So yesterday evening, I decided to go for a little hike and camping trip. The problem was that it was half an hour before sunset, and I arrived about half an hour past sunset. A friend who lives right in the area came down to meet up with me for a couple hours. It was a great time - I'll have to do stuff like this more often.
1st Priority is FIRE since it is below freezing. I used the 17" CAK Khuk to harvest kindling and logs. No pictures of that since it was dark out (full moon, but not enough for the camera). Once the fire was roaring (a bit too much, actually since the winds were beginning to really pick up), we heated a meal over the fire.
With the fire steady, and having just eaten steak, it was time to make a shelter. I don't own either a tent or a sleeping pad, though I do own a sleeping bag. The ground will suck away your body's heat (a concern since it was 18 degrees F out) so I piled up a bunch of dead pine needles, which were littering the clearing into a nice bed. I had a contractor drum liner (heavy duty garbage bag) so I put that over the bed of needles since wet weather had been forecasted.
On the way to the site, I picked up a 11'x7' tarp at the hardware store. I strung paracord between two trees, used a taut line hitch to adjust the tension, and draped the tarp over. Two rocks on two corners, then I ran out of rocks and made stakes and hammered them in with the khuk.
These pictures were taken the morning after since it was about three hours after sunset when it was made.
My friend left, so I was once again alone. Sleeping was a bit strange. For one thing, there were massive gusts of wind (nearly blew me over the bridge the next morning when one caught me off-guard), but surprisingly, the tarp helped a lot (though it was very loud as it hummed in the wind). Worse though, were the memories of all the stories of psychos in the woods that were shared here. As a result, I slept about two hours at a time in a really strange state. While I was asleep I was perfectly aware of all the noises outside and was consciously analyzing them - I thought I was awake. Only when I actually awoke did I realize I'd been asleep. It was absolutely not dreaming, just a very alert state of sleeping. I thought it was a pretty nifty survival feature from some point in evolution (dolphins sleep with one eye open), but I don't know how long the human body can last on it, since there is no REM phase. If you've experienced this, please let me know.
Next morning, it was time to light another fire for breakfast. The khuk took care of chopping and splitting the firewood no problem. I wasn't taking any second chances with getting the fire lit, since it was below freezing with gusty winds. I made four tiers of alternating oak leaves and kindling. Worked like a charm even though the wind changed direction as it was lit, so that the flame was working against the wind. Sorry that the first pic is blurred - not sure what happened there.
A little after the fire was going, my friend came back over, and brought food!
I found a birch tree which had fallen over, so took a bunch of bark and made a torch for the learning experience, since I'd read about them but not made one.
1st Priority is FIRE since it is below freezing. I used the 17" CAK Khuk to harvest kindling and logs. No pictures of that since it was dark out (full moon, but not enough for the camera). Once the fire was roaring (a bit too much, actually since the winds were beginning to really pick up), we heated a meal over the fire.
With the fire steady, and having just eaten steak, it was time to make a shelter. I don't own either a tent or a sleeping pad, though I do own a sleeping bag. The ground will suck away your body's heat (a concern since it was 18 degrees F out) so I piled up a bunch of dead pine needles, which were littering the clearing into a nice bed. I had a contractor drum liner (heavy duty garbage bag) so I put that over the bed of needles since wet weather had been forecasted.
On the way to the site, I picked up a 11'x7' tarp at the hardware store. I strung paracord between two trees, used a taut line hitch to adjust the tension, and draped the tarp over. Two rocks on two corners, then I ran out of rocks and made stakes and hammered them in with the khuk.
These pictures were taken the morning after since it was about three hours after sunset when it was made.
My friend left, so I was once again alone. Sleeping was a bit strange. For one thing, there were massive gusts of wind (nearly blew me over the bridge the next morning when one caught me off-guard), but surprisingly, the tarp helped a lot (though it was very loud as it hummed in the wind). Worse though, were the memories of all the stories of psychos in the woods that were shared here. As a result, I slept about two hours at a time in a really strange state. While I was asleep I was perfectly aware of all the noises outside and was consciously analyzing them - I thought I was awake. Only when I actually awoke did I realize I'd been asleep. It was absolutely not dreaming, just a very alert state of sleeping. I thought it was a pretty nifty survival feature from some point in evolution (dolphins sleep with one eye open), but I don't know how long the human body can last on it, since there is no REM phase. If you've experienced this, please let me know.
Next morning, it was time to light another fire for breakfast. The khuk took care of chopping and splitting the firewood no problem. I wasn't taking any second chances with getting the fire lit, since it was below freezing with gusty winds. I made four tiers of alternating oak leaves and kindling. Worked like a charm even though the wind changed direction as it was lit, so that the flame was working against the wind. Sorry that the first pic is blurred - not sure what happened there.
A little after the fire was going, my friend came back over, and brought food!
I found a birch tree which had fallen over, so took a bunch of bark and made a torch for the learning experience, since I'd read about them but not made one.
