What got you into bushcraft and your best time in the woods

[commandocal]

Im wondering what got everyone into bushcraft just curious is all and havnt really made a thread yet so i thought i'd give it a go , for me it started when i was about 6 and used to make "dens" in the woods near me before it got ripped down for houses....then when i was 16 i was enquiring to join the royal marines and they told me alot of what i would be doing and i had been on alot of SAS escape and evasion, survival courses etc and i just got hooked, anyone else just happen to stumble upon it, by watchin ray, bear grylls etc or just wanted to get out and do something?

my favourite time camping wild was my first time when i went with my friend for 3 days to a place called Willingham Woods, we set up a basha camp and got a fire going fairly easy, then mooched about and had a great laugh, next day we went for a walk to find a new place to camp for the night, walked into this lovely stream so we thought we would take a paddle little did we know there was a wasp nest near us.... was worse than a PT lesson with a french foreign legion PTI, lets say that, we was running around 50 minutes totally exhausted they where crawling down my top and everything, until i came across a stream further up so i dived in that and made a big splash and rolled about, adventure over for that day haha,next day 2 more mates come down with plenty of meat and a few beers what a night!

*EDIT* bad title, i dont want to know your best time in the woods if you was with your misses or something private,unless their is pictures...

 

[falling rain]

I think this old chestnut has been done quite a few times Commandocal.

My best time in the woods is anytime it's raining and I'm in my pit. I'm not being sarky. I love the rain on the tarp and being snuggled up with a tinny and watching the rain and the woods from my sleeping bag.

 

[KAE1]

For me its been a sort of hybrid between fieldsports,camping and canoeing. Mix them all up throw it the deepest love of Nature you can imagine and you end up with something a bit bushcrafty.
You guys inspire meon the 'making stuff' side of life, so this site has played its part. I just made a centre seat for my canoe, inspired by Jon r's thread - a year ago I would have bought one.
This site is also to blame for me owning too many sharp things

And for best times, well for me its by a river watching my daughter amuse hereself for hours just paddling about, playing with sticks, making dens etc while I sit back in a comfy chair sipping on a bottle of Adnams Suffolk bitter

 

[Tourist]

My old man was a squaddie before me and as a kid I used to play on the exercise areas with my mates. We used to build dens and camp out for the day before going home minging for tea and a bath.

Best time, 7 days on an island about 40 miles off the coast of Malaysia. We stuck up A frames on the beachy grassy bit just before it met the treeline, did'nt want coconuts falling on our heads. The island had an old Jap air strip on it from WW2, a mountain, jungle and a few malay fishermen and their famillies.

We had taken tins and compo with us but ended up fishing, catching fruitbats, mouse deer and bought a couple of goats from the locals - added to which there was more than plentiful wild fruit. Like 'Rainfall' I too like the sound of the rain coming down, particularly monsoon, but the sound of the surf when you are lying there watching the stars in the tropics just cannot be described.

Never did find those pirates though..........

 

[mace242]

I think this old chestnut has been done quite a few times Commandocal.

My best time in the woods is anytime it's raining and I'm in my pit. I'm not being sarky. I love the rain on the tarp and being snuggled up with a tinny and watching the rain and the woods from my sleeping bag.

Oh that sounds nice and here I am stuck in an office with the view of a trading estate.

 

[Big Bad Stu]

I have been into bushcraft as long as I can remember, certainly before it was widely known as bushcraft!

I remember everyone looking at me a bit strangely when I bought an olive green rucksack in the later 1980's when day glo was the norm. I have always has a reliable knife etc. but in the last two years this has been ramped up to some really excellent kit.

I have recently realised that it is best to have a divided approach to camping, knives, axes and hammocks for me on my own and a caravan and awning for camping with the family. Never the twain should meet!

My best time in the woods was earlier this year at Yellow Wood, three days with nothing else to do but mooch around, tend the fire, experiment with camp cuisine, drink tea and enjoy the woods. We were lucky in having a remarkably kind weekend weather wise. I do look forward to spending a night in the henessy under the hex fly.

Stewey.

 

[BlackPacker]

I guess I got into bushcraft a month ago when I joined this forum. Since I was in the cub scouts though, I've been into wildcrafting and traditional skills. Blew my mind to find out there was an internet forum about it.

Really got into it after finishing Ranger school. It was funny, though, my platoon mates kind of heckled for me for my insistence on "roughing it" thinking my need to be in a small private tent without a gasoline heater was demonstrating my toughness, when in all actuality, I hated getting woken up everytime somebody in the common tent had guard duty (oh, and the fact that when it was time for details, they went to that same tent to find volunteers.)

Best time camping is a tie between the first time I camped in a city with local street musicians after hitchhiking to Nashville, and the first time I camped out on my own 44 acres. Just keeps getting better now... Sunset solar showers are the best!

 

[Womble]

I think this old chestnut has been done quite a few times Commandocal.

My best time in the woods is anytime it's raining and I'm in my pit. I'm not being sarky. I love the rain on the tarp and being snuggled up with a tinny and watching the rain and the woods from my sleeping bag.

I agree. Lying in my hammock, listening to the rain fall on my tarp is a real pleasure; and lulls me to sleep...

Over and above that, me & AndyN tracking deer on the Sunday morning of the Christmas moot last year - frost on the ground, a crispness in the air, and the satisfaction of putting skills into use and getting a positive result!

Then there was the weekend in November 2003 when me and another local scoutleader went late into some local woods one Friday night, bivvied down for the night, and then spent the next day building a really nice shelter which we used that night. Waking up at 2 in the morning and finding the entire place bathed in moonlight and utterly still...

 

[spamel]

I think my trips in Germany will be what I miss the most as they were without a doubt the best due to the wildlife. I've never had trips that I enjoyed so much for sheer excitement at having a large wood eagle sat in the tree above me whilst i lounge in my hammock, or a tribe of wild boar crashing across thre forest not twenty metres in front of me. I really miss Germany.

 

[shep]

I have no idea what prompted it, but aged 8 I begged by parents to get me the SAS survival handbook (along with the A-Team camp set!) for my birthday. I then gradually spent more and more time outdoors. My interest has ebbed and flowed with available opportunities, but this site was a great discovery to keep me going.

The best time outdoors has to be alone at 4500m in the Peruvian Andes in a hail shower under a full moon - awesome.

 

[Carcajou Garou]

Bushcraft was just a matter of going out of the back door and into the bush, learning by experience and what elders told us.
Best time when a train derailed further up the line and we were stranded in the bush, waiting for passage back (didn't have to go to work and had a good excuse)

 

[commandocal]

Nice stories guys, This site is great I am the only one of my mates who likes this type of stuff they are all boring wish there was guys who like the simple life round here too