Words of wisdom, Lessons Learned, & Advice for ME Reenactors

[Greg]

EDIT: This thread, inspired by Andy M's "Lessons Learned" page on the old M.E. Ranger website, has been created to encourage forum members to post useful little tidbits from their experiences here on a regular basis. Please, feel free, no matter how old the last post is, to chime in!



Greetings!

David and I took a short one-nighter trek the other day, and learned some hard and valuable lessons. These are things that are pretty much obvious, but for those who have not yet taken a trek in primitive/period gear, these are things you cannot go without knowing.

Lesson one:
DRY WOOD IS A MUST
Going into this trek, we were not aware that it had rained two days before in the area. Typically, two days is enough to dry out wood that's higher up and away from the lake or the river, but it's been foggy up there at the lake all week. The result? Damp EVERYTHING. Starting a fire with damp material is not just a royal pain, but it's dangerous as the evening turns to night. It becomes harder to find and collect dry wood, just as it is harder to get it started in the increasing darkness. I cannot stress the following enough: BRING YOUR OWN DRY TINDER AND KINDLING.

Lesson two:
GET STARTED EARLY
Between me getting off work up at the lake late and David's mom having errands she needed to run, we got started a good solid two hours later than we wanted to. So instead of heading out between 3:30 and 4 pm, we were headed away from the cars in gear at 5:30-6~ish. It's already getting dim at that point, so the dew is beginning to drop (making problem number one all that much more difficult to fight) AND we're losing light fast. Thankfully, our campsite was less than ten minutes' walk from the cars, but it was still not a good time to start. Bear in mind, this was a wintertime trek...daylight hours will change.

Lesson three:
SEPARATE YOU AND YOUR BEDROLL FROM THE GROUND
I cannot stress this enough. If you're not confident in your primitive sleeping arrangements, don't let that stop you from going out and trekking for the night with a modern ground pad and sleeping bag. You can always work on your daytime skills without having to worry about primitive sleeping arrangements until you're ready for that. I personally do not trust my own bedroll enough to sleep in low-40-degree nights yet. So both of us brought our modern mummy bags instead. But I forgot a crucial thing that I've been working on. A ground pad. I own a modern egg-crate foam camping one, but I didn't even bring that. A mummy bag is only as warm as you allow it to be, and it can't be warm if it's in contact with the ground. The ground sucks heat away from you, so a substantial pile of pine boughs would have been a huge help, but something like an oilcloth/wool ground pad STUFFED with pine boughs would be even better. Of course, they would have to be DRY pine boughs, which would have required climbing trees and breaking fresh branches off in our situation, which was not possible due to problem number two. Needless to say, the ground was damp and we were not very warm or comfortable that night, even though we brought along mummy bags (mine is rated to 15-degrees below freezing and I was cold). If you're cold, you don't sleep well, and that just means we've got a groggy ranger on our hands who isn't in the mood to cook (much less eat) any of that pasty gruel crap he brought along for breakfast.

Lesson four:
AN OVERHEAD SHELTER IS INDESPENSABLE
I have a plastic tarp that I have used in the past to make shelters. I neglected to do so on this trip, trusting in my mummy bag. That was stupid. When the dew point hit in the morning, all of our gear that was outside our sleeping bags became damp VERY quickly. If I had set up a simple lean-to with it, we would've been dry in the morning, and would've stayed warmer. Bear in mind, laying a waterproof tarp OVER yourself is not okay, because it can soak through at any point of contact (if you've ever been tent camping, you've probably noticed that anywhere that a backpack or sleeping bag touches the tent, water soaks through. Same concept.) In the summer, when there isn't much dew in most places, this can generally be ignored, but it's still wise to bring it along. Summer winds can get quite cold in some places, and shelters do a good job of taking care of problems like that, too. In short, bring a shelter and use it, or find a place where rocks or other solid objects create cover. I've already found a new place near where we were that has a natural shallow cave formed out of the rocks that I'm using in a few weeks to avoid the damp. My fire should warm the cave like a small room, which will also help. My fire, that is, that I'll be setting in wood I bring myself, of course...before it gets dark, with my ground pad, of course...

I have been out rangering in worse conditions than we were in the other night, but a few careless errors on my part made the trip less than pleasant, while the former mentioned trip in worse weather, I was plenty comfortable. It is extremely important that you make a checklist and go through everything, ensuring that you have what is necessary to make a pleasant trip. A SAFE trip, more importantly. In the evening, after we got into our sleeping bags, I actually felt my knee joints freezing up. That could have been a dangerous problem to deal with. Even worse would have been if we were unable to get a fire going. That would've just crapped on our night.

Please take care when going out. We have the coolest hobby in the world, bar none, but it CAN get dangerous if you don't plan accordingly and bring everything you need. If you think you've got it all, go through it again. If you're trying to leave out modern equipment but you don't know if your primitive bedding is up to snuff, DON'T SKIMP. Bring your gore-tex. Do whatever you have to do to ensure that you're safe, until such a time as you know you have something that works.

[Eric C]

Good points Greg.
A couple things I learned in the Army. Never get separated from your sleeping gear or your food/water. There was one time I was supposed to be away from our squad vehicle for only an hour or two. That was a cold, hungry German winter night.

Make sure your sleeping gear stays dry, as Greg already mentioned. Also have a dry set of clothes. At least one extra pair of socks and an extra set of underclothes is a MUST! An extra pair of boots is nice too.

I learned while Civ War reenacting that if the foot of you sleeping bag gets wet and you have a plastic bag, you can stick your feet into it and stay pretty warm. But if you are wet, you are miserable.

These are just a couple of lessons learned by me. Like Greg, they were learned the hard way. That, unfortunately, is why we remember them.

[Greg]

Please feel free to continue in Eric's strain, posting lessons learned the hard way, so others can learn from you and we can all get better at this together!

*goes back to stitching new bedroll stuffed with newly acquired down feathers*










It's gonna be heavy, but it'll work!

[R.D.Metcalf]

The best way to look for wood in the dark is with your feet, or walking stick if you have one. Scraping along the ground to make sure you dont pick up a snake, up here a copperhead can really put damper on the spirit of adventure, so can a cottonmouth, or one of those blessed few timber rattlers who somehow lost their buttons. In cold weather this lets you kick off the snow to keep your hands warmer

I like using spruce boughs between my blanket and the ground, but then my camping done on private land, I understand Nat'l forests frown on this.

If the ground is cold/wet or both, I will doze upright, leanin against a tree, if its dry enough to get a fire I'll dig a hole and build a fire in it with hickory, locust or oak wood when it burns to coals which is quick because the fire neddnt be big I'll wrap up in my blanket and sit down, i've spent alot of nights like this with temps in the low 30's in relative comfort.

Havin good gear to start with is essential, dress for the weather and pack some jerked meat/dried fruit something you dont need to cook, no one gets a fire 100% of the time. Keep dry clothing and cold rations.

Hoard your heat, a good heat reflector can be a large rock, stick with a small hot fire, also a good rock close enough can serve as a primitive fry pan it need not be on the fire just near enough to get good and hot....if it explodes...thats a sign it aint a "good" rock...

always keep your axe, if its a bit damp your axe can get you to the the dry parts that will catch easier. Its also possible to make a pretty good log shelter with a belt axe, I've done this with my axe, three walls with a pole and dirt roof. you can also dig, break ice and all that good stuff.

another good tip is when you make camp in cold places after you got your fire, boil up some pine or spruce tea, a good source of vitamin c, if your out for more than three days this will be essential. Its also a good way to warm up, chickory or sassafras is good too.

If you find yourself out of cordage pine root and hickory bark can work, my grandpa has used hickory bark to make temporary repairs on broke trace chains...its tough

Keep an eye out for walnut trees if you really have to, you can bark a small walnut and have enough tannin/poison to fish, just be sure you set up in still water or have the channel blocked to funnel the fish to fish this way...boiled hulls are better than bark but this will work. a 1/4 stick of dynamite is more efficient, but lacks the traditional charm M-80's also work...Yeah, I know

Well I guess this one is long enough

Take care guys.

[Mirimaran]

My vote for Thread of the Year! Outstanding posts, all of you. Experience is the best teacher, but the best student is one who is willing to learn from others. It can be quite a humbling thing to start a hobby, craft, or vocation in a later stage of life, and be prepared to open yourself to new experiences and lessons from folks who are years your junior. Another great example why this forum is more than just a collection of posts...

[David]

I learned a few things the hard way on my last trek with Greg.

I. Weight distribution is critical. When I go on ranger outings, I carry everything either on my sword belt, in my backpack, or in my hands. This (along with the fact that I am severely out of shape) lead to me becoming tired quickly, and my lower back and legs being sore the next couple of days. Hiking to and from our campsite would have been much easier with less weight weighing me down. I have my sword, dagger, and quiver on my belt (I'd love to put my hatchet there to, but there's simply no room). I carry my bow and spear in my hands, and everything else goes into a modern internal frame backpack. I like to bring many things with me, justifying the more than necessary load with "just in case". I think being able to lighten my load will make future trips more enjoyable. I plan on making/buying a back quiver and a belt pouch or two. Relocating necessities will hopefully let me either use a smaller pack, or not need one at all!
II. Good supportive footwear is a must. There were a couple of times when I could have twisted/broken an ankle if I had not been wearing good shoes. They're modern, but they kept me from having to wear a cast and use crutches. Shoes should be supportive, keep your feet relatively warm, and have good traction. Not everyone can climb like a mountain goat!
III. Waterproofing is also a good idea. As Greg mentioned earlier, the ground was wet, it was foggy, and dew was aplenty. This means your gear will get wet if it isn't protected in some way. I plan on waterproofing my cloak sometime in the future. If waterproofing is not a viable option, then a good tarp (or more primitive alternative) will work as well.

[Willrett]

I have learned from way to many motorcycle trips in the rain the importance of socks and undies. We left on a trip one in sept of 04 that there was flooding in the area.

It was good to read and will help me prepare for my future trips. thanks guys

I think we can add plenty to this one and I look forward to reading and learning

[Chris Russo]

Some very good points, all.

I learned the truth of the bring-your-own-wood on my last trek, the hard way. I'd never not been able to keep a fire going on a camping trip before, but continual on-and-off rain had made all the surrounding wood damp (and much was rotten). Three experienced campers couldn't keep more than an occasional flame going (and my friend Chris ended up roasting his fish over a birch-bark torch).

I'm still working on the weight distribution.

Another lesson I learned the hard way is, "leave no pockets on your tarp where water can collect." Nothing like having your shelter collapse on your head in the middle of a Catskill thunderstorm to drive the truth of that one home.

[Eledhwen]

Always great to remind folks; we all forget something or other.

My learning came via the Corps; Mountain Warfare school, Winter Warfare, (insert climate here), and several weeks 250 miles North of the Arctic Circle in Northern Norway as well as time in other places. Get some!

I still forget something or other. Redundancy of skills is a very good thing! A checklist is a must!

Siani

[Greg]

The basic checklist I work with right now is something like this (made generic so it doesn't just apply to me):

Bedroll
Ground Pad
Shelter

Utility Knife
Camp Tool (axe, kukri, etc.)
Means of Making a Fire
Dry Tinder and Kindling (perhaps some larger sticks as well in the wet season)
Food
Mess kit (kitchenware)
Water Bottle (FULL)
Purification Tablets
Blowing Horn (think of it as a safety whistle)

Boots
Socks
MORE socks
Spare undergarments
Base Layer of some kind (thermals, etc.)

and from there, the list expands into less comfort-oriented things, such as swords, bracers, archery equipment, falconry glove, food for the bird, rope, haversack, cloak, etc.) The list is strictly for remembering the necessaries so that they're all ready to go before I start getting into the reenactment part of things and forget the important stuff.

Something I neglected to mention in my first post. In my efforts to keep weight down, I didn't bring along my backpack this last time out. Carrying my stuff went rather well. However, I quickly discovered that the haversack Pete made for me is quite possibly the most useful piece of gear I have. Everbody needs to get themselves a man-purse, STAT. That thing carried my uncooked hot cereal, uncooked rice and beans, seasonings, berries, bacon, fishing kit, fork and spoon, and sharpening stone all at once. My own universal food pantry, readily accessible at my hip. How much better could things get? The only thing it DOESN'T do for me is cook the stuff, which is a sacrifice I'm willing to make. Get yourself a haversack. You'll NEVER regret it.

[R.D.Metcalf]

I agree with Siani, I've been involved in search and rescue and in every case two of which invloved fatalities there was a stunning lack of planning on the part of the victims. OTOH what these folk going to the woods dont realize is that in many cases there is also a stunning lack of urgency on the part of some rescuers, sad but true, many of these idiots are just along for the ride, you can spot'em you know they aint goin to walk too far and none too fast...Its always hit and miss with volunteers, add to that you got 24 hours to make it without help...and that depends on how soon you get reported missing. This experience has led me to a rule: if i'm not at least 60% certain I cant get myself out I dont go in. No offence to volunteers or the forest service but I've seen enough grabass to convince me...unless your extremely lucky self rescue is the best hope. I'm smart enough to know if rather wealthy banker died out there, my hillbilly butt is up the creek if something goes wrong. Plan worst case every trip.


One of the things were blessed with here is what we call rich pine, even if your dead fall is rotten you can dig out one of these knots and it will light like coal oil, the old folk called them lighter knots, if you can find one or two big ones it will burn long enough to let your damp wood catch.

Also if you watch close you can use your fire to predict weather to have dry wood when the rain/snow etc. starts, if the smoke goes to the ground you'll be lookin at fallin weather so start layin in wood and hunker down, in the summer we have a saying if you see the "bellies"/ undersides of leaves blowing on the trees there will be rain. The frogs also start singin when rain is comin. there are quite a few signs to warn you when to get dry wood. During the spell if you see squirrels moving its going to last awhile.

While the weather is on I know from experience thats the time to start hunting the thickets deer will be bedded and the birds will be on the ground, and the leaves are good and quiet, its the best chance of taking game in a really primtive situation, even this may be a longshot but what else have you got to do

Staying clean is another concern, a good way is to build a fire on the creek bank bite the bullet, get in, grab a handful of sand and scrub like hell, rinse off and get out as fast as possible. Its burning cold, potentially dangerous, painful, has been known to cause heart attacks...and funny as hell when someone else does it.... but it does the job, if you die you stayed in the "tub" too long Ironically this helps you stay warmer, however, guys, if you have ego issues...dont look down The expression "grubworm in a turtleneck" comes to mind

sorry for the long post.

[Greg]

Some of those bits R.D. mentioned about weather prediction are, I think, worth spending the time to memorize.

His mention of cleanliness reminded me of something. CHANGE CLOTHES BEFORE GOING TO BED. If you have (and you should) spare undergarments, change them before going to sleep. You hiked to get here, and you hiked with gear on your back. I gurantee you sweated a bit. Wet undergarments are 100% guranteed to disrupt your sleep and keep you cold. Most importantly, CHANGE YOUR SOCKS. Even if they're dry, dirty socks are 100% less comfortable than clean ones. Wear your clean ones at night through the next day, and you'll be fine. Just change them BEFORE you go to bed. One of the old salts from my boy scout days told me that, and I've never had a problem in that department since. Well, until this week, at any rate...

[Eledhwen]

There is nothing like knowing the region in which you are operating. Each region will have its peculiarities where weather change is concerned; the sharp-eyed Ranger pays close attention to the animals and plants anyway.

Study up, that's the long and short of it. Nothing replaces knowledge...if you haven't got it, you'll learn the hard way...or more than likely not.

Make a plan. Know the terrain. Understand the climate. Keep yourself in shape, stay clean and be careful. Self rescue is more than possible...IF you have knowledge.

As has been said; we have a great hobby, very awesome it is...but it can also be dangerous, which is in part why some of us do this. Be smart about it.

We get those knots up here too R.D...they do a shiny job of getting things started.

It isn't very rangery perhaps, but a tuft of fine steel wool and a 9 volt battery cached away (not together!) will do wonders...shag out the wool, run the battery terminals across it. It will heat and catch fire. Not as sexy as flint and steel or friction methods, but it works in emergencies.

Be safe guys. Have fun, but be safe.

Siani

[Frothgar]

Great thread,
very good and useful info all around.

Modern Equipment-
dont be afraid to take some modern tools with you. if you get sick or hurt trying to be a purist on your first time out it may turn you off a fantastic (and useful) hobby.

food-
all the food i carry can be consumed as is. hardtack, jerky, nuts, and dried fruit. i do this so i dont need to carry a cook kit, one less thing. if im in a group and there are helping hands about ill bring my bowl and cook pot, but when im alone i like to shave off as much weight as i can. that being said, few things are worse than having no hot food on a cold day. survivable, livable even, but not pleasent.

rescue/ preparedness-
www.hikesafe.com a little prep goes a long way.

Dry wood-
it was briefly mentioned but it bears repeating. if you have an axe or a stout knife you can use these to split wood. the interior of wood is almost always drier that its outer layers. look under evergreen trees for some dry needles and possible dead and dry branches. dead standing trees are likely to stay dry but shouldnt be used except in an emergency. youl save energy chopping and your fire will burn more completly if you use fuel that is wrist thick or smaller.

Tinder-
i always carry a pouch of jute and charcloth. can get a blaze going in just about any weather with that. also looking into tinder fungus as a more primitive option.

Pine boughs-
this is my Lorax moment so bear with me. Unless you are in an emergency situation you should not cut and use live pine boughs. its bad stewardship, bad leave no trace, and in most parks illegal. deadfall and dead needles work wonders i find, as do some grasses. there are alternatives out there. if it comes down to your life or a couple tree branches of course use them. but as long as we are outthere for recreation, and not survival, we should take a care to leave things as we found them.

Modern flint and steel-
if yould like the feel of a flint and steel fire but cant seem to get it done get yourself a modern metal match. these things rock. i dont carry matches when i camp anymore (aside from a small stash of wind and waterproofs in my emergency kit.) i use a light my fire brand striker. super easy, and weighs very little even with the dry tinder you should carry with it. works great and is more period(ish) than a 9 volt (wich does work amazingly well).

id advise all of you to take a look at the leave no trace website. lots of good conservation ideas as well as useful camping tips.

Frothgar

[R.D.Metcalf]

Dude, I wasnt talking about a friggin' industrial logging operation followed by strip mining Seriously, I'm just playing with you Frothgar you actually made a very good point

Seeing as how you didnt mention it...I take it your cool with dynamite fishing?