Maybe camping is the more important thing?

[kgd]

Just one of those half drunken moments. Last year, I spent a LOT of time learning bushcraft techniques and I pushed myself into a challenge that I would spend at least 1 night as an overnighter each month. This year, I tried to focus on extended 3-4 d trips and commit myself to more of them. So far, in 2012 they've been winter or canoe camping adventures. There are a few things I've noticed. On the 1 day overnighters, I tended to focus on training activities and exercises as my theme. In 2012, on the multi-day trips I tended to just get into the grove of things. So yeah, as much as I was a bowdrill addict in 2011, in 2012 I started most of my fires with a zippo lighter and coghlan's stick. More of my time and effort was directed towards planning trips as to planning 'things and training to capture on film'. In the end, I think I'm just as happy and perhaps a little more so...

What I learned is that spending time in the bush is spending time in the bush. It doesn't matter if you spend it in a tent, a hammock or under a tarp. It doesn't matter if you have a mora, a sak or, a wildertool strapped to your belt. It doesn't matter if you cook your food on open coals, a triangia or a jetboil it. What matters is that you move yourself into the wilderness and stay the path until the appreciation of nature sets into your bones. You try in earnst to experience the Great Outdoors. You may seek solitude or you may share your experience, but whether you are one or with a small group of like minded souls, what matters is you (and your little group) find yourself in solitude, isolation and the awe of nature.

Now, I don't want to come across as if I do not value training. Survival training has given me confidence and the wherewithal to do things I would not have done ten years past. Its given my wife her confidence in me to take her where few wives have gone before and enjoy every moment of it (aside from the poison ivy effects afterwards). My point is, dirt time is dirt time is dirt time. Its not so much about the risk, the training, the blah, blah, blah [insert cliche W&SS fantasy here]... ITS NOT ABOUT THE GEAR....Its about finding that little bit of solitude, that appreciation in nature and the rush of being the little person in the world rather than the other way around.

So in the end, the only thing that matters is dirt time. Dirt time is golden time. For some, dirt time is religion. Dirt time is finding yourself, revitalizing yourself. Dirt time = real time. Its the time to ground your ego into the dirt <--- and leave it there.....The dirt is cleansing, its self reliance, its wisdom, its peace, its self assurance. It is life, as opposed to all that other stuff you do....

What do you say? Does it need to be survival? Does it need to be 20 mile/day hikes up 1000's of feet of elevation?...Whatever floats your boat...All I know is that dirt time has very low density - and it floats many types of boats!

 

[RWT]

Could not agree more. I hunt alot and for me the best time is waiting in the dark for the first bird of the day to chirp. By far the most enjoyable time in the woods. The time alone allows me to reflect on just how insignificant I am in life overall. I get allittle big headed at times when I consider the sales quota I carried and I need this time to slow me down.

 

[Codger_64]

Stress reliever...

 

[Maniacal Pete]

I've been amused by what I read online regarding peoples ideas about the great outdoors.

When I was a kid, we carried our sleeping bags in our hands, and had our canned food in
a flimsy drab surplus rucksack.

After some time, backpacking skills improved, and time spent outside was mostly
about enjoying solitude and the natural beauty of, well, nature.

I still have that same approach.

I can build a shelter, or survive with very little if need be,
but I think a lot of it suffers from people overthinking it.

I'm much more interested in improving my primitive camping skills
than practicing surviving, by design, what would have had to have been
a poorly planned outing in the first place...

 

[pitdog]

Great post Ken but I'd like to take it even further buddy and just say to everyone " Get out there ! "

Not everyone can make it out for over nighters, or even make day hikes out to spectacular places, but to me the important part is just to get out.
Feel the breeze on your face, smell the freshness in the air and just live in the moment however short that may be.
I'm lucky to have some great hiking places right on my doorstep but I'll find my own adventure even at small busy parks in city centres . Even in those urban parks I'll show you animal tracks, wild edibles etc........take the time to look and you'll see them yourselves.

If you can't do what you love, learn to love what you can do !

 

[Maniacal Pete]

I get out every week or two in the summer.

I've decided that I'm buying a tent (Big Agnes Copper Spur UL1)
next spring when REI has the sale and
getting back out for the odd overnighter.

Lately, I've been packing my skills practice into my day hikes.

The "Notch"

Little Hidden Lake

Ferro Rod Skills

Hiking Assistant Charlie

Our pet moose

She's a cutie.

 

[philwar]

So in the end, the only thing that matters is dirt time. Dirt time is golden time.

This was always obvious to me, even if I never said it and never read it anywhere. Yes, just get out there, and the experience you gain is more valuable than anything you can train or study for. You will find out what works and what doesn't, what gear is useful and what isn't, what clothes, shoes and sleeping gear is effective and comfortable and what isn't. You will find out what takes (too) much effort and what comes easy. You will find out what it's like to do the real stuff in groups, with dependants, with dogs. Murphy's law is on your side when you voluntarily seek out 'dirt time.'

Thank for making a very good point, one that should be expressed much more often.

 

[Codger_64]

I've been amused by what I read online regarding peoples ideas about the great outdoors.

When I was a kid, we carried our sleeping bags in our hands, and had our canned food in
a flimsy drab surplus rucksack.

After some time, backpacking skills improved, and time spent outside was mostly
about enjoying solitude and the natural beauty of, well, nature.

I still have that same approach.

I can build a shelter, or survive with very little if need be,
but I think a lot of it suffers from people overthinking it.

I'm much more interested in improving my primitive camping skills
than practicing surviving, by design, what would have had to have been
a poorly planned outing in the first place...

I think that quite often we subconciously attempt to scratch our itch to get outdoors with new equipment purchases. I know I do. Once one has acquired the skills (each one's perception of "sufficient skills" is different), what is left but to get out there? Do I really need three canoes? Three or four stoves? Several packs? A third or fourth sleeping bag? I'm not saying that improving one's gear/kit is fruitless. A 16-17 foot canoe can be a disadvantage at times and a smaller solo canoe much better suited to the intended task. Likewise a variety of other gear allows one to taylor it to the weather, companions or lack thereof. I know full well that in my climate and environment I could go out with not much at all and be perfectly fine. I have done it. I've made tools, fire, shelter, food, water and containers. But I tend to accumulate small luxury items. And I have to take care that I do not pack so much that it makes outing a chore instead of a pleasure. I skipped getting out there this weekend for no good reason. I need to go next weekend if the opportunity arises. Good OP post.

 

[hollowdweller]

“With a large majority of prospective tourists and outers, “camping out” is a leading factor in the summer vacation. And during the long winter months they are prone to collect in little knots and talk much of camps, fishing, hunting, and “roughing it.” The last phrase is very popular and always cropping out in the talks on matters pertaining to a vacation in the woods. I dislike the phrase. We do not go to the green woods and crystal waters to rough it, we go to smooth it. We get it rough enough at home; in towns and cities; in shops, offices, stores, banks anywhere that we may be placed – with the necessity always present on being on time and up to our work; of providing for the dependent ones; of keeping up, catching up, or getting left. Alas for the life-long battle, whose bravest slogan is bread.”

- George Washington Sears (Nessmuk); Woodcraft and Camping


:thumbup:

 

[22-rimfire]

I think developing all these "survival skills" is a great thing. But it is mostly about fun with an eye to I've done it and I know if I have to I can do it again. The same goes for all the chat about the merits of one knife over another, custom versus production knife, prybar versus finese knife and so forth. But absolutely the most important thing is you actually get out in the wild and expose yourself to these things as often as you would like. Stay in a motel and do day hikes. RV, why not? Again, get out there and live the life. There is so much to learn in the outdoors and most of it is not how to make a fire. You look at plants, effects of rain and snow, geology, tree identification, wild flowers, wild edibles, the sound of a mountain stream, the woods during different seasons, drinking clear water from a spring bubbling from the ground... it goes on and on.

 

[TheGame]

The best time in the woods is the time spent out there. It doesn't matter how long, or what you do, as long as you're there. Hunting, fishing, hiking, camping... anything. Time in the woods is better than time spent elsewhere almost if not every time.

 

[panzertroop]

Whatever it takes to get you outside. If it's gear then so be it. If it's a goal to learn a new skill, then rock on.

 

[C_Becker]

If you're having fun, you're doing it right as far as I'm concerned

 

[JWL]

Agreed with most of the above.

Dirt time is dirt time. The rest is just details.

 

[awestib]

Can't agree more!

 

[collecter]

Completely agree except for the "it's not about the gear" part..

If its not about the gear why do we have so much of it?

 

[mark_r]

Interesting topic. I think I will apply it my life.

 

[Codger_64]

Completely agree except for the "it's not about the gear" part..

If its not about the gear why do we have so much of it?

I 'splained that one I thought. Another aspect is people who try to substitute gear for dirt time and knowledge. With those last two, you aren't up the proverbial fecal creek when the first is lost or stolen. And one does not have to worry about being caught without the experience gained from those two.

 

[stabman]

I learn more on each hiking and camping outing than from reading 10 books written by noted experts.
Experience teaches far better than any collection of words, and is fun as well.:thumbup:

 

[upnorth]

Well said. I would only add that dirt time comes in all forms and shapes. I spend a lot of time outdoors in remote locations metal detecting etc these days. I am lucky that many of my interests coincide with being out doors. Since I was a pre teen running around all day with a fishing rod or .22 I have appreciated being outside. This has given me a life time of experiences and wonderful memories. I never took all the bushcraft stuff very seriously, and viewed it as a little bit fringe. My views have changed and I find myself in a new faze of outdoor fun\appreciation.