3 Days Solo Bushcraft Trip – Canoe Portage and Wetlands Overnight – Lavvu Shelter in Rain – Fishing
3 days bushcraft trip. It still fascinates me what situations I find myself in no matter how many years I’m doing this. It never turns out as planned. Days suddenly became shorter and chasing sunlight is an issue. I’ve never mentioned this before but the biggest problem for me camping in this region is finding flat ground. Like every third time I mostly give up and sleep on a spot that’s barely ok. You get hardened by time and make do. So there I was. Exhausted, hungry and just a couple of hours of daylight left in the middle of a big area of wetlands, surrounded by woods with stones and boulders I knew had no flat ground at all. But the wet swamp I was in had "flat" ground. First I thought about sleeping in the canoe but I had not a big tarp with me, just the lavvu. And I would need at least 5m of tarp to guarantee rain would not enter the canoe. Waking up in a fish tank would be unavoidable. So I looked around for some elevated body size vegetated hump and placed my Lavvu there. Threw some extra pine boughs, grass etc on there and placed the ground sheet and sleeping mat etc. My Carinthia square model summer bag can take some water so it worked find and the occasional dip of the bag didn’t make it noticeable wet or moist. The problem with ground like that is it slowly sink. If I would have spent a second night there some work would have to be done to reinforce the spot. Anyway it worked but if it would have been colder time spent on finding higher flat ground would have been better.
And I just have to say a word or two about the meal. I have learned that the best meals in life.. is not the advanced ones, with 10 spices and 20 ingredients. Sure a lot of exciting dishes can be great but the best food moments I had where always simple. Those French fries and slice of roast beef cooked on coals, with some dip of mayo and ketchup on the side.. there it was. I will try to do exactly the same thing again but it will not be as good. I know from chasing old food memories as illusive ghosts many times before. It was one of those moments. And first time getting it on camera =).
Second day I really deserved finding that perfect dry lakeside camp spot after the portage to lake nr two. Had a good night sleep and woke at sunrise to rain on my Lavvu. Thanks a lot for watching!