Doing bushcraft without a tractor and trailer

[Twodogs]

Springer last Sept I did a week in Norway with the kit listed below ok I could of used more modern lighter kit but it made for good living on the trail and more importently it worked for me .
lets face it we need to survive the whether out there and when your out for longer that one or two nights you need the gear and good food , maybe not in the summer ..

Living,

Berghaus vulcan pack
German army folding mat
US army moduler sleeping system ( outer and three season bag only )
Reindeer fur ( fantastic and fire reisistant )
Helsport Veranger Larvvu 4/6 plus pole and pegs
Petromax folding candle lantern plus spare candles
wash kit minamal , pine soap , tooth kit, foot powder ,
Spare trousers , socks , etc ( all double plastic wraped for the return trip )
Army arctic tent boots ( recomended for chilling out in )
Head torch

Cooking ,

Honey stove
Trangia burner
takonka billy
eagle products kettle ( brought in Oslo )
Kuska Swedish army issue
Spoon
Tinder box ( cotton wool , inner tube , lighter )

Cutting ,
Knife ( sharp and pointy )
Laplander saw

Entertainment . ( Keep all battery kit warm )

camera
iPod
phone
Book

Clothing ,

SASS ventile smock ( good in cold dry , not good in heavy rain )
woolpower 20gm base layer ( Fantastic )
Swanndri extreme shirt ( Fantastic )
Swedish army camo trousers
USMC issue Danner boots
Lightweight silva compass
Whistle (tied to smock)
red light stick
mosie head net ( not used )
Summer sun insect repellent ( not used )
gloves army issue
hat barbour wax and wool hat back up
betalight

Food ,

Army boil in the bag main meals
porrage made up with powdered milk and dryed fruit
choc
brew kit
cheese and crackers
powdered soups ( Recommended )

Total weight with rations 25kilo,
Of course the weight went down as the food got eaten .
some things worked well honey stove and trangia , some not so well ventile jacket and camelbak ..

Heres the trip report ,
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46500
Bushcraft to me is "low tec camping" .
Twodogs

 

[calibanzwei]

Kestrel Weather Meter 305 1 305

Stick your hand out the tarp!

 

[MrEd]

cool glad you had a good time, later i will post up a list of stuff i took to europe for 3 weeks. i had a car to carry though and i didnt have half the stuff you did!

i brought food on the go, and used simple stoves like my tatonka meths burner because a) there is nothing to break b) meths is readily available and c) i can use an open fire with my tatonka billys if need be.

 

[jimbob]

Twodogs,

Just checked out yer Norway trip. Awesome & inspiring! I've got to give that a go!

Understand you had some reservations about the ventile jacket - what were the probs? What would you have worn instead?

Where can you get reindeer fur from?

Thanks for the great thread and equipment breakdown. Really really really useful!

 

[Twodogs]

Jimbob so I dont blag this thread I will send you a PM
Twodogs

 

[Landy_Dom]

So where in Wales are you, Springer? It'd be fun to meet up and do stuff...

Dom.

 

[Tengu]

I think one of those weather thingys would be handy on sea but not so much on land.

(For my encounter with our sister planet see my N Rona thread.)

why talcum powder?

 

[springer5]

why talcum powder?

My original thining was that it would be better for wet feet to dry them properly each night and get some talcom powder on to stop sores/blisters.

A bit unnecessary now I can see.

 

[Twodogs]

Im a big fan of talc for my feet ,sleep a lot better with dry warm feet .
Twodogs

 

[Tengu]

You have hard soap and liquid soap.

(But I do admit I like my alcohol hand wash as well as a bar of soap...mainly to light fires)

Whats a pacerpole and why does it need a spare part?

 

[springer5]

Stick your hand out the tarp!

So that's where all the professional meteorologists have been going wrong for all these years, they whould have just stuck their hands out of their office windows

Seriously though, what that won't tell you is whether or not (while you've been fast asleep and your hand is presumably in your sleeping bag) a cold front has passed by during the early hours of the morning (marked by a drop in temp and pressure, and possibly a temporary shift in wind direction) suggesting that there's some serious weather coming in the next 12-24 hours, so you may want to revise your plans accordingly. That's the kind of thing a weather meter can do for you (without needing to rely on official weather forecasts which can often be, say, for the whole of Dartmoor - at best, if not the whole of Devon more likely, and not specifically relevant where you are right now, and would also rely on carrying a pocket radio to get, mobile phone signals being what they are in such places).

Admittedly not so much of an issue around Burrator Res. but if your deciding whether or not to spend your next night on that exposed Tor, that kind of info can be very useful, if you know how to use it, or at least I would have imagined so. It certainly has been very helpful to me on other outdoor activities I've done where the weather is an important concern. That's why I packed it on the original list.

The weather meter would automatically log every change in pressure/temp/wind speed/direction or whatever while your sleeping at whatever time interval you set, so that at your leisure over breakfast the next morning you can review its memory and see that the above has happened and make informed decisions.

I'm not insisting it's necessary, but that's what it can do, and it's something that "sticking your hand out of the tarp" definately can't.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I would have thought awareness of weather dangers when "out in the wilds" would simply be responsible behaviour. How many times must mountain rescue people have heard the phrase "the weather seemed fine when I started out this morning". Isn't keeping an eye on the weather to ensure safety part of good bushcraft ? I honestly don't know the answer to that myself. I admit to being a complete novice on Bushcraft as you know.

What do others think ?

 

[springer5]

You have hard soap and liquid soap.

(But I do admit I like my alcohol hand wash as well as a bar of soap...mainly to light fires)

Whats a pacerpole and why does it need a spare part?

Hi Tengu

1 - Good point. The hard soap was a "present" from my (6 yr old) niece when she heard I was going to do some "bushcraft", and she made me promise to use it. It looks like I just forgot to take it back out after she'd gone back home.
2 - Excellent question. Pacerpoles - the manufacturer can probably explain better than I can if anyone is interested (essentially they are a sort of "2nd generation" walking pole - or so the marketing literature says. Actually they do work really well. I shouldn't really count them as pack weight because I was using them as I walked. They are at http://www.pacerpole.com if you want to see more (I don't get any percentages for any sold, sadly, so I'm not "pushing" them in any way). I didn't really need the spares (spare rubber boots and snow stops), I just started out with them included before I realised how much weight I was accumulating.

 

[big_swede]

Springer last Sept I did a week in Norway with the kit listed below ok I could of used more modern lighter kit but it made for good living on the trail and more importently it worked for me .
lets face it we need to survive the whether out there and when your out for longer that one or two nights you need the gear and good food , maybe not in the summer ..

Living,

How does modern lighter kit stand in opposition to good living? I find the opposite to be true. Shaving of kilos will give you better comfort.

And springer5, I truly respect your decision about the weather meter. I would certainly find one interesting and amusing (having studied meteorology in the past). But I promise you that there is a lot of signs out there (e.g. how animals and plants behave, clouds, winds etc.) to read and use to make predictions. Try to find some good books and practice these skills and the meter would be an extremely good reference.

 

[Twodogs]

Fair comment Big Swede but it was more fun ...
Twodogs

 

[groundhog]

a lot of gps units have an altimeter and I saw a Ron Hood video where he explains that if you know your altitude at your camp any change in the air pressure will report a height gain or loss which can be used to forecast a coming storm/bad weather moving in etc not tried it out for myself but it seems logical and means you dont need another gizmo. Not much use if your on the move though.

 

[springer5]

Springer last Sept I did a week in Norway with the kit listed below ok I could of used more modern lighter kit but it made for good living on the trail and more importently it worked for me .
lets face it we need to survive the whether out there and when your out for longer that one or two nights you need the gear and good food , maybe not in the summer ..
Twodogs

Twodogs

Sounds like quite a trip. A bit out of my league at the moment. But maybe one day. I can believe that the weather conditions out there would need some serious kit considerations.

 

[springer5]

a lot of gps units have an altimeter and I saw a Ron Hood video where he explains that if you know your altitude at your camp any change in the air pressure will report a height gain or loss which can be used to forecast a coming storm/bad weather moving in etc not tried it out for myself but it seems logical and means you dont need another gizmo. Not much use if your on the move though.

Every word of that is true groundhog, but pressure alone is not enough to give any half-decent forecast. Pressure is a factor, and you can use some GPSs to give you that, but you can see changes in pressure (even when your not moving) and then see no corresponding change in the weather, and other times you can see no changes in pressure, but bad weather still comes, you need more info than just that alone. It's a bit like trying to predict what sometihing will taste like when you only know one ingredient. If all it took to predict the weather was a barometer, those Cray mainfraime computers up at the BBC would be a very embarrassing mistake.

I have a barometer on my watch which is useful in some circumstances, but it's less than ideal on its own; better than nothing (as a rough and ready guide of really extreme, very short-term stuff - mostly just an indicator of high winds to come), but nowhere near as good as a dedicated meter imho.

But then I admit that 300g is a lot of extra weight, so I think now that I woudn't just put in my sack automatoically like I originally did, but if I was going somewhere that could be dangerous in bad weather - hell yes !

 

[Bravo4]

Quadrangulation gives you your altitude with gps. An old school altimeter can help you forecast the weather. A thermometer can tell you your altitude. What a world. It helps to have a watch to learn how to estimate time without one, to calibrate the instrument. You've got to start somewhere and you might as well enjoy it.
Best of luck to you Springer5, don't spend too much time with lists
Bravo4

 

[groundhog]

cheers Springer I was thinking it was a bit too easy as I said I haven't used it myself I usually use a clever device what an ex forces mate described as the mark 1 eyeball and guess. I do get wet a lot though I must admit

 

[Bravo4]

"Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get."
"Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company."
"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
"Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please."
"The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right."

My favorite weatherman, Mark Twain.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."