Wilderness adventures

Tweet

a few weekends ago, my girlfriend and I spent some time wandering the wilds of the forest near where I live. Most of it was spent hiking and exploring, but we decided we were going to camp out there for at least one night on the 4th of July. We took only a few basic food stuffs, a blanket, a few survival supplies and some water. At the chosen spot, hidden in a very thick part of the forest, we built a shelter to sleep in. I put up 8 poles in a teepee form, she came up with the idea to wind some rope around it so we could weave pine boughs in to it. She gathered and wove most of them herself (she's a regular survivor-girl). While hiking up in to the forest, we ran in to a guy I knew who had some property down below where we would be camping. He invited us down that night for a cook out, bon fire and fireworks at their camp. So late the evening, we left our camp site and wandered down for the festivities (about a 40 minute hike). It was a great time, had a few beers, some chedderwurst, enjoyed the bonfire. Then the rain came. My friend quickly set off the fire work display before it got too bad. But by the time it ended, we were drenched. Too drenched to even consider staying out there for the night. So, we hiked back to our site in the dark in the rain and gathered a few of our belongings before my friend showed up with his 4 wheeler to give us a ride back down to the road. What struck us though, was how dry everything in the shelter was. Gotta admit, it was really well made. In fact, because of our location under a thick forest canopy, even the area outside the shelter wasn't that badly soaked. The irony being if we had just stayed at the site to begin with, we would have been dry, warm and comfortable. All in all, it was a great experience. I am what you could call a survival enthusiast. I have a great interest in primitive survival and bush crafting skills. This was a gret way to practice some of that and get out in to the solitude of the forest. .........and.....why yes.....that is a Narwhal sitting on the outside of the shelter, it joined us for the excersion.