Keeping Clean In The Woods
Just went out and built the sweat lodge for this year's deer hunt. We have several deer camps in the family, but they are 100 miles north, by the Canadian border, where my mother was born. We used to have a sauna at one of our deer camps, but someone stole the stove a few years ago - plus the wolves have moved into the area and deer have been a bit sparse around there. Some of the very best hunting is close to my home, so I don't usually head north anymore.
This year I'm hunting opening weekend on a friend's property. It is posted, so I'll be alone, and there are lots of deer.
After opening weekend, the hunters get a bit more sparse and I usually head down river, by canoe, and camp on the site of an 1820 fur post. We live on a lake connected to the river and it is just a few miles down river. Close enough to go home, if I feel like it, but far enough away to make me feel like I'm in the woods.
I build my sweat lodge using saplings and a tarp or a piece of poly. I heat the stones on a fire outside the sweat lodge and move them into the lodge using two deer antlers. It is a good way to relax after a day's hunt.
Here is a site that talks about building a sweat lodge:
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2006/7/22/225040/700
