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I recieved a hammock bug net as a gift. This year I am looking forward to seeing the little bloodsuckers whining ouside the net while I say "neener neener" inside. The bug net will take the space now occupied by the underquilt. Above 25F: Put away the big pack with all the warm kit and bring...

The phrase is "charismatic megafauna". Alas, almost all 7 billion of us will resist the steps necessary to restore ecologic systems. The best we can hope to do is to save whatever patches we are able to protect. Yes, sometimes those patches are too small to survive as systems. Perhaps those...

Long introduction, short question. This weekend I camped in a four-season no-vehicle area. Snow was forecast. I had packed a Whisperlite. At the trailhead I threw in my home-made sheet-metal stovelet just for fun (cf. Nimblewill Nomad) along with a hatchet and Bahco Laplander to feed it. I had...

I grew up in Arizona. Lighting a fire with a magnifying glass there is trivial. Now I live at 43 degrees North and all those skills developed burning innocent ants are of no avail. In defiance of solar geometry, I got a surplus Fresnel lens from an overhead projector. It works, but it won't fit...

Doesn't everyone do it that way? I do like Keith's channel. Knock sparks downward and hope you don't hit your tin into the mud. Better to hold a bit of char atop the flint to catch the first spark and there it is, in your hand already, so you can put it straight into a bird's nest or use your...

OP has a bankline kit...thanks for the reminder, will add it to the gear list.

Scathe away. There are not many places in North America, south of 48 degrees or so, where survival food is an issue, for the reasons you mention. Water, oh, my goodness, yes. Food fishing, no. I hear that in Canada the fish fight each other to be the first on your hook. Besides, most Norte...

3x. Just sayin'.

So very true. As I rock-climbed, so do I fish. Note to self: do not pull so hard when tightening knots in 4lb line. I have read that all modern hooks are made to dissolve in the fish's gut if the fish should break free.

Consensus: braid. Second choice: 40 year old nylon. Thank you all for your contributions. I misstated info in my original post. I, too, have not seen Kevlar as a braided fishing line. I have seen Spectra braid. Does anyone else remember that scene from Jeremiah Johson where he was fishing...

No, no, no, only the photos degrade. The color washes out so that by the 1940s it's almost all gone. By the early 1900s and late 1800s all the color fades. The fish you see in photos from those times are still caught, so the line is still good. (Thanks to Calvin and Hobbes for explaining this.)

Sweet tip. Thanks.

Here is my home-made version. A plastic spice bottle forms the reel.

Greetings, A search for Fishing Survival Kevlar had no matches. I received a clever little laser-cut metal card, "Readyman" fishing, as a gift. Kevlar or Spectra line wrapped around the card seems the next reasonable step. Kevlar thread sold on a river in South America seems to have a maximum...

Broken arrows provide a source of tubes, if bamboo doesn't grow in the vicinity. It is so pleasant to be a half-meter from the fire when blowing on it.

Agreed. However. Real knots and bends are always the best choice. A properly chosen, tied, and worked knot or bend will not jam or be slow to untie if it has been loaded or wet. Properly chosen cordage for the job will complement the knots. <ramble>...Those who go to the sea in ships...and...

Thin splits of easily-lighted wood dipped in molten sulfur. [That's a flake of quartz for striking sparks.] [Matches are dipped in wax or nail polish. Strip of wet-or-dry sandpaper sprayed with plastic for striking.]

Very thin wood, aromatic cedar works well, dipped in molten sulfur. The sulfur has a very low ignition temperature and will flame from the glow of charcloth. That flame gets the wood spill burning and Bob's your uncle. The bottom of a can, left over from making alcohol stoves, works well to...

Make the toggles from sticks lying around your pitch.