Bushcraft and Long Distance Travel

[steved1969]

Greetings all, long time lurker, first time poster here just wanting to pick the brains of the collective community.

A little bit about myself first, don't really think of myself as a 'bushcrafter' as such, more of a lightweight wild camper (that's lightweight as in not carrying too much stuff, not lightweight as in weighing nothing, I like to carry a bit of internal insulation!). I have done some bushcraft type stuff previously such as a bit of foraging and what have you, but mostly that only skills I use on a regular basis are water gathering and fire starting (even then using a flint and steel rather than anything like a bow drill), mainly I use the water gathering just as a way to not have to carry lots of water with me if I'm off camping, but I still carry thinks like a tarp and a sleeping bag, along with food and either a bivvy bag / hammock / tent depending on mood, weather and where I am going.

One thing I have been thinking about lately is what skills would be of most use on a long distance walk, again with the aim being to reduce the amount you would carry. I'm not talking about a totally self sufficient walk where you would never see anyone for months, but a walk where you would for example re supply every couple of weeks or so. As an example let's assume you set off to walk across the width of America or across Europe, planning to spend an indefinite time on the trip, no real fixed route just going where ever the mood took you, but planning on re-stocking every now and then. My questions are:

1. What skills would be most useful, assuming you were carrying shelter, happy to source water on a day to day basis and were comfortable with your fire making abilities? This is really going to come down to food procurement I guess, just so that you could carry less. Fishing is a given I expect but I assume that things like trapping and hunting would be of limited use due to the constant movement, no time to pre bait trap sites or anything like that, so would you be limited to foraging for food - Keeping in mind that you would be crossing varied terrain/regions would it be viable to learn enough useful plants to allow you to forage with some degree of success?

2. If you did decide to supplement your food with say foraging and fishing, what kind of food would you carry with you, what's the hardest thing to replace when foraging, I would assume protein and fat?

3. Assuming that you were supplementing your food with foraging, how much food would you carry as a baseline if you expected to be travelling for say two weeks between chances to resupply, one weeks worth hoping you could self source half your daily requirements or would that be optimistic?

4. Finally lets assume that you carried half your expected food requirements planning on foraging the other half, then over two weeks you failed completely to forage anything so were in effect on half rations for two weeks before having a chance to top up before setting off again, is there any danger of long term damage if this happened on a regular basis?

Hope all the above makes sense, and looking forward to your responses / suggestions - Even if it's just to tell me that I'm an idiot and don't have a clue what I am talking about

 

[mrcharly]

Cooking. Knowing how to prepare a meal from almost any ingredients you can get.

On a long trip, you are going to be restricted to what you can forage (which isn't going to be much if you are travelling) plus whatever the local stores sell.

 

[sandbender]

If you plan to walk across Europe, the most important skill you can have is a rudimentry grasp of at least three or four languages and an aide memoire for the important phrases and words in all the others.

What time of year would you be walking? You can find yourself in a great deal of trouble if you try to light a fire in some parts.

 

[789987]

If you plan to walk across Europe, the most important skill you can have is a rudimentry grasp of at least three or four languages and an aide memoire for the important phrases and words in all the others.

What time of year would you be walking? You can find yourself in a great deal of trouble if you try to light a fire in some parts.

lol! america it is then!

i would say youre going to want some sort of ration pack set up for 2 weeks worth of food. or alternatively plan your route so you have a weeks worth of walking in between stops. that will half the load!

 

[Lee Wright]

If you're sourcing your water everyday then dehydrated meals would save on weight, nothing else constructive to add!

 

[steved1969]

Thanks for all the replies so far. Just to answer a few of the questions there is no time of year as such as this is more of a long term idea than a set plan. To give a bit more background it stems from a combination of situation and long term dreams for want of a better term. Within a couple of years I will be completely debt free (a rare state this day and age), no mortgages, no loans, no credit cards nothing, and I am also in the position of having very few/no ties or commitments (no family basically). So it seams like the ideal time to take stock and take a chance to see some of the world. Initially this plan revolved around doing it with either a motorcycle or other vehicle, but the more I think about it the more I like the idea of using a combination of hitch hiking and just wandering around. Get to see a lot more and get to interact with people more. Wouldn't want to hitch hike the entire time though as I like to do a bit of wandering off the beaten track, but how much wandering will obviously come down to what can realistically be carried / foraged for, hence my questions.

Regarding time of year then I would expect to be out and about and wandering for well over a few years, so there is no time of year as such. Obviously some pre planning would be done to take account of the seasons, wouldn't look to be hitch hiking or walking through Canada in the middle of winter for example, but beyond that it would be a case of going where the mood took me.

Really it was just an attempt to gauge what skills would be needed to increase that amount of wandering that could be done with the least amount of carrying, but from the sounds of it being able to not have to carry weeks worth of water is about the best that could be relied upon, I had a feeling that might be the case. May have to approach it from a different angle and instead start looking at how much and what kinds of food could be realistically sourced and carried instead to get an idea of how much travelling could be done between shops.

Of course the reality may well turn out to be that in a few years time I look at this idea again and think f**k that for a game of soldiers !!!

 

[steved1969]

Erm OK, not sure why instead of what I typed the forum decided instead to re post my original post - and there doesn't appear to be an edit function! Hmmm

 

[steved1969]

Ahh, it didn't - It's showing the new posts at the top of the page not the bottom. Carry on everyone. Nothing to see here

 

[bearman]

I've done a fair bit of traveling, and to be fair, somewhere like Canada or America you would only need to carry a couple of weeks food with you at the most, going through the wilderness is great, but as you suggested, the practicalities can be difficult. I know that in Canada you can have a awesome time just skipping between small towns, resupplying at will, and taking in amazing scenery and animals at the same time. Most Canadians I met, particularly in the north west, are really nice people and hitch-hiking is a piece of cake (I once got picked up by two 20 year old girls-but thats another story)

I didnt really have a clue about traveling when I got to Canada, I just got there and winged it-and had an awesome time!! If you're realistic in your expectations you'll have the experience of a lifetime!!

 

[Husky]

There is quite a lot to read on the subject on various "lightweight backpacking" forums where people do the appalachian trail and such. About food it depends on how you want to do it. Having a titanium mug and eating dehydrated meals and powerbars or cooking and eating real food. How much food you need is a matter of gaining experience about how much energy you need to not loose weight with your movement and sleeping habits (a heavier sleepingbag may save you weight in the long run as you burn less to keep warm) but it seems to be difficult to carry less than 800g of food/day.
If you want a more "bushcrafty" approach then you could look at a staple of rice and beans. This combination is a "complete protein" as well as rich in carbs. Add an amount of vegetable oil and you can sustain indefinately on this alone. It is also very easy to supplement any plants, fish or meat you may be able to get. The downside is the time and fuel required for cooking. Even if you soak the beans while you walk you still need a lot of fuel i.e. woodfire (I have toyed with the idea of coarsly grinding beans to reduce cooking time but have not tried it yet).

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/pounds_per_person_per_day_ppppd.html

 

[ex-member Raikey]

i have an ammo pouch, and it always has the same stuff in it roughly,...

the idea is a base of stuff to add other things to, or eat on its own ,..

Oats, Rice, an oxo, some papperamis, soup mix, dried onion, cous cous, dried chilli,bannock mix,

etc etc,..

it can be kleft in there without refrigerating indefinatley,

i know i can pick it up and i have food for three days without worrying,..

it can be added to most wild stuff or vice versa to "fluff out" and make a more than adequate meal.

in fact, most meets and overnighters will see me eating not much more than a meal made from the above,...

lugging and trying to keep fresh a pack of sausages or bacon is a proper pain in the bottom...



it depends where you travel , but i reckon starch/carbs, = (energy) are the main concernes,...especially when walking/hiking.

protien would come later when established at a camp and traps set up etc,...

just my opinion,...but it comes from years of trying to fanny about with fancy trail foods,...

Stu

 

[sandbender]

A multiyear trip will be difficult to achieve in either the US or Canada, unless you have citizenship there. Penalties for overstaying your welcome vary from severe to very severe. Of course if you head south of the US border there is an entire continent to explore, many different environments and enough borders to hop to keep visa worries at bay for a while.

Fishing:

Rules and regulations vary from country to country, know the local laws before you put a line in the water. If you haven't yet watched Lars Monsens adventures as he travelled in Scandinavia for a year, you can watch them here on youtube. Lots of nice fishing up there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQMHKWfnDzo

Plants:

Some plants are common enough across Europe, but most are seasonal and foraging on the move will be tricky.

Carrying food:

Dehydrated foods are light to carry, you can pick up pulses, rice, flour et-cetera in quite remote locations.

In the summer heat, fats and butters will quickly go bad. A well sealed bottle filled with olive oil will survive the heat and will make dry bread more palatable.

Dried meats and canned fish can get you through the days of little or no food.

Foraging:

I think it unlikely that you will be able to supplement half of your food requirements by foraging, unless your nicking crops from fields which you definitely shouldn't be doing. However you will get by on surprisingly little, just try not to go a day without eating something and no lasting damage will be done.

Across all of Europe you will be able to approach small farms or communities and ask for some water or to buy some food. Often the food will be given to you and payment refused.

Your biggest problem will be getting by during the late autumn, early spring and winter months. As has been mentioned in other threads there are opportunities for people to work on bio farms and in communities through the 'wwoof' network. That will be worth a look, fewer opportunities at that time of year though.

Alternatively you could pretend to be a pilgrim and walk one of Europe's pilgrim routes, that'll keep you going for several months and the meals they serve up in the winter months are fabulous.

Good luck.

 

[yerbache]

lugging and trying to keep fresh a pack of sausages or bacon is a proper pain in the bottom...Stu

I may be speaking out of turn here....but if I see bacon or sausages in somebody's pack I can't help but think..."amateur".....

....especially as the packaging for those items inevitably seems to adorn the ground and bushes near any oft-used overnight spot.....

 

[mrcharly]

I used to take bacon on walks in Australia. Anything up to a 4 day walk was fine. A bit of bacon fried on a stick over a campfire really spices up a meal. Sausages go off, bacon, proper bacon, is preserved, and keeps remarkably well.

I'd say that bacon is something you can rely on being able to buy in most of the western world from corner shops, so it's something you can reliably pick up and use to supplement your staples.

 

[Doc]

Concur.

All the classic wilderness guidebooks written 1900-1960 (Cache Lake Country/Calvin Rutstrum/Jaeger/Sigurd Olson) comment on bacon (often 'Canadian bacon', whatever that is) being one of the outdoorsman's staple foods.

 

[sandbender]

In these parts bacon is sold in a solid block and wrapped in paper, great for travelling. However I'd agree there is nothing worse than folks abandoning their plastic wrapping and cans.

 

[Home Guard]

Cured meats and cheeses could be a good food option. Full of proteins and fats they would be a perfect supplement to a part foraged diet. The only problem is, they are both rather heavy. And alot of cured meats are high in salt content which means you would have to replace your water more often. But this would replace salt lost with sweat anyway.

 

[bearbait]

You could take a look at what other long distance travellers lived on. For example the Voyageurs in the fur trade ate pemmican, parched corn (pinole), salt pork amongst other things. Jerky is a light way to carry nutritious meat, but try and avoid the overly processed commercial Jerky with flavourings and preservatives and so on.

Consuming a lot of commercial dehydrated backpacking foods can get expensive and you may not find them to restock in smaller communities. You can generally find supermarket equivalents: packet soups, flavoured noodles and so on. (I'm quite partial to Knorr Teriyaki noodles and Honey Garlic noodles.) I also use microwaveable indian meals from the supermarket but not having a microwave I just heat them in a pan on my stove. Or you can eat them cold as they're already cooked. Spend some time browsing the shelves and you'll find quite acceptable alternatives.

Try and balance your diet. I try and have some greens (salad) every day with lunch. A box of it from the supermarket, rebagged, will last three or four days. Fresh fruit/dried fruits also. You can pick and choose your dried fruits from the bulk containers. I try to have fresh meat once a week and so buy and cook it on the same day. If you buy enough, cook it all and eat the rest for lunch or supper the next day. Get salami and other cured meats from the deli counter.

Couscous is light, fast to cook and bland enough to readily take on the flavour of whatever else it is you're eating.

I'd suggest a multifuel stove. I have a primus omnifuel but am toying with the idea of a Caldera Ti-Tri as well - this will burn wood as well as alchohol and solid fuel. And is very light!

If you're backcountry camping in some of the National Parks and Provincial/State Parks in North America they may require you to carry your own bear cache, if there are none available at the campgrounds. You'll also need to swat up being "Bear Aware". You'll need permits for some parks, and a backcountry camping permit - often free - at some.

Internet access widely available - and usually free from the local library - so you can checkout the requirements for your next backcountry trip (and BCUK of course).

Remember to purify your drinking water from creeks and lakes.

Sandbender mentioned visas: for UK citizens it's six months per visit in Canada and three months in the U.S.

I know we're living in the age of carbon debt but you could consider a round the world ticket and keep doing it, spending several months (or much less according to visa requirements!) at a time in each of your desired countries, never breaking the rules of any. New Zealand is six months and Oz is three, I believe. So you could spend twelve months visiting Canada, US, NZ and OZ (for example) returning to the UK for your mail before setting off again! An RTW ticket is valid for twelve months so you would need to do some planning.

You'll also want travel medical insurance. Adding the US and Canada to a Worldwide cover policy wacks up the premium - as does long-stay. If you're going to do some travelling in Europe you can get a free European Health Insurance Card in the UK that provides some sort of tit-for-tat cover for EU citizens.

Whilst hitching will no doubt add a great deal of adventure to your trip you will miss out on some things by not having a vehicle of your own. North America is a big place. You could hire occasionally, or buy a vehicle and sell when you leave. Or keep it there for your next visit.

Have a great trip...

 

[Home Guard]

Cycling? A great way to cover great distances in a short amount of time. No tax, no insurance, no licence.

Although with any form of transport other than walking, you dont take in the sights and you often miss things, especially when foraging.

 

[Gotte]

Cycling? A great way to cover great distances in a short amount of time. No tax, no insurance, no licence.

Although with any form of transport other than walking, you dont take in the sights and you often miss things, especially when foraging.

I second that. I'm a keen cyclist, and though it's not bushcraft in the true sense of the word, it's a great compromise. I've been working on a mountainbike these last few months that in theory can take me anywhere. I can fit all my stuff for wild camping and cooking in two panniers, and, again in theory, could travel the world. If it were Europe, I could take off tomorrow, cycle to a channel port in maybe four days (I live in the North), and then be abroad and could cycle wherever, camp wherever. I could cover much, much more ground than on foot, but would experience pretty much the same. I have a mountain bike setup so I could fit all my stuff for wild camping and cooking in two panniers, and once off the roads, esp in Europe, could get away on forest trails and the like. Basically, so long as there's a trail, it could take me wherever my two feet could. It could do it quicker, but without missing anything. It's quiet, low impact, and affordable. My mountain bike is even green, so it blends in. If it were me, that's the way I'd go.