Tales from the "BUSH"

I had a day to kill yesterday, so I figured I'd put it to good use. I decided to head out to my local "wilderness" for a short day trip to try out some new gear. After about a 15 min hike I came across this spot



close to a small pond, which might be good in a true survival situation, but was kind of a pain for my day trip...In spite of my OFF bug spray, I got tore up by some skeeters.

I searched the area for a while to see what was around. My spot happed to be next to a recently downed tree, which would provide the majority of the material for my shelter. There were a few ground hog holes, and even a couple of trees that looked to have been eaten up by some beaver



I picked a spot between a couple of trees and grabbed some material to start a simple shelter.



After about a half hour of work I finished up the shelter and sat down for some water.



Once I cooled down a bit it was time for lunch. I pulled out the alcohol stove I just made, for a test run with some food





It took about 2 minutes to boil 16oz of water for my ramen and canned chicken. I still don't think this is the most efficient design for the alcohol stove, it took just under 2oz of everclear to boil the water and cook the ramen.

LUNCH TIME!


After I ate and cleaned up, it was time to play with my new knife.




The new knife performed well, and seemed to keeps its edge after some whittling and chopping. After relaxing for a little longer, I figured I'd head home. On my way out of the woods I came across a stand of wild blackberries that weren't even close to ripe. Maybe I'll head back out in a few weeks and see if they area ready to be picked.



All in all, a pretty fun solo day in the woods!!

Looks like a good day out in the woods with some real world testing of your gear.

You can get your stove to be a bit more efficient by making a wind screen out of tin foil. Just use enough to wrap around the sides of the stove so the heat has no where to go but up toward your pot.

Are you going to tweak the stove design or are you happy with it?


I feel your pain with the Skeeters they attack my ass as soon as I walk outside all summer. The only thing that has kept them away is this little plastic box thing I wear on my belt made by OFF that has a fan in it and sprays out bug spray constanly. It's probably horrible for the enviroment but my comfort is more important

Right on! Where was that at, the usual spot?

Kaiser wrote:

Right on! Where was that at, the usual spot?

Nah, its actually over near me...past the Christiana Town Center (where Boscov's is), figured I'd explore some new areas!

The Patriot wrote:

Are you going to tweak the stove design or are you happy with it?

The stove is a decent design I guess...put I was going to but some fiberglass insulation inside the stove itself when i made it, and forgot to do it before i put it together. I think that will help regulate the temperature. There is also quite a bit of variation between efficieny and heat depending on where/how big/and how many jet holes there are...I might make a few more to try to figure out which would work best for me.