From Frost to Fire...

When I left Saturday morning we had a heavy frost on, snow was swirling and that wicked north wind was still coming strong as ever. The plan was to still hunt till around noon, set a camp have some lunch and piddle with the new Adventure Sworn. This was our fourth frost this year and by far the heaviest.

Ace was not happy even a little bit when I told him he had to stay home today. I swear this dog has an intelligence beyond the normal canine reach, he gave me this look like 'fine, but I'm killin everything I see for the rest of the day'.



























The snow stopped after a while though, and the sun began what was to become a day long game of peekaboo, blasting bright on occasion to hiding in heavy clouds for an hour or more at a time.

















Moving deeper into the lowlands.









All day long I was crossing wolf sign. I passed eleven cross trail markers, they drop scat often where one path crosses another within their territory. All of them full of deer hair and bone, looks like I'm not the only predator taking deer this year. I sometime wonder if they spend as much time monitoring my activity as I do theirs. On two different occasions today I crossed dry ground with a marking bush where they'd sprayed. Because the ground was dry save for that I know I they had been there not long before I found the sign. I won't bore you with multiple pictures of wolf scat.

I believe I crossed a bear as well, as I got deeper into the sphagnum and tamarack country. On one of the trails I found a destroyed beehive, all that remained were these, this is one set but there must have been four or five different groupings like this spread out for about a 15 yard radius.



Early in the afternoon I dropped my pack and gear and started working on a fire and camp.



Fire prep done which consisted of cedar bark and birch bark, then using my new AS with a fire steel I was two strokes to flame. Here only one out of seven trees is hardwood, four out of seven are birch, the rest are soft wood pines and poplars and so on. As much as I like reading and viewing the 'Hardwoodsman' threads the reality here in the north woods is God gave us birch trees to fight the cold north winds. I'm much obliged.







Once I had a fire going I started on shelter. A simple set up consisting of two MEST tarps and a casualty blanket. It is effective and it is easy to set up, I like the tarps quite a bit and I'm always using them. Best purchases of 2010/11 by far, as I've not used any other piece of gear as much or with as much enjoyment as these tarps.







The grouse I killed the other day with my bow would become lunch, along with some Highland Grog coffee.



The grouse bread was split and then I put a forked stick into it, wedge it into the ground at an angle over the fire. The occasionally turned the stick so all sides got cooked properly.

I wish I knew how many times I've used this halulite kettle over the past couple years. Another favorite piece of gear.













Once cooked I leave the stick in the ground, then using a knife just carve off what I want. I'm sure there's a name for eating bird on a stick but I can't think of it, but it does work rather well.



I'm smitten with this new knife, not that I didn't like the other one, I did. It did everything I asked of it and I am sure I'll still use it, ultimately they'll both be left to my boys someday.

I do like this full convex grind in this one though, it did slice better in my opinion. The knife is simply gorgeous to look at and is every bit a user through and through. The leather work on the sheath is top shelf work, superb execution.



















Thoroughly pleased with this knife.

At the end of this great day I was treated to one of the most brilliant sunsets that I've seen, just an explosion of color that really set the sky on fire. It was a startling contrast to the frost and snow of morning.

Bent a stick and thumped a grouse...

I was trapped inside again until about an hour and half before dark. As soon as I hung the phone up I grabbed my bow, tossed on some wool and made haste to the woods.

I know it is still supposed to be fall but I was hard pressed to see that today. We've lost nearly all of our leaves now, and the north wind was especially brutal, it spit snow and ice throughout.



That was today, three days ago we had beautiful blue skies and incredibly brilliant leaves across all of the north country. It looked liked this just out my back door.







As I was moving through the woods I took every opportunity to bust a stump. I've really had a blast this year roving the woods and stump shooting. It has without a doubt sharpened my shooting skills to a whole new level. I also found one heck of a blunt! This thing is a monster, I've wrote about it before but in case that was missed it is the Small Game Thumper (SGT) head from Vantage Point Archery (VPA).





I've been seeing ruffed grouse regularly. The males have been strutting my logging roads looking for mates, I've gotten close a few times but just not close enough until today. As much as I love deer hunting there's something even better about grouse and longbows!

I spotted him at about forty yards moving in my direction so I just waited. I was off the trail by about ten yards, hold up in some balsam firs watching the yellow aspens shed their leaves like a dog sheds a winter coat in May. At twenty he was passing through an opening, the the SGT tipped arrow darted forward and he never knew what hit him.



I'm not sure that it gets much better than slipping through the forest with a longbow in hand, good wool keeping a frosty north wind at bay, seeing and feeling the changing of a season and putting a fine meal on the table.

Hope your season is going as good as mine!

A Cold Wind...Adventure Sworn

The sun seemed reluctant to break the horizon this morning. The wind was out of the Northwest, with it came a cold chill in the air. The wind was strong, and most of the leaves we had left hanging were blown out of the trees.





By the time the mail ran even Ace was feeling the touch of winter in the air, as he wallowed up in the leaves. This is where he was laying when the mail truck pulled up and Waylon hit the horn signalling me that he had a package. I believe Ace was thinking that Georgia was a heck of a lot warmer. Can't wait for him to get his first snow, and they are calling for it tomorrow and Saturday.



The package had a return address I'd been looking for, Adventure Sworn. My new knife arrived on a cold cold wind on the cusp of snow and freezing rain, truly a good sign!

My second Adventure Sworn BCUSA knife and I'm more than pleased, the only thing that could have made it better was if the Navigator pouch that Amber is working on had been in the package as well. I'm a patient man though, and I know perfection takes time.

This one is full convex as opposed to the scandivex of the first one. The latest addition is with Ironwood scales and red liners, java brown sheath. The blade is a fine representation of Cody's craftsmanship and attention to detail.















I did not have a lot of time today to really get into it, barely a half hour outside so I plan to spend some real quality time with this knife over the weekend. I'll update this with more pictures by Sunday. When I got my first AS knife I immediately built a fire with it. I think I'll build a shelter or some such with this one, heck with any luck I'll use it to work up another deer!

Thanks Cody, well done man, well done!

More to come.

Bison Gear Pack 'The Lost River' follow up review

Back in May I wrote my initial piece on this pack here. Since then I've had the chance to use the pack extensively and in that time it has only grown on me. I've used it as a day pack, a hunting pack, a foraging pack, I even used it for a three night four day excursion into the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area.

BisonGear of Alberton, Montana USA, has been making packs for a long time. Prior to the BisonGear moniker they were known as Pack Idaho. They've always been primarily focused on bowhunter's pack needs and they've made a reputation for both design execution to that end, as well as world class customer service. For at least sixteen years they've been known as BisonGear, and in that time I've not heard of, read about, or seen a negative comment regarding the products or the service. A reputation like that isn't bought, nor does it just happen overnight.

From their website:

...are designed by hunters, tested by hunters and cut, sewn and fitted one at a time to do one thing – hunt. Our packs start with field-proven ergonomic designs drawn from decades in the woods. Each has lumbar support and hip pads sewn in. Each is compact for a low center of gravity. And each features straps that adjust more ways than a hunter's plan of attack. The result? You can move through tight brush without getting hung up, carry a busload of gear without strain and shoot unhindered while wearing a BisonGear pack.

Lastly, we combine intelligent design and quality materials with craftsmanship. Each BisonGear pack is one of a kind. You order it. We sew it. This means it usually takes about three weeks to get your pack. It also means you get a pack that fits you perfectly and is customized to your needs.

The materials used in BisonGear packs run the gamut from Bucksuede, fleece, to many different colors of wool. One might think that wool wouldn't be a good choice of materials for a pack but it has all of the critical attributes needed to be so with the addition of being super quiet. It is durable, dries fast, non reflective, and did I say quiet? I have been very satisfied with the wool material in my pack, it has performed very well.

From their website:

Materials are drawn from lessons learned hunting. Part traditional, part technical, they're quiet, durable, subtle and able to stick it out in any weather. Exteriors are camo and earth-tone Woolens or Bucksuedes^TM that are not only durable and naturally water resistant, but also silent as your shadow. We line our packs with quiet, water-repellent ripstop nylon. Straps are nylon, hardware is ShellShock and zippers are bomb-proof.

The Lost River is a design that's been around since near the beginning as far as my research can tell me. A lumbar design with Every Which Way padded shoulder straps that are truly customizable for fit. There are three main pockets outside of the primary compartment. Two wing compartments that are large enough to hold a forty-eight ounce Nalgene Silo water bottle or a 10x10 70d nylon tarp such as the BCUSA 10x10 I've written about in the past.The third compartment is center front of the main body.

Inside the pack lid there is another compartment, as you can see in the image below I'm using this to carry my first aid supplies as well as thin field guides as well as a few other items.

There is also a slash pocket inside the pack on the back wall with a fold over cover. It's an organizer of sorts with multiple slot pockets sewed into it as well as a long envelope style slash behind the organizer. This was the perfect spot for me to carry a 5x7 casualty blanket, which if you look close you'll see in the image above, folded up and against the back wall of the pack interior. This in conjunction with a tarp can make an unexpected overnight camp better than just barely bearable. The following two images make the slash pocket easy to see and understand, as well as the organizer inside of the slash.

The pack is listed as 1,625 cubic inches with an expandable detachable game bag  that comes in at 1,232 cubic inches. I've found it plenty big enough to do what I need even on a couple days out. As we move into winter I'll put it back on a frame in order to carry winter kit loads though. Here's a look at what's being carried in the pack now, without a frame. Shelter, fire, water are accounted for, as well as about three thousand calories of food, enough to stretch me three days if I had to and without supplementing with wild edibles, game or fish.

The game bag is quite functional for its design purpose as well as a multitude of other applications ranging from stuffing it and using as a pillow to an improvised water carrier. It really is quiet sizable and well made. It folds flat and is stored in the bottom of the main compartment. It can be buckled into place at the bottom to keep it from shifting side to side while carrying a load, or it can be completely removed and used in other ways, you could even use it to hang food in bear country if you wanted to.

In the image on the right you can see how the bag looks while in the pack, the buckles can be use to integrate the bag into part of the suspension system or cinched off to the frame when using it. This makes carrying heavy deer or elk quarters easier and more stable.

Even if you don't have the quarters of big game to haul out of the back country you can still use the game bag for carrying anything that you don't want to come into contact with the pack.
























There are a couple tie down straps on the top and bottom, well low forward below the middle compartment on the front of the pack. I typically use the top to strap a tarp/bed roll system to the pack and the bottom to strap a camera tripod, of course that could be inverted it's just how I currently prefer to carry each. They are also useful for carrying that jacket you needed for the morning chill or while on a stand but not while hiking up the mountain or during the midday sun. The images below show where the straps are located and how I use them.

The top straps are integrated into the lid as seen above.

The lower straps are sewn into the pack where the center back compartment meets the main pack body.

With tarp/bedroll on top and tripod on the bottom.

The pack carries low into the back, presenting an excellent center of gravity.

The pack offers a great center of balance, rides low but comfortable and presents no problems when shooting either rifle or bow. I spend a lot of time tracking, stooped over or kneeling as I examine the ground and sign from the passage of my quarry. Unlike conventional packs this one carries perfectly for that, it doesn't overbalance or feel top heavy at all.








The pockets on the belt serve to carry my navigation kit in one, and a tracking & game dressing kit in the other along with a few other odds and ends. These particular pockets are made directly into the waist belt. You can order other options here, be it a water bottle holder to detachable pockets.

You can order their packs with customized features that range from extra pockets to custom sizes, custom belt pockets, pack frame attachment points and so on. One of the better features in my opinion is the ability to use the pack with a frame when needed.

The whole world kind of went gaga over internal frames and I'd be the first to be a champion their features, however, an external frame is a very versatile thing, especially in a hunting pack or anyone like me that tends to do more than backpack an existing trail. External frames are the kings of carry for odd sized and awkward heavy things like elk quarters for example. By being able to meld the pack to the frame or not as needed and to be able to maintain comfort without a frame is an indicator of truly superior design. On the BisonGear website you'll find mention of customizing the pack for use with a Peak1 frame. I was able to rig mine with a frame from an old pack from the early '80s. I don't remember the frame maker or name, I do know that I managed to firmly connect my pack to this old frame in about ten minutes of fiddling about.

Oh, and one last thing, did I mention the warranty?

In their words.

All of our packs and pack accessories are guaranteed for LIFE against defects in materials and workmanship. Should they ever fail to provide satisfaction because of defects in materials or workmanship, we will repair or replace it at no cost to you. Problems associated with normal wear or abuse will mean a reasonable repair or replacement charge. You are responsible for shipping charges to and from us for the repair. At BisonGear all of our packs/pack accessories carry this warranty whether it was a you bought it 15 years ago, it was a gift, you bought it secondhand etc. No receipts are necessary...ever

I've really enjoyed using this pack over the past several months. I've come to like everything about it and would change very little, the only issues I had are rather nitpicking at best.

One would be the 'grab handle' for lack of a better way of saying it. Currently it's a short piece of webbing sewn into the main pack compartment and the back.  See image below.

I would personally prefer it to be longer and beefier, its working as is and I have no reason to believe it isn't strong enough. I just prefer a beefier grab handle, and if possible, adjustable in nature. Sometimes I hang a pack from a tree limb, sometimes a hook, sometimes a nail. Due to the length of this one, whatever it's hanging from is sticking into whatever I have strapped to the top of the pack. If it were adjustable, or just longer for that matter then that wouldn't be an issue. Told ya I was nitpicking.

All in I could not be more pleased with the pack. While I know I'll be using this one heavily and it has firmly entrenched itself as my go to hunting pack, I'm also sure it won't be my last purchase from BisonGear. A Lemhi is next on the list! Or maybe a Houndsman?

Consider BisonGear Backwoods Bum Approved!