“Practice makes perfect.” How many times do you recall hearing this as a kid? Was it in piano practice, shooting free throws in basketball or maybe it was learning to write a lowercase z in cursive handwriting? Wherever it was, you probably remember boring yourself in the monotony of repetitions of the same motion. Sometimes this repetition is good for you. You can’t discredit the importance of dialing “9-1-1” children are taught to practice as soon as they can learn the concept of an emergency. Also muscle memory is important when reaching for your knife or tool and finding it where you always carry it. At other times, repetitions can be bad for you if the reps are done incorrectly. Imagine hitting a heavy bag a thousand times a day with your idea of a perfect jab punch only to find out you leave your face wide open to your opponent when you get into a fight. What happens to all that muscle memory now? How do you retrain your brain?
   
    In an emergency, you cannot dictate the conditions of your environment. You will never be able to stage yourself in a manner to reproduce your training. While you may prefer warm dry socks, your emergency may leave you cold and wet or worse, barefoot. While you may have incredible stamina in running, your emergency may leave you lame with a broken bone. When you go to the range, you have a perfect stationary target, your finest custom firearm in a beautiful belt rig and all the time in the world to make tiny little groups on paper. In a real altercation, your target might be charging, your firearm may be left at home and now you have seconds to respond to a threat. How have you prepared for these scenarios? Better yet, did you ever consider training these scenarios?
    
     I don’t care if you are a martial arts student, a person interested in wilderness survival, a concerned family man or coach of a girls’ soccer team; the training modifier can be applied to almost all aspects of training and provides a handicap. These modifiers make practice more authentic and realistic. They prepare the mind and the body to respond to changing scenarios and constraints. A person who trains to respond to a variety of problems will be better prepared than one who has seen training from one dimension only. Consider the challenge of making fire. A person can learn to make the picture perfect teepee fire in the summer with an abundance of warm, dry and fuzzy tinder found readily. What happens to this person in the winter when a foot or more of snow covers the tinder they are familiar with using and all the dry tinder is frozen or worse yet, saturated. This person would have to think about their problem instead of responding immediately by tapping into past experiences. This may not seem dire to you reading this at the moment but seconds count when you are cold and wet in a hostile environment. Possible answers to making fire in the winter are to make shavings from the inside of larger diameter fuel or to use twig bundles from dead softwood twigs found attached low to the trunk of conifers by the way.
  
   Training modifiers augment your practice in a variety of ways. Time constraints, generally less time can be placed on a particular skill. Resources available are another way to vary practice if you imagine gathering fire wood with a full-size bow saw as opposed to a pocket-sized Swiss Army Knife. Wet and slick make interesting modifiers as well. Your favorite knife may provide a good handle for a secure grip but try cleaning a few fish and holding that blade. Does it still offer the same purchase? Have you tried testing your gear for how it will perform when greased or wet? Another modifier is stress. This is perhaps my favorite. As a training partner, stress can be brought about by yelling, screaming, insulting and other friendly ways of helping your buddy out. Fatigue is another modifier. Long-term from sleep deprivation or short term brought about by cardiovascular work, fatigue will greatly limit your output. Probably the most important modifier I have recently discovered is the exclusive use of the non-dominant hand.
    
     For me and 9/10ths of the population, my right hand is my strong hand. In martial arts training recently, I suffered a broken third metacarpal. For weeks, my hand was swollen, bruised and rendered essentially useless. Even everyday tasks such as tying a tie, shaving and eating with utensils became painful. This pain served as a reminder to me in two ways. The first reminder was I had a broken hand and the second was I had to train my left more. I also noticed items usually an extension of my body became unfamiliar when they crossed my centerline. Thumb studs on pocket knives were not as easily operated at first. Thanks to my friend Reid, I started carrying a pocket sheath with a small Bark River Knife and Tool fixed blade called the PSK (seen below) that didn’t need to be opened and was quicker putting to task. I started doing more with my left and after weeks of using my it predominately, I noticed improved dexterity, strength and function in it. The interesting part of the story and the reason for this article, everyday chores became my training modifier when I used my left hand. How many times have you considered working your off-side performing menial chores? This every day use will strengthen your off-side and make your deliberate training of that side more productive. 

      I believe in training like it is real. I tell my survival students to imagine their life on the line or the life of a loved one. Imagine they are not a short walk away from assistance but miles from it. Of course, you cannot recreate the true sense of an emergency in training because in the back of your mind you will remember it is training after all. This should not stop you from running scenarios in your head on a daily basis. Varied experience is the best teacher and it easily trumps theoretical knowledge. These experiences can be stored for recall at a later date. If you can think of a different scenario, apply it. You will quickly find out what works and what doesn’t. If you are accustomed to working with a particular group, find out how others operate and mix in with their unfamiliar tendencies. Go out there now and try new approaches to your practice. Training modifiers allow you to experience particular setbacks in a controlled setting. Even when you are thrust into a situation when you feel you have no control, you actually will. That is of course, if you modify your training now.

Kevin Estela is a Survival Instructor with the Wilderness Learning Center where he teaches both primitive and modern survival skills along with edible and medicinal plants. He is ranked in both Filipino Martial Arts and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and has studied these for years. He is a full-time High School History Teacher and a Track and Field Assistant Coach to a repeat championship team. In addition, he is an avid outdoorsman with interests in fishing, shooting, diving and skiing.

Everyone makes a Bushcraft Knife along with a fledgling industry of “Bushcraft” equipment. If it pertains to the wilderness, it seems as though you find either “Bushcraft” or “Survival” in the marketing.

This isn’t mincing words, but rather an effort to attain some sort of clearity so people can understand what they’re looking at and for.

Bushcraft is now lumped in with what I refer to as Wilderness Survival along with Military Survival/ Escape and Evade techniques.

These three disciplines while somewhat related are as different as Morning, Afternoon and Night.

All three are done in the outdoors and share the concepts of fire, food and shelter. BUT as we all know not all food or shelter is alike. You can eat hot dogs or Prime Rib while sitting in a cardboard box or at the Ritz.

While alike, they’re NOT interchangeable.  Someone sitting on the floor at the Ritz roasting a pigeon over a cardboard box fire isn’t likely to be allowed unless the “chef” happens to be wealthy enough to have bought his way into eccentricity.

Let’s start by discussing the purpose for each so we can begin to discern how they differ.

Wilderness Survival seems like the hottest of the three as I write this; multiple television programs exist demonstrating the skills of the sexy host have brought a ton of attention to our interest in the wilderness.

Wilderness Survival is obviously Survival in the wilderness, whatever that is. The skill set would entail the ability to survive being stranded in the wilderness.

I remember as a kid memorizing “The Field and Stream Guide to Survival.” The book was intended for the hunter becoming lost in the field on a hunt. I believe this defines Wilderness Survival perfectly; the lost hunter or fisher, 4 wheel enthusiast, backpacker, cyclist and so on who find themselves stranded.

The number one goal in Wilderness Survival is BEING FOUND as soon as possible. Being found by just about anyone is a good thing in this case. You will build big smokey fires, put out reflective signals, make large and very obvious tracks if you need to move at all.
If a hunter is lost and he NEEDS a fire often he needs it VERY quickly to beat the onset of hypothermia. In this case, a warm fire isn’t friendly, it’s the difference between surviving and dying.

Nice fuzz sticks and cute piles of tinder make way for whatever you have at hand, the less than elegant Kochanski twig bundle being my usual choice. Batoning to get to the middle of a wet stick isn’t really high on the list if there is a better way. A gallon of gas and a match will do just fine to ignite a pile of damp sticks and branches.

When I was hunting, I used to carry a couple of cutoff railroad flares in my pack. I sawed off the bottom leaving the striker end and dipped the cut end in paraffin so the fuel inside wouldn’t leak out. At 3000 degrees, there is little the burning flare won’t ignite. Not much for style, but there are no style points awarded if you die.

I remember once commenting when lost in a situation where it was a matter of immediate rescue or death, were I to come across an oil pipeline I would find a way to chop a hole in it, go off a couple of hundred yards and wait for the repair crew; then walk up comment on how terrible the leak was and ask for a ride into town when they were done.

Environmentally irresponsible, YOU BET!  Borderline criminal damage to property, YEP. Likely to result in some serious discussions with the Homeland Security folks, sure.  But in the survival game, as Vince Lombardi is oft quoted “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.”  Lombardi didn’t originate the phrase, but he would certainly agree  to it’s application here.

By nature, Wilderness Survival is focused toward the short term and most lost hunters and such are usually found the next day. Granted, there are occurrences of hunters lost for weeks but those stories are newsworthy because of their rarity.

When you’re lost, there are no rules other than GET FOUND FAST! Wilderness Survival is a matter of YOU against whatever nature throws at you and both of you are playing for keeps.

The technology of modern warfare pretty much precludes a military wilderness survival situation. Satellites, Radar and GPS Technology can pretty much locate any military vehicle or aircraft within feet at any given moment, in short Soldiers don’t get lost like hunters.

However were a military plane to crash, the pilot and crew might be faced with some time before being rescued. Their need of food, water and shelter of a sort would be provided by the onboard survival kit but most likely they would be rescued before they had time to figure out how most of the stuff in the kit works.

At first glance, this military situation would be much like Wilderness Survival; but is it?
Being found by the wrong “people” would mean capture or even death, so fires and large easily seen signals are pretty much precluded.

Depending on where the troops are in relation to battle lines, they may need to simply beat feet and get some space between themselves and the site to avoid capture.

Movement would need to be careful and stealthy to make it difficult to be followed and found.

A Soldier in this case is using Escape and Evade skills, escaping the site of the incident and evading the enemy.

E&E skills may well include killing enemy troops, try that as a lost hiker and your goals might quickly change from wilderness survival to playing E&E with the authorities.

Fire draws fire on the battlefield; with modern electronics the heat signature of a campfire can easily compromise the security of the downed pilot.

The image of a group of soldiers sitting around the campfire roasting marshmallows and singing marching songs is ludicrous. Modern rations come with chemical heaters so a fire is unnecessary for hot chow.

Military Survival is pretty much a misnomer, it’s really more about Escape and Evade.
So why are Military Survival Books and gear so popular?

In my opinion it’s because many people who weren’t in the military place an inordinately high value on all things military, “If it’s good enough for our boys, it must be the best.”
This Compass pretty much kills off that line of reason.

It’s from a U.S. Air Force survival kit in the 1950s. It still works, but the method of use makes quite clear the low level of expertise expected of the user. He may be the best pilot, engineer, gunner or bombardier in the world, but obviously he’s not expected to be able to properly use a compass on the ground.

Note the line across the top and the legend above the slot in the side “You are looking…”

This would eliminate the possibility of misunderstanding the compass and incorrectly reading the near side as the direction he is looking.  A very elementary mistake but one someone with minimal training or under high stress could make.

A reflection on the guy? Absolutely not, much more a reflection of the reality that military survival training necessarily only hits the high points. Given a choice of ten weeks teaching them to live off the land or ten weeks teaching them how to eliminate the enemy, which would you pick?

It’s likely even more so now considering how easily a downed craft can be found.
What about survival skills for ground troops? Consider the assigned task and how it’s to be accomplished. Ground Troops are involved in something called COMBAT, very different than survival. Their key to “survival” is far more concerned with closing on and eliminating the enemy than building a nice shelter or campfire.

In combat obtaining food from local sources is called foraging which commonly entails taking food from people that were either scared or killed off.  Shelter may well be the house or barn you just took from the enemy.  Hardly the same as wilderness survival.

So what is Bushcraft?

Much as many people will hate to admit it, I have come to the conclusion that Bushcraft is a sport.

Unlike Wilderness Survival which is a no holds barred death match against nature and Military E&E which simply is WAR; Bushcraft comes with rules.

Bushcrafters are encouraged to “Leave No Trace” and to see their activities as interacting in harmony with, rather than engaging nature in mortal combat.

A Bushcrafter will head into the wilderness carrying minimal gear for his planned activities. Minimal because part of the “game” is “the more you carry in your head, the less you carry on your back.”

Bushcrafters head into the wilds with a plan, to spend a specific amount of time in the wilds with specific tasks they wish to accomplish. Bushcrafters carve spoons and bowls, make cordage and weave it into baskets and make shelters.

They don’t need or want to be found nor do they NEED to evade anyone.

What makes it a Sport is that in Bushcraft you create a handicap for yourself as part of the process.

Let’s start with fire as an example; since we all seem to have retained a bit of the closet pyromania.

Bushcrafters are probably the most skilled firemakers as they usually strive to master several different firemaking skills.

Once you learn, there’s not much of a challenge to building a fire with a lighter or match. It’s a very simple matter of having sufficient tinder, kindling and fuel in increasing sizes, then using them in the correct order.

Using a BIC or Zippo goes against what the Bushcrafter believes. For him or her, making the fire is as important as the fire itself.  The goal isn’t necessarily making a fire, but instead creating and catching a tiny spark and nurturing it into a flame.

Ferro Rods, Flint and Steel, fire plows, fire bows and fire pistons are all more challenging methods of making fire, playing right into the interest of the Bushcrafter. Getting together with his friends he can impress and teach his latest method.

Knowledge of alternate firemaking techniques can be quite useful in a wilderness survival situation, the question is, why would a hunter carry a firepiston and it’s accouterments in lieu of more matches,  another lighter or my cutdown flare?

Interestingly, often after the fire is made, the Bushcrafter often finds himself challenged to come up with something he NEEDS to do with it. Often he’ll boil some water and make tea or cocoa just to not have wasted the fire but it’s usually NOT a critical element of his venture.

Bushcraft is the new name for something that’s been around for a very long time. Ray Mears didn’t invent it, nor did Mors Kochanski.  Wilderness Wisdom by Ellsworth Jaeger was published in 1945, two years later John Rowlands published Cache Lake Country.
Calvin Rutstrum wrote Way of the Wilderness in 1952, Kephart’s Camping and Woodcraft was published in 1906 and Nessmuk’s Woodcraft and Camping dates back to 1920.

Add to this list numerous editions of the Boy Scout Handbook and the fine Boy Scout Fieldbook.   All of these cover what we now consider to be “Bushcraft,” in them you find many projects to build in the woods along with lists of tools to use.

Rutstrum, Kephart and Nessmuk were quite specific regarding their recommendation of knives and axes; today’s concept of a “big chopper” is quite foreign to their writings. The knife and axe serve very specific purposes and the techniques go with it.

A “Big Chopper” or fighting knife could certainly serve in the Bushcraft role but it’s really not the “proper” tool for the job.

The three above write about the rest of their gear as well, not so much as a mandatory list but more as a guide for the tool necessary to the Bushcrafter.  One isn’t likely to find himself in a Survival situation with the correct tools on hand; survival situations happen and you don’t usually have time to take pictures of what you’re doing.

Bushcrafters make cordage and baskets from birch bark, they carve spoons and make tables; not because they NEED spoons, tables and baskets, but because making these items is itself a goal.

You can become as fanatical a Bushcrafter as you choose.  Just as you will find the baseball fan fully decked out in the uniform of his favorite player, some Bushcrafters go so far as to worry about wearing the “correct” shirt or pants and take the “leave no trace” doctrine to the extreme of never building a fire and carrying a “Butt Rag.”  Like the paunchy middle aged guy in the stands dressed up like the third baseman on the Cubs, that’s a bit extreme for my taste.

Boxing is adding a handicap to fighting: ½ pound padded gloves and specific rules regarding where punches may land, a ring to assure equal even footing and rounds to control and allow rest for the fighters.

Baseball has specific rules regarding the size, shape and construction of the ball, bat, gloves and field.

Football’s rules go so far as to regulate how players hit each other.

None of these lessen the sport, they limit and control the circumstances.

Some Bushcraft skills will apply to wilderness survival; one cannot know too many ways to start a fire or to use a knife but wilderness survival is NOT Bushcraft.

Wilderness Survival is to Bushcraft what a street fight is to boxing; you simply remove all the rules and limitations.

In a survival situation, environmental impact becomes secondary to accomplishing the mission. Limiting environmental impact is responsible Bushcrafting.

Bushcraft is a Sport that entails interacting with nature, leaving minimal trace behind and having a terrific time in the woods.  It really can’t get much better than that.

Feel free to join our discussion about this article on FOREST AND STREAM DISCUSSION FORUMS

When putting a knife in a belt sheath, you are in complete control of the knife because you are holding the safe end (handle) while feeding the sharp edge into the sheath..

A hatchet is an entirely different story, it’s upside down compared to a knife. The handle is further from you than the edge when sheathing the ax.

You are holding the dangerous end while trying to feed the safe end into a hole; or worse yet holding the sharp end while you try to feed it into a narrow slot attached to your belt, then hold it in place while you secure it in place.

It’s a poor practice because it’s dangerous. There are too many different ways to have an accident.

The RIGHT WAY is the mask the edge whenever it’s not in use. The sooner the edge is masked the better.

When chopping, burying the edge into a log is protecting you and your fellow campers from the edge and protecting the edge from damage as well.

Carrying the ax is a great argument for the edge cover style of ax sheath. Snapping the edge cover masks the edge so the ax can be carried and stored safely.

The drawback to the belt mounted style of sheath is in addition to the perils of safe sheathing, it encourages carrying the unmasked ax when moving about the campsite. It’s too much hassle to manipulate the ax into the sheath for a short walk so it’s carried unmasked.

The Sharpshooter Axe Edge Cover incorporates the best/safest practices. It’s small enough that it can be slipped into the woodsman’s pocket when he’s chopping and instantly available to mask the razor sharp edge when he’s done or moving to another location.

The new Bark River Custom Camp Axe is supplied with this style cover, as was the latest run of Glen Eagle Hatchets.

The Sharpshooter Axe Edge Cover is as small as possible while providing complete protection for/from the sharp edge. It slips over the edge and locks in place when the cover is snapped down.

The S.A.E.C. can be left in place when using the poll of the axe as a hammer, adding another level of safety.

The ax is then lashed on or slid into the backpack for transport. Therein lies the only drawback, handsfree carry when you aren’t wearing a pack.

The new KSF/Sharpshooter Ax Carrier easily solves the problem.

It’s what I refer to as a head slap item; when you see it you slap your forehead and ask “why didn’t I think of that?”

This is a photo of the final prototype.

The new KSF Axe Carrier is something I’ve been thinking about for a few years waiting for the right design to pop into my head. This is the design I’ve been awaiting. Clean, simple, versatile and safe.

The beauty is in the simplicity of the KSF Axe Carrier. When open it wraps around with your belt or pack strap sandwiched between the strap and the plate.

The handle of your axe slips through the generously sized hole and the strap is brought up and snapped shut. There are two versions, the Standard which will work with most ordinary axes and hatchets and the “F” version which has a different snap location to tighten the carrier slightly for the “One Piece” or “Flat” axes like the Bark River Glen Eagle or Custom Camp Axe.

Some of these axes are shown without edge protectors for clarity of the picture.

YOU MUST USE SOME SORT OF EDGE PROTECTOR WHEN USING THE KSF AXE CARRIER.

The thick head of the Gerber/Fiskars hatchet fits in the “Standard”

as does this large Helko Hunter hatchet

and my custom Bush Axe based on a 1 ½ pound Vaughan Axe.

Type “F” is a bit more snug for the smaller axes and hatchets, like the new Bark River Custom Camp Axe:

the Bark River Mini Axe

the Bark River Glen Eagle Axe

GB Mini Hatchet

and a Nessmuk Style hatchet.

In addition to belt carry, the Axe Carrier will work perfectly with the Sharpshooter Sheath Systems Baldric.

The intent was to create a versatile carrier, providing different ways to carry different tools. I think we accomplished the mission.

The KSF Leather Axe Carrier is available at KnivesShipFree.com.

Scattered showers made for a wet outing,

…but the overcast skies made the subtle shades of green come alive.

On a dark winter’s day the world seems to exist in shades of black and white.

Even on a sunny winter’s day nature’s color scheme is limited to a palette dominated by white and blue accented by hints of gray and brown.

Spring comes slowly and starts to add some green to the landscape.

But this time of year, green becomes the dominate color in the woods.  The shades of green are as varied as they are wonderful.

It seems like only a few weeks ago the woods were wide open.

One could see the forest through the trees.

Stonewalls and stream beds could be clearly seen meandering through the landscape.  Rocky outcroppings and gnarly tree trunks were easily visible off in the distance, but now that the leaves have filled in, the woods have changed.

Sight lines have closed in and the woods have become much more intimate.

What was a wide open trail has become a narrow path through the lush vegetation.

On an overcast day, the diffused light is just right to appreciate the varying colors and textures of this new growth and the subtle shades of green that dominate the country side.

Another perfect day to be On The Trail.

Using a baton with a knife or axe, refers to the simple act of pounding the edge of your instrument through a piece of material using another striking object called the baton. Think of a steel wedge and a sledgehammer (the baton) used to pound a splitting wedge through a heavy log. This is the same principle with knife or axe. Instead of using a hammer you should always use another piece of wood as the baton to drive your edge into the wood. This will prevent damage to the spine of your knife, or when hammering on the head of an axe, prevent dislodging chips from the axe spine which can act as flying shrapnel.

batoning with an axe

batoning with a knife

Why baton?

There are many posts on the internet where people emphatically indicate that they never use this technique. Whenever I raise this issue on forums, I often get a slew of responses that say something to the effect of: ‘I’ve been camping for 40 years and never batoned wood, why should I start now?’ Often batoning through wood is seen as a poor substitute for having on hand a proper chopping tool (e.g. an axe). This is usually voiced by the ‘right tool for the right job’ crowd. That said, there are still many reasons to utilize the batoning technique and to learn about it so that you can effectively use the method. Even though this sometimes goes against our more basic instinct to chop directly, here are a few things to consider where the act of batoning can have its advantages.

1) The first reason is that some woods are very resistant to splitting. This is the kind of wood where you chop into it with your axe or hatchet and the axe head or knife edge literally bounces off the wood. It could be that the wood still holds a lot of moisture and isn’t cured properly but you still want to split it. It could be that the piece of wood is sitting on spongy ground rather than a chopping block. Perhaps you simply can’t sit the piece of wood upright on its own because of the way it was cut at the ends? P.S. suspend that thought – no you can’t hold the piece of wood with one hand while chopping with an axe in your other hand. Don’t do this!

Pieces of wood that are full of knots are a particular challenge to split. The knots interrupt the grain pattern of the wood and redirect the split or prevent a split from breaking through the log. Sometimes you simply can’t split wood even with the right axe or splitting maul. It just can’t be done and you need a different approach. In some cases, batoning could be your answer.

baton through knotty, difficult wood

2) A second reason why you might want to baton to split a piece of wood is to perform more precise cuts. Swinging an axe or knife requires generating power and momentum through the swing which comes at a sacrifice of precision and accuracy of the strike. Rather than simply splitting the piece of wood in question, you may be trying to shape a piece of wood. For example, you could be forming the hearth for a bow drill or shaping the pieces for a figure 4 trap. In this case, by batoning you precisely control the split, even disengaging the baton if the split looks like it is going the wrong way. Try that with a chopping motion!

Precision batoning

hearth shaped by precision batoning

3) A related third reason to baton is when you want to make a cross grain cut. You can of course chop through a limb cross grain, but what if you want to make a more precise cut? While, a saw is the best tool to do this, you may not have a saw with you. In this case you can use your axe or knife with a baton to complete this operation. This is harder on the edge of your cutting instrument, but it can be done with a little care and consideration of how much force you are exerting on the edge.

cross grain batoning

4) A forth reason why you might want to baton split a piece of wood rather than chopping is that you find it physically difficult to chop. Chopping with an axe or knife requires a lot of bending motions which can be hard on your back. Those suffering arthritis may have difficulty gripping their chopper with enough strength to safely swing it during chopping. For those of you who are still spring chickens your back and hands might feel perfectly fine today, but give it 30 years. Using a baton, you can sit on your knees (sometimes knee pads help) and baton with your back held straight. This is much easier on your back and more than a few older forumites have told me in the past that while they used to split wood with an axe, they find batoning to be easier for them now.

5) Another reason is the degree of safety associated with batoning action compared to chopping. Chopping takes practice and precise aim and requires power be generated to build large momentum with a sharp edge. One has to always be conscious of the trajectory the axe head or blade will take on a miss. Sometimes an axe will bounce off and deflect from the wood in unpredictable ways. Both our focus and strength tend to wane at the end of the day or after a long chopping session. These are the times that can be most dangerous. When you are sapped for strength but continue on with your work you will have less ability to control the blade. Accidents with axes are often very serious and the wound usually happens on the legs immobilizing you. This can be tragic when you are out in the woods. It can be especially tragic when you find yourself in a survival situation that demands extra caution in how you approach your situation.

6) A final reason often cited for why to baton is the weight savings associated with foregoing a chopper on a trip. You can successfully split wood up to 3.5” in diameter with a 5” knife blade that weighs far less than a knife and axe or dedicated long-bladed knife. While having a combination of tools provides the most versatility, you may have reason to want to limit your weight while still being able to produce fuel wood for fires during backpacking or hiking. Batoning can provide you with a skill set that lets you drop one more tool that needs to be carried.

small knife batoning

Proper way to baton

Improper batoning can lead to breakage of your knife (see knife controversy below) so some technique and care is advised. In one article that can be found here: www.barkriverknives.com/docs/batoning.pdf , the author hypothesizes that breakages during batoning, particularly at the tang/blade junction, occur because the knife is batonned at an angle instead of straight. When a knife is batonned on an angle with tip down and at the same time pressing downwards on the handle, this places a large amount of force on the blade/tang junction. As much as possible, you should try to baton with the knife straight.

Batoning - proper knife orientation

This is the Wrong way to baton (below)

batoning WRONG way

Correction of the blade orientation may be required mid way through a split. This becomes more difficult in the case of a knife when the spine is sunk below the surface of the wood. Here is where length of the knife can be a real advantage. Ideally, you want your knife to have enough edge available for batoning both between the handle and wood and between the tip and wood.

You do not want to be hitting the very tip of your knife where the grind makes it more delicate then the rest of the blade. You want the tip to extend out enough that you are striking a part with enough metal to take the battering on its spine. While batoning, you should try to keep your knife straight by corrective hits on either end. For the most part, you are hitting the tip end with more force with the baton, with a few lighter hits near the handle end as a straightening and corrective measure.

Another useful tip is to purposely build a baton with comfort and effectiveness in mind. Sure, you can grab just about any hardwood stick for the purpose. However, if you are going to be batoning a lot of wood, it might be better to make a baton that is comfortable to use. Try making something like a short baseball bat, having a thinner handle surface that is debarked and smooth to grip, and a wider hitting surface. It doesn’t have to be a work of beauty, just 5 minutes of shaving down the handle end with your knife to make it comfortable. It is far better than developing blisters or hand fatigue to make a good baton.

shaped baton

Types of knives used for batoning

Any axe or hatchet can be used for batoning. However, knives are more diverse in design and some thought should be given to what knife you choose for this task. Most fixed blades can be used with a baton, however, some designs work better than others. Knives with a full tang work well because of their strength. A full tang means that the metal from the blade extends through the entire handle. As a result, these knives are very difficult to break. A full tang is easy to recognize when the metal can be seen sandwiched between the two handle slabs.

Your knife may not be full tang but partial tang. Essentially the wider the tang and longer the tang extends through the handle, the stronger the design of the knife will be. You may have to research your knife on the internet to discover what its tang looks like under the handle. You probably would not want to baton with a folding knife unless great care is taken. This places a lot of strain on the locking mechanism. For the same reasons you would not want to baton with a knife with a very short and thin tang or with some hollow handle knives where the handle is simple spot welded to the blade.

Full tang (bocot wood handled knife) and partial tang (phenolic black handled knife) knives displayed. The partial tang knife is a buck119 that even though has a weaker configuration survived a full summer of batoning during car camping.

Finally, as mentioned above, having a knife with a longer blade length tends to serve batoning well. With a 4” blade, you are limited to 2 to 2.5” width sticks that can be split by baton. I personally find a 5-6” blade more flexible in the types of wood I can process by this method and yet this size provides a good compromise between weight and ability to work the knife on other tasks that require finer control and detail. Of course, if you really like to baton, then a long knife having a 9” or 10” blade works great both for the batoning as well as for chopping. Many people also will baton with machetes.

Leuku used to baton

In my own experience, the actual thickness of your blade seems to play less of a role than one would intuitively expect. Clearly, blade thickness beyond very thin is required for robustness. However, extra thick blades on the order of 0.25” or thicker do not seem to help with batoning although they may facilitate a split a little more early than a thinner knife. I have used full tang fixed bladed knives in a variety of thicknesses: 0.125”, 0.150”, 0.188” and 0.25” and I have not found any that felt too thin to adequately baton. For example, the 0.125” thick knives sink into the wood much easier than the thicker ones. However the thinner knives do not split as effectively and therefore you have to baton your knife further down the length of the wood to complete the split. The thick knives force a split quicker but can be more difficult to baton the blade past the main bevel. It is a tough call to say which requires less effort overall. I still don’t have the answer to that one except to say that I’ve used many different knives of different blade thicknesses with success.

Overall, the blade you choose for batoning should have the appropriate length and strength to tackle the kinds of splitting and shaping jobs you expect to encounter. A highly recommended practice is to test any new blade you intend to baton prior to performing this activity in the field. Keep some difficult to split hardwoods around the house such as oak and try batoning through it under a controlled situation. If you can baton through frozen oak with your knife then you can probably tackle most jobs with ease in the field. Better to have your knife break during your testing then in a remote location when your really need it. This is also the way for you to build confidence in the robustness of your knife and the batoning technique in general. Only through use and experience with a given blade will you trust it.

batoning

The batoning is bad for your knife controversy

On the knife forums the act of batoning sometimes comes with a great deal of controversy. In part some of this stems from the newer practice of ‘destructive knife testing’ where certain individuals will test a given knife to its limits and then go beyond its limits to determine the point of knife failure. These tests often are subject to a great deal of criticism due to lack of replication, or more commonly because the types of abuse necessary to actually destroy a knife are often not very consistent with how knives are actually used in real life.

While one can debate the merits of such tests elsewhere, a criticism is often levelled at the use of knives for batoning because this activity seems to be one case where real life applications and destructive knife testing seem to align. At least this is the case on the surface. In most posted destruction tests, the knife is batoned using a metal hammer, mallet or sledgehammer. The knife edge is also subject to cutting extremely abrasive materials like concrete or metal pipes etc. This often leads to failure of the knife. Some people extrapolate this failure to what can happen when a knife is batoned by wood into wood. Indeed, a common failure of knives does happen during wood batoning and this often occurs by breakage of the knife in two pieces at the blade/tang junction as indicated above.

So is batoning really so hard on your knife? The answer is: It can be. There are certainly enough blade failures of knives, even from manufacturers with a solid reputation for the extreme toughness of their knives to indicate that batoning activity can lead to blade failure. Yet in my experience, I have batoned hundreds of times and have yet to suffer a single blade failure. I spent a whole summer where I brought an axe during car camping in the truck, but made a conscious act to use only a knife for splitting wood. During this time, I was using a buck 119 special, a stick tang knife and it worked perfectly fine during this time. This was a less than ideal knife for batoning given that it is a partial tang knife and yet it never suffered failure or problems. Over that summer I became very confident in what could and can’t be done by batoning with a knife.

Common sense can come into play and having some confidence and experience in the activity is also helpful. As you practice this technique, you will quickly begin to get a feel for the wood you are splitting and what constitutes an inordinate amount of force versus what is considered normal. Nobody ever said that you have to force that split ‘no matter what’. Your discretion on what is an appropriate amount of effort verses when you should give up can help prevent blade failure. That and prior testing of your blade as described above will ensure that a tested blade, if it is going to fail, does so in your backyard under controlled conditions rather than in the woods when you are most dependent on your survival tools.

Heck, even stale bread may need to be split every once in a while!

How to split your bun - the batoning way!

Conclusion

In summary, there are a variety of reasons why you should learn how to baton. Whether or not you choose to use this technique is secondary to having the skill to use it if you require it. Getting a sense for the proper technique and how much strain your knife or axe can take is a good approach to take. The benefits of the technique are that it is easier on your back and can offer controlled and precise splits. It doesn’t need to replace using an axe or large chopper knife. Think of it as an auxiliary skill for those times when you have to make do with what you have or when you truly want to take advantage of a specific attribute that batoning can provide apart from chopping.

Ken batoning out a piece of fatwood

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As my dogs and I headed up the wet trail I knew I had selected the perfect location, it seemed like an ideal area to be on this rainy day.

Signs of spring had been slow in coming, with little rain since winter’s snow had melted; this shot of liquid life was just what Mother Nature had ordered.

I headed out to an area where a rocky ridge line adjoins a fertile river floodplain, expecting to find some flowing water and signs of spring.

We traveled through a lush stand of pines, its evergreen canopy absorbing the falling precipitation, leaving the forest floor mostly dry.

Whitetailed deer, startled by our approach, darted off into the distance. Circular patterns in the pine needles showed where they had bedded down.

Hiking across this soft duff, our footfalls are muffled. With just the soft sounds it was a very quiet time in the woods.

Signs of new life were sprouting up here and there.

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As I move into an area of deciduous trees, I head off the trail as I spot a very large growth of Tinder Fungus.

This material is rich with tree sap and is a useful to any fire starting kit.

Farther off the trail I discovered a very large fire pit. It was ringed by a stone entryway and seating around the pit.

It reminded me of a witches circle.

I wondered what strange happenings might have occurred in this hidden location.

The trail paralleled a stream as it started to climb off the flat valley floor. Turning into a wide ravine the water could be seen cascading down in a stair-step of small waterfalls.

The silence of the piney woods gave way to the sound of running water, which only got more intense as we proceeded up the ravine.

As we traveled along, the sounds of the rushing stream increased to reach a crescendo, drowning out any other sound in the woods; a glorious soundtrack to accompany the beauty of the falling water.

The ever changing soft shapes of the turbulent flow as it danced over the rocky landscape was as much a feast to the eyes as the roaring sound was to the ears.

It was a marvelous time to be

On The Trail

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Ken Drouillard AKA : KGD is the newest addition to our writing team.

People possessing Outdoor Skills with the ability to share put them to paper are a rare commodity. Even more rare are those who can capture the magic with a camera as well.

I’m proud to add Ken to our Team of rare individuals. I hope you enjoy his first article as much as I did.

Welcome Ken.

Sharpshooter

____________________________________________________

Many of us have heard the old scout axiom – “build a fire with one match”. There is a lot of wisdom in that statement because it shifts the focus from the fire source, i.e. the match, to the tinder and kindling that should have been prepared and set up well beforehand. Arguably this axiom immediately lends itself to the credo of the scouts – “always be prepared”.

Fire building and fire watching is enjoyed by almost everybody but do you get the most pleasure you can from the fire building process? How often are we so much in a hurry to get our fire going that we forget to enjoy the process of building the fire itself? There are times, such as in survival, when we need to build a fire immediately. However, fire building and training in the different skills available to do so can be an immensely pleasurable activity. This article is about the road, rather than the destination, and the pleasures that can be had from making your campfire by some of the more traditional routes.

Modern society today tends to focus on the ignition source rather than the other components such as tinder and kindling. Technology, such as matches, lighters and mini-torches provide a prolonged flame by adding fuel to a sparking source. This can allow you to circumvent tinder and directly ignite your kindling. In fact, even with the transient time available for a lit match to burn, it would seem that the art and need for good quality tinder is fading. Well perhaps it is fading among modern folks, but not among people who train in more traditional methods of fire building.

So let us start off with some quick definitions. For all intensive purposes, kindling is the smaller stuff used to produce a strong and hot enough flame to ignite the bigger wood such as your half and quarter split logs. Kindling can be crumpled up newspaper balls used in your fireplace or smaller sticks, shaved and tiny split pieces of wood that are used to nurse the small flame, e.g. from your match or lighter, into the larger flame needed to ignite your fuel wood. But what is tinder all about? Tinder consists of highly flammable materials that can transfer a small ignition source like a spark into to a flame. There is no set definition of what constitutes tinder relative to kindling, rather the terms reflect a continuum of different types of fuels that have different flash points and durations of burning. Typical flash tinders used to catch the spark arising from a ferro rod for example include petroleum jelly laced cotton balls, dryer lint, natural highly flammable materials like crumpled dried leaves and grasses (forming a dust), phragmities flower heads, milkweed pod seeds among others.

Then there is the ignition source itself. When you ask the common Joe on the street about ignition sources they will probably tell you about a cigarette lighter (piezo ignition system, bic, zippo, etc) or a match. One can argue that these ignition sources are in fact the ignition source and tinder all bundled into one. So what are some of the more traditional types of ignition sources? These can include the more technical ferro rod (or firesteel) rods of today, flint and steel (see Sharpshooters Article) or a coal derived from one of a variety of friction fire methods. These methods either provide only a spark, or a coal and it is up to you to use tinder to transfer that small energy into a flame and then build the flame up via kindling to ignite your fuel wood.

For the rest of this article, we will cover the firesteel, flint & steel and Fresnel lens. This article isn’t intended to provide a comprehensive manual of the different techniques, but rather to get you started on some of the terminology, types of tinders used in conjunction with each method and what you need to begin. I highly recommend that you start from easy (e.g. firesteel) to more difficult, learning and mastering each technique as you go. There are other more advanced methods including friction fire which will be covered in more detail in future articles.

1) Firesteels

Firesteels are essentially the modern day flint & steel. However, modern firesteels contain special metal alloys that when struck with a harder striker on their surface produce a series of very hot sparks that can readily ignite tinder. The sparks produced by modern firesteels are hotter and longer lasting than what is produced by flint and steel and thus have a greater chance of igniting your tinder source. There are a wide variety of brand names and manufacturers of fire steels. Some brand names include Light Mire Fire, Metal Match, Doan Sticks, Strike Force and others. Firesteels are commonly marketed as a survival fire starting tools and can be found in camping sections of retail sporting goods stores or on-line. The reason why they are marketed as such is that they are long lasting (good for 3000 strikes or more), almost unbreakable and weather proof (simply wipe off water droplets to produce sparks).

Pictured below are two common types of firesteels. The first one is simply a firesteel rod which is used in conjunction with a small striker blade or dedicated striker. The second picture shows a Doan stick which has a smaller firesteel rod glued onto a magnesium block. The magnesium block can be shaved into thin magnesium curls and used as a tinder source for the ferro rod sparks.

Regular firesteel, striker and tinder bundle

Doan stick and tinder.

To produce sparks from your firesteel you need a striker. The striker needs to be made of a sharpened, harder edge than the firesteel itself. Most knives will work well for this, however, the act of striking the firesteel against the blade can dull your knife over time. If your knife has a squared and somewhat sharp edge at the spine, the spine of the knife can be used as a striker. Most, ferro rods come with a dedicated little striker that can be tied to the firesteel itself. Failing that two very popular strikers include the awl of a Swiss army knife or the spine of the saw on a Swiss army knife. Others swear by a small piece of hack saw for a striker blade. Personally, I like a dedicated striker knife. The small dedicated wharncliff blade next to the firesteel in the above picture was made for me by a custom maker when I had another bushcraft style knife created.

Only last weekend, I was delighted to find out that I could use natural materials as a striker for one of my firesteels. I found out that the edge of a chipped piece of seashell from a freshwater mussel was able generate sparks from my Light My Fire Firesteel.

The shot below provides an action shot of the firesteel being struck in this case with the edge of a knife. My wife prefers this method for the shower of sparks it produces. She also has the luxury of demanding that I re-sharpen her knife when it dulls on her!

Firesteel striking

Different firesteels behave in different ways. Some firesteels work best with short, light and rapid strokes. Others require fast and hard strokes. You will have to experiment with your ferro-rod/striker combination to see what performs best. The ideal is to get a shower of sparks on each stroke. You want those sparks to land directly onto your tinder while they are still glowing.

Firesteel tinder. Because your firesteel produces hot sparks you have a great deal of versatility in the type of tinder that can be used. For those that like to prepare their tinder ahead of time, the petroleum cotton ball method (commonly referred to under the acronym PJCB) is considered the most robust and easy to use tinder aside from commercially available firesteel tinder sources. Simply grab some cotton balls, stuffed in vitamin jars or used as cosmetic remover pads and liberally coat them with petroleum jelly (Vaseline). Prior to using as tinder, tease some of the strands of the cotton apart from the main ball and aim the sparks towards those strands. A well coated PJCB will burn for 1 – 2 minutes after ignition. You can store about 10 well coated PJCB in a 35mm camera film canister or keep it in a small zip lock bag. Others like to seal pieces of PJCB into drinking straws by burning the ends of the straw with PJCB stuffed in the middle of the two sealed ends. This method is commonly referred to as fire straws.

The second most popular natural tinder for use with firesteels is fatwood. Fatwood consists of resin-impregnated wood, derived naturally from pine trees that have been felled or been broken into pieces by a catastrophic event. You can purchase fatwood sticks from different stores in the firewood or camping sections or you can find your own by digging into old pine stumps. Either way, this material provides a dense and compact source of tinder as well as long burning kindling. To use it as tinder, you scrape sawdust from the fatwood by placing your knife edge perpendicular to the fatwood and scraping the resin impregnated dust off the wood surface. Alternatively, you can use a small saw as found on a Swiss army knife to cut a piece of the fatwood and retain the sawdust from the cutting action. Aim your firesteel sparks into the fatwood dust for ignition. Cut thicker slices of the fatwood for use as kindling.

Other tinder sources that work well are unravelled pieces of jute twine, dried grasses, dried and crumpled leaves, birch bark, inner strands of bark and flash tinders. Here are a couple of my favourites: matured milkweed seeds:

Millkweed seeds for use as flash tinder

Or phragmites heads:

Phragmites head used as flash tinder

The flash tinders above will quickly catch a spark and produce a flame, but the flame will only last 2 – 3 seconds. Therefore, you have to have your other types of tinder and kindling at the ready. This can be things like larger dried week stems, grasses or fuzzed up sticks. Remember the scouts’ credo here – ‘be prepared!’

2) Flint and Steel

Sharpshooter provided an excellent article on the flint and steel method found here:

http://www.forestandstream.com/sharpshooter/flint-and-steel-firestarting

I don’t want to duplicate too much information in his article other than to talk about flint and steel as the next difficulty level to progress to once you’ve mastered the modern day firesteel method. In most respects, the flint and steel is the forbearer of our modern firesteels. You use the technique to produce a spark. However, unlike the firesteels, the sparks produced by this traditional method are less plentiful, have less energy (heat) and are more transient (shorter burning) than the sparks produced from a firesteel. This means that you have to compensate for this by being more organized in the types of tinder sources you use.

Another difference between the flint and steel and modern firesteel is that the sparks aren’t usually sufficient to ignite your tinder directly into flame. Rather the tinders used with flint and steel will ‘catch a spark’ and convert it to a coal. The coal is then placed in a tinder basket and blown into flame. The analogue of PJCB used with firesteels for the flint and steel is char cloth. Char cloth is basically made by slow burning cotton in a sealed tin (with a small hole in it) to produce a fine almost charcoal like material. The high surface area of the char cloth readily catches sparks from the flint and steel method and converts them to a coal.

Again, I’ll refer to Sharpshooter’s excellent article above on specific techniques as he elaborates the methods very nicely there. Striking the hardened steel striker against a piece of flint will produce a spark. The char cloth is held with your thumb on the piece of flint to catch the spark. You can see in the picture below a captured spark and a small glowing coal caught in his char cloth.

Char cloth with small coal

Typically the striker is a piece of carbon steel that is harder than the steel normally found on knives. However, some knives, particularly those made of carbon steel and hardened to a Rockwell hardness of 58 or greater can create a spark from flint just like a dedicated striker. In this case you use the spine of the knife and a vertical motion to glance off the edge of the flint as demonstrated below.

Flint striking using the spine of a high carbon knife

Once you have the coal glowing, you want to place it in a tinder bundle or tinder basket. Again, the modern preferred materials for this is unwound jute twine. Get the larger size (48 lb, three ply) jute from a craft store. Unravel the jute into individual strands and make a birds nest out of the strands. Place your char cloth coal in the centre of the jute nest, fold over the coal, hold up in the air and blow it (facing upwards to keep the smoke from your eyes) into flames. When blowing, you want to use rather soft breaths at first and then produce stronger, more forceful breaths as the coal begins to fire up. During this time you are folding and trying to press individual strands of jute into the surface of the coal with your fingers. Here is Rick Marchand, owner of Wildertools, and primitive fire expert, showing how it is done. Notice how he is blowing upwards and with the wind so that the smoke isn’t getting into his eyes.

Blowing tinder into flame

As the case with firesteels, one doesn’t necessarily have to rely on manufactured char cloth as a tinder. There are natural alternatives available. One of them is punk wood. Punk wood is simply dried out, rotten wood. The type that is almost spongy and crumbly to the touch. You can find suitable punk wood in the hollows of standing trees or fallen over wood. Just make sure it is dry. You should be able to tear off a piece with just your hands. If you rough up the punkwood enough you can get it to catch a spark almost as good as char cloth.

Punkwood easily catches a spark and converts to a coal

You can also use pieces of charcoal if you find them in an exhausted fire pit or tinder fungus as tinder for gathering the coals. As Rich Marchand explains it, “part of the fun is discovering what works and what doesn’t. Don’t just read it in a book, try it for yourself.” Your discovering something that works on your own is more likely to stick in your mind than something you’ve read in a magazine article! For the flash tinders, any of the ones mentioned with the firesteels, e.g. phragmites heads, milkweed seeds or dandelion heads will work nicely.

A shot of one of the flint and steel kits (the flint piece isn’t shown in this picture) produced by Wildertools. In this kit, the striker is a hand forged striker that also serves as an emergency tiny knife. The kit also contains plenty of char cloth, jute twine for tinder and a small tin vessel for reconstituting char cloth in the field if you find yourself getting low. Go ahead, sacrifice that spare sock on the comfy fire and create the next week’s worth of char cloth. If you are more industrious, you will endeavour to sacrifice your friend’s spare cotton sock instead of your own.

3) Fresnel Lens

Remember when you were a kid and you used to burn ants with a magnifying glass? This is the same technology put to use for making fire. The Fresnel lens shares many similarities with the flint and steel. You can usually get a piece of char cloth or punkwood going to coal by focussing sunlight through the magnifying lens onto the surface of your tinder. You then want to blow the coal into a flame using a tinder basket.

Here Rick Marchand is using the Fresnel lens that is built into the cover of his flint and steel kit to generate a coal. At first he started with a tinder basket made of sun dried bark strips from a downed piece of wood on the beach.

Using a Fresnel lens to start a fire

The tinder basket readily produced smoke but would not produce a coal or spontaneously ignite. He then switched to a piece of punkwood. The punkwood started to smoke but then quickly turned into to a coal.

Fresnel lens successful at producing coal on piece of punkwood

Once he was able to get the coal going on the punkwood, he then placed the coal in the tinder basket and blew it into flame. Just like the case with the flint and steel method.

In this shot, Rick is demonstrating a technique where an abandoned bird’s nest is used as the base of the tinder basket. Dried leaves and twigs are stuffed in the centre of the nest. The coal from your flint and steel / Fresnel lens/ or friction fire is then placed in the centre of the dried leaves.

Bird nest tinder basket

Summary

This article introduced firesteel, flint and steel and Fresnel lens methods as ignition sources and talked about different tinder combinations that could be used to translate the energy generated by the ignition source into a flame or coal. From the coal or small flame, you need to build your fire up using more robust tinders and then kindling until you have a full campfire going. All of these techniques can be a bit challenging to master and require a bit of preparation before you start. The key is in matching the right tinder to the ignition source, having your striking technique down and finally having the right combination of tinder extenders and kindling to nurse your spark/small flame to a health into self-sustaining fire.

Cozy campfire

Stay tuned for future articles on friction fire by the bow drill and handrill methods.

Acknowledgment

Special thanks go to Rick Marchand and Doc Canada for their time and instruction in these different fire starting techniques. They have been great guides and teachers in getting the basics down of the primitive fire building process. Rick’s website for wildertools can be found at: http://www.wildertools.com

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It’s all about the atmosphere.

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As warmer weather is soon upon us, we begin to think of those backcountry excursions that will take us away from the hustle and bustle of civilization and take us to more remote places to get in tune with nature and enjoy a little solitude.  A day-hike into the backcountry is a very affordable vacation option gauranteed to be remembered for life.  Make sure to bring the camera!

Getting off the beaten path can offer some dramatic landscapes.

Two of your most useful tools for finding places like this, are your legs.  Many times, even in places frequented by crowds of people, you can find a little corner of the outdoors for yourself if you’re willing to put a little time in on foot.  Generally speaking, the farther you’re willing to walk, the more alone you’ll be.

Lots of elbow room.

Hiking in to a remote lake or section of stream can have many more rewards than just catching fish.  Obviously, the less fishing  pressure any body of water gets, the better the fishing should be.  But hiking to some back-country places offers great exercise, a good opportunity to view some wildlife, and almost always picturesque views of nature at its finest.

Studying a map of the area you visit can reveal some hidden secrets.  There was no trail to this small alpine lake.

This type of fishing  can be as simple or as complicated as you’d like to make it.  I figure I’m about in the middle of the road.  I will be using a simple rod and reel set-up but will be taking a pretty good assortment of flies.  As far as my fishing gear goes, I think I came in at less than $100 for the whole outfit.

The rod I’ve chosen for this article is a  beautiful little 7 1/2′ four-piece pack rod from  Eagle Claw.  The good folks at eagle claw were generous enough to send a rod for me to test.   The model is the Trailmaster III and it is a 5-wt rod.  This is a relativley inexpensive (NOT to be read cheap) fly rod.  The fact is, this is a very well made rod.  All four pieces fit together flawlessly.  The rod has very good action and there is no chance of the rod segments separating during use.   A cloth storage sock is included.  The sock has four pockets so each piece of the rod has it’s own space.  The rod can then be rolled and tied for easy packing.   Eagle Claw is a class-act company all the way and their customer service is superb.

Check out their site here:  http://www.eagleclaw.com/site/products

I’ve paired this rod with a 5-wt reel from Okuma.

For fishing these backcountry streams and lakes, I like to use a varied assortment of flies.  I think that the less pressure the water gets, the less fussy the fish are.  I fish mostly small spring creeks and mountain streams and find that the trout are eager to rise to anything that resembles a bug of some sort.  They are definitely not fussy at all.

A nice rainbow taken from a spring creek.

I sometimes carry my pack rod in a home made rod tube that I made out of stuff from the hardware store for about $12 total.  A small box of dry flies and nymphs, a few extra leaders and some dry fly dressing to keep the flies afloat go into my daypack.   A jacket,  some proper emergency gear, a lunch of sorts and a bottle of water round out my gear.

Many of the bodies of water in these locations do, in fact, offer fantastic angling opportunities.  The fish are often not large but usually plentiful.  They will eagerly attack almost any bug that hits the water.   You’ll be able to witness fish acrobatics as they race each other to be the first to the fly.

Not a big fish, but a trophy just the same.

If fly-fishing isn’t your game, Eagle Claw also offers a 4-piece spinning pack rod.  The quality and action are the same on this rod as the fly rod.  If the fish are feeding heavily on bugs, you can still target them with a spinning rod.  All you need to add is a couple dollar casting bubble to the above mentioned fly gear.   A casting bubble is just a plastic bubble that you can fill with water(for weight) and have two or three feet of line behind it that will float any kind of dry fly or nymph.  The spinning rod may be a little more versatile as you can take some spinners and spoons in addition to flies.  So you have all your bases covered.

In addition to the fish and the scenery, a little hiking is often a good chance to observe some otherwise missed wildlife.

So the next free weekend you have, assemble your gear the night before and start out early the next morning.  Whether you choose to go solo or with your favorite hiking partner,  you’re sure to have a good time.  I can promise you that as much fun as you’ll have fishing, the other rewards will be even better and it’s those times you’ll remember for the rest of your life.

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I traveled down into a deep river valley to hike along a narrow lake.

The steep valley and its adjoining high ridge was once the location of one of the largest American Indian settlements in this area. It was known as Indian Valley and Indian Ridge.

The narrow river valley has been dammed in this area and is now part of a long lake.

Along this lake shore there is a section of trail that traverses the sloping terrain and follows the water’s edge.

Nestled deep in this valley I know my journey will be out of the worst of the cutting wind, and that I might be lucky enough to feel the sun’s warming rays.

The dogs and I head on down the trail.

Soon we are greeted by a chorus of geese as they swim out from an island where they are nesting.

Their racket echos in this narrow river valley, making the commotion that much more intense.

This only gets the dogs going…

…and they run up and down the shoreline, getting the geese even more riled up.

Once we move past the nesting area things quiet down.

The valley here is quite steep, and the rocky bank plunges quickly into the water.

As we move along the shore we enter a small cove.

Up on the bank, in a small stand of pines, we find a primitive lean-to type of shelter.

A great place to spend a quiet night on the lake shore.

The view from this location is serene, without a man made structure in sight.

From here the main trail pushes inland, but we need to start back toward the trail head. Instead of back-tracking, we bushwhack up to the top of the ridge. This time of year it’s pretty easy to move through the woods, and the dogs and I explore off the beaten path.

As we travel across some level terrain we encounter many signs of man’s use. Stonewalls crisscross this landscape. The area has since been allowed to go back to a natural state.

As we hike back down to the trail head most of the blue skies have disappeared, but the memory of this beautiful morning lives on in my memory.

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