like to be there if searchs found ya huddled under a tree with a fire going, asking THEM if they want some coffee.

 

[Bushman5]

......aaaaaaannnnnnnnnd I'm back! short fast and sweet. I apologize for no pics, as some of you know my HD camera took a dirt nap....

Traffic was light to the trail head parking area. It was still raining hard,. and the mountains were covered in foggy mist. Parked the truck, put the gear on, and made a few people in the hiking parking lot very nervous. (IOD army parka, OD rainpants, Combats, wooly hat, belt kit with a knife and a freaking tomahawk jammed thru the belt) :thumbup: never mind the week of stubble and the insane grin on my face

anyways, hit the main trail, jumped into the bush and disappeared. Took a bearing reading and headed straight up the side of the dense bush and soaking wet ravine. 'Hawk in hand I used it to aid me up the steep slope, hooking the edge into roots and trees. Got to the top, hit the main trail, took the spur trail up to the peak of the mountain. Imagine if you will a loose rock creek bed down a steep mountain, that was the main trail.

As I walked i threw the hawk, thunk thunk thunk thunk into 8'+ tall cedar stumps. The rain eased off a bit but the fog creeped in, tendrils of white mist licking their way thru the tall trees. I half expected to see creatures from the movie "The Mist" walking thru the area. Thats ok, i got a hawk and a SOG GovTac, aint nothing bothering me today! .

Stopped to get water from a pool in the middle of the trail, all the rain wa running down the trail liek a little creek. Filled my mug up, dropped in a crushed up chlorine tab, stirred and drank. repeated that twice and then carried on thru the mist.

Paused to shed the middle layer of fleece. Steam billowed off my body. drank more water from the canteen to replace that which was billowing off of me. Now i was just wearing my UnderArmour shirt and my SAS smock. Perfect combo for fast hiking. Pushed up the trail, the grade about 25% and getting steeper and rougher. Thunk thunk thunk thunk went the 'hawk as i scrambled to the top.

Got to the top , couldn't see anything too much snow. WHAT? yes, SNOW, right at the high elevations, about 900 meters and higher. It was cold misty, snowy and wet up there today.

Dumped the pack (SO-Tech Gobag), thunked the 'hawk into a tree, ditched the smock, put on my fleece and put the smock back on. Arranged 3 rocks to hold my billy tin and put the alky stove in the middle. Filled it up with methyl hydrate, dipped a dental cotton into the alky and used my firesteel to light the dental cotton. Touched the flame to the alky stove and we gots a cuppa starting to brew. Filled up the billy, dropped in strong tea and lots of sugar adn let it boil for a while. Made some fine shavings with the GovTac while i waited for brew.

Anyone that thinks that tactical knives have no place in the bush should think again. I made paper thin curls and a pile of them. My take is if you have a sharp knife your already ahead of the game. Does'nt matter if its a bushcrafter, a chopper or a tactical, a sharp knife is a sharp knife. Be glad you have one.

anyways, tossed a fluffed PJCB into the pile of cedar shavings, the rain coming down hard again. Piled on some thin cedar kindling and sparked it with the firesteel. Flame! fire! smoke! burning cedar aroma! good enough for me. By this time my tea was well done, the tannic acids turning the tea orange black color. Poured some out into my mug and set it in a puddle to cool a bit. Drank the mugfull, the tannic acid so strong it made my face pucker a bit. Drank anothe rmugfull and then poured the rest into my canteen to sweeten my water.

packed everything up, and while doing so used the hot rocks that were around the alky stove to warm up my roper gloves. Got packed, grabbed the hot gloves, put them on, grabbed my hawk, threw it down the trail into a tree and started down towards it. grabbed it, and kept on going back down. Rain eased off the lower i got, but I was about to get wet (outside of the smock/pants only) as i took a bearing and plunged down the slope, off the trail and thru the woods. Thunk thunk thunk thunk went the 'hawk, slaying cedar stumps the whole way down. Got the main road and doubled back to the trailhead area. Tromped into the parking area, turning heads. Dropped the tailgate on the truck, shed the gear and smock, unlocked the truck and grabbed my coffee off the dash. Loaded up the gear, and headed off back into the cesspool that is vancouver.

short fast and sweet, my legs are tired from hammering up the rocky trail, but well worth it. Hope to do that trail again soon on a clear day, apparently you can see a lot.

Now its off to the GF to grill chicken. I marinated it in cayyeane , garlic and apple cider vinegar for the last 24 hours (the apple cider vinegar makes the chicken very tender , tnagy and juicy).

:thumbup:

EDIT: BTW, Walz wool cycling caps kick butt for hiking in the rain, although thin, i was toasty on my head the whole time, and the brim kept rain out my eyes. A quick flick and it was dry again. It lets my noggin breath, but still holds heat in. (I also had my wool toque and mittens in the GoBag)