A Word in the Woods

On January 15, 2011, I had the distinct pleasure of spending the day with Pinock Smith, a master builder, known for his traditional canoe-building methods.

I first heard of Pinock in the second season of Ray Mears’ Bushcraft, where he and Ray built an authentic birchbark canoe in a week. They worked on screen again in Northern Wilderness, to build a set of snowshoes. They are both great shows, but nothing can come close to meeting and talking with someone with that knowledge in person, and being able to ask the questions that are important to you.

(more…)

Tags: algonquin, building, Canoe, first nations, native, pinock smith, ray mears, traditional
Posted in Canoe, HowTo, Personal, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Perhaps not something that everybody likes to hear, but I, for one, found myself nodding along with many of the points in Don Tryon’s Leave-A-Trace editorial page.

He makes the point for a common-sense approach to camping, and takes issue with the extremes that some enthusiasts have gone through to erase our existence on the land. I agree with much of the spirit of leave-no-trace in preserving the land for future enjoyment, but, like Don, I find some practitioners take it too far.

(more…)

Tags: camping style, editorial, ethics, Leave no Trace, LNT, opinion, purcell
Posted in Conservation, editorial, Personal | 4 Comments »