The Bushman Chronicles!

LOL!!

 

Just plain good stuff, fun stuff. Ravens over people any day.

 

March 10/2019, sunny, -5 deg C, "The Smatchet Knife Test, Crank Up The Irons, Explore A Trail, Find A Hidden River Canyon, Eat Smokies Tour"

Trip info/photos loading.

soundtrack that started todays epic adventure:

Running Wild - Ballad Of William Kid



followed by 1 hour & 18 minutes of the almighty IRON MAIDEN!



loaded up the L.R.R.P.R. Scout Rig , grabbed the new CS Smatchet, the metal mixed CD and cranked up the Irons while ripping up the Sea To Sky Hwy. Originally I planned to just putter around the logging cut blocks and wreak havoc with the CS Smatchet. Maybe grill some smokies in the Siege Stove.

Parked the rig, chatted with a couple of local truck campers (live in the logging blocks in their campers, work in town - can;t afford $2000 - 5000+ a month for RENT). Good folks, I always check up on them when up that way. They keep an eye on my truck while im in the area.

L.R.R.P.R. Scout Rig Lite - but whats missing???



yea forgot the bear spray.....oh well, got a Smatchet and I'm not afraid to use it.

dropped into the overgrown spruce section of the logging blocks. Figured I was doing the forest a favor by removing the dry dead combustible materials.




love that webbing!



only had three blades with me...i must have a flu or something....
Its still cold up here, so I started slashing dozens of spruce trees at an angle...come warm months in spring, the sap will flow freely and I will harvest it. No this does not damage the trees. First Nations here gathered spruce pitch this way for hundreds of years



old tracks not sure what animal


swung that CS Smatchet for a good hour, clearing dead branches. Used the sharp swedge to knock off the sharp branch stubs.



quite by accident I found an old foot trail. Started following it down towards the river. Its steep.



scraping cedar bark for tinder with the CS Smatchet
what a freaking beast of a knife. Needs some stippling on the polypropylene handle though for some better grip. You really DO NOT WANT this slipping out of your mitts midswing and into your femoral artery.......

.......on that note....the machete (all types) is the worlds most deadly hand held weapon. Used globally, still to this day, to maim, torture and kill men, women and children globally. Your average machete costs less than $1 -2 in most places and can be sharpened deadly sharp, and used BY ANYONE, man , women & children....often its children wielding them against other children. The ankles are a favorite spot to strike as people flee violence - the tendons get sliced and the people fall unable to flee. Then they get left to die of blood loss, infection, left to live a life crawling on the ground, or killed outright by rebels. For a little history on machete use, research tribal and rebel violence in Rawanda. Esp in 1994. Its fascinating , yet horrifying.


steep descent

did i mention STEEP?

the woodpeckers had a mega harvest in these tree!

got the bottom of the steep trail and found a beautiful cascading river. Blue and green waters, crystal clear, water/ice polished glacial bedrocks.....i knew the river was here.....but i had NO IDEA it was this spectacular. It was about to get 1000 times BETTER as I went further on.

 

of particular concern for me, was the trail itself.....melting snow during the day time warm temps - refroze into ice......the trail was DEADLY. I went glacially slow down, and even on the flat sections......and for good reason.....a drop of between 20' to over 250' into the super narrow canyon rocks and DEEP river below.


just spectacular...in summer this would be a kick ass place to chill out in the hot humid heat.


about 40' tall (the waterfall). Come winter ice off / snow melt on the mountains and glaciers...this will be much more dangerous

perfect little shelter spot...needs a roof from the horizontal log back to the boulder.......I might just work on this

bedrock polished super slick and smooth by hundreds of years of water thundering thru here. What i found fascinating was the high water mark - almost 250' DEEP

found a couple of these clefts in the bedrock. Rope access needed.

tall trees and tons of salal brush behind me.



look at that polished rock and deep emerald green pools.

and then a turquoise blue pool. Followed by the main pool in deep emerald green

another waterfall, about 35- 40' drop

that pile of logs was 100' above the 20' deep crystal clear pool below it.

chatted with a local who was taking photos nearby. He said that last pool is about 75' deep right now. High water mark (hundreds of years ago) is 200' above that.

look at that polished bedrock!

looking BACK UP the river. This would be a bad ass canyoneering trip....... @Jeff Randall and crew!!!!



as i carefully navigated the slippery trail above the canyon, I spotted signs of First Nations cedar bark gathering.....three trees all with this pattern of bark removal and axe marks in the base. This does not harm the trees. The pieces of red cedar bark they removed (about a year ago) were approx 20' long. This is sustainable harvesting.

 

2nd cedar bark harvest


closeup

old boulder field

towering giants

made my way back to the open river section, time for lunch and a brew up

dead tree feeding the fungi

emerald/turquoise pool


L.R.R.P.R. Scout rig lite
magul DAKA pouch (fire kit) RMJ Tactical Utdishi knife and Hidden Woodsman pouch (holds my SIEGE STOVE). I love gear organization in my webbing and packs....at home, couldn't care less....


super flat packing Gen 2 Titanium SIEGE STOVE

tons of dead dry alder branches around to fuel the fire.
caveman era axe


got the SAS MKettle filled with water, methyl hydrate in the burner bowl

Exotac TitanLIGHT firing it up

 

Dark roast coffee crystals


MSR Titan kettle

2 minutes to boiling water and hot coffee.

forgot my ss skewers, so i adapted from the repair kit......big cotter pins opened up and flattened.


all beef smokies over alder coals

the perfect kitchen rock, lots of shelves and space.
oooh look at those....






Esee/RMJ Tactical/ Exotac gear bling

ate lunch, drank hot strong coffee , packed up and hiked back out.
treat for the field mouse skittering around the rocks

 

So cool

 

The scenery is just spectacular, I would love to get close to the pools. Water like that is a siren song to me.

 

You have found a great area for yourself.

 

pic sup

 

Great pics.

 

Love the siege stove!

 

When you're stuck at work and miss the woods...the Bushman provides

 

@Bushman5 what was the wire you used?

 

Cotter pins

 

Gotcha

 

No bear spray? Cool pictures. Good job Bushy!

 

March 17, 2019, Sunny, warm, "The Kebab Cookout, Putter About The Woods Tour"


The day started with a clogged crapper (due to someone above me in the building flushing sanitary products......it clogged her sewer line and my sewer line. $100 later for a RIGID drain auger and the clot was removed. I also lost two hours of woods time as a result.

The day got better...another three hours wasted trying to get out of Vancouver and over the 2nd Narrows Bridge. Some douche just had to look at their cell phone and texting and rammed a car in front of them, causing a chain reaction of vehicles crashing everywhere. Bridge blocked Northbound.

3 F******* hours lost as a result. Thanks you ******* a-holes.

So instead of getting into the woods on my day off early, I was over 5 hours behind schedule. Thoughts of violently and physically inserting cell phones into peoples orifices were abundant......

Finally got past the accident scene. I was one of about several thousand vehicles who leaned on the horn and flipped the crash people the bird.

Wound out the engine, dropped a gear and made up some time. Did not get into the woods until bloody almost 1500 hours.

Found this truck on the Mamquam FSR,its been there awhile,tires are low, truck bed and trailer are filled with snow. Too fast around the corner and BOOM into the ditch.....see you in spring to pull it out....



proper BC campfire,........40' wide.....

got right to work at chopping up mesquite chunks for the Siege Stove, using the Tops Operator. Brutal knife......8mm thick, wicked recurved edge, takes a beating and comes back for more.

Exotac TitanLight and some waxed jute , about to light the wood in the siege stove.

the end of the road on the cutblock, this a favorite place to come and have a fire, throw axes, chop with the knves, or just drink a coffee and chill.

implements of destruction and fire

Winkler Operator making the meat sticks sharp.
20 hour marinated meat.


all meat kebab, ready for fire/heat/smoke......

mesquite burning down......

I brought some food that food eats.

OH YEAH!

And God Said Let There Be Grilled Meat, And There Was Grilled Meat, And It Was Great

looking down at the locals camper.

moon rising already.

packed up and headed out, stopped at the next cutblock and parked the truck. Headed up the cutblock, just to wander.

big ol bear paw