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Posted by Fred on September 26, 2007 at 11:38:05 am EDT
In reply to building a campfire - sometimes it's just not right posted by bheiser1 on September 11, 2007 at 7:08:52 pm EDT

Ahh, camp furniture, lean-to's, trash in trailside toilets, massive congregations of people, huge fires .... these all bring back such "fond" memories of backpacking on the AT and other trails that are easy to get to.

The ability to build a fire and construct some type of shelter from native materials is, however, good to have - the knowledge could save your life under true survival conditions, as can knowing what plants you can and can not consume, a solid knowledge of first aid and let's be honest, knowing how to navigate both with and without external aids (like a compass) -

That said, you can eliminate or at least lessen the need to put this knowledge to use if you prepare for your outdoor trips correctly (the noteworthy exception being first aid).

I've run across people "lost" on the AT - here in PA the blazes seem to be on every other tree - the trail itself is as obvious as I95 - but people still, somehow, become lost or disoriented - the last one was comical - a couple with a GPS that had suffered from a dead battery - they had set out hiking North to where they'd left a car - I was hiking North as well when I met them head on. Seems they'd forgotten which side of the trail they'd camped on the night before and were headed away from their vehicle (and had been for a few hours) - they were convinced that they were right and I was wrong until I produced a compass and proved that they were, in fact, headed South. While I didn't share the thought with them at the time, I just kept thinking "Darwin was right, Darwin was right" .....

Then there was the "slack packer" (speed hiker) I ran into on one wet, cold evening, with a twisted ankle and no gear for the night - had no idea how to tape an ankle and even if he'd known it wouldn't have done much good - no first aid supplies. Cooked up some nice hot tea for him, wrapped him in my sleeping bag, taped his ankle and helped him out (about 2 miles) to meet his wife (in a camper) - got there around 9PM in the dark - her comment "where the f*** have you been????" - nice - I just wandered off into the woods by myself and let him fight the battle ....

Yep - Darwin was right ...

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