I'm in.
This was a fun challenge. With my life getting busier and busier it was hard to dedicate 24 hours to complete this challenge. This was the third weekend that I tried to fit it in, third time is a charm I guess. Thanks to Derek, Ethan, and everyone at Kabar for putting this challenge on. Once again it pushed my limits and made me put to use the lessons I have either read about or watched in videos. On to my outing.
My outing stared at 11:00 am on 3-22-2014 and ended on 3-23-2014 at 11:00. Since I could not drive to were I wanted to camp I left my house earlier so I could be at the trail head at 11:00 and hike in from there starting my 24 hours in the woods.
I was able to walk a nicely packed snowmobile trail for most of the hike in.
Walking deeper and deeper into the woods I stopped for a quick weather check.
After walking the main trail for a while I found the off shoot trail I wanted to explore.
Not so packed anymore! Two steps in and I was up to my crotch. Time to strap on the snowshoes.
Breaking trail and looking for a place to be.
Crossing the railroad tracks heading toward the river. I was really getting warm and had to layer down again. One hour in trying to narrow down a spot to make camp.
A Google maps screen shot of the place I chose to camp. Meadowview Rd is the packed snowmobile trail I hiked in on and you can see the railroad track I crossed.
This is a map showing my route. I live somewhere on the road with the blue line. I walked down that road and hit the trail marked in red.
Here is the spot I chose to make my shelter. I found a group of trees line up correctly so that I could set my shelter up and keep the strong prevailing wind at the back of my shelter. After packing down the snow with my snowshoes the best I could I cut a ridge pole and started to work on my raised bed. Two hours in with not much accomplished, time to step it up.
I made a raised bed with a series of opposing logs to create enough height and airflow to allow the heat from the fire to flow through. It was held together with Canadian jam knots and had green saplings to add flexible support while I was sitting or laying on the bed. I later cut a bunch of bows to add more cushion and hey, I love the smell.
I chose to make a super shelter because I have read and seen a lot of good things about it but have never slept in one. I used a reusable space blanket and some plastic sheeting. Since I did not bring a sleeping bag, space blanket or anything like that I had to make this work. I had the rely on the radiation from the fire to warm up my shelter.
While I rested I decided to take a picture of the tools that helped get the work done. My BK-9 was great for turning firewood into more manageable pieces and to collect the bows for my bed. The Bacho Laplander was great for cutting down the standing trees and saving energy over chopping. The new to me Big Becker Bushcrafter was great for fire prep and any other task that needed more precise work.
After my little break I started collecting wood for the fire. This was about 75% of it, I had more stashed just out of the scope of the camera. I did not want to run out. There was plenty to kindling sized branches that were dead and dry on the trees surrounding my shelter. I left them on the trees until I needed them to ensure they stayed dry. I chose to make an uspside down long fire because of the nice slow burn. I put a bunch of interwoven green branches and leftover green logs on the snow in an effort to keep the fire on top of the snow for as long and I could, more on this later.
I also used two long green saplings stuck in the snow to make a drying rack/ramp so that I could pre dry the logs and as the fire burned down the logs on the rack would roll down and self feed allowing me to do other things like eat and sleep instead of tend the fire.
Eating some beef jerky waiting for it to get cold enough to start the fire. I used this time to get to know my newest knife. Thanks again Trade. Another time and temp check.
Staying warm by being productive. Gathering various sized kindling to ensure an easy fire.
Getting a little cold I dug my jacket out of my pack. Collected some snow to melt into water for my supper and hydration. Made some shavings and got the fire going.
Adding the kindling and standing back to enjoy it.
Another time check and melting snow. At this point I was really getting hungry. I also lowered the plastic sheeting to start warm to shelter for the night.
After a little while I got into my shelter to eat and settle down for the night. I hung my watch from the ridge pole and took temperature readings. The temperatures ranged anywhere from 60 degrees all the way up to 90 degrees depending on how big the fire was. Even with the high winds outside the shelter stayed warm. Note, the top number 29.80 is the barometric pressure not the time...
Another time check and getting read to enjoy my rehydrated meal.
Around 1:00 am things took a turn for the worse. I woke up to a lot of smoke in my shelter. Coughing and eyes watering I tried to escape out the front of my shelter only to find that the fire had melted a pit into to snow all the way to the ground allowing the smoke to flow under the front of the plastic sheeting filling my shelter. I had to bust out the side of my shelter to get out. I started to get upset about it and then I remembered a conversation I had about trips that involve adversity seem to be the more memorable ones. I quickly got over it and moved on to plan B.
I removed the plastic sheeting and added some wood to the fire and hung my feet into the snow pit to warm them up and the temps dropped even more. Man that snow is deep.
I stayed awake and kept the fire going. There wasn't anything entertaining to take pictures of so I just documented the time and temps. During this time I was fortunate enough to hear a Barred owl near my camp and Coyotes in the distance. Those sounds were drowned out around 5:30 when I heard the train go by.
After the sun rose around 6:30 I started to tear down my camp and disperse the remaining fire wood to minimize to look that someone had camped there. Not sure why I do this but I usually do. Again I figured this wasn't very entertaining and chose not to take pictures.
I headed down the trail around 10:00 with a goal of making it to the trail head by the end time of 11:00. Along the way I found possible turkey tail mushrooms and someone that was having a rough morning.
I made it to the trail head just in time. Besides being really tired I had a great time and learned a lot.
Thanks again to Derek, Ethan and everyone at Kabar and good luck to anyone else who enters.
Jeremy
