Recent or Upcoming Outdoors Trips?

Good morning all, I'm curious how many of you have been heading outdoors with the current COVID crisis. Do you stick to areas around the house or are you able to get in trips elsewhere? Most of my adventuring has been hiking and biking on the local trails with my wife and kid but we're heading up to the UP in a few weeks if our governor doesn't shut the state down again. We found a nice looking campground that has its sites spread out and private, which we like anyway. We were looking forward to heading to the mountains of Montana where my wife was born and raised for a few years before the whole family moved to SE Michigan where most still reside, and we now live as well.

Both my wife and I have been working since this crisis thing started and we're both ready to turn the phones, computers, and emails off to disconnect from the workplace for a bit and get some R&R. It will be our 2nd longer trip with our son who just turned 18 months. Last time he was only half that age so he was much easier to keep around the camp and keep an eye on. Now the little man seems like he's nearly as fast as I am and he's walked and hiked a few miles on his own on several occasions because we put him in the child carrier backpack or stroller. It should be a ton of fun as he loves the outdoors and drags us outside any opportunity he gets, rain or shine.

We're looking forward to building some memories and hopefully some traditions soon as we grow our family, businesses, and ourselves. My wife and I are keen on making these outdoor adventures a big part of it, and you can be certain some Good Knives will be along for the ride.

 

It was beautiful this morning so the boy and I went out for a bike ride again this morning with the fat bike and bicycle trailer. I didn't miss a mud puddle and the boy wasn't real pleased with me as I didn't have to water cover on it. He forgave me when we watched a bunch of construction trucks rolling buy some of the roads the bike paths go by. He's in love with trucks, seeing the fedex and UPS go by is one of his daily highlights when we're home with him and he's not at the sitter's.

 

Very sorry to hear about the loss of the plans, kind of how we feel about the canceled Montana trip. My mother-in-law is aging and we think it might be the last year she's able to partake in hiking the mountain with the family.

You're backup plans sound like a lot of fun. I've never been much for jumps but it does seem taking them at night could be even more crazy. The fishing seems like fun, it's been a long time since I did it a lot but I really need to pick it back up for another thing to do with the kiddo. I'm honestly not sure if he would sit still long enough to enjoy it but learning a bit of patience would be good for the both of us.

I actually have some purple heartwood on the way to make some handles for myself, to practice up on some blanks I bought from another knife maker years ago that I forgot about. I've been playing around with a yakut knife I purchased recently and I really like the grind. I was exposed to that from a farmer back where I grew up who was a classmate of mine and they use the chisel/convex grind on their grafting knives which me and @David Mary are putting together for him. It's been really fun to use but I haven't used it quite enough to understand what maintenance challenges may arise, but it's supposed to be really easy to maintain with a strop since it's one-sided.

I hope the fishing goes well and the whiskey goes down smooth. Thank you for sharing the story.

 

Finally rolled out the inflatable kayak today in preparation for the upcoming trip (as long as the governor doesn't shut the state down again). I think the little guy is going for his first paddle tomorrow when mom is at work.

It's a time like this when I wish I had a stainless 24/7 knife available to bring with me but I'll probably be sporting my @JK Knives deluxe hurley creek instead. I will have some stainless knives coming out in the future but only O1 for now and that's not my 1st choice knife steel when heading to get wet.

 

The wife, me, and the toddler had a great time in the UP of Michigan a few weeks ago. We spent the better part of the week up there and I have to say that it was glorious to completely unplug from work and the COVID updates. It's almost dumbfounding how much the crisis has consumed the news media and it's just everywhere you look.

We were hoping to hike a 10-mile section of Pictured Rocks along part of the NCT but alas my expecting wife didn't feel fit enough to pull it off, which is completely understandable. We elected to do a lot of kayaking on Lake Michigan are the Little Bay de Noc area instead. The campground was great and we selected a nice, secluded campsite that was very private with no other campsites around us. It worked out nicely as my toddler loves to run so there many adlib walkabouts through the forest, beaches, and campground trails.

I'll try to get some video and pictures up over the next few days but I'm back at the day job and business in the evening routine so it will take a little time. Surprisingly, we never had a campfire between the toddler running around so much and the weather being on the warm side that we just didn't take the time to get one lit up. Still, we had a great time.

I brought a few knives with me but the ones that got the most use was a custom clipped Canadian Belt Knife made by @JK Knives with a foldover sheath made by @Makael which was intended for exactly this type of use, camp cooking. I had my trusty cold steel goldeneye, one of my favorite beater folders. Lastly, I brought my Merican Puukko which has quickly become one of my favorite hiking/backpacking knives as it packs compact with the linear design and small sheath and the weight is quite nice considering the blade and handle length. I know the finger scallops weren't liked by all of the testers that were involved in the passaround but I love them and they allow me to mold a kydex sheath securely to the handle, something you don't see on many guardless, puukko/mora classic style handles.

Here's a few knife pictures while some upload.

 

The portapotty guard I found tucked in behind the vent piping


Video of me and Jack walking along the cliffs.
https://imgur.com/d2g5Wh0

I'll try to resize when imgur isn't fighting me. I think one of my laptops hates imgur and won't let me into the photo section to get the smaller image links.

 

It's coming to be one of my favorite times of the year to be outdoors, when things aren't as hot, the leaves are changing color, and the bugs are starting to settle in for the season. Normally, this is when I spend a lot more time outdoors with only the limiting light at the end of the day slowing things up but we're expecting our 2nd child soon so the adventures on limited to shorter trips now. It's a great time to be out on the bike and hiking, except my wife doesn't like the hiking part in her current condition.

Does anyone have fall plans? I used to hunt a lot, and I need to get back into it again, so that used to be one of my fall traditions with my stepdad. I'm hoping to get a recurve bow for Christmas or the birthday this year, or I'll have to sneak one onto the shopping list somewhere. Camping often ended up being part of the trip and maple bacon and eggs was the common breakfast on the Coleman stove.

I've also been slowly working on a tarp shelter in the backyard, just because, that the kiddo and I play in a lot. We're also starting a little garden with some of the local wild fruits like raspberries so I've been ripping out some of the plants that overgrew the area after the previous owner of our house left and we let it grow too much. It was a good workout with the pick mattock for numerous days to get the soil and root system broken up, but little Jack didn't mind playing in the dirt with me.




I'm working on getting a wind block on the left side which is open to numerous neighbors yards and the wind can come screaming through there. The other side has trees so it's not so bad. I may need to replace the top tarp soon as it's the super light duty $2 job I probably grabbed because I needed another buck for free shipping from the hardware store at some point. It keeps the acorns out at least.

 

That is warm. We get 60's during the day right now in Michigan, which I really like for doing yard work or messing around in the woods. I don't sweat nearly as much.

 

Thank you much. I look forward to seeing what pictures you come up with. Some that you shared on the JK sub were great.

Do you have any experience with some of the water/weatherproof point and shoot style cameras? I have an olympus tough, or something similar, that is ancient now and the batteries cost more to replace than the cameras worth. I hate using my phone over water but it's what I've got that works for now. I'm amazingly uneducated on cameras, specs, features, etc, just want simple-to-use, durable, waterproof, and compact enough to carry in a jacket pocket.