The-field-journal

Well our first 7 day adventure ended up being a 4 day one. Here are the journal entries for the week.

September 2, 2025
Well the day did NOT go as planned, but I guess that is why we do training. my initial winged route plan was to park up at the summit by fish run trail. Then take it to wolfs rocks, and stay at a stream I half remembered being on the bobcat trail. This would have been about 5 miles. unfortunately either the stream was dried up or never existed in the first place!! So we had to back track a ways around wolfs loop to hobble bush. that’s about a 2 mile hike. All the while looking out for a valid campsite. This is exactly what happens when you decide to “wing” the route. Remember that future me! the ruck was 52 pounds with food and water. luckily all that walking with my niece on my shoulders seems to have paid off since its only ALMOST unbearable. We did manage to find really nice spot hidden amongst pines off of hobble bush. Someone had used it as a camp site previously since there is a small fire spot. There is a extremely slow moving stream, going to have to boil the water for 15 minutes just to be safe. I do use a filter but extra time boiling water is better than any with dysentery. I set up the tarp in a standard A frame, using 2 fallen branches as posts for the ends. I would use a tree normally but I don’t trust the look of the branches and its pretty windy out. Taz doesn’t seem happy that we are staying out but the first night is always the roughest. I am really liking this new stove I have it works really and has this base at the bottom for stability. hopefully tomorrow goes a little smoother!

September 3rd 2025
Woke up this morning at 4 am, and Taz was having none of it. ended up laying in “bed” till 7 trying not to move and anger the monster too much. I had a hell of a time getting out of the tent, not because of Taz, though. But, because my body is so incredibly sore. 7 miles was definitely a lot to start with not being used to the weight of the pack. Anyway, I went and commenced with my morning exercises and stretches… so many stretches. I realized after it got dark last night I managed to leave my flashlight in the car. So I decided it was a good idea to swing up to get it and grab a book from the car since my kindle is dead. Probably need a new one since it doesn’t wanna hold a charge. it was pretty warm and I dress cool to start, since I always end up heating up and wanting to take off a warm layer. I left my hoodie on my backpack just in case I wanted to throw it on during rests. Well the route for the day included going down the rest of hobble bush then getting to fish run. heading 2 miles up to the summit and the car. Grabbed a flashlight and book and a solid 15 minutes of more stretches! then going back down to the bottom of fish run where it crosses the road. then going back up about a mile to the new campsite. my legs were on fire from the up hill hikes, I thought 7 miles was bad yesterday but the 5ish today were worst with those inclines. After I dropped my pack, did some more stretching, I went to grab my hoodie and found it missing. Deciding to back track on fish run I left my bag. and my boots. and walked to the road to see if I could find it. NOPE! I guess I left it at the car maybe. I am not walking all the way back up there in bare feet. oh yeah, I forgot my sandals too!!!!. anyways went back to camp and began to set up again. I am so sore, though the plan was to rest after 3 days I think I will rest here tomorrow. Its supposed to rain and storm tomorrow so I will set up the tarp in a modified A frame to where I can close it. Taz is all full of energy today, I gotta get him a pack so he can help carry food and stuff. Also he needs to carry his poncho and stuff too. made more rice and broth today its filling but I am a little worried about keeping up a healthy weight with just this. It’s so peaceful out here no sounds except for nature and taz trying to kill said nature… I am doing a lot of whittling too which is super meditative. Busy hands, quiet mind and all that. The journaling also helps review the day. Lots of obvious mistakes, hopefully this’ll help me learn from them. night all.

septmenber 4th 2025

REST DAY!! ouch, so much ouch. I feel like I overdid leg day in the gym. then decided to punish the rest of my body for it. Back to stretching I guess!!! today is great, lots of relaxing and whittling. still hiked but without the pack, probably did 5 miles just wandering around with taz. Around 1 I started to feel a bit antsy about keeping going. but the storms came through and settle that idea down. Played with some newts on the tent while it passed. had 2 of the buggers running around. so I did the obvious thing and poked their bellies. The temp dropped to the 50’s and the storms petered out about 4 so we went out and scrounged up some wood for a fire. I managed to snag some bark from an aging birch tree which makes great firestart. To get kindling we went and checked in crevices of some larger rocks and under fallen trees. You can usually find some dry wood to use as kindling in there depending on the amount of rain. Food was rice again, I need MEAT! Honestly I feel like I am getting weaker but that could be soreness. Going to look into getting some soup packets and spam and stuff for the next trip! I can’t believe its been 3 days already! I think tomorrow we are going to try to tackle the grove run loop.

september 5th 2025.

NOPE! Taz has a swollen eye again. I flushed it with saline last night but I left his eye drops at home since he has a been good for a bit. So we are going to hike back up to the car today and head back to get his medicine also… were definitely going to drop some of this weight and get better food stores. The pain is real!!! I Caved and went on amazon last night and ordered some thicker pad attachments for my pack too. tired of it digging into shoulders and cutting off circulation. so back up the mountain we went! after we got back I decided to weigh my self and I lots 7 pounds while being out there this week. Obviously a portion of that is water weight but the weakness I was feeling was from more than soreness. going to reset and head back out for another adventure Sunday. Posting this tomorrow since all I want to do is eat and sleep a bit.

OBSERVATIONS
1. In retrospect the first issue was I did not plan the route. for Sunday I want to have a better idea of the route I am taking. going to start at beam run trail then hike down the lhht to spruce run then up the summit trail and loop around to the other side by black bear. I would like to do 4 nights and 5 days doing about 5 to 6 miles a day. then we will go down and do fish run to our rest day camp site then come back up the last day.

2. FOOD! though the food was filling the calorie intake wasnt nearly high enough for the amount of exercise. I would like to have about 2000 calories a day. to that end I went out and got some clif bars for breakfast. stick with the same trail mix and jerky for lunch. finally, some uncle bens rice packs for dinner with spam! good old spam.

3. weight! deciding to drop 10 pounds of weight from the pack got rid of some of my larger bushcraft tools. all bushcraft will be done by knife and multi-tool until I build up to doing more weight. leaving my zero degree bag at home too, the temperature isn’t nearly at the point where I would use it yet anyways. the new bag weight with food is 41 pounds so that’s a huge improvement. I also got those shoulder pads in!

4. kindle!?!?! trying to charge it but it doesnt seem to want to take a charge. for this next trip I will just bring a book along maybe order a new kindle soon.

Hopefully the adventures get less chaotic from here on out!!!