Book Review - TO TREAD IN WILD PLACES

My first encounter with Sam Larson was on his YouTube Channel.

I really enjoyed his videos. He impressed me. One of my first comments (ever) on a video (anyone’s) was … Sam, you are a breath of fresh air in the bushcraft community.

He is every bit of that and a lot more.

Sam went silent for a while. His channel wasn’t being updated. He wasn’t posting on Facebook. Then, low and behold, we see him in British Colombia in the first season of ALONE.

Shirli and I ordered a copy of Sam’s book … TO TREAD IN WILD PLACES, AN INTRODUCTORY GUIDE TO WILDERNESS LIVING SKILLS … on the heels of his announcement that he had written and published the book.

Why did Sam write this book?

He answers the question in his introduction.

“I wrote this book, because I wanted to write the book that I wish I had read as a youth. I wanted to write a book for the indoor oriented folks who are curious what adventure might lie beyond highways and cell phone coverage. I wanted to write a book that would give the young, or beginning woodsman a well-rounded view of what it takes to live comfortably in the wilderness with limited equipment. I wanted to write a book that my parents could have simply handed to the 13 year old Sam and said, ‘go for it.’”

TO TREAD IN WILD PLACES, in my mind, is more than an introductory guide to wilderness living. 

TO TREAD IN WILD PLACES, while it does focus primarily on the skills and tools necessary in wilderness living, is also a ringing bell inviting all of us, regardless of our age or length of time in outdoor adventuring, to adjust our focus on why we are involved in the bushcraft community.

I can wholeheartedly recommend this book as an addition to any outdoor living skills library. In fact, TO TREAD IN WILD PLACES would make an excellent handbook for a series of Basic Skills classes.

Sam Larson … Woodsong Wilderness Leadership School … can be contacted through his website at woodsongwilderness.com .

Making The Most Of Short Trips

There’s something about getting out there … deep out there … even if deep out there happens to be only a mile or two from the normal amenities that most modern campers are accustomed to having close at hand. 

It’s a totally different world deep out there where flushing toilets, showers, and electrical outlets do not exist.

It’s wild and natural out there.

Those of us that know deep out there, and are comfortable with what it offers us, are fortunate.

Some of us are born with a propensity for the deep … there’s something woven into our inner fabric that pulls us to the deep. Some of us develop a taste for the deep through an accumulation of acquired personal experiences over time … here a little … there a little … until a preference for the deep is developed.

Us Deep Outers tend to glamorize our adventures into the deep. We tend to insist that adventures into the deep are the pinnacle … the litmus … used to measure outdoor experiences. These deep experiences are indeed landmarks in our repertoires of experiences. They are not, however, the total.

We need to be careful of what we do with this tendency. It can inspire a few others. I think It can also be an inhibitor. It can work to lessen the value of other outdoor experiences – our own and the experiences of others.

I am extremely fortunate to have a partner in life that shares in my love for being outdoors. 

The following paragraphs on this subject of short trips were key stroked by Shirli.

David and I have been thinking about something lately, and I want to share my thoughts on it here. We love to adventure; to get out in the car or van or truck and ride the back roads, explore, wonder, take pictures and sometimes research what we have discovered after we get home. We have taken countless short trips in the 18 years we have been together. Our trips have ranged from a walk across the main road and down to the nearby lake, seeing an almost tame doe on the way… to a hike on a part of the Appalachian Trail… to a long car ride to far-off campgrounds and exploring a new area, both on foot and in the car. Sometimes we pack up and camp for a few days, enjoying the feel of fresh air on our faces, the sound of the birds, the smell of wood smoke, and the utter peace and quiet of remote locations. Sometimes we grab our walking sticks and stroll up the road to explore the micro environments closer to home.

Whether we are working or retired, this will always be our habit. You see, we share a love of being out. Out in nature, out in the wild, out and about… and while our cabin is cozy, it is still four walls surrounding us. We plan and talk about the day when we will load the van and take that epic road trip… a huge circle of exploration and adventure which, hopefully, will take us to the western US and to places we have not seen in many years. What will we do there? Probably this: take photos and share them with friends, to inspire and encourage them to get out… sit and watch the wildlife and birds…. Paint or draw… go rock hounding… visit historic sites and stand in the path of our ancestors and others who have come before us…. Learn about local culture and traditions… Make music and sing… cook and relax and swim and walk and just be in the fresh air, enjoying the variations in temperature and the smells of the local forests. We’ll EARTH ourselves. That is what I am calling it. To earth is to curl your toes into the grass or sand or dirt, pick up the rocks and touch the trees of the area you are visiting… See the miraculous vistas of the high mountains or listen to the soft sounds of the living world around you in the desert, and embrace the seasons in all their wonder and variety.

It has not been a long time since I had major surgery on both knees. I was chair bound for much longer than I wanted to be, and walking has been painful, and progress slow. But step by step, with determination, I have ventured a little further each time, the pain has lessened, and I have grown stronger. And I want to encourage every single person who reads this to take that first small step. Sit on a bench at noon and turn your face up to the sun. Let it heal and nurture your heart. Walk to the end of your driveway and back. Drive to a lake or a beach and watch the sun play over the waves. Inhale the wonderful scent of nature. Each and every trip into the outdoors is an opportunity to discover something new. Whether your trip is ten minutes or ten months or anything in between, stretch yourself and climb a little. Go farther each day. Stay longer each time. Share your small triumphs and achievements with others… you never know who may need exactly what you tell them on a given day.

Ten minutes.

Ten months.

Or anything in between.

Get out there.

Discover the value found in being out there.

Baited Modified Figure 4 Snare Set-Up

It is possible, depending upon where you happen to be, to find or scrounge items that can be extremely useful in a desperate situation … like that piece of discarded extension cord turned snare and used with a simple peg-style trigger as an unbaited trail set. It is very doable. It will catch. One set on a trail overnight gives you a slim chance. A dozen well placed sets increases the chances of meat to eat come morning.

One problem with that find is that it may take time to stumble upon it. Another problem with it is that the situation may deem it urgent to keep your attention focused on where you are going and the conditions that surround the going. There’s a third problem. It takes time and careful effort to get the wire out of the outer sheathing. That old hard plastic is not easily cut with a knife. The work is close to the fingers. One slip with a sharp blade and there’s a serious bleeding problem to deal with.

I’ve heard people make the statement that the more you know the less you need.

There is truth in the statement. It doesn’t, in my opinion, have enough weight to it to make me want to be negligent in carrying items that make the job of surviving some desperate situation a lot easier. The saying sounds good. It’s got some glitter to it. It’s not, in my opinion, worth depending on as an everyday practice. My preference is to have at hand what I need to get the job done if the job needs doing. The job of survival is going to be hard enough without me adding the element that I call bushcraft bravado.

A few unbaited snares were set on trails and one of them caught.

What now?

You have a hot cooked meal if you have the means and the skills to get a fire going.

You have something else, too. BAIT.

Baited Modified Figure 4

Making the set-up is fairly simple ... a 7 notch and a square notch on the upright and the bait stick and tapered ends on the trigger.

Exact lengths can vary. It's a snare set-up and not a computer operated piece of machinery. The important thing is for the pieces to fit together nicely.

The upright needs to be tall enough to set firmly in the ground so it doesn't pull loose when tension from a sapling is applied to the trigger stick. The bait stick needs to reach a couple inches back behind the upright. The trigger pictured here is around 6 inches in length. I cut a groove mid way in the trigger to ensure no slippage. 

I sharpen a point on the bait end of the bait stick. I also create barbs on the bait stick to make it more difficult for an animal to snatch the bait and run with it. Wrap or impale some animal entrails onto the bait stick.

Fishing Leaders

I carry a dozen 100 pound test fishing leaders rolled inside a snuff can. They are inexpensive. These are 18 inch. 24 inch will work but the 18 inch is about perfect for rabbits, possums, and small to medium sized raccoons.

Remove the snap from the swivel but leave the swivel. It's ability to swivel is a bonus. Especially when an animal is fighting to get free.

One of the perks of these is that the braided stainless wire lessens the potential of a chewing animal from chewing its way loose. It doesn't eliminate the possibility but it greatly reduces it. A rabbit or possum will be there in the morning. Raccoons get real mad about nooses and traps.

Side View

I am using #18 tarred bank line as cordage. The #18 is plenty strong enough to hold a small animal.

Front View

The snare is set forward of the point of the bait stick and elevated enough so the animal has to stick its head into the noose to get the bait.

Use sticks and debris to help conceal the works and help complicate getting to the bait from the sides or rear of the set-up.

One tug or jiggle of the bait and the trigger let's loose. The inch (at the tip) sized sapling snaps upward closing the noose and holding it snug.

Setting this set-up takes some patience. It pretty sensitive. The notches and the upward tension on the trigger stick is what holds it together. Keep your face away from the sapling. That's a lesson I learned the hard way when I first started playing with these. 

Tip - I anchor the sapling under my armpit so I can use both hands to assemble the pieces. I hold upward tension on the trigger stick and gradually let the sapling up to apply the needed tension to hold it all together.

This could just as easily be meat to cook for a hot meal.

Be mindful of the game laws. Here, in Alabama, snares are not a legal means to trap fur bearing animals during the lawful trapping season.

This information is being provided strictly for educational purposes and no animals were harmed. The set-up was disassembled post exercise.

Turning Trash Into Tool

Practicing situational awareness … being observant …  is something that I am given to. It’s not an occasional thing. It’s a lifestyle thing. It’s an at-all-times thing where the subjects being observed vary depending upon the environment I happen to be in at any given moment.

There are things that I want to know so I am always looking … always employing my senses of sight, smell, and hearing.

I want to always know …

What is around me,

Over me,

Beneath my feet,

Subjects that can help sustain me if needed,

Subjects that pose a potential physical threat to limb or life.

I consider this business of practicing situational awareness to be an essential part of any reliable skills set toolbox. Not only in protecting one’s self from physical harm from an assortment of subjects but also in being able to identify and utilize surrounding resources.

Turning Trash to Tool

People leave things behind when they leave the woods. Some people see the woods as a place to haul their trash to dispose of it. It is both a sad reality and a scrounger’s dream in the same breath. One man’s trash can definitely become another man’s treasure … provided there are tools and skills ready at hand.

A Simple Unbaited Peg Trail Set

This is an unbaited set. The key for its success in catching is locating a well used small game trail.

Tip - Always carry something in your kit that will cut wire. Never use your knife for this purpose. Your blade will be dulled so badly that its usefulness as a cutting tool for whittling, skinning, and slicing will be greatly diminished. Shirli and I both have quality multi-tools in our main kits. I carry the needle nose side cutters in my day pack.

The trigger utilizes two simple 7 Notches. One facing up. One facing down. I always cut a groove in the top piece to eliminate the possibility for the snare (under tension) to slip off the peg.

It can be a trick to locate a suitable sapling along the game trail. I look for something about an inch in diameter at the upper end. The purpose of the sapling is to keep tension on the snare once an animal is caught in it.

I cut a notch in the sapling to eliminate the possibility of the snare material from slipping on the sapling.

A spring pole can be improvised by lashing a suitable sized sapling to a nearby tree or by utilizing a low hanging overhead tree limb.

The snare in place and supported.

The wire is stiff enough to hold its shape well and only needs supporting. For rabbit sized animals the snare works well if set a couple inches off the ground.

Use trimmings from the sapling on both sides of the snare to create a funnel and conceal the snare.

This unbaited set can be modified to accommodate large animals. Large animals require stronger snare components. Also, with large animals, realize the risks being taken once a large animal has been ensnared. Leave large animals alone unless you have the proper tools to dispatch them. Getting close enough to put one down with your knife is putting yourself in harms way.

Keep this in mind too.

If the trigger slips on a small snare set ... and the little sapling slaps you on the face ... it's going to sting a little. A 3 inch tree used for a large animal can break your jaw. A hit to your temple can leave you laying there as an easy meal for the buzzards, possums, and hogs.

Practice situational awareness.

Practice skills.

Be safe.

Seeing The Trees Despite The Forest

Meriwether Lewis.

Now he’s an interesting one to study.

One of the most interesting things about him, on his quest to discover the West, at least for me at this point in my own woodsy becoming, was his interest in and orientation toward detail. Not so much the administration and regimentation involved in putting together the Corps of Discovery, getting it moving upriver, Westward, and back again … daring and burdensome endeavor that it was. But in noticing, cataloging, and capturing the myriad details of the vast and changing natural landscape that surrounded him as he went.

It was this bent for natural details, I think anyway, that got him assigned the primary role to lead the Corps … his ability to see the trees despite the forest. His mission? Cast aside all the hearsay notions and speculations and PERSONALLY DISCOVER what’s really OUT THERE!  I think (this is totally speculation on my part) that Thomas Jefferson sent Meriwether to do what he wanted to do himself but couldn’t because of his Presidential and personal responsibilities at Montecello.

The expression … see the trees despite the forest … is a good one and has been applied in a lot of ways to a wide assortment of things – though I’ve never heard it used or applied in this outdoor community in the sense that I’m using it and encouraging its use.

See the trees despite the forest … regardless the location or size of the woodlot. Every woodlot, small or large, has an education beneath its canopy. Even if the course offering is a refresher course. This business of seeing the trees is something that I’ve always injected, in one way or another, into the basics of fire, hydration, shelter, and food when working with students. How effective those injections have been is yet to be determined.

How do we do this? How do we see the trees despite the forest?

SLOW DOWN.

This is hard for us to do.

Our lives are not oriented around slowing down. Not in an economy designed for production.

We are driven to produce. Busyness is a sign and byproduct of production. Up early … off to work … clock the hours … fill the work orders … meet the quotas … increase the profits … get it done, get it done, get it done. Then go try to pack as much busyness as we can into a little time off.

The driving force of busyness becomes our lifestyle. Busyness is, in some regards, a necessary evil. This busyness is a tragedy that we need to leave at home when we go to the woods.

One of the sad realities happening here in our locale is the closing of our favorite park. We are heartsick about the news but not surprised.

It’s an out of the way place where Shirli and I have enjoyed many a weekend primitive camping trip over the years. It was also one of my favorite places to do skills camps. It’s not that it is so out of the way that distance makes it impractical for a weekend getaway. The problem is that folks don’t take to the woods to escape their busyness. Folks no longer see the woods as a place of renewal. Woods … for the sake of the woods … can no longer compete with the busyness of beaches, amusement parks, videos, iPhones, ad infinitum.

TUNE IN

There are several diagnostic questions that I ask of students after a training weekend. The questions vary depending upon the students and the nature of the exercises.

I asked this question at the conclusion of a 3 Night 4 Day trip …

For you as an individual, what was the most difficult thing about these past 4 days and 3 nights?

The most interesting response?

Dealing with the lack of stimulation.

Stimulation?

It’s not that we have a lack of stimulation in a woodland environment. To the contrary. We are surrounded by sources of stimulation. Some of them can be in your face and under your feet obvious … and dangerous.  Like a Diamondback coiled and rattling a foot in front of you. Or a cougar stalking your camp at 2 in the morning. Been there. Done that. Mark those off my bucket list. Once is enough for each of those rarities. Some of them are slight and subtle. Most of them are slight and subtle until we tune in to their obvious presence that is constantly inviting us to observe them.

Our senses of sight, smell, and hearing serve important roles in a woodland environment. These senses not only serve to protect us from danger. They also serve to inform us of a lot of other things. Good things. Simply sitting in the woods for an hour with nothing but our senses can be a nice hour of stimulating and personally renewing education.

What do you think about for an hour?

Only what you see, smell, and hear. Turn off all the other mental traffic and tune in to the sights, smells and sounds that surround you. This is especially difficult at first considering most people, regardless their age, seem to have a need to be constantly engaged talking or doing something.

CHRONICLE

Our brain is designed to record things and is constantly mapping and making notes.

It would be good if we could remember it all but the volume of records generated daily is more than most of us can keep up with unless we are particularly “gifted.” I realized long ago that I am not one of the particularly gifted ones.

Don’t rely simply on memory. Make good use of the 3-P’s … Pencil, Paper, Photograph.

Make brief written notes in a small portable notebook that allows you to easily keep up with them. I prefer a mechanical pencil with a 7mm medium lead and carry a small notepad in my shirt pocket (One with a sewn binding so the pages don’t come unglued and fall out). Use whatever you prefer. The main thing is to treat pencil and paper as everyday carry. Keep it with you always.

This isn’t a Dear Diary. Nor is it a journal where you go into a lot of deep philosophical reflection and detail. There are other places and times that are more appropriate for that.

Keep it simple. Things like … Heard a strange bird call but didn’t see the bird … go online and listen to the calls of birds. Then follow up on it. The brief notes can be about any number of things you see, hear, smell, or sense. Note them on paper. Go back and look at the notes. Follow up with some research. If you can identify the sound made by the bird go on a search for pictures of the bird and be on a look-out for it when you go to the woods.

I have a love-hate relationship with cell phones. More so now that our cell numbers have been made public and every scammer and telemarketer can ring us up at random.

One of the things that I love about having this cell phone with me is that the built-in camera takes decent pictures. I rely on it as a camera a lot when out in the woods. It saves on carrying a camera hung around my neck all the time.

Back when Meriwether (and a lot of adventurers before him) went on missions of discovery, meticulous drawings had to be made of things. Me? I have trouble staying inside the lines with crayons and a coloring book. My phone-camera not only captures images. It also captures the images in color. A picture saves having to harvest and bring home samples of everything that I see. Pictures allow me to compare things with pictures and descriptions in guidebooks and on the internet.

Slow down. Tune in. Chronicle.

See the trees despite the forest.

Finding Lighter'd (Fatwood)

We always kept a good supply of lighter’d when I was a kid growing up on the farm. Lighter’d. That’s what we knew it as. Most of it was stumps that we would dig out and drag home with the tractor. Some of it was fence posts that had finally grown too short to be of fence use any more. I do not recall a time that we didn’t have a pile of this Gold Standard for Firemaking stacked up.

It’s one of those things that a person kind of takes for granted when they are surrounded by an abundance of it.

I was at first surprised, when I stumbled across YouTube and the bushcraft groups on Facebook a few years ago, that there are people unfamiliar with this resource. After thinking about it a little, the surprise wore off. Not all people grow up playing in the woods. The woods, for a lot of people, is an entirely new territory.

I had a little chore that needed to be done in the woods this afternoon so I figured I would combine tending to that chore with doing a bit of lighter’d exploration and do a picture chronicle of the findings. The following photos in this blog are the result of that exploration … one that involved a combined distance of maybe 250 yards and less than an hour of interesting fun poking around in the woods.

An entire stump is always a great find!

This is the leftover from when the tree was cut for timber. I don’t know how long ago that was. It took a good long time though for the stump to decay and the resin … what we always called rozzin … to concentrate.

  

Fallen trees that are decaying away are a good source to check for lighter’d.

Knock away the rot and look inside.

One thing to remember is that all pines are not created equal in the rozzin department. This is especially true with the faster growing varieties that have been developed by the timber industry. They still contain resin but not nearly the resin content of the old varieties that were here before the first manual powered felling saws went into the woods.

Even the less resinous trees still produce lighter’d.

Look for the knots … where branches were once attached to the tree.

Here is another example of lighter’d that is waiting to be added to the supplies.

The entire length is good lighter’d. The fattest lighter’d will be close to the trunk.

Yet another hunk of lighter’d waiting to be toted home.

Note the deep reddish color. The fatter the wood the richer the color.

It’s a thin slab of lighter’d … at most a half inch thick.

I broke off a piece to show the rich fat content.

This is a great find.

Injured pine trees weep resin to cover the wound.

Fresh resin has a number of uses but covering those uses needs its own space.

Another thing to remember about lighter’d is that a little goes a long way. There are many fires in a small stick of it. A small pile of dust scraped from a stick of lighter’d with the spine of your knife, and a few small shavings whittled off that stick, is more than enough to supply the fire necessary to ignite a properly constructed fire lay.

Yet another is that … provided you have a good supply of it … a nice sized hunk of it will supply enough heat to dry out wet tinder and carefully selected fuel wood on a bad rainy day.

We get a lot of rain. It’s a good thing lighter’d is in abundant supply.

Trusty Guides and Self-Education

Identifying and utilizing natural resources is an integral aspect of the woodcraft scene.

Many of our ancestors relied heavily upon the natural resources that surrounded them. Sadly, with all the movements inherent in modernization, vast amounts of this natural knowledge have been lost to most people living in this modern era.

It’s not that all this knowledge has disappeared and become extinct. It’s more like it has fallen by the wayside … considered unimportant by most modernites trodding the latter-day sod.

One of the things that I’ve always emphasized in classes is to become familiar with the natural offerings in our climate zone. Our immediate surroundings are our first and primary theatre of operation. This is true regardless of our regional location and greater climate zone. Focus first on where you are. Develop a growing intimate relationship with where you are. It is, after all, where you are. Knowing its particular nuances goes a long way.

Where you are, if or when push comes to shove, will either offer its assistance in supporting you or crush you like a bug under its foot.

My primary focus is right here. Right here happens to be on the coastal plain of Alabama. This is not to say that I am unfamiliar with places elsewhere. I’ve traveled quite widely and lived in an assortment of climates on two continents. It is to say that, since I am right here, that I need to know as much as I can about the resources afforded me right here. All of us should be right here oriented … wherever our own right here happens to be.

It’s not, in my mind anyway, just about preparing for some push comes to shove situation. Learning how to survive … knowing how to survive … a variety of dire circumstances isn’t to be downplayed either. It’s a fact. Somebody, somewhere, sometime is going to discover themselves in a genuine survival situation. It could be sooner. It could be later. Preparing for and doing a few dress rehearsals in advance simply makes good sense in my book.  

Having within easy reach … at all times … everything you need to effectively answer the call for fire, hydration, shelter, and food simply makes good sense. I must admit that I felt a little foolish when I first started practicing this at all times philosophy. It didn’t take long to outgrow the perceived sense of foolishness though. Having some kit with us at all times is our normal modus operandi.

Kit.

Don’t leave home without it.

You may not need it. But, then again, you very well may and a kit will not do you an iota of good if it’s sitting in your closet at home.

Don’t let your kit become an end in and of itself. It’s not. A good kit is the beginning. It contains the basics … basics that honestly need building upon.

Get to know trees.

Trees are a natural part of the woods. There’s nothing profound about that. The profundity is found in their diversity and personal perplexities.

All trees are not created equal. Some trees make better fuel wood than others. Some will easily split with ax or wedges. Some will work you to death trying to split them into firewood or building material. Some trees are more rot resistant and more suitable for contact with the elements than others. Some make good tool and implement handles that will stand up to the stresses applied to them. There are trees that easily lend their properties to coaxing an ember to life with friction. Others will more likely leave you cold and without a fire burning your selectively gathered firewood. The list goes on and on.

A good guide will show you a lot of important stuff. Maybe not all the stuff that you need to know but it will cover some useful information such as distinguishing characteristics, habitat and range, and uses of the trees covered in it.

Getting to know trees is quite an interesting self-education.

Another interesting school of self-education is foraging wild edibles.

I did not have a living two-legged wild edibles instructor when I started working on identifying and utilizing wild edibles. I have never had one. In fact, when I first began making inquiries of folks that I thought would know of someone locally, no one could recommend anyone. I was on my own in the endeavor and have, despite the obstacle, through careful study and a good printed guide, managed to successfully become personally familiar with around fifty wild edibles that are available in our area.

That’s a lot of food!

My goal, at first, was to be able to identify and utilize an even dozen. It didn’t take long to meet that goal and move on to more palatable discoveries. I’ll admit that it was a little scary at first. I was, after all, picking and eating weeds.

Palatable discoveries?

A few of them can be said to taste something like this or that that we are familiar with. Most of them, however, taste like what they are. Our cultivated taste buds aren’t familiar with them. Some, like the berry-fruit of the Saw Palmetto, are outright raunchy. One early record of the fruit mentioned that it tasted like a cross between rotten cheese and chewing tobacco with a lot of black pepper on it. I discovered that to be an accurate description. It’s good to know that it is edible if I need it. It is good to have tasted it. But I wouldn’t, so long as other wild edibles are to be had, want to eat a sack of them for my supper.

Some things have changed since moving to these woods.

One of them concerns scheduling classes.

I will not be pre-scheduling any classes in 2017. It’s not that I wouldn’t like to. It was, in fact, a hard decision to make. I’ve made a note in the right-hand column reflecting this. It’s time for us to take a sabbatical to work on things here at and around the cabin. There are woods around us that beg our exploration. There are personal discoveries to be made and knowledge to be gained in The School of the Woods.

The blog will continue as a reflection of our own woodcraft education.