Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Alright, we're all back home alive (as far as I can tell...a FB invite arrived from a new friend, so I'm assuming he's alive), dirty, and rather under-slept.

Must've been a good weekend, eh?

So here's how things went down. JBook, unfortunately, had to bow out last minute, but we're looking forward to seeing him next time, for sure. Pete, I didn't see that post of yours until today, but we're planning on some group day hikes in the snow and another Indy Moot come spring, possibly before the due date of your contest, so there's plenty of time for that.

Attendance racked up to be myself, Odigan, an old friend of his named Dave (who has recently joined the forum, in fact!), and Lori. For the first (to my knowledge) true trekking moot on the forum, it wasn't a bad showing.

We hiked in on friday around a gorgeous, pristine small lake through indiana's fine forest terrain.



We set up camp alongside a streambed on a raised portion of the forest bed that sloped into the creek, just in case the weather turned wet.


Odigan's Lean-to Shelter


Everyone brought their own food, but diets varied from corn mash to wheat bread to a whole roast chicken, with the best salt in the shire, naturally.




And, of course, we did some stump shooting. There are a plethora of rotten stumps and logs around the hills throughout the area, and we're making plans to, on the next moot when we have some more attendees, hold a roving Archery contest, and possibly a modified speed shooting "combat" contest that we've got in the works. In short, this location would be worth the trip, if you're interested!

Odigan:



The weather was supposed to drop down to the mid 20's at night, but the weatherman was wrong, and the evenings didn't drop below the 40's. It was rather comfortable. I know Odigan has more photos, but this is all that was on my camera, so enjoy until he has a chance to hop on and throw up his.

This was also Lori's first time camping with me while in my gear. Hopefully by the next time we go out I'll have a kit finished and ready to go for her as well. No bird yet this time (stupid paperwork and such), but we're on our way! I'm going to head on over to the old "lessons learned" thread and throw up some insights and mistakes made this time around. The more you go out into the woods, the more you learn and the more there is to discuss here, so if I may be subtle...get out there!

We had a blast!

Greg- The chicken looks better in picture

Looks like a great time cant wait to see more pics. Hopefully I will get to join one day.

Looks like awesomesauce.

Maybe I'll come next time if there's going to be roast chicken.

Yes indeed, 'twas a grand time. In fact, rather so busy enjoying ourselves I think hardly any photos were really taken!

I like the place you started the fire don;t you think that you may burn the forest ? In future be more careful

shadowshutter wrote:I like the place you started the fire don;t you think that you may burn the forest ? In future be more careful

If we thought we might "burn the forest" we wouldn't have bloody well lit a fire.

In any case I'm always careful to maintain a full bladder so as to keep manifold pressure up over 450 kpa, should we have need of immediate full-area extinguishment.

LOL Odigan!!
Looks like you had a great time, and Greg I spot some rings missing from your shirt

ok then don't take it personally we should always be careful with fires (you don't get out of my mind that you should have cleared these leaves) other than that it looks that you ve had a great time

Dirhael wrote:LOL Odigan!!
Looks like you had a great time, and Greg I spot some rings missing from your shirt

The ones on the sleeve were on purpose. The rest...well, its butted. Stuff happens. It's getting replaced. *chuckles*

you don't get out of my mind that you should have cleared these leaves

I don't know what the ground looks like in Greece, but that WAS after clearing leaves. About a foot deep worth of leaves. And under the freshly fallen ones, you wouldn't BELIEVE what we found! HUNDREDS of YEARS' worth of leaves, half-decomposed, soaking wet from the snow two days earlier.

My apologies for the sarcasm, but leaves on the ground in indiana are nae short of impossible to remove entirely. That'd require a shovel and an auger. We were safe...and we always are.

sorry didn't know that but campfires in the woods really piss me off
I didn't want to be sarcastic

The translation between the warmer dryer areas in the mediteranian (as variable as they may be) and the desiduous forests of North America can be deceptive in just a picture. Where Shadowshutter sees what looks like dry dead leaves Greg and Odigan kneel in layers of moist sometimes wet leaf mould that can be very thick and not at all a hazard to forest fire.

The other facter here is that these are two very experienced rangers who know their way around a cooking fire so though Shadowshitter is wise to be warry of fire safety in our beloved natural areas, You need to consider alot of factors before becoming alarmed.

The skill and conscienciousness of this group has never given me cause to worry.

shadowshutter wrote:sorry didn't know that but campfires in the woods really piss me off
I didn't want to be sarcastic

I'm gonna chalk this up to the language barrier but where would you propose a Campfire be? It's fairly obvious that they cleared as much of the leaves as they could/needed and knowing Greg and Odigan they were overly diligent in watching to make sure nothing else kindled.

Jonathan B. wrote: knowing Greg and Odigan they were overly diligent in watching to make sure nothing else kindled.

campfires can be anywhere

"camp" fires are where they are made, "Forest" or "wild" fires are where they spread too when campfires are not properly tended to.

"Carelessness" with fire in the woods is insufferable, and a ranger would never allow that.