Baxter State Park Trip: Part One

 The Baxter State Park Trip.  August 2014

My girlfriend Colleen, and I have been planning this trip all summer.
Colleen reserved a wooden lean-to campsite in the park.  In the lean-to next to us was a nice couple that we knew, and their son.  We were going to spend the weekend with this couple. My group, and the other couple were going to take turns preparing meals.  In preparing for the trip we had to figure out how to bug proof the lean-to.  We looked online for bug nets but they started at $29.00 for one net, and were small. One a whim we went to Maine Military Supply, and looked for a military surplus bug net, and found one large enough for the three of us for $15.00.  It was a good buy.

Packing:
I have done nothing but bushcraft/ survival camping for the past ten years until I meet Colleen.  The last trip I took with a lot of gear was when I was still young enough to be living at home with my parents.  So lets just say I was in shock that bordered on trauma when I had to pack all the stuff for the trip.  We had coolers, totes full of food, cameras, two Coleman lanterns, a Coleman stove, my bushcraft bag, two cast iron pans, an enameled dutch oven, a futon pad, blankets, and sleeping bags.  When I was packing, Colleen could tell I was over whelmed by all the stuff, and helped me pack it, and organize it.  Too honest she took over, and I was happy for it.  I did the lifting she told me where to put it, and it unstressed me.  We packed the Blazer from bottom to ceiling with half the passenger area folded down for extra cargo area.

Food:
One of the goals was for me to make bannock on the campfire, and cook as much on an open fire as possible.  I was largely successful the only thing I cooked on the Coleman stove was the baked beans, and smoked sausage, because everyone wanted hot food, and wanted it now.  I had made the baked beans, and sausage at home the night before, and reheated them on the Coleman stove.  Colleen who hates baked beans loved my beans, and ate heartily.  Colleen made awesome trail mix for us out of peanuts, mixed nuts, m&ms, and chocolate coated toffee candy, and I loved it.   Colleen made meatloaf and potato hobo meals, which I cooked them on the campfire in two cast iron skillets.  I made home fries with smoked sausage which we ate with eggs on the campfire in my cast iron skillets.  The other couple made chili one meal, deer meat another, bacon and eggs for a breakfast meal. We all ate well that trip.  You will notice I mentioned bannock at the beginning of the paragraph, but did not talk about it again since, well that is because I am saving it for another Learning From Failure blog entry.

Fire:

At Baxter they do not want you to bring your own fire wood, so they sell it to you.  This keeps you from potentially bringing in insects that could harm the forest.  The wood they sell is all cedar scraps from after they make the planks you walk on the wet parts of the trails.  A lot of the cedar was wet, and needed to be split to get at the dry wood inside.   I did not bring a hatchet (have not bought one yet), nor did the other couple.  I did bring my Becker BK2, and just batoned the kindling to expose the dry parts of wet wood.  My step son Sean took the Becker BK2 to the other couple, and put on a batoning clinic showing them how to turn logs into kindling with a fixed blade knife.  Sean loves the Becker BK2, and wants it for his own.  He turned logs into pencil sized kindling when he got bored.  I am going to give him the Becker BK2 when I can afford a Condor Knife and Tool Hudson Bay Knife to replace it.  The Condor is only $40, and the Becker BK2 is $75 he might be getting the better deal.  I used my Enzo Trapper, and Sean's Mora HQ Robust Knife to make feather sticks to help get the fire going better that.  I also gathered a lot of birch bark from dead trees on the ground and dried it.  I also batoned with both the Enzo Trapper, and the Mora HQ Robust.  They both have Scandinavian grinds and held up to the rough use, and were still sharp enough to make feather sticks.  I will do a review on the Mora HQ Robust knife another time.

The First Hike:
We hiked from the campsite to a nearby waterfall it was only .8 miles, but it seemed to have gone on forever until some one pointed out we had only been walking for ten minutes.  It made me think I am going to make some pace counter beads to help keep track of distance (ten beads is a kilometer).   We got to the waterfall, and it was beautiful.  There was a mist from the spray from the rapids upstream, and the waterfall below.  The water from the stream was ice cold, even colder than the ocean is right now in Maine.  It is painful until your feet go numb.  Colleen was rocking her new Tevas, and was not afraid to get them wet.  Colleen got some beautiful pictures of the waterfall.

Continued soon in Baxter State Park Trip: Part Two

I am trying to get caught up on my blog after being gone for a year, due to not having a computer.  I am trying to mix in a little bit of what is going on now, and what happened while I did not have a computer to write about it.   Until next time keep you knives sharp, and your powder dry.

Whats in My Bushcraft Kit: Cutting Tools.

I have mentioned before that I have an Enzo Trapper knife, and I consider this my primary cutting tool.  A primary cutting tool is the cutting tool you can least afford to be without, and for most people that is a knife.  I have mentioned that a Bahco Laplander saw was my secondary cutting tool and wanted a good hatchet as a tertiary cutting tool.  I have talked about the Laplander before in a previous blog entry and hatchets as well.  In this entry I am focusing on the Enzo Tapper and other knives I have used and like.

How the Enzo came to me

My Finished Knife

My Enzo Trapper came to me as a kit for me to assemble, for half the the price of a finished knife $89 from the Omaha Knife Store.  I received the blade, the screws, and scales.  I epoxied the handles on, and tightened the screws.  I waited 24 hours and then filed down the screws.  I then shaped and sanded the scales.  This knife after a few passes on a Japanese water stone is hair popping water stone it went from really sharp to hair popping razor sharp.  This is a wonderful knife for bushcrafting, but I carry a
Laplander saw to compliment it.  This knife was not intended to be a one tool option for me for bushcrafting.

Another knife I liked that I did not intend to be a one tool option was the Becker Necker BK11.  I loved the idea of the hollow handle survival knifes from the 80s.  I liked the storage idea of the hollow handles, but knives need a full tang for strength.  I came up with the idea of putting the survival kit on the sheath with ranger bands, this gave me a a strong knife with a tang and a survival kit.  I used a magnesium bar as a combustion device, included a needle, mono-filament line for threat/fishing line, led light, can opener, a compass, and two fish hooks. I had also included a small bag of one inch lengths of jute twine smeared with mineral oil for tinder.   This was an Every Day Carry item for me for a year and for bushfrafting I paired it with a tomahawk.  I loved this knife and the tomahawk not so much.  I should mention I beat the crap out of this knife batoning and it held up.  The handles (scales) came from Tomar's Kabars.

Squared of Spine

After Market Micarta Scales

The Becker Companion BK2 I bought to be a one tool option.  A one tool option must be able slice, chop, and baton.  This knife is a half inch thick.  Some people call it a sharpened pry bar.  This knife chopped better than the tomahawk.  This knife is my first choice as a one tool option for cutting.  I have used this knife more than any other and beaten the hell out of it.  I have batoned logs into boards for fire drill sets. I configured this knife as a survival knife like the smaller Becker BK11 Necker knife. I squared the back of the spine because it was to rounded to strike a spark on a ferrocerium rod. I included a small back up knife a Gerber dollar clip knife, and used a ferrocerium rod instead of the magnesium bar for fire starting. The handles were from Tomar's Kabars. The rest of the items were the same as what was on the BK11 knife kit I had made. I loved this knife, just like the other two I had previously mentioned.







These are all of the knife options that I have tried and really liked. I would love to try about some Moras and repost back on those. I would love to hear what you think, and what is working for you. Until next time keep your knives sharp and keep your powder dry.