Solo Bushcraft Camp in Cold November Rain

Description

On this canoe-camping trip, I bring just the gear that I would normally carry in my day pack while out small game hunting. No tent, no sleeping pad, minimal cooking gear, small tarp, first aid kit.

Tags: My Self reliance,shawn james,winter camping,Bushcraft,Woodcraft,Survival,Primitive skills,Nature,EDC,Preparedness,Homesteading,Homestead,Hiking,Camping,Fire,Self Reliance,Self Sufficiency,Living Off The Land,Off The Grid,Survival Kit,Bushcraft Kit,Firesteel,Ferro Rod,Primitive Shelters,Feathersticks,Campfire,Campfire Cooking,Bushcraft Breakfast,Fjallraven,Wild Edibles,Foraging,Camping Hacks,Canoe,Canoeing,Fishing,Hunting,outdoors

Video Transcription

always check the contents here uh equipment bag before you leave home on a trip says integral design still tarp - what do I have in it a anywhere X like sleeping pad so I don't know if I'm going to use that pad I don't want to is kind of cheating but I certainly could have used that tarp now I have a ground sheet basically as a tarp and periods of rain coming in tonight so I have to build a better shelter here than I anticipated I might have to use my canoe so let's see what I can do [Music]

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here see if I can get down elevated a little bit better and stop bad so they took off the court there set your throat see what we can do with its ground treatment perfect at this horrible orange paracord that I do not mind cutting up so cut a couple of short legs I can see the rain clouds are starting to come in over here so I've got to get some boughs cut through this bed and some firewood got that that shitty amaura to call bushcraft black or something whatever it is that cheap cheap knife brought it on this trip again just to see what minimal equipment I could use knifes not going to fail of course but I did try to skin a deer with that a couple weeks ago and did a fine job at first but it lost its edge really quickly and it just wasn't worth the honing every five minutes so my head's going to go up at this end - to my left your right because it's a little bit higher in elevation so I'm going to start these uh pine boughs in the knee add the feet kind of facing that way then we're going to shingle them back towards the head just to give me some cushion and then I'm going to actually take those leaves and put them on top so because I don't have an under pad

I want the extra cushion the leaf or against my body instead of branches go ahead start this I don't care too much about pushing up my feet mostly my upper body of course that I want the cushion but remember it's not just for comfort is actually more for insulating my body from the air from the cold earth that is damp it's not all that cold there is damp shoving them in the ground there and I have to get pretty long to get it so that the branches are actually at my head I want to be able to have my head elevated like a pillow of course I don't bring a pillow Oh spree that has this pretty good bed might be a little low for me now but underneath that canoe but I can make it work this tarp by the way left the left the paracord on either end the tie backs tight enough or the store loose enough that I can drop the I can drop this tarp down pretty much to the ground if the rain starts coming in sideways here so I'm definitely gonna lower a little bit but let's see if I lower it all the way down and make it sort of an a-frame let's uh top under there and see you oh yeah that may literally be more comfortable than my mattress at home I wonder if my wife would go for spruce-bough or pine bough bed kind of dating it all right Percy finish bed this is me in the finish bed let me get this campfire going quick to get some firewood stashed under this canoe before that rain come I was collect a lot more firewood and especially tinder than I think I'm going to need because even if I don't plan on on having a fire in the morning or cooking in the morning if I get hypothermic in the night if I get cold or get wet on a night like tonight I want to be able to get a fire going really fast it might save my life so I'm not sure if I can have a fire in the morning or not I probably will but even if I don't I'll be happy to have this firewood stored safely also is Porten Porten rain so I'm going to put punch it would under the canoe and I've got this overhang on the rock I can get a quite a bit of quite a bit of the player wood underneath that overhang as well but it's really important to prepare for the worst always

this is why I want the boreal so it's a good job once it's put together it's probably a little bit more comfortable than the boreal 21 as well that handle slightly it's just a bit of a pain putting some oak and maple hardwood on here now I want to get some really hot coals so I can cook that so I can cook those ribs up so I'm going to try to get that down to a nice good hot pedicles that's not going to flare up it's basically a Montreal steak spice which is fennel garlic onion salt and pepper probably a couple other things in there it's kind of an all round seasoning I put it on just about everything actually these ribs are just slightly frozen they're from the deer got a couple weeks ago a few weeks ago and they are excellent just checking the time it's 4:15 and I think sundown is probably 4 44 45 but the clouds are coming in so it's starting to get dark already and temperatures starting to drop so probably going to get some warmer clothes on here in a minute just ahead probably fires nice some more but I'm going to get these things cooked up I'm going to slowly slowly so it's probably going to take like an hour still be an early dinner but I'll be right at dark and then I can figure out what to do for the next three three hours I guess and I don't know walk around in the dark let's make you tear your fingers are not inline when you push that through obviously takes a little bit of practice to feel for it that's with that light man that's pretty bright nice light for just the camp in general actually

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skip some a whole wheat Vanek standard recipe it in that anything extra to it no one nuts or seeds or fruit or anything no oil even actually let's just water flour baking soda and water flour baking soda a little bit of salt I think I put a little bit of sugar in this one too actually

come to think of it so I normally roll it out to a long like sausage and then wrap it around the stick but I think it's probably slightly easier just to do it this way ends up in the ends up the same anyway

no comments please alright she goes see if I can get some venison rib drippings on there don't want flame underneath any of the food really but especially the Bannock it'll just burn and it won't want to cook on the inside at all I got to get some more fire going over at this side of the fire and just keep pushing the coals

keep pushing the coals in there like that so as they get hot think about camping the cold seasons that took me a long time to figure this one it would somebody to have to tell me the more calories you eat before bed the the warmer you are at night because your metabolism those that food so if you can have a high fat and protein meal like this it takes a long time to digest your body will keep generating heat all night worst thing you can do during the cold seasons when you're camping is to go to bed on an empty stomach six o'clock and I am already getting tired so it's the thing about capping at this time of year by yourself especially what do you do after dark I can sit by the fire

probably carve some feather sticks or something and then I panics just to go perfect oh yeah nice crust actually even with bread I cooked at home get that nice hollow sound that means it's done perfect should have brought some butter though oh I know I didn't bring anyone - supposed to be a survival situation not a not a gourmet dinner that's easy to assemble that's its light and I think more importantly it I can stick it in my pack like Hispanics probably Bannock I made up three months ago or sauna and just leave it in the bag I always have it in my back so definitely worth carrying it's actually filling and satisfying

I want to get a few stuff feather sticks made for the morning and tied them up under these and this over under this overhead not 100% sure I'm going to be completely dry under there so even there the wood might not make it through the night dry so it's all put it under the rock here where I know 100% it's going to be dry in the morning it's calling for really heavy rain so I expect everything to be saturated in the morning everywhere around here and including me and I'm going to want to warm fire pretty quick a little bit of baking a little bit of Bannack to cook in the morning all right well it's getting close to actual sleep time got a spider making a web across the opening here already got creepy crawlies little millipedes and stuff walking around here but I'm pretty comfortable about this nice bed of boughs and got all pine boughs white pine boughs and mostly oak leaves as a cushion that's my bed God few layers on this we'll put it on Oh aromatic dryer sheets okay so that can pull up over my mouth sometimes I've even you've seen me probably wear this like that with my Tilley hat on top of that keeps my ears warm it's pretty it's thin but it's merino wool so it's actually pretty warm and it's long one so it really bunches up and get multiple thicknesses there so it's pretty warm this is my shelter for the night I think I'm going to be pretty decent like I said it would rather that came down further but we staying another night I push the canoe back a little further and make that so it's an a-frame comes down I'm a little nervous that if it rains heavy and I get some deflection in here

no I'm fully waterproof got my kayak pants on and I have my guide rain jacket on top and actually it's got a hood as well so I'm going to be I could be oh I am a hundred percent water tight for sure waterproof so a life jacket here ever had bonuses by having the canoe of course because it's a fantastic shelter it's 36 inches wide so if I could if I had my Leatherman I should have Leatherman multi-tool I would actually take this thwart off because right now it's in my kidney my kidneys leaning up against it I could get raid under this canoe I could literally pop the canoe flat and be right under this thing sleeping under it that would be fantastic so obviously water paid to canoe and that would block some of the wind I'm feeling some wind coming in here so that a little nervous about that too that's going to suck my heat away for sure I should have had it more built up more and leaves more branches and stuff or tarp break down and just let this become a cocoon holding the heat and so

unfortunately nothing I can do about it now I'll live here we are my sleeping quarters for the night 10 and down there I can feel the breeze coming in this is not 100% best shelter should have done a little bit better job I should have piled more branches off along the bottom and along this side here I could have stopped all the breeze from coming in and made this quite a warm shelter but got in the gut a little bit cocky a little bit lazy so I know I've got quite a bit of clothes on and I'm going to be fine I just could have made it a little bit better if I was staying here for another night if for sure I would shored up a little bit better anyway it is cold enough

warning it is no it was it woke up at 6:30 7:05 now was I comfortable yet the clothing was was adequate for this temperature for sure me up her body was like toasty really toasty found that if I faced out there was when coming through here because I didn't do a proper windscreen on the side of me the wind I could feel it taking the heat away from my face actually so I ended up putting my hood on then making sure I was faced into the canoe or laid on my back and looked up see if I got a paddle out of here in this wind it's a 50 kilometer an hour wind gust rate in my face the whole way back so we'll see this works work to pull enough then to get up and get a fire going and make some breakfast

yeah little bit of rain coming down here we got a head pemmican - here - maybe I'll put some of that in the Bannock that's kind of my new survival food towel beef towel and ground the venison I got some bacon that but for my sister Rhea some heritage pigs this year a banach ended up going to bed at about 750 when the rain started to start very hard so probably closer to midnight that is enough to make it uncomfortable to sit out here so yeah just before 8 o'clock so was underneath that canoe from 8 to 7 o'clock so 11 hours so I'm pretty hungry not starving by any means as enough calories grant it last night alright that is getting hot but I don't know if the rains done yet so like I'm not going to take the rain jacket off I'm going to take the down jacket off in the down hat don't need that for sure get this bacon in Bannack on Vanek I just filled it with the I just shredded a bunch of pemmican in there and pemmican that I made has beef tallow dried venison and dried blueberries so that's a nice flavor and all that fats 50% towel which is beef fat and that's going to add a lot of flavor to that Bannock make it a little bit more palatable it's okay on its own but when you use whole wheat flour yeah it's not the absolute tastiest it's nice to have a little bit of addition in addition to it

it's my natural reflector oven have to control that heat keep the flame back from the from the food and then just push the coals under there but it's pretty cool having this overhang here it really traps the heat in there cooks that Bannock gently without burning it bacon I'm just trying to crisp it up a little bit quicker bacon sandwich bacon Bannock sandwich actually

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river otters

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