Listen as Scott chats with North Shore Radio host, Mark Abrahamson, about how five key wilderness skills to practice at home!
Pack & Paddle: Wilderness Skills to Practice at Home Transcript
0:00:00.1 Mark: WTIP's feature, Pack & Paddle, with Scott Oeth is up next. Scott is a registered Maine Guide, an Eagle Scout, and Minnesota Master Naturalist. He's an instructor for the Okpik National Cold Weather Leader School. He joins us now by phone to talk about "Wilderness Skill Building at Home. Welcome, Scott.
0:00:20.5 Scott Oeth: Good morning, Mark.
0:00:22.8 Mark: What can we do now to be better prepared for when we do get to get out in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness?
0:00:30.3 SO: Yeah. I think a lot of us are itching to get out there and dreaming of the longer trip. I'm trying to keep myself satisfied with little local hikes and adventures. And one of the things I've really been focusing on is diving deeper into skills. You can't go further down the trail, but you can go deeper into some of these skills that can really enhance future trip, lets you maybe go further or do more advanced trips, but a lot of these are just fun to work on on their own. You get that sense of satisfaction in learning something new. And so I've been thinking about a couple of scenarios I've been trying to advocate that people work on, and partly because they are fun, they're lifelong skills, but they're also ones that I commonly see people struggle with on the trips that I'm leading. And knots is one of the first ones.
0:01:16.2 Mark: And knots is one of the first ones on my list too. No matter what I can do in the woods, knots has always been my thing that I fall apart on. Talk about knots.
0:01:26.2 SO: Yeah. Knots is interesting. I can usually see right away if someone has a background that they were in the military, or they were a scout, or maybe they're a climber. Those folks often have a few knots that they're really good at. Most other people kinda struggle, and when it's time to set up the tarp, and it's raining like crazy, and you're getting that big pooled-up thing in the middle there, and they're poking it with sticks, or trying to get the bear bag hung up. If you know a few good knots and how to apply them, it's like you are a campsite magician. And it makes your life so much easier from just setting up a nice snug, dry camp and being able to take it down quicker. And so a few things. Being able to create a fixed loop, the bowline is the classic. There's many different ways you can use it. We've written up a really detailed post on a couple of those different bowline techniques. I really recommend people get that first.
0:02:14.9 SO: Being able to effectively join two ropes in a square knot, I think sheet bend is better. There's a fisherman's knot, so being able to put two ends together. But some of the things that really make a big difference in camp, being able to create an adjustable loop. So when you tie out your tent or your rain fly, your tarp, being able to cinch that and adjust the tightness without having to re-tie it, it makes life so much easier. So the taut-line hitch is the basic one for that, and the trucker's hitch is the next level up. You get a mechanical advantage, actually two to one, and you can really stretch a super tight ridge line for a tarp or a clothes line. Very importantly, if you're tying canoes on the roof of your vehicle with a rope as opposed to straps, you need to know the trucker's hitch. It's a fantastic knot.
0:03:01.4 Mark: Well, now, I do believe I know those knots. I just don't know them by name. So do you have a guide for people to practice with?
0:03:11.8 SO: Yes. So we have a few of the knots on our site, and actually I've been working this weekend on a post that's related to the things that we're talking about. We should have that up today, a little bit later on today, but yeah, the trucker's hitch is great. And you know, Mark, knowing how to tie those knots is slippery. So leaving a tail end like how you tie your shoelace, so when you get to the end and you're breaking camp, you can just tug, and the whole knot unravels. It's really wonderful to just untying those.
0:03:37.7 Mark: Just like magic.
0:03:39.5 SO: That's right.
0:03:40.1 Mark: How do I practice navigation in my living room?
0:03:44.4 SO: I think first of all making sure that you know the basics, so understand the parts of the compass, know how to read a map. Again the basics, there's what's called generically, the SILVA 1-2-3 system, where you use the base plate of your compass to measure between where you are and the point you wanna go to, and then you line up the magnetic needle with the north on the compass dial, and then you sight your bearing or your azimuth. And that's a very basic step, but a lot of people are completely reliant on their cellphone, and they're surprised when they go out in the woods, and guess what, there's no service, or they run out of battery because too much time away, or it's cold and the battery's plummeted. So basic map and compass skills are great. There's some wonderful videos and tutorials online. Navigation never seems as exciting until you're out there and it's getting dark and you're a little bit confused and really wondering where you're at.
0:04:38.5 Mark: Well, and a lot of us got used to over the many years ago, there used to be portage markers, there used to be signs to tell you what portage you were at, and I've passed up some portages in the last couple of years, not exactly navigating correctly.
0:04:53.7 SO: Yup, yup, yup, it can happen. And I think something like navigation, maps, all these skills, there's the basic core level that you really need for a safe Boundary Waters trip, and you can just go on and on and on. And I've been having fun reading... There's a British fella named Tristan Gooley, and he has written amazing stuff on natural navigation. How to look at nature's clues to maybe not give you perfect direction but to really give you a sense of indication which way you're going, which way the clouds are traveling, which way the trees are leaning, where moss is growing on a shoreline or in the water because the sun's coming at a certain angle, just fantastic stuff. You can take this a long ways.
0:05:33.3 Mark: And speaking of where you're going, paddle strokes, so you're not going in circles. Talk about paddle strokes.
0:05:40.8 SO: Yeah, I think this is a kinda funny one. If you're not able to get on the water or you don't have a canoe, you don't have access to it, you can still work on paddle strokes. And in guiding trips, I'm often coaching folks and giving them some pointers on strokes, and it's helpful, but what I've also noticed is when you're in the moment and you got a lot of things going on, if you're new to this, you kinda get that tunnel vision, you get locked up. If someone's fighting the wind and waves, and they're trying to keep up with their group, or they're going down the river and they see rocks and rapids approaching, often they just revert back to what they've always done, which might not be the correct or the most effective strokes. And in a lot of sports, you step outside of that moment of competition and you work on the mechanical technique. You do dry land training with these strokes, and I think it can help a lot.
0:06:27.9 SO: The classic one for the Boundary Waters would be the J-stroke, how will you do a corrective stroke so you can cruise along in a nice straight line without having to switch sides all the time and without having to do what... You don't wanna be labeled as a goon stroker, which is the backwards version of the J-stroke where your water... So I've got a description written up on the blog, but you can grab a paddle, you can grab a broomstick, a 2x4 and just work on that basic stroke, and note, "Am I turning my top hand thumb down towards the water and prying out with the power face?" And that can be what you can practice and refine that J-stroke without even being in the water.
0:07:05.9 Mark: And then if you could just get your partner in the bow to practice with you, it'd be great.
0:07:12.6 SO: Yeah, that's absolutely right, absolutely.
0:07:15.3 Mark: Alright, fire making. Now, this is something that... Yeah, this could be fun. You could work on this outside at home with your kids and stuff, how to make a fire.
0:07:21.6 SO: Yeah, absolutely. If you have a barbecue grill or a trash can lid or something like that, you can actually make fires. Even if you can't, if you're in an apartment, I think there's still things you can do. So practicing, so you get really good at lighting a fire, a one-match fire, a nice bright, hot fire that flames up quickly in tough conditions, that's a fantastic skill to have. If you've ever asked someone, "Do you have a fire starter," or you've spent a lot of time huffing and puffing on your knees blowing into the fire, it might be a sign that you could freshen up this skill a bit. I think some of the things you can do at home is think about the Boundary Waters or where you intend to travel and read up and study the natural tinders that are in that area. I'm a big advocate of people always carrying man-made emergency tinder. I love Vaseline-soaked cotton balls in a waterproof container, but when you're in the field, take the time. Think about Catskill flies or shredded dried grass or dried red pine needles or the inner bark of poplars, cedar trees that's roughed up and fluffed up. Understanding these natural materials can go a long way, and also the wood. What type of wood burns? Pines are smoky and sappy and spark. Poplar makes a nice firewood. Cedar's fantastic. I always find that there's... Yeah.
0:08:36.0 Mark: Speaking of fire, people need to be careful with fire right now too 'cause we are at some fire risk up here, so like you said, a trash can top or something like that to practice with so that you're not starting any big fires right now.
0:08:49.5 SO: Absolutely. And the next level skill, if you feel real good about your fire lighting, dive into fire by friction. It's so much fun. I found it to be a hobby in and of itself. We can bow drill and hand drill, primitive fire techniques, and that's something that you can do in your basement or your garage 'cause it doesn't burst into a flame. The objective is you create a little hot pile of dust and you get it glowing, kinda like the end of a cigarette. That's success right there. So you might create a little smoke that smells like incense, but there's something about it that is so primal, the element of rubbing sticks and making the element of fire. It's deeply satisfying and just a lot of fun.
0:09:22.8 Mark: Now, finally, on your list is knife handling skills. Talk about that.
0:09:28.6 SO: Yeah. First of all, understanding how to use a knife, how to use it safely and effectively makes camp life a lot better, and here again it's fun, just the simple satisfaction of using a tool and working with your hands, creating something. I think sharpening a knife... I've seen a whole lot of dull knives come out in the field. So it's one of those things, people will go, "I'll do that later. I'll look into that later." Well, now might be the later. You have a little time on your hands in the evening while you're scrolling through Netflix. Learn how to put a really nice edge on your knife, and it'll treat you right when you're out in the field.
0:10:03.0 SO: And I think the next thing, study grips and techniques. The intuitive thing is for most people to take a knife in a forehand grip and hold it out at arm's length and slash through whatever they're cutting, a stick or a rope. That's fine in a lot of cases, but it does tend to have you working further away from yourself, and at night, especially if it's dull, comes flying off the other end. And what I've seen in real life in camp is it might be that rainy day where a couple of people are routed under a rain fly, working at cooking, you're trying to cut something. There's a few grips that are a little safer, and one's called the chest lever, where you hold the knife close to your chest with the blade turned sideways. It's very powerful, and it's a very short movement of the knife. It gives you fantastic control.
0:10:45.1 Mark: We are talking with Scott Oeth. You can follow his adventures at www.bullmoosepatrol.com. And you mentioned that you're putting together a piece on these subjects that are gonna be on your website?
0:11:01.4 SO: That's right. We've got all this written up with photos, and so it'll be going up on bullmoosepatrol.com. We'll be sharing on Bull Moose Patrol on Facebook, and when we can get together again, we do live classes and guided trips where we teach these types of skills.
0:11:15.0 Mark: And at bullmoosepatrol.com, you can also click on the WTIP web sign, and you can listen to a previous adventure with Scott Oeth this morning. Thank you very much for talking with us today, Scott.
0:11:29.1 SO: Thanks, Mark. It was great. Talk to you later.
0:11:30.4 Mark: Alright.