Up next in 10
I will take an in-depth look at my haversack setup, showcasing how I organize and carry crucial gear for easy access. Whether you're a seasoned woodsman or a beginner preparing for your first winter outing, this video has you covered with practical tips and gear recommendations to elevate your bushcraft skills.
Gear Featured in This Video:
Titanium Canteen Set:
https://amzn.to/42aUO2Z
Vargo Ti Stove:
https://bit.ly/48LfbDq
Hidden Woodsmen Haversack:
https://bit.ly/4jeeEAE
Gerber Knife:
https://bit.ly/3Wffnb0
Victorinox Knife:
https://bit.ly/3WaqlOD
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0:10
[Applause]
0:16
[Music]
0:23
all right today is a perfect opportunity
0:25
to get outside and do a little hiking in
0:27
the snow and enjoy the weather
0:30
um winter training winter hiking winter
0:34
Bushcraft whatever you want to call it
0:36
um is such a great uh thing to do
0:39
because it tests your equipment it tests
0:42
your skills and it also tests your
0:44
mental fortitude like what can what kind
0:46
of things can you put up with can you
0:48
put up with uh the cold um how long can
0:51
you endure um can you handle walking
0:54
through snow that's sometimes difficult
0:57
to get through so everything becomes a
1:00
little bit harder in the winter time but
1:01
I really enjoy getting out in the woods
1:04
and just being out here um it's so
1:08
beautiful out um the snow is gorgeous uh
1:12
there's not a lot of wind it's pretty
1:15
calm right now temperatures are
1:18
probably right around 32 33 so it's
1:22
starting to warm up a little bit um we
1:24
had quite a bit of snow this week so
1:26
there's a good 2 to three inches on the
1:27
ground maybe a little bit more and um I
1:31
just had to get out because that was the
1:32
whole goal of 2025 is to get out and do
1:35
more stuff and show you guys what I'm
1:37
doing and I wanted to show you um things
1:41
that I do um a little bit differently
1:43
when the snow hits the ground winter
1:46
gear that I like to bring out with me
1:47
and today I'm only coming out with my
1:49
hav sack and um you know you can be
1:53
comfortable even with that kind of
1:55
minimal gear
2:16
first thing is is clothing selections
2:18
super important um I really like um
2:22
these long sleeve thermal shirts that
2:24
have the cutouts for your thumbs these
2:28
wristlets these I think are such a game
2:31
Cher because um it it kind of bridges
2:34
that Gap where your gloves are sometimes
2:36
your wrist there's gaps where your wrist
2:38
are and it gets cold this covers it up
2:41
and this also allows me to take my
2:42
gloves off and work with my hands a
2:45
little bit longer if I didn't have these
2:48
and you there's all kinds of different
2:49
brands I'm not going to tell you which
2:50
one to buy so just go out and find one
2:52
because I think these are fantastic for
2:54
winter of course um a wool shirt uh
2:58
especially a heavy one
3:00
uh like a shirt Jack um can really be
3:03
stretched out um in the weather you
3:05
don't have to have a lot of layers in
3:08
heavy bulky jackets if you have a good
3:10
wool blanket shirt and that's what I
3:13
like to wear a lot of times now if it's
3:16
really wet and there's a lot of
3:18
precipitation a lot of snow coming down
3:20
then maybe a shell on top of that to
3:22
keep dry but on a dried day like this
3:26
this is perfect that every winter
3:29
Woodsman probably should have with them
3:32
um and it's such a simple idea so this
3:36
little piece of cord right here see
3:39
that we've got the I believe this is the
3:42
double fisherman's bend that allows that
3:45
cord to open and close and get smaller
3:48
and larger and what this is this is the
3:51
way I'm carrying my knife this is acting
3:54
as a Baldrick um which is basically just
3:57
a strap that um puts the knife
4:00
around your neck and shoulders instead
4:02
of on your waist so if you're wearing a
4:05
lot of layers and particularly if you
4:07
have a Long Park on having a belt knife
4:11
um can be real problematic on carrying
4:13
it because you can't access it very
4:15
easily underneath all those layers and
4:17
this simple piece of string which you
4:20
can tie up and throw this in the bottom
4:22
of your pack is always at the
4:26
ready and you can carry any just about
4:29
any knife that you have that has a
4:31
sheath and what I like to do is I like
4:33
to put a locking Carabiner on the the
4:37
back of my sheath and this is from night
4:39
eyes and these have these little locks
4:44
that prevents it
4:46
from that gate from opening up
4:49
unexpectedly so I don't lose my knife so
4:52
just push that
4:56
down and now the knife hangs and then
4:59
what I can do
5:02
is put this over one
5:09
shoulder around my
5:12
neck and then now my knife is accessible
5:16
I can hang it in front of me I can hang
5:18
it off to the back but I can get it um
5:22
quite
5:24
easily another thing um for winter uh
5:28
especially is having lanyards on my
5:30
knives that I can actually see uh them
5:33
if I drop them in the snow or something
5:35
so this is a of course um orange lanyard
5:39
but this one's kind of cool because I
5:40
got this from Lester River Bushcraft
5:43
this is their zipper pull that he makes
5:45
and it has Tinder inside of this and
5:48
then he's you know heat shrunk some
5:50
rubber on top of it so this can come off
5:53
the knife and become an emergency Tinder
5:55
source and the knife I'm using today is
5:59
a real cheap um Gerber I think it's the
6:02
momentum or moment I found this at
6:04
Walmart it was on sale for like 19 bucks
6:08
um nothing special I mean just you know
6:11
uh some no-name stainless steel probably
6:14
made overseas probably made in China I'm
6:15
pretty sure it is but it's got really
6:18
nice uh molded grips rubber grips and
6:21
then it's Full Tang and then the spine
6:24
is actually sharp and I just like this
6:26
profile of this blade so for a beater
6:28
knife um that if I lose this out here
6:32
for whatever reason I don't care um I
6:35
can go back and get another one I'm not
6:36
going to cry about this um but it it
6:39
seems to be working pretty good and
6:40
we're going to mess with it a little bit
6:42
today on to more
6:45
clothing options uh wool gloves are a
6:49
great option and I like to wear wool
6:51
gloves but I also like to have a pair of
6:54
work gloves so when I get to camp and I
6:56
going to start messing with like wood
6:59
selection picking up wood uh doing
7:01
chores with my knife I don't have these
7:04
kind of heavy slick uh wool gloves
7:07
that're going to get in the way I can
7:09
switch to a lighter pair of work gloves
7:11
or leather gloves and it's going to
7:13
protect my hand still but give me some
7:14
grip and some protection and that's
7:16
that's
7:17
important then the hav sack today I've
7:20
got is from hidden Woodsman this is his
7:23
standard havers sack um fantastic bag it
7:26
can carry a lot of gear and easily
7:28
carries can kit food um fire making
7:33
supplies uh small saw your knife
7:36
whatever you need um and on the bottom I
7:38
just strap my Therma thermarest pad to
7:41
it that way I have a place to
7:44
sit so I chose this area to sit down for
7:47
a reason because there's this tree right
7:50
here that has um come down you see that
7:55
right there where it's broken and it's
7:58
leaning and the reason I chose this area
8:01
to sit down is
8:02
because all the branches are off the
8:06
ground and they are dry and I'm going to
8:08
need those for my twig stove and this is
8:11
going to be really easy to get this
8:13
stuff and I don't have to go very far
8:16
from where I'm sitting so I can conserve
8:18
my energy and not getting myself all hot
8:21
and sweaty looking for sticks and stuff
10:17
so another thing that I do for winter um
10:20
and I mean I use this all year long but
10:22
winter it's really important because I
10:25
like to carry a Swiss army knife with me
10:28
I like the bigger ones the this is the
10:29
Forester which is a locking plain edge
10:33
knife uh that
10:35
has a saw so very handy um but of course
10:40
with pocket knives and all these layers
10:42
uh there's a good potential that you're
10:44
going to be um hard to get that knife
10:46
out of your pocket or you're going to
10:48
potentially lose it um so what I like to
10:50
do is I like to tie a long lanyard onto
10:53
my pocket knife this is um a two strand
10:59
twist and then I've
11:02
whipped the ends and sealed
11:05
that so there's no chance of that coming
11:08
off and then I'm using a mini Carabiner
11:11
on that end and then using a larger
11:13
Carabiner on this end and then this
11:16
attaches to my um belt loop of my pants
11:20
and then this goes in my pocket so when
11:22
I pull this out I can retrieve it pretty
11:24
easily and then if I have to drop it um
11:28
it's still attached to me it's dummy
11:29
corded to me I'm not going to lose it
11:32
another thing is having your fire kit in
11:35
a waterproof or semiat resistant um bag
11:39
this is um a small pouch I got from
11:41
tough possum gear it's of an xack
11:45
material so it's very water repellent
11:49
and it's got the waterproof zipper on
11:52
it but for winter time I think it's
11:56
really key to have um a fire starting
12:00
method that uh is easy um that uh
12:04
requires no
12:07
additional uh effort um you know yeah
12:11
it's good to know bow drill and all this
12:13
other stuff that's those are fantastic
12:15
skills but in this kind of environment
12:17
if I need to start a fire I need to do
12:19
it right now because I'm probably cold
12:21
um and having these fire starters that I
12:25
can um light up and have them go
12:29
immediately is really key and these are
12:31
just Duraflame um Fire Starting cubes
12:34
you get these in the hardware store you
12:35
can buy a big box of them for hardly
12:37
anything and they work really well and
12:39
then you put uh your biomass on top of
12:42
that and you've got a pretty good
12:44
cooking fire um in one of these small
12:46
stoves and you don't even have to take
12:48
the plastic off of this so we're going
12:50
to put that at the
12:51
bottom and
12:55
then of course we got our good old big
12:57
lighter
13:01
now what we're going to do is we're
13:03
going to take the feather stick that we
13:07
created get that going
14:03
of course calories are super important
14:05
in the winter time so um I really like
14:08
these freeze-dried meals this is um the
14:12
mountainous U you can find these on sale
14:14
at Walmart all the time um and they're
14:17
pretty filling um of course they're high
14:19
in sodium but today we're going to try
14:21
the beef stew which is Hardy gravy with
14:24
beef potatoes carrots and peas It's a
14:26
freeze-dried meal uh I think I got this
14:29
on clearance for 7 Bucks and it has a
14:32
Best Buy date of September of
14:35
2053 so it's going to last and they
14:38
really don't weigh a lot either so
14:39
they're great for throwing in a Hab sack
14:41
and then of course
14:45
um I always bring um some accessory
14:48
packets of coffee creamer hot sauce um
14:53
and keep them in this little bag but
14:55
that way if I want to make some coffee
14:56
I've got it with me um that can be a
14:58
real boost or pick me up in this kind of
15:01
weather
15:31
[Applause]
15:39
yeah that's
15:42
boiling handles are
15:44
cool and you're supposed to measure this
15:46
but I never do cuz I never seem to
15:48
have an appropriate measuring cup so I
15:51
just eyeball
15:56
it make sure it's all good and soaked
16:03
in and with beef stew it's like I can
16:07
have a little extra water in there right
16:09
can be a little soupy if I want to
16:20
be minutes what I like to do is get this
16:23
good and sealed up and
16:26
then so I don't want any leaks
16:32
fold it
16:35
over and then I'm going to put
16:46
this inside my
16:50
vest just keep it right there that's
16:53
helping me keep it's keeping me warm a
16:55
little bit but also it's it's retaining
16:57
the heat of the packet and that all that
16:59
heat's not being lost cuz I don't have a
17:03
padded envelope sometimes you can make
17:04
padded envelopes um of reflective
17:08
reflecti material and that'll help um
17:11
keep that heat in so now the stove's
17:14
dying down um I don't think I want to
17:17
make any coffee right now I've had
17:19
enough today I know
17:23
sacrilege of course another important
17:25
item for winter Outdoors
17:29
activities um is
17:32
sunglasses really important because
17:34
there's so much reflection of the
17:36
sunlight on the snow coming back up at
17:38
me into my eyes polarized sunglasses
17:41
work really well in this environment
17:45
um and they also kind of protect your
17:48
eyes a little bit from the wind
17:51
[Applause]
18:01
[Music]
18:15
soup
18:31
there's that ground sheet there's my
18:33
fire kit there's my canteen
18:39
set signal
18:43
panel
18:45
coffee and then in
18:48
here the
18:50
front I've
18:53
got my
18:57
journal and I got a really cool book
19:00
that I got
19:03
um recently from I think this is I got
19:06
this from Craig
19:09
Calle he wrote this this is the pocket
19:11
Field Guide for introduction animal
19:14
tracking some wet
19:19
wipes and then I always try to carry a
19:21
tourniquet with me just in case since
19:23
I'm working with knives and stuff and
19:25
that's about it and back there is my
19:28
stove and all that stuff and I've got oh
19:30
also my open L
19:33
saw and then my heavy cover spork
20:08
all right guys I'm going to get out of
20:09
here if you guys like this content um
20:11
please uh subscribe and share that
20:14
really helps me out a lot and as always
20:16
I appreciate you guys watching my videos
20:19
um more stuff coming releasing content
20:22
all the time try to do a video at least
20:23
once a week if I can um I've got a
20:26
winter camping trip and
20:29
training planned here in another week so
20:31
there'll be a cool video coming out on
20:33
that um and as always thanks for
20:36
watching we'll see you next time on the
20:38
prepared Wanderer
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