I brought a backpack containing my Gransfors-Bruks small forest axe, a Mora #510 Carbon Steel knife, a stainless steel cup, some powdered milk, instant coffee and sugar, some string, a steel kettle, my ferrocerium striker rod, a sliver of fat wood, and a wool blanket.
I saw a few mushrooms on the way down the path into the valley.
The one above is a polypore - don't know what one.
These were beautiful mushrooms, growing out of a dead trunk.
I need to take out my mushroom book and figure out what these are. They look edible. I'll bet that they are.
The stream was rushing.
Farther and farther along I trekked, with a walking stick in hand.
The flat valley bottom shows fields where the deer live.
I looked carefully and didn't see any deer.
I did see a pair of Mallard ducks, fishing in the rapids.
I had hoped to see Salmon jumping, and wandered up and down the gravel beach to see if I could see any in the depths.
Nope. I saw no Salmon. Just the two very busy Mallard ducks.
They seemed to be nibbling on algae that was growing on the stones.
Perhaps they were going for grubs that anchored themselves to the stones.
Or maybe - just maybe - they were hiding out and waiting to ambush the Salmon. Not likely, though.
So I wandered into the pine woods.
I put down the blanket and sat for a little. In the picture above, you can see my cup, kettle, chair, axe, sliver of fatwood, bags of sugar, coffee and milk powder, the $2 knapsack and the $4 wool blanket that I bought from Value Village (a thrift-shop in Canada).
Wandering nearby, I cut down several dead-standing saplings - rotten at the bases. I trimmed off the little branches and soon I had a pile of poles.
I lashed a ridgepole to two strong trees, and attached it with some string that I found laying around the woods.
I pulled a piece of rope half-buried under the leaf litter, and pulled apart the constituent threads to find more cordage.
I tied vertical, leaning poles to the ridgepole and tied them firmly off.
With quick knots, I attached my wool blanket firmly to the framework.
I lay down underneath and relaxed for a while, eating a biscuit. I decided against having a fire, so never used the kettle or cup. But it was fine, and nice and warm where I was.
After a while I got up, and walked on home.
Cheers,
Mungo
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