Planning a Trek

The "boss" likes to plan everything...well, almost everything, down to the last detail. On road trips she wants reservations made months in advance and a relatively fixed schedule. She wants everything packed by the morning of the day before. We we eat is flexible, and that's within her comfort zone.

Me? I learned to wing it and don't sweat the small stuff. If I got my way, I'd stop when I felt the need and as long as I was comfortable driving. There are usually plenty of places to stop for the night and be gone in the AM. When the eyes are closed, what the place looks like doesn't matter if the room is clean and without bugs. Clothes? I'm a guy. Tshirts, a pair of denims, toothbrush, and a few other items small enough to fit in a gym bag is what I'll take for a week....if she'd let me. She likes me to wear a fresh clean period shirt every day when we're out at events. Me? Same stuff on when I leave and return home without her, regardless of how many days I'm gone.

I learned a long time (thanks to Uncle Sam), that as long as everyone gets ripe together, no one seems to mind the stench all that much...until someone takes a bath and then starts complaining about everyone else.

Trekking? She's not that much into cross country hauls. She likes camps that are settled for a few days, and then wants things carried in that aren't all that important.

BH...the camp approval thing?

A while back I bought a nice copy of Windsor chair. The legs were problematical and instead of wasting time on them, I cut the legs off and used it similar to a stadium chair. There were two slats on the bottom side and I thought about placing the legless chair on the top of the box. I didn't expect it to fit....but it did and almost perfectly. I thought....hmm.... A chair without legs setting on a box meant the box and chair served double duty and took less space than a chair with legs. It meant I could be a bit higher of the ground, and the chair could also be used to create a box of sorts to hold stuff I was carrying into camp from a fixed location. I took the chair/box to a l/h event, sat the box/chair combo and that stopped a few people cold. I was asked if what I did was documented. I told them what I did was take two period items. A broken chair during the period could be repaired with some work, or...cut down and used the way I did it. I didn't make anything new. I used items that were in existence and changed how they were used. Call it a field expedient adaptation.

Hard to prove, hard to say it never happened.

I've done another thing that served as a dual purpose item. I often wear a workingman's cap, one of the bag-like items that are folded and closed with a string or something close to the top. I first saw them in Hogarth prints and wondered how they were made. I couldn't find one to handle and example, and relied on period images. Me, not knowing the actual construction made a bag, then tucked the closed end inside the bag, and pulled it to the bottom. Next I pulled the bottom of the middle of the bag together, and tied a ribbon around the gathered material, folded the bottom edge up, and stuck it on my head. I loved it and made several.

One day in camp I decided to clean the cap, and took it apart. One of the women saw what I was doing and noticed I made a bag, not an open ended tube the way the originals were. I told her I didn't know however, it served as a cap...and a bag. Several people were nearby and someone yelled..."that would hold TWO chickens!" My improvised bag/hat looked like what others were wearing, however, it served two functions, not one. One of the guys there told his wife about it and asked her to make one for her. She told me about it and I made one for him, and now....you can't get it off his head. On me, it looks like I'm the village idiot, pointing head and all. On the guy I made it for, he wears it like a flattened smurf cap/beret and he rocks it.

I generally think along the same lines of Black Hand. I pick an area to head for & let things play out. Rain or snow are an added bonus for me because it entails using skills to keep one warm & dry. For pilgrims it is a chance to test their gear & supplies choices, & compare with any dyed in the wool woodsmen that are present. Although I live permanently in a forest, it is always exiting for me to get away from home & spend some time under canvas.
Sometimes it can be useful/interesting to focus on a set of skills to be learnt or practiced; alone or as part of a group. For instance primitive trap construction, or permanent/semi-permanent shelter construction. It gives people things to do, & learning such skills is never boring or a waste of time.
Keith.

Every area, person & group are different and will require different approaches to a similar problem in another area.

Canteens- I prefer leather, others like metal, even others gourds and some glass. I carry one canteen and a filter, though water is usually available wherever we go as opposed to a desert area where water sources might be more scarce.

Your caloric needs at least double when on these trips but you aren't going to starve in 2-3 days.

2 blankets and a half-blanket in winter, 1 blanket & half-blanket most other times.

I carry a pot and a frying pan - cornmeal with bacon is a staple.

Oilcloth IN the fire is a problem. At a distance, not so much - no spontaneous combustion magically happens when oilcloth and fire are near.

Experience IS the best teacher.

A stray ember would need to be sizable and in contact for some time before I would worry. I've seen untreated canvas catch an ember and smolder but never an oilcloth.

The half-blanket is cut cross-wise and was left over from making blanket liners for my winter moccasins. I wear it as a matchcoat in the rain/snow and add it to my bed at night - rolled and strapped to the bottom of my pack whenever I'm out.