Medicine Hat - Canada

So after a couple of days of getting my bearings in Calgary, i decided it was time i visited my buddy, Dave, who lived with his parent sin the next city across, still a 3 hour drive to get there...here are a few pictures of Med Hat, i'll update with what i did there tomorrow.

Putting it all together.

Hi folks,
             This is just a check list for what people are going to need in the Fire Starting tutorial, i'm hoping to add a video on to the end where i put it all together and light a fire in damp outdoor conditions.

Heres what you'll need:

Lighter/Flint striker/Matches
Cotton Wool balls
Petroleum Jelly
Sticks/Twigs
Waterproof Storage Bag

Here it all is (minus twigs)

Check back later for the next post,


Oh Gawd im excited....

Thats not a knife.....

This is is a knife.

Alot of people have asked me recently what type of knife to buy for hiking and general purpose, i have seen alot of friends go and buy cheap knifes that rust after their first real test. This is my knife of choice........

Leatherman Skeletool Multi-Tool

This baby has been with me now for around 4 years, its survived survival training with the Marines, Firefighter training centre, many many hikes and is now my current Fire Kit knife of choice.

The blade is a lock out blade. It has a screwdriver with two attachments for different screw heads, (Posi - Neg) small snap hook attachment and turns into a very good pair of pliers.

The tool is nice and small and slips into any pocket easily. For me the best part of this knife is the build quality, ive put it through some tough tests and it still looks knew, the blade has been re-sharpend once.

This will be my knife of choice for my Trek, complete with a lanyard so i dont lose it.

Get yourself one.

Lanyard



Hope you find this helpful.

Inspirational

The music score for this is WOW

What to Pack? And Where?

Here, we go. After sleeping off the effects of my last night shift at work (and as promised) i decided its time to start planning what im going to take and where im going to put it.

Here goes.

On My Person

Boots
Socks
Bicycle Shorts
Hiking Trousers
Basic Undershirt
North Face Tri Climate Coat
Decent Pair of Gloves
Some Kind of Hat
Watch
Compass
Some Kind of Mint Cake
Jelly
Map
Phone
Whistle
Torch
Walking Stick
Shades (Cause im cool yeah.....)


Bergen

Tent
Sleeping Bag
Spare Everything (Socks, Shorts, etc)
Warm Kit
Dry Kit
24hr Ration Pack
Cooking Stove
Survival Tin
Firelighting Kit
First Aid Kit
Wash Bag
Money


This is my first draft can anybody see any glaring holes?

Cheers guys.

The Walk to Work

I work 7 miles from where I live, I currently work as a Fire-Fighter, this means I sometimes have to work night shifts. So this afternoon I decided that tonight would be my first training walk/hike. I strapped all my kit that I needed for a night on station into my Bergen, whacked my boots on and plugged in my IPod. 1hr 40mins later I arrive at work. Tired and with a blister on the bottom of my hee, the size of a goats ball bag.

My fitness felt good for the yomp, I felt I could have carried on, the only problem is "Ze Blister". I've put it down to the kind of sock I'm wearing. So the next priority is to go and aquire severel good pairs of hiking socks and get them tested by walking into work again.

I'm pretty happy tonight too as I have my first member of my blog.

WELCOME

This is only a small update, I'll be updating tomorrow with my provisional kit list for everything I think I'm going to need.

Good night dudes.