- Joined
- Sep 21, 2009
- Messages
- 534
I have been planning on doing this outing for a while. The weather finally cooperated and a couple of friends and myself headed for the hills.
[video=youtube;p0SB5jQeBHw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0SB5jQeBHw[/video]
[video=youtube;SWt8I1BgTnE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWt8I1BgTnE[/video]
Clothing
Wicking tops and bottoms
Wool socks
Under armor expedition weight top
Wool pants
Lester river bushcraft wool hoodie
Wool blend hat
Wool gloves with leather shells
Wool mittens
USGI mukluks
Gear
Shemag
Headlight
50' of bank line
Snare wire
Extra camera batteries
Therma-rest tech blanket
Guyout SS water bottle
First aid kit
9'x12' plastic painters tarp
Firesteel
Trailhawk head
Multicam 5'x7' MEST
Space blanket
12" saw blade
Candle stubs
Food
Titanium mug with lid
Extra socks
Plastic spoon
Temp on the way up to the hills.
The downed Mulberry tree that we chose for our shelter.
Had to improvise a handle for the Trailhawk head with the saw blade.
Used the head to shape the handle.
Then used the hawk to make the buck saw.
It worked well
The saw and hawk were used all day long and were the only cutting tools I brought with me.
The bush and branches were cleared from the downed tree. I put some of the squawood down as a base for my insulation bed.
While we were working I laid out my MEST, made a depression, and put snow on the tarp.
The sun melted the snow and yielded about a cup of water.
I cut poles, and placed them on my makeshift ridgepole. I built the shelter fairly strong in case of snow.
We hiked to a meadow to gather weeds and grass to complete the insulation beds ans shelter.
Once again the hawk and MEST were used for this task.
Bank line was used to make tie off points(buttons) to attach the space blanket to the structure.
The painters tarp was used to hold the grasses and weeds in place. This made an insulated lean-to. The thermal mass really held the heat.
To finish off my shelter I used the MEST to cover my bed.
It was getting late by now and I wanted to get a fire going. I used the buck saw to cut up some Walnut.
The Trail Hawk head made great scrapings.
A few hits on the firesteel with the back of the head and we had a fire.
I took the bag I had vacuum sealed my Tech blanket in, and used it to melt snow next to the fire. I got about 2 quarts using this method.
This is how I spent most of the night. It only got down to 15 overnight. We used all hardwoods for the long fire. I had to get out of my shelter 2 times due to high heat. I wanted to do the super shelter, but it was just to hot. The thermal mass really kept the heat in the shelter.
All in all it was a great trip. I think this will be the last minimalist trip I will be doing until next Fall. I have some plans in the works for that.
[video=youtube;p0SB5jQeBHw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0SB5jQeBHw[/video]
[video=youtube;SWt8I1BgTnE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWt8I1BgTnE[/video]
Clothing
Wicking tops and bottoms
Wool socks
Under armor expedition weight top
Wool pants
Lester river bushcraft wool hoodie
Wool blend hat
Wool gloves with leather shells
Wool mittens
USGI mukluks
Gear
Shemag
Headlight
50' of bank line
Snare wire
Extra camera batteries
Therma-rest tech blanket
Guyout SS water bottle
First aid kit
9'x12' plastic painters tarp
Firesteel
Trailhawk head
Multicam 5'x7' MEST
Space blanket
12" saw blade
Candle stubs
Food
Titanium mug with lid
Extra socks
Plastic spoon
Temp on the way up to the hills.
The downed Mulberry tree that we chose for our shelter.
Had to improvise a handle for the Trailhawk head with the saw blade.
Used the head to shape the handle.
Then used the hawk to make the buck saw.
It worked well
The saw and hawk were used all day long and were the only cutting tools I brought with me.
The bush and branches were cleared from the downed tree. I put some of the squawood down as a base for my insulation bed.
While we were working I laid out my MEST, made a depression, and put snow on the tarp.
The sun melted the snow and yielded about a cup of water.
I cut poles, and placed them on my makeshift ridgepole. I built the shelter fairly strong in case of snow.
We hiked to a meadow to gather weeds and grass to complete the insulation beds ans shelter.
Once again the hawk and MEST were used for this task.
Bank line was used to make tie off points(buttons) to attach the space blanket to the structure.
The painters tarp was used to hold the grasses and weeds in place. This made an insulated lean-to. The thermal mass really held the heat.
To finish off my shelter I used the MEST to cover my bed.
It was getting late by now and I wanted to get a fire going. I used the buck saw to cut up some Walnut.
The Trail Hawk head made great scrapings.
A few hits on the firesteel with the back of the head and we had a fire.
I took the bag I had vacuum sealed my Tech blanket in, and used it to melt snow next to the fire. I got about 2 quarts using this method.
This is how I spent most of the night. It only got down to 15 overnight. We used all hardwoods for the long fire. I had to get out of my shelter 2 times due to high heat. I wanted to do the super shelter, but it was just to hot. The thermal mass really kept the heat in the shelter.
All in all it was a great trip. I think this will be the last minimalist trip I will be doing until next Fall. I have some plans in the works for that.
I actually just bought a CS Pipehawk with intentions of taking it out (head only) and improvising like you have..
