Woodlife Trails

A great day for a bit of bushcraft. The temperature was down to about 4 degrees C. A bit of frost but the sun was warming the woods nicely. I didn’t really have a project today. I just went out to enjoy the woods.

On the spur of the moment, I decided to build a fire to cook lunch. I always keep a bit of tinder in my shoulder bag and of course the firesteel is ever present. I made a couple of feather sticks (not very goods ones it has to be said) and chopped some kindling. The sparks came off the firesteel and it wasn’t too long before the silver birch bark slivers and dried grass caught. I prefer to start off a fire by the ‘fire bed’ method of layering the kindling parallel to the ground as opposed to the pyramid affair. I also make a small hollow in the ground underneath the fire for extra circulation. I must admit that fire building is not one of my best points, but I seem to be improving and getting quicker at starting a fire.

It was a good ‘lazy-mans’ lunch of beans, sausages, mushrooms and whatever-that-is-at-the- bottom. All from a tin. It did of course taste better being cooked on a open fire. The whole was washed down by a mug of tea. Even though I use my trusted crusader mug, I do like to actually drink out of my wooden kuska cup that is normally found hanging from my belt when not in use.

After lunch, I tried to work out how to put the Karrimor side pouches onto the yoke. The pouches were sold with the Sabre pack, but it came without the yoke. I ordered a yoke last week for £11-50 and I was keen to see whether the conversion of the side pouches into a day sack would work. The yoke actually looked like a spider because it has that many straps, but I finally worked out how to fix it to the pouches (or was it the other way round?) Once I got the hang of it, it only took 5 minutes from taking it off the main pack to making it into a day sack. Wearing it is quite comfortable but there isn’t any padding on the straps. Of course the two pouches total 30 litres so there’s stacks of space for day kit. I’m not sure if I prefer this over a standard day sack. I’ll have to put it through its paces at a later date.

I hadn’t realised that it was so late. I had let the fire go out and it was getting quite cold again. The sun was going down quickly. I would have loved to restart the fire again and stay out even later, but I hadn’t brought a sleep system with me. With the remnants of a cold still lingering, I also didn’t want to tempt fate.

In the last 2 weeks we’ve experienced torrential rain, hot sun, and a cold frost. I’ve been out in it all and I’ve enjoyed every minute. Perhaps I’m not as much as a fine weather bushcrafter as I first thought.