Winter Freebie - WORLDWIDE

[andrew7978]

When I saw this contest, I new exactly which story I wanted to contribute. This is the story of how I discovered Blade Forums and became a fire making expert.

As a young kid, I would secretly sneak matches out of my parents supply and grab a can of bug spray telling them I was going to play in the woods and it was buggy. But my friends and I had much more devious intentions. Once we got to our favorite spot, we would soak crumpled up balls of paper in bug spray and light them up. We would then add some twigs to get a real fire going. What could be better! We thought we knew everything about fires and you might too if you did this.

Anyways, one day I came across this website called Blade Forums Wilderness Survival Sub-Forum. At first, I thought I had stumbled onto some redneck gathering site. Yet, something was off about these guys as all they cared about was fire, guns, and whose knife was bigger than whose. Yet for some reason, I was strangely attracted to reading what they had to say. Then I came across a thread where people would start fires in primitive ways. I laughed out loud at these pathetic people, who had not yet discovered the wonders of bug spray. Yet somehow, I had to keep reading. I soaked up all the knowledge these people as I was planning a trip to my friend’s cabin in Maine. Unfortunately I did not have time to practice before heading up to Maine.

Thus the epic story begins. In order to shorten the story, I will abridge the tutorial as the story is the interesting part.

Step 1: Make a bow drill and create some coals
Step 2: Put the coals in some tinder, blow it into a fire
Step 3: Add some kindling
Step 4: Add some sticks
Step 5: Add some logs

So I started off on step one. It took me an hour just to find the sticks necessary to make a bow drill. After 20 minutes of rotating the bow, I had nothing to show except for being incredibly tired. What a stupid way to make a fire. Well I decided to try again and finally got one going.

Next, the nice people at Blade Forums suggested I should add some kindling to get my fire going. Yet no one said how much so I gathered some and threw it on. Turns out what I gathering was too much and I shouldn’t have put it all on at one time.

This resulted in a fire bigger than I had ever seen. Go figure that some random people who sit in front of computers all day do not actually know anything about being outside and lighting fires….

Despite, the tinder fiasco, I decided to continue to follow the advice of Blade Forum members blindly. Next, they suggested I should throw on some sticks and larger logs. Yet no one had mentioned that I should bring an axe or saw on my trip (thanks again Blade Forums), so my only option was to bring the fire to the logs.

Well I may have burned down half of Maine, but let me say, Blade Forum members know how to get a fire going.



NOTE: This story was for humor purposes only, no forests (and hopefully no member’s feelings) were hurt in the making of this story.

 

[Mentor]

Thanks for the opportunity Esav - and great stories so far guys. I had a good laugh at kgd’s ‘wife or fish’ dilemma. And Andrew7978, admit it, you really are a closet arsonist.

Here’s my story, about being surprised by some rough weather while canoeing.

The location was Murtle Lake, in Wells Gray Provincial Park, British Columbia. The year was 2006. I was just setting out on a two-week canoeing, hiking, and camping trip with my father. To get to Murtle, you have to successfully navigate a precarious logging road (in an SUV, with a canoe strapped to the roof, this can cause premature aging), and then complete a portage before launching your canoe in a long lagoon that connects to the southeast corner of the lake via a marshy channel.

Murtle Lake is shaped like an inverted “L”, with a long northern arm and a western arm that is comparatively shallow, with a more varied shoreline. The lake is never packed with people, as the portage and the ban on motorized boats discourages casual campers. But the fishing is particularly good on the western arm, and since we were interested in taking the path less travelled, we decided to set out for the northern tip of the lake, which is essentially in the middle of nowhere. Of course, since the tip was over 20km from the lagoon, and since the whole place was stunningly beautiful, we decided to make our way up there over a few days. Our plan for that first morning was to make it to the first designated camping area on the east side of the north arm.

We paddled our way through the lagoon, and entered the main lake around 11 am. Everything was going well - the breeze was light, the sun was shining, and the view of the surrounding mountains was spectacular. We set a steady pace, found a good paddling rhythm, and were soon nearing the halfway point of our planned trip. You can see it on the map below - the protrusion of land midway between the lagoon and camp 20, right around where the main body of the lake opens up to the west.

Now, at this point, we had been keeping an eye some rather ominous-looking clouds that were visible over the mountains to the southwest. It’s funny how no matter how many times you experience it, you are always still a bit surprised at how fat the weather can change in the mountains. Before we knew it, the light breeze dropped off completely, and the lake went smooth and still like glass.

Dark clouds rolled in from the southwest, and we knew that we were in for some rough weather. At this point, the canoe was laden with our gear, and we were a bit less than half a kilometer from shore. Not the best situation to be in with ugly weather imminent. We debated pushing for our destination, but quickly decided that the safest idea would be to put in along the eastern shore. As we double-timed it, the wind picked up, and within minutes the still lake was rolling with whitecaps. Then the rain started.

While other parts of the lake enjoy natural sand beaches, the east shoreline of Murtle, at this point, is made up of rather large, jagged rocks - volcanic, I think. It also drops off quite abruptly. As we approached the shore, damp and wind-battered, we realized that actually getting ourselves and our canoe out of the water was going to be a challenge. We couldn’t put in nose-first, and pulling up alongside the shore would expose our flank to the waves coming in from middle of the lake, almost certainly causing us to capsize. I was paddling in the front of the canoe at this point, and we decided that the best option would be for me to get as close to the shore as possible, jump out, and then hold the canoe steady while my father scrambled out. The rain was really picking up at this point, so time was of the essence. I jumped out, slipped on a rock, took a bit of a dip, and invented a few new curse words. Fortunately, I held on to the rope connected to the front of the canoe, and I was able to steady things. My father got out (he managed to keep dry), and together we hauled the canoe and gear onto the shore.

Dense temperate rain forest started where the rocky shore ended. We hauled out a tarp, wrapped the gear in it, and tilted the canoe over the bundle to protect it from the rain. With the gear safe, we sought shelter at the edge of the forest. I cut a few cedar boughs and placed them over a natural opening between two large boulders, forming a makeshift roof. At this point, we were exhausted from the frantic paddling, and we opted to just sit around and wait it out instead of making a fire (but I’m happy to say that I had everything I needed to make a damn fine fire in my PSK). Anyway, it wasn’t very cold and our jackets and ponchos kept us reasonably dry.

After a half hour or, the rain let up and the waves died down. We wandered up the shore a few hundred meters, and found a decent spot to launch the canoe, which we hauled with us (reasoning that a bit of heavy lifting was preferable to capsizing the canoe trying to launch it from those bloody rocks). Some time later we made it to our destination, which, thankfully, had a sandy beach. At this point, the storm clouds had passed us over, and we were treated to a stunning sunset. We were a bit too spent to fish for our dinner, so we dug into our supplies and enjoyed some kind of add-water-and-stir trail food. We washed it down with a splash of port (a luxury we brought along, fully intending to ration it out over two weeks. I’m proud to say it lasted for seven days).

Sitting on a fallen log with my father, looking out across the lake, and enjoying the sunset in the mountains while sipping a cup of port, was pure bliss. I’m happy to say that the rest of the trip was just as memorable. I could tell stories about a few great hikes, fishing, a run-in with a grizzly, or marathon paddling sessions - but that first day was special, since it set the tone for the rest of the outing. Great memories.

All the best,

- Mike

 

[hollowdweller]

Don't want to play just to say Esav is a very cool person:thumbup:

 

[Mentor]

Bump!

This is a great contest and the contributions so far have been really interesting. Let's hear some more stories!

All the best,

- Mike

 

[kgd]

I liked Mentor's story. I've had a couple of times where out-of-the-blue thunderstorms have forced me to pull my canoe off to the shore and wait things out. Just don't have the pics like Mentor did. His experience was a fun read and does bring back memories!

 

[myright]

Thanks for the contest Esav!


This is a story of two new parents (myright and Mrs. myright) making sure they teach their 4 month old boy (myright Jr.), early on, to enjoy all the things mother nature has to offer and to enjoy family. After all, what else is there in the end besides your family and the great outdoors?

We know he won't remember the trip, but we have the memories and the pictures.

Wild horses in the distance

 

[Guille]

First would like to say thank you to Esav for the opportunity, it not every week that there is a contest that includes the rest of us here around the world

Secondly being from the Philippines i wanted my tips to be related to where i live (i.e. a tropical country) so i began to think as to what i could contribute to the already diverse knowledge available here... i have learned a lot from everyone here and this forum has influenced the way i look at certain products as well as my selection of certain knives....anyway i digress...

My topic will be Bamboo

first an introduction via wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamboo

Bamboo is a very diverse plant both in distribution and uses.
The following are a few that i have tried myself
1.container to boil rice and fish in
2. fishing pole
3. fishing spear- you can split a medium size pole into 4 and put a rock in between them to form the prongs
4. fire starting - both as kindling and boards
5.makeshift blade- the sides of freshly split bamboo can be razor sharp


other uses:
scaffolding- yes we still use it here
has medicinal uses namely to treat infections and a good source of potassium


am sure there are many more uses and i wish i had pictures to go along with these tips but i don't... i definitely have to start.

 

[Any Cal.]

These are some of the best posts and pics I've seen in a long time. Nice job everyone on the effort that is being put into it!:thumbup:

 

[Fonly]

I would like to share my time back in Nova Scotia, a gorgeous place to live, my time back there was my adventure.

It was Back in 07 at the end of august that I embarked on my trip, my girl friend had moved back before me as I was working to get some money saved for the year back there, we had been separated for a month and I had missed her dearly.
Once I landed and was out side, just the smell of the air had my nerves tingling to get back out in the woods, it was a smell I had gowen up with and brought back all the good memories we had growing up around the family lake.
After being back for a few months I had plenty of time to get out in the woods, I was constantly practicing my canoeing and testings my knives, here is a shot I still love.

Also I had time to visit the ocean which is something I miss like an old friend, its odd to this day waking up and not seeing, or smelling it.

Finally, by may my money had run out and I was out of work, on top of this I was beside my grandmothers side as she passed away 12 hours before my mother could get back from out west, and on top of this I was heading back out west to be separated from my Girlfriend for another month while she was finishing school and graduating. I had felt like I had wasted the entire year, everything I worked for was worthless.
On top of that all, I was promised a job when I returned and came to find I was lied too, another layer of Iceing in the cake.


So, after everything I have learned many life lessons, at the time I was 17 years old, running a house, splitting wood everyday, taking care of my girlfriend and what ever else went wrong, I learned many things that year and Its a short but extremely meaningful time I will NEVER forget.

 

[bodydamage]

While stationed in Japan, my wife (then fiancee) and I went for an overnight snowboard/snowshoe/camping trip.. We were heading up to a government owned cabin that I had been to a million times. We got a bit of a late start and headed up the mountain anyways. As we started to head up, the weather started moving in. I knew the route really well, but when the fog rolled in, visibility dropped to about 10 meters. To add to the mistakes of the day, I left the GPS in the car. The map and compass weren't of much use, because I couldn't see anything to triangulate off of. Instead of walking aimlessly into God knows where, we decided to setup camp right on the mountain. I dug down as far as I could (18in or so) until I hit the layed over bamboo. We jammed up our snowshoe poles in the ground vertically at each end of the pit we dug. I ran 550 cord across the pit from each pole then to the ground to hold it steady. We each had a 55gal trash bag in our pack and pulled them out and stretched them across the 550 cord and attached it to the ground to keep the wind out. After finishing our shelter, we broke out the stove and made some chicken quesadillas. After a cozy night in our makeshift shelter we took off in the morning and headed back down to the car. Well, 10yrs later we are still married and still hiking, camping, and practicing survival with each other and our 2 boys..

 

[Ankar Sheng]

My summer was non stop adventure, I started working for the Ministry of Conservation as an Initial Attack Fire Ranger. I've never had a more thrilling summer or got to spend so much time in the bush, it's a dream come true.

When it's hot & dry and were on red alert the helicopter--and old Bell 204 "hughey"--stays fully loaded, and our 4 man crew plus the helitac officer and pilot have 5 minutes to get airborne from the time the call comes in.

When we get to the fire we make a few passes, report our assessment and then in we go! If the pilot is in a good mood he might try to find a dry clearing, but usually we just get dumped into the muskeg swamps along with all our gear. That stuff is a real pain to walk through, it's like waist deep mush and every step sucks your boots into the mud and every time you go down the path it gets deeper and muckier.

Laying the hose from the watter to the fire is the hardest part of the job, a box of 4x100' lengths weights about 65lb dry, but they usually get soaking wet from being dropped in the swamp. We have to go over, under or through obstacles, going around them would waste hose, it's a non stop hustle until we get around the fire. I tell you, I've never worked so hard in my life, you think done, you're running on empty but you just keep pushing yourself, catching your second, third, forth, fifth wind.

Putting the fire out is no cake walk either, the Wajax MK3 power pump we use has some serious pressure, it'll easily strip the bark from a tree 15 ft away, and if youre not ready when the pressure comes it'll knock you on your ass. It's definitely the most exciting part of the job and puts you right on the fires edge. When it's 30C outside, youre suited up in Nomex and sweating bullets from dragging a charged hose through the bush the radiant heat from a tree thats engulfed in flame is unbearable. Small-medium sized conifers can be pretty scary, even green needles have so much resin that they just burst into flames, and on the smaller trees all the branches are packed in tight enough that it spreads from the base to the tip in a few seconds and the whole tree becomes a giant torch.

I'll keep this short and sweet and wont bore you with the details of "mopping up".

This is a sever fire, its crowning and burning intensely, which you can tell even from a distance by the orange and black smoke.

This is one of the flanks where the fire is just creeping, the air is very thick.

Here's a pile of our gear afterwards, thats only half of the hose we used, the other half was rolled up to the helipad at the fire. This was a pretty long lay, about 1km just from the water to the fire, and not including what it took to encircle it. We had to run 2 pumps in tandem on this one and used 48 lengths of hose.

If the 3 picture maximum rule is no longer in effect let me know :thumbup: I don't have a ton more, it's hardly appropriate to stop and take pictures when there's things worth taking pictures of, but there are a few more I could share.

I was going to post in the "overseas" contest that I bookmarked, too bad it got closed, if I was the only one who entered in it I might have had a pretty good shot at winning

 

[benchmadebob]

sorry i dont have a better picture or tecnigue but being a highschool student i dont have much time to get out and take pics. But here is a simple picture of a figure 4 trap that i made.

Thanks isav for the contest I was going t try to get better pics today but the camera crapped out.

 

[MacHete]

... because it is about a domestic housepet's survival instincts in "the wild."

We have several housepets- one dog and five cats. The dog (obviously) goes outside, but all of the cats are indoor-only pets. One of them in particular, a crazy fellow named "Norman" is a little more restless than the others. On a couple of occassions, he has slipped out of the house to freedom, only to stop, apparently paralyzed by fear, in the nearest bush or behind a trash can.

A couple of weeks ago, when Kathy and I were returning from Christmas shopping, Norman once again bolted out the door, knocking Kathy off the porch as she tried to catch him. I was still retrieving packages from the car when I saw Kathy fall. As I raced to check on her, she was screaming for me to go after Norman. My priorities were a little different, so, while I approached Kathy I also watched as Norman scampered along a retaining wall beside the house, toward the backyard and the woods beyond.

I helped Kathy up out of the bushes, and checked a few nasty bumps and scrapes on her, then went around back to look for Norman. No sign of him. We grabbed some flashlights and scoured the area around the house and the treeline, but still no Norm. It was cold- in the 20's- and Kathy was banged up and not at all dressed for the weather, so I asked her to go inside. She didn't want to, but I persuaded her that we could search in shifts until we brought him back.

I went back out into the woods with a flashlight and a container of kitty treats. Our house is located at the mouth of a hollow, where a small creek runs along one side. The creek is mostly dry this time of year, with a few perennial pools, so I followed it into the woods looking for Norm. The family property is a little more than a hundred acres, covering a long narrow slice of ridges and hollows from the road in front of our house, to the in-laws houses way up on the first ridges to scores of rocky wooded acres beyond that. The lower half of our hollow is largely enclosed by a sinuous driveway leading to the in-laws and an old cemetary that encompasses about three or four acres behind our house. This area was the primary focus of my search.

I only had to go about fifty or sixty yards up the creek before I could hear Norm's plaintive meows. I could hear him, but I could not see him. I stopped and rattled the treats and waited, but he did not approach. From the sounds of his sporadic mewing, he was moving. I tried to move toward his calls, but had difficulty homing in on the moving target. I worked my way up the steep opposing bank, thinking that was where he was, but eventually lost audible contact. By now my hands and ears were stinging, so I returned to the house and ditched the treats so I could free up one hand and grabbed some gloves and a knit cap.

I followed my previous route up the creek and stopped frequently to listen. After a while, I heard him again. This time he was pretty close. Even though he was close, he was still a small grey tabby in dark woods, so it was tough to spot him. I finally found him hunkered down in the creek bed, and started picking my way down the bank towards him. He bolted again. I worked my way back up the creek bank and found him again after a few minutes cowering in a small rock crevice. He bolted at my approach again. From his behavior and his cries, I realized that the poor little guy was terrified, and that he was only going to run away from me no matter how many treats I offered or how soothingly I spoke to him.

Once again, I headed back to the house to get a hav-a-hart trap, a can of smelly cat food and to update Kathy on the situation. I set the trap on the edge of the treeline and baited it with the cat food. I hoped that it would lure him out before it froze. I went back inside and set a kitchen timer for 30 minutes. We left the front storm door open, on the outside chance that Norm would find his way back to the house when he got cold. I started checking the trap and the woodline every half hour through the night. He never showed.

Around four or five in the morning, I decided to take a nap and set out again at first light when my searching would be much more productive. So, with both hands free since I didn't need a flashlight, I set out up the creek again. It started to snow. I was beginning to think that I would never find him. I was wondering how far he could have traveled during the night. I was pondering the best locations to deploy more traps around the property when I heard a faint, muffled meow. I immediately stopped and tried to determine the direction of its origin. I strained to listen for what seemed like hours, and then I heard it again. It sounded muffled, but close. I looked around but could not see anything. After a few more agonizingly spaced meows, I realized that the sound was coming from underneath a fallen log, buried in leaves, not four feet from where I stood.

The log was next to an old broken piece of drainage pipe that was stood upright in the creek bed. I had to squeeze down between it and the log to look in and see Norman, huddled deep under the log. He meowed when he saw me, but he wouldn't come out. He let me pet him, but I couldn't pull him out forcibly for fear of frightening him away when I got him clear of the log. I stood up and tested the end of the log to see if I could move it without hurting him, but I was afraid of frightening him with that approach as well.

I sat down opposite his hideout and called Kathy on my cell phone. I asked her to bring a pet carrier and some treats while I made sure Norm didn't take off. Kathy was still stiff and sore from her tumble the night before, and she is still recovering from a knee injury she sustained when she was hit by a car, but I don't think a punctured lung and two broken legs could keep her from rescuing one of her pets. She picked her way up the creek to us with the cumbersome carrier, and with no little discomfort scrambled down to the entrance of Norm's shelter. With a great deal of desperate patience, and a whole lot of cooing baby-talk, she was eventually able to coax him out. We picked him up, and hugged on him for just a moment or two before stuffing him into the carrier and taking him home.

Perhaps I shouldn't be, but I am impressed that a domesticated animal, whom we adopted as a kitten and who has never lived outdoors, still had the survival instincts (that we humans lack) to find a shelter for a cold night that was out of the wind, safe from predators and had a little bit of insulation to it. I'm sure his night was neither restful nor even comfortable, but he did survive it. I just hope he's lost interest in ever trying it again.

 

[Esav Benyamin]

At last, at last! Winners coming right up!

(I have to restart my computer. Grrr. I've been fighting this decrepit system for days now ...)

 

[kgd]

Esav - the suspense man....the suspense.....

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Here's what's happening. I went through all the stories, went through them again with my clipboard making notes, a couple were so outstanding they got circled at that point, went through the clipboard list again and circled a few more ... a lot of good stories, well told, great pictures.

I can't pick two, I ended up winnowing them down to four. In order, coote, MacHete, Ankar Sheng, and kgd.

In addition to the Koster bushcraft and the BRK&T Gameskeeper, I'm adding a BRK&T Wolf River and a BRK&T Mikro Canadian.

I will email each of the winners in order, as each lets me know which knife he would like.

 

[BarberFobic1992]

congrats all! i should have been more detailed in my post, i really didnt read the prompt too well. oh well, the knive went to some deserving guys. enjoy them. and thanks again for the oppertunity esav.

 

[kgd]

Holy komoly - that is awesome! You are super generous Esav and thanks for the contest! The story was a really fun concept!

 

[Diomedes Industries]

Yes - but KGD violated the three picture rule. I will e-mail you with MY knife selection in his place!

Congrats all - and very cool Esav.

TF

 

[Mentor]

Congrats to the winners! I enjoyed all of the stories, and I can see how Esav had a difficult time narrowing it down.

All the best,

- Mike