-Darkside-
Scout
well we hit the trail this weekend for a bit of small game hunting and an overnight trip. i was again joined by my buddy rockyroad. we also had the pleasure of meeting and spending time with CJ60 from BCUSA. he is a great guy and i would not hesitate to invite him on any future trips rocky and i make. we met up with him on the trail a little after lunch ( while gathering citrus ) he hung out the rest of the day and even had some dinner with us before heading out.
total pack ( CFP-90 ) weight for me on this trip was 52 pounds with everything i needed including water. the only thing this weight did not include was my rifle and pistol. when i got home my pack managed to drop down to 39 pounds. i took a total of 7 quarts of water even though there was a pump / well near camp. this was good planning on my part as the water that was coming up from the well had a very bad odor of asphalt. it is not uncommon for the well water in FL to smell of sulfer, but the asphalt smell had us scratching our heads. my guess is that crude oil may be leaching into the underground water supply in this area, but this is just a guess. i think it goes without saying that none of us wanted to drink this water, hell i didnt even want to run it through my filter! i had the chance to score some water on the way into camp, but passed this up as i felt my 7 quarts would cover my water needs for the weekend, i returned to my vehicle with a little over 1/2 a quart.
rocky and i were supposed to hit the trail at sunrise which was just after 7:00am. i spoke to him on the drive in and he advised me that he was running a little behind, so he told me to just get started without him, so at about 7:15am i hit the trail. the hike into camp from the trailhead is about 2.5 miles, but according to my GPS i covered 3.4 miles. i didnt always stay on the trail as i sometimes wondered off trail looking for game. along the trail there is an area with a small pond / ditch that looks like it would be hog heaven, so at this point i ditched my pack in the woods and headed down the ditch off trail about 75 yards. at one point it got way too muddy and i didnt hear/see any hogs so i decided to head back even though there were hog tracks all over the place back there.
on my way back to where i ditched my pack i heard some noise up in the palms. i spotted a couple squirrel chasing each other through the palms and oaks over my head, but just as soon as i spotted them they were gone. i waited for a few minutes quietly to see if they would come back. after a few minutes i head one of them "barking" it took me a couple minutes to spot him. he was in a large oak about 30-40ft back down the ditch, so i made my way over. i waited about 5 minutes before he gave me the chance to take a clean shot. i packaged up my kill in a palm frond, got my pack and continued into camp.
the trail i was hiking is part of the FL trail, and along this section there is citrus ( lemons, oranges, and grapefruit ). all the lower stuff was picked over from hikers but i managed to spot some lemons a distance off the trail. i picked three and put them in my maxpedition rollypolly.
on the way into camp i collected some natural tinders. the two i picked up were dead spanish moss and palm tree/frond fibers. i added those to my squirrel package and kept on moving.
shortly after getting into camp rocky hiked in. we talked for a few minutes about the drive up and how it was getting close to lunch time, and we talked about my BIG KILL! i have cleaned many fish over the years, but never cleaned and animal. rocky could see i was having a little trouble so he jumped in like an animal and skinned the monster. props to rocky for jumping in like a pro!
time for lunch...
after washing all the hair off the meat i heated up some olive oil on my new and improved alcohol / wood stove and fried up the meat good and proper!
after the meat was cooked i boiled up some ramen. the wind was blowing quite a bit so i used the door on the top of the stove for an added wind screen.
after lunch we decided to hit the head out for some more hunting and gathering. i added my PSK ( green EMT pouch ) to my belt and rocky grabbed his butt pack. we ditched our packs in woods and hit the trail.
rocky climbs like a monkey so he is always the one who scores most of our citrus. as i mentioned all the low stuff was picked over, so even rocky had a tough time scoring fruit, instead he shook the trees like a mad man untill it was raining oranges! about this time we ran into CJ60. we introduced ourselves to each other and talked for a few minutes. rocky still had his heart set on getting some grapefruit, but it just wasnt working out.
what do you do when the fruit is too high to get to? you just shoot it off the stem like CJ60! LOL..... he actually shot a grapefruit out of the tree with rockies rifle by shooting the stem it was hanging from. the fruit was at least 12-15ft over our heads... what a shot! i wish i had some video of it but i was just having so much fun watching it happen that i didnt think to take out my camera.
here are some pics or more citrus scores...
here is rocky doing his best cody lundin along with some photos of the trail and camp...
here is a gopher tortoise burrow...
the FL trail registry in camp. note the big enamel pot someone left behind!
after getting back to camp we enjoyed some fruit and had some chow. i cooked up some dehydrated hash browns and added bacon. CJ60 shared some of his MRE with us.
after chow it was play time. rocky and CJ60 started talking about cordage. with a little instruction from CJ60 rocky started pouding out some palm frond branch to make his own cord.
CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO WATCH THE VIDEO
after pounding out the branch to seperate the fibers he started seperating some of them out. he made several pieces of braided cord. the more he made, the better it was coming out. eventually he was braiding thin 3 strand cords that were pretty dang strong! this is something we will both be practicing more on our next trip.
total pack ( CFP-90 ) weight for me on this trip was 52 pounds with everything i needed including water. the only thing this weight did not include was my rifle and pistol. when i got home my pack managed to drop down to 39 pounds. i took a total of 7 quarts of water even though there was a pump / well near camp. this was good planning on my part as the water that was coming up from the well had a very bad odor of asphalt. it is not uncommon for the well water in FL to smell of sulfer, but the asphalt smell had us scratching our heads. my guess is that crude oil may be leaching into the underground water supply in this area, but this is just a guess. i think it goes without saying that none of us wanted to drink this water, hell i didnt even want to run it through my filter! i had the chance to score some water on the way into camp, but passed this up as i felt my 7 quarts would cover my water needs for the weekend, i returned to my vehicle with a little over 1/2 a quart.
rocky and i were supposed to hit the trail at sunrise which was just after 7:00am. i spoke to him on the drive in and he advised me that he was running a little behind, so he told me to just get started without him, so at about 7:15am i hit the trail. the hike into camp from the trailhead is about 2.5 miles, but according to my GPS i covered 3.4 miles. i didnt always stay on the trail as i sometimes wondered off trail looking for game. along the trail there is an area with a small pond / ditch that looks like it would be hog heaven, so at this point i ditched my pack in the woods and headed down the ditch off trail about 75 yards. at one point it got way too muddy and i didnt hear/see any hogs so i decided to head back even though there were hog tracks all over the place back there.
on my way back to where i ditched my pack i heard some noise up in the palms. i spotted a couple squirrel chasing each other through the palms and oaks over my head, but just as soon as i spotted them they were gone. i waited for a few minutes quietly to see if they would come back. after a few minutes i head one of them "barking" it took me a couple minutes to spot him. he was in a large oak about 30-40ft back down the ditch, so i made my way over. i waited about 5 minutes before he gave me the chance to take a clean shot. i packaged up my kill in a palm frond, got my pack and continued into camp.
the trail i was hiking is part of the FL trail, and along this section there is citrus ( lemons, oranges, and grapefruit ). all the lower stuff was picked over from hikers but i managed to spot some lemons a distance off the trail. i picked three and put them in my maxpedition rollypolly.
on the way into camp i collected some natural tinders. the two i picked up were dead spanish moss and palm tree/frond fibers. i added those to my squirrel package and kept on moving.
shortly after getting into camp rocky hiked in. we talked for a few minutes about the drive up and how it was getting close to lunch time, and we talked about my BIG KILL! i have cleaned many fish over the years, but never cleaned and animal. rocky could see i was having a little trouble so he jumped in like an animal and skinned the monster. props to rocky for jumping in like a pro!
time for lunch...
after washing all the hair off the meat i heated up some olive oil on my new and improved alcohol / wood stove and fried up the meat good and proper!
after the meat was cooked i boiled up some ramen. the wind was blowing quite a bit so i used the door on the top of the stove for an added wind screen.
after lunch we decided to hit the head out for some more hunting and gathering. i added my PSK ( green EMT pouch ) to my belt and rocky grabbed his butt pack. we ditched our packs in woods and hit the trail.
rocky climbs like a monkey so he is always the one who scores most of our citrus. as i mentioned all the low stuff was picked over, so even rocky had a tough time scoring fruit, instead he shook the trees like a mad man untill it was raining oranges! about this time we ran into CJ60. we introduced ourselves to each other and talked for a few minutes. rocky still had his heart set on getting some grapefruit, but it just wasnt working out.
what do you do when the fruit is too high to get to? you just shoot it off the stem like CJ60! LOL..... he actually shot a grapefruit out of the tree with rockies rifle by shooting the stem it was hanging from. the fruit was at least 12-15ft over our heads... what a shot! i wish i had some video of it but i was just having so much fun watching it happen that i didnt think to take out my camera.
here are some pics or more citrus scores...
here is rocky doing his best cody lundin along with some photos of the trail and camp...
here is a gopher tortoise burrow...
the FL trail registry in camp. note the big enamel pot someone left behind!
after getting back to camp we enjoyed some fruit and had some chow. i cooked up some dehydrated hash browns and added bacon. CJ60 shared some of his MRE with us.
after chow it was play time. rocky and CJ60 started talking about cordage. with a little instruction from CJ60 rocky started pouding out some palm frond branch to make his own cord.
CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO WATCH THE VIDEO
after pounding out the branch to seperate the fibers he started seperating some of them out. he made several pieces of braided cord. the more he made, the better it was coming out. eventually he was braiding thin 3 strand cords that were pretty dang strong! this is something we will both be practicing more on our next trip.
