The Art Of Walking In The Woods

I spend a lot of time walking in the woods. Walking in the woods is a love  affair that began as a young boy. It is an intense affair.

In fact, as part of our retirement lifestyle, Shirli and I now live in the woods. Our tiny cabin is surrounded by woodland. Our yard, if it can even be called a yard, is little more than a small clearing. There is no lawn to mow or shrubbery to manicure. Large bay trees, tall longleaf pines, a variety of oaks, sweetgum, blackgum, red maple, wild blueberry, and a variety of other woody shrubs and vegetation are our natural landscaping.

The small clearing is also characterized by surface roots, small stumps and stobs left from clearing scrub and saplings, and fallen natural debris. I’ve grown to appreciate the natural debris that is constantly falling from the trees. I am never without kindling material.

Some would consider our yard an obstacle course littered with tripping hazards and ankle rollers.

I admit that I did turn an ankle two winters ago. 

Accidents happen. They can happen to the best of us. I did not break anything, but the incident caused some serious nerve damage in my foot that took several months to get over. It was my own fault, something that I paid for with a lot of painful hobbling around. Floppy slip-on house shoes are not designed for walking around outside in an environment where surefootedness is a requirement.

Most of the walking performed by modernites is done on level and smooth surfaces … on the concrete and asphalt paths and floors of modern life. Most of it is what I call get there walking. I have done a lot of get there walking over the years. 

Get there walking is really a mindless type of walking where we don’t think about our steps. We are simply picking them up, putting them down, and bi-pedal locomoting along as a means to hurriedly get to where we are going. Heel and toe. Springing along as we go. Unconcerned about the level surface beneath our feet and, all too often, unconcerned about the surrounding environment.

This type of get there walking is fine for streets, sidewalks, and floors where most people do their stepping. It is the only mode of walking that most people are familiar with.

It is, however, a pitifully poor way to walk in the woods.

I have a great appreciation for those that wrote about and left behind a record of their outdoor adventuring in those days-gone-by. There are a number of them that I would sit around a campfire with if I could. There is a purity and genuineness about them that evokes deep respect and admiration from me this far this side of their time wandering the woods. They, in my mind, are the great ones. Their tools and technology may have been inferior to ours but … pardon me if what I am about to say offends sensibilities … the rest of us, regardless of what we think of ourselves, our tools, and our skills, are merely living in their shadows.

Allow me to borrow a quote from one of these great ones.

“In walking through a primitive forest, an Indian or a white woodsman can wear out a town-bred athlete, although the latter may be the stronger man. This is because a man who is used to the woods has a knack of walking over uneven ground, edging through thickets, and worming his way amid fallen timber, with less fret and exertion than one who is accustomed to smooth, unobstructed paths.” Horace Kephart, The Book Of Camping & Woodcraft, Chapter XIII, p. 179, © 1906.

There is an art to walking in the woods. It is not a difficult art to learn. It is something though, like any other art, that involves consciousness and takes practice.

It is easy enough to learn a different way to step so that our feet are landing flatly on the ground. Simply walking barefoot or in thin soled moccasins for a few consecutive days on ground filled with pebbles and littered with sticks and other debris will teach a person to walk lightly and flat footed. The bruises on the bottom of the heels received the first day will be the greatest teacher.

I think the most difficult thing involved in learning the art is breaking the patterns of hurriedness in our minds. The hurry up and get there lifestyle patterns imbedded in our minds, and the daily get there schedules that birth these mental patterns, are the mean culprits standing in our way.

Go ahead. Go for a walk. Take three times as long as it would normally take to get there.

Enjoy the adventure.

Note: The above photos are gleaned from our archive of photos that we have taken over the years. 

Fire As A Life-Essential

Fire is a friend that serves several important purposes in outdoor settings.

We use fire to cook uncooked food and to heat up already processed food. Fire is used to elevate the temperature of non-potable water to 212 degrees as a means to sterilize it and render it safe for human consumption. We use fire to ward off the cold that would otherwise cause us to become hypothermic and possibly die as a result of our core body temperature getting too low. The heat from a fire is effective in helping to dry damp or wet clothes that would otherwise increase the danger of hypothermia. The light from a fire, even a small fire, at night lends a sense of comfort to us. The smoke from a fire during the warmer months keeps mosquitoes away from the immediate area. Fire and smoke also help to discourage four-legged night visitors while we are trying to rest in preparation for the next day ahead of us.

Fire requires three elements in order to exist. Every fire requires fuel, oxygen, and an ignition source that is hot enough to generate combustion.

We find and utilize the fuel (wood) that nature provides. Nature provides the oxygen (air). We carry with us the tools necessary to generate the initial combustion.

In teaching the art of fire making to youth (and others) I have always pointed out the importance of collecting all the fire making material needed to build a fire that will sustain itself before wandering away in search of more firewood or to engage in the other affairs necessary in setting up a camp. A fire of twigs and small sticks will quickly burn itself out and send you back to starting over from the beginning.

Have on your person and in your kit the tools necessary to build a fire. Don’t just possess them. Become proficient in using them.

There is quite an assortment of modern and primitive ways to generate combustion. 

I consider primitive ways to be quite novel. 

I think it is important to acquire the primitive skills if you can. Knowing how to spin an ember with a hand drill and a bow drill involves a learning curve and a good amount of physical energy. Learning them can be a lot of fun. Learning them can also be terribly frustrating and, for some people, physically impossible due to a number of physical health conditions. 

These primitive methods also become practically impossible in wet conditions.

The primitive flint and steel method is a fun way to generate combustion. It was, at one time, the “modern” method and made the fire making chore a lot easier for people. The problem with primitive flint and steel is that the pre-processed charred material necessary to catch a spark has a tendency to absorb moisture from the atmosphere and becomes difficult to ignite with the relatively cool small sparks from a primitive fire steel and a rock that is capable of shaving sparks from the steel.

While these primitive methods can indeed be used to generate combustion, I am of the opinion that they should not be depended upon as the “go-to” methods when there are more effective and dependable modern tools to accomplish the purpose, especially in a multiple day/night get-home journey that can, in every sense of the word, be considered a survival scenario.

Matches (particularly the wind and waterproof types), Bic (and similar type) lighters, and ferro rods (modern version of primitive flint and steel) are the most practical combustion tools that you can carry on your person and in your kit. They are the most dependable methods of generating the initial heat necessary in the fire making process at our disposal.

Practice the art of fire making until the art is perfected. 

It is important to practice in all types of weather. Practice with damp, wet, and otherwise marginal material. Fire is a life-essential.

It is not always a bright sunny day or clear dry night when we need a fire.

Note: This blog article is an excerpt from a larger body of work focusing on practical prepping and personal preparedness that we will be uploading soon and making available via Kindle Direct Publishing.

Growing Old?

We try.

We give it our best shot.

Our best efforts, however, are futile.

The stark reality eventually breaks through all the clouds and smoke screens of our personal denial.

I will admit it.

I am growing old. I refuse to think that I am old. Growing? Yes. Old? No. Perhaps even this refusal is yet another illusion in my aging mind. I will continue to protest and grasp tightly to this refusal … illusion or not.

Stark reality. Mail has begun to arrive in our P.O. Box insisting that my existing health insurance will soon be transferred to the department that will oversee my “Old Timer” health insurance coverage with its assorted alphabetical parts. Stark reality. In March I will turn Sixty-Five.

Where did the years go and how did they go so fast?

The Autumn beauties shine only for a short season as part of their cycle of life.

Then they are gone.

They are fading fast now.

Winter is coming.

How many more seasons do I have in me to enjoy their seasonal shining?

The unanswerable question spurs me.

I cannot answer the unanswerable question. I can say that I will make the best of the remaining seasons … ever how many (or few) there happen to be.

Life, in some ways, is just now getting really good. It is, at the same time, leveling some physical limitations on me that require adjustments and creative work arounds in order to maintain my status as an avid woods wanderer and outdoor adventurer.

The stark reality is that reality bites. It bites all of us sooner or later. None of us are immune to its effects. Our challenge is to recognize and accept our limitations and find ways to continue doing what we do in spite of them … even if that means doing them in lesser degrees over shorter distances.

Rest assured, I have taken up the challenge. In numerous ways the best is yet to come. I am yet a long way from dumping my pack and calling it quits.

I have always been given to episodes of nostalgia. I have always been an introspective person. I have noticed that I have grown even more nostalgic and introspective as the calendar months have brought me closer to the sixty-five-year age marker. That these traits appear in my blogs and videos are unavoidable.

Pardon me.

My age is beginning to show.

Growing old has its perks though.

Life has gotten a lot simpler now that the mad rush to get here is behind me.

In its simplicity there is time to more fully apprehend and appreciate the things that were, during the rush, snatched and grabbed at fleetingly when time would allow. There is time to go at things at an unhurried pace. There is time to entertain nostalgia. There is time to experience introspection. There is time to wander and wonder with less thought given to the movement of the hands on the clock, or the day of the week, or the month of the year.

There is, at the same time, no time to entertain distracting disputes, controversies, and forms of bovine fecal matter that needlessly consume emotional and mental energy. 

The adventure continues, folks. Even when the Old Timer Insurance kicks in. We may not move as fast or carry as much weight as we did when we were younger and more spry but there is still room for us in the woods. 

Enjoy the adventure!

Daybreak on the Perdido

The moon made its waning appearance overnight.

Though waning, it was still bright enough to clearly illuminate the reflective white sandbar that we made our twenty-four home.

The words, as they often do, returned to hauntingly ring in my head.

“For brick and mortar breed filth and crime,

With a pulse of evil that throbs and beats;

And men are withered before their prime

By the curse paved in with lanes and streets.

And lungs are poisoned and shoulders bowed,

In the smothering reek of mill and mine;

And death stalks in on the struggling crowd –

But he shuns the shadow of the oak and pine.”

-        George W. Sears (Nessmuk), Woodcraft and Camping

Out here where everything reminds me of how insignificant I am in the great scheme of manmade things and agendas ... I can be myself with nothing to diminish who I am.

I first met the Perdido back in the late 70’s when large tracts of the land on this side of the river were owned by one of the paper companies.

That company closed down and something to the tune of 17,000 acres is now held by the State and used as a Wildlife Management Area. Blocks of it have been purchased by Forever Wild. Forever Wild land is just what the name implies. The hand of man, for perpetuity, ceases to interfere with the order of nature. The native habitat, and the wildlife supported by it, will have a chance to recover for future generations to see and enjoy. https://www.alabamaforeverwild.com/   

It is a smidge less than a three-mile drive from the paved highway to where Shirli dropped us off. The hike in from there is a short one. Maybe a quarter of a mile on an eroded and closed woods road. There was one spot in the eroded road where we had to work our way around a deep hole of water then walk through near ankle deep water.

It is wild woods … beautiful woods … along the tannin stained Perdido with its average water temperature that ranges between 53 and 56 degrees. 

A sandbar on the Perdido is about as remote as one can get in this county without trespassing on private property.

The remoteness of a sandbar on the Perdido tends to create the illusion that one is far deeper in the wilderness than they actually are. The illusion will likely unsettle pavement and concrete pounders. It is, however, a pleasant illusion for a woods wanderer with a lust for wandering the woods.

There were a few signs that others use the sandbar but not nearly what I expected to see. We saw only one other person during our stay … a lone kayaker making his way down the river. https://www.alabamacanoetrails.com/perdido  

The chilly water of the Perdido creates an interesting micro-environment.

This micro-environment isn’t particularly noticeable during the day. It makes itself known at night. It cools down significantly at night along the banks of the Perdido. The micro-environment, where the river cooled air meets the warmer surrounding air, generates an unavoidable heavy saturating dew. Plan for that. Take along an extra layer of warmth in the cooler season. A warm blanket during the summer is advisable.

A lot has changed since the day when Nessmuk wandered the Northwoods.

The spaces for wandering the woods freely have greatly diminished. 

Yet, despite the losses, there are still pockets where we can escape the grips of modern times. There are still spaces where we can wander, relax, recover, and experience at least the illusion of something that existed long before our time.

I took along my camera and a GoPro to capture the trip. There is a link below to the Perdido River Overnight video on my David Kralik Outdoors YouTube channel.

Also, you can subscribe by email to receive notifications when new articles are posted here on the David Kralik Outdoors blog. The subscribe feature is in the right hand column. Fear not, folks. I do not generate spam mail.

Enjoy the adventure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw8FE63gTr0