Indian Heaven

This past weekend my brother Patrick, Richard, and myself went hiking into Indian Heaven Wilderness Area, a perennial favorite of mine and definitely one of the most beautiful places on the planet.  We arrived in the afternoon on Friday and were set up in no time. 

Patrick and Richard were all about survival skills, but I myself (having suffered before) chose to camp the way I do and was pretty cozy.  They proceeded to build a "self-feeding" fire, which worked really well.  Instead of starting small, and adding logs to the fire, you pile the large fuel wood, and build the fire on top of it.  As the fire burns down, it ignites the larger logs and just keeps burning.  When I went swimming the following morning, it was still smoldering, and could have been restarted quite easily.

Instead of relighting the fire, I took them for a walk into the berry fields.  We were there at the perfect time of year and collected about two quarts of berries in no time.  Talk about a grubbin breakfast!

By the time we got back to camp, the sun had warmed us up and they started in making small traps for animals and building fires using a bow-string and spindle.  Quite impressive fire building I must say, and I was glad to have learned how to do it.

Like I said before, I camped the way I usually do, so I was well fed.  Unfortunately, Patrick and Richard didn't eat so well!  The only thing they were able to trap was a large frog, which, split between the two of them didn't really go as far as they would have liked.  I had checked my "trap" and found tortellini with marinara sauce :)

All in all, it was a great weekend to be out!  The weather couldn't have been better, and those two guys are fun as hell to hang out and chill with.    Hopefully we will be getting out again soon.  That said, I was glad to get home to my baby!