- Joined
- Aug 4, 2009
- Messages
- 6,234
Sometimes nature's challenges can be a real pain in the arse. Couldn't get to sleep last night, so I decided to break in the ALICE pack I received last week from armygear.net. Very happy with their service. Anyway, loaded the good ol' ALICE with some sandbags and hit the trails at about 4 in the morning. By the time it was light enough to take pictures I realized I had forgot to put a memory card in my camera, so I was limited to the six or seven shots that the internal memory could hold.
As the sky began to lighten up a bit, the gnats came out. Gnats so thick my vision was impaired. There was nothing I could do to prevent them from getting all over me, my hair, my gear, even in my eyes. My forearms are all swollen from the bites (one more reason why I have been favoring long sleeve protection this year). It took half an hour in the shower to get them all out of my hair.
I nabbed a nice Camillus pilot survival knife on Ebay last week, gave it a hairsplitting scandi grind, strapped the sheath on my belt and stuck a Buck 110 in my pocket as I left. As I was attempting to outrun the gnats, apparently the rivet on the sheath's strap broke and the handle-heavy knife fell out. I didn't realize it until I got back to the trailhead. I was devastated. I decided to make the most of it... I was already frustrated with the gnats, slightly dehydrated and covered in a thick layer of sticky sweat, but figured if this were a real survival situation and my apartment full of knives weren't 3 blocks away from the trail, I'd be screwed-I'd have to make my best effort to find that knife. So, deciding there was nothing to do about the gnats, and in my haste to avoid them caused my current predicament, I'd have to just suck it up and make my way slowly back up the trail until I found the knife.
Thankfully I did-and on the first pass, though I had to walk a good extra three miles and I could already feel signs of dehydration. Those high polish scandi grinds sure do make finding a lost blade a much easier task
I figured it was good practice for a survival situation-going into the predicament pissed off, frustrated, slightly fatigued and physically impaired, and kept my wits about me til I found it-even though the situation was entirely preventable in the first place. I can't imagine being stuck in a long term survival situation and that happening over a distance longer than a morning hike... having to double back and search through miles and miles of terrain for your one lifeline... having to rely on a Buck 110 alone would really suck. So gents, do yourself a favor and in your spare time today, go through all your gear-retention straps, rivets, buckles, etc-make sure everything is solid and functions as it should. It'll save you alot of headache in the long run.
PS, as I doubled back I snapped a sweet picture of the sunrise, though I have to figure out how to get the damn thing off the camera's integral memory...
As the sky began to lighten up a bit, the gnats came out. Gnats so thick my vision was impaired. There was nothing I could do to prevent them from getting all over me, my hair, my gear, even in my eyes. My forearms are all swollen from the bites (one more reason why I have been favoring long sleeve protection this year). It took half an hour in the shower to get them all out of my hair.
I nabbed a nice Camillus pilot survival knife on Ebay last week, gave it a hairsplitting scandi grind, strapped the sheath on my belt and stuck a Buck 110 in my pocket as I left. As I was attempting to outrun the gnats, apparently the rivet on the sheath's strap broke and the handle-heavy knife fell out. I didn't realize it until I got back to the trailhead. I was devastated. I decided to make the most of it... I was already frustrated with the gnats, slightly dehydrated and covered in a thick layer of sticky sweat, but figured if this were a real survival situation and my apartment full of knives weren't 3 blocks away from the trail, I'd be screwed-I'd have to make my best effort to find that knife. So, deciding there was nothing to do about the gnats, and in my haste to avoid them caused my current predicament, I'd have to just suck it up and make my way slowly back up the trail until I found the knife.
Thankfully I did-and on the first pass, though I had to walk a good extra three miles and I could already feel signs of dehydration. Those high polish scandi grinds sure do make finding a lost blade a much easier task
I figured it was good practice for a survival situation-going into the predicament pissed off, frustrated, slightly fatigued and physically impaired, and kept my wits about me til I found it-even though the situation was entirely preventable in the first place. I can't imagine being stuck in a long term survival situation and that happening over a distance longer than a morning hike... having to double back and search through miles and miles of terrain for your one lifeline... having to rely on a Buck 110 alone would really suck. So gents, do yourself a favor and in your spare time today, go through all your gear-retention straps, rivets, buckles, etc-make sure everything is solid and functions as it should. It'll save you alot of headache in the long run. PS, as I doubled back I snapped a sweet picture of the sunrise, though I have to figure out how to get the damn thing off the camera's integral memory...
, glad you found your knife.
