Shelter

I do not know how many tents I have owned and used over the years. Quite a few of them. Even now there are four tents in our pile of gear that we employ in our assorted outdoor doings. A couple of modern tents, a canvas wall tent, and a small canvas A-frame.

Tents have some good things going for them, especially the modern ones with the sewn in floors and screened windows. Warm weather insects and crawling creatures have a difficult time getting inside to bother you. They do also afford you some indoor privacy when camping in developed sites where other people are around.

They also have some not so good things about them that make them impractical to carry on our backs when our two feet and legs become our mode of transportation … their size and weight being two primary issues … and that pack on our back is our home away from home.

The Big Four

Fire, Water, Shelter, Food

When it comes to shelter it just does not get any simpler than a tarp. One of the beautiful things about a tarp is that their simplicity lends itself to a lot of set-up versatility.

A sewn tent, regardless of its style, is designed to be set up one way. If any of the parts are broken or lost there is a serious problem when it comes time to set up camp. A very close at hand example of this came last weekend on our overnight outing.

We took along our large dome tent for Shirli and our little pooch. I felt no need to check it out before we loaded it. We had used it in the spring and everything was intact and in good usable condition when it was taken down and packed.

So we get to our destination and begin setting up. I unrolled the tent and got it into position. All was well. I pulled out the flex-corded poles and discovered that the shock cords on both sets had decided between spring and fall to literally fall apart.

That roll of gorilla tape in my kit had to be employed to hold the pole sections together and save the day. It took a little time to tape all those sections together. It took longer to tape the two sets of poles together than it did to construct my tarp shelter and lay out my bedroll. Had time been an urgent matter it would not have been a good situation.

About the worst thing that can go wrong with a tarp is to have a grommet tear out. But that is a simple problem to remedy.

Unpacking, setting up, taking down, and repacking a tent, even a small one, can be something of a chore that takes a generous amount of time. Even on a good day. A wet tent is just short of a nightmare.

There are times when available time is a crucial matter. Maybe daylight is growing short and you need to get a camp set. Maybe a fast moving weather front is approaching and you need to get yourself and your gear under shelter before the bottom falls out.

With a tarp you can be set up, hunkered down under shelter, and ready for a storm in five minutes. Or, in better weather, that few minutes of constructing shelter allows more time to gather firewood for the night, prepare your evening meal, boil water for drinking, and enjoy that mystical transitional time when the day critters go silent and the night critters begin their chorus.

Poly vs. Canvas

There is an awful lot of commotion and debate going on in the woodcraft-bushcraft-survival circle about this and what I offer here is simply my two copper cents worth on the issue.

I think the debate is a bunch of guff unless what you are attempting to achieve is a good authentic looking replica of a kit carried by a frontiersman prior to or during the Longhunter Era. If that is the case then there is no room in a kit for paracord, ferro rods, Bic Lighters, Pardner 12 Gauge shotguns fitted for using Black Powder, titanium or stainless bush pots, modern material clothing, and quite a lot of other modern imaginations.

What I see too often in this debate is what I call bushcraft bravado … that my kit is better than your kit because I have this, that or the other ego stroking thing.

Personally, I do not have any interest in adding the extra pounds of an oilcloth tarp to my kit.

Besides, for the cost of a good oilcloth, the average person can put together a good usable kit that will get them started and serve them well for quite a long time. A rain fly from a defunct tent makes a good usable shelter. That is what I am using in the picture at the top of the page. I picked up this one and a blue one at the Coleman Store for $3.00 each.

A good quality poly-tarp serves me well and I do have a preference for woodland camouflage. It blends well in a woodland environment. We paid a little more for the ones we ordered and have in our personal kits. You will not find them at Walmart or any of the discount stores.

Debris Huts

I place debris huts in the same category as friction fire. Knowing how to build one is something good to know and something that does not require a degree in drafting or building construction.

If we have a means to construct shelter in our kit then there is no need to invest the energy and time to build a debris hut unless we discover ourselves in an unexpected long-term situation with winter coming on and need the extra insulation against the cold.

Another thing to consider is that, unless you own the property or have the owners permission where you will be cutting living saplings to use in constructing a debris hut, you had better not do it. National Forests, State Forests, and State Parks have usage stipulations that need to be adhered to. Step outside those stipulations and you might very well find yourself paying a hefty fine and discover yourself banned from future access.

Introduction to Traps and Trapping Class Information

Our trip to Little River State Park was truly a great experience. I really enjoyed being there and having the company of such a great bunch of folks for the weekend.

Here is a little heads-up regarding our Introduction to Traps and Trapping class coming up Saturday, November 1^st.

Be at Jude’s ready to begin the hike in at promptly 0900. We will endeavor to wrap up at 1200 but due to the content of this class we may go a little past.

As this exercise will take place in a woodland environment PROPER DRESS is important. Wear appropriate clothing: long pants and long sleeves, sturdy shoes and socks, headgear. No sandals, flops, or open toes permitted.

Bug Dope – You may want to wear a little something. Thanks to the drier and cooler weather the mosquitoes are not real bad but there are still enough around to be aggravating.

Kits – Bring them. You will be utilizing your kit items. Also bring a full canteen of water. I will have some additional potable water at the class site.

Part of this exercise involves conditioning to pack weight. THIS IS IMPORTANT. I strongly recommend that everyone begin working on a regular program of conditioning NOW in preparation for our upcoming Early Winter Trek the first weekend in December. What you do in the way of conditioning between now and then will pay a huge reward.

I will have an assortment of traps with me. I will also demonstrate how to construct and utilize snares for survival trapping from items that are normally carried in our kits.

Fire and Food Prep – As part of this exercise we will also be working on constructing our fire lays, using either ferro rod or primitive flint and steel to generate fire, and cooking lunch in our bush pots.

I will NOT have a heavy cast iron Dutch oven in my kit. This is a YOU BRING IT YOU COOK IT on YOUR FIRE meal as a practice run for our early winter trek. Ramen is light to pack and easy to cook. So are items like instant grits and oatmeal. 

Hydration

Water.

H2O.

We do not think much about it though we depend on it and use it every day.

We have grown accustomed to the convenience provided by wells, reservoirs, pipes, and faucets. About the only time we give it much thought and realize our dependence on it is when a municipal water main breaks or the well goes down disrupting its flow out our faucets. We discover ourselves then suddenly plunged into a little momentary crisis with our familiar routines blasted all to heck. Those momentary crises are fortunately short lived and rarely become more than minor inconveniences.

Most of our body weight is water. On a normal day a normal adult should drink a gallon of water to replenish their normal water loss through perspiration and to carry on healthy body functions. We perspire less in the winter, depending on what we are doing, but our other bodily functions do not take a break when the mercury drops out of the hot zone. Hydration is as important in cold weather as it is in hot weather.

Where the issue of water and hydration is concerned, John “Lofty” Wiseman, in his SAS Survival Handbook, says this …

Without water you will last about 2.5 days at 48 degrees C (120 degrees F) if you spend the whole time resting in the shade, though you could last as long as 12 days if the temperature stays below 21 decrees C (70 degrees F).

That quote is a serious dose of perspective. At least it should be. Whether we are planning a trek on a trail or preparing for some sort of potential disaster that disrupts or destroys the normal services we are accustomed to.

Water.

It is one of the Big Four.

Fire, Water, Shelter, Food.

We cannot live without it. The effects of dehydration, before we are depleted to the point that physical life is no longer sustainable, set in making it extremely difficult to reason and do what functionally needs to be done to tend to ourselves and our physical needs.

Water weighs in at 8.3 pounds per gallon. That weight makes it impractical to transport all we need with us for a weekend (or longer) trek.  

Securing water in this geographic region, where sixty to seventy inches of rain annually is normal, is not a difficult proposition. We are surrounded by water.

Some care needs to be taken with it though. Especially in our immediate area where crops and golf courses are regularly and abundantly sprayed with chemicals that find their way into the watersheds when it rains. People need to know the lay of the land, how water flows, and where it goes. Some pesticides and herbicides are also known to leech into the shallow ground water that can be accessed. Removing those contaminants from collected water involves a lot more than we can carry in our kits.

Chemical contaminants are not a worry once you move into the more genuine woodland environments a short drive away. The concerns with collected water in a woodland environment are easily taken care of by either boiling or filtering.

I am not a fan of the little tablets that you drop into your canteen to kill the little boogers that will turn your world on its head.

A number of reasons.

The first is they have a definite shelf life and after they have reached it they are no longer effective. The second is that in a long-term situation that little bottle of tablets is going to soon run out. Either of these, expiration or empty, puts us right back to boiling or filtering as a means to make water potable.

A third reason is that there are some water borne concerns that the tablets, at least those that are readily available to most folks at the grab-it-and-fly stores, do not take care of.

FILTERING

There are a number of filtering options available on the market ranging from a few bucks to quite a few bucks.

Sawyer makes what they call the Life Straw.

This is the filtering option that I carry in my kit. It sells for around $20.00 and is a smart option to add to a kit. There are no mechanical parts to break and the water filtering tool is supposed to be good for something like 1,000 liters of water if properly used. That is a lot of water stops while on the move along a trail. Using a filtering option for sipping on the move allows us to conserve the contents of our canteen.

You simply stick it into a stream, creek, puddle, or collected container of water and use it like a straw to suck up a drink of filtered water.  Once you have quenched your thirst you blow back through the straw to clean the filter end of any debris that may have collected on it.

Keep in mind though, if you collect water in a container and use the straw to drink from the container, the container needs to be treated with care and not used for any other purpose until it has been sterilized to avoid contracting a bad bug. Metal containers can be easily heat treated over a fire to destroy any water borne illness causing boogers.

BOILING

One of the things we have to wrap our minds around when we walk away from our conveniences and into a woodland-wilderness environment is that every item associated with our life and health is our sole responsibility.

Our minds may indeed entertain a myriad of thoughts on a vast range of subjects. Getting away from all that we are familiar with as the “norm” and deep into a woodland environment for an extended period where our real life-needs become focused has a way of causing us to mentally consider, weigh, and sort things.

One of the things that I try to instill in people is to always be thinking ahead to that next fire and to that next drink of water. Have on you and with you the necessary items to accomplish these tasks.

Boiling water and filling containers with safe drinking water becomes part of our daily woodland-wilderness routine … morning and evening on the breakfast and supper fires. It is also something that necessity may fling upon us during other parts of the day.

So how long do you boil water to make it safe?

I have read several time recommendations from several sources. The two extreme ends of the discussion are … as soon as it begins to boil the heat has destroyed any living hazard … the other end says 15 minutes to make it safe. What I am personally comfortable with is closer to the left side of the discussion.

Both the Washington State Department of Health and the United States Environmental Protection Agency recommend bringing water to a rolling boil and hold it there for 1 minute.

I am personally comfortable with 1 to 5 minutes.

Do you strain out debris from collected water before or after it is boiled?

Think about it.

Anything that comes into contact with questionable water before it is sterilized should also be considered suspect. Why contaminate an otherwise usable bandana or sleeve from your T-Shirt using it to strain grit or vegetative debris from water before you boil it?

The collected water, along with the metal container it was collected in, having sat over a fire long enough to bring it to a rolling boil for 1 to 5 minutes, is sterilized. Wait until after the sterilizing process to bring anything into contact with it.

Making Fire

We depend on it, or its similar generated effects, on a daily basis. So much so that our familiarity with it has dumbed us down to its importance … until the power goes out and our modern heat generators fail to work at the twist of a knob or flip of a switch.

Fire is far more than a convenience or comfort item. It is, in a very real way, a matter of life or death for us.

Fire ...

      Warms us when we are cold.

      Cooks our food.

      Boils water to make it safe to drink.

      Provides light so we can see.

      Deters wildlife from prowling our camp.

      Lends us a sense of comfort and well-being.

      Smoke from a fire deters insects.

      Can be used as a rescue signal.

This is not a complete list of what fire does for us. It is, however, a pretty good start to the list of its performances. At least where woodcraft is concerned.

Otzi lived over 5,000 years ago. His body was found in 1991 in the Italian Alps. His cause of death was an arrow in his back that severed an artery. He carried a few tools with him. These were also discovered with his remains. Among his earthly trail possessions were found ...

      Some tinder fungus.

      A flint flake.

      Some iron pyrite.

Iron pyrite, when struck with a piece of flint, showers sparks on the tinder fungus which begins to smolder. Added to a tinder bundle the smoldering ember is blown into a flame. FIRE is produced.

That is about as primitive as it gets. And produced with natural materials found in his immediate surroundings. Pretty ingenious if you ask me. It makes me wonder who taught Otzi and who taught that teacher.

I have yet to discover a fungus in our area that makes good tinder fungus. What we have here simply does not work for me. Not only have I not been able to get it to catch a spark and smolder, it is also infested with fungus beetles that reduce the fungus to a fine powder by the time it dries enough to consider applying a spark to. Adding to its lack of workability is the fact that iron pyrite and flint are not native to our coastal area.

So my own fire-making has to take on a less primitive nature if I am going to produce fire and do it effectively and efficiently in all conditions with the least amount of calorie burn.

Calorie burn. I think this issue insists upon our attention, especially in situations where replenishing those burned calories is critical. Burning some extra calories over the course of a weekend is not going to hurt any of us. Burning extra calories day after day over an extended period of time can be the literal death of us.

It may have been Dave Canterbury that coined the phrase. I am not sure. The phrase has grown into popularity in the survival-bushcraft-woodcraft arena.

“Three is one and one is none.”

It is a good phrase, whoever is responsible for coining it, especially where this business of fire making is concerned. The more ways you know and are practiced in … the better prepared you are and the better off you are when you need to produce a fire.

PRIMITIVE FLINT AND STEEL

This is my favorite means of producing a fire.

Doing historical reenactments is what really got me going on this one. In fact, it was doing historical reenactments that set me on a course of discovering a lot of other things related to times gone by.

History.

It contains a lot of how’s and why’s that have been left behind by most folks in these modern times. That is a real shame.

There we were. Canvas wall tents set up and all decked out in clothes and equipment associated with military life 150 years ago. Cast iron cookware, fire irons, grates. Mostly (but not entirely) period correct stuff. Some folks used “Lucifer’s” to light their fires. Most that I saw though pulled a Bic out of their pocket, squirted lighter fluid on their stack of wood, and touched it off.

It started the wheels turning in my head. What would folks have used 150, 200, or 400 years ago to get their fire going? It dang sure would not have been a Bic lighter and quart of lighter fluid.

So I did a little research. Studied up on the subject. And ordered a fire steel that came with a chunk of flint.

I beat the edges off that piece of flint before I figured out the rhythm required to “strike” that flint and steel. I used a musket cap tin to make a container to cook char cloth, built a fire, and went to work charring some cotton cloth. It was a bit of a trial and error process to get the cloth cooked to good usable perfection.

A few strikes with the flint and steel and a spot on the char began to glow with a pretty red glow.

Cotton material is not the only natural material that can be used as char. That is a good thing because in a long-term situation cloth is a commodity that you do not want to waste.

The woods are full of natural material that can be charred and used to catch a spark. Punk wood is abundant once you learn to recognize and process it. A nice piece of charred punk glows really hot and is not as apt to burn up as fast as a piece of charred cloth. 

I do not know how long it takes to wear out a fire steel. The one in my kit has made quite a few fires and given a lot of demonstrations. Judging by its wear I would say it has only just begun to live its life. As long as I do not lose it I can easily imagine it outliving me.

You do not have to have a “period correct” fire steel. A piece of file with a smooth side makes a fine fire steel.

MODERN FLINT AND STEEL

I like these a lot. Especially like the small ones that you can carry in your pocket. Shirli has a super nice ferro rod that fits in the sheath of her Mora. 

A good ferro rod with an attached striker will produce a lot of fires. Some come without an attached striker. This is not a problem. You can make a striker from a broken hacksaw blade or use the 90 degree spine of a knife.

The hot sparks from a ferro rod will easily ignite finely processed dry material to get a fire going.

The magnesium bar variety has a tiny ferro rod that wears out pretty fast. The nice thing about it is the magnesium bar. That dime or nickel sized pile of magnesium shavings burns really hot when hit with a spark. The bar and those shavings gives you a good edge when it comes to getting a fire going.

BURNING GLASS

Using a magnifying lens to magnify and focus sunlight onto a piece of charred material is an effective way to begin producing a fire. It is, however, not at all feasible on an overcast day or once the sun goes down.

MATCHES

I rate matches pretty low on my list of fire-making means. About the only time I use a match is to light the charcoal in our grill.

That is just me though.

I do have a few waterproof containers of matches just in case. A match will definitely get a fire going and it is better to get a fire going than to not.

The two major down sides of matches are that when they get wet they do not work and when the matches are used up they are gone for good.

BIC LIGHTER

Every kit ought to have at least one Bic lighter in it.

They work as long as they have fuel and a flint. They are not fool proof. They run out of fuel and their little flints wear out. In cold weather they get contrary and often fail to work.

The plus side is that they work when they work.

FRICTION

Creating a fire by rubbing two sticks together is something that is so simple that a caveman can do it while at the same time is a heck of a lot more complicated than it looks.

I have been working on this one. Though I have been several times successful at it, the lack of success far exceeds the number of successes.

It is a good skill to learn and know.

Friction fire, from my own experience and perspective, is at the bottom of my list of priorities.

Why?

Three reasons.

The first is that there are so many variables involved. If one of them is out of whack the whole process is out of whack and doomed to fail. The second is that you will burn a lot of calories in a short minute or two that you may not be able to replace. The third is that not everyone is physically fit enough to make it work.

Where friction fire is concerned … have a nice repertoire of fire making means in your kit that allows you to produce fire without having to resort to rubbing sticks together.

What I Cannot Teach

We take an awful lot for granted in this world of ease that we live our day to day lives in.

Flip the switch on the wall and the lights go on and off. Heck. Some smart somebody even invented the “Clapper” so a couple claps of the hands turns on a light.

Turn the knob on the stove and the elements heat up to make cooking a lot easier than firing up and standing over a wood burning cook stove. Some stoves use gas, either natural or propane, to serve the same purpose. The most modern gas models do not even require striking a match or pushing a button to generate the lighting spark. Technology has replaced the box of “strike anywhere’s” that hung on the wall by the stove. That is pretty smart as long as the power is up and flowing through the wires.

Microwave ovens. I do not personally know a home without one. Ours went on the fritz a few years ago. Since all it was used for was to heat things up we decided to do without that convenience. And we did … for about three months … until I broke down and invested again (a small one) in that convenience.

The same goes for heating the house. The thermostat on the wall that controls the thing in the closet does the work of chopping, hauling, and stacking firewood for the winter. It also operates the business end of that mechanical contraption that cools the house in the summer.

Water comes through pipes. All we have to do is open a faucet. Gas or electricity keeps a tank constantly full of hot water. There is plenty of hot and cold water for all the daily needs. Hit the handle on the porcelain chamber pot in the bathroom and things are flushed out of sight and down the pipe into the system, whether it is one built in the yard or a municipal sewer system.

Every bite of food, for the greater majority of people in this modernized country, is purchased at the grocery store and at restaurants replacing the necessity to engage personally in the business of growing, harvesting, hunting, fishing, foraging, processing, and preserving food to eat.

Even our homes and closets full of clothes figure in. The vast majority of us live in structures built by someone else. The idea that we need to know how to construct a dwelling … and invest the time to do it … does not enter into the mind of most people. We pay dearly for it with decades of mortgage payments but, for the sake of convenience, we sell ourselves to the bank. The “home” issue is also complicated by all the various building codes and restrictions that constrict and limit the freedom of individuals to take care of themselves as best they can within their means.

What about the clothes in the closet? Bought or made from material that was bought from a store of one sort or another.

I have used all the above verbiage to lead into a very basic and simple point.

Though our means of satisfying our essential needs has changed a lot with the progression of time and technology … our essential needs to sustain life have not changed one iota. They are as basic now as they were 200, 2,000, or 20,000 years ago …

FIRE, WATER, SHELTER, and FOOD ...

regardless of climate, circumstances, or conditions.

It is easy to take these for granted. Modern life, with all its technology and convenience, is a comfortable life. I enjoy living as comfortably as possible. I must also admit that comfortable living, with all its conveniences, bothers me. The more I recognize its bothersome effects the more it bothers me.

Why?

It has a way of slipping up on us. It has a way of taking us over. It has a way of robbing us of our desire of independence. It stifles thought and creativity. Its intrusive nature depletes our ability to fend for ourselves. It has a way of depriving us of a lot of personal enjoyment, adventure, learning, and experience that can never occur as long as we are surrounded by insulated and painted walls where our several senses are entertained and overwhelmed by our own preferred and selected noises, entertainments, and conveniences.

One of the things that deeply impresses me about folks like Nessmuk and Kephart is their personal philosophy regarding being “out there” in the wild. Sure. Their personal woodcraft skills are impressive. They knew how to go deep and long and come out on the other end of it still smiling and looking forward to the next trip. It is their philosophy though … their appreciation and understanding … their love for it all … that impresses me most.

Skills can be taught. They can be learned by those willing to learn. I think though that the love of wild places … the love of the sounds and smells and changing faces of Ma Nature … the preference to be “out there” in and with her … is something that is more caught than taught. I can lead folks to the edge of it but the catching is outside my control.

Deeply inherent in all that we are doing in these classes and outings is our desire for folks, young and not as young, to discover for themselves something of this philosophy … to find themselves caught by it … equipped with a good, practical, and usable set of woodcraft skills … anxious to grab their kits, go for a long walk, set up a camp in the woods to stay a chosen while, and walk out after that while with smiles of accomplishment on their faces anxious to go and do it again.

Little River State Park Woodsmoke Overnight Preps

We are less than two weeks away from our Woodsmoke overnight at Little River State Park. Shirli and I drove up Sunday to do a little scouting and to simply enjoy the natural surroundings. A nice doe pleasantly graced our sight as we drove in. She is accustomed to seeing people and though still wild was not real skittish.

LRSP provides us with an ideal natural setting as a gradual first step with the guys we are mentoring in woodscraft skills. It will provide them with an opportunity to practice the skills they have been learning and spend a night “on the ground” in a somewhat controlled atmosphere as a first step in readying them for our early and late winter extended trips.

This is a great time to be outdoors and we are really looking forward to getting out there with the guys!

Here are a few things to keep in mind and prepare for accordingly.

KIT – It is important that your kit contain the prescribed items we have been working with in our classes and that all items are in good working order.

What if it rains?

A little rain in the forecast will not alter our plans. I am of the opinion that a little rain on this picnic would only serve to add to the value of this outing as a training exercise. A fierce weekend deluge with a lot of hot lightning will cause us to reschedule. We will play that by ear though.

SAFETY is ALWAYS our first priority. BRING some form of rain gear … a poncho, rain suit, or 55 gallon drum liner.

FOOD – Bring a few supplemental snacks or trail foods of your preference. Don’t overdo it. Remember that we are not packing for a long haul but for a simple overnight.

An open-fire supper and breakfast will be provided for the enrolled class members.

FISHING GEAR – Bring something to fish with but keep it bare minimum simple. I will use only a throw line that is part of my kit and set a few overnight bank lines for cats. A fishing license is required for anyone 16 or older.

CLOTHING – Be attentive to the forecast temperatures.

Wear appropriate clothing. Pack a complete change of clothes in a dry bag (13 gal. garbage bag with drawstring works well) in the event you get wet. REMEMBER that hypothermia can be a real issue when the air is cool and the breeze is blowing. Even if it does not rain you may still slip and get wet in the lake or creek.

SLEEP SYSTEM – A bedroll or light sleeping bag and some type of pad to provide insulation from the ground. Insulation from the ground temperature is not as critical in October as it will be on our winter outings. That thin layer of padding also makes for a better night of sleep.

An inexpensive exercise pad will work as a pad. Walmart or Coleman carries closed cell Camping Pads that are waterproof for around $15.00.

HEAD GEAR – A hat is not mere head dressing. It is protective gear. It helps regulate body temperature, protects us from the summer sun during the day, and helps minimize heat loss in the winter. With the cooler temperatures at night it is advisable to carry a stocking cap in your kit. It is especially valuable to wear when you sleep.

STAKES – Either purchase or prepare the stakes you will need for your tarp and bring these as part of your kit.

Harvesting material for stakes is not a problem here in our classroom areas. For the sake of respecting public resources at the park we do not want to damage any growing plants, trees, or wildlife.

We’ll meet here at 0900 on Saturday morning the 18th, do a quick equipment survey, convoy to our destination, and be spiking camp before noon.