Kevin Callan is well known as a paddler and author of many canoe-route guidebooks for his native province of Ontario, Canada. He’s also known as the Happy Camper, and he certainly has always been happy when I’ve camped or chatted with him. Kevin has been a guest on my podcast before and today I’m delighted to welcome him back again to talk about another shared passion of ours – winter camping….
The Eighteen Mile Island Loop on the French River takes advantage of the complex nature of the French River waterways, combined with the ability to traverse this type of river both downstream and upstream, creating the opportunity for a varied, circular 70km (44 mile) route, taking in some fine, fast moving white water and pleasant conifer-lined flat water, through archetypal canoe country, along a Canadian Heritage River of unique historic importance. We took four days to make a canoe-camping journey from Wolseley Bay down to Dry Pine Bay and back again. Here I share photos, video, a written account of the trip and campfire notes.
Professional deer stalker and firearms instructor Andy Chadderton returns to The Paul Kirtley Podcast. The conversation Andy and I have in this podcast is based on questions submitted by listeners. In the wide-ranging discussion, we talk deer stalking, land management, rewilding, hunting ethics, firearms law, riflescopes, advice to beginners and more…
After you have felled a tree, living or dead, regardless of what the end use is, there are typically two main processing jobs you will need to complete. First, you will need to remove the tree’s limbs, that is, its branches. This is known as limbing or snedding. Second, you will need to cut the tree into sections, a task described as sectioning. Limbing and sectioning trees with an axe involve a range of axe techniques traditionally used by the woodsman, the frontiersman and for woodcraft and camping. They are very useful to have in your repertoire and in this article I look into the requisite axe techniques – and safety – in some detail…
Gottröra, Sweden, was the venue of the 2017 Bushcraftfestivalen. I was there with a couple of my team from Frontier Bushcraft to run fire workshops at the event. We had to source the materials we needed for our workshops from the surrounding woods and while we were there, I spotted a number of other interesting plants and fungi too, which I cover in more detail in this article…
Why does it matter how long it takes you to light fire by friction when practising? From the perspective of sports psychology there are solid reasons why measuring performance in bushcraft activities can be beneficial. My colleague Iain Gair, who has a Master’s degree in Sports Psychology, joins me to discuss this in more depth…
In this episode of #AskPaulKirtley, I answer questions about computer time and technology getting in the way of outdoor experiences, bushcraft knife rust prevention, duvet jackets, water filtration combined with other methods, the time necessary to set up camp, what to do about slug invasions and making your own trail mix…
I answer questions about camp seating if you can’t find a log nearby, the importance of first aid training and what to put into first aid kits, how to calculate how far you can hike plus keep track of your speed, storing compasses at home and in the field, tips for avoiding midges, identifying unusual growths on tree leaves and how to collect, process and eat ribwort plantain seeds…
Rupert Brown joins me to talk about water purification and the nifty solution he provided to the bushcraft world and wider community of outdoors people in manufacturing the Brown Filter Bag. In the course of the conversation Rupert also talks about his change of career from being a forester and teaching arboriculture to teaching bushcraft as well as moving to France, where he now resides.
Proficient felling of a well chosen tree, using good technique, can seem effortlessly straightforward. On the other hand, ill thought-out felling can become complicated and dangerous. Either way it is one of the more hazardous endeavours in the woods. In this article I highlight the main pointers I teach to people when learning to fell trees…