Previously I posted the first attempt of my winter bugout . Well here is the second and final endeavor .
Before leaving the house .
Orient the map to magnetic north .
Find features along your intended route . In this case a draw between the second and third fingers pointing north westerly .
Lay out an azmuth on that feature so that when you think you recognize it you can
prove it to yourself . I have been lost in Laos and I have seen air strikes called in on their own hilltop just because the responsible parties didn't want to question their previously made assumptions .
Just remember in times of crisis there are no guantees that GPS will still work .
Lightly pencil in your info in relation to your destination . One of the few times in the army I ever volunteered for anything . I volunteered to walk point just so I could get my hands on a compass and the map . This was after one more day of humping to the darkest depths of all the valleys and then climbing the steepest mountains just because some joker thought you had to follow an azmuth as if you were a crow . You can walk 5 or 6 clicks out of your way if you stick to ridges saddles and gently sloping fingers and expend about half the energy .
AO . Indiana wild and scenic river program . 14 miles of Cedar Creek although contained within a relatively densely populated county the Cedar Creek is surrounded by parks , GSA compounds , Izaac Walton gun clubs etc . In short it is one of the few remaining heavily wooded areas in our county . Although the public lands are limited to canoe launching sights and county parks I was fortunate to get my surrounding neighbors permission to camp on their lands so all in all about 200 acres of woods and overgrown pasture .
The new lightweight Joe . My good ol Alice pack . Bought it back in about 72 . Any of you born then?
valley or draw . Shooting an azmuth to the S.E I get 150 degrees . If Id walk into the valley and shoot it to the North West that would correlate with 330 degrees . Note to self , next time shoot your azmuths the way you would likely be looking . Not really that difficult to figure out just look at your compass and see what the opposite 180 degree reading is . Or if 150 is 30 less then 180 then 30 from 360 is 330 . Anyway not my referance valley. This is the first valley between fingers 1 and 2 and it lays more northerly then my referance valley .
Leaving a trail . Not much choice with the pulk . Comes in handy later for Kenny
CLICK ON THE PIC . VIDEO turn on your sound tho .
More of an audio rather then a video . You can spot them for just a second right at the beginning tho .
doe urine . A little taste could tell you if they've been browsing on acorns ,then all you have to do is back track them to the oak trees . Acorn meal is great survival food but I have discovered lately that the white oaks are a heck of a lot better then the red oaks . The red ones just have a lot more tannin . It takes a lot of fire wood to boil out that tannin . I wanted to gather enough to put in a bag down at the rapids to see how long the leaching would take , but I just don't have the time this trip .
Eureka a stump . Maybe this would be a good spot to camp .
One man modified Egyption (pyramid) tent . Made of bubble type under slab insulation . Used three old collapsable tent poles so it doesn't need to be staked necessarily .
Had to add on another room to accomodate two cots . Thats right I said cots .
Guess my ice fishing demonstration is out . Just 2 weaks ago this was partially frozen and there were a few quiet spots totally frozen . Along came a warm snap and melted 14 inches of snow and I thought I was out of luck til this 6inches came along and saved my bacon . (thanks Alberta )
Get busy melting snow in my new favorite aluminum pot (about 3/4 pound is all).
Here's Kenny , my buddy from the auction . He has very little gear and he had called me a few hours before this picture saying he wanted to try cold camping .
I told him to go in the barn where I had 3 old sleeping bags and a cot . He brought a nice sturdy kids sled to haul his gear but he only grabbed one bag and the cot .
He then followed my tracks in the snow and arrived at camp shortly before dark .
I welcomed the company but since the temps were in the low 20s headed for 15 I was a little worried he'd be uncomfortable in that cheap bag (turns out I was justified in my worries .)
Filter to remove small particles from snow water after boiling . Boiled panty hose leg streched over orange juice bottle top cut off for funnel . Not the greatest pic.It worked great tho , really fast with all that filtering area .
INTERMISSION
INTERMISSION IS OVER .
That night the temp kept falling . About 20 when we went to bed . About 14 at 2 am and then it actually started warming up . About 35 in the shelter which should have been warm enough but no it wasn't .
Even tho we kept the fire going all night it never really was a big roaring fire you could get warm with .
About 3 am I wasn't sleeping very well anyway mainly because of cold feet . I got up and started putting in some tent stakes where the snow seal had broken . The cold air was coming right up Kens back . I kept asking Ken "don't you want to zip up that sleeping bag ?" I don't know if he found it constraining or what but he didn't zip it up all night . Just a cheap box store bag anyway . I had given him a fleece lined poncho to use as a blanket , but that wasn't enough . So about 3:30 pm he came out of the hooch shivering and almost incoherant . I fired up the little single mantle coleman and had him stand over it with the poncho acting as a hood . This finally worked and he seemed allright . I was pretty tired and went back to bed . In the morning when I awoke Ken had stoked the fire all night but he was kinda pale and had me a little worried . He seemed ok enough to find his way back to the barn tho so a little after dawn he returned to civilization (only about a click or so ). I called the wife and told her to watch out for him and if he didn't show up in about an hour to call me .
All in all a graphic lesson on having a good sleeping bag .
We put all our water into metal containers so we could thaw it in the morning .
Alone again I make myself busy doing camp chores . First off ,lets eat .
I had this big package of Bear Creek Minsestronie mix which I cut in half and took the directions with .(thanks guys over on the supermarket thread by Luthifer ) I had instant rice and I had little Chorizo sausages (that I bought at the lumber company of all places . ) So simmer Minestrone mix for 15 minutes add rice and chorizo broken up into little chunks mmmmm . Enough for about 4 guys at least but I took the rest out with me for Monday lunch .
So now with my belly full , pretty warm lets look around for something edible .
I know there are hickorys and Oak over in Mr Rs woods but I also know the deer and squirrel have been forageing heavily on them . The Hickory are the best ofcourse but you have to uncover them in the snow and then you find only about every fifth one is good . One little trick I learned this year tho is to watch a squirrel cut a bunch of shagbark hickory that were still on the tree then he goes down and caches them .
Well if you intercept the nuts before he carries them off you'll find every one of them are good
Course you could just shoot the squirrel and benefit from all that hickory protein . We have a truce within about 200 yards of the house tho so I just steal there food rather than kill them .Here at the campsight there are a lot of Bladder nuts which Ive read the Germans eat like pistachios .Id say they are more like the old maids in the bottom of a popcorn bowl . Im sure you could grind them into a nutricious meal of some kind tho .
Bladder nut . Obviously not named by a marketing executive .
Lucky for me as I was backing up to take this shot . I spooked some Mallards in the creek . I always like to think of a name for each campsight and I was stuck on Bladder Nut . But now its "Spooky Mallard "
Before I go on to my next bushcraft project let me just review my crummy garage sale auction gear for you guys . The biggest thing I learned I think is to not skimp on a sleep system . I probabley carried 10 or 15 pounds extra to insure I would get a good nights sleep and I only slept about half the night . Heres the first problem the cheap slumber party sleeping bag .
I augmented this with a fleece summer sleeping bag inside it and a big huge polyester comforter (which probabley saved my ass ) . I was still uncomfortable for the most part . No skimping on comfort tho , my ol foam pad I dug out of a dumpster at a foam factory one time is great . Its weightless I think . The cot was 5 lb but I dont know it was kinda worth it especially when setting up camp and trying to keep everthing out of the snow . I suppose an air mattress makes more sense and I might go that route if I can get a chair of some kind .(old guys can't sit crosslegged on the ground . Ask your grandpa ).
Here's my cutlery . The machete to me is invaluble probabley implanted from Nam .
If you've got it honed right you can easily chop half way thru a 3 or 4 inch log . I usually just stomp em then and break em . My entrenching tool broke while I was trying to dig a Dakota fire pit and the machete makes a passable spade . The leatherman is useful (but mines about worn out ) and the as seen on tv glorified box knife with extra blades is sharper them Im capable of sharpening a fancy knife .
The cook ware is aluminum and I guess there are issues about the danger of aluminum cook ware . Well mom lived to be 90 eating out of aluminum and thats good enough for me . I think the large pot was very helpful melting snow water and the small segment pot inside it is big enough for 2 cups of coffee . I just packed all the food inside the big pot to justify the volume that it takes up . The water skimmer made out of panty hose worked well . Should have used a funnel with smaller spout since it would fit inside the canteen . I just dumped water into canteen cup and then into canteen tho so no biggy .Brass spoon and fork just cause they're cute .
This little lantern is worth the weight I think . It puts out tons of cheerful light and 2000 btus of heat . Course that cylinder weighs another 2 lbs . Im pretty certain we could have heated the hooch with it but I wouldn't want to try it without a CO detector . When Ken was on the verge of hypothermia (if he was ) it saved the day .
The instant ignition is great . There are probabley better ones out there but this one made the campsight . All for $22.00
Clothing .... Even tho I kinda knew better on my first attempt I wore jeans which got soaked with snow and perspiration in about a half an hour . This helped me to decide to abort . So I just couldn't bring myself to go to Gander Mountain drop a few hundred bucks and then not have the right stuff . Thanks to Bubba's post I put on the lightweight long johns with Bubba's old man wool pants and then just a thin tight weave cotton pant over that . Not water proof or anything but god was that warm comfortable and breathable . Also this contest forced me to buy some decent boots which I found at Dicks for $ 79 bucks and my feet have never been cold since .
The hooch I whipped together would problbley have been fine for most folks , but never again will I crawl in and out of a tent and then try to get in a sleeping bag in a confined space . My fetish for building tents without pegs is over . If I ever build a lightweight one man it will probabley be a tee pee at least 6 foot tall . I still think my miracle material is the way to go in winter . Alls you need is a plier stapler and you can redesign it in the field . (no?) Im going to keep my pyrimid around for an ice fishing shelter tho , cause you could sit comfortabley on a box with the pointy end toward the wind . When I was cutting tent stakes I noticed this Buckthorn branch which leads me to our next exercise .
Please view the following four short videos .
This is the gift of the Ojibwa or at least native americans to the world . The Ojibwa tho based a trading system and established camps especially for this gift from the Great Spirit .
Please take the time to click here .
http://www.flickr.com/photos/click_and_ ... 168208982/
a footnote . I went down to the tree and found the coffee jar overflowing with slightly sweet delicious cold sap this afternoon .
So in closing let me just say I have already won with this contest . I have had a ball preparing for it and learning from it .
Even tho I was forced to hump a ruck at gunpoint for 6 months (second six monthes I worked out of a firebase . a piece of cake )one time there is a lot of stuff you forget and the heat and the mosquitos won't kill you (if you take your malaria tabs that is) but the cold could do it in short order if you don't prepare . Before I go out again even with the big heated four man homeless shelter I'm going to read and reread these posts to find the best sleep system known to man .
I was very curious on how a emergency blanket could be used for added heat reflection. But as the metal film is very thin I assumed that the experiment would go up in flames. 
or crash and burn. 
. Enjoy.
