Bushcraft Adjacent

Hope everyone has a happy new year. This is my slow time of year, so i'll see you guys next week. Going to try to work on one of the camps on my time off. Either putting a bigger tarp up at the pond, or putting a tarp up at the river. Can drive to the river, so that might get the nod.

I did get down to the pond camp, just before dark yesterday. With the pond down, the deer are back to using their old trails. I used them too, and walked around the pond before it got good dark.

You can see how thin the trees are. Lots of the leaners that were alive have died. And a lot of the leaning dead have fallen. Walking in it was striking how far I could see through the woods.

I didn't pack the new tarp in with me, having decided to change it out at a later date. But it was still early and the truck was just over half a mile away. Plus it was cold as fuck, and I had to do something to stay warm. I hung the new one over the old one, {the long way, not like the other one was} then cut that one loose and hung it off the rear. Will have to do more work on it later. It may not stay like it is.

This is this morning after everything was pack up and I was on the way out. My camera will not take a flash photo worth a fuck.

I got down to the pond camp late one night last week, or maybe the week before. The extra tarp was down. Not sure if it was wind or rain, but we had lots of both. The cot and tubs were alright, and the air mattress will dry out. I left it like it was for now.

I scoped out a section of the Florida Trail that hasn't been passable until this week. Still "officially" closed, but if you look at your feet going through the gap at the trail head, you never even see the sign.

A whole lot of this.

I moved some dead limbs off the trail the other day. {I'll take my gold star now} This 3 trail road section is not marked good at all. I guess all the trees with orange blazes are down. If I hadn't walked it a ton in the past, I would have turned around and looked for orange the other way.

This little bridge is the only thing closed on this section. I'm sure I could walk across it on the "good" side, but I didn't test it. The dirt road is only about 100 yards on down the trail, and from what I could see, that was cleared. You could walk 1/4 mile or so and just cut over to the road up the hill where the brush is thinner, but the trail was full of water, so I didn't test that either. I didn't see a good crossing log right there, but the creek isn't wide. I'm sure I could have got across if I had tried.

Made a batch of GORP last week. Seen here with PNB on a wrap. Not too bad.

too larry said:

Made a batch of GORP last week. Seen here with PNB on a wrap. Not too bad.

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On a totally unrelated matter, I weighted 213 pounds this week.

I've seen lots of heartwood standing dead red cedar that would work for a ridgepole for the river camp. You want them to be straight, without too many side limbs. I've seen several that checks those boxes. But until this week, none of them were close to a road. This one meets all the criteria.

The other day I trimmed the side limbs so as not to snag my tarp.

Last night when I was walking, I walked by the river camp and stepped off the distance between the two trees. Seven steps gives me a little extra length. Today when I was heading to lunch, I trucked it as close as I could get and carried it the rest of the way.

I left the roots on it. Artistic touch.

This is the two trees it will go between. I cleaned up the area a few months back. Still pretty clear. I was wanting a spot more off the trail, but two standing trees are hard to find.

My old river camp is only 50 yards away, so as soon as I get the tarp up and stretched, I will have way too much junk dragged up.

The other night when the moon was full, I worked on getting the ridgepole in place. I couldn't get lined up with the 2nd "Y" since the 1st "Y" was pinching it. I didn't have my saw to cut spacers, so left it up in the air. (I did do some trail maintenance on the around the longleaf trail that night}

Went back with the saw, and after I put the spacers in place, it went pretty easy.

I have smaller cedar's that I can use for corner "posts", but for now it's ready to hang a tarp.