Discovering journaling

Today is a nice warm, sunny day. I figured it would be a good day for finding tracks, so I went for a little walk.

Just in the woods around the house I came across the tracks of red squirrels, rabbits, a very small bounding critter, and a few different sets of canine tracks. What struck me was the absence of deer—they were around not very long ago, maybe last month, but today not a sign. Could they have eaten all of whatever it was drawing them here?

I headed down the road to the hardwoods, really just to get out of the house for a while. More squirrel tracks, this time grays, and more tracks from tiny little animals. For some reason, however, I don't find tracks from these very little creatures very interesting right now. I should figure out why that is....

Anyway, before long I came across a trail with abundant canine tracks, and for some reason—maybe snow conditions—found ID'ing them quite difficult. I'm still not sure whether they came from red foxes, coyotes, or neighborhood dogs. There was definitely more than one animal, and they might have been of different species. Different sized tracks with different strides right next to and on top of each other is what was confusing. Mother coyote with juvenile(s)? Red fox? Both at different times? Neither? Bah, who knows.
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Yesterday I made myself a little journal. Journaling is something I've read and been told is important for a long time, but I never made a habit of doing it. My reasons why were somewhat varied—taking notes is something I've never really done, even in school, and I never had a "good" journal to use—but when it comes down to it I was making excuses.

I'd been considering journaling more seriously for the past few months, but kept telling myself I didn't have a good enough journal. I wanted something that was big enough to write in comfortably but small enough that I wouldn't need to put it in a bag. I don't really like the idea of carrying around a big spiral notebook around for some reason. Considered buying a nice leather journal around Christmas, and then again yesterday, but really didn't want to pay $20-$40 for one. So I made something that I thought would work.

What I ended up with is pretty decent, not perfect. I'd like it a little bit bigger for writing purposes, but it easily fits in a (cargo) pocket. And we'll see how the cardboard holds up....

What I did was simple:

1. Took 12 sheets of plain white paper and cut them in half
2. Once cut, I folded those sheets in half—the result is 96 plain white pages that measure ~5 x 4 in.
3. Used some recycling center–bound cardboard to make a cover, this from a shoebox—RocketDog is apparently a women's shoe company, but the logo looks kind of cool and was perfectly sized so I don't care
4. Pushed holes through the paper and the cover, and then "sewed" some thread through to keep it all together
5. Added a length of milkweed cordage I had around as a bookmark/closure strap.

I only made it yesterday, but already I'm starting to see the importance of journaling first hand. I think as long as I keep it with me I'll use it plenty. Why I didn't do this months/years ago, I have no idea.

In praise of natural materials

This is a weird post for me to do (in my own opinion) because it's contrary to my habits. I'm not a "gear junky," don't do or particularly care for reviews, I'm averse to brand-loyal fanboyism, and frankly I don't care who uses what. But I've still been considering making this post for a while, so I'm just going to do it. I'm happy with what I've been using and want to give my take.

If this post is promoting any brand, it's Military Surplus Wool specifically, and Military Surplus more generally. In my experience, milsurp stuff is often the best bang for the buck. People always point out that there are competing or better values from the "civilian market," but here's my take on it: since military gear is uniform—that is, it's the same and there is a lot of it made—it's very easy to find. It might be possible to find similarly priced, quality civilian gear on eBay, but in my experience, if you're looking for a specific piece it's much harder to find. (I'm not going anywhere important with this....)

Until last winter I'd never really thought about my clothes at all—not from a fashion standpoint, not from a function standpoint. My wardrobe was essentially t-shirts and jeans, top to bottom, with some flannel shirts thrown in. It was all black, shades of gray, navy blue, with a few other colors slipping in. At some point I realized that I didn't really have any good clothes for being in the woods.

I've now put quite a bit of thought into my clothing choices. I went from owning zero pieces of wool clothing (socks excluded) to having several shirts and two pairs of pants. It went from an almost monochromatic color-scheme that wasn't fit for blending into the woods to now being made up of about 50% greens and browns. That thought I've put into my clothes has paid off, I think. I've ended up with (frankly) more than I need, and I didn't spend a ton of money on it all, either.

Another winter fire

Wednesday was a long walk filled with deer, but yesterday was a shorter walk with reaching a fire-building location in mind. I wanted to go out, get a little fire built, and just relax in the snow for a while. And I did just that.

It wasn't much trouble, but did take two attempts. After the first light the fire burned for about two minutes, but my kindling wasn't catching. I gathered a bit more from a nearby hemlock and tried again. I used some pitchwood, waxed jute twine, and a ferro rod once again. The pitchwood was perhaps unnecessary because as soon as the fine branches from the hemlock touched flame they were up in a matter of seconds. That said, this combination of tinders (pitchwood and waxed jute) is a good one to have in wet and cold weather (works good in rain/when wet), or at any time as a backup. I keep them in my fire kit.

I've now built two fires alone this winter, and helped build two others as part of a group. Winter fires aren't as intimidating as they might seem; in fact, my general opinion on many outdoor skills is that they aren't so much hard as they just require some practice. It's just a matter of doing it. Knowledge of the trees around you, and knowledge of the place in general, are invaluable.

With all of that said, even though I think I might have winter fires figured out I'll continue to practice making them. Fire is another one of those things that I'll probably never learn enough about. Twenty years might go by, and even though I'll definitely learn a lot I bet I still won't know all of the intricacies, subtleties, and secrets of fire. It will always keep some of its mystery for itself, and will always remain enchanting.

And I believe fire has much to teach about other things, as well. You can learn much about the woods simply by practicing your fire-making skills in different environments. There is so much to learn about how different woods burn, where and when and how to gather different materials ... the list could go on much longer I'm sure. (There's also a lot of invisible learning as you go through the woods.) That's why fire is always one of my advised skills to practice, especially for those who are new to the woods. You can never learn too much and you'll always learn more.

Deer in winter

Real Winter™ has been pretty elusive this year, but in the last week it's been here in good form. Right where I am there is about a foot of snow on the ground, and the temperature has remained in the teens and 20s. We've had a few really beautiful days, but all have been good. I've been out during most of them, for at least a good walk.

Not far outside my door.

On Wednesday I decided to take a nice, long walk, in one of my favored spots. I started out following my cat's tracks until they intersected with those of a dog. It looked like my cat then started jumping in and out of the dog's tracks. As they diverged, I followed the dog's out near the road, and then parted ways. I got across the road and into the field, then just kind of picked a direction and went with it. Last winter I followed some coyote tracks to a deer carcass in the area, so I headed in that direction to see if I could find their tracks again. I did not, so instead I just started following the deer trails. At one point I thought to myself It would be nice to see some deer today.

New winter things

It seems like every personal blog on the internet has a post that's like "Sorry I haven't posted so long!" I kind of started to forget that I made this/the reason I made it to begin with became obsolete. I started working with what can only be called a "nature connection" school, and since the people I've been working with have become a big part of my life I've had them to share my experiences with. Actually, a lot of my experiences have been with them. This summer I had kind of hoped to start following others and actually become some part of outdoorsy-folk blog network, but it didn't happen and I haven't felt a real need for it lately.

So with that out of the way I'm just going to make a few posts in the next few days.

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We've had an incredibly mild winter so far, but it's been nice to get out on days when we've actually had some snow accumulation. One day last week I had the urge to get out and do some stuff I really haven't done much of, some of it not at all. So I went out for a nice leisurely walk, visited some land I hadn't been able to see since about September, made myself a little fire, melted some snow, brewed some cedar/hemlock tea, and just relaxed. It was nice to get out just to do some simple stuff like that. And I learned that if you let your snow get smoky, the water is going to taste smoky as well. Wood choice has something to do with that as well, I suspect.

I haven't had a lot of chances to get out in the winter to try making fires, but so far I've found that it really isn't much of a problem. The only really noticeable differences from making fires in the other three seasons seem to be these: tinder availability and wood selection. All of the dried grasses, which are usually one of my go-to tinder sources (most of my fires are started either by friction or with a ferro rod), are covered up, as is much of the fuel-sized firewood. The fire I made that day was started using a ferro rod—sparked into some waxed jute twine and igniting birch bark. A good fire-starting tinder can be carried with you to get around many problems. Of course, had I used a match or lighter, I would have been set with birch bark. (One can, and I have, started birch bark with a spark, but it takes a little extra prep that I couldn't be bothered to do.)

In my walks I've been happy to see tracks pretty much everywhere. Places I walked regularly during the spring, summer, and fall are now dotted with tracks from various animals. I find tracks (and tracking) fascinating and wonderful, but so far it's been one of those things I've had motivation difficulties with. Often times I see a track, study it a bit, try to figure out who left it, perhaps I'll take a picture, and then move on. For whatever reason I've yet to get to the point where I'm measuring, journaling, drawing tracks. Hopefully I can motivate myself to delve deeper soon. And hopefully we'll be able to keep some snow around for it! For now, I'm glad I'm noticing them—my awareness has definitely expanded in this area.

I'm definitely not a master tracker.

On my walk yesterday I had the humbling experience of being reminded that I know almost nothing of the art of tracking. I took a walk in the area I last posted about, which was almost two weeks ago. Immediately when I got there I was noticing some footprints—and after short study I realized that some were mine and some were from other people.

The strange thing was that my foot prints, which were just over a week and a half old, looked much fresher than I would have thought they were. If I hadn't known the tracks and when they were made I would have guessed they were only a few days old. I thought about it and realized we'd only gotten rain once, maybe twice since I made them. They'd just held up very well.

One of my prints from my previous visit.

Rain

Something I meant to do more of beginning in the spring, and for the most part have failed to do, is scout out some areas on state forest land to do some deer hunting. I'm new to deer hunting but it's something I really want to do. Last year, and it'll probably be the same this year, I spent the first week of rifle season in Alpena county—and then I didn't even get out during the second week.

This year I'd like to get out almost every day during rifle season. I bought a recurve bow this summer, I've been shooting it, and even though I will continue to shoot it I'm not sure whether I'll be confident enough to hunt with it. What I'm thinking of doing is buying a combination license and at least sitting around with a bow to see if any deer walk close enough to think about shooting. We'll see.

Anyway ... I went out the other day to scout one of the areas I thought would make a good hunting area. This area is near a swamp but the forests are pretty varied. I think I've found a few spots that might be OK, but I'll have to check them out some more.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the area has been (essentially) become inaccessible to motor vehicles, which means it hasn't seen much human traffic since the last time I was there (in June).

I found coyote tracks and deer tracks (and, as seen below, many times right next to each other), but no car or human tracks. If it remains mostly unvisited I'll definitely think about hunting the area.

This was a strange find. It looks like a crayfish claw—but where did it come from?

The weather was nice when I left the house. I wasn't expecting it to change, but I was wrong.

A pretty heavy downpour hit me on the bike ride home. I saw the clouds moving in and decided to try to "beat" the rain, but I actually just made sure I'd be stuck in it. A mile or so from home it basically stopped, but by then I was throughly soaked and cold.

"Survival trip"

I haven't done much posting about wandering, I've realized. I'll get back to it eventually.

Last Friday I went on what my buddy Matt kept calling a "survival trip"—the idea being that we just go out with (more or less) nothing for a night and just practice skills. He brought just the clothes on his back and I think he was a little bummed that Clay (the other guy who came with us) and I brought knives. I also brought water, which was frowned on. My bad. (And a blanket, which I didn't use.)

We basically started trying to get a fire going right away. And failed. For hours. The hand drill stuff we had just wasn't working out.

Some nice big blood blisters to show for my efforts.

Sand Lakes Quiet Area

I didn't do a whole lot of wandering while I was out there but I got some in. We were out there from mid-afternoon last Monday until about mid-afternoon on Wednesday. It was mostly a good time but there was a lot of stuff getting me down too. I'm trying to let it go.

Mostly pictures today.

Bountiful blueberries?

 

Not really. Not on Tuesday at least. When we went to the UP a few weeks ago, in the beginning of August, I think the berries were about a week out of prime—but the beautiful thing was that you could find them pretty much anywhere. Two years in a row we've went down a random two-track in the UP and came home with a decent supply of blueberries.

We get them in the lower peninsula too, but they don't seem to be as prolific. Brambles tend to be the most common berries around here.

A few belated pictures from last weekend's UP trip

I went to Muskallonge Lake State Forest campground last weekend with my entire immediate family and our grandfather. We only stayed for three days but they were good days. Personally I would have preferred to camp in a more private and totally "rustic" setting, but it was still pretty good—despite having to walk a few hundred yards to an actual toilet every time I had to pee.

I didn't post these last week because I was mad about breaking my camera while we were up there (busted the screen), and also because there aren't really any wilderness-related shots. I just uploaded them to my computer though and decided I could throw a few up. Not much commentary.

There was a bear ranch somewhere outside of Newberry. From what I understand most of the bears are rescued, which is pretty cool, and they all looked happy (if hot!). This was after we started picking cherries and throwing them in.

A Copper Beech(?), Some Berries and a Track

Saturday was a day for berries. We collected a pretty decent amount of raspberries, black raspberries, mulberries and serviceberries.  We wandered around quite a bit just exploring too, and made some decent discoveries.

Can't tell in the picture, but this bush had some big raspberries on it—like store-bought size. Personally I had a hard time even believing there were berries on it; it was a bush right on the trail, but apparently nobody wanted them! People!

Check Out This Spider!

I just ran outside for a minute to see if this plant was Queen Ann's Lace or yarrow and sitting atop it was this white and red spider. I've never seen anything like it before and initial internet searches aren't turning up anything.

It was hard to get a good picture of it because the breeze kept blowing the flower around (and I'm using a 6-year-old point-and-shoot and I'm not a photographer to begin with) but I think I got a few decent ones. When the wind blew it did this crazy thing with its front legs like it was having trouble holding on.

EDIT, two minutes later: It looks like it's called a goldenrod crab spider and can actually change colors from white to yellow and back. They do exactly what you're probably thinking: lay in wait on a similarly colored flower and then ambush unsuspecting prey. They will also imitate flowers. There were actually other bugs around and I was waiting for/hoping to see it lunge at one of them, but no such luck.

(Michigan) Tree Books

I've considered myself an "outdoor enthusiast" or whatever for a few years now, but only since last fall have I really began to feel quite aware of my surroundings. In that time I've also felt my connections with what's around me grow.

It's a little embarrassing to admit that even as recently as this spring I simply didn't know much about trees; I knew maples from oaks, beeches, birches, white and red pines, and as of a maybe a year ago hemlocks and cedars. So the last six months or so have been an explosive time as far as learning trees goes. I could try to list all of the trees I now know by sight and it would be pretty long, and I'm sure I'd forget some, but I don't know them all—not even close.

In the last two months or so I've been looking over different tree books, and all have helped me to some extent.

During the winter I spent about $30 on field guides of different subjects. I was buying on a budget to so I didn't exactly get the most helpful ones available. As far as trees went, I bought a book called Trees of the Great Lakes Region by Steve Harrington for $7.95. It's 192 pages, pocket sized, and includes a pretty good array of species with hand drawn black and white pictures mostly of leaves, sometimes including twigs and buds.

It's helped me identify quite a few trees—sometimes just helping me distinguish between different species withing a genus, other times helping me with trees that were totally new to me. The images are somewhat lacking I guess, but they aren't bad. The book includes a key, but it's rather limited and hasn't helped me with identifying anything I don't think.

Overall, however, I feel like it's a decent book for what it is. Its small size make it nice for when I don't want to carry a bigger book around with me, and it still has pretty good descriptions of each tree's characteristics as well as its habitat and common traits.

Wandering Around Ellis Lake

Ellis Lake is an area I used to go pretty often but that I haven't been to in almost three years. I don't know why I haven't, either; I guess I just have been more likely to wander closer to home. It's about a 15 minute bike ride, which isn't bad by any means, but I guess I just haven't felt like making it.

Ellis Lake itself is a relatively small lake (by Michgan standards), but surrounding it are a network of small streams connecting other, smaller lakes/ponds. There is also a network of trails, many of which are traveled mainly by folks on horses (no horse tracks today though—some deer and shoe'd-human tracks on the main trail). The forest is mostly a good mix of hardwoods—some areas seem to be oak dominated while others maple, but with many ashes, ironwoods, aspens, white pines, and near the wet areas cedars, hemlocks and birches. Today I wanted to check out the state of the cattails, and I know there are a ton on one of the smaller lakes, so Ellis Lake it was, after almost three years.

Right next to the spot where I dropped my bike and removed my bike shoes I spotted a little container under a log. If you're familiar with what it is it's probably a pretty common sight for you:

Introduction Post

I feel weird making another blog. Not too weird, but weird—and here I am, drinking a beer and petting my cat and uploading pictures and making a blog.

Introduction posts are weird and I'm not sure anyone ever reads them but I'll do a short one.

This blog is something I've considered for a while. I like wandering around in the woods. I believe it's also human nature to want to share our experiences. Since I don't have a lot of friends, and only a handful of friends who are into the same things as I am (namely wandering around the woods), I'm hoping to share experiences with the innerbutts. There is no replacement for real human contact, but I can understand why people try.

When I wander I often look at/for: trees, edible plants, plants that have other uses, animal tracks and signs, and anything else that's interesting to me. I try to listen to bird language and try to spot wildlife. If I don't scare them off I try to stalk closer to them. I'm usually not that good at it but it's exhilarating nonetheless.

I'll try to keep posts interesting. I'll try to keep some pictures in them, because people like pictures. I'll try to do them often, too; I wander around often enough so I should be able to post almost as often.