Shelter, Foliage and Fire (pic heavy)

theonew

theonew

Joined
May 16, 2006
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Todays hike was pretty tough. We did lots of steep rock slopes, Richard missed a few jumps (I'm sure he's got a few bruises) and I barely made it up in a few places. But damn it was beautiful. Saw this spot from a distance last weekend with my wife

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A good steep climb and closer examination revealed a nice deep shelter at the top of a rock slope

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Then we hiked across a couple of ridges for several hours. The foliage is changing now and starting to fade to brown but was nevertheless still very striking

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Some of the blueberry bushes looked like they were on fire

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I chose this as my natural tinder du jour, I had never worked with it, but it looked like it would do quite well

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Here's a majestic shot of Richard

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Which was also a reminder that the sun was getting lower in the sky. We made our way to a spot I've been to before. It's just down from the top of a mountain ridge, so its well protected from wind on one side. It's hard to tell from this pic but its deep enough to get well out of the rain. Leaves had blown in and it was quite comfortable to lay in.

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I was really hungry now, so food and fire were foremost on my mind.

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The tinder I had collected was quick to catch a spark but had a tendency to die out if it was too densely packed or flare up and die out if it was too loose. But with a little finesse I got the whole bundle to yield a nice hot flame, just took a few tries.

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I used the back of my Barkie Little Creek as the striker and it worked fine

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The fire was going great

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But since this was the Little Creek's first day in the woods, I thought I'd introduce it to batoning

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And that nice dry split wood really got things going

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A little more batoning and some whittling and I also had a serviceable spoon for dinner as well

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I've been EDCing the Little Creek since I got it about 10 days ago and its been perfect in both an office and outdoor environment. It's unnoticeable in the pocket but is very stout, .15 inch thick, and still slices quite well. I gave it a good workout today and have to say if I needed to baton with it to find dry kindling in an emergency situation I would have no fear in doing so. I'll try to do a review of it one of these days.

We ate dinner and watched the sun sink lower, what a great day.

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We had about 3 miles to go to get back out, so we hauled some butt and had once last beautiful view from the parking lot.

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wow.. those are some amazing shots... some awsome colors this time of year...:eek:

looks like you're enjoying your little creek... they're great knives... i have had one for a while now... i carry it a few days a week... it is such a stout little knife...
 
Great pics bro ! That's some real nice terrain ya covered there !!!

That piece of wood you battoned is a perfect example for the battoning thread, it is obvious that it would be easier to split with a knife than by trying to use an axe, I know it could be done but is safer and easier with the knife !!!

Give Richard a pat from me !!!!!!
 
Great pics, thanks for sharing. Your hiking partner looks awesome!
 
WOW, fall splendour, looks like the area is still pretty dry too, compared to uphere and the rain forest.

Great pics, nice looking mutt!
 
Hey theo, nice shots, thanks for sharing.

Your tinder:
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Phragmites?

We have used Phragmites for tinder with bow drill. We had to use a lot of it and it wasn't the easiest lighting tinder, but it does work.

Doc
 
DOC-CANADA said:
Phragmites?

We have used Phragmites for tinder with bow drill. We had to use a lot of it and it wasn't the easiest lighting tinder, but it does work.
Click to expand...

Doc, I actually didn't know what they were, but after googling phragmites, yep that be it, thanks :thumbup: It is tricky to work with, but does ignite very easily with a firesteel spark, just what happens after that takes some care.
 
Those views look amazing! Wish I could get to some like that this week...but its been raining all week here in OR :grumpy:
 
That was a great trip report! Thanks!

I love seeing parts of the Wild so different from what we have out here in WA state.
 
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