Virgin Falls camping trip

Back at the first of November some friends, my Dad, brothers and myself took a trip to Virgin Falls state park.  We found it was a great place to hike.  There was a good amount of fairly difficult trails,  and a large cavern. Also the Caney Fork river was next to one of the camping areas.  The leaves were in their best color, and there were some good views.  We just camped over night but it was a very enjoyable trip.

This is Virgin falls, probably over 100 feet tall.

Here is my bag that I took. I added my leather sling bag to the back of my backpack for extra room.

 

                                                          One of the many rock overhangs.

 

 

 



 

Nothing like something warm to drink around the campfire.

 

 

 

 

All the wood was a little damp so the fire was a bit hard to keep going.

 

 

 

 

 

This is one of the views that we stopped for on our way out.  I definitely want to come back here again.  I am always excited to get to explore a new trail.

Back to Tennessee

Well I'm back in Tennessee, and I'm glad to be here.  My time at the Alert Academy was a very good time of learning, and growing.  Basic training was one of the most challenging times of my life and stretched me in many ways.  Emergency Response training taught me many valuable skills including high angle rescue, rescue diving, structural firefighting, rescue systems, and wild land firefighting.  All these classes were very hands on, and we got lots of good experience.  I also went on to take the EMT coarse they provide.  I found that I like emergency medicine quite a bit.  We got almost three weeks of clinical training.  Working on the ambulance and in the emergency room were very enjoyable. Also there was a lot of time spent studying the bible, wisdom searches, and personal time in the word.  During the coarse of basic it became clear to me that I could not finish without the Lord's help, but he was faithful and saw me through.  I have been away for the better part of the year, but it's good to be back in the woods of Tennessee. I have spent quite a lot of time hunting this season and I've been on a very enjoyable camping trip, but more about that later.

Basic training

Starting January 19 I will be at the ALERT Academy in Texas going through basic training, so I will not be posting much for quite some time.  I had planned to post some more before I left but I am having some difficulty loading pictures. Here is a link to their website http://www.alertacademy.com/iaa/, and here is a link to their blog http://www.alertacademy.com/alert/blog/.  And I wanted to re post this photo I took last year, it  is one of my favorites.

 

Camp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Well I have not posted much lately, so here are a few things related to woodcraft and the outdoors that I have been doing.  The pictures are from a camping trip I took back in November.  I wanted to test out some new  equipment, build  a shelter at my camp site, and camp in colder weather.  I started out late so I ran out of daylight quickly, but I was able to build a shelter before dark.  The main idea behind the shelter was to use some cedar tree tops that I knew were in the woods.  So I tied a cedar pole across the two trees at the camp site, and leaned the cedar tops end first on the cross piece.  Then I trimmed all the twigs from the inside and made sure I could get in.  Then I covered the top with leaves and branches as needed.  During the night it kept the cold wind from coming blowing in, all except for a spot that had not been covered, and that kept my face cold.  I will need to improve this shelter in the future,  but it was not bad for being built in a short amount of time.  My fire was very cheery and was easy to start and easy to keep burning, this is not usually the case.  The fire kept heat coming into the open side of the shelter and made it very comfortable, if I had built the shelter a little higher it might have been even warmer.  It got quite cold and there were deer running around my camp all night long.  At one point I heard two raccoons chattering in the dark very close.  Deer were all over the place and I could see them in the moonlight.  The next morning I sat by my fire drinking cups of hot tea warming my insides and watching wildlife, the deer did not seem to notice my fire and walked by quite undisturbed.  A little later a group of turkeys came within just a few yards, it turned out that my shelter acted as a blind and concealed me very well. 

 

I have also been making alot of spoons, forks, and other utensils. This has kept me very busy. 

 

I have also been experimenting with a short bow that is attached to my back quiver.  I use it as a back up for any other bow I take out.  Well that is a little bit of what I have been doing in my woods, I hope you all have a happy new year.