A day of wandering

One of the first days of the term we broke up into our new clans and went on wanders. Trestle swamp, pictured here, ended up being our destination in the sense that we ate lunch there and more or less started heading back (by a different route) when we left it. It was my first time there and we saw what we think was an otter. We then built a fire, which was quite a challenge since we were in the middle of a long streak of consecutive rainy days in the area, but we finally managed with the proper application of pitch.

We found this amazing skeleton earlier in our wander. We were surprised by how little it had been disturbed. The best explanation we could think of was that it died of some disease which made it unappealing to other animals. Though we had some identification guesses, none of them seemed to fit the skeleton. It wasn't until we got back to look at some field guides that we decided it was a possum.

Rain

Just down the road from my house is an overlook of the Snoqualmie valley. This left picture was taken shortly after I moved there in September.

It's been raining quite a bit in the Seattle area lately and now near Duvall many fields are now large puddles. Cherry Valley which borders Snoqualmie Valley near here is affectionately known as Cherry Lake at times like this. One of the fields that borders the highway that runs through Duvall has had several swans swimming over it the past few times I've driven by. The right picture was taken this morning.

Winter Break

I've been away from school for a few weeks, but we'll be starting up again in a couple of days now.

Near the beginning of break I had an enjoyable trip to some hotsprings near North Bend (Washington). I don't remember the name of them, but they were nice, out of the way, run by a non-profit group. There was a long stretch of gravel road - about 16 miles of it - leading up to the trail. We would have had a lot longer to walk if we hadn't had a 4wd truck. There was a log to be driven over, several fairly sizable pot holes, and snow to slog through. Once we got to the parking area there was a short walk to the campground - short if you are willing to wade through a knee deep icy cold river anyway, otherwise you can take the 3 mile walk around.
The campground and hotsprings were in a lovely forest with a creek running down one side. Along with several large trees there is a huge doug-fir on the trail up to the springs. The main pool is set back in a cave that goes back probably around twenty feet. It is difficult to take the heat in that pool for long periods of time, but the middle pool, while much smaller is a very nice temperature, the bottom pool is on the cool side though comfortable and there is a cold water pool off to the side for those feeling adventurous.

After the hot springs trip I drove over to Idaho to spend some time with family and friends. While on the farm I went out with my dad and collected a bunch of different woods to try friction fires with.

Tracks and Cordage

A couple weeks ago we processed nettles that we had collected earlier in the term and used them to make cordage. It was surprisingly easy. To process the nettle we split the dried stalk and flattened it a bit, then snapped and pulled off small (an inch or three) sections of the inner wall from the fiberous outer material, working up the plant until all that's left are the fibers (being particularly careful around the joints of the stalk). Then we buffed the fibers a bit by rubbing it back and forth in our hands and carefully removed the chunky bits that tend to occur around the joints.

With the fibers processed we were ready to make cordage. The technique we used is called the reverse wrap. Taking two groups of strands you hold them from the end (or fold a group of strands in the middle and use the two halves), take the top bundle and twist it away from you than wrap it under the bottom bundle and repeat (now with the bundle that was originally on the bottom). The idea is that the twisted fibers are going against the direction of the wrapping so they won't unravel on their own very easily. You can also do reverse wrap with more than two bunches using the same process of taking the top one, twisting it and moving it to the bottom.

I made the top cord with some arts and crafts grass that the instructors gave us to practice with, the second cord is out of a stalk of nettle I processed and the third is a triple reverse wrap using strands of cattail. I was able to break the cattail cord with a fairly strong pull. Pulling as hard as I could, I was unable to break the grass or the nettle cord, though with two of us pulling pretty hard we managed to break the nettle (we didn't try that with the grass).

The top/left track is from the cougar that I was wrote about on the first. The bottom/right track is from the dog we were out with (a medium-large mutt). Though the picture isn't great for details, I can clearly see two of the major cougar vs. dog differentiators and can sort of see two others.

On Fire

I've pretty much stopped counting how many friction fires I have achieved, but I haven't stopped practicing. The other day I tried out a new technique - I spun the hand drill while my roommate applied pressure with a handhold. We got a coal in no time. On the other hand I tried this morning at school (where we were basically outside so the temperature and humidity were less favorable than in the house where I'd done it before) and got some smoke but broke two spindles without getting a coal. So more work to be done before deciding how useful the technique is.

A while ago my brother asked me how it was that I was struggling with starting a fire by lighter but was being successful with friction fires. There are a couple of parts to the explanation. First is that I've mostly practiced friction fires inside with nice dry tinder bundles and kindling, while my attempts at lighter fires are outside - generally with damp everything. The second part is that in some ways it is easier to get a fire started from a coal than from a lighter because a good coal can dry out damp material around it and continue to supply heat until it flames up (though obviously the dryer the material the better.) With a lighter it can be difficult to apply even heat for long periods (I've had a couple lighters break on me because I kept the flame going for too long).

During the trip described in my last post Matt and I decided to try making a fire while out on our bike ride. He was skeptical that we could get a friction fire going, but I took that as a challenge and we scavanged a kit together. We even scavanged some twine to use as the bowdrill cord although it didn't take too long before we replaced it with some that he had brought with him (the twine had a strong fraying tendency). We tried the partner bowdrill method with big leaf maple on big leaf maple and later with doug-fir on big leaf maple (both of which I've had success with at home). We didn't manage to get a coal with the partner method, I think that the bow was a bit too long an unwieldy (I'd chosen a long one with the partner method in mind, but I guess should have stuck with a normal length bow). We tried for quite awhile, but eventually gave up as our arms got tired, our feet and hands continued to get colder, and our cord broke. We then tried for awhile to get a lighter fire started. We began by trying shavings from the big leaf maple. Matt was able to get single shavings burning, but never managed to get a critical mass going. While messing around with the big leaf maple sticks we had I noticed that I was able to pull off good strips of thin inner bark, much of which had remained dry (though only on some of the branches). That seemed like it would make good tinder, so I got as much of it as I could and split it up a bit into narrower strips. Matt was getting ready to start back because of the cold, but I wanted to make one good try with the inner bark, and sure enough it lit and started burning well. It did the second time anyway. The first time the flame was too close to my fingers so I dropped the bundle and it spread apart too much. The second time I held the bundle together with one of the longer shavings. We then used the shavings and some twigs to get the fire going and ended up staying there for another hour or so enjoying the fire and eating lunch.