Took advantage of the break in the weather today to spend a very productive time in some local Forestry Commission woods.
My friend and I wanted to test out his new tarp and hammock configuration and I wanted to test my new wild gas wood stove.
Walking into the woods the ground was saturated and whilst there was lots of deadfall from the recent storms most of it was very wet. However I broke off some of the drier wood and soon had my pockets filled in anticipation of my stove test.
After a punt around in the woods we found a nice secluded spot 20 or 30 m from the path where my friend could set his new DD tarp up. He soon had it in a nice simple A-frame configurations and set to with his hammock which he has adapted to take carabiners at either end which then attached to webbing round a tree.
I decided to take a look at how things appeared from the path and was really pleased to see it was all very low-key. A dog walker wandered past and I was a little dismayed that rather than any friendly greeting his opening phrase was ' you're not overnight camping here are you?' I was polite and reassured him that we were not but felt it was sad that there is still a very anti doing stuff in the outdoors mentality amongst some people.
Anyway that was the only mild irritation of the day and having admired the tarp set up I had a practice with my woodstove. I have to say I was really impressed with it. I filled my billycan with about three quarters of a litre of water and it was soon boiling nicely. I took the precaution of shaving off all of the wet bark leaving nice dry wood but this meant that the original sticks looked more like twigs and so I had to recharge the stove a couple of times.
I had a go at starting the fire using birch bark and my Firesteel. After one false start I think overall it was just too damp and so I used a cotton wool ball which lit pretty much first time and the fire took from there. Very satisfying!
I was really pleased that the Firesteel kicked off lots of sparks with the back of my Knife, more than are produced using the supplied striker.
I have taken to going out with some home made 2000 cal one day convenience food packs which pack up very small. So a couple of Mug shots later and a brew of hot chocolate and we were both happy people sat in the woods under a tarp with a nice little fire watching nature and battening some short lengths of wood cut from deadfall. My friend now has the raw materials for some more spoons!
Having achieved what we wanted to do from the day, the light failing and the damp turning to drizzle we decided to head for home.
Having just started to get out into the open again after many years bringing up the family I have to say I have left it far too long and I'm so glad to be taking the opportunity to spend some time getting back to nature. Overall it's a good way of rebalancing the system after a busy week at work.
Lessons learned from the day. Some good practice on knots for ridgelines etc and I am now tempted to reconfigure my hammock to take a carabiner set up rather than just relying on webbing.
Fire starting using all natural items is a challenging art but could have been achieved with a bit more time. I made sure I had far more wood, particularly tinder and kindling than I thought I needed and I was glad that I did as it all seemed to disappear pretty quickly. It was also handy to have a light pair of work gloves to keep hands free from all the nasty cuts abrasions, and burns which inevitably seem to occur!
Getting yourself set up with shelter, fire and food in January with very wet conditions is eminently achievable though with the right kit and a bit of practice. Gave both of us lots of confidence for the future.
Looking forward to getting out again soon.
Steve
My friend and I wanted to test out his new tarp and hammock configuration and I wanted to test my new wild gas wood stove.
Walking into the woods the ground was saturated and whilst there was lots of deadfall from the recent storms most of it was very wet. However I broke off some of the drier wood and soon had my pockets filled in anticipation of my stove test.
After a punt around in the woods we found a nice secluded spot 20 or 30 m from the path where my friend could set his new DD tarp up. He soon had it in a nice simple A-frame configurations and set to with his hammock which he has adapted to take carabiners at either end which then attached to webbing round a tree.
I decided to take a look at how things appeared from the path and was really pleased to see it was all very low-key. A dog walker wandered past and I was a little dismayed that rather than any friendly greeting his opening phrase was ' you're not overnight camping here are you?' I was polite and reassured him that we were not but felt it was sad that there is still a very anti doing stuff in the outdoors mentality amongst some people.
Anyway that was the only mild irritation of the day and having admired the tarp set up I had a practice with my woodstove. I have to say I was really impressed with it. I filled my billycan with about three quarters of a litre of water and it was soon boiling nicely. I took the precaution of shaving off all of the wet bark leaving nice dry wood but this meant that the original sticks looked more like twigs and so I had to recharge the stove a couple of times.
I had a go at starting the fire using birch bark and my Firesteel. After one false start I think overall it was just too damp and so I used a cotton wool ball which lit pretty much first time and the fire took from there. Very satisfying!
I was really pleased that the Firesteel kicked off lots of sparks with the back of my Knife, more than are produced using the supplied striker.
I have taken to going out with some home made 2000 cal one day convenience food packs which pack up very small. So a couple of Mug shots later and a brew of hot chocolate and we were both happy people sat in the woods under a tarp with a nice little fire watching nature and battening some short lengths of wood cut from deadfall. My friend now has the raw materials for some more spoons!
Having achieved what we wanted to do from the day, the light failing and the damp turning to drizzle we decided to head for home.
Having just started to get out into the open again after many years bringing up the family I have to say I have left it far too long and I'm so glad to be taking the opportunity to spend some time getting back to nature. Overall it's a good way of rebalancing the system after a busy week at work.
Lessons learned from the day. Some good practice on knots for ridgelines etc and I am now tempted to reconfigure my hammock to take a carabiner set up rather than just relying on webbing.
Fire starting using all natural items is a challenging art but could have been achieved with a bit more time. I made sure I had far more wood, particularly tinder and kindling than I thought I needed and I was glad that I did as it all seemed to disappear pretty quickly. It was also handy to have a light pair of work gloves to keep hands free from all the nasty cuts abrasions, and burns which inevitably seem to occur!
Getting yourself set up with shelter, fire and food in January with very wet conditions is eminently achievable though with the right kit and a bit of practice. Gave both of us lots of confidence for the future.
Looking forward to getting out again soon.
Steve
