I had my goats (Bill & Levi) pack my favorite Bushcraft Spain Camping gear into a remote high country lake only to find it had frozen over. Luckily, the next day brought some warmer weather and I was able to do some trout fishing. What fun! Good fishing and delicious food to be enjoyed in this primitive serene location. When so much of life seems outside of our control I feel a sense of reassurance coming back to a place finding it completely unchanged, seemingly timeless. Being a part of these pure places seems to unwind some of the brain damage that accumulates as we progress through life. I come home feeling more grounded, with a freshly calibrated perspective that keeps my priorities in line with my values. So I can keep trying my best to be a good father, husband and fellow human-being.
How did I train my pack goats? I got Bill and Levi when they were still being bottle-fed so I could create a bond with them to become the leader of our herd. I've been putting small light weight packs on them and taking them for long walks from the very beginning. They instinctively feel a need to be close to me and won't let me out of their site. If at any time they lose track of me they immediately become panicked and start bleating out in an attempt to relocate me. I call back and they come running so they can once again feel the perceived safety of my presence. They can carry 25% of their body weight and you don't need to bring any type of feed for them. They easily fit in the back of a pickup truck. They are the perfect pack animal for me.
Interested in the gear I use? I design and and curate high quality camping gear based on my 40yrs of wilderness experience then I test it myself on my own adventures to be sure of the highest quality and durability before being offered by my company Firebox Outdoors LLC. Please feel free to visit my website by tapping this link: https://www.fireboxstove.com/
Original music written and preformed by: Chris Murphy (all rights reserved) To listen to more of Chris Murphy's amazing music please visit his website by tapping this link: https://chrismurphymusic.com/
It took a lot longer to get here than I thought it would.
I'm just going to go straight to where I think I want to camp because it gets dark real early.
This is all frozen, you know, and it's probably just frozen enough to be dangerous.
And the goats are going to walk out on it, the dogs are going to walk out on it.
Careful, Junie, that's a river.
Plenty of snow over here.
I don't think Ash wants to camp on this side of the lake.
This is where I usually camp, right here.
If you can chew on any other stick, not that one.
Let's see if I can find some firewood.
You watching over the camera?
Kind of warmed up.
It got a little cool there probably about an hour ago.
And I was honestly thinking about hiking out.
Now it's warmed up, kind of giving me a little more confidence.
This fire stick kind of wedges underneath it.
It just makes it so it doesn't slide out quite as easily.
That's getting close.
These beans are good, really sweet.
I'm going to use some of the bean water to make my mashed potatoes.
I need to counterbalance this a little bit.
So I'm going to see if I can set this over here somehow.
And I think I can.
I think that'll sit right there just fine.
I think it's time to eat.
This steak might be just a little rare still.
But I think it'll be pretty good.
I'm going to take that off.
Let's just let that sit for a minute and rest.
I think my potatoes are still warm.
It looks nice.
I think I'll set this aside and give that to the dogs after I finish green beans.
All right, that's good.
Come here.
See it?
You don't want any of that.
You're a herbivore.
Come here, boy.
Can you bite?
I realized that by having the fire stick in between the grill plate and the ash pan,
I no longer need the little prongs to engage the holes of this extended grill plate.
It does look like they're cooking on that one side.
But they are really soft still.
This might not work, I guess.
Yeah, this may have been wishful thinking.
It's not working.
Oh, good girl.
So pretty.
Good girl.
Oh, boy.
Should we see how our biscuits taste?
I kind of left them over here and forgot about them.
They're still a little soft in the middle.
For camping, they taste pretty good.
But it wasn't enough to really do biscuits and gravy or anything.
Pretty good, though.
Beautiful day.
And I saw a fish jump right out in the one little thawed area.
I don't know if I could ever get anything in there or not.
But I might try.
Ah, not far enough.
Ah, yes.
There is a chance that if I do catch a fish, I won't be able to get it back
because of this ice being, you know,
just thick enough that I think it's going to cause too much resistance.
Let me show you what we're working with here.
See, it's fairly thin.
Let's see if we have something.
Oh, it's already tight.
Yeah, I have a fish.
Yes!
Now, if I can get him to flop up on top of the ice,
I think I can slide him over here.
But otherwise, he might be stuck behind that wall of ice.
I'm hoping if I pull hard enough, he'll kind of pop up on.
I'm about to break the line.
If I pull any harder...
Well, I'm going to give it some more time.
Hoping that that ice will soften up.
And I'll come back and try again.
Look at that guy.
What a beauty.
Wow, look at that guy.
Holy smokes.
What a beautiful fish.
Wow.
I'm going to cook up this fish quite a bit differently than I normally do.
I just want to try something new.
I'm going to use the pizza stone in between the two layers of pans.
Let's see.
So, I need the pizza stone.
Empty out this pan.
The pizza stone in between.
We'll just let that big boy cook low and slow.
Oh wow, it's cooking faster than I thought.
It looks pretty beautiful though.
Well, it's still just a little pink inside.
I think I need just a little more time before those bones will come out easily.
Let that fire go ahead and die down to hot coals.
Okay, I think it's ready to cooperate.
A little Hakata spice.
I'm going to cover this up for just a minute.
Let it get good and hot.
There's still plenty of heat down below.
All right, I do believe it's time to eat.
Put just a touch more lemon.
Wow, that is really good.
Sure is hot.
This place has been real good to me.
It's been very nice.
I have really enjoyed this ground cloth from Bushcraft, Spain.
It's oil skin tarp on one side and wool on the other.
And it has been perfect for this environment
because if you kneel down on any of this ground you get wet.
You know, any pressure you get wet.
But this isn't wet at all because it just doesn't absorb.
So this is going to be fine.
I'll be able to just pack it right up.
How come you're such a funny goat, huh?
How come you're so funny?
Good goat.
This utility rope is a new product on our website.
The reason I decided to carry it is because it's unique to paracord.
Whereas paracord wants to lay flat.
It's more like a lace almost.
This hard round cord is really good for a bow drill
because it wants to ride next to itself instead of crossing over itself.
It's kind of hard to explain without showing you directly.
But I really like this utility cord.
It's very, very good quality.
You'll be impressed with it when you get it.
I guarantee that much.
It sure was nice visiting this spot.
Sure is beautiful.
He's going to fly over.
I guess I better go.
Can't stay here forever as much as I'd love to.
