Happy New Year!

As I was Up North visiting my parents during the New Year holiday I took the opportunity to get out on new years day for a quick day hike. Original plan was to go solo but my oldest daughter, and then my Step Father and Comet (his labradoodle) tagged along as well.

They live out by the airport in Bemidji, MN. cross their street is a big patch of stat land and some potlatch owned land as well. In short a nice little woods to walk through.

The temp for our hike was in the 20's and over cast. A slight wind but all together not too bad at all. I grabbed some survival kit stuff for my pockets, my water bottle and my Turley Green River knife and off we went.

Ok, in the above pic is the kit that I brought with. there are some gaps, calculated risk given that I was within 1/4 mile from home and everyone at home knew exactly were we were going. Cell service was excellent as well.

Top left is my orange REI Nalgene. orange so I can see it out in the woods when I set it down. Next is a little altoids kit: Wolf Creek Forge knife, exotac nanotstriker, boullion cube, 3 PJC's, some bandaids, a bic lighter and about 12 square inches of tin foil. A zebra mechanical pencil I just happened to have in my pocket. Finally a piece of an old army VS-17 signal panel about 18" wide by 3' long. As you can see it's blaze orange on one side, the reverse is hot pink. Very visible especially in winter conditions when the world turns pretty drab.

Upper middle is an emergency blanket and a UCO stormsafe match box with lifeboat matches inside. Next to that is a signal mirror I have been carrying since my days in the Infantry in Alaska. Below that is a piece of wetfire tinder, my SAK farmer with a ferro rod attached and, of course, the Turely.

In hindsight I should have grabbed the 25' coil of 550 cord I brought up too since I had room for it. I also need to get a nesting SS cup for that nalgene, that has been a need of mine for a while and I will be addressing it very soon with an REI gift card I got as a Christmas present.

Ok, gear all set and off we went!

Water Bottle fit perfectly in my Bushcrafters dump pouch by Badger Claw Leather works, thanks again John! You can also see how bright that panel is sticking out above my pocket.

We set out down the trail, with the 2 dogs with us finding any other animal tracks was tough but we managed a few.

 The dogs quickly found some predators left overs,just hidden under a thin blanket of snow.

 Hard to see in the following pictures but we found, rabbit, partridge and mouse tracks.

Comet, our companion, runs about 90 lbs. He's what I would call a pretty good sized dog. Here is a shot of him and one of his print next to my hand for a size reference. If I come across another variety of canine track in the woods be it wild or domestic, at least I can gauge it's size a bit better. We do have coyote and wolves in this area and the area of our cabin which is about an hour south near Park Rapids.

 I didn't set out to practice any skills, just get out in the clean cold air and enjoy a little hike. In that respect I was a success. The fact that my video game centered oldest daughter volunteered to come along and spend time out with Dad (and Grampa and the dogs) means it was an unparalleled success. I'm always happy to spend time out in nature and when I can share that with my loved ones I cherish the time even more.

I hope everyone can get out this year and enjoy the wilderness and nature, even if its just a small hike with your loved ones.