Posts

Two is One and One is None - My take on Ultra light hiking/camping

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Jimmy in his Natural habitat "I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it" "Be Prepared" so that's three quotes/mantra's that I just threw out there, one of which is the motto of the boy scouts, all of these sayings are interconnected and have deeper meanings that one should often think about while going on long distance hikes, camping trips, or missions to places where you cannot instantly obtain something you desperately need. And before I dive into the meat and potatoes of this post I want to introduce you to a friend of mine, many of you have probably met him before, his name is Murphy and he's got this law that we are all subject to and this law states; "Things will go wrong in any given situation, if you give them a chance" or "whatever can go wrong, will go wrong at the worst possible time" whether it's something small like forgetting to pack extra socks or something big like a plane brea

Hydrate or DIE!

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An Excellent choice for a water filter - the Platypus 2L Gravityworks system 70% of you! The saying Hydrate or die has been the moto of the popular brand Camelback for a long time now, and it was even adopted as a running joke in my time in the Canadian forces, but truer words were never spoken! you need this to live and depending on the environment you are in if you go without it for 3 days you will literally die... so how does one obtain the proper amount of water to sustain themselves for long periods of time? how do you know if you're dehydrated? what are the symptoms? what is the treatment? what kind of water filter should I purchase? Where and how much There are plenty of videos and survival guides out there where you have probably heard all of this before but I'm writing this as if someone had absolutely no idea how to obtain water(the purpose is to improve my writing skills on subject matter I know so feel free to skip to the product review if you are skill

Don't let your Feet, Foot the bill!

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Killarney provincial park "the Crack" The Journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step A familiar mantra that we have all heard at least once, but the truth of this old proverb cannot be understated when it comes to hiking great distances but what is the first step? where should we begin our journey? in my experience and opinion the most important place to start is; Your Feet! Without proper consideration of these two very important appendages you could end up in a world of hurt after a few kilometers on hard terrain. But what do you need to consider? what equipment do you need to obtain? what do you need to take care of them? what are things you need to be concerned about?   Considerations When planning a hike it should be common practice that you do whats called a detailed map study, this should be done with a topographic map or satellite imaging that shows elevation and type of terrain. The reason you need to know what your getting into is so that you can

What happened and Why am I Blogging

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So there I was, knee deep in the thick of things, conquering a trail I had my eye on for a while. It was an 88km loop trail in a provincial park in central Ontario, Canada, when all of the sudden at the end of a grueling 13km leg in my journey I had come across a couple who had set up camp at a site I had booked. I must admit, on day 7 of my trip around this loop trail I was not too impressed to see someone set up camp in a place I had been relying on to rest and recuperate, but instead of showing aggression and asking them to leave I politely asked what was going on. They asked very nicely if they could share my campsite because they were too tired to carry on with their intended route. There had been a pretty bad thunderstorm the night prior and I could see that they did not handle the previous night very well so I said yes they could share the campsite with me. After situating my kit and grabbing some water to filter we began to talk about the trail and where they were supposed t

Introduction

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If you are reading this I'm sure you want to know the basic information and the validity of the author, because if you can't trust the source then what the hell is the point of taking the advice posted here. So here it is; This is me, Jimmy is what most of my friends call me. I've been in the Canadian Forces in an Infantry Reserve unit for just shy of 10 years. I have been on Domestic operations only, and have not been overseas(I make this fact known because many people falsify what they have done during military service and I want this Blog to be transparent) For 5 of the 10 years of my time spent in the CF I have been an Instructor on a wide range of courses but my favorite to teach were the Infantry trade qualification courses which is the basis on why I am creating this blog. I like to hike... a lot, mainly because its the best way to see the country side and has great health benefits both physically and mentally. Camping is also a passion of mine