- Joined
- Mar 17, 2010
- Messages
- 4,256
well, it's not quite george foreman and muhammad ali but i decided to go for another snow hike in jungle habitat with two heavy hitters, the bk-2 and my new gransfors bruks axe. i didn't take that many pics this time since i already covered most of it on my previous hikes there: a machete got lost and now having fun in the snow, a little mountain biking and hiking...so, straight to the good stuff!
this time i came prepared with new snow shoes and actually got deep inside for once. i was hesitant at buying snow shoes at first thinking i'll only go on a handful of winter hikes and then winter is done but i realized what good is having all those knives, bug out kits, etc. if i can't even walk 5 blocks away from home due to all the snow
what a peaceful view, you say? all that snow is actually hiding one of the gnarliest mountain bike trails in the state. this is only one of the few trails where i refuse to ride it without a full face helmet and pads on.
now onto the pile of wood. i only wanted enough wood to boil 2 cups of water for my lunch but well...the axe and the bk-2 got carried away!
here's where the magic...err, chopping happened. i need to work on my woods identification skills. all i know is this wood had the perfect hardness yet big chunks of wood were flying all over the place per swing. it produced some awesome looking feather sticks too with my not-exactly-shaving-sharp bk-2 (it's been kinda neglected for a bit in favor of more "bushcrafty" knives as of late) but i guess she didn't mind the vacation one bit. i've gotten used to ironwood all over here that i didn't realize i didn't even curse once while chopping all that wood until now
tick...tock...tick...tock...
alright, i was getting really hungry and got impatient so i set the pot directly on the fire to speed up the melting. lesson learned - even with all that snow around, i'd still rather carry enough water in my pack as if it was summer. melting snow might look good on paper but it takes a tremendous amount of firewood/work to melt it that if i'm already dehydrated i'd be that much closer to the edge of critical before i get my first sip.
...carrying 3 liters of water alone already puts my pack off of the ultralight territory so what the heck, might as well carry 5...or 8 knives too
this time i came prepared with new snow shoes and actually got deep inside for once. i was hesitant at buying snow shoes at first thinking i'll only go on a handful of winter hikes and then winter is done but i realized what good is having all those knives, bug out kits, etc. if i can't even walk 5 blocks away from home due to all the snow
what a peaceful view, you say? all that snow is actually hiding one of the gnarliest mountain bike trails in the state. this is only one of the few trails where i refuse to ride it without a full face helmet and pads on.
now onto the pile of wood. i only wanted enough wood to boil 2 cups of water for my lunch but well...the axe and the bk-2 got carried away!
here's where the magic...err, chopping happened. i need to work on my woods identification skills. all i know is this wood had the perfect hardness yet big chunks of wood were flying all over the place per swing. it produced some awesome looking feather sticks too with my not-exactly-shaving-sharp bk-2 (it's been kinda neglected for a bit in favor of more "bushcrafty" knives as of late) but i guess she didn't mind the vacation one bit. i've gotten used to ironwood all over here that i didn't realize i didn't even curse once while chopping all that wood until now
tick...tock...tick...tock...
alright, i was getting really hungry and got impatient so i set the pot directly on the fire to speed up the melting. lesson learned - even with all that snow around, i'd still rather carry enough water in my pack as if it was summer. melting snow might look good on paper but it takes a tremendous amount of firewood/work to melt it that if i'm already dehydrated i'd be that much closer to the edge of critical before i get my first sip.
...carrying 3 liters of water alone already puts my pack off of the ultralight territory so what the heck, might as well carry 5...or 8 knives too
