It’s been a long week at work; kids have been driving you crazy, and the weather has not been too cold; what would you do? I will tell you what an Average Flatlander does. Call up a buddy and head for that river valley for some Bushcraft Taco Time.
The Driftless Area is one of the very few unspoiled places to explore in the upper Midwest. The rolling plains run into the wide open valleys and drainages that surround the Mississippi. The landscape is speckled with beautiful oak forests and dotted with trout streams; small quant towns are hidden down inside the recesses of these deep valleys.
It’s almost like the Driftless has been able to escape the hands of time, it’s the perfect place to escape for the weekend, to forget the worries of the hustle and bustle of life. Sitting in a hot tent next to a warm fire with coyotes howling out their songs in the cold winter night, you get the same feeling those French trappers and traders had when a few hundered years ago the paddled down that big river and first laid eyes on those giant wooded hills.
You could say there forever. I almost did.
There are few things better in life than heading out to that wide, deep, and wild river valley for a little bushcraft. When the weather is overcast and grey, a little bit of rain in the air, it gives it all another worldy feel. It’s almost like you transported yourself back in time; it makes you wonder about the old ones who came before and walked those river bluffs thousands of years before.
Take a tarp, string it between two trees, build the perfect campfire, fire up the stove, and cook that hot ham and cheese sandwich. Get the soup boiling, dip the sandwich in, and take a big old bite. This is living life, not tied to a glowing screen.
The eagles soar, the owls hoot, and the wild geese send down their call while they call down their noisy chatter from up high. A person could stay out here forever, disconnected and far away from the troubles waiting for you at home.
The river is something that has been running its course for centuries, the animals find their home on its banks and high hills, and there is just something about a river.
Probably one of the greatest joys that can connect you to nature when you are in the outdoors, bushcrafting, camping, backpacking, whatever … is the joy of cooking your own food under the sky over a fire that you made with your own hands. Nothing better.
Char Cloth, one of those strange and distant terms you’ve probably heard of it you’ve been around the Bushcraft community for some time, yet it’s just on the fringes enough most people have either never used it, and especially never made it.
It’s that time of year again, the Christmas and Holiday season is already upon us, 2024 went flying by! If you’re like me, you might be looking for something new, something different for the outdoor adventure lover in your life, better to order early than wait till it’s too late.
If you’re in mind for some National Parks and you want to escape the crowds, I have the best-kept National Park road trip that you can ever imagine. I’m talking about epic views, plenty to do and see, with nary another soul around for miles, an outdoor adventure lovers paradise and be found in that most underrated of States. South Dakota.
Have you ever been in the backwoods … backpacking, camping, hiking, whatever … and you’re sitting there eating some nasty freeze-dried meal, or a MRE, or another stupid power bar? You start thinking about all the good food waiting for you on the other side of your trip.
Like pizza.
Today, I’m going to go over everything you need to know to plan your next Boundary Waters Wilderness Canoe trip. The first time I did this I didn’t even know where to start. You don’t know what you don’t know. The permits, the rules, the canoes, on and on. What to bring and what to plan for.
The things that can happen to outdoor adventures never cease to amaze me. Years go by, books get written, stories get made into movies, and we all know better … yet it happens again and again, like clockwork.
I was recently in the far quiet north contemplating life on the shore of Lake Superior, of course, I had a book in my hands while I listened to the crashing of the waves. A wilderness survival book nonetheless. In fact this book was about some real-life survival stories, one of which happened a mear ~50 miles or so from where I was comfortably reclining on a sofa with a hot cup of tea and my book watching the sun go down over that Big Lake.
And then, much to my surprise, as I scrolled through my phone … I saw a story pop up of basically that exact same thing happening to someone many thousands of miles away in Colorado. It was just too good to be true. Two stories, thousands of miles apart, a decade has passed … yet the same thing was still happening.