“It took A.K. to teach me how to make real camp coffee: bring one pot of lake or river water to a rolling boil, add two palmfuls of generic coffee, and remove the pot to the edge of the coals. If it’s the breakfast pot, throw in the eggshells. When it’s done (five to ten minutes), add a splash of cold water to settle the grounds.

Like whiskey, it should be drunk from a tin cup.“    – John Gierach, Camp Coffee

Re-read this essay last night… looking forward to summer time and hopefully some smoky camp coffee.

45 years later…

February 2, 1968

In the dark of the moon, in flying snow, in the dead of winter,
war spreading, families dying, the world in danger,
I walk the rocky hillside, sowing clover.

-Wendell Berry

I recently came across these fine creations on a daily read of mine and they were just to beautiful not to repost here at WildWood. Christian Horgen, a Sweedish architect and father, builds custom fiberglass fly rods. Each one is a unique creation inspired by classic American fly rod designs. There many more examples of his work on his website and blog, here are just a few tasty examples. Oh what I wouldn’t do for one of these rods!

In the spirit of John Fahey and carrying the recently dimmed torch of Jack Rose comes Daniel Bachman, an acoustic guitar player from the from our home state (the great commonwealth of Virginia). Bachman plays a style of fingerpicking – drone that weaves together deep mountain melodies and complex rhythms that can honestly be called “Pyschedelic Appalachia.” Perfect for a fall afternoon, his most recent album “Seven Pines”  just came out on Thompson Square Label.

Got out this past weekend to do a little early autumn brook trout fishing. Nice weather however not yet cool enough that one doesn’t work up a sweat trekking around in waders. But that’s OK I just moved a little bit slower up through the stream and over the rocks. There wasn’t much of any hatch on the water or a whole lot of activity in general, most of the brookies were more concerned with getting their gravel beds ready for spawning. A few fish were willing to bite and entertain me, and I want to thank them for their kindness because otherwise I would have been standing in that stream waving a stick simply for the pleasing view.

But there’s one that comes–
heavy, scarred, silent like the rest,
that simply holds against the current,

closing its dark mouth against
the current, closing and opening
as it holds to the current.

-Raymond Carver

There are still some days of summer light left… make sure you get out and fish.

Just to good not to re-post this. Vince Dugar’s collection of Grateful Dead Parking lot t-shirts. Just a small sampling shown here, I recommend viewing the whole collection.

The Wilderness Pocket n’ Pak Library is a set of 5 small books containing essential wilderness survival skills created by Dennis Bleything and Ron Dawson. The collection of books was first published in 1972 by what was then the authors’ company Life Support Technology. The set of books comes in a fold-up plastic sleeve that protects them while stuffed in a backpack or back pocket while out in the woods.

If you want a set of these excellent books you could probably find them used online or something, or instead you could try to order them from this 1974 issue of Backpacker. Its your choice but either way you should probably have these pocket sized lifesavers with you next time you hit the trail.