Kingfisher wrote on Apr 19^th, 2012 at 5:20am:


Amen, brother!!!

Jimbo   

One thing I might add as encouragement to those who may be trying Bushwacking for the first time is to stay with it. Your body has yet to be "trained" to off trail travel. You will get better and better as time progresses. Here is a story that might illustrate......

Back in the day when I spent at least 10 hours a day in the woods it was rare that I would take a fall. It is still unusual but not quite so rare  .

One winter night we went to see a concert in Detroit......Bookies or Bookys was the place, an establishment with a reputation of ill repute, and I think the band was Iggy Pop and the Stooges. Anyway, we walked in and there was a motley assortment of bouncer type dudes at the door. Kind of surly looking, unkept, bearded, inked up biker types. We paid our money and walked in.

As I passed one heavy set fellow I felt something just barely brush up against the inside of my thigh of my trailing leg. Instinctively without breaking my stride and without any thought my leg lifted itself up and over the offending object. I looked back to see what I had brushed up against and will never forget the look on the guys face. He had sought to trip me by inserting his leg between mine as I walked by. His dropped jaw and look of being totally dumbfounded has never left me. It was priceless.

Step lightly without committing fully. Short steps are better than wide striding type steps as it is easier to keep your center of gravity should you step into a pothole. Again, pay special attention to beaver workings as they like channels and holes which tend to grass over. You never, ever want to fall.

PJ, THAT is funny!

That'd be 5-stars if it were closer to the lakeshore...  

Great picture. Worth a thousand words, as has been said.

-- kypaddler

Magicpaddler wrote on Apr 25^th, 2012 at 5:22pm:


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Magicpaddler wrote on Apr 25^th, 2012 at 5:22pm:


Good point. I figure if I can safely land the canoe, I figure between my Dri-Fly tarp/tent/hammock, I can spend a cozy night in a pinch.
I've watched in amusment as paddlers at the end of a long day and clearly exhausted, pass by one site after another looking for that 4-5 star spot
I guess if your setting up a base camp it's worth it, but for an overnight stay, it seems a little picky to me

You can almost always find a camp site Kf and I spent the night where the triangle is in the picture. That camp sight does not fit on QJ’s number of stars rating system but I slept well.
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One of my first solo trips was a bushwack and an education.  Constantly off course by 10s of degrees.

Bushwacking sucks for tripping. 
It's fun when you don't have a pack on your back and don't need to find a place to camp.

Definitely something to scout before hauling.  Do a day hike, pack a lunch, enjoy the walk.

Brush up on your map & compass skills.  A GPS is great for telling you where you are.  It doesn't replace map & compass skill.  Very easy to get turned around once there aren't any lakes or visible landmarks.

I can't ever remember not bushwacking.........when we were kids we would always look on the map for some lake back in the woods with no roads going to it......... we would ride our bikes until we were old enough to drive. In those days we fished out of truck tire tubes with a home made wood seat before the nice ones came around. There always was some stinking oozing mud to wade through before you got out there but we sure caught the heck out of the fish.

Some places were posted but we would slip in anyway. We got caught once.......the guy was so mad he was spitting......"where's those fish"!!!.......then he said he was taking us to the police station......."OK, lets go" I said............that threw him for a loop as I expected he probably thought we would start crying or something. He told us not to come back and we didn't........at least not in the daytime (I know, we were bad.....but not REAL bad).

good days........yes, bushwacking can be fun. Just ask any long haired, pimply faced teenager that is toting a truck tire bigger than he is through hells half acre with a busted rod and no bug dope.... ........yup, those were the days.