Training in the hills Day 2: Not in my comfort zone

    I managed to wake up with only a slight crick in my neck. Go figure. I was using my Frogg Toggs in it's pouch as a pillow. Next time I would pack one. Bad thing was I had sweat through my clothes the first of the night then the temp dropped to the low 60's. I would suffer for that later in the week. My fire had died down to ash with no problems. It is always nice to tell my fire fighting friends I  have not caused a forest blaze.

     After a man's usual morning rituals, breakfast consisted of Cliff Oatmeal bars and copious amounts of water. Yet again, hydration is a key. See a theme? I didn't want to cook anything so that I could get moving sooner in the morning cool air before the temp got up in the 90's with very stupid humidity. That would be an all day battle for me. The elements and exertion will literally suck the water right out of you.

     On my ILBE I had packed a smaller Voodoo Tactical Multicam Day hydration pack I would take with me for the days activities. In it I packed sub sonic Nosler tip 5.56mm ammo if I needed to use it with my suppressor, my IFAK (Individual First Aid Kit,) targets, range finder, camelbak bladder, and MRE lunch (pork rib....yum.) On my left side I had my Cold Steel Kukri machete. In the small of my back was my custom Cold Steel tomahawk. I wore the same chest rig with all my lethal goodies. I would end up using the machete and the tomahawk on this trip more than any other tool. Money well spent.

      I had an appointment with the property owner that morning. I put on all the gear, slung my rifle,  and made the trek back down the ridge to ranges on the other side of the property. I made much better time with a little help.

      I met with the owner of the property at one of the ranges and demonstrated different weapons usage techniques that I teach for my company for about two hours. During that time he tried out my rifle's setup to see if he wanted to spend the coin on an ACOG scope. He had decided that it was a needed item for his next build. I was contracted to make such a build for him.

     After he departed the scene I began to hit the trails. I took this at a steady pace trying to keep as aware as possible. Every 100 yards or so I would stop and listen. If I was satisfied the woods sounded like.......well, the woods I would start to move on. I managed to find some wild game sign and followed the track for some time till I hit the property line and could not go any further. Three quarters of the way through my round trip I had emptied my CamelBak. Figures. The nice thing about my location was that I never run into anyone. I was by myself. The solitude was deafening. I loved it. I don't think I could do it for a super long period of time to start off with. Despite being a loner I do enjoy human contact.

     I am a hefty person and love to eat. However, even if I don't eat after burning so many calories I feel really sluggish. So around 1300 hours I stopped and at lunch. The whole MRE I ate cold. I did not want to waste one drop of water on the chemical heater if  I did not have to seeing that the temperature was in the mid 90's by now. Some of you know that MRE stand for "Meals Ready to Exit" or "Meals Refusing to Exit." I'll spare you the details. I did feel better after the stop.

     During this second day I shot at high and low angles as well as through brush and at longer than 100 yard distances. All of these circumstances does effect the bullets path through the air one way or another. Shooting suppressed with super sonic ammunition still rang loud echoing through the hills. At least anyone listening would have a hard time finding out where the shot came from. Running Dr. Packett's Love Potion #9 in the subsonic variety all you could hear was the impact of the bullet on target. Modestly I am a trained marksman have little trouble with these shots. I don't like training on a flat range anymore. It has gotten quite boring.


     For an evaluation I brought with me a 42 round ProMag AR-15 magazine. I will have to say I started out with NO faith that this thing was going to work considering the brand. During the day for most of the drills I ran was with this magazine. I have to say that it did not fail at all. Everything that day was done suppressed. For those who don't know that causes a back pressure of hot dirty gases into the upper and lower receiver with quite a bit ending up in the magazine. After a while that causes the mag to gum up.That's when most mags start failing.

     I was going to hit the rack at a decent hour after a dinner of tuna and rice. However, the coyotes had other plans. I started hearing their calls about 2100 hours at the bottom of the ridge while I was checking email and looking over videos and images. I could not tell how many there were but, I knew they were pretty far off. So I pretty much ignored them. After a half an hour they were much closer. And closer after about another half an hour. By around 2215 it was danger close. I had already set my rifle in my lap as I watched the fire. Hearing them pretty much circle me. I thought to myself, "Come on. I ain't got all damn night."

     That fight never came for whatever reason...........Cowards. I finally managed to let myself lay down while listening to the fire. I was tired and passed out quickly.

Continued on: Training in the hills Day 3: Are we there yet?

Training in the hills Day 1 Part 2: Arrive on scene

     I arrived at my destination a little winded and soaked from head to toe. I gripe. But, I got there. It was nice to get the pack off. My abs personally thanked me for the relief. As soon as the pack was set down I did a 300 foot circle survey of the area. My shelter I'm not allowed to give a full picture of but, I can tell you it is a three sided open air structure with a porch and sleeping cots. It is very well made to stand the test of time. The camp fire place is about ten feet from the edge of the porch surrounded by large stones. A little earlier I had brought up by OHV firewood and water and cached them on site. Part of my agreement was not to tear the place up. So chopping firewood would not be ideal. I was on top of one of the tallest ridges in the area. It was all downhill after walking 100 feet in almost every direction. Defensible.

     I treated the time like I was in an area I was not welcome and kept my carbine on my back and my pistol on my side. I had not worn a rifle this long since I worked in Afghanistan along the Iranian border. I treated where I'm at with the same paranoia.

     Setting up security was just a test to see if it even worked. I brought with me a roll of 30 pound test fishing line and a bag full of jingle bells (Ho Ho Ho.) On the accessible areas I placed the lines at shin level and had strung the bells on it. It was not going to stop anything. However, it would give someone a moment of confusion when they are tangled up in it making some noise. For animals it would just cause an aggravation. If the line was crossed during the night it would give me the two or three seconds needed to get to my handgun or carbine.

     This area was also a test bed for an electrical setup my brother put together for me. On the roof of my shelter I put a RV outdoor solar panel that had about 15 feet of chord that was run to a small car booster pack. It isn't much but it powered my led lighting, recharged my tablet, and phone. Believe it or not I had 4G cell service at the top of the site. The booster pack was attached to a 120V inverter. In theory I could have run my laptop for a while on it. I was just happy to have some communication to the outside world with the setup.

     About and hour before dark was on the way I began to start my camp fire. I made sure all my materials were together starting with some dryer lint and a ferrocerium rod. The humid air made everything hard to start. But, I managed to get it going. Within fifteen minutes I had a good roaring fire with a sense of gratification.

      One of the gizmos I brought with me was a BioLite stove. It uses a thermoelectric probe in the fire chamber to generate electricity that you can access through a USB port in the front of the module. Using sticks no bigger than your finger and coals from my camp fire it is fairly easy to use. Once the fire is started you switch the module on and the internal fan kicks in forcing air into the chamber. This in turns makes the fire burn much hotter. Once the internal battery has been charged the indicator light will turn green letting you know that you can plug something into the USB outlet. Using a multiple USB hub I was able to charge my tablet and my phone. As long as the fire is fed the power will keep coming. I managed to cook a nice dinner of brown rice and added some canned chicken and gravy. This is easy to use if you want to a keep a smaller thermal signature than a camp fire or use it when you are on the road. For an extra 50 bucks there is an attachable grill. This stove was best emergency piece of equipment next to a knife I could have gotten my hands on.

      With dinner dishes finished, I checked work email and prepared for sleep. I set Gretchen (my Carbine) next to me, I listened to the fire crackle till I passed out from exhaustion.


                               Continued on: Training in the hills Day 2: Not in my comfort zone