Best things in bushcraft?!/What Element of Bushcraft appeals to you the most?

[Womble]

We've all got our views on this: whether its the kit, or the fire, the walking and tracking, the countryside, the wilderness, or the sunsets.

For most of us I suspect that it's a mixture of all of these and lots more, but is there for you one element that stands out as the primary thing that you love about what we do?

I've been thinking about this, especially after email conversations with Jack at Woodland Organics, and have come to the conclusion that for me it's really quite simple...

...it's the woods.

There's something special about woodland that relaxes me, and can put any trouble into a special perspective that makes it not seem so bad anymore. Even the night doesn't cause the fear I've had in the past.The sounds of the modern world are muffled and my senses refocus themselves for a different type of input. My pace naturally slows down and I'm listening for every sound - looking for the tinest of movements... and I'm happy*.

Well, that's me - what about you?

*there was supposed to be more - but I ran out of words

[MartiniDave]

I think its the relaxing effects of spending time outdoors, learning and practicing skills. Reaching and growing beyond yourself and gaining an enormous sense of self confidence and well being.

Christ! Did I say that! :rolmao:

Dave

[Adi007]

I think that a huge part of out liking of being outdoors is that it satifies our in-built desire to be outdoors. If you measure the time that humans have been around, we've only been living this urbanized, packaged living for a blink of an eye. Inside us all is the drive to be outside doing stuff!

[MarkG]

I agree it's the woods.

There's somthing very cool and calming about them. :hurra:

[Hoodoo]

I agree with Adi although I do think civilzation can dull that evolutionary drive.

Quite a few years ago I use to do some naturalist work at a small woodland reserve located on the edge of a good-sized city in Indiana (Fort Wayne). We would get groups of kids in for hikes, some from the city and some from the surrounding rural area. One of the things we always did was take them to the central part of the forest. The kids were asked to close their eyes and tell us what they hear. The most common response from the city kids was: I hear a bird or I hear a squirrel. The most common response from the farm kids was: I hear traffic (which was about 1 1/2 miles away).

[Hoodoo]

Had to leave before I could finish my response. Anywho, what attracts me most to the wilderness is getting rid of the background noise of civilization.

[Womble]

Had to leave before I could finish my response. Anywho, what attracts me most to the wilderness is getting rid of the background noise of civilization.

Several of the Scout campsite I've been to over the last couple of years have been great but for one thing: traffic noise. Roads have sprung up near them (the M25 in one case) and the background roar never stops. A real pity, I think.

[jamesdevine]

After my resent week long course which was the longest continual time I have spent in the woods in many years I went grocery shopping with my wife.

Only three hours before hand I has in a wood now I was in a mad fast moving supermarket with hundreds of people talking at once and music it all got a bit to much.

It took me the entire weekend to adjust back but I have not been the same. Everything above the wind seems to load and at every oppurtunity I am out side seeking the sound of wind in trees.

It's a language that speaks directly to the sole.

James

[TheViking]

The peace in the woods and on the country! I live several miles from a big town and a few miles from villages. Love stalking and firemaking. Shelterbuilding and the use of cutting tools! 8-)

[Douglas]

The first thing I thought of was the fire. But thinking more about it I also like the fact that I can take my time for everything, I hear birds singing and not the noise of a computer fan or cars, I've got the place to myself most of the time (and the group I'm with), the place is pretty, it doesn't have the dull gray of cities (wether I'm in a forest or up on a mountain). If I spend the night there I like making the most of the beauty and calmness of the night, watch the sunset and sunrise...
I also rarely get bored, I can just watch the fire, carve a stick or go for a walk or even go to bed if I'm really short of ideas or energy.

There's just one thing I really hate about being out, mostly in fields: HAYFEVER :evil:

[ranger]

Have to agree with the others, I just love being outdoors and in the woods.

ranger

[Viking]

It´s the the stoneage man in me who wants out, living without any modern facilities. Spent a week last year far away from the modern world and when I got back I could not even sleep indoors. The stoneageman was alive and kicking and I was happy man.

Who needs a tv when there is "Ranger TV" every night in the woods :wink:

[RovingArcher]

It's a language that speaks directly to the sole.

James, your words speak volumns. My sentinments exactly.

[grumit]

you guys are all lucky you have the woods we cant go far in guernsey not far enough to get away from backround noise if it is'nt cars it's plane's but i still love to walk the cliff tops and just be outside

[Kath]

you guys are all lucky you have the woods we cant go far in guernsey not far enough to get away from backround noise if it is'nt cars it's plane's but i still love to walk the cliff tops and just be outside

We've hardly got any woods on the isle of Anglesey either, Grummit! Only 1450 hectares and they're planning to cut down ~500 ha of that (if we can't stop them, that is! T: ) If that happens we'll be the county with the least trees in the whole of Europe (atm that sorry title belongs to the island of Malta.) ...

[ChrisKavanaugh]

Our common ancestral home and nursery of humanity is the outdoors. What I love,is the utter nuetrality of Nature. Everyone has an idea of who we are. Our friends, family and coworkers have another idea, and then there is who and what we really are. Bushcraft has a humorous, yet serious way of testing us. I can dodge responsibility for stupid pursuits,turn different aspects of my personality on and off to manipulate people ( busily manipulating me) and in general get my sense of personal ID in more tangles than a bit of paracord discovered by my cat. But put me outside and I and I alone build the fire with a stormfront moving in, figure out the best location for a shelter and figure out where I am on this out of date map( with smeared chocolate covering my true location.) If I am cheeky enough to complain, katherine Hepburn in a Ghilly Suit looks over -, gives me THE LOOK and says " now, Chris, I am far to busy with the annual whale migration, hiding 23 surviving alpine flowers your lot thoughtlessly destroyed and I'm coordinating an earthquake for next week when that Swartzenegger person is giving a speech. You sort it out yourself."

[hobbitboy]

Kath, is there some sort of petition goin to stop the tree choppin in anglesey?
If so can u post a link or summat :-)

I havent got a favourite bit....mmm....although i do have a particular fondness for hurtin my self on gritstone...not sure if it counts as bushcraft though.....
Other than that woodlands are amazing! :super:

[Stuart]

if i had to explain my over all (recently discoverd) love for bushcraft it would be just as womble, kath etc have said.

being out doors

ever since i left the middle east i have been missing the vast expanses of desert that i grew up around, the closest i get to the feeling of calm and contentment that being in the desert brings me in this country, is being in the woods, or deep in the dunes of mythr mawr, they dont stop me missing the desert but they make me feel better.




If I had to choose a skill which i am enjoying at the moment it would be trapping and foraging (with great thanks to Ed), to me this is a skill which seperates bushcraft from survival.
I would not need to concern myself with getting food in most short term survival situations but when i am practicing bushcraft i like to sit with freinds and share a tasty meal at the end of the day which we have found or caught and prepared ourselves.

[Kath]

Kath, is there some sort of petition goin to stop the tree choppin in anglesey?
If so can u post a link or summat :-)

:super: There isn't an online petition as such, but they are taking emails. I've posted a thread over in woodland chatter.

[Gary]

Have ever you heard of the Land of Beyond
That dreams at the gates of the day?
Alluring it lies at the skirts of the skies,
And ever so far away;
Alluring it calls: O ye the yoke galls,
And ye of the trail over fond,
With saddle and pack, by paddle or track,
Lets go to the land of beyond!

To me there are many elements of bushcraft which I love. Some were mere illusions shattered by the reality forced upon me by trademarks and lawyers, the loss of friends and the loss of respect I once felt for someone I considered to be a man of vision and importance.

However this opened my eyes to the many more elements of 'the craft' which are realities.

Bushcraft is a dream, it is the voice of our true inner being. It is the expression of ourselves as we should be, not how we are now, living false lives in brick boxes where liberal lefties and do gooders twist the truth and make the un-natural ok.

To me modern man is the living dead - we all spend our lives searching for the thing that is missing, wondering and bemoaning that there has to be something more.

There is and that, to me, is bushcraft. Today we live in societies which are based upon farmers rules, land ownership and greed Bushcraft raises us above these (even for just a short time) and allows us to be the true creature we were meant to be. More than on a physical level, but on a spiritual level too (James Devine hit the name on the head) it speaks to our soul.

Bushcraft is above the ego's of the few who would twist it to give them a name they should not seek, it is pure and eternal. It is the oldest gift bestowed upon man, it is the voice of creation which whispers in our heart and it is the tender caresse of mother nature in the fresh breeze which brushes our cheek.

It is the light which leads us all. And long may it lead O ye the yoke galls!

[BorderReiver]

I agree with Kath,it's the woods.

There is always something different to see and hear.

All the seasons have their own attractions,as have all the different weather conditions.

[Viking]

When reading the posts here you realise, bushcraft is not a hobby it´s a way of life...or maybe even a religion for some.

[stuart f]

What appeals to me is the way Mother nature allows me to taste ,touch and see things all for free, i feel priviledged that she asks nothing in return.
CHEERS STUART F.

[Ed]

Very thought provoking gary.... where did the poem come from?

Ed

[Gary]

Ed the poem is Robert Service - an excellent poet very pertinent to our subject.

And though provoking is what it should have been.

[Womble]

It was; I loved it.

[jamesdevine]

Yes I loved it to. It's one of those zen like poems that opens doors every time you read it.

Is this from a book of his poems. If so can you tell us what it's called.

Also Gary thanks for correcting the spelling mistake i only noticed it this morning when i re read the thread.

James

[Stuart]

Well done Gary!!!!!

the best expresion of the meaning bushcraft i have ever heard.

[george]

My response will have to include a poem too:

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Some times we're just so full of other stresses that we don't hear the woods calling. At other times the call's so loud we can't ignore it.

Just stopping every now and then and listening to the same call that our ancestors heard is good for the soul. But it's at it's loudest and its purest when instead of passing by on the way to somewhere else we stop for a while and sing with it.

George

[Womble]

If thats' the full version, it's the first time I've seen the "TELEFON" poem in full. Wow.