Bushcrafting Gear!!!

[Zorg Zumo]

I'm getting pretty darn old. I learned survival techniques as a young person. IMO, modern "Bushcraft" is like Pokemon – a fantasy experience shared among folks who never get out and actually enjoy the outdoors. So go ahead and trade your cards.

[Vince Contreras]

Zorg, you've got it…For most of us this is recreation, and in many ways we are "re-creating" the necessary-for-life skill sets of many historical explorers…

[Vince Contreras]

@ Nick Gatel: I can see how if one went through SERE school, what with the "don't EVER get into a survival situation" mentality, one might not be a big fan bushcraft-type stuff.

Unless you want to modify/clarify your statement, I'll have to ignore anything and everything you say about survival/bushcraft techniques, as to me you appear biased beyond your control. When you speak in such absolutes, I have not much choice otherwise

(Please, though, don't do anything on my account. Really. You really ought to just allow me to die, unfettered…)

[Jake D]

I wonder how many bushcrafters live in similar homes and drive giant SUVs only to go and destroy the woods set aside to be left alone. If you want to go play caveman then you should stick to private land with permission of the landowner. Hacking down trees to build a temporary shelter is absurd.

I find modern bushcraft to be an excuse for people to play dress up and carry around large knives and guns and pretend they are far more hardcore than they actually are. I liken it to Preppers and the stupid bunker people. Zomg the zombies are coming.. give me a break.

You can learn emergency skills on private land or at your house. you don't need to pretend to be in an emergency situation as a matter of course. I find learning to avoid bad situations is much more helpful than planning on being in one. If you end up in a bad survival situation by all means throw out the rulebook and do what you need.. but you don't need to do that on a weekly basis for fun.

[James holden]

one could say the same about most other intrawebbers ..

excuse to spend money on cool gear you rarely use, and thinking youre some thruhiker because you have a sub 10 lb pack … when youre really having issues with an overnighter because you arent using the gear properly

or carry around a nice shinny new double rack of cams and yack about how the latest and greatest gear will allow you to send … when in reality you are climbing that 5.6 that those old geezers didnt bother to protect

or ride around those shiny new carbon bikes bragging about how it will make you faster when reality you are 40 lbs overweight, dont try very hard … and some 8 year old kid on a BMX is faster than you …

i bet tons of BPLers live in homes and drive SUVs ;)

[Vince Contreras]

"Hacking down trees to build a temporary shelter is absurd."

Jake, when you state this, it sounds to me like "seeing the forest for the trees," something one should not be wont to do. The fact is, much of this country's forest could use some disturbance, and could benefit from ground fuel reduction.

(I live out of the back of my 1979 Toyota Hilux.)

[robert van putten]

Jake,
I agree –

Learning to avoid bad situations in the first place is probably the most valuable “survival” skill of all! Ain’t no doubt about that at all.

And of course your own back yard is the place to practice wilderness skills before you need them – Learning to set up your tent, learning tarp pitches, cooking a hot an nourishing meal outside in inclement weather, fire starting techniques, sleeping under the starts to check if your sleep system is warm enough, this can all be learned in the back yard – If you have one, anyway…

I practice on my own 40 acres, and on the timberlands that surround my home. Horrifyingly, much of this area gets clear cut now and then, leaving behind a terrible mess. It’s quite heart breaking to see a fine forest that I used to hike in completely destroyed. Last year an entire south facing mountainside near my cottage was largely clear cut. Now the soils will dry out from lack of cover, erosion will take t’s toll, and it is sad to think how long this exposed area will take to recover. Not again in my life time will I see those slopes covered with a healthy forest.

But these are private timberlands, and I guess folks need wood for houses to live in. No way around it, we humans have a terrible impact upon this planet.

I do what I can to reduce my impact. We live in a small straw bale cottage that my wife and I built with our own hands. It is made of trees cut from my land and grass bailed nearby, concrete processed less than 40 miles away, and well, steel roofing, glass windows and gypsum plaster hauled in from who-knows-where.

We raise much of our own food, and I don’t care what anyone says, hunting for meat has far less impact than feed lot beef. I even cast my own bullets from salvaged wheel weights…
We don’t have running water, and we use an outhouse. For a living I work with municipal water and waste water systems, and the impact of municipal waste water systems is truly horrifying.
No way I want to be a part of that. There isn’t a river in this country that isn’t used as an open sewer. I am an avid canoeist and I have seen the impact with my own eyes.

We are off grid, relying upon a small solar array for what little electricity we use, heat only with wood, and I drive a junker 1991 Ford Festiva that gets close to 50 miles per gallon. If one includes the carbon sequestered by my healthy 40 acres of timber land, we actually have a negative carbon footprint!

But yeah, I think nothing of taking my nephews into the forests and clear cuts, and camping, and these timber lands are an ideal area for teaching the next generation the various “wilderness skills”.
I find it interesting how Nick Gatel writes how he knows “all this stuff” yet will deny the next generation the chance to learn the same skills?

And why is it that folks automatically assume that “bushcrafting” involves the destruction of live trees in public parks and the like?
Maybe I live under to big a rock, and I do not hike in national parks, but I have seen very little evidence of “bushcrafting” on public lands.
I can think of only two debris huts I’ve come across over the years. Who cares if some kids play at piling up debris from the forest floor? It will not last long, and the kids had fun playing.

Of course, I often come across a real mess at public camp grounds….Half burned trash, huge chunks of partially burned logs, scarred trees, the list goes on and on.
This is why I teach my nephews, so they will know how to build a proper cook fire and will never leave behind piles of charred logs or try and burn green wood, and I’d tan their hides if they leave trash lying about!
But maybe the only real point of contention here is the use of the term “bushcraft”. It’s a fairly new term to me, and it seems to have real negative connotations with some folk?

[josh wagner]

^^^^^^^^ setting the bar

[Author]

Posts