3-day winter outing. Hot tent group outing. hot tent, lanterns, headlamps plus knives

Woods Walker

The Wood is cut, The Bacon is cooked, Now it’s tim
Joined
Jun 8, 2008
Messages
5,433
Location
New England woods.
It was time once again for my favorite group winter outing. Unlike many solo backpacking trips I didn't have to worry about pack weight.


The sled with Kifaru EMR and large ALICE on board.





The pack on my back.





GO!

Headlamp working just fine.







Not much snow this year. Kinda surprised me.





No sooner do I arrive camp my finger gets cut. The Wetterlings Les Stroud Bushman axe is nice but the sheath is a total POS. It popped right off removing the axe from my pack resulting in cut. I gotta bend a kydex sheath for it. The cut was deep and it was a problem for the rest of the outing. I guess one pro of hanging out with outdoors people who are into preparedness and gear is an overabundance of medical supplies. I got it patched up fast.








First night hanging out in a 8-man.





The traditional Hungarian meats.








Around camp the next day.


Yes there was a drone. Overview of the area.











A bit lower to earth.











Out for a hike.











Had the new WCF PSK plus Kydex I bent.





Found a nice spot for a day camp. I will probably do a thread on the actual firecraft involved as it was a good time.





A Canadian chocolate bar prepared in the traditional style. Ok they don't actually cook a chocolate bar on a stick over a fire but it does come from canada.





Just some more firecraft fun. Punk wood found near the day camp to be charred.








Not my best char but it caught with flint and steel methodology.





Day camp food.





Heading back to camp everyone was processing firewood for their tipi shelters. A tipi camp runs on wood and water. Wood taken that wasn't in direct contact with the ground.

















My Kifaru 4-man with liner and DIY stove.























Up the next day for some target shooting. Not my rifle but a nice one.





No one is exactly roughing it.










Out for another short day hike. Maybe a mile or so.











When you have a group firewood collecting and processing is a snap.








Twig fire methodology using firesteel. It's just not about the fancy gear and drones. Robbie did make an interesting statement which I have incorporated in my BS. "We spend a small fortune to live like homeless people" or something along those lines.














Making use of the group cooking stove aka fire.








Conifer needle tea or rather the beginnings of it.





Steeping. On a side note a closed cell ground pad is a very nice winter camping item.





Party in the 8-man for the last night.





All packed up, at the truck getting ready to load the sled. Not that much snow this year but it was a great time.





For those who are still with me if yea got too much time on your hands here is a video.





Thanks for looking.
 

Woods Walker

The Wood is cut, The Bacon is cooked, Now it’s tim
Joined
Jun 8, 2008
Messages
5,433
Location
New England woods.
We see lots of stuff online showing firecraft practice and tutorials but what about in a real world setting such as a group outing. Fire with an intended purpose, not just for the purpose of showing though clearly lots of people show firecraft being used for cooking etc. No big deal and nothing new here but maybe worthy of a video? We did two fires in the above group outing.


1. Knife and chaga fire aka flint and steel.


2. Ferro rod.


Both worked rather well however clearly the ferro rod was the winner and that along with a lighter and matches has always been my actual hiking/prep firestarting kit not that I don't enjoy friction fire, flint and steel or other bushcrafty methods. The firecraft here is just an ends to a means or is that means to an end? Each fire was done on a separate day during the same outing so used the same tinder and basic prep. We intended to use the fires for cooking and group caveman TV. Few things provide a better distraction and entertainment all at the same time in the woods than a fire and it's size sometimes doesn't matter. The hobo stove fire was just as entertaining for the smaller group as the larger blaze was for the bigger party. Both fires were in the same general area, maybe a mile at most apart.


Looks dry!





More.





Targeting these what looks like golden rods around the fallen pine.





More good looking tinder.





Not the best looking Yellow birch in terms of fluffy hanging bark but it will work.





Beech leaves are good as well.





Fallen over tree.





If I needed rocks as a striker for either the knife or firesteel and the ground was under a snow base I would consider checking out some of these attached to fallen tree roots but had flint with me so moved on.





For the smaller group outing, just 4 people a hobo stove fire was decdided on. Small, fast and needing little wood it seemed ideal. The prep took no time at all, basically a twig fire in a box.





Source of ignition was a striker knife, flint and chaga. If my memory serves me correctly this chaga was taken from these same woods a year or so ago. I like to do that when going old school if possible. Then again I could have taken the wrong chaga by accident making that simply delusional ideology. Doesn't really matter because I got it just the same.





The tinder bundle.





And it ignites.





Soon the stove was burning good. I don't think the process to ignite it then get a sustaining fire was anymore than a few minutes or so minutes. That said sometimes flint and steel using uncharred materials doesn't go smoothly. For example I didn't even know there was a small ember in the first chuck when moving to a second for another try. Both ignited.








Now for the entire group. Same basic idea the next day but more people. Hike from base camp then setup a daycamp. When you have a larger group of people who are also experienced the firewood just appears like magic.





Strikeforce firesteel, foraged tinder plus some wood prep ready to GO! This time it would be a rookie at using a firesteel working the striker.





He did one of the fastest firesteel starts I have seen. Not sure faster is even possible. It's in the video.





The traditional pork product on a stick.





Nothing ground breaking but a good time and use of firecraft. Here is a video and thanks for looking.


 

nbp

Flashaholic
Joined
Dec 16, 2007
Messages
10,970
Location
Wisconsin
Dang, that looks super fun. Can't wait to get out camping this year. Did you bring in those big tents and the stove and everything or is that part of a camping lodge or something?
 

Woods Walker

The Wood is cut, The Bacon is cooked, Now it’s tim
Joined
Jun 8, 2008
Messages
5,433
Location
New England woods.
Dang, that looks super fun. Can't wait to get out camping this year. Did you bring in those big tents and the stove and everything or is that part of a camping lodge or something?

I only brought my 4-man. It was a group gathering of people who like Kifaru products. Think of Kifaru as the Malkoff of backpacking/hunting shelters and packs.
 
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