Well the weekend is over and me and Trooper went into the cold, cold of the Southwestern Ohio woods.
We set out on Friday morning, Man it was cold but it tested our skills. We hiked in about seven miles from anyone or anything being close to us, along the banks of the Great Miami River and ended up past West Harrison in Indiana. We set our camp up and the tent went up first, as Trooper dug the fire pit, started the fire ( kinda proud of him as he did it with flint and steel like I taught him) and layed the cooking grate over it.
I had forgotten the tent stakes so I made some from sapplings using my hawk and knife. We set up facing east so the wind was to our backs and the sun to our face. While I started making some of my famous Beo's Camp Stew, Trooper took a length of river cane he cut with his trusty knife, fifteen feet of fishing line and a bone hook and tossed it in the river with a piece of liver on it. Catfish fishing is a passion he has, he didn't catch squat but he only fished for a little until supper was ready.
After eating a good amount of stew we went for a hike, I let Trooper lead the way as he headed in on a deer run and hiked for several hours as we identified several plants and tracked a fox (he's getting good at tracking).
Turning around he got a bit disoriented but I showed him how to find his backtrail and off he went, although it was a bit different and a little rougher he got us back in time for an evening fire.
We sat around a roaring fire (I mean a blazing inferno he kept building bigger) keeping warm and it is times like this that I like talking with him and having a smoke on my Micmac pipe. After a few hours more we put fresh logs on the fire and turned in for the night.
Saturday morning woke us early to a light cold fog and I stoked up the fire, it was really cold but in a few minutes I had a cup of hot coffee in my hand and got breakfast going. Yeah, the smell of fresh bacon cooking and crackling over an open fire woke Trooper up and he grabbed a cup of coffee and sat next to me to warm up.
Later we took off for another hike and trooper pulled out his new hiking stick (here's a link where he got his its kinda cool)
http://www.brazos-walking-sticks.com...walking-stick/
The stick on that page is the one he has. Anyway we hiked in a different direction until around noon before turning back, that kid likes to hike and wore me out, and we followed another deer run and cut across some farmers land (hope they didn't care but we left no trace) following the river back to our camp site and arriving at about 4pm. I stoked the fire and got it going and we cooked up some great deer steaks and potatoes and baked beans, drank some cold water and I had another smoke on my micmac pipe and talked for a while, it was pretty great.
We went over to where a beaver dam is at the inlet of the creek to the river and snooped around. Now I'm going to tell you this and it sounds kinda cruel but I wanted to try it out and Trooper thought it was cool.
We have a lot of hawks in this area and I love to watch them soaring through the sky and diving down when hunting, so I had bought a white feeder mouse from Jack's Aquarium and Pets and we set it loose in the field about a mile from our camp. Now it is sold as a feeder mouse for those people that have snakes so it isn't really cruel I guess, well it took a few minutes, about twenty, but finally a hawk swooped down about forty yards from us (we were in the tree line watching) and scooped the mouse up, it was actually awesome to watch. Hope that didn't offend anyone who is squeemish or hurt your lil itty bitty feelings but that's the circle of life. Lol...
Sunday we packed up about 10am and headed back, man it was good to get outta the cold but ya know once your out there ya get used to it.
All my historical trekking and camping in 1750s clothing and using that gear is great, but when going with my son we go modern and I gotta say its a great time, this was probably the best time I've had in a long long time and doing it with my son was so great I couldn't have had a better time or companion.
Anyway hope ya like the tale of our trip.
Beo,
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