It was a beautiful Saturday morning, and I had the house to myself for the weekend - not even a dog to take care of! With a quick check of the forecast that promised only a sprinkle of rain, I packed up and drove 20 minutes out of town. Once parked, I trudged into the forest, and very quickly came to the realization that the area was much boggier in the spring than in the fall, when I had previously hiked these woods. However, it took only 15 minutes of bushwhacking and hopping from dry spot to dry spot, to find a suitable pair of trees to string up my bed for the night.
Before leaving, I had mulled over the idea of using my tarp as a means to create a ground shelter, but with the risk of rain, I opted for the guaranteed dryness of a hammock. The other bonus of my hammock setup is that it provides one of the most comfortable rests in the woods. Side or back sleepers, if you haven't tried one out, I highly recommend - sorry to all my stomach sleepers out there, you're destined for the ground.
After hanging the bed, I got distracted setting up the twig stove, eager to play around with my latest purchase. However I was quickly reminded why you always set up shelter first as hail began to fall, and I had to scramble to get my tarp set up. I think the idea that I was only a short walk to the car had me forgetting the priorities of survival. Luckily I was able to get the tarp up with little trouble, though not as taught as I would have liked.
With my "room" set up for the night, I turned my attention to the stove. I had played around with maintaining a steady flame on my apartment balcony before, but I'd used paper and kiln-dried firewood. Amid the forest, with some birch bark and an abundance of dry twigs, I actually had an easy time creating a steady set of coals. It was rapidly apparent that using the twig stove meant constant feeding of fuel, definitely not something you can turn away from when you have something cooking. I could feed just about anything into it, leaves, bark, even pine cones - however to get the solid base of coals I'd recommend using strictly twigs at the beginning.
To my surprise, the most time-consuming portion was all the prep before actually putting the pot over the stove. With constant maintenance, it boiled my coffee's water fairly quickly - about 5 minutes with ~1L in my billy pot. Although a longer process than a regular gas or propane stove, it was certainly viable for backwoods cooking. This reaffirmed my
purchase, as I bought the stove with the intention of it becoming my main kitchen hardware for canoe trips, in order to cut weight and bulk from my pack.
With coffee made, I threw a can of beans over the stove to heat up. Probably the number one thing I learned this trip was that maple-baked beans on their own are not as good as I had once thought in childhood. I choked them down, but the coffee (with a healthy splash of whiskey) was definitely needed to assist in the process. Note to self, spend the 15 minutes and 99 cents and go buy Mr. Noodles next time.
With some water and dried leaves, I scrubbed my pot clean and set aside the stove and cookware for the evening. The other reason I'd come out here was to practice some carving, as I had acquired a widdling knife and a hook knife over the winter. I'd created a small spoon for eating the beans, which was very rudimentary, but my real project for the night would be making a bushcraft mallet.
A mallet is a basic tool one can make for all sorts of camp site tasks, be it batoning firewood or hammering tent pegs. It's a basic carving project, and my first foray into the world of "bushcraft". The term bushcraft has become a buzz word for outdoor enthusiasts, but at its core is the usage of skills and knowledge to help you thrive outdoors with less equipment. I've come to love this ideology of relying more on what's around you and your own knowledge of how to use natural material, rather than the fancy "stuff" from a store. So here I was, hacking at a 16" piece of pine, trying to make myself a mallet that I didn't really need for the day, but practice makes perfect I guess.
With my bucksaw, I cut a 1/2" depth around the circumference of the wood to create a stopping point for my knife. I hacked off material with my belt knife until the handle felt slightly too large in my hand. I finished off by smoothing it all out with my small widdling knife, finally bringing it to a comfortable grip size. It was at this final stage that I made a silly mistake, gripping my knife with my thumb not out of the way and pulling towards the lip of the handle. The blade slipped and pinched the side of my thumb between the lip and the knife. It was a small cut, but pointed out an item I had overlooked - a first aid kit. Though I usually never leave for an outing without some sort of medical supplies, in my rushing I had forgotten to pack something, not even a bandaid. Luckily all it took was pressure to have the bleeding subside fairly quickly, and I was able to finish off my project.
With carving finished, and the rest of my gear packed away for the night I rolled into my hammock and journalled for a while, as the sun slid towards the horizon behind grey clouds. It was unfortunate that the sunset was obstructed because the pieces of light that shone through the gaps were a brilliant orange hue. I succumbed to sleep around 9, just as the forest turned dark, waking up through the night only twice to readjust my sleeping bag.
The next morning was an early one - awake and on my feet by 6:45, with water on the stove by 7. It was a quick meal of oatmeal and coffee for breakfast, and I was thankful that I'd packed something I knew for certain I enjoyed. I tore down the hammock and tarp and had my bag packed by 7:45. It was another short walk to the car and I was home before most people are awake on a Sunday morning.
It wasn't a long trip but plenty to take away from it, and very refreshing to spend a night outside. As the stay-at-home order crawls along, it scratched the itch, but I look forward to paddling into a site as soon as it's allowed. Hopefully you are able to find some kind of activity to get outside during these times. Finding small things to tide us over is the best we can do, and we may as well get out in some way, rather than sit around longing for what could be. By any means, get outdoors!
What twig stove are you using? Do you find the pots still get pretty dirty or does it burn clean?