MO river bottoms hike with Iz....

j williams

j williams

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Nov 14, 2005
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Got out today for some woods time with Iz on his turf. Ive never been up that way before so I was stoked to check it out. This area was destroyed in the flood of 93, and the damage is still very evident with the massive amounts of sand. It was a unique enviroment. Ive never been among that many cottonwood trees before, and there was an abundance of cool plants and trees to check out. I always learn a ton from Iz.....He knows his hardwoods.

We had no agenda really, just explorin, and a fire and some MREs....Which seems to be the popular menu for us two. Being as its been a wet mofo lately and flooding has been up, you can imagine how hard it was to find dry wood in a stand of mostly cottonwoods. We got her done with a mix of a twig/splitwood fire. Oh......hahaha. Did I mention the knifemaker Iz Turley forgot his knives??? Man o man.....NoGo.

The Trailhawk got broke in. It was lightweight, bites deep, and came in really handy for checking for dry wood. We managed to find dry wood after some bushwhackin, and in no time it was split down and fire was had. Is made some really nice shavings that caught with a ferro rod. We also did some flint and steel with nat materials, and chared some stuff to try out. The seed necklaces from the cotton wood chared up nicely, but were too delicate for you to pinch against the chert. So they were left in the tin and Iz got em goin with a some well placed sparks. I wanted to blow it into flame to see if the delicate nature of the char would be a problem. Iz had a cedar bundle, and after a little bit I got it blew into flame. Frickin little seedpod coals were fallin out of the bundle, and 2 burnt a hole in my shirt sleeve. (like a monkey f***in a football) It worked though. We charred up some cottonwood inner bark and it was a nogo. It held a spark from a ferro rod, but burnt out almost immediate. We both couldnt get it to take a spark from the flint/steel...

I twisted up some grapevine bark cordage and it was pretty strong. be a good lashing, but not for anything load bearing. Another cordage to use though....

All in all it was a nice day. Im gonna have to go up to Izs more often....I left with a nice Deer shed and a Table Saw......hahaha...Iz kicks ass.

Heres some pics....

It was a wet mofo, but a really cool area.
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This Trail Hawk is pretty cool. It takes a differant tech, but its a capable woods tool IMO. I made some nice feather sticks with it, but didnt snap pics. I like it though, and it will see more use.
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Proof Iz Turley was practicing flint and steel.
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Cedar bundle...
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Some Scat for all the poo experts.... :33:
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It was a fun day hangin at Izs shop and hittin the woods. Its nice to have a skilled woodsman so close, when most of us are so far away.
 
Thats the seed "necklace" from a cottonwood tree. Its full of fluff like milkweed. Delicate. Too much so to pinch it against the rock, so we ended up dropping sparks into the tin....

Thanks!!
 
Good stuff J. Is that stinging nettle in the pic just before you are huffing and a puffing? There were hardly any stingers on the nettles at Pine Ridge which made me doubt my i.d. of them.
 
Good eye Ken. Thats why I snapped a pic. We couldnt tell if it was or not due to the lack of stingers. Sure looks like it though. Do they develop at a later stage? These plants were still pretty small.....

Heres another pic of it.

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Another plant question.....

How tall does wood sorrel get? Is there any toxic look alikes or any look alikes for that matter? I think I found some of it too, but it was pretty tall. Not 6ft or anything.....more like a foot, maybe 2.....

I could just look it up I guess....but im lazy and kinda hung over.
 
Never seen wood sorrel in the 2' range, but saw it about 6-8" before. Heart shaped leaves that taste sour, like a sweettart, when you chew them. I don't know of any bad look alikes, at least where it worries me to chew a leaf. Only ones I know that are that dangerous around my parts are water hemlock which looks nothing like the above herbs.
 
I live about 10 miles from Pine Ridge. I never get too close and personal with the nettles around here, but generally the ones I recall look like that. The stingers are really small...almost like a fuzz. Don't let the appearance fool you into running through a patch of them with shorts on though;)
 
Thanks Nate!!!! Man its always cool how the same plant differs from one area to the next. The canadian boys saw that firsthand at the meet......

Your frickin avatar makes me hungry and want to fish everytime I see it.
 
Maybe I dont know what stinging nettles are. It looks like "itch weed" to me, Ive walked through them hundreds of times, and the river bottoms are full of them.
 
Oh they are nettles.....They just had perfectly smooth stems. I dont know if the stingers develop later cause these are still young, or if they are a false nettle(Boehmeria cylindrica).....which ironically is still a nettle just without the stinging hairs. They grow in moist woodlands, especially in floodplain areas, as well as partially shaded wetlands, including swamps, borders of rivers and small streams, and seeps(according to my book).

Hey Nate snap a pic of one of your nettles next time your out. Id like to see how they differ.
 
Now that I think about and taking a look at your pics again. They do look similar but definitely not the same. What we have here is Urtica dioica. Im used to seeing them like this.

800px-Urtica-dioica%28Blueten%29.jpg
 
Oh man.....That looks awesome. I might need to go pull a trout out of the freezer for a snack.....lol

Curious what ya rubbed with.....

Heres some I caught not too long ago..
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