Wet Weekend backpacking

[Joezilla]

So don't expect much with the pics. I didn't get a chance to break out the camera often. It was a wet weekend and we had a chance to work on some wet fire making among other great improvisations! The knives featured are both Joseph's and John's from another forum.

Embrace the moisture!

Interesting foraging behavior of a daddy long leg. contrary to popular belief, they HAVE NO VENOM This little guy found a long dead bumblebee and took it off to extract some juices, on top of Josephs bottle.

Condor Outback machete, clearing a spot after a good bushwhack

An odd gall/berry. NOT A FUNGUS. Does anyone know this guy? I could not locate a tree/ with more of them, and I coudln't locate any others. Doc, do you think it is just a fungal growth?

AWESOME tent under review for backpacker

A new disposable toothbrush, pre loaded with tooth paste. Maybe I can get the dental misses to finally do a review eh?!

 

[kgd]

Cool Joe - I though Daddy's were detritivores???? Oh boy - now I'm going to have to look that up. Never thought they'd scavenge like that.

Not sure what to think about disposable toothbrush but the tent looks very light!!

 

[TheGame]

Cool Joe - I though Daddy's were detritivores???? Oh boy - now I'm going to have to look that up. Never thought they'd scavenge like that.

Are you going to make me look up what that means now? l

Anywho, thanks for sharing Modzilla.

 

[kgd]

Okay - I went to a poor source (Wikipedia) but it references a legitimate source (Pinto-da-Rocha, R., Machado, G. & Giribet, G. (eds.) (2007): Harvestmen - The Biology of Opiliones. Harvard University Press). Here is what the Wiki had to say:

Many species are omnivorous, eating primarily small insects and all kinds of plant material and fungi; some are scavengers, feeding upon dead organisms, bird dung and other fecal material. This broad range is quite unusual in arachnids, which are usually pure predators. Most hunting harvestmen ambush their prey, although active hunting is also found. Because their eyes cannot form images, they use their second pair of legs as antennae to explore their environment. Also unlike most other arachnids, harvestmen do not have a sucking stomach and a filtering mechanism, but ingest small particles of their food, thus making them vulnerable to internal parasites, such as gregarines.[5]

Cool - its good to learn !!

 

[EMT_Lee]

Those are some cool pictures. I must confess, I figured the spider had venom. I mean... how else does it kill stuff to eat?

 

[sasha]

i like the first pic with the knife... So did you actualy get the fire going??? what did you cook over it??? What tent is that ?????

Sasha

 

[Mistwalker]

Good pics Joe. I like that one with the machete...it looks like you were waiting on some poor unsuspecting critter to pop out of it's hole. The shape on that machete looks good, how does it handle?

 

[Joezilla]

Cool Joe - I though Daddy's were detritivores???? Oh boy - now I'm going to have to look that up. Never thought they'd scavenge like that.

Not sure what to think about disposable toothbrush but the tent looks very light!!

I just couldn't imagine one of those spiny critters to actually grab a bombus unless it was seriously in a bad way. My interest is piqued as well! I will see what I can find. I bet there is something to learn here.

 

[Joezilla]

Good pics Joe. I like that one with the machete...it looks like you were waiting on some poor unsuspecting critter to pop out of it's hole. The shape on that machete looks good, how does it handle?

That would be the Condor Outback machete. I really loved this design since it first came out. It is a fabulous weight forward favorite. I'm sorry to report no critter beheadings, as I was just clearing the tent site. It handled wonderfully as a light chopper and a camp clearer. It was quite the fire starting buddy during the wet parts of the trip, but the thin edge did wedge itself in the 8" sour wood every once in a while if I didn't hit the angle right. That is to be expected no matter what the blade though. I think that was more operator error on my part though, if I really focused I could hit it and pull huge chips out ever time. I really enjoyed its company more than I ever have on a mountain trip. I only missed a hatchet about twice as compared to other trips. But that was OK. I was able to go grab the 19" GB hatchet out of the bag too. I never said I was traveling light on this trip!

 

[pitdog]

Great stuff buddy !!!

I found the throw away toothbrush pre-loaded with toothpaste a sad reminder of what a throw away world we have become though !!!!!!!

 

[Joezilla]

Quite true mr. pit. Of course being mr. nature nurture here, I'm not a fan of more trash. However I wouldn't mind one or two of these in my glove box!