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- Jun 3, 2010
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Posted this on another forum but don't want to forget about Bladeforums.
After a long heat wave I was lucky enough to have a few days of warm but lower temps and humidity. I was also lucky in that my uncle who is undergoing cancer treatment had some time off. He wont allow anything to stand in the way of the outdoors. The lower country consisted of fields, rivers and roads. Thats often the reality of the Appalachian trail. Its not all about overlooks and lean-to shelters.
These cornfields are coming along just fine.
Heading up into the hills. It was cooler but ran out of water after 6 hours hike. Not a drop to find anyplace before our camp. I really wanted a drink but hiked on. There were some nice overlooks showing farther south of the AT from Lions head to Jug end.
During the hike in we gathered some resources for the camp. Lots of White and Yellow birch trees. Bark was on the ground for the taking. Big sections like this has uses beyond tinder but only wanted some for campfire.
I was thirsty so decided a Staghorn Sumac lemonade might be just the thing around the campfire but more on that later.
Harvested some Chaga using a stick. You dont read about the stick in Backpacker or find them on sale at REI but it is one of my favorite woodland tools. Extremely UL as I toss it out after use and free cuz yea just pick up another. LOL!
[video=youtube;bermWGDgPTY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bermWGDgPTY[/video]
Watching my step on an overlook.
[video=youtube;2fVRFe9x7UY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fVRFe9x7UY[/video]
The hills were hard and we took our time. I couldnt wait to hit the shelter area for water and was kinda disappointed to hear the water was down a very steep incline. We decided to setup camp near the water. Normally I setup camp first then get water and wood but need dictated order of operations.
The lean-to area is in the woods for sure but our camping spot was far enough away from hikers who tend to turn in early. We mucked around doing bushcraft and cooking till 2:30 am. I took the opportunity to do a Bushclass lesson. In this case a Twig bundle fire. These are a bit like the T.V dinner of campfires. Fast and mobile. The twig bundle fire was moved to a fire ring to ignite a standard campfire. I did little prep work beyond some birch bark and having a bed of sticks inside the ring depending totally on the bundle to get things going. It worked out great.
A Twig Bundle Fire. Tried chaga + quartz but it didn't work this time so used the charcloth.
[video=youtube;WEGjfKW08yU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEGjfKW08yU[/video]
End of part 1. Only 3 vids per post so need to do a part 2.
After a long heat wave I was lucky enough to have a few days of warm but lower temps and humidity. I was also lucky in that my uncle who is undergoing cancer treatment had some time off. He wont allow anything to stand in the way of the outdoors. The lower country consisted of fields, rivers and roads. Thats often the reality of the Appalachian trail. Its not all about overlooks and lean-to shelters.
These cornfields are coming along just fine.
Heading up into the hills. It was cooler but ran out of water after 6 hours hike. Not a drop to find anyplace before our camp. I really wanted a drink but hiked on. There were some nice overlooks showing farther south of the AT from Lions head to Jug end.
During the hike in we gathered some resources for the camp. Lots of White and Yellow birch trees. Bark was on the ground for the taking. Big sections like this has uses beyond tinder but only wanted some for campfire.
I was thirsty so decided a Staghorn Sumac lemonade might be just the thing around the campfire but more on that later.
Harvested some Chaga using a stick. You dont read about the stick in Backpacker or find them on sale at REI but it is one of my favorite woodland tools. Extremely UL as I toss it out after use and free cuz yea just pick up another. LOL!
[video=youtube;bermWGDgPTY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bermWGDgPTY[/video]
Watching my step on an overlook.
[video=youtube;2fVRFe9x7UY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fVRFe9x7UY[/video]
The hills were hard and we took our time. I couldnt wait to hit the shelter area for water and was kinda disappointed to hear the water was down a very steep incline. We decided to setup camp near the water. Normally I setup camp first then get water and wood but need dictated order of operations.
The lean-to area is in the woods for sure but our camping spot was far enough away from hikers who tend to turn in early. We mucked around doing bushcraft and cooking till 2:30 am. I took the opportunity to do a Bushclass lesson. In this case a Twig bundle fire. These are a bit like the T.V dinner of campfires. Fast and mobile. The twig bundle fire was moved to a fire ring to ignite a standard campfire. I did little prep work beyond some birch bark and having a bed of sticks inside the ring depending totally on the bundle to get things going. It worked out great.
A Twig Bundle Fire. Tried chaga + quartz but it didn't work this time so used the charcloth.
[video=youtube;WEGjfKW08yU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEGjfKW08yU[/video]
End of part 1. Only 3 vids per post so need to do a part 2.
