Ultralight & Bushcraft Backpacking. Part ll

• Episode Focus: Intersection of ultralight backpacking and bushcraft
• Key Topics:
  • Practical ways to lighten your pack
  • "Big four" essentials: backpack, tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad
  • Integration of bushcraft skills to enhance outdoor experience
  • Insights on modern lightweight gear and traditional bushcraft techniques
• Goal: Inspire and equip listeners for their next adventure
• Format: Two-part episode

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Transcript

Ultralight backpacking meets bushcraft part l & ll

Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. 

Welcome to the Rivery Nature Podcast. I'm your host, Chad Clifford, and in today's episode, we're connecting some dots between ultra-light backpacking and bushcraft, or survival skills. Now, it's fair to think that there's a big difference in heading out into the woods with bushcraft on your mind in comparison with a modern ultra-light backpacking approach using the latest and greatest technologies for the outdoors.

But really, I think if we explore, you know, the definitions of bushcraft and this ultra-light backpacking, there's a lot of crossover and a lot to be learned. In the Rivery Nature Podcast, you can expect to find a wide variety of topics on the nature experience. From bushcraft, survival skills, nature lore, animal tracks and sign, storytelling, nature soundscapes, and much more, these are the lessons and skills I've been teaching for decades.

So before we dig in, please take a moment to subscribe and consider offering your support to the podcast. You know, I find it fascinating how backpacking has evolved over time. You know, especially nowadays, there's a trend for this ultra-light or minimalism approach in terms of efficiency of gear and the weight of it.

This shift towards the lighter equipment has certainly made it more accessible for the outdoor enthusiasts. Meanwhile, bushcraft can complement this by focusing on the essential skills for sustained bush living, emphasizing minimal reliance on these modern tools. Both approaches highlight different aspects of the wilderness experience though.

First, let's talk about ultra-light backpacking. I did go down a bit of a rabbit hole recently digging into the ultra-light world of technology and backpacking, partly because I needed to update my gear. It's obvious that, you know, I'm not exactly going ultra-light when I'm doing the more typical backpacking.

I did end up on some very interesting websites and good YouTube videos and whatnot. There's one site by a person named Noel, Noel Krasomil, and he has a website called The Packable Life. Check this out, it's pretty neat.

Anyway, here's a description of what he describes ultra-light backpacking as, and I'm not going to do it quite word for word, but this is where I'm getting it from, and it seems to jive well with other stuff I've come across on ultra-light backpacking. It's basically a minimalist practice, going as light as possible and yet having everything you need to remain comfortable, or mostly comfortable, and safe in the woods. There's a lot of talk about base weight, and that being the most important in your pack as far as going light.

What is the base weight? Those are the things that are non-perishable, the pack itself, as well as your tent, your sleeping pad. What it would not include would be things like food and fuel for your stove. And of course, backpacking, ever since the first pack probably went on someone's back.

There's been motivation to go lighter, and the technology that people have used, whether it was from a more primitive sort, using lighter skins or thinner skins, lighter sticks for your pack, through to the Nelson backpack, on to the synthetics and where we're at now. There's always really been a strive to get some of that weight off your back, hasn't there? Let's jump over into bushcraft now, and I've been practicing bushcraft, I've been reading about the definitions for years now, and it's pretty hard to settle on what the modern meaning of bushcraft is. So let's take one of the gurus of bushcraft, Morris Kowhansky, I should say one of the more modern gurus, you know, 70s and 80s, 90s.

A lot of our TV personalities that you see on the survival like shows, they definitely are using the lineage through Morris Kowhansky, who has a book called Northern Bushcraft. Anyway, from the preface of this book, Northern Bushcraft or this book was written as they state to provide a practical information on the more important crafts that are used in bush living specific to the Northern Forest. So he states in the preface, it's not a manual on wilderness camping or survival, but really the basic existence skills that you need when you are in the woods or the bush.

So it also talks about a minimal dependence on technology and tools. Now, on one hand, there's quite a contrast, isn't it? It's not quite the rejection of the modern technology, and yet it purposely tries to minimize the use of modern technology. Instead of modern technology, we would use the bushcraft, bushcraft or hunter-gatherer skills, the skills or knowledge to work with your environment.

Now, here's the dilemma for me. I've been trying and playing with these bushcraft skills and primitive living skills of all sorts for many years. And let's face it, when I go into the woods and I want to practice bushcraft or go full on primitive or survival, you know, there's a lot of work.

It doesn't have to be tons of work, but you're going into an environment, you're making a shelter, you're cutting sticks for a shelter. You know, there can be a lot of setup depending on the time of year. And that could be winter camping and making an igloo or a quincy.

In other words, a snow shelter. There's a lot of work involved and a lot of your time is spent on preparing for the evening, preparing water, you know, for suitable drinking. Whereas the ultralight backpacking or the modern backpacking doesn't worry about that stuff.

And you're probably in national parks or are protected areas where you can't really do that kind of stuff anyway. Your impact would be too great. I know bushcraft and survival skills can have a very light impact if you know what you're doing, but not, you wouldn't, you're not even allowed to do that kind of stuff in a park situation.

You're not allowed to grab any kind of live plant and manufactured into a tool. Whereas backpacking, modern backpacking and the modern gear, that's the conveniences, isn't it? It's using the latest and greatest. You bring your stove and your fuel.

You use your pots, you light up, you know, your stove. You cook your food, you filter your water. Everything's but convenience and speed.

And it makes the trip much easier. There are things you give up though. When you're in the woods, and I've heard this backpack being called, you know, like the astronauts backpack, you're an alien in the environment.

You can't get on with the woods or you wouldn't survive without your modern ties, you know, to Urbania. And that's the view of bushcrafters, I think often have of modern backpackers, they're missing that primitive experience. They're surrounding themselves with the gear to help them get by in this hostile environment.

I know it's not, uh, ultralight backpackers wouldn't look at it this way, of course, but that's how some bushcrafters view it. It's, it's, and they're trying to reject that. And there's a lot of good reasons to reject some of these things.

You want a primitive experience. What is the nature experience? Isn't it getting out to escape the modern life, to escape the cars, ideally to escape cell phones and yes, even that GPS unless you really need it. Uh, it could be in your backpack hidden and still be there if you actually do need it, but it's getting away from the technology and the screens and just experiencing nature and how great to do that when you surround yourself.

Uh, and we're getting into the aesthetics of nature now, aren't we? Not surrounding yourself with all the synthetics and those mental ties back to the manufacturing, uh, or urban environment. And, you know, you could go extreme on this and wear skins and, you know, have chert or, or natural blades to do your bushcraft and primitive living skills. If we're talking about bushcraft and not primitive living skills, and I like all of these skills, I really, really do dig into it.

Bushcraft is purposely the mix of the modern and the primitive. Uh, we could just consider the primitive being the stuff that works when the other stuff fails, it's the old school technologies that work. You know, the friction fires, if you're good at it, you know, how quickly do lighters fail and matches fail all the time.

I've seen it happen numerous different ways, things that should be bomb proof you would think, and they just fail or usually it's by the user that the reason they fail, but you know, paper matches. Yeah, good luck with that in the damp environment. And all this talk about the aesthetics of your experience and what you surround yourself with, you know, the old fashioned canvas packs versus the modern synthetic oil based packs.

Yeah, there is an aesthetic component there, more mental ties, but let's face it, even the modern canvas pack or the old fashioned canvas pack, like cotton canvas, it does look slightly more timeless, but it came right out of a mill somewhere too, right? It, it was manufactured. So yeah, it's, it's just different levels of the nature experience. There's that romantic kind of era of the woods where you're picturing folks with their wool clothing on and their old fashioned packs, you know, offers a bit more of a timeless element, doesn't it? Compared to the synthetics and the latest and greatest.

And when we get into clothing, you know, you can have your synthetic clothing, but compare that with wool and a little bit of moisture. Like when you, there's all kinds of reasons why wool clothing works better in many situations and is safer and is natural and makes you feel a little less tied to the urban settings and technology. Anyway, Bushcraft is not the full rejection of modern gear.

It's just not. Bushcraft has long been, and we're talking about before Morris Gohanski and these more recent figures, has long been the combination of technology and traditional or primitive skills. And if you want to be safe in the woods, you really do want to have some backups, like know how to find natural shelter, know how to get water that's safe for drinking without your, you know, fuel stove and getting into fuel stoves versus a fire.

You know, think of the impact on the land. Think of what you're doing. You'd be hard pressed to convince me that a fuel stove doesn't have a lot of impact.

If you consider the mining and the fossil fuels you're using, you know, for you just to have your stove there, let alone burning the fuel there, you know, compare that with burning wood. Yeah, you probably are more impactful by using firewood and whatnot and burning fires and plus in most parks and public areas, the places have been picked through for wood and firewood. And it's kind of hard to get a fire going anyway, when it's that picked through, if you're in a more popular spot.

Okay, enough of that background chatter. Let's get into the process I went through recently on updating my gear very much influenced by the ultralight. I won't call it the fad, but because it's been going on forever, but this ultralight backpacking setup that people talk about.

And I quickly realized when I got the scale out and I started measuring the weight of some of the gear I'm using and a lot of my more modern gear from the eighties and nineties is heavy. At the time it was considered lightweight and, you know, decent because no one wants to be carrying heavy backpacks and stuff like that. But boy, you know, that the gear lasted a long time and it's some of it's still going, but skip forward 10, 15 years.

The technology has changed. Things can be way later now. So let's talk about the big four modern backpacking.

If you're not aware, there's a lot of talk about the big three or the big four. These are the things that take up weight and bushcrafters and survivalists. Pay attention.

You might know this or you might not. And boy, things are changing. There's fabrics out there.

They're so lightweight. You can have backpacks well under two pounds now. And in fact, I would say around two pounds or under is where a full sized backpack is, if you are considering ultralight packing, ultralight packing, I should say.

So if you're trying to get that base weight down to 10 pounds. Yeah, you're not going to do it with like the backpacks. I have a six pounder and a 10 pounder.

Good grief. There's much better options out there now. So let's dig into the big four.

Your backpack, number two, your tent. Number three, your sleeping system, which is your sleeping bag and your sleeping pad. They can be rolled together as one as a sleeping system and call it your big three or separate your pad and sleeping bag and call it the big four.

So as I mentioned, I'm focusing on backpacking, not canoe camping, where a little more weight is not a big deal. It can be depending on the type of canoeing you're doing. And if there's a lot of portagers and you're trying to do it in a single trip, that's another story.

But we're talking about backpacking. So your backpack. And I'm the type of person who's collected a few backpacks.

I even inherited a Trapper Nelson backpack. Search that on the Internet. Trapper Nelson packs.

Pretty amazing. It's actually an adaptation from more nomadic lifestyles, or I think it was from the Inuit. This pack was kind of designed, but a lot of similarities.

This Trapper Nelson pack had a frame, but it kept the weight of the pack or the actual gear in your pack off your back. In other words, there was airspace. So, you know, you wouldn't build up too much sweat.

Good technology. There was no waist belt, though. Anyway, old heavy packs like that to, like I said, my modern synthetic packs, which are ringing in at six and 10 pounds.

I needed to get something much lighter. One of the reasons I simply don't get out backpacking as much is because of the weight of the pack. You know, if you're if you're lugging around a 30 and 40 or even worse backpack, 30 and 40 pounds, I should say, that's a lot of weight and it's tiring.

You know, go out and try 10 kilometers with a 40 pound pack on. It'll be long before 10 kilometers that you will appreciate a lighter pack. I guarantee it.

Anyway, digging into the backpack. The there's all kinds of brands out there now, and I won't get into necessarily the brand names, but it's not that expensive to go or get near a two pound backpack. And we're talking one with shoulder straps and a nice waist belt that is comfortable and can carry weights of up to 25 or 30 pounds.

And all in, you should be cashing it or you should be rolling in or, you know, below 30 ideally with your food and all your perishables. Yes, you do have to buy into it, though, if you're trying to get a backpack that's decent for under a pound. I don't know about that.

You're going to be paying, you know, we're talking hundreds of dollars, probably over 500 Canadian. So but you can get close to two pounds without breaking the bank. You just have to be a little choosy and search around and you'll find something.

OK, so if you can get in with a two pound backpack, great. I'm not going to talk about backpack fitting and all that types of stuff. That's, you know, for the store to help you with your own research.

But a light backpack is the bomb. And I've tried making bushcraft light backpacks using three sticks in a bag. And I think what was called or is starting to be called the Ray or Roy Craft Backpack.

And that's one of Morris Kielanski's influences. Really, it's just like a three stick pack with a bag on it. And I think that's been used kind of forever.

You know, back to hunter gatherer times. I've used that and I can get it. If it's really if I keep the gear inside light or limited, it's sort of comfortable.

But at the same time, there's no waist belt. So you have to exclude most conveniences if you're going that route. Anyway, backpack.

That's one of the big four. If you can get your backpack weight down to two pounds, you're doing good. If you can go under two pounds, you're probably paying for it.

But check your backpack. You know, us as traditional folks are bushcrafters. When we bring backpacks, sometimes we're buying these beautiful canvas, you know, green canvas packs with some leather on it and all the trim.

Oh, boy, those things are nowhere near two pounds. Not the ones that are going to carry much gear anyway. So if you want to get out there more often, you need the lighter gear.

Otherwise, you know, you're not going to be too motivated if you have to go out with 40 pounds, right? Keep it light. Keep it simple. You'll get out there more.

And isn't that the point? Join us next week as we continue this discussion on ultralight, backpacking and bushcraft. Thank you for joining us on the Reverie Nature podcast. Remember to subscribe for more captivating episodes exploring the wonders of the natural world.

Until next time, may you sontre forth, embracing nature song and may the whispers of the wilderness linger in your heart.

transsript ll ultralight backpacking meets bushcraft part ll 

Welcome to the Rivery Nature Podcast. I'm Chad Clifford, your host, and today we continue in part two, where we are connecting some dots between ultra-light backpacking and bushcraft, or survival skills. In part one, we looked at ultra-light backpacking and bushcraft, and kind of touched on the definitions a little bit on what each means, and how they can help one another in getting your packs lighter and getting you out into the woods more.

We left off talking about the big four, and these four items are what you can do to really reduce the weight of your pack. It starts with your backpack itself, your tent, your sleeping bag, and your sleeping pad. For every nature podcast, you can expect to find a wide variety of topics on the nature experience, from bushcraft, survival skills, nature lore, animal tracks and sign, storytelling, nature soundscapes, and much more.

These are the lessons and skills I've been teaching for decades. So before we dig in, please take a moment to subscribe and consider offering your support to the podcast. So let's move on now in our big four.

Let's talk about the tent briefly. You know, it's still hard to get much under three pounds unless you're going to pay big money for it, and I'm talking over $500 Canadian. If you want to get like under one pound tent, yeah, you're going to pay for it.

When I look back to my tent that I bought in the 90s, it was a Meteor Light Sierra Design two-person tent. It was considered a pretty nice light tent of the time, that is for sure. It rings in at six pounds.

I have a very light four-person tent, and you know, if you, it's nine pounds, but if you take that nine pounds and divide it by four, because there's four people sleeping in it, you know, now you're not talking too bad. Two plus pounds per person for that tent. That's not bad.

It's not very durable either, this particular tent. But anyway, for a solo backpacking, a six-pound tent, yikes, I'm trying to get my base or my big four down to ten pounds total, and a six-pound tent is not the way to do it. And this technology, you know, a 90s tent, 1990s, that's not that old, right? Well, I guess we're getting on there now.

But anyway, not suitable. And I'm not willing to pay, you know, six hundred dollars for a one-pound tent yet. So what can you do? Well, I decided to go with the tarp.

I've done tarp camping before, and that can be very lightweight and very inexpensive too. So I have this rather large tarp. It's 12 by, or 10 by 12 approximately, which is pretty big, plenty big for one person.

And I can use my hiking poles for the poles, or I can use rope, light gauge rope, or paracord for the tie-downs for this. And I can get well under three pounds, I think about two and a half pounds for a large, well, a fairly large tarp, the poles and the pegs. So two and a half pounds.

Now we're talking, right? And like I say, if you buy a modern tent averaging four or five hundred dollars, it's hard to get under three pounds. So even with the fairly expensive ones, you really have to go all in if you want to buy a tent. And as far as I can tell, the main reason for a tent is the bugs and if it's very windy.

And if you need a freestanding tent or a stronger tent in an exposed area where there's a lot of wind, it's hard to set up a good tarp system. Otherwise, to me, tents, they kind of take away from the experience. When I open my eyes at night, I want to see the woods, not the inside of my tent.

However, if there's mosquitoes, you do need to do something unless you're willing to put bug spray on at night, which isn't too pleasant. There are some very lightweight screens you can get to drape over you. I've tried very small screens that more or less just cover my upper body and head.

The problem with those I find is the bugs just find a way in. I don't know how, because I've really tried to make it bug proof. But with these smaller setups, the mosquitoes are buzzing three or four inches away from your head and it's hard to convince yourself that they're not inside the net.

So it makes for kind of an uncomfortable sleep. However, you can make or even buy nets that hang off your guide poles for your tarp, where it kind of drapes down almost like a tent, not hugging your face so much, but more spread out over your whole sleeping bag. That's a good option if it's buggy.

And it'll add a little bit of weight, but you'll still be well under three pounds. Let's take another step forward. We're talking about our big four or our base weight, and this is the way to keep your backpack light.

We talked about our backpack getting close to two pounds or ideally even under if you want to get into that ultra light world. Your tent certainly want that to be under three pounds. You'll certainly pay for it if you're trying to get much under two.

We talk about the tarps too, right? So that's another possibility that is really nice. If you haven't tried tarp camping, just got to figure out a bomb proof way with those mosquitoes. The next of our big four or base items is our sleeping system, sleeping pad and sleeping bag.

And there are sleeping bags called quilts now where they get rid of the bottom part of the sleeping bag, and it's more like a blanket over top of you. In colder environments, when you roll over, too much cold air can get in. So yeah, I don't know.

It's about these quilts. It seems like a good idea. You get rid of some weight.

Yeah, I'm kind of I don't know. I have sleeping bags that are pretty lightweight from my bicycle touring days. So I'm pretty set up for that.

And it's not terribly expensive to get pretty light sleeping bags nowadays. You can go down or not. Of course, you know, that down packs more packs down into a smaller size and is lighter.

But there are synthetic bags out there that are just great. In case you didn't know, if a bag is rated at, say, zero degrees or freezing or minus five, don't believe it. I don't think I've ever been in a bag or even clothing or footwear for that matter where I've trusted the rating.

If a bag says zero degrees Celsius, I would say it's probably good to plus nine degrees. I don't know how they do these ratings exactly, but I don't say they're accurate. Yeah, I used a sleeping bag.

It's a summer bag and it's summer and it's rated, I think, to about what was it, plus three or four. And the temperature got down to plus twelve. We're talking Celsius.

And I had to be careful with it. It just barely kept me warm. And I'm not like a cold sleeper by any means.

I'm quite comfortable with pretty lightweight stuff. But the ratings, yeah, don't trust them or at least try it first. Don't rely on it if you're going on a long trip.

Sleeping pad, though, the other part of your sleeping system is a spot or an item where people can really save a lot of weight. Is it worth it? A sleeping pad can be under a pound easily, especially if you go with the folding foam ones, you know, the blue foam or there's other corrugated style foam things that insulate quite well. Comfort, I would say, is medium to low.

And if you're in that lane on that sleeping pad for six, eight hours, do you really want to sacrifice half a pound to go light or do you want to have that little bit more comfort? A thicker sleeping bag is what I used recently. It does add a little bit of weight, so I added like almost a half pound of weight, I think it was, or maybe a little bit more over like a lightweight foam version. But this one was actually fine for winter, this pad.

It's one of those ones where you have to add air. You inflate a secondary bag and you roll it up and push this air into that, into your sleeping pad. It takes a while to set up, but you know, it ends up being like two and a half inches thick and you don't have to be as picky with your campsites.

And in public camping areas or these more popular trails, the campsites are often hard ground, overly compacted. There's roots and rocks. So if you have a very light system for your sleeping pad, you're probably going to be uncomfortable anyway, let alone any little rock or root that you're laying on.

So this makes up a thicker sleeping pad. That little bit of extra weight makes up for a lot of poor campsite choices. It's fine to go out without a sleeping pad too.

You know, you just got to be pretty choosy. You got to sleep on soft, you know, loamy kind of soils or ground cover. That can be done and has been done.

And yeah, you can get away with that unless there's coldness or moisture in the ground. People to go towards ultralight will even use a half or a three quarter size pad where it's really just going from head to hips and leaving the legs on the ground. Those are all things to consider.

I'm not quite there yet. If I'm going to do that, I'm just going to go full on, full on lightweight and not even bring a ground pad if I'm going to go that light. Because you certainly can if you're choosy about your sites, but if you're backpacking, making some miles on a trail and you're going to, you know, reserved campsites on the backpacking trail.

Those sorts of systems are going to be hard to be comfortable at night. So a sleeping pad, there's lots of lightweight, affordable pads out there to consider. And that's the big four, you know, from your base weight.

If you want to cut weight down, these are four ways to do it. And I can't emphasize enough as from what I've read and researched. You need that scale.

If you want to just go through this exercise backpackers or bushcrafters who want to get out more and go light. Yeah, you need that scale. Get a little scale.

You know, those little handheld ones to measure the grams and, you know, saving 300 grams doesn't sound like much or let's say a third of a pound doesn't sound like much. You add six or seven of those items together. Yeah, you're getting heavy fast.

I'd like to now talk about another part of the backpack I like to bring. In fact, this is the, I won't call it a day pack, but my all time pack, the lightweight pack I like to bring when I go out even on short walks. When I'm canoeing or backpacking, if I leave my gear somewhere and go on a short hike, this is the small pack I bring and this pack changes if I'm by myself or with someone else who has their own gear or if I'm bringing my own family where I'm more responsible for everyone's safety.

If you're leaving your main gear behind, you should have a small kit with you that will help you if you do get lost. And this ultra light backpacking fad and measuring everything in terms of grams, boy, I made all kinds of changes to some of the things I bring. Ordinarily, I would bring a full size compass with a mirror.

I would be tempted to bring a GPS and I'd bring things like emergency tape, emergency mirror, all these things to really make sure that if I get lost, I'm getting out of there, right? And also some stuff to help with water, getting clean drinking water if I get stuck somehow for a couple of days. It's that little kit that has all my needs in it, but is small and light enough to bring every time. If it's a great big waist belt that weighs four pounds, I'm not going to bring it much.

Not unless there's four or five people that I'm responsible for. I need something that's small and is fine. I'll put it on every time.

I'll wear it all the time when I don't have my backpack on and I'm out venturing. So I really tore into this and I went super lightweight and I digged into the more modern gear that are things that are available. And boy, I got a one liter waist belt now.

If you can't picture what a one liter hip belt looks like, it is small. It's about the smallest waist pouch or hip belt you can use. It's pretty much like almost what you'd see tourists wearing.

A little clip on belt with a small little bag that will hold a wallet and a few other items like sunscreen and this and that. Like that's how small we're talking. And that's perfect because I can wear that and not feel like it's an inconvenience.

Therefore, I'll have it with me. Right. And I won't go into too much detail on this, but I trimmed everything down in that.

You know, before I might have had a metal cup that I could boil water in. But now I don't. I have 10 water tablets, aqua water, I think it's called, which weigh nothing.

I have a two liter foldable or collapsible bag for water. It's like a canteen that folds up. Almost no weight to it.

The most bulky part of this thing is the cap, which is a small size cap. So now I can easily get two liters of water treated. I also have a small piece of foil, you know, the foil to drape over you in case it rains or in case you need a bit of shelter at night.

I have I think about 25 feet of a lightweight paracord or a three millimeter cord that will help fashion a shelter if I get stuck. Instead of having a flint and steel, I have a little container of weatherproof matches, really heavy duty, good ones. And that's it.

I usually have a lighter in my pocket when I'm camping, but I don't put a flint and steel in this kit. And that goes against my bushcraft bushcrafting habits here. Flint and steel is just too heavy for this little pack.

And I really pared this down to just cover my needs. In other words, my temperature, shelter of some kind and water focusing on those two things. I didn't even put a small knife in this pack and bushcrafters are just covering their mouths now thinking, oh my gosh, no knife.

You got to be kidding. But I did cheat a bit. I do when I go out, I keep the knife in these contexts, you know, hanging off the belt.

So, yeah, in essence, I did do bring a knife all the time. It's just not in that little pack. So I don't think I need to go too much more into these things, except use a scale bushcrafters use or backpackers use a scale.

Get down that rabbit hole, the ultralight groups, man, they're they're really a shedding light on what materials are out there that make your trip more enjoyable as far as, you know, getting out more. You're not going to get out as much if you're going to go full on bushcrafting like I do sometimes. Do you get out as much really? You know, you need you need to have your lightweight set up, too, because you're not always going to feel like doing the full on bushcraft where you got to make shelters and and, you know, spend that extra time doing that.

Sometimes it's just nice to have something light to get out there and to not be burdened with a heavy pack. One last or maybe one or two more areas I like to cover is the stoves you bring, you know, I had what was called a whisper light white fuel stove in its day. It was it was as light as things were going like very lightweight, great in the wintertime, that type of fuel to get, you know, the propane is not so great in the winter usually lightweight and all this.

And you can bring lots of fuel and be good to go. They're pretty robust stoves and they're pretty reliable nowadays are also a lot heavier. What the ultralight folks are using now are these tiny little propane stoves so that they have to bring the canister.

That's the problem. But what they tend to do in their cooking system is not have a set of pots, right? There might be one cooking container, a liter maybe or half liter, just enough to get that dehydrated food in, hydrate. And then that's it.

You're not boiling macaroni and cheese so much. It uses too much fuel. So that's another way you can really save weight is with your stove and propane canister, which is, yeah, a little wasteful, but it's great for ultralight.

Bushcrafters, the ultralight folks aren't going to be carrying knives or if they do, it's going to be like a super lightweight little Swiss army knife kind of thing with a blade or two on it. I don't go that far. You know, with all this ultralight gear, I still have to have my knife, my bushcraft knife.

But even then, you know, like most bushcrafters, I have an embarrassing amount of knives. I got a drawer full of them and there's, I don't know. I can't even guess how many.

Way over 15, I'll tell you that. Anyway, I even choose my knives carefully now. I don't bring my favorite knives.

I do bring homemade knives, but it's the blank Mora blades you can buy. The Mora knife, you know, you can get blanks with those and put your own handle on carefully. That's just, you know, you got to really watch not cutting yourself when you're getting into knife making.

But anyway, I have the longer Mora knife with, I think it's almost like a six inch blade. It's a little bigger than what a lot of bushcrafters use, that four inch blade. But I like it for bushcraft and the battening down the stick through wood.

So I have that, which is a very lightweight blade, of course. It's the, like the number, I think it would be called the number two. It's that wooden handle one, the typical Mora knife with the very thin blade.

Great for carving softwoods and bushcraft. And the handle I put on it is a piece of maple and there's not much wood to it. It's just enough to make a decent handle and be light.

Some of my other knives were quite heavy in the handle and not suitable for backpacking. So you can have a very lightweight knife. The sheath I use, I don't use the plastic sheath.

I never like plastic sheaths. The aesthetics of those is just, you know, my bushcrafter at heart. So, you know, anyway, so I have to have one piece of equipment when I'm doing this ultralight stuff that really says bushcraft.

That's just me. But the cool blade or the cool knife sheath I've made for my Mora knife and with the wood handle, which I love, is a birch bark sheath in combination with leather. So I have, I've made birch bark sheaths for my knives before where I've had a birch bark loop that would go over my belt so I could hang my knife.

Most people who do birch bark sheaths for knives don't have a loop on them. They just store the knife somewhere. What I did this time, I think I just invented something, actually a new type of knife sling or sheath, was that I made the birch bark, a slim little birch bark case just for the blade of my knife.

Very lightweight. And what I did was I fashioned a piece of leather into a belt loop that just goes over that piece of birch bark sheath. And it makes for a very aesthetically pleasing setup that's super duper lightweight.

So I have my Mora knife in a traditional sheath. Lots of good vibes there. And a great bushcraft knife.

Also very lightweight. It doesn't fit into my tiny little one liter hip pack, but I do hang it off my belt or that pack's belt if need be. Anyway, I'm getting a little long in the tooth here, but I just wanted to emphasize to my bushcraft friends how to go a little lighter, get out there more.

If you're like me and you have gear that, you know, the old fashioned gear or the stuff from the 80s and 90s and before, it lasts almost a lifetime. So you don't need to buy new gear. However, if you want to go ultra light and get some of that weight off your pack, it might be time to upgrade or reconsider things a bit to make this really lightweight.

Make your gear lightweight. There is one downside that I didn't really haven't really focused on though about the lightweight gear, especially the ultra light stuff that you really pay for. It's I don't think it's quite as durable.

I've heard a few comments about how carefully have to be with this material. Is it worth it to go ultra light and have gear that probably isn't going to last more than five years? I don't know. Probably not.

Not if you're soaking in that much money unless you are what you call a through hiker where you're hiking hundreds of thousands of miles in a year and you're putting on so much mileage that, you know, it's worth it to you because you're investing into months of experience here versus what most people do is go on a few trips a year. And have that gear last four years. Four is the number four, but for many years, I should have said.

So to sum up bushcrafters, get out the scale, get some lightweight gear, ultra light hikers, learn some bushcraft, learn some of the aesthetics of the woods and, you know, as any bushcrafter will tell you, it's these kind of skills that really add to the experience. So have some of these skills in your back pocket, get out there, be lightweight, be safe. Thank you for joining us on the Riverview Nature Podcast.

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Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai