I take each day as given...

In my current life, I don't use an alarm clock (usually), but wake when my body tells me to.  Or sometimes when my mind tells me to.  I lay there half awake and my mind starts the morning todo list.  Sometimes the listing wakes me fully and I roll out of bed and head upstairs to greet the day.  First stop is to the cookie jar, a good morning treat for the cat and dog who own us.  Next, is the coffee machine, then the computer.

I have always been an early riser, so my mornings are usually starting around sunrise, sometimes a little before, sometimes a little after.  Today, the windows were just starting to glow with a little brightness, but you could tell there were clouds up above you.  As the computer came to life and I logged on to the day, I saw that we had another winter advisory on the weather site my browser is bookmarked to.  More snow.  Yipee...

The last few winters have been fairly mild here near the bay in Maryland, but this year we were experiencing a number of named winter storms (they name winter storms now) that have traveled through our area, piling just a little more snow on the last few storms' snow.  It has all mostly fallen crisp and soft as the temperatures had stayed below freezing for a number of days in a row, but had turned to a hard crust with some near thaws and refreezes at night.  Another layer was arriving.

I worked a couple of hours on some museum task and looked outside to see more flakes falling.  Ginger came in to see if I was interested in taking her for a walk, so we headed out to our beloved nearby woods.  As I mentioned in my post about Schramm's Woods, this place has become magical for me.  I really enjoy walking on the trails in this small 11 acre plot.  It is always calming for me.

Ginger is looking for Mr Fox

We crunched through the snow along the trail and headed towards the campsite on Homeless Trail.  The flakes were ranging from small specks of snow to large clusters of flakes and was falling through a windless morning.  We continued on and did the Schramm Trail and found ourselves it the field edge where the foxes climb under the fence.  I stood still and just stared into the forest, looking for movement, but mostly listening to what I could hear.  Ginger checked for fox smell and wandered about.

There was some bird warbling in the woods.  I didn't recognize the species, but it was soothing.  Next a Blue Jay started calling from the tallest branch on the tallest tree along the fence line of the field.  He kept shouting his name over and over, waiting for another to answer and before long, one does.

Tallest branch of the tallest tree

We continue along on our walk.  Moving along the edge of the field to the top of Hill Trail. We head down the hill and start heading out of the woods.  As we exit the woods, I hear a Blue Jay (the same one? maybe another) shouting his name again and again.  I look to the tallest branch on the tallest tree in the area, but he is not there.  I try to find him in the surrounding trees, but he is elusive.

Heading up the hill

We follow the streets home that have already acquired a new coat of white and head inside, where it is warm and dry and I reflect on the walk.  I think we both enjoyed the walk, we always do.  It is March 1st and it is snowing, but that is ok.  I take each day as given and always try to find the good things that are part of every outside thing.

LLAP,
EarthTone

Woods, Trails and Maps

Back when we were kids, my brother and I used to spend a good deal of time up our cousins' house.  My Mother's brother had moved away from the city in the late 60s and bought four acres of land on the county line between Lawrence and Beaver.  One of the things we liked to do, when visiting, was walk the trails on the top of their property in a woodsy area.  We would draw maps of the network of trails with pencils and I still remembering labeling the Creek as "Crick".  That's just how we said it so that was how I wrote it.  

Each time I make a trip home, I usually find myself up on the third floor, passing through the closet door into the craw space of the attic.  I look through the boxes up there as if I am looking for buried treasure.  Some times I find good things, sometimes it is just part of the stuff that a family gathers as it goes through time and life.  I hope to one day find one of my hand drawn maps.  Tucked away in a box somewhere in that magical attic.   Until then, I will have to draw a map of the trails near our house in Schramm's Woods.  I have been spending lots of time in those woods these days, walking Ginger and enjoying this little bit of woods.  It feeds my soul to walk in the woods.

At  almost every place we have lived since I left PA and those childhood trails, we have found a copse of nearby woods, that usually have a trail or three, where we have walked our dogs and ourselves through the years.  When duty meant it was time to pull up roots and pack up the house and move to wherever they were sending us.  We would find a place to walk.  Sometimes it would be the urban streets of Staten Island and the little getaway island off the tip of Manhattan named GI, other times it would be the grassy balds in the Marin hillsides of California.  In the three different places we have lived here in Maryland, there has been a nearby woods with trails, that we walked on.

Schramm's Woods is the name of the woods near this latest of houses.  The Schramm's came here I think in the later 1800's and bought the land where I sit now and some couple hundred acres surrounding me.  They grew prize cantaloupes and gladiolas and eventually they raised a whole bunch of smelly turkeys.  When we moved to this current house in 2005, the once huge farm had been mostly converted to a housing development named Farmington Village.  The farmers, had a nice house and barn built on the northern corner of their property and planted some orchards.  They had a few fields still and they would sell their goods at a little market just outside their house.  They would only do it until about 2007 and then they let the field go fallow and closed the market.  I guess they got too old and all their kids had moved on.

So shortly after we moved here, we found the entrance to the woods at the end of one of the numbered streets of our neighborhood.  The woods were about an 11 acre copse of woods with a field on the western side of the woods.  This piece of land now belonged to the county school district.  I guess there was once a plan to build a school there, but it never happened.  There was a paved path that ran from our neighborhood over to the Farmington neighborhood that was used by kids walking to the nearby middle school that sat to the north of us.  That path skirted the edge of the woods, the rest of the network ran north and west towards Mountain Road.  Some of the trails were there when we discovered the place, others we would develop ourselves, as we expanded our exploration of the place.  Most would be "improved" by young overzealous quad riders, who needed to widen the trail for their four wheelers.  So the network grew and developed over the next ten years.  I have grown very close to the woods myself.

My drawing of my latest favorite woods

When we first started walking the woods, it was a rough rectangle of four trails.  In the middle of that small network was a kid build shack.  It was pretty big, and we never really checked it out until it was destroyed.  I don't remember the details.  One day it just went from shack to pile of rubble, to scattered rubble to now, just dirt, some stumps and a few boards.  Nature took back the land.

As I walked the trails with Lisa and Ginger (twice a day at least, the dog insists), I started to give each distinct trail a name.  I picked the names for various reasons, but each name is meaningful.  At least to me they are.  

There is Entry Trail.  The way in, where you break away from the paved path.  Entry leads you to the Traffic Circle.  Where three trails come together.  The quads like to do small circles here and hence the name was born.

I always turn left here.  I started walking that way when I was carrying urbanite to my campsite and in my head it was the shortest route until I could drop the rocks.  Eventually, it became the way to start our walk.  So that trail is named Pine Tree, because it leads to... wait for it... a pine tree.  There are many pine in this forest, most of them are tall skinny branch-less trunks with the needles up near the top, where the sun still shines.  This tree is like a big Christmas tree that is full top to bottom and about 20 feet tall.  

To the left of the tree leads Farmington Trail.  That is where the Boys (playmates of Ginger) come from.  Ginger always checks this trail first for signs of the Boys.  She likes to play with them.  To the right is Field trail, which runs along the field which used to grow pumpkins, but now just grows locust, sumac and broom sedge.  Halfway along this trail the old dilapidated fence opens to the field.  Sometimes we go into the field where the dogs play tag with each other.  From time to time the local hooligans would bring furniture to the field to make their hanging out more comfortable.  It is quite a sight.  The broom sedge also makes it easy for the field to periodically blaze up from someones deliberate act or carelessness.  I think it has burned two or three times since we have lived here.  Luckily it has been extinguished fairly quickly, but the first time the fire entered the woods for about 100 feet.  

Also at this opening is where Paintball Trail heads across the forest to the east.  At the end of Field Trail you come to another junction.  Hill trail heads down the slight incline that gives it its name and straight ahead is Pink Lady Slipper Trail.  Just as you start this trail, Homeless Trail forks off to the left and winds towards my little campsite.  The campsite is where a homeless man had pitched his old leaky tent when he lived there for a few weeks one summer.  When he abandoned the place, leaving all his stuff, I took the site over and disposed of the old tent and blankets.  I have built a few primitive shelters here and have made a fire from time to time in the urbanite fire ring I made when I crave the flame.  

Home less leads back to Pink Lady Slipper Trail.  This trail has a couple dozen of those pretty flowers come up each spring and Ginger likes to smell them.  PLS Trail circles around, where Schramm's Trail heads north to their old road and the house and barn, and comes to a well established trail that has some bike jumps dug out of the soil.  There are also a number of large Hickory trees, so this trail is named Hickory Trail.  Hickory leads back toward the bottom of Hill Trail and this trail now becomes Oak Trail.  We also see the other side of Paintball Trail here.  This trail's name is evident by the log barricades and fox holes you see as you traverse the path in the middle of the woods.  The kids have had their battles here.  

Oak Trail leads back to the Traffic Circle and from there you can retrace your steps down Entry Trail back to civilization.  I really enjoy our times in these cool woods.  I look forward to each days visit.

Simple Woodcraft - The Day Two Blues

This month's article will focus on keeping the right mindset when you are on an extended backpack trip.  I'm not talking an overnighter or even a long weekend hike.  I'm talking a hike of at least a week with a lot of miles covered, ranging to more than 100 miles.

This is all about being an Outsider. 

I have done a few hikes that were a few days out and one that was more than a week.  This spring, my bride and I hope to do a two week or so hike on the Appalachian Trail starting on Springer Mountain, GA and finishing (hopefully) at Fontana Dam, NC.  All in all about a 175 mile hike. 

One thing I noticed during my extended hikes is what I call the Day Two Blues.  When I mentioned it to Lisa during our last hike, she recognized what I was talking about and had felt it too. 

As I have said quite a few times, I'm an obsessive planner and my latest obsession is the Appalachian Trail.  I am drawn to it every hour of every day and won't feel complete until after I have hiked a good deal of it (maybe all of it).  The first day of a hike is always full of excitement and adrenalin.  I can't wait to hit the trail.  I sleep poorly the night before as my gear list tumbles through my mind and I wait for the alarm to sound so we can get on the trail.

Once we start, the day is good, no matter what the weather.  It is the newness of the whole thing.  Every vista is pretty, every forest mysterious and every other hiker we meet is a friend.   Usually we get to our first camp in pretty decent shape.  It has been a good day of hiking, with a lot of sweating and some muscles that are complaining a little bit, but nothing too bad, usually.

After the first night in camp, Day Two starts.  It is likely that your sleep wasn't the greatest as you are adjusting to sleeping as an Outsider and those slight complaints of your muscles have grown into a cacophony of screams that are asking you what you did yesterday to make them so sore.

You pack up and head out, ready for some more miles before you can sleep again.  Usually after a few miles, the Blues set in.  Hiking can be a solitary experience.  It can be time for your mind to wander and meditate.  Even when you are hiking in a group or as a couple, there will be times when you are alone in the woods.  The Blues consist of a nagging feeling that makes you wonder why you are out here.  By now, your pains are progressing.  You may have worked out the stiffness, but the soreness lingers.  You may even be developing longer lasting pains, like a sore knee or foot.  You ask you self, do I really want to do this?  How you answer that question determines how the rest of your hike goes.

As I have said many times.  Your mind is your greatest weapon/tool when you are out in the bush.  It can also be your worst enemy if you fall victim to its musings.  The best answer is YES, I want to be out here.  I want to be hiking.  I want to spend time as an Outsider.  If you can get through Day Two, things will usually get better.  Your body starts to adapt to all you are asking it to do and your mind will clear itself and start to concentrate on the particulars of doing a long distance hike. 

Now that I have recognized this phenomenon, I will be better prepared to handle it.  Having my bride along with me will also give me someone to discuss these feelings with, so we can move on.

I call this the Day Two blues, but I'm pretty sure it can be a recurring instance.  During my eight day hike back in 2011, a few days after I survived the Day Two Blues, I felt an evening of loneliness that hit me rather hard.  It wasn't the first night I was alone overnight, but I had been gone for almost a week and I realized that I like being with my family.  Talking to other hikers is great, but when you are missing your loved ones, you need to find a way to move on from that situation too. 

The AT is a social trail.  There are many road crossings and many of those roads lead to a town where hikers and hiker friendly people can gather and relax.  Do laundry, take a shower, eat town food.  All of these things are rejuvenating and good for a hiker's mind. 

So how do you get over the Hiker Blues?  Make the day a day of wonder.  Check out the close up things.  Not every day will have a magnificent view.  I can feel a strong sense of wonder by watching a newt trying to cross the trail without being stepped on.  I can watch the water flow down a hillside as it tumbles from bolder to rock and pools under an overhanging tree.  The textures of tree bark give me hours of distraction.  Take pictures.  Take long breaks.  Give your mind time to recharge as you stretch your muscles and massage your feet.  Talk to other hikers or your hiking partners.  All will be good.  Enjoy being an Outsider.

So the best thing you can do is get through the day with the support you have and continue on.  That is why you have taken the time to get out into the woods and onto the trail.  Keep your attitude positive and you will be successful.  Get out there and hike and beware the Day Two Blues. 

Simple Woodcraft - Outsider

When have you last spent time outside?  How long did you stay outside before returning to the comforts of the indoors?  What is the longest amount of time you have remained out-of-doors?

These are some of the questions I have been pondering lately as the frozen sleet ticks off the window and I feel all warm and fuzzy being separated from that little gift of Mother Nature.

I like being outside.  Being in the outdoors just makes me feel more alive.  I can feel the breeze on my face.  Feel the openness that you can't get in a building.  It all just feels "right" for me.

In today's world, we don't spend a lot of time outdoors in the outside unless our job entails it or we specifically choose an activity that keeps us outdoors for a while.

A lot of people spend very little time outside.  They go from their cozy house to their vehicle, then walk quickly from the parking lot to their work building.  Reversing the process at the end of the day where they sit on their couch and watch some TV before hitting the nice warm bed and starting the whole process again the next day.

These type of people are not outsiders.

My job currently keeps me indoors for long periods of time.  I have to get myself out there whenever I can.  I try to get out each and every day, no matter what the weather is, even if it is just for a few minutes.

I try to be an outsider.

Long distance hikers are outsiders.  They spend days on end outside in the elements, experiencing everything nature throws at them.  After a while being outside becomes the norm.  You start to feel funny when you go indoors.  It doesn't take long to convert to being an outsider.
If you have the time, try to spend it outside.  It could be a walk around the block or on a trail in some nearby woods.  Maybe take a weekend camping trip where you leave modern conveniences behind and experience the sights, sounds, smells and senses of nature.  It could be a long backpacking trip, where you carry everything you need on your back as your travel miles and miles for a number of days.  Or it could be a six month long through hike of the Appalachian Trail or one of the other long distance trails that traverse our country. 

The weather of this planet is just a fact that comes from being on a piece of rock that rotates on a tilted axis as it revolves around our life giving star.  The different weather conditions that this situation creates are neither good nor bad, they just are.  I have learned to accept each type of weather as it comes.  It isn't too hot or too cold or too wet or too windy (although windy is my least favorite), it is just cold, or hot or wet or windy.  I accept it as a state of nature's being.  I revel in each of the different types and find the things I like about each.  They all confirm to me that I am alive and I reside on a living planet. 

The conditions that these weather patterns produce in your body are really just a state of being.  When you are in touch with nature, its weather and your body, you accept each of these conditions as just a state of being.  Neither is good nor bad.  Of course being aware of how your body is reacting to the weather is important so you can do what you have to to ensure your body doesn't fall outside safe thresholds that could cause problems.  The human is highly adaptable.  When things are a little uncomfortable, we have many ways to make ourselves feel better.  Knowing the basic skills of maintaining or shedding body heat are key.

So, become an Outsider.  You will find many rewards immersing yourself in nature and reaping all its benefits.

Simple Woodcraft - A Sense of Calm

Simple Woodcraft

By Joe Harold

 

Let's take a little hike:

As I enter the woods, a sense of calm washes over me.  My breathing slows.  My senses become more acute.  I can smell the leaves of the forest floor, the pitch of the neaby pine.  Any bit of movement is caught by my eye, be it a falling leaf, the swish of a grey squirrel's tail or the flash of a crows shiny black wings as it alights from its perch.  I can feel the breeze as it races across the field and filters into the woods.  Every chirp and song of the residents of these woods registers in my mind.  Robin, Blue Jay, Hawk.  I am a visitor here, but I am truly at home when I enter my woods.

I live in suburbia.  The woods I hang out in are a very small tract with houses and roads all around.  It is the remnant of a large farm that covered hundreds of acres back at the beginning of the last century.  The family that settled this farm have grown old and their children and grand children have all moved away.  Most of the acreage has been developed.  Large houses now stand where prize cantaloupes and Gladiolas were once grown.  These woods and a few fallow fields are all that remain of that once proud farm.  The woods at one time had been field so the trees are not very old.  A mixture of oak, pine, hickory, tulip poplar, holly and sassafras now grow here.  At the edge of the woods, where some older houses are, stand large oak trees that once marked the boundary.  They now beacon me into their depths.

I enter happily.

Ginger, my Golder Doodle is my constant companion in these woods.  She loves these woods and the freedom she is given to roam here.  We walk the trails for a bit and head to my personal space.  I'll make a fire while she chews on a deer bone she found along one of the paths.  She always faces down the trail, hoping to see her friends Prince and Hawk so she can play for a while.  Her favorite game is stick keep-away.  The field and the trails and all  in between are her playground. 

I consider myself the Steward of this small piece of woods.  I pick up the trash the careless bike riders leave behind and take care of the trails.  My sense of calm keeps me happy.

Feeling "at home" in the woods, no matter how large the tract stretches is key to having the proper state of mind.  If you are constantly fearful of the nasties, complaining about the weather, running from the bugs, starting at every sound in the dark, your survivability is suspect.  Try to not be that "visitor".  Try to accept all that you find there.  Make it work for you.  Try to find that Sense of Calm.

Simple Woodcraft - Improvise, Adapt, Overcome

Simple Woodcraft

By Joe Harold

First, an Introduction

I’m Joe Harold.  I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA and have been in the Coast Guard for over 29 years.  From the time I was very small my parents would pack up the station wagon and head for the woods.  I developed a healthy respect and devoted love for nature from that early age and now I spend as much time as I can in the bush getting my dirt time.  I have always loved camping and woodcraft.  Backpacking the Appalachian Trail is my latest obsession.  I learned early that cooperating with nature instead of trying to compete with it was the way to be successful and to have a good time in the woods. 

Simple Woodcraft is going to be a collection of my thoughts and experiences as I spend time in the woods.  I am by no means an expert.  I am not here to dictate the ONE way a thing is to be done.  Simple Woodcraft’s purpose is to virtually bring you along on a little hike with me.  Maybe start a fire and talk about the things that can be done out here, simply, that make being in the woods a positive experience.

So, come on along, let’s start our first little journey into Simple Woodcraft. 

Improvise, Adapt, Overcome

We have all heard this mantra.  It has been explained countless times by many people.  Here is my take on these great words of wisdom. 

When I first heard Gunny Highway rasp out these momentous words, I took heart.  They immediately felt right.  I found that these three words could sum up how to deal with just about every situation a person could encounter in the wild and I saw the potential for these ideas to work well with survival situations in particular.

You have probably also heard it said that the most important tool you can take with you into the bush is the one between your ears.  Applying improvisation and adaptability by using your brain will help you overcome any situation.

What is improvisation?  The definition is ‘To make or provide from available materials’.  It is simply taking things you have with you or around you and using them to accomplish the tasks needed to not only stay alive, but to be comfortable in your environment and to thrive.  Adaptability is simply changing your environment to fit your needs or your attitude to deal with your environment, so that you can be successful in staying alive.  To overcome is to find a way to make your current situation either better or at least bearable. 

The final goal is to always overcome.  You overcome your situation, you don’t beat nature.  Finding a way to work with nature and not against it is the trick to overcoming a bad situation.

I always try to have at least a few items with me at all times when I enter the woods that will help me improvise, adapt or overcome just about any situation.  At the very least I try to have a cutting tool and a means to make fire.  There are times though that you can unexpectedly be thrust into a survival situation with nothing at all.  Using that most important tool, your brain, which hopefully you can never leave behind, is what you will need to overcome. 

For me, as I improvise items at camp, my attitude improves greatly.  “My” forest is about eleven acres that are surrounded by housing developments.  There is no natural water flowing through these woods, but I really enjoy spending time here and practicing my woodcraft skills.  In these woods, there are really no natural rocks in the ground or on the surface.  I like to have a rock fire ring and also to build a nice reflector that blocks the prevailing wind and bounces that heat towards me.   People like to dump their yard waste at the edge of the forest and for some wise guy; a bunch of broken cement was considered yard waste.  I like to call it urbanite and it works fine as a fire ring/reflector. 

For me, adaptation is usually in my head.  I can make just about any situation better by going through a few mind exercises to align my attitude and make my situation better.  Keeping a positive attitude can’t be emphasized enough.  If you can see the bright side and the possibilities of any situation, you can overcome the obstacles that are in your way.  I never let weather get me down.  If I’m not dressed completely perfect and it is cold out, I will build a debris hut and snuggle down with the leaf litter to keep my core temperature where it needs to be.  Fire is always our friend.  I know you all have noticed how your spirits will raise up as you warm your hands over a nice crackling fire.  Not only is it a morale booster, but it is an integral part of keeping you alive, with a multitude of uses such as keeping you warm, sterilizing your water and cooking our food.  Fire should always be a top priority when you are in a situation that needs taking care of.

So, find a place to play in the dirt.  Remember to use what you have and what you can find to improvise and adapt your environment to what you need it to be, and you will overcome each time.  Just remember that without that “most important tool”, you may get yourself in trouble, so exercise it every chance you get.