Sharp Things Part 1: EDC

I love things that are sharp.  A cutting tool is probably the most important item to have on a hike or a paddle and cutting tools are very useful on a daily basis in civilization.  This is the first post of two about some of my favorite sharps that I EDC and/or carry on my adventures.  There is no one perfect tool for all situations, so that is why I carry several cutting implements.  Also, someone in my group always either forgets their knife or it is buried in their pack when we need it.  Everyone knows Nate always has one or two knives on him all the time!

First we will start with EDC.  EDC is every day carry.  I have flip flopped between three main types of tools.  These are Swiss Army Knives (SAK), multi tools, and locking folders.  I have carried combinations of these tools since I was old enough to carry a knife.  I even *gasp* carried my SAK to school in high school and college!  What would happen to me now in this day and age if I was caught carrying a blade in those places?

First lets start with SAK's.  I have the most experience with these as I have carried one since I got my first knife at 10 years old.  When I earned my Arrow of Light in Cub Scouts, mom and dad gave me a Boy Scout version of an SAK made by Imperial.  After a few years, they gave me a Victorinox Huntsman.  I carried this knife until I lost it my senior year of high school at a Lutheran youth convention in New Orleans.  Mom and Dad gave me another one just like it when I left for college.  The Huntsman has the best configuration of tools in a pocketable  package of all the Victorinox SAK's.  It features:  Large Blade, Small Blade, Scissors, Saw, Bottle opener, can opener, awl, corkscrew, and hook.  It also has the usual toothpick and tweezers.  Recently I have been carrying an SAK climber which has all of these tools except for the saw.  This has a little slimmer profile than the huntsman and it is a little easier to carry in my pocket.

For a few years, my SAK lived in my sock drawer while I carried a Gerber MP 400.  This tool was great and I could always find a use for the pliers.  All of the tools lock open which is very handy.  The blade is ok, but I am not a fan or serrated blades.  The scissors are excellent and the bottle opener, can opener and screwdrivers are all top notch.  Since I found the blade to be less than ideal, I started looking for a locking folder.

After much research, I settled on the Ka-Bar 4071.  This knife is very large and fits my hand well.  It has a slim profile and the pocket clip allows a small amount of the handle to show when clipped into a pocket.  The clip is very solid.  The blade shape is efficient, sharp and the spine is squared off allowing the use of a firesteel.  I have even batoned with this knife though care must be taken when doing so.  Sometimes the lock will fail when doing heavy batoning, causing the knife to close.  This knife was not designed for this kind of abuse, but it is good to know I can do it if I have to.  I carried this combination of tools for quite awhile.

However, I missed the extreme utility of an SAK and the multi tool went back to the sock drawer and the SAK huntsman returned to my pocket.  After not carrying a knife in the bottom of my pocket for awhile, the Huntsman felt bulky.  I decided that I did not use the saw that much and replaced it with a SAK Climber.  I have found, however, that I do not use the locking folder as much and now I carry the Climber only.  It is tough to beat the utility of an SAK!

But Wait!!!!  Didn't Nate say that he always has 2 knives on him??  That is true and I do.  On my keychain I carry a Victorinox Mini Champ.  I could almost solely carry this knife but the blade is a little small for most tasks.  The scissors are sufficient for most of what I use them for.  I have also used the pen many times!  Yes it has a ball point pen.  So that is a run down of sharp things I EDC.  Some of these tools have carried over to my hiking and paddling adventures.  I have taken the Gerber MP on many trips as well as the SAK's.  However, for most cutting chores in the wild I prefer larger and stouter blades.  Stay tuned for Sharp Things Part 2: Adventure Sharps!

Deam Wilderness Sycamore Loop

In May of 2012 Mary and I took our son on his first "real" hike.  We were visiting some close friends in Indiana and decided to visit a very special place.  Mary and I have many fond memories of the Deam Wilderness just south of Bloomington, Indiana.  We deciced to day hike a popular loop trail called the Sycamore Loop.  PDF on the Deam Wilderness  The loop is about 6 miles and makes a nice, but short over night backpack if one wishes.  I have done it several times.

We arrived at the trail head, which has an old fire tower.  You can climb the fire tower but we chose not to since we both have done it before and with the baby it wasn't a good idea.  We decided to let Liam play in the grass while we checked our gear for the hike.  Liam was amazed by the different textures of the grass, sticks and rocks.  We hiked for an hour or so and decided to take a break near a stream for lunch.  We found a campsite right on the edge of the stream and sat down on a nice log for some sandwiches and cheez-its.  After we ate we thought Liam would like a cool dip in the stream as the weather was warm.  This would be his first time playing in a stream.  We are pretty sure he loved it!

After lunch we completed the rest of the loop.  At one point during the hike, Liam managed to get in a nap.  I wish I would fall asleep like him!  Mary, Liam and I had a great time and we are looking forward to future adventures in the wilderness as a family.

Manistee River Memorial Day Trip

Over memorial day weekend my wife, Water Weasel, her fiance' and I did our traditional trip down the Manistee River.  This was the 5th year in a row for us on this trip.  We paddled from 131 Bridge to Harvey Bridge.  We have had lots of rain this spring and we were worried that the river would be high.  It didn't appear to be flooded or anything, but the flow was a little faster than normal.   We got to our campsites much faster than in previous years and we were all less sore after a day of paddling than in the past. 

Saturday was our first day on the river. It was a little chilly and we dodged a few raindrops.  We didn't see many others on the river or lots of people camped on the banks.  We made a nice camp about an hour past Baxter Bridge Campground.  The site was nice but were the mosquitoes bad!!  They were the worst I have seen in 5 years of doing this trip!  I have paddled in the U.P. of Michigan where you can hear the mosquitoes buzzing.  This was not that bad thank goodness!  We enjoyed each other's company around the fire and listened to some great music.  We talked long into the night and finally went to bed when the fire died down.



Sunday was a nice partly sunny day.  We awoke to sun and pleasant temperatures.  The bugs were still bad though.  For breakfast we made some gourmet eats.  The night before our trip I made a yeast dough to make into cinnamon rolls.  So, Sunday morning I baked fresh cinnamon rolls.  I used a recipe from my NOLS course and the same brand of pan I used on my course.  It is called a Banks Fry Bake and it is one awesome piece of cookware.  Click for more info.    The dough is rolled to about a 1/2 inch thickness.  I used a wine bottle as a rolling pin.  The filling is made from real butter, cinnamon and brown sugar.  I spread this on the dough like peanut butter then rolled it.  I tried cutting the dough with dental floss like the recipe suggested.  This didn't work well so out came my razor sharp Mora knife.  After we had the dough cut, I placed them in the pan, covered with the lid, and put the pan on the Whisperlite.  On top of the pan I built a small twiggy fire and baked for about 20 minutes.  You can see the results in the pic and they tasted SOOOOOO good.  I made the dough with 1/3 whole wheat and 2/3 white flour with 2 tablespoons of wheat germ.  The finished rolls were very dense and filling!

We saw more people on the river and more campers along the banks.  I guess with the warmer temps. and nicer weather more people came out.  We came across a flotilla of canoes rafted together and the occupants were thoroughly enjoying themselves.  This was a fine example of "Cabrewing".  A short distance down river we came across 2 kayakers who were part of the "Cabrewers".  One of the kayakers had a nasty ankle injury from jumping off a bluff.  He misjudged the distance.  I got to use some of my Wilderness First Responder skills and did a quick and dirty assessment of his injury.  It was severely swollen.  My guess was that he broke it.  Water Weasel gave him some ibuprophen, I instructed him to keep the angle in the river to ice it, and I suggested he hurry to his take out point and get to a hospital ASAP.  I saw him an hour after we set up camp and his ankle looked worse.  I hope everything turned out OK for him.  In the late afternoon we got a nice camping spot on a high bluff.  This was a higher bluff than we normally like to camp on, but the site had a nice breeze and plenty of firewood near by.

I had some time to give my Bidor Parang a good test at this campsite.  There was an abundance of large logs and I got a chance to chop and split a few.  I also practiced digging for worms with it which it excelled at.  No worms were found so I didn't fish.  This parang was well worth the RM28 I paid for it.  That is a little over 7 bucks US.

I decided to get the evening fire going using my firesteel instead of a lighter.  I was determined to use natural tinder so I collected some dead grass and dead fern.  I tried and tried and tried to get a spark to catch but my tinder was obviously a little too damp from the rains the day before.  I finally resorted to some magnesium shavings to get a flame.  Once I got a flame the grass and ferns caught quickly.  After some birch bark and a little pine pitch my small fire was going nicely.  This fire was then built up larger and made smokier to help chase the mosquitoes away.  After dinner we all played a Wild West themed card came called BANG.  This game is from Italy and is very fun to play.  Google it.  We noticed the sky getting a little dark and WaterWeasel busted out her phone.  We were able to get 3G internet way out in the boonies.  She pulled up radar and a storm was on its way.  We prepared the campsite and banked the fire with more wood to prepare for the coming storm.  This video says more than I can type. 





 The storm didn't last long and we had a quiet night for the most part.  Off in the distance we could hear a pretty rowdy party.  We could hear the lyrics of the music and other "crowd" noise.  Sound really carries at night in the woods.  We all went to bed a little earlier than the night before and the party was still going strong.  I awoke around 3 am to a strange sound outside our tent.  I peeked out with my headlamp to investigate and found a raccoon munching on some food at the base of a tree just outside Water Weasel's tent.  I watched the raccoon for 5 minutes or so to figure out what it was eating.  I was maybe 20 feet from it and he did not care I was shining my light on him.  Then I watched him climb the tree and chew on a bag that was hung from a broken branch.  The bag was too close to the trunk and apparently there was some food in the bag.  I got my Teva's on and chased the raccoon away.  I found a small hole chewed in the back and potato chips on the ground.  I moved the bag and hug it from the ridgeline of our tarp.  The rest of the camp seemed secure with no way for marauding raccoons to get at any more food.  I also picked up a half dozen small round rocks for my sling shot and 2 golf ball sized ones in case the critter came back.  At 3am I could still hear the party in the distance going strong!  I briefly woke up again at 5am and could still hear the party!  WOW!!!  I remember those days when  I could party like that.
 

Monday turned out to be an amazing day!  The weather was hot and sunny.  I took a quick dip in the river which was ice cold.  We had a short paddle of 2 hours and then we picked up the cars and headed home.  This was an epic trip and everyone had a good time.  This was the first official canoe trip for Baby Denn and my wife and I think our baby will be a good companion on future trips.  The baby is due in September.  This trip is just what we all needed before a long and busy summer and before Baby Denn arrives!