The Bundok's Inauguration.

Pàdruig

Pàdruig

Reap What You Sow
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Dec 1, 2016
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My apologies, fellow Beckerheads. I've been lax in providing some pictorial evidence of my recent trip. The fact is, I barely was able to squeeze in a few days between all of the projects that tend to stack up with new home ownership.

Nevertheless, I made it happen. It was ridiculously good to get out, stretch my legs, breath some fresh air, and give the BK-20 the workout it has been begging for since I got it.

I headed out to one of my usual haunts in the Jefferson Wilderness with a few buddies. Those of you who have read my previous adventures know that I refer to this area as Fort Kickass, a name that inadvertently got stuck in Google due to our shenanigans. Otherwise, or rather officially, known as Firecamp Lakes, it is a group of small lakes located near Mount Jefferson and are relatively easy to get to.

Yep, still there in Google Maps...

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The weather was quite nice. Cool, cloudy, with some sun breaks. We endured a couple of brief showers but nothing to really be bothered about as we generally are quite prepared.

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This is the first time in the wild that I had really used the Solo Stove that I got. I intentionally left my iso-butane stove at home as I wanted to get some practice with this one. A bit more time consuming and labor intensive but worth it. It cuts down on weight and bulk in the pack and it is a good way to make yourself get some practice with foraging and fire making, especially since my meals depended on it.

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Pretty much kept a fire going nonstop.

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Now to get into some goodness. I packed a bit lighter than I usually do, only bringing a small assortment of knives, an axe (that I didn't end up using), and my Bahco Laplander (which I also did not use).

My buddy brought his new Silky and that ended up being one hell of a tool. It ate logs for breakfast, creating rounds for splitting, and making short work of just about everything we applied it to. I will have to get me one...

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The knives! I only brought three with me, the BK-20, a Survive 4.7, and a GEC 71. The GEC never got touched, I just never ran into anything that required it. The other two just simply got it done.

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I did not get any pics of the 4.7 in action, this is the Becker forum after all. However, it performed quite well in the tasks that I put it to, which were largely whittling, light batoning, and everything else where a smaller knife would be required.

The Bundok though... What an absolute beast! From the moment I started swinging I knew this was a keeper.

De-limbing a downed tree? No trouble at all.
Taking out saplings? Why not?
Blasting through rounds? Piece of cake.

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Such an incredible knife and I am sad to say, it might unseat the King as my go-to big knife for awhile...

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Some night time shots.

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Some of our very own PNW mountain foliage.

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And the esteemed Mount Jefferson. A glorious sight!

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Thanks, folks, for reading my ramblings. Thank you, Ethan, for designing an exceptional knife. And thank you, 91bravo 91bravo , for making it available to me.

Sláinte
 
91bravo said:
Beautfiul trip Dylan! I'm envious of the evergreen country yall have out there! One of these days man, one of these days...
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Thanks man. You guys would love it out here. Though you might get a wee bit chilly... My wife is from the south and she still hasn't gotten used to the cold, despite being here most of her adult life.
 
What was the temp at night on this trip? We have camped in 18 degree weather before. We don't like it, but we have!
 
Hell yeah! BK20 is the emperor to the BK9's kingship, no doubt about it.

Yours already looks well-loved, I'm impressed. I've owned mine since I bought it the first day it was available, and it still looks lightly-used in all my photos even though I've pounded it through everything and anything I could. This pic's as current as I have that actually shows the wear remotely accurately; I only own one of these anymore and I'm sure you can guess which one it is:

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91bravo said:
What was the temp at night on this trip? We have camped in 18 degree weather before. We don't like it, but we have!
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It actually wasn't too bad on this trip. I think it dipped down into the low 30s both nights, which isn't bad except there tends to be a breeze that whips up from the lake. It can have quite the chilling effect if you hang and don't have your tarp strategically placed.

I've been up here in years past where the temps got in the med to high teens at night but it isn't common, at least for the time of year that we typically go. Most folks tend to complain about the wet over the cold, though the wet will undoubtedly make you feel colder.
 
KingMC said:
Hell yeah! BK20 is the emperor to the BK9's kingship, no doubt about it.

Yours already looks well-loved, I'm impressed. I've owned mine since I bought it the first day it was available, and it still looks lightly-used in all my photos even though I've pounded it through everything and anything I could. This pic's as current as I have that actually shows the wear remotely accurately; I only own one of these anymore and I'm sure you can guess which one it is:

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I think the use (love) marks are a bit amplified on mine due to the finish that Jonny put on it. I noticed that on this one as well as the 12 I got from him that any sort of cutting or chopping through stuff that is either green or has a bit of moisture darkens the steel pretty quickly.

But yes, solid freaking knives. I felt like I could bust through just about anything wielding that beast!
 
91bravo said:
Eh, we can handle 30 degree weather! We are tent campers anyway!
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If you ever make it out here, we will set you and MTM up proper with hammocks and such.
You haven't lived until you wake up with frozen feet and buttocks. :D

Though I jest, it did take me a bit of trial and error before I was able to dial in the comfort factor with the hammock setup.
 
Just the kind of thread I needed. Thanks for posting it up, appreciate it. Beautiful area. I liked the BK20, as it worked awesome, but still prefer the weight of the niner.
 
Thank you for sharing - I am jealous of those temps because the heat is in full force here in Central Texas. The BK20 is an awesome blade - I couldn't resist grabbing a couple when they were first offered, but strangely, I had no desire to get the Moses; didn't appeal to me in the same way.
 
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Damn, I want me a 20 badly. Your review just makes it that rougher. Great pictures too. Thanks for sharing.:thumbsup:
 
1) How in the hell did you get Google to call that area "fort kickass." I must know!

2) How does the solo stove compare with an emberlit? I love my Emberlit and that it folds flat, but is there an advantage to the Solo Stove that I'm not seeing?

3) Those pics are gorgeous. Thanks for giving us a peek into that trip!
 
Ahh, the further adventures at Fort Kickass...

Thanks for the pics Pàd, exactly what I needed to see. Looks like you had a blast. Excellent nighttime pics. Nice to see your well-loved Bundock enjoying chewing up nature. Thanks for bringing us along.
 
The Warrior said:
Just the kind of thread I needed. Thanks for posting it up, appreciate it. Beautiful area. I liked the BK20, as it worked awesome, but still prefer the weight of the niner.
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Thanks man. I don't think my sentiments regarding the 9 have changed, despite being quite pleased with the 20. If I am hitting the woods and wanted to keep my tools to a minimum (which does happen every so often), the 9 is by far the better choice. As has been said, it is a big knife that can do knife stuff and chop. I can't think of a better one knife option than the 9, to be honest. It is just a great all around blade.

The 20 is just a bruiser, that thing will wreak destruction on anything. But do I want to fillet a fish or slice my steak? It could do the job, I suppose, just not particularly gracefully.

austexjg said:
Thank you for sharing - I am jealous of those temps because the heat is in full force here in Central Texas. The BK20 is an awesome blade - I couldn't resist grabbing a couple when they were first offered, but strangely, I had no desire to get the Moses; didn't appeal to me in the same way.
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I am no fan of the heat... I am originally from Maine but grew up and currently live in Northwest Oregon. Though our summers get pretty warm, we still have our cool springs and our wet and cold autumns and winters. I wasn't initially interested in either the 20 or the 29 when they came out, I figured that the 9 suited all of my big knife needs. However, I jumped on an opportunity to scoop up a 20 and I have to say, I am very happy I did. It is a terrific knife and earns its keep beautifully.

I figure the only difference between the Bundok and Moses is simply aesthetics.

GeofS said:
Damn, I want me a 20 badly. Your review just makes it that rougher. Great pictures too. Thanks for sharing.:thumbsup:
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Thank you, my friend. If you can scoop one up, I highly recommend it. Either this one or the 29, I believe they will perform equally as well, just comes down to which one you come across first and which one you find more pleasing to the eye. If you get one, I will look forward to reading your thoughts on it.

19-3ben said:
1) How in the hell did you get Google to call that area "fort kickass." I must know!

2) How does the solo stove compare with an emberlit? I love my Emberlit and that it folds flat, but is there an advantage to the Solo Stove that I'm not seeing?

3) Those pics are gorgeous. Thanks for giving us a peek into that trip!
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Ha! A good question... My brother-in-law is one of the guys I regularly go with. After our first trek out there, we liked it so much that he went on Google maps to mark the location. Somehow during that process he ended up naming that particular lake Fort Kickass and submitted it to Google. What started as some confusion involved with the process of marking our location for future reference ended up with our place being permanently applied to the map... We didn't find out until the next time we ventured out there. I can only imagine the Google employee who handled it, "yeah, these guys are cool, I'm gonna do them a solid". (Though likely the process was probably automated.)

I am not sure if the Solo is superior to the Emberlit or not. I actually was going to buy an Emberlit but the Solo went on sale for a price I couldn't pass up so I got it instead. The Solo is certainly more expensive otherwise. I would say that the Emberlit has the advantage in terms of folding flat for ease of storage, except my solo fits perfectly inside my mess kit/pot set so the Emberlit would actually take up more space than my Solo currently does. Based on pictures alone (mostly from seeing 91bravo 91bravo 's pics), I would say the Emberlit has a better fuel feeding "system". You feed the wood towards the bottom, where the Solo is fed from the top (between pot and base), which makes it kind of awkward and difficult to see how the fire is going while your pot is heating up. I plan on getting an Emberlit at some point to compare. I might be able to better answer your question at that point in time.

Thanks for the compliments, my friend. I am very happy to share.

Aikiguy said:
Ahh, the further adventures at Fort Kickass...

Thanks for the pics Pàd, exactly what I needed to see. Looks like you had a blast. Excellent nighttime pics. Nice to see your well-loved Bundock enjoying chewing up nature. Thanks for bringing us along.
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Xr6x said:
Thanks Padruig for sharing some Great Pics :thumbsup:
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Thanks guys, I appreciate it. I am hoping for more adventures this year, including some fishing! I happened to move to an area where the fishing is quite good (salmon, steelhead, trout, bass), I can't wait.
 
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