My Brother and i are planning on doing a one night, light weight high bushcraft camping trip for the 27th and i thought i'd do a little thread to show how it goes.
Kit wise I'm intending to take primarily essential kit, with a few extras.
Kit List:
 Down winter sleeping Bag
 58' Poncho
 Steel Mug and bottle
 30l rucksack
 Utensils and bowl
 First aid kit
 Saw, knife and firesteel
 Candle lantern and torch
 Monsoon II jacket
 Swanndri Ranger shirt
 Thermal under clothes
 Hat, gloves, neckerchief
 Rice, veg, fish,pepperoni,
 oats, milk powder
 hot chocolate, whiskey
The plan is hike out after lunch and build a leaf hut type shelter with raised beds, then sit down to a nice fish supper, a wee tot of whiskey and fingers crossed (though not hopeful) some snow. Daylight is going to be the real limiting factor as i'd like to have a crack and friction fire lighting since its been a while but we'll how we go.
Anyways, i'll post a write up and some pics when we're back. Any questions or comments are most welcome.
Merry Christmas all
THE WRITE UP:
So as all the best intentions of a plan went out the window I have a slightly different camp out to report back with. Just as I feared, posting that we’d do this and that then claiming we failed! Whereas if I’d left the post until after we came back, I could have faked it all and claimed we did as intended. However, here we go…
The main flaw in the plan as a few of you noticed was timing, we’d hoped to be in the woods at 12.30 but it was 2.20pm on the day, due to child care issues my end and late babysitters. So being the flexible and resourceful men we are, we plundered our kit boxes and took a DD 3x3 tarp to make up for now having no time to build a shelter. Once in the wood, we heading for a place we know well being close to a stream and dense enough to disperse the forecast rain, and proceeded to setup camp. Anticipating imminent heavy rain we erected the tarp and collected a decent pile of wood, using the folding saw here help ‘cut’ the collection time hugely in two ways: 1. you can gather a few thicker boughs from dead standing and draw them close to camp, rather than having to collect lots of smaller bits from further and further away. 2. Having thicker boughs means they burn longer so you don’t need as much to begin with. My brother then set to work sawing lengths and splitting with his knife as most of the wood was wet, whilst I went for a short wander to the stream to collect some water; this is the way we tend to save most weight in the pack when we can, buy bringing only a small amount of water with us then stocking up once there.
As it turned out in didn’t rain until 11pm so we needn’t have rushed but it meant we were settled by dusk and could set the fire to ember making whilst we prepared dinner. A supermarket bought trout was panassed using the trusting split stick with two parallel skewers method, having firstly filleted the fish the way I’d seen Mr. Mears do with a salmon. This involves removing the fins, then easing the ribs out and finally pulling the head, spine, ribs and tail out in one smooth movement; and I must say I’m not fisherman, and this was the first time I’d ever attempted the maneuver, and it was dark and cold and it went perfectly! Not a bone in the thing when we came to eat it, and we could have eaten five with how good it tasted. We also boiled some rice with a few choice herbs and roasted a butternut squash in the embers, my brother being a rock climber mostly used an ingenious and simple method of hanging the pot from a low hanging branch over the fire from stings, knots and a carabineer.
Safe to say we didn’t have time to try friction fire-lighting before we needed the fire, but having never tried it before in the wild, with all the wet and damp I’m sure I would have failed anyway without some tuition. Next time though…
The rest of the night we chatted, laughed and unraveled the mysteries of the universe under an almost full moon before bed. We each have a snugpak stratosphere bivi bag which we like hugely for the luxury of a domed head section, great for sticking a torch into for reading and in the summer the built in mozzy net keeps the bugs out. I’d hoped to borrow a down sleeping bag but settled for my Grandad’s synthetic one (it has been to Everest so it was good enough for me) which was bulkier than I thought so I ended up taking a 45ltr rucksack; that said is was a massive improvement from the army issue bag I have for winter camping which will fill 35ltrs of space all on it own! I’d used my ’58 pattern poncho as a ground sheet between the bivi’s for that added homely touch which worked great for generally sitting down somewhere dry and getting out of the boots and damp trousers before bedding down.
After heavy rain all night the morning brought us clear fresh skies and soggy ground, so we decided to have breakfast in bed. My brother stuck a few split sticks left from the night before into his honey stove and before long we each had a hot drink and some oats for breaky. Then a swift packing up and wander through the wood before home time.
Notes on Kit:
My once favourite pair of Fjallraven forester trousers are now bugging me. I’m pretty slim, at 30’ waist (and not by choice, I’m still youthful enough to eat anything and not gain weight it seems) so I need a belt to keep them up which tends to conflict with my rucksacks waist-strap. But the main issue I’m having now is there seems to be too much material on the leg of these trousers which means they constantly brush together, helping mud to migrate up my inner leg to mid thigh. I may see if I can tailor them to have a narrower leg.
I was given a Kupilka bowl for christmas so that came with, and what a fab bit of kit it is! Super light, durable and easy to clean it made such a difference to eat out of an actual bowl rather than the cooking pot for once.
And after years of trying different cheap-ish knives, the most expensive being a Fjallniven F1, I realized with all honestly the best knife I have a Mora £11 job. Without buying, and one day I will, and good hand forged in sheffield bushcraft knife, the Mora range are worth more than they’re weight in birch sap syrup.
My new Ridgeline Monsoon 2 Jacket had it’s first field test with rain, and it is incredible. So many times I’ve worn a waterproof coat and have been more than aware of the rustley, Clingfilm-esk effect of being wrapped in the standard membranes, but this jacket with its soft outer and comfy fit doesn’t feel like a waterproof, nor sound like it for that matter. I could easily don the jacket all day and not have a complaint.
Erro
all that is gold does not glisten
Kit wise I'm intending to take primarily essential kit, with a few extras.
Kit List:
 Down winter sleeping Bag
 58' Poncho
 Steel Mug and bottle
 30l rucksack
 Utensils and bowl
 First aid kit
 Saw, knife and firesteel
 Candle lantern and torch
 Monsoon II jacket
 Swanndri Ranger shirt
 Thermal under clothes
 Hat, gloves, neckerchief
 Rice, veg, fish,pepperoni,
 oats, milk powder
 hot chocolate, whiskey
The plan is hike out after lunch and build a leaf hut type shelter with raised beds, then sit down to a nice fish supper, a wee tot of whiskey and fingers crossed (though not hopeful) some snow. Daylight is going to be the real limiting factor as i'd like to have a crack and friction fire lighting since its been a while but we'll how we go.
Anyways, i'll post a write up and some pics when we're back. Any questions or comments are most welcome.
Merry Christmas all
THE WRITE UP:
So as all the best intentions of a plan went out the window I have a slightly different camp out to report back with. Just as I feared, posting that we’d do this and that then claiming we failed! Whereas if I’d left the post until after we came back, I could have faked it all and claimed we did as intended. However, here we go…
The main flaw in the plan as a few of you noticed was timing, we’d hoped to be in the woods at 12.30 but it was 2.20pm on the day, due to child care issues my end and late babysitters. So being the flexible and resourceful men we are, we plundered our kit boxes and took a DD 3x3 tarp to make up for now having no time to build a shelter. Once in the wood, we heading for a place we know well being close to a stream and dense enough to disperse the forecast rain, and proceeded to setup camp. Anticipating imminent heavy rain we erected the tarp and collected a decent pile of wood, using the folding saw here help ‘cut’ the collection time hugely in two ways: 1. you can gather a few thicker boughs from dead standing and draw them close to camp, rather than having to collect lots of smaller bits from further and further away. 2. Having thicker boughs means they burn longer so you don’t need as much to begin with. My brother then set to work sawing lengths and splitting with his knife as most of the wood was wet, whilst I went for a short wander to the stream to collect some water; this is the way we tend to save most weight in the pack when we can, buy bringing only a small amount of water with us then stocking up once there.
As it turned out in didn’t rain until 11pm so we needn’t have rushed but it meant we were settled by dusk and could set the fire to ember making whilst we prepared dinner. A supermarket bought trout was panassed using the trusting split stick with two parallel skewers method, having firstly filleted the fish the way I’d seen Mr. Mears do with a salmon. This involves removing the fins, then easing the ribs out and finally pulling the head, spine, ribs and tail out in one smooth movement; and I must say I’m not fisherman, and this was the first time I’d ever attempted the maneuver, and it was dark and cold and it went perfectly! Not a bone in the thing when we came to eat it, and we could have eaten five with how good it tasted. We also boiled some rice with a few choice herbs and roasted a butternut squash in the embers, my brother being a rock climber mostly used an ingenious and simple method of hanging the pot from a low hanging branch over the fire from stings, knots and a carabineer.
Safe to say we didn’t have time to try friction fire-lighting before we needed the fire, but having never tried it before in the wild, with all the wet and damp I’m sure I would have failed anyway without some tuition. Next time though…
The rest of the night we chatted, laughed and unraveled the mysteries of the universe under an almost full moon before bed. We each have a snugpak stratosphere bivi bag which we like hugely for the luxury of a domed head section, great for sticking a torch into for reading and in the summer the built in mozzy net keeps the bugs out. I’d hoped to borrow a down sleeping bag but settled for my Grandad’s synthetic one (it has been to Everest so it was good enough for me) which was bulkier than I thought so I ended up taking a 45ltr rucksack; that said is was a massive improvement from the army issue bag I have for winter camping which will fill 35ltrs of space all on it own! I’d used my ’58 pattern poncho as a ground sheet between the bivi’s for that added homely touch which worked great for generally sitting down somewhere dry and getting out of the boots and damp trousers before bedding down.
After heavy rain all night the morning brought us clear fresh skies and soggy ground, so we decided to have breakfast in bed. My brother stuck a few split sticks left from the night before into his honey stove and before long we each had a hot drink and some oats for breaky. Then a swift packing up and wander through the wood before home time.
Notes on Kit:
My once favourite pair of Fjallraven forester trousers are now bugging me. I’m pretty slim, at 30’ waist (and not by choice, I’m still youthful enough to eat anything and not gain weight it seems) so I need a belt to keep them up which tends to conflict with my rucksacks waist-strap. But the main issue I’m having now is there seems to be too much material on the leg of these trousers which means they constantly brush together, helping mud to migrate up my inner leg to mid thigh. I may see if I can tailor them to have a narrower leg.
I was given a Kupilka bowl for christmas so that came with, and what a fab bit of kit it is! Super light, durable and easy to clean it made such a difference to eat out of an actual bowl rather than the cooking pot for once.
And after years of trying different cheap-ish knives, the most expensive being a Fjallniven F1, I realized with all honestly the best knife I have a Mora £11 job. Without buying, and one day I will, and good hand forged in sheffield bushcraft knife, the Mora range are worth more than they’re weight in birch sap syrup.
My new Ridgeline Monsoon 2 Jacket had it’s first field test with rain, and it is incredible. So many times I’ve worn a waterproof coat and have been more than aware of the rustley, Clingfilm-esk effect of being wrapped in the standard membranes, but this jacket with its soft outer and comfy fit doesn’t feel like a waterproof, nor sound like it for that matter. I could easily don the jacket all day and not have a complaint.
Erro
all that is gold does not glisten
Last edited:
