Taking a lot of gear out. Theres no water on the property so its being loaded in . No need for my Grayl. Also insurance doesn’t cover axes. Weather has also started dropping so Im taking extra warm layers.
Finally decided on blades. I like larger knives and been thinking of selling the Spyderco. So Im taking the LT Wright Shemenese and the ESSE RB3. The only time Ill use a scandi grind is for carving fire boards, the rest of the time Id prefer the Shemenese for food preparing and fire lighting.Ive taken out my Leatherman. Ill use a multi tool maybe every second day in an urban environment but in the bush Ill use the saw for fire boards and thats it. So Ive swapped it out for my Opinel number 12 saw.
Once we’ve finished doing the fire bow section Ill retire the RB3 and Number 12 to my backpack.The right hand side of my pack is my cooking gear. Ive added a piece of leather for pot handling.
The left hand side of the pack Ive dumped out several things from the inside compartment to fill up the space left by the exclusion of the Grayl. My sea to summit mattress, poncho, hygiene and sanitation kits have now taken this place. I have a platatac OSSA jacket starpped the the back of my pack but I always carry a poncho just in case it the weather dumps on us.
The top compartments, there are three in the Snugpack Rocket Pack. The top one personal meds, middle cygnett power bank, spare batteries and LED Lenser ML 4 Lantern and the bottom the AMK 9 first aid kit.
The other pieces of clothing I haven’t covered in previous posts is my 511 tactical Taclite M65 Jacket. Ive been wearing that the most down here so thats going for my every day use and Ive just picked up a Katmandu Duck Down filled vest that folds up to nothing an is very warm.
The center of the pack are my clothes in a dry bag and tarp system and Ill strap the Frost river messenger back to the top under the strapping.
So most of the gear I normally take bush is staying. I feel Nekad without an axe or chopping tool and all my 4WD recovery gear is staying to make room as some people may require a 4wd for access to the tracks.
Im not into hiking. Not because I dont enjoy it but I have too many injuries. So ultra light isnt my thing. Im pretty sure when I get back Ill be retiring parts of my equipment. Namely my nylon tarps. Theyll go into emergency bags, the 4WD or sold. I prefer canvas. I like a lavvu and oil skin tarps. Ill have a 4x4m canvas tarp made up to replace my DD Hammocks tarp for a cooking under when using the 4WD. My Monowalker Fatmate will also be retiring and sold.
This is probably my last four day course, preferring privates to cover things I haven’t done before and shorter day hikes.
Platatac OSSA Jacket
Leave a Reply