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