BUSHCRAFT BUHISAN XX: Shelters

I THINK IT WOULD be a very hot day. I could feel it in the air and, what the heck, I am used to warm weather. I am sitting at the parking lot of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in the early morning of May 5, 2013 waiting for the participants of my regular yet free weekend lectures about basic bushcraft. Giving me company are Jhurds Neo and Dominikus Sepe and both seem to be in high spirits while I am suffering from a smoldering fever.

Our lot are slowly being filled up by Ernie Salomon, Glenn Pestaño, JB Albano, Randell Savior, James Cabajar, Eli Bryn Tambiga, Jamiz Combista, Neil Mabini and by the only rose amongst us, Febre Lee Gonzaga. When we had eaten breakfast and secured our food provisions for our noontime meal, we move on to higher ground. The route would be Bebut’s Trail and, part of that stretch, would be “heartbreak ridge”.

I do not have to elaborate where is that but, one thing for sure is, that slope is a maker of character and weans away the wimps from the tough ones. At 8:20 AM, the barren route activates your nostrils to go beyond its rim, your heart pumping blood as you chase the far rise that harbor the first shade. My attention are set on the most rotund – Glenn and Jhurds – and, of course, on Febre Lee.

As we reach the shaded part, the water is a welcome ally. I gurgle as few liquid as possible between my gums and tongue for a cooling effect before swallowing. Darn! It really is hot and I am not feeling well. We push on down and up the trail which is now shaded but the heat is just too much and so tormenting on my pace, on my body and in my thoughts. I am sweating hard and I need to replenish my dwindling supply of drinking water.

Familiar water sources have disappeared and I am forced to walk down the trail into a natural spring which I only heard of from somebody long ago and gambled on it. Amongst boulders, a trickle pour out from a propped steel pipe from underneath a rock. I study the high ground to determine the location of a communal well and also its potability. I top off my bottle and everyone took my cue. Now we are confident to resume our activity.

The plan is to proceed directly to the catchment basin of the Buhisan Watershed Area but the route had been changed on short notice through the suggestion of Randell. We will proceed to the basin instead by way of Camp Damazo which we need to reach by a short-cut on a road. I hate roads for shaded places are less and it is now 10:30 AM; just an hour plus towards noon.

What equilibrium I recovered during rests and rehydration are lost to this road. I looked for the mango tree marking the route to Lensa Trail and I immediately plunge into the bushes and climb up a hill where there is a saddle and the start of that path to Camp Damazo. From the saddle, I follow a low ridge vegetated by teak trees and climb a hill. From there, the route follow upward onto a higher hill, which I love to name as “Boy T’s Hell”, and steeply down into a level ridge.

The teak forest have lost its forest cover due to extreme summer heat and so offer us no respite from the sun. The ground is dry and loose and cause the party many scary slips. Wooden staffs are much in demand here and everyone retrieved whatever rods to hold on to for balance. Some, frustrated by their ineffective shoes, travel down on the seat of their pants.

The path on the level ridge is a dead end but a slope goes down to a stream where Camp Damazo is located. Absence of a trail make the going rough. Wilted vegetation caused by heat along this route make the going rougher still. As was before, a wooden staff would be quite handy for balance and countering gravity. I reach the stream and it is dry. Immediately, I boil water for coffee with my camp stove.

I wait for the others to come down and ask everyone for coffee packs. Unfortunately, the last man down have that darned coffee. Hot coffee under a hot noon sun sounds insane but we need coffee to pep up lost energy to heat and the difficult path. Cannot chew on coffee raw and cannot stir it well with lukewarm water. No other conventional way except to stir and drink it with hot water.

It seems that we do not have the luxury of time to get to the catchment basin before noon and it is already 11:40 AM! I decide we stay at Camp Damazo and prepare our meal. I try to push myself to start the lecture about basic shelters but I really am spent. The morning lecture would have been about man-made shelters but I do not have any zest to pursue it. I let it go and grab my cheap folding shovel instead to dig a water hole upstream.

The dry stream still have wet spots, especially along depressions and there is a sandy ground right below a missing waterfall. I dig a hole on the sand and water spring up briskly to fill it. I line stones inside the hole so sand won’t reclaim it. Set also stones on its bed so silt won’t spoil the water when disturbed. I let it settle down and I lie down; surrendering my body to the welcome coolness of a flat rock. I try to sleep but I cannot. I force my mind to sit still and I found stillness.

It must have been a half hour when I woke up and I go back to the rest. The cooking is almost finished and Ernie made magic of it even under the mercy of the harsh elements. I am eyeing the mixed-vegetable soup beside the pot of milled corn while the rest turn their desire on the pork adobao. Raw cucumber on vinegar is another dish that elicit a second stare not just by me but by everyone. Banana leaves foraged by Eli Bryn make the meal interesting enough and a “boodle fight” ensued.

What precious water we had where surrendered to constant rehydration and through cooking and my water hole come in handy when the time to wash the pots and dining utensils came. All make the beeline to there. It is a happy mix of real outdoorsmen – in the flesh – who welcomed the heat and the lack of comfort where friendly conversations and banter echoed on through the small gorge.

To make light of the moment, Glenn opt to try Jhurd’s small water filter. The water hole will be the source of liquid for this field gear test. I take a video of Glenn talking about the disposable water filter and then dipping the straw into the grayish water. What I have not documented at this moment is that this small life-giving gadget would provide me and others the means to rehydrate in the latter part of the activity.

We leave Camp Damazo and proceed on to the catchment basin via Lensa Trail. However, we break from the trail and engage on a very difficult switchback. The slope is steep and the ground is quite loose. Besides that, you have to watch out for the spines of rattan palms and other vines. This unplanned route ended at the junction of two dried-up streams and have, altogether, denuded me of precious energy which I have carefully nurtured during siesta.

I am really spent and it is a long way to go and it is 2:30 PM, too few daylight hours left. Then I have to teach the guys how to construct a shelter using indigenous materials. I am hoping I could discover a debris shelter left by a hunter and, failing that, I may have to look for a place where there are straight bush poles, crawling bamboos and wide leaves. I found some upland marsh palms but it is inadequate so I drop the idea and proceed on.

We arrive at the catchment basin at around 3:15 PM and it is not steaming hot anymore although my lack of drinking water coupled with nursing a fever make my predicament difficult. I hang on to my last reserves of will power to identify and look for shelter materials and to retrieve these using the last of my of strength. Bushcraft is labor intensive and you have to use a lot of energy to accomplish something which I explained very well to the newcomers.

Before proceeding on with the cutting of shelter materials, I let them all know that constructing a debris shelter is not randomly done. You have to consider first your security by blending in with the surroundings, then protection from the elements by taking advantage of your natural location and, lastly, good drainage. Surely, you do not want yourself sleeping half-submerged with rain runoffs, do you?

I set my shelter on a high ground amongst a dense forest of shrubs and two meters behind a tree trunk. My shelter cannot be observed from across the stream or from the streambed because of the big tree and the tree will bounce back heat into my shelter if ever I will build a fire. The crawling bamboo will provide me lashings once I strip the green skin off it. The shelter is a lean-to type and is the most basic and so easy to build.

When I have finished the demo, we proceed on to the outer fringes of the Buhisan following a dry streambed then switching to another small, but flowing, branch of the stream. 4:30 PM in dense jungle make the hour seem like it is already dusk. Long shadows slowly creep and everyone hurry to escape the fear of being stranded in the woods under darkness. Destination is the Portal, a hub of seven trails located a kilometer away and on higher ground.

Slowly, my strength begin to wilt as I hike the ascending trail. I let Jamiz and Neil overtake me as I need to take brief rests every so often. The forward party pass by the Portal without rest, probably, urged by thirst. I wait for the others at the Portal to see if everyone is alright, especially Jhurds, who seem to be suffering from dehydration. I instructed James, Dominic and Eli Bryn to keep an eye on both Jhurds and Glenn as I try to pursue the forward group.

I catch up with them just below “heartbreak ridge” sitting around an automated water dispenser. I drink cold water that Randell gave me and proceed on to Guadalupe. The rest follow and down we go the lower slope and into a flight of stone steps where it lead to an asphalt road. I pass by a bakery and rehydrate two bottles of cold orange juice, a cold bottle of soda and another cold bottle of water.

I felt I must have been dehydrated so much that my body yearned for more liquid. After I have downed a glass of cold beer at the Red Hours Convenience Store, I opt to quench my thirst some more with a half-liter of flavoured soda water which I mix with generous cubes of ice. The effort only bring a brief respite and after I have slurped on the last drop, I decide I need to leave for home to seek rest.

I will need my body healthy before I travel to Subic Bay three days from now for a video shoot within an Aeta village that a small production outfit will document. I do not want to pass on this chance and so I need to go early and everyone give their best wishes when I leave them. Tomorrow is another day to face.

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NAPO TO BABAG TALES LX: Night Navigation Training

PEOPLE GET A FEEL OF excitement when they hike up the mountains during night. Some do this for fun; others do this because they have to; and a few do this to train themselves. Except training, all rely on the battery-powered flashlight and they all go up to their campsite destinations in a long chain of lights, a wonderful sight to behold from the eyes of a startled toad.

The battery-powered flashlight, which have developed from a low-voltage incandescent bulb to halogen to light-emitting diodes (LED), is the standard equipment of a backpacker and it is a good option to carry an extra. The LED have multiplied the ordinary bulb’s lumen power a hundred times over and changed the name of the flashlight into a torch. Credit that to technology.

However, when you use a torch, there is one primeval function that you inadvertently choose to ignore and disregard. It is not one’s fault though but this is an instinct that have evolved through constant use in the past by our earliest ancestors and have, likewise, declined through neglect, through our dependence with modern technology and through ignorance.

This natural night vision is developed to great advantage by nocturnal hunters. I am not a hunter but I prefer to use my eyes to work my way in the dark. That is a fact. I have led people on the trails many times and, by situations beyond my control, commit them to walk in the night. Of course, they used lights but I advance my natural sight to good use on myself.

Night Navigation Training is taught in the mil but I am fortunate to be taught by them. Like water, knowledge should meander down and be taught to others and when it does I make sure my people at Camp Red Bushcraft and Survival Guild are given priority. Actually, NNT is one of the skills that is highly valued in bushcraft and survival. However, I am generous enough to welcome members from other outdoor clubs or anyone willing to learn upon my invitation or through referrals.

Ten new participants arrive at Guadalupe in the late afternoon of Black Saturday – March 31, 2013. They are Antonette, Patrick, James, Mario, Nyor, Silver, Maria, JB and a couple of guys. Most of them have never tried hiking in the mountains under a pale moonlight. Old hands Ernie, Dominikus and Eli Bryn will assist me in this activity. I give a short overview of NNT and final briefing before proceeding.

We start from Napo, Sapangdaku at 7:00 PM. I advised the participants to use their flashlights when crossing streams and when in doubt of the ground where they are going to tread at. Always fix a certain celestial body as reference when the moon have not yet risen. By the way, the moon waxed full last Holy Thursday and is still bright tonight although it may rise later at 8:30 PM.

Our pace is slow. Deliberately done to control the brain from sending the wrong signals. We arrive at Lower Kahugan Spring at 8:00 PM and proceed to refill water bottles. Sooner, we will be at the place where we will prepare, cook and eat our dinner. Camp Red prefer to eat their meals fresh from the cooking fire.

We leave the spring after a brief nocturnal hunting along the river and I lead them to a steep switchback and, at exactly 8:30 PM, we reach the Roble homestead. We are welcome anytime to prepare our meal at this place and make noise at that certain hour of the night. We begin unpacking things to retrieve our food ingredients.

I start the cooking of the milled corn while Dominikus boil water for coffee. Meanwhile, Ernie begins to prepare an assortment of palatable dish like pork adobao, pork sinigang, swamp radish salad and fresh-water crabs. Silver cook red beans and JB fry dried fish. The rest help in the slicing of the pork meat, vegetables and spices underneath the silver sheen of the moon on the landscape.

In between, I show the participants how to look for Polaris using Big Bear and True South through Cygnus, the Southern Cross. We eat our supper at 10:00 PM. This day is my last day of fasting. I do this every Holy Week and I should have broke my fast at 6:00 PM but my commitment to teach NNT precedes over my gut. We leave the place for Babag Ridge at 11:00 PM. Nevertheless, NNT should proceed without haste.

We follow the East Ridge Pass and I could see clearly the trail. The fogs covered the moon yet it is still bright enough for my eyes to see. Rest is given to those who toil and everyone give their best to ignore pain, fatigue, unfamiliarity and that primeval fear of the dark. Safety in numbers negate that fear and those who paced faster wait for those who lagged.

We arrive at Babag Ridge at 12:00 midnight and everyone take a rest to recover their breath. We walk in almost daylight speed to the top. Wow! The brain must have to do something with this. The fogs are not that thick and it is around twenty-three degrees Celsius. We walk the road down to Babag I and then up to the trailhead a kilometer-and-a-half away.

The last half of our journey will be downhill and it is perilous. The moon is on the downswing of its orbit and it may disappear anytime behind the mountain range. This time I encourage everyone to use their lights and provide walking staffs to those I think who need it most.

This trail to Kalunasan is seldom taken by me and I always have trouble remembering my last route there even during daylight. The night presents a bit of a problem for me this time so I arm myself with a heavy staff. I could use it as a weapon, a probing stick and as an anchor to stabilize my downward pace.

The No-Santol-Tree Trail is a route that I have discovered four years ago based upon the description of a local about the presence of a santol tree (sp. Sandoticum koetjapi) that marks the trailhead. The moment I looked for that tree, it is nowhere to be found, and I got lost as well, walking in circles obviously wanting to satisfy my exploring spirit never knowing that I found a different path.

I have limited control this time and this is the most difficult part of the activity and it is where the old hands come in handy to keep watch of those that are beyond my scope of vision. I have to use my small LED light as well. I remember I slipped here many times last year. Vegetation is much thicker here but I am not worried because I have a torch and a new pair of Columbia Coremic Ridge 2 shoes which I am testing.

The shadows play on my brain and I begin to doubt at myself. The route I followed seems unfamiliar leaving me lost for a while, then I detoured and I persisted until I see a hint of a faintly-familiar bend in the trail that led me to a more common contour. I am the navigator and guide and I use my trailcraft skills to the max despite the deceptive appearances caused by shifting shadows.

I cross a low saddle that lead into another ridge and, this time, I know where I am going but the going is not easy as I have expected. The path have been obliterated almost by thick growth due to non-use by people and I hack the vegetation with my wooden staff to part a way and to shoo away anything lurking there.

Meanwhile, the peaceful night is shattered by blasts of firecrackers in the distance. A religious activity signifying the Resurrection of Christ has just started. I wait for the slow walkers and give myself a break. The trail is very misleading and I would prefer that those behind me are very visible from those much much behind. I walk as if without purpose just killing time so that those from the tail end could catch up.

Satisfied with the pace, I cross several arroyos – dry waterways – where loose broken rocks and detritus accumulate in an unstable manner. I arrive at the first of the many tamarind trees found along this trail. I reach a copse of tamarind trees and rehydrated. I rest and wait for the participants to arrive. One by one they came and welcomed the opportunity to sit again after many hours of walk.

We finish the walk at 3:30 AM and it is still dark. We decide to walk back to Guadalupe on the road and reach it at 4:30 AM. We have come and walked from the dark mountains of yesterday to greet Easter Sunday and it was a great sacrifice. Osiyo!!!

TIPS FOR NIGHT HIKING:

• Night is different than day, caution should be exercised.
• The walking stick is very useful in night navigation. Not only it could aid you in your balance and a counter to gravity, it could be used as a probing stick and a weapon.
• Check night sky fixtures as your reference. It will aid you in your general direction.
• When using your natural night vision, refrain from switching on your torch. The glare of unnatural light destroys your night vision. If it does, switch off the light and close your eyes for ten seconds and blink several times afterward to fine tune it back.
• Use your peripheral vision to great advantage. It is that part where you could detect movement and the details of the trail which cannot be detected by a frontal sight.
• Use your light when crossing a stream or when you are in doubt of the part of the path before you.
• Do not play in to your brain. The brain receives signal from your eyes and tenses the muscles and release more adrenaline. Heart pumps more blood and would need more oxygen. You hasten your pace and you gasp for air and you become fatigued. Save your energy instead as you are not chasing someone in the dark.
• Walk very slow. Take your time.
• Walk during full moon or at least where the moon is not less than half.
• Wear visible clothing.
• Prepare a route card and leave it to your base support crew, a friend or to the authorities; and indicate the time when you will arrive and to notify them.
• Train in a controlled environment.

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BASIC MAP READING

THE USE OF THE MAP and compass is a skill that should be learned by individuals who visit the outdoors often and, these days, it do not come cheap. This blogger, through his Grassroots Bushcraft Teaching Series, realised the dream of every aspiring outdoorsmen to learn this skill by offering a Basic Map Reading class for FREE last February 17, 2013.

The first part of this lecture is done indoors. Sixteen people came equipped with their own compass, protractor, clipboard and pencil. This blogger supplied the lecture handouts and the test maps. The venue is a room of an abandoned building inside the former Department of Agriculture compound in M. Velez Street, Capitol Site, Cebu City.

Those who participated were Glenn Pestaño, Randell Savior, Marjorie Savior, Ernie Salomon, Silver Cueva, Dominic Sepe, JB Albano, Fulbert Navarro and Rajii Echavez of Camp Red Bushcraft & Survival Guild; Barry Paracuelles, Chad Bacolod and Darean Heyrosa of the Mountain Climbers Alliance of the Philippines; Don Singson and Kulas Damaso of Outdoorman’s Hub; Boy Toledo of the Cebu Mountaineering Society; and freelancers Antonette Bautista and Patrick Henry Calzada.

The indoor instructions start at 8:00 AM. Points of discussion are the basics of map and compass; how to use the scale bar; interpreting contour lines; identifying land features; locating a bearing; understanding declinations; orienting the map and compass; grid lines and grid coordinates; and triangulation techniques. This is a very technical lecture and you have to repeat every point of discussion so all could absorb it well.

In between, Remy Ababa of Honolulu, Hawaii arrived and brought free refreshments for us and distributed, of his own free will and goodness of heart, free trauma kits, side-plate pockets, 5.11 belts, a Mountainsmith bag, two big Maglites, Duracell batteries, Omega locking carabiners, aluminum clipboards, ball pens, 300 meters paracord, an ammo vest, a camouflaged backpack and a 1.5 liter [yellow tail] Shiraz.

Meanwhile, Wil Rhys-Davies came and lent his expertise in land navigation by teaching the participants simple compass exercises. The lecture momentarily go outdoors for this occasion and everyone try to understand their compass, their bearing and their location in relation to the magnetic north. The participants added certain knowledge from this and all went back indoors for the recap. Indoors lecture officially end at 11:00 AM.

By 1:00 PM, four groups of three persons each are released for the outdoor practicals at Banawa Hills. This blogger accompanied the participants and instructed them to sight and get bearings of the dome of the Cebu Provincial Capitol and the water tower of the South Road Properties so all could ascertain their location and mark a dot on the map where they assume they are standing on.

Those who learned fast sighted another set of bearings. One group concentrated their gaze and orienting arrow to the Marco Polo Hotel and the Waterfront Hotel and Casino and confirmed their earlier assumption of location whereby they proceed to their next destination up the hill. All are instructed to produce hereon two locations using the resection method, one location for a modified resection and another by dead reckoning.

Critique and review is done at the Red Hours Convenience Store. This blogger and Wil wait of their coming. There would be five locations that I will analyze from each group. By 5:00 PM, all arrive in one piece and continue plotting their course at the vacant tables and submit their test maps for checking. Later, Mayo Leo Carillo, a previous participant arrive and join in the post-activity discussion and donated his Silva compass to this blogger.

It was another successful event and have added a very important skill for the participants. Not only that, they go home toting giveaways courtesy of Remy and get to know of Wil and the engine behind this blog.

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BUSHCRAFT BUHISAN XVI: Trailsigns & Stalking

READING A TRAIL SIGN is one of the skills that a plain outdoorsman should recognize and develop. Comprehension and common sense are the only tools by which to successfully interpret a sign left behind either by an animal or by a human. Likewise, stalking is another ability that is perfected by a hunter but can be used almost effectively by a common drifter in his search for food.

These two compliment each other and so, this blogger organized another free outdoor activity which discuss about Basic Trailsigns and Stalking on August 26, 2012. This is a series of teach-ins under the Grassroots Bushcraft Teaching Series of the Warrior Pilgrimage Blog. Attending are Silver Cueva, Jhurds Neo, Dominikus Sepe, Eli Bryn Tambiga and Edwina Marie Intud. Also around are Ernie Salomon, Nyor Pino, Anthony Espinosa and the father-and-daughter team of Benjie and Jerii Echavez.

As usual, everything has its beginning at the parking area of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish where we assemble, take breakfast and buy food provisions for our lunch, which we will later prepare inside the wilderness of the Babag Mountain Range. We follow Bebut’s Trail and we leave at 8:45 AM. We climb Heartbreak Ridge very late already and I fear that the sun and the heat will torment us.

I intentionally slowed my pace so Benjie and Jerii will not be stressed and get fatigued so early in our hike. I just need to get all out of this stretch and go straight into the cool refuge of the tree cover which is about five hundred meters up the trail. I notice the blades of grasses still retain moisture and dew at this late hour where, I know, the sun would have scorched the leaves dry and cause disappointment to a lot of hikers. The sun did come out but, surprisingly, it is a degree cooler.

We reach the Portal and my original itinerary will have to be altered because I found it too demanding for the new attendees. So, we will go instead to Kilat Spring to cook our food there and, at the same time, do my lecture. I notice four fully-grown and one juvenile mahogany trees were brazenly cut by cockroaches with chainsaws. Hidden from my view but very audible is the hum of chainsaw. Oh God, I hate that sound!

I document the stumps with my Samsung camera and proceed to Kilat Spring with a heavy heart. There is a path through there and it is called Kilat Trail. It is a wild trail that I discovered in September 2010 while contemplating of exploring another part of the Buhisan. Few locals go there and the trail then teem with a thousand butterflies, some snakes and lizards and a Malayan palm civet.

Today, it is now used by cockroaches with chainsaws and they leave trail signs like tree stumps, felled trees, cut branches and dried leaves. I have counted NINETEEN stumps of mahogany trees and TWO stumps of teak trees. They trample everywhere and alter the trail that leave me and my party getting lost. I walk in circles and use a compass to no avail until I have to use the high ground to analyze better the location of the natural spring.

How could people cut trees so easily inside of a protected area? How could people that were supposed to protect these trees are not around to enforce environmental laws? The Buhisan is the last one wild place of Metro Cebu that is wide and is thick enough to shelter wildlife and endemic plants and it is already threatened by the near location of an upscale housing project known as the Monterazzas de Cebu. Now, cockroaches with chainsaws pierce this piece of wilderness with a lot of trees cut down and getting away with it.

I hear a kukuk¹ calling and I answer it with a poor – nay, throaty - imitation of its birdcall. Then I thought I hear a monkey screaming somewhere deep in the jungle. I dismiss it yet Anthony heard it also and he told me that he and some friends once released seven Philippine macaques into the Buhisan a few years ago. Wow, I didn’t know that and that answered my curiosity of hearing a mammal-like cry in a different part of Buhisan last May.

I expect sunbathing reptiles along the trail but they are not there anymore. Too many people, I mean cockroaches, might have disturbed their habitat with all those sounds they make or they may have been hunted down for food by these same folks during their illegal logging operations. Small clearings made by these cockroaches have disoriented me no end and contributed to my boiling agitation.

I reach the high ground and walk towards a faraway mango tree that marked the trail to Kilat so we could take rest under its shady branches. I am stressed but I insist that I will go to the natural spring to fetch water for our cooking for everyone have used up their water reserves during the search for the true trail to Kilat. Silver, Dom and Eli volunteer to go down with me. The hard part will be bringing all that water up.

When everyone got settled with plenty of drinking water, I start the informal lecture. I start with trail signs and “trailsigns” over a cup of coffee. I let them recall of what unusual items they have seen along the trails that we have passed. All agreed that it was caused by humans. Of course, it could not be denied that humans alter and disturb the trails like those resulting from cutting of trees and those telltale signs of plastic waste strewn all along the length of the route.

There are, however, small things that you see which are ordinary and do not demand your keen attention while there are those invisible to the sight which only the trained eye could only notice. Everything you see, smell, feel, taste and hear that is not in its natural state should be analyzed and studied. It could be a disturbed pebble, a bent grass, an offensive smell, a dent in the ground, a coarse texture on a smooth rock, a cotton fiber caught by a thorn, etc. All these things tell a story.

Animals leave their signs unintentionally and by instinct. Usual places where animals leave their signs are at water sources when foraging for food and on boulders and trunks to mark their territory. Humans leave signs unintentionally and by purpose. The aim of leaving a sign is to mark a trail for directions and to leave a clue such as that made by signatures. Signatures tell something genuine or just ego-releasing graffiti.

Trailsigns can be made from simple items like stones or sticks or hash marks on trunks. The latter is considered by others as graffiti and cruelty to trees. Hack marks could also be left on rocks, especially on limestone, to aid local travellers at night and outdoor ethics are out of the question. Just the same, all these processes tell a story.

On the other hand, there are certain procedures for stalking either an animal or a human being in the wilderness. The most basic rule is to never let yourself get skylined. You have to use cover and land contours to your advantage. Camouflage is essential here and, where there is none, stick to the shadows or keep yourself as small as possible from observation.

Another important technique is to use the wind as your ally. The wind drowns out your movement sounds and blow away your odor, provided you are facing the wind. If you’re in the other direction, your stalking is no good and useless for surely the wind will carry sound and smell to your prey. The rain also aids your stalking for it covers the sounds you make and neutralizes any man-smell you emit.

Stalking also demands certain rules when observing a prey. Avoid standing. Stalked animals and people instinctively use their field of vision at a level where big predators like humans are most likely to be seen. Watch your prey instead with chin very close to the ground to prevent yourself getting silhouetted. Avoid exposing straight-line patterns and man-made items. Cover these or leave it behind.

Follow movements with peripheral vision. In much the same way, do not get caught by the peripheral vision of your prey. Lessen your movements by approaching cautiously. When prey turns head at your direction, do not move jerkily as if to hide from detection. Freeze and move in slow motion. Imitate the dance of the chameleon and the measured crawl of a cat. Jerky moves catch attention and make lots of noise.

Lastly, do not fight nature. Let nature do the work for you. Consider all the natural elements as your ally and brother. If prey follows a certain pattern, use common sense to get to the place first before your prey does. That way, you make yourself unexpected as the prey is preoccupied with its backtrail.

By the time I finish my short instructions, Ernie snuff out the flame of the last stove that simmered the last pot of milled corn. Ernie has a certain flair when preparing and cooking food in the outdoors which make him valuable. Such skills are hard to master in an outdoors setting with few resources like my proclivity to exclude MSG in all my activities.

Ernie, by his own power and creativity, is able to cook mixed-vegetable soup and pork adobao with a side dish of raw cucumber-and-tomato-in-vinegar in masterful fashion. All take several digs at the delicious food and are quite refreshed after that. Their morale and their strength soon returned to replace the wrinkles on their faces.

We wrap up the session by going down to Kilat Spring. The going is easy and all are now in a relaxed mood compared to the agitated tense they have felt in the morning. From the spring box, the trail is now easy to follow and we reach the Portal in no time. We did not rest and we pursue Bebut’s Trail back to Guadalupe where we arrive at 3:45 PM. Everyone transfer to the Red Hours Convenience Store for the Camp Red ritual of post-activity discussions over ice-cold beer and Glenn Pestaño is already there to enjoy the company.

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1Philippine coucal. Sp. Centropus viridis.

NAPO TO BABAG TALES LIV: Bushcraft Cooking Workshop

THERE IS AN ONGOING climate disturbance inside the Philippine area of responsibility and I am unperturbed. I never am and never had been. So this day – July 29, 2012 – and those other sunny days, I treat it just the same. I do not want the weather a hindrance on all my outdoor pursuits and I consider that Camp Red be an all-weather all-terrain group as well and I want it prepared before any unforeseen tragedies – man-made or not.

As usual, we assemble at the parking lot of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish. Early birds Mr. Bogs and Jon Ducay (aka Krabby Krabs) are already there when I arrive at 6:30 AM. Later, Glenn Abapo, Nyor Pino, Ernie Salomon and Dominikus Sepe came one after the other. We take our usual breakfast and share a small amount for our food provisions which we intend to cook at the Roble homestead.

By the way, today I will teach the rest how to make and use the ordinary bamboo as a cooking vessel. This is another Grassroots Bushcraft Teaching Series which will touch on bushcraft cooking. Aside from them bamboos, I might experiment later with banana leaves and coconuts as a “pot”, the weather willing.

We start from Guadalupe an hour behind schedule and decide to walk the road going to Napo instead of riding on motorcycles-for-hire which we have now become accustomed to. We reach the trailhead at 8:45 AM but the weather is cool and windy. Overhead are dark clouds racing with the wind and droplets of rain fall on us as we walk on the trail leading to the Lower Kahugan Spring.

We reach the spring after thirty-two minutes; too fast for the average 45 minutes we did in the past. I am not surprised. I have with me younger sets of legs and I am a fast pacer myself. A little while, Edwina Intud and Eli Bryn Tambiga arrive and they must have a set of winged feet each considering that both attended a road run event which I passed by some two hours ago. Both showed commendable spirit and persistence.

I fill my empty Nalgene and drink half a liter. I am quite worried about dehydration since I have not had a drink of water by the time I woke up until now. I also slept late at 2:30 AM because there was a party at my office last night and I drank lots and lots of hard alcoholic drink. I am light-headed when I start to walk the steep trail to the Roble homestead and I make it sure that Edwina knows my condition since she is a nurse connected with the Philippine National Red Cross.

We all arrive at the Roble family’s abode at around fifteen after ten. All were exhausted and steaming from the exertion of climbing up a steep knoll found above the Sapangdaku River. We were partially drenched from sweat and from a slight shower that overtook us along the Kahugan Trail. At the back of my mind, I am quite worried because the dark sky is threatening this event with deluge and the wind is like an enraged tiger from its cage.

Immediately, I set to work hurriedly on the bamboos by cutting it up from the rest of the pole with my tomahawk. Everybody watched as I open up holes on one bamboo with two whole segments with Nyor’s steel-handled hatchet batoned by a piece of heavy branch and on another bamboo with same two segments by the same axe. As I am doing that, I explain to the participants the techniques in cutting up a lid for your pot from nature.

After working on the bamboos, I begin to scrounge and forage firewood. The rest of the guys help me with it and we were able to compile a good pile enough to cook four pots. The strong gusts are a bit of a challenge with me but I am undaunted. I have enough tinder – natural and synthetic; three matches; a lighter; and a firesteel set. I am confident that nature will work for me.

I will use the natural contour of the terrain and I found a big hole that was used as a water catchment basin by Fele Roble sometime ago. It is now empty and dry and I will do my cooking there. I pile the small branches first along with pieces of pine wood and place sawdust and a kapok tinder underneath and, with a fire steel, the tinder caught the sparks and a flame erupted but it could not produce enough heat and got snuffed out by the strong gusts of wind.

I use PLAN B: matchsticks and paper. Two tries by the match to transfer flame to a piece of paper failed but on the third try the paper receive it and I place it underneath my wood where sawdust and pine wood sustain this fire until it engulfed the bigger pieces of wood and a hearth is born. Hurriedly, I prop two old bamboos to anchor the two green bamboos above my fire and place stakes beside my “pots” so it won’t roll over.

I pour water into the two empty but opened bamboo chambers and stoke more firewood to hasten the water to boil. Once it boiled, I pour a half kilo of milled corn on one bamboo and another half kilo of rice into the other. This is my first time to cook rice into bamboo and I employ my own technique which is quite different than those used by the Aeta and other aboriginal peoples of Southeast Asia.

Two months from now, I will go to Manila to convene a bushcraft camp among members of the Mountain Climbers Alliance of the Philippines. Unfortunately, milled corn is not the staple diet of people from Luzon. It is rice and I am experimenting today how to do this in a bamboo in the most practical and easiest way which I am doing now.

The wind tormented my fire and this would make my cooking of milled corn and rice finish longer and then I have to cook mixed-vegetable soup in these same bamboos after that and I have not had that luxury of time. I request Ernie to start his own fire and he could borrow instead a conventional pot from Fele for this purpose. Ernie encountered the same problem about the gusts.

I finished my cooking at 12:30 noon and I quickly filled an empty chamber of one bamboo with water to start another cooking with milled corn while there is still fire and there are more wood to burn. Meanwhile Ernie started now to cook the second viand: pork adobo. By the time my wristwatch point to 1:15 PM, our late lunch ensued. Afterward, Fele and Manwel provided us green coconuts as dessert.

Since we are already delayed by an hour, I opt not to enjoy siesta and experimented instead by cooking on an empty coconut. The earthen hearth has still heat when I touch the ashes and it may harbor a hidden ember or two so I collect three even-sized stones and prop up my coconut pot over the ashes and place kindling in between. The gusts of wind made my work easy as it put a flame to life.

I pour water on the coconut’s hole and place more wood to keep the fire going. I used up my last cache of wood as the coconut’s husk is too thick as it is green and Ernie help me with it by gathering more firewood from his left-over cooking. I use a papaya leaf stalk to blow the fire alive every now and then as the wood is not of good quality and some are half wet. The papaya stalk is tubular and you could use it as a blowgun or as an improvised snorkel.

By now, Ernie joined me inside the hole as we take turns in keeping the flame alive with teary eyes caused by thick white smoke. When I notice a slight hint of steam coming out of the hole, I channel rice grains into it with the use of a bird-of-paradise leaf and I stir the rice with its stalk. I plug the hole with the leaf and wait.

Getting fed up by thick smoke making my eyes watery, I suck the water from inside the coconut chamber so to lessen its level and to cook the rice quicker and I get a bit of a success there leaving the finishing touches to Ernie. I stretch myself over an unfinished bench and tried my best to rest my eyes and sleep for a while.

Every now and then, the wind rattle a piece of a roof sheet of the Roble house and I am getting worried if it comes loose and fly at me. I never had that sleep. I listen to the stories of the rest of they guys while feigning sleep then Ernie jumped out from the hole and said something unintelligible. I found the reason: the fire burned through the coconut’s bottom and spill the rice gruel into the earth.

Ha...ha...good try! Ernie stoked too much fire and the gruel is wasted. Anyway, that’s the part of experiments; of trial and error. Hopefully, next time will be a success. I am sure of that. I examine the tree nursery that I have created in January. It is poorly maintained and the seedlings died. I brought several avocado seeds given by Gerard Ysmael. It is the sweet variety and I give it to Fele to replace the dead seedlings.

It is 4:30 PM and we leave the Roble family for Napo. We walk downhill at a fast pace, never entertaining the idea of stops and rests. We arrive at Napo at around 5:00 PM and waited for the motorcycles to bring us back to Guadalupe.

Once in Guadalupe, we transfer to the Red Hours Convenience Store and talk of the day’s activity and of the next planned events. The bushcraft cooking workshop proved successful in a limited way as the weather proved tormenting to our cooking fires. One more thing, I am now confident to teach bushcraft cooking anywhere in the Philippines and in any conditions.

Document done in LibreOffice 3.3

NAPO TO BABAG TALES LIII: An Outreach Mission and a Firecraft Workshop

THE DATE IS SET for July 15, 2012. The place will be the Roble homestead. The mission: To send to the children of Kahugan gifts of notebooks, writing pads, pencils, crayons, pencil sharpeners, erasers, envelopes and used textbooks. This is the main event and it precedes a firecraft workshop of Camp Red.

These gifts were generated during the Who Put the “N” in Nature concert for a cause at Handuraw Events Cafe on June 1, 2012 which were jointly organized by the Outdoorsman’s Hub and the Redtrekkers. To recall, that event was a resounding success as donors and the minions of free outdoorsmen came to give this cause their unreserved support.

Everyone arrive at the parking lot of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church – the gateway to the Babag Mountain Range – to volunteer themselves to carry the gifts to the children; accepting the hardships of a heavy load over an ascending terrain just to put joy on every children’s heart. The line is long; the additional loads printed itself deep on the dirt trail where shoes have trod. The day is hot but their disposition is light.

Upon arrival at 11:00 AM, everyone settled on the benches to start the activity. All unloaded their loads of gifts they carried from Guadalupe via Napo. A table shielded by a taffeta tarp becomes the platform for the gifts. Randell Savior, JB “Badburner” Albano and Dominikus Sepe directed in the segregation of the books from the notebooks and the rest of the educational supplies with the help of the lady volunteers.

Meanwhile, Ernie Salomon gets busy with the cooking while the rest practice their skill in cooking milled corn. The menu will be taro leaf stems cooked in coconut milk; pork adobao; pork soup with bamboo sprouts; and raw cucumber with tomatoes in vinegar. Meals most probably could be found in gourmet restaurants yet these are just ordinary when Camp Red goes on an outing.

After the meal, the children arrive; some of them with their parents. An impromptu program is started as the gifts were lumped into sets for the benefit of children of the Kahugan highlands. The Badburner take the center as emcee whereby he pass the earthen stage, respectively to this blogger, to Rans Cabigas, to Boy Toledo and to Randell; to acknowledge and give thanks to the volunteers and to the anonymous donors.

Invocation is by 6-year old Josel Roble; the Philippine National Anthem is sung by everyone – children and volunteers alike – from the beat of a child; and then the children recited the oath of allegiance to flag and country. Then the program steers into showcasing the individual talents of the children through singing to the delight and entertainment of all.

Visiting mountaineer from Luzon, Mark Alvin Estrella, came to lend a hand and document this activity for purposes that this may show awareness of the value of generosity and charity. Hopefully, this gets replicated in other parts of the country where there are kind-hearted outdoorsmen. The following are the collage of images that document the above activity:

...and these are the people who go out of their way to make this event memorable to the eyes of the children of Kahugan and their parents:

ON THE OTHER HAND, Camp Red had another activity aside from the outreach program which they co-hosted with the Outdoorsman’s Hub, Tribu Dumagsa Mountaineers, Redtrekkers and other free-lance groups which do not own yet official organization names. This is the Grassroots Bushcraft Teaching Series organized by this writer under the Warrior Pilgrimage blog.

This is supposed to be a whole day affair but it surrendered time and space to the charity climb for the common good of all. This writer started the firecraft demo at 3:00 PM when the first activity is about to end. Actually, this is a workshop kind of event since this writer intends to show to Camp Red members and to those who were there the different methods of starting a fire through friction, to understand its principles and to learn the materials needed to accomplish these.

On the order of difficulty and simplicity, the first method shown is the Hand Drill. This consists of a spindle made of soft wood which is turned by the hands and a fire base made of hard wood. The second method is the Bow Drill. This time it uses a green and flexible branch as a bow with a shoelace as the bow string to do the work of spinning the spindle instead of the hands while a pressure block held by the other hand on the top of the spindle is pressed downward to increase pressure.

The third method is the Bamboo Saw. Dry bamboo is used at each other to create friction, heat and, hopefully, an ember. There are two styles: the moving and the inert. Fire tinder used for the three methods are the soft fibers of the silk-cotton tree fruit (sp. Ceiba pentandra; local name doldol). Glenn Abapo demonstrated the efficacy of a balled silk-cotton fiber in catching a spark from a firesteel and the swift process of combustion by which it consumed itself.

After an hour of effort, the participants fail to catch an ember into the waiting fire tinder although Nyor Pino was able to produce smoke from the heat of a fire saw. Eli Bryn Tambiga blister his palms doing the hand drill with a piece of string tied to his thumbs and notched over the top of spindle. Anyway, the seeds of knowledge have been planted and soon this may bloom in their own backyard of self-education by which bushcraft is founded upon. I hope to see bushcraft being taught to all and become part of day-to-day living.

We say goodbye to the Roble family and we leave at 4:15 PM for Lower Kahugan Spring then at Napo. Some volunteers have already left earlier bound for Babag Ridge and they were quite elated. I see smiles on their faces and their hearts are on fire. We all have the same feeling. We arrive at Napo at around 5:00 PM and transfer to Guadalupe.

Those with Camp Red stay for a while at the Redtrekkers’ favorite watering hole – the Red Hours Convenience Store. This writer, Boy T, Ernie, Randell, Marjorie Savior, Ella Savior, Shildy Savior, Glenn Tampus, the Badburner, Mayo Leo Carillo, Anthony Pepetua, Kulas Damaso and Dax Bayotas opt to cool down and celebrate the success of the outreach event and the firecraft workshop. Dax produce a hooka and we have a good “smoke on the water” night.

Document done in LibreOffice 3.3 Writer

Some photos courtesy of Mark Estrella, Glenn Abapo