Day Trip Two

Some great weather prompted a second hike into the local wilderness. I went to the same place as in my first Day Trip posting... Day Trip

On the agenda for today: Exploring, Saws & Fire...

First, some tramping over the far hills.

Here's a great spot... Very peaceful.

Some Spanish Moss for the fire making later...

I took along three saws to try out. Because of them, I did not take a big knife, but took my TOPS Laser Strike instead. The Laser Strike is no chopper, but it did some light hacking quite well.

Here I show a Sven Saw that Eric gave me, an Uncle Mike's saw, and a professional pruning saw by Corona.

The Sven Saw is a great tool, and will do some serious work. The Uncle Mike's is too flimsy, and the blade bends easily.

The Corona, however, ROCKS! It is a pull only motion, and it sliced through some old dead pine really, really easily. At only a few ounces, it is a great pack saw. It also has a lock for the 7" blade in both the open and closed positions.

Well worth the weight.

I wanted to try the Indian Fire Hole, or Dakota Hole. Used when the wind is too strong for a regular fire, this one uses two holes with a tunnel between them for the draft.

Even when the wind was not blowing, it drew well, and kept the fire burning.

Digging with sticks, it took almost 2 hours to get to the fire stage.

Here are the two holes, with the can suspended over the fire pit.

Here a big slab of bark is positioned as a wind deflector, pushing the wind down into the first hole.

When the wind blew, it was like a little blast furnace. This is a really good trick for when the wind blows real hard, but it takes a lot of effort to get it dug, when you don't have a shovel...

After all that work, I decided to have a cup of pine needle tea and relax...

The Trailstove, on the other hand, took all of 2 minutes to get set up...

The only thing with a TOPS knife is, you better not lay it down... It blends in pretty well, and it is easy to misplace it...

I was standing out in the open when these deer wandered out, and began to bed down. There is rarely anyone in these hills at this time of the year. They never saw me until I began to walk away.

Here's an old Yucca plant. I harvested the stalk to try to make a fireboard out of.

Among the rocks and brush, a splash of color...

A close up...

In a sunny meadow....

And a last close up...

Hope y'all enjoy the pics...

Bill

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