Off-trail snowshoeing and some minor facial scarring

[Mentor]

Hi All,

Here’s hoping you all had a great weekend. I spent the best parts of both days trekking off-trail through the woods on snowshoes. The weather on Blue Mountain was terrific – cold, but bright and sunny (especially today), with fresh snow overnight to keep things interesting. Ideal conditions for snowshoeing, trail maintenance, and bandaging deep gashes in your face resulting from an unfortunate incident with an axe (more on that later!).

I made an awesome trail through some mixed woods, with a few nice clearings, some thick forest, and a couple of interesting technical sections. My strategy was simple: Use a compass to keep a general sense of direction, and then follow rabbit trails as they meander through the snow. The result was a great looped trail.

“Follow the white rabbit [tracks]”

When in doubt, follow your dog as she follows rabbit trails:

Some well-used tools: my snowshoes and my Becker BK-9 (for clearing a path through larger fallen trees and dead branches)

And, for general tasks, my JK Anniversary Knife. I gave it a mixed coat of cold blue and mustard last week, just to add some extra rust protection. It simply isn’t possible to keep this thing even remotely dry during a serious off-trail snowshoe outing, and the cold blue gives me peace of mind. It worked great this weekend:

My winter wonderland:

Beautiful scenery, eh?

And now, and important safety tip: When chopping kindling, regardless of the season or how experienced you are, wear a pair of safety glasses!

I was splitting some wood with an axe on Saturday, and a fluke swing caused the log I was working on to split in two – one piece fell to the side as intended. The other, for some reason I never did figure out, turned into a cartwheeling missile that flew back and drilled me right in the face, giving me no time to react. I felt a sharp impact on the right side of my face and a searing pain around my eye. As it turned out, my glasses took the brunt of the blow. Unfortunately, this caused the hard plastic frame to snap, and the jagged edges slashed the heck out of my eyebrow, right eyelid (close call!), the side of my face, and my cheek. Ow!

PSK to the rescue – particularly the gauze, suture strips, and medical tape (and the superglue for my glasses frames – absolutely essential). One of the cuts was pretty deep, and it opened up every time I moved my eyebrow. Stitches were required, but, per long-standing policy, I opted to patch myself up instead. It eventually stopped bleeding, and seems fine today, though I’m sure there will be a scar.

Here’s a glamour shot from yesterday afternoon: all patched up and ready to get back outside. It looks the same today, but I have a bit of a black eye, too.

Anyway, you guys know the truth, but if anyone else asks, I’m going to tell them that I was in a spirited MMA cage match that took an ugly turn in the third round (you should have seen the other guy!).

I joke, but I think I came really close to losing my eye yesterday. Another inch and I would have been screwed. Time to finally get that pair of prescription safety glasses I have been pondering.

Thanks for looking, and all the best!

- Mike

 

[Joezilla]

I like the ball the dog has. Does she bring it everywhere? Try vitamin e oil if you don't want a scar. I've got out of horrible burn scarring by using that stuff on my face. I would have looked like two face.

 

[tonym]

Ouch! You should of used that tire technique I posted in the chat room a few weeks ago.

The snow covered forest looks beautiful!!

 

[Mentor]

Vitamin E oil - good idea! Thanks for the recommendation, Joe.

And yeah, Ruby does bring a tennis ball just about everywhere. When she was younger, she liked to play fetch as we hiked. She still likes to chase it from time to time, but her thing these days is to carry it around, drop it beside a fallen tree branch, dig a hole to bury it, then chew on and demolish any sticks near the hole before finally digging out her ball and moving on. Quirky dog, eh?

Best,

- Mike

 

[JK Knives]

Great photos, as usual! Close call on the eye, I`ve actually got in the habit of wearing my prescription safety glasses with sideshields from back when I was employed when in heavy woods. Saved myself a couple of times.

 

[pitdog]

Great pics buddy, gotta love hiking in the snow eh !!!

Sorry about the eye, the worse eye injury I have had was actually caused by some safety glasses but that's another story !!!!!

 

[kgd]

It was probably still great that you had eye glasses even though it was the lens that caused your cut, probably better than a chunk of wood hitting that area of your unprotected eye. I've had my eyeglasses save my eyes many times. The one time I grabbed of a tightened bungee cord. The other end with the hook let go and nailed me right in the eyeglasses. The lens too all the shock and popped in right out of my glasses. Sure glad it wasn't my eye that popped out. Even as I'm walking through the bush and the nettles and thorns are flinging their way towards my face, its nice to know those glasses offer some protection to my eyes.

 

[Mentor]

Yeah, it was definitely a good thing that I was wearing at least a bit of eye protection. I will certainly wear a bit more in the future!

All the best,

- Mike

 

[THE PUNISHER]

sorry bout the eye,your dog is cool..............

 

[sicily02]

great pics. sorry to hear about your eye though.

bryan

 

[chuck buck]

nice photos. id like to try snow shoeing one day. one super important thing in my day back is ALWAYS a second pair of glasses. i had one pair of glasses just break in half when nothing even touched my face haha! (check out zenni optical for cheap, good quality back-up glasses). this is something VERY important to me (and you i assume). if i cant see i cant do anything but fumble. glad your ok though!

 

[WILLIAM.M]

were you alone??(other than the dog I mean)

How far away from hime were you??

 

[mtnfolk mike]

awesome pics Mike.. i love snowshoeing... that place looks like a winter wonderland...

bummer about the eye man.. i wonder if it's going to leave a nice shiner??

 

[Mentor]

were you alone??(other than the dog I mean)

How far away from hime were you??

The snowshoeing and axe-choppery took place in two different locations. I was alone (except for the dog) for the former, but near the family homestead for the latter. This was a good thing, too, as I had my mind set on finding the missing right arm of my glasses before seeking medical attention. I might have been out there pawing through the snow for hours if someone hadn't helpfully pointed out that the missing arm was actually stuck through the top of my tuque.

Seriously, though, if it had happened while I was out in the woods, I think I would have been OK. It made me appreciate the signal mirror I keep in my PSK. I always think about tossing it to make room for more fire-starting items when I'm hiking through familiar territory, but I realized how valuable it could be if you had to patch up a facial injury in the bush.

awesome pics Mike.. i love snowshoeing... that place looks like a winter wonderland...

bummer about the eye man.. i wonder if it's going to leave a nice shiner??

Bit of a shiner, yeah. And, wouldn't you know it, I have meetings this afternoon and tomorrow. D'oh!

All the best,

- Mike

 

[TheGame]

Great scenery. Thanks for posting. I am going to try and get some pics of the snow around my area.. I just need to get the new camera my sister got

 

[kgd]

Bit of a shiner, yeah. And, wouldn't you know it, I have meetings this afternoon and tomorrow. D'oh!

Yeah, those things can't be helped eh? I've just taken to telling everybody that I carve wood to explain my frequent accidents. Its a lot easier then getting into the whole, I'm a wacko explanation.

 

[Diomedes Industries]

I would have looked like two face.

What do you mean 'would have'?

TF

 

[MustardMan]

Ouch! Glad you lucked out and kept your eye!


This is one reason I prefer batoning to swinging an axe. I feel a lot more in control and safer when I'm splitting logs with a baton. Sure, it might take a little longer, but I'm fairly certain I will keep my eyes

Again, glad you are OK, and good call on the safety glasses when using an axe.

 

[ROCK6]

Those are some beautiful pictures...I miss the snow!

Sorry to hear about the eye-cut. I cut my eye brown the year I met my wife and visited her family. My, now father-in-law, set the trigger on his scoped blackpowder rifle and I got the scope-ring eye. It split it quite well and I too should have got stitches...PSK came to the rescue and I have the scar to prove it Thanks for sharing...eye protection is always critical in the bush!

ROCK6

 

[Mentor]

Thanks for all the kind words, guys.

Now, I'm definitely a new convert to the 'extra eye protection when in the woods' school of thought, but I'm curious: How many of you guys wear dedicated safety glasses when you're chopping? Is this a regular thing?

Best,

- Mike

EDIT - Nevermind: I'm going to start a new thread on this!