Camping with a Muskrat, a 73L and a Cold Steel SRK Day 1
I took a long weekend recently and headed for the extreme Northeast corner of Minnesota called the Arrowhead Region. I usually make our base of operations in the Grand Marais, MN area and have been going up there several times a year for 30+ years. The scenery is incredible as your caught between Lake Superior, Canada and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. To give you a real good idea how I feel about the area.....I've always figured if I were lucky enough to get into heaven when I croak,..... I have no doubt I'll get to spend eternity on a crystal clear lake smack dab in the middle of the Arrowhead! (hopefully, after the black flies, mosquitoes and deer flies have been condemned to a much hotter climate!)
Anyway, on the drive up, my wife and I got to see some of the most incredible displays of wildflowers I've seen in my near 60 years. These are Lady Slippers which are the Minnesota State flower and can normally be tough to view in any quantity. Clusters like this literally filled the roadside ditch for 8-10 miles on our drive.
The further North and East we got, the types and colors just got more incredible.
But I digress.......
I've gotten in the habit of late of using one of the Swedish Firesteels for all of my firelighting needs that were previously performed with matches. It is an incredible tool that I encourage everyone that spends any time outdoors to master and carry. Simple to use, just spend a little time with your Great Eastern making a pile of shavings and strike a few sparks.
I will admit to one little trick..... carry a bag of cotton balls with a little tube of Vaseline in your kit. Put a dollop of Vaseline in the middle of a cotton ball, pull a few strands of the cotton ball out to make for easy lighting, strike a spark on the mess and you will be amazed how long that little wad of flame will last. Which reminds me... want to impress your buddies next time you're in camp? Try lighting a couple of potato chips or taco chips on fire for kindling. I've won more then a couple of bucks with that one.
At any rate, the 73L did a great job of making little sticks out of big ones. Jobs like this make me appreciate the liner lock. It just gives me a warm feeling knowing nothings going to 'go shut' if you get a little careless.
I also cut up close to a mile of para cord stringing a tarp over our eating area and the edge of the fire pit. That area gets a lot of rain in the summer so it always pays to plan ahead. And were we glad I did. Shot this picture around 4:00PM the first day. It's actually pretty cool watching a storm roll down over the hills toward Lake Superior. When it thunders, you can listen to it reverberate off the hills and over the lake for what seems like minutes. And as long as your dry, it's a great accompaniment to a little whittling by the fire!
I take great pleasure in seeking out tasks that need a knife and it seems like when you're camping, you just never run out of ideas!! That 73L made fine shavings for the fire, opened countless plastic wrappers, cut cord, made a couple new tie down holes in the tarp, mindlessly whittled a couple of sticks and just felt good in my pocket.
I'll take some time in the next post to address a question Jim in Florida and I discussed regarding the purpose of a Muskrat. We both pondered the purpose for two indentical blades on a single handle...and I think I solved the riddle!!!
greg
Anyway, on the drive up, my wife and I got to see some of the most incredible displays of wildflowers I've seen in my near 60 years. These are Lady Slippers which are the Minnesota State flower and can normally be tough to view in any quantity. Clusters like this literally filled the roadside ditch for 8-10 miles on our drive.
The further North and East we got, the types and colors just got more incredible.
But I digress.......
I've gotten in the habit of late of using one of the Swedish Firesteels for all of my firelighting needs that were previously performed with matches. It is an incredible tool that I encourage everyone that spends any time outdoors to master and carry. Simple to use, just spend a little time with your Great Eastern making a pile of shavings and strike a few sparks.
I will admit to one little trick..... carry a bag of cotton balls with a little tube of Vaseline in your kit. Put a dollop of Vaseline in the middle of a cotton ball, pull a few strands of the cotton ball out to make for easy lighting, strike a spark on the mess and you will be amazed how long that little wad of flame will last. Which reminds me... want to impress your buddies next time you're in camp? Try lighting a couple of potato chips or taco chips on fire for kindling. I've won more then a couple of bucks with that one.
At any rate, the 73L did a great job of making little sticks out of big ones. Jobs like this make me appreciate the liner lock. It just gives me a warm feeling knowing nothings going to 'go shut' if you get a little careless.
I also cut up close to a mile of para cord stringing a tarp over our eating area and the edge of the fire pit. That area gets a lot of rain in the summer so it always pays to plan ahead. And were we glad I did. Shot this picture around 4:00PM the first day. It's actually pretty cool watching a storm roll down over the hills toward Lake Superior. When it thunders, you can listen to it reverberate off the hills and over the lake for what seems like minutes. And as long as your dry, it's a great accompaniment to a little whittling by the fire!
I take great pleasure in seeking out tasks that need a knife and it seems like when you're camping, you just never run out of ideas!! That 73L made fine shavings for the fire, opened countless plastic wrappers, cut cord, made a couple new tie down holes in the tarp, mindlessly whittled a couple of sticks and just felt good in my pocket.
I'll take some time in the next post to address a question Jim in Florida and I discussed regarding the purpose of a Muskrat. We both pondered the purpose for two indentical blades on a single handle...and I think I solved the riddle!!!
greg
That looks some beautiful country Greg. It's nice to have a place like to go and get away from it all.
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That looks some beautiful country Greg. It's nice to have a place like that to go and get away from it all.
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Ahhh, can't wait to get back to the good ole USA and do some camping. Thanks for the photos! Hey, I always thought the reason for identical blades on the Muscrat was to continue with the exact same cutting task with the second blade after the first one got dulled.
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Mike, you're close. But I'll reveal what my research uncovered later today. It'll make even more sense then your theory!
greg
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greg,
are the lady slippers really orchids? (add that to the muskrat mystery) was my previous comment censored or is my lack of computor skills showing?
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It depends on who you talk to. Some years back I remember reading an article about whether they were a true orchid or something similar and I made up my mind it didn't much matter. All I know is they're really a pretty flower and it's always a treat to find them! For whatever reason, this year they were fantastic.
Unless your last comment contained some really vile nasty things about me, it wasn't censored. Not sure what might have happened to it. Try again.
greg
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greg,
adding fuel to the fire. in 1962 i ran a trap line.it was at the time when a change was made the following year, from staked conibears to wire box traps which eliminated the need for me to head out after school to check the trap line. i carried a H&R loaded with 22 shorts and a multi-blade scout w/ sm. norton stone. if you weren't able to keep it sharp you weren't in business long. the going rate for muskrat pelts was 1 to 3 dollars avg. by the time it took for me to draw another blade i could sharpen the one which was already out. they didn't call them MUSK- rats for nothing!!! what an odd smell,that sticks in my mind even today. i believe that the term muskrat as applied to a knife is a fairly new adjective due to the blade resembling a muskrat's tale and nothing to do with 2 blades exactly the same.
i believe that double blade configuration started long ago with the ANTI-GARROT knife, which was used to defend oneself from highwaymen!!!!!!!!
the saga continues
Double Diamond Jim
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GREG,
while living in Rhode island these flowers sprang up and some one said they were lady slippers that were a rare and endangered orchid. they look kinda like the ones in your photo.
i re-submitted my last comment.only nasty comment was the reference to the muskrat order.probably didn't take the time for security code to clear.
getting back on track. are the springs a little softer like we've read from viewers?
regards
J.G.H
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The springs are softer, but I think proportionately so. You wouldn't expect a 23 spring in one of these guys. In the little bit of handling I've done so far, I like the feel of it. Until you get one in your hands, it's hard to appreciate how much smaller it is then its predecessors.
Personally, I think it feels good.
greg
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