Lets hear your Siwash stories

[medvedyt]

i have a few but i will the worst is when the hunters i was guiding refused it ... we were on a big lake in northern quebec and we were still far from the camp and the hunters got 3 caribous. weather was beautiful no wind and beautiful sunny evening.
i was showing to the hunters a beautiful beach with nice white sand and a lot of dead spruce trees that will nice fire material ... and i was already telling them about some ribs and meat above the fire as i had some spices to accomodate too ...

alas those hunters declined that lovely offer and rather be in the camp and eating the good food from the cook and helper ...

i still thinking it will have been the best siwash ever ...

 

[TaperPin]

The local hunter safety instructor ended the survival section with a suggestion that we spend the night just in what is in our day packs - close to a car, but try to make it without warming up in the car. It’s easy to think and talk about, but it wasn’t until starting firefighting that I actually did it, but it usually wasn’t hard.

Mostly we could work unlimited hours on lightning caused fires so we’d sleep a bit, work a bit all night, with unlimited firewood and a chainsaw. Still, fires are horribly inefficient heat sources - you face can be warm and back is really cold.

Then there were the fires that went out too quickly and might have had a little rain, or were cool enough for a little frost in the morning. We packed a fleece, warm hat and space blankets strung between trees to keep rain off and reflect some heat down. A second space blanket as a moisture barrier to sit on or on the far side of a small fire to help reflect more radiant heat, but our small fires were quite large.

Still, our weather was usually comfortable, like camping out for fun, with a great view of the night sky, and coyotes to get howling, just no sleeping bag or tent. Once you do it a number of times in good weather, it makes it easier to do well in worse conditions.

Outside of work, when someone wants to learn about survival stuff, we talk, plan out their pack, get suitable clothes, then they get the surprise that we’re going out to actually spend the night - “We’re going to do what?!?” It just takes a healthy amount of wood to burn, 4x as much as most people think, and a few fire brand holes burned through expensive clothes. The next morning we howl at the coyotes, and it’s like getting a Boy Scout Badge for them.

Without fire I can appreciate the importance of extra insulation.

 

[Decker9]

I could write a book on siwash campouts on mountainsides with zero gear. I always said, “your first goat, should fall off the wrong side of the mountain late in the day”, just to scar that memory in a little more lol!

My fondest one, at 8 years old after taking my first billy, wrong side of the mountain, mid September, blowing sleet and rain, nothing but the clothes on our back, and my dad’s wing around me, hunkered under a bushy balsam tree cooking goat on a stick. It sucked royaly…. Until I got home, then I knew I was going to be hooked for life (no cameras back then)

The funniest one, same story, good friends first billy, end of day, wrong side of the mountain, right to the bottom. Buddy’s did bring blankets this trip!