-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Mass weekend camping trip
- Thread starter tonym
- Start date
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2006
- Messages
- 5,510
I agree it was a great time and Marcelo and Tony you guys are a class act, I really enjoyed hanging out with you, learned a few new things and the mead was awesome! Next time the food is on me. Glad you slept next to Gene Marcelo it spared me for the evening you know how he gets. Hope to do it again maybe like you said Tony in Fiji next time.
HA! Its your story, tell it anyway you want to!
I am looking forward to your tutorial on how to take a dump in extreme cold. Can you let us in on how you get your junk unstuck from a frozen log? This could be useful info for all to draw from....
The mead and beer was all the sweeter after all the firewood harvesting!
Good times Bro!:thumbup:
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2006
- Messages
- 5,510
Tony had the only camera..I am sure he will chime in tomorrow..hopefully he is kind to the rest of us...I bet he has some good ones!
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2003
- Messages
- 3,734
Agreed! It was a blast. As cold as it was I was toasty.
We went in kind free form about where to bed down and how to shelter. All geared up, snowshoeing through some pretty hilly terrain, through a beautiful conifer and birch forest it took us about 40 mins to scout out a cool spot. Gene and Wes have been here before and had a few ideas. One was a spot between two splits of a boulder but it was like a wind tunnel. About face back into the softwoods. We decided to take the advice of our raisinette spouting woodland brethren and settled on a nice flat hemlock grove on the side of a pretty big hill.
We took our time but worked and snacked up to about five pm. Shooting the breeze, trying out each other's gear, different techniques and plenty of joking around.
Gene is correct. For winter camping in the northern woods, axe, bucksaw and I'll add shovel are king. Honestly I didn't even use my belt knife once. I know Gene and Tony made some stakes and some wedges with their knives but those are tasks easy enough to do with a good sharp axe.
Certain facts made themselves very clear. Keeping warm in single digit (F) weather is a 24 hour challenge. Gear counts in this situation. Everything tastes good out here. Spending time in the woods with great company is welcome nourishment for the soul.
I'm sure Tony will be on soon with the pics.
We went in kind free form about where to bed down and how to shelter. All geared up, snowshoeing through some pretty hilly terrain, through a beautiful conifer and birch forest it took us about 40 mins to scout out a cool spot. Gene and Wes have been here before and had a few ideas. One was a spot between two splits of a boulder but it was like a wind tunnel. About face back into the softwoods. We decided to take the advice of our raisinette spouting woodland brethren and settled on a nice flat hemlock grove on the side of a pretty big hill.
We took our time but worked and snacked up to about five pm. Shooting the breeze, trying out each other's gear, different techniques and plenty of joking around.
Gene is correct. For winter camping in the northern woods, axe, bucksaw and I'll add shovel are king. Honestly I didn't even use my belt knife once. I know Gene and Tony made some stakes and some wedges with their knives but those are tasks easy enough to do with a good sharp axe.
Certain facts made themselves very clear. Keeping warm in single digit (F) weather is a 24 hour challenge. Gear counts in this situation. Everything tastes good out here. Spending time in the woods with great company is welcome nourishment for the soul.
I'm sure Tony will be on soon with the pics.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2006
- Messages
- 5,510
Speaking of Axes Bro, my GB took a good hit, I worked on the edge for about 30 minutes tonight, and it still needs some work.
About 3/4" of the edge is rolled at the top corner...sucks, but it was my fault for not looking under the snow...rocks are not your axe's friend. Another lesson learned, slow down and do it right.
About 3/4" of the edge is rolled at the top corner...sucks, but it was my fault for not looking under the snow...rocks are not your axe's friend. Another lesson learned, slow down and do it right.
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2008
- Messages
- 9,491
Okay, now that I am defrosted I can post some pics...
Like the guys said, we had a great time! It was great to see Gene and Wes again. A big thank you to Wes's brother inlaw for letting us use the land. It was a beautiful area.
The spot for our camp was previously used by deer as their bedding spot, and for good reason. It was flat and pretty well protected from the wind. So thank you deer for finding it for us.
We were planning on a mininal gear trip, but then changed our mind and decided to make ourselves as comfortable as possible. So we brought packed in everything but the kitchen sink and tents.
Allthough the area was pretty well protected from the wind, the wind that did make it through would chill your bones pretty quick. So we constructed a couple of windbreaks.
Here is a few pics of us getting to work on our campsite.
The area was over run by Hemlock, with some White Pine, Birch, and Beech and a few Ash trees about. The Hemlock was our bedding of choice, And we layed it on thick which helped insulate us from the frozen ground beneath us.
After we got our bedding complete we took a luch break. Here is Gene talking to his new stubborn Kelty Kettle.
Marcelo broke out a couple bottles of Mead to help us warm up and wash our lunch down.
The Mead effected each of us differently. Marcelo got a little selfish with it..
Gene didn't take that well, and the woods ninja in him took over.
A quick little snow squal moved in and calmed things down.
We then headed out to find some suitable firewood. The area was dominated by Hemlock, which wouldn't burn all that long. We did find a pretty big standing dead Birch that hadn't started to rot yet. The axes came out and the tree came down.(almost on Gene and I) For a 240lb white guy, he can sure get some air mighty fast when there is a 40' tree falling towards him...
Anyway, we sectioned the tree up and started hauling it back.
Here is Marcelo showing us that his dual axes were just as good as a saw to section wood.
Most of our splitting was done by axe and some wedges we made. However, we had some big knives that wanted some abuse.
Once the Junglas split the bigger pieces, we let the BK-9 hanle the lighter stuff.
Staying warm was easy with all the work we were doing. But once night fell we had to find some other ways to keep the cold out. It was IPA to the recue.
Inbetween IPA's Gene would beat on his contest knife.
The long fire worked great at keeping us warm.
I don't know about you guys, but that look in Gene's eyes, makes me worry..
Wes turned in early and Marcelo tried to, but Gene and I had allot of beers to finish off and there was no way were packing out full bottles of ale the next day.
The temps dropped to about 4F overnight. Everything was frozen by the time I awoke at 0430. This is the part of winter camping I hate. It took me an hour to build up the courage to leave the warmth of my sleeping bag.
Here's Marcelo letting me know he didn't appreciate me making noise that early.
We packed up and headed out by 0930. Wes's tabagon came in handy and carried most of the load.
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
All in all it was a great trip. We had allot of laughs as is the norm with this crowd. I have a drunken video that I am trying to edit out some of the language that I will try to share soon.
Like the guys said, we had a great time! It was great to see Gene and Wes again. A big thank you to Wes's brother inlaw for letting us use the land. It was a beautiful area.
The spot for our camp was previously used by deer as their bedding spot, and for good reason. It was flat and pretty well protected from the wind. So thank you deer for finding it for us.
We were planning on a mininal gear trip, but then changed our mind and decided to make ourselves as comfortable as possible. So we brought packed in everything but the kitchen sink and tents.
Allthough the area was pretty well protected from the wind, the wind that did make it through would chill your bones pretty quick. So we constructed a couple of windbreaks.
Here is a few pics of us getting to work on our campsite.
The area was over run by Hemlock, with some White Pine, Birch, and Beech and a few Ash trees about. The Hemlock was our bedding of choice, And we layed it on thick which helped insulate us from the frozen ground beneath us.
After we got our bedding complete we took a luch break. Here is Gene talking to his new stubborn Kelty Kettle.
Marcelo broke out a couple bottles of Mead to help us warm up and wash our lunch down.
The Mead effected each of us differently. Marcelo got a little selfish with it..
Gene didn't take that well, and the woods ninja in him took over.
A quick little snow squal moved in and calmed things down.
We then headed out to find some suitable firewood. The area was dominated by Hemlock, which wouldn't burn all that long. We did find a pretty big standing dead Birch that hadn't started to rot yet. The axes came out and the tree came down.(almost on Gene and I) For a 240lb white guy, he can sure get some air mighty fast when there is a 40' tree falling towards him...
Anyway, we sectioned the tree up and started hauling it back.
Here is Marcelo showing us that his dual axes were just as good as a saw to section wood.
Most of our splitting was done by axe and some wedges we made. However, we had some big knives that wanted some abuse.
Once the Junglas split the bigger pieces, we let the BK-9 hanle the lighter stuff.
Staying warm was easy with all the work we were doing. But once night fell we had to find some other ways to keep the cold out. It was IPA to the recue.
Inbetween IPA's Gene would beat on his contest knife.
The long fire worked great at keeping us warm.
I don't know about you guys, but that look in Gene's eyes, makes me worry..
Wes turned in early and Marcelo tried to, but Gene and I had allot of beers to finish off and there was no way were packing out full bottles of ale the next day.
The temps dropped to about 4F overnight. Everything was frozen by the time I awoke at 0430. This is the part of winter camping I hate. It took me an hour to build up the courage to leave the warmth of my sleeping bag.
Here's Marcelo letting me know he didn't appreciate me making noise that early.
We packed up and headed out by 0930. Wes's tabagon came in handy and carried most of the load.
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
All in all it was a great trip. We had allot of laughs as is the norm with this crowd. I have a drunken video that I am trying to edit out some of the language that I will try to share soon.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2006
- Messages
- 431
Awesome! :thumbup:
mtnfolk mike
Basic Member
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2006
- Messages
- 10,040
great pics guys.... :thumbup: definitely looks like a blast... though a little too cold for me..
though a little too cold for me..- Joined
- Apr 14, 2006
- Messages
- 7,021
I guess it wouldn't do any good to point out that alcohol is counterproductive in a cold environment. 
Of course it wouldn't, what was I thinking?
Forget I mentioned it.
It looks like you had a good time. I would've liked to been there for an hour or so - the older I get, the more I like my (heated) water bed.
Thanks for sharing, guys! :thumbup:
Doc
Of course it wouldn't, what was I thinking?
Forget I mentioned it.It looks like you had a good time. I would've liked to been there for an hour or so - the older I get, the more I like my (heated) water bed.
Thanks for sharing, guys! :thumbup:
Doc
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2008
- Messages
- 9,491
I guess it wouldn't do any good to point out that alcohol is counterproductive in a cold environment.
Doc
No it wouldn't, and it felt like it was warming us up.
Wish you could have been there GP:thumbup:
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2003
- Messages
- 3,734
At a wine shop near me. Most liquor/wine stores will order it for you though. It's pretty affordable comapred to others and very delicious.
NixKustoms
Sheath and Knife Maker
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2010
- Messages
- 5,883
Looks like you guys had an awesome time!! :thumbup: I'm too much of a wimp to go out in that kinda cold.
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2003
- Messages
- 3,734
WILLIAM.M said:
It's really not all that bad except you have too keep moving both for fuel gathering and just to generate your own heat so not a lot of time for carving stuff. You also have to keep eating and drinking. I am still behind on my fluids.
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2006
- Messages
- 5,510
Great pics Tony,
I see you posted the best ones for everyone's viewing pleasure!
This summer, we will come down your way guys, and like Wes said, Mountain House is on us.
I am not much of a wine guy, but that mead wasnt bad! Sure tasted like honey, which is a good thing.
While I love my BK9, that Junglas is a nice blade for sure. Anyone on the fence, should just make the jump and get one. The BK9 can get the job done as well, my log section was BIGGER than Tony's, no matter what he wants to tell the ESEE guys
I wish we got some pics of us splitting the Birch sections with birch wedges...worked like a charm. I will use that a lot in the future..
I see you posted the best ones for everyone's viewing pleasure!
This summer, we will come down your way guys, and like Wes said, Mountain House is on us.
I am not much of a wine guy, but that mead wasnt bad! Sure tasted like honey, which is a good thing.
While I love my BK9, that Junglas is a nice blade for sure. Anyone on the fence, should just make the jump and get one. The BK9 can get the job done as well, my log section was BIGGER than Tony's, no matter what he wants to tell the ESEE guys
I wish we got some pics of us splitting the Birch sections with birch wedges...worked like a charm. I will use that a lot in the future..