I got to go camping with Jake the last weekend in April somewhere in the lawless border region between Virginia and West Virginia. This was real backpack and tent camping. The only running water was in the streams. It was going downhill.
In fact, running water represented our primary adversary during the outing. We parked the pick-up and immediately had to ford a swiftly moving stream. The water came to my waist. It was cold.
Fortunately the weather was mild so we didn't end up with hypothermia or anything. We hiked down some old logging road along a stream inappropriately named "Dry Run." It terminated in the little reservoir shown below.
That's my birthday gun, the Soviet M44 carbine in 7.62 x 54. This was my first time camping with firearms and I liked it. Especially after seeing all the bear crap littering the woods. Being heavily armed also gave me the confidence I needed to wear a hat that silly.
We camped in the hills in the background of the photo. My fire making skills had not diminished any since my scouting days and I even got the chance to get one going after a brief but soaking downpour.
We ate spam...
But not on the first day.
Needless to say I didn't catch any fish.
3 comments:
Starting a fire after a downpour, truly impressive... I have trouble getting the fireplace going with matches.
The trick is to use grapevine bark as tinder/kindling. I haven't run into anyone else who uses that trick but it seems to work pretty well on the eastcoast.
My solution would have required a strip of magnesium and a lighter. I suppose yours is more practical for camping...
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