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So, yesterday a buddy and I went towards the coast range for a night out without sleeping bags or comfort items. Our wives dropped us off at 10am and kissed us goodbye and left. We had no car or way out except to walk. We have taken a few survival courses and felt pretty confident that we would be ok for the most part. I was up in the woods a few weeks ago and it was extremely wet. I knew we would have to get fire going and keep it going all night to stay warm. We both know how to find pitch wood or fatwood in the woods. But with this much rain, finding good quality pitch wood is not easy. Most of it has some sort of moisture this time of year. We brought a few items to make fire a bit easier to get the initial light. Weather this weekend was very windy, very wet, constant heavy rain. We knew this beforehand but decided to take on the challenge.
Items taken:
Kifaru Zulu (worked well, never got wet inside bag)
Gen 3 night vision with helmet (just for my buddy to play with) 1st time, observed elk.
Glock 17 / TLR-1
Benchmade Griptilian folder knife
Gransfors Bruks small forest axe (broke mid day) See below
1 heat sheet (may have cut the wind a bit)
Small 5x7 minimalist shelter (REI)
a couple cotton balls (plain) to catch the first flint strike (used 2)
small slab of dry quality pitch wood / flint
canteen and micropur tabs
1 bag beef jerky
1 small packet oatmeal
Clothing:
leather Aussie boonie cap (worked well for rain and fanning coals back into a flame)
1 wool stocking cap (great for night time)
Gaters (REI) worked well to keep the wet off the lower legs, but soon I was soaked anyway
Carhartt cotton pants (dried quickly next to fire) yes, I wanted to test cotton.
Wool socks (worked great)
Red Wing boots (worked well supported ankles)
Short sleeve poly shirt
Columbia fleece
Jacket Shell: Marmot Precip (was wet inside maybe from heat, or soaked through)
brought Smart wool long johns but did not use them.
After our wives dropped us off we walked about a mile up to the top of the mountain and found a nice secluded area away from logging roads to build a shelter. It was pouring, we were already soaking wet. It was one of those days that had a couple inches of rain. Just miserable.
We started gathering materials to make a lean to. What took the longest was finding enough branches for the roof thick. This took an amazing amount of time and energy. Definitely see the value in carrying a tarp.
After we got the frame and roof up, my buddy started gathering wood and working on the fire. It was raining so hard all day and night. He was trying to cover his tinder with his body because of all the rain. trying to split wet wood, to get to the center and split the dry stuff in a storm was very hard. It took quite a few tries before he finally got ignition.
The logs on the ground towards the back of the shelter was what I tried to sleep on. Yeah pretty hard, wet and uncomfortable. We slept maybe 1/2 hour. In that time I melted my canteen.
My Gransfors Bruks small forest axe broke half way through the day. I was pretty disappointed I did not hear anything like a tink where it might have hit a bullet maybe lodged in a tree but we were far off the beaten path, I really think it was just a weak spot in the metal. Lets hope they will understand or offer some sort of warranty. UPDATED: They did send me a brand new one, turn around time was a couple weeks.
What we learned:
1. Wear gloves, our hands were beat up after just a short time. The wood has little hair like slivers I am still digging
out of my hands, stomach and back and neck from handling wood.
2. Rain SUCKS, but our shelter was sort of water proof. It took about 3 hours to construct. Still not as good as a tarp.
3. Wind sucks, we slept very close to the fire. My canteen was right next to me and it melted. Many times I woke up and my buttons or zipper were way to hot to handle. I actually had blisters on my knee from the fire but never felt it till I got home. We slept about 2 ft from the fire at all times, many times we were way to hot, had to move and turn to dry out because rain would come through the shelter a bit. The logs we laid on were cold and wet and full of hair like slivers. The pine needles we used for the roof, dried out and if you bumped the roof a million of them would fall down your back from the fire. And the rain would start to come in.
4. A huge log fire can go down very quickly if you don't stay on top of it with pouring rain. We were constantly having to split more wood and shove it underneath to fill the gap. Part of the reason was it was a 6 ft fire, but only 3ft was level, then ends were higher creating a void in underneath in the middle. If we had shovel we could have made the fire pit flat since the longs were 6 to 7ft long. We used about 15 logs 6ft long for about 10 hours of fire. Not all were quality, some were a bit soft which held a ton of water. We were constantly trying to dry them out next to the fire before burning. It was a constant chore to stay warm. The rain soak logs and rain falling kept sucking the heat out of the fire.
5. At 4am we cut our last few logs that we were laying on to get the fire going again and sat on our backpacks till it got light. Between 4am and daylight can take a long time when its very windy and rainy.
6. A tarp is worth its weight in gold to keep rain off your head. We built the shelter just for fun, but a tarp would have been so much easier. If we had more time we would have built a log bed off the ground, but we ran out of daylight. We took micro naps after about 2am, maybe slept a total of 1/2 hour. We were back up working on the fire full time at 4am to keep the fire going. It took 1 1/2 hours to get the fire roaring again from a 3ft bed of coals back to a good fire after we split everything up. The rain is just no fun, everything was so wet.
7. Keep pitch wood on you, you never know if you will be able to find quality stuff when the weather is really bad.
Conclusion:
Initially, we were going to stay for a couple days. After my axe broke, the constant rain and lack of things to do we felt we learned what we needed to. That was it's exhausting work when its just dumping rain. Trying to keep a fire going for a long time is a constant battle for wood, heat and maintenance. Finding a patch of pine trees would be good for bedding, but the little we found had to be used for the roof. There was no way to support your back or stay comfortable when things are this wet, its pretty miserable as we knew it would be. But we survived, kept a fire going all night and had a good shelter.
A small .22 rifle would be good for small birds or squirrels. I did eat a 2 inch grub crawling out of a log, tasted like popcorn after being cooked. My buddy ate a snail that had a swamp flavor. We could smell elk passing by in the middle of the night which was cool.
I posted this thread a couple years ago on another forum, but thought some would like to read it here.
That's about it, tired and sore but had a good experience.
Items taken:
Kifaru Zulu (worked well, never got wet inside bag)
Gen 3 night vision with helmet (just for my buddy to play with) 1st time, observed elk.
Glock 17 / TLR-1
Benchmade Griptilian folder knife
Gransfors Bruks small forest axe (broke mid day) See below
1 heat sheet (may have cut the wind a bit)
Small 5x7 minimalist shelter (REI)
a couple cotton balls (plain) to catch the first flint strike (used 2)
small slab of dry quality pitch wood / flint
canteen and micropur tabs
1 bag beef jerky
1 small packet oatmeal
Clothing:
leather Aussie boonie cap (worked well for rain and fanning coals back into a flame)
1 wool stocking cap (great for night time)
Gaters (REI) worked well to keep the wet off the lower legs, but soon I was soaked anyway
Carhartt cotton pants (dried quickly next to fire) yes, I wanted to test cotton.
Wool socks (worked great)
Red Wing boots (worked well supported ankles)
Short sleeve poly shirt
Columbia fleece
Jacket Shell: Marmot Precip (was wet inside maybe from heat, or soaked through)
brought Smart wool long johns but did not use them.
After our wives dropped us off we walked about a mile up to the top of the mountain and found a nice secluded area away from logging roads to build a shelter. It was pouring, we were already soaking wet. It was one of those days that had a couple inches of rain. Just miserable.
We started gathering materials to make a lean to. What took the longest was finding enough branches for the roof thick. This took an amazing amount of time and energy. Definitely see the value in carrying a tarp.
After we got the frame and roof up, my buddy started gathering wood and working on the fire. It was raining so hard all day and night. He was trying to cover his tinder with his body because of all the rain. trying to split wet wood, to get to the center and split the dry stuff in a storm was very hard. It took quite a few tries before he finally got ignition.
The logs on the ground towards the back of the shelter was what I tried to sleep on. Yeah pretty hard, wet and uncomfortable. We slept maybe 1/2 hour. In that time I melted my canteen.
My Gransfors Bruks small forest axe broke half way through the day. I was pretty disappointed I did not hear anything like a tink where it might have hit a bullet maybe lodged in a tree but we were far off the beaten path, I really think it was just a weak spot in the metal. Lets hope they will understand or offer some sort of warranty. UPDATED: They did send me a brand new one, turn around time was a couple weeks.
What we learned:
1. Wear gloves, our hands were beat up after just a short time. The wood has little hair like slivers I am still digging
out of my hands, stomach and back and neck from handling wood.
2. Rain SUCKS, but our shelter was sort of water proof. It took about 3 hours to construct. Still not as good as a tarp.
3. Wind sucks, we slept very close to the fire. My canteen was right next to me and it melted. Many times I woke up and my buttons or zipper were way to hot to handle. I actually had blisters on my knee from the fire but never felt it till I got home. We slept about 2 ft from the fire at all times, many times we were way to hot, had to move and turn to dry out because rain would come through the shelter a bit. The logs we laid on were cold and wet and full of hair like slivers. The pine needles we used for the roof, dried out and if you bumped the roof a million of them would fall down your back from the fire. And the rain would start to come in.
4. A huge log fire can go down very quickly if you don't stay on top of it with pouring rain. We were constantly having to split more wood and shove it underneath to fill the gap. Part of the reason was it was a 6 ft fire, but only 3ft was level, then ends were higher creating a void in underneath in the middle. If we had shovel we could have made the fire pit flat since the longs were 6 to 7ft long. We used about 15 logs 6ft long for about 10 hours of fire. Not all were quality, some were a bit soft which held a ton of water. We were constantly trying to dry them out next to the fire before burning. It was a constant chore to stay warm. The rain soak logs and rain falling kept sucking the heat out of the fire.
5. At 4am we cut our last few logs that we were laying on to get the fire going again and sat on our backpacks till it got light. Between 4am and daylight can take a long time when its very windy and rainy.
6. A tarp is worth its weight in gold to keep rain off your head. We built the shelter just for fun, but a tarp would have been so much easier. If we had more time we would have built a log bed off the ground, but we ran out of daylight. We took micro naps after about 2am, maybe slept a total of 1/2 hour. We were back up working on the fire full time at 4am to keep the fire going. It took 1 1/2 hours to get the fire roaring again from a 3ft bed of coals back to a good fire after we split everything up. The rain is just no fun, everything was so wet.
7. Keep pitch wood on you, you never know if you will be able to find quality stuff when the weather is really bad.
Conclusion:
Initially, we were going to stay for a couple days. After my axe broke, the constant rain and lack of things to do we felt we learned what we needed to. That was it's exhausting work when its just dumping rain. Trying to keep a fire going for a long time is a constant battle for wood, heat and maintenance. Finding a patch of pine trees would be good for bedding, but the little we found had to be used for the roof. There was no way to support your back or stay comfortable when things are this wet, its pretty miserable as we knew it would be. But we survived, kept a fire going all night and had a good shelter.
A small .22 rifle would be good for small birds or squirrels. I did eat a 2 inch grub crawling out of a log, tasted like popcorn after being cooked. My buddy ate a snail that had a swamp flavor. We could smell elk passing by in the middle of the night which was cool.
I posted this thread a couple years ago on another forum, but thought some would like to read it here.
That's about it, tired and sore but had a good experience.