Spring Break gave us an opportunity to bring our daughter to a place we have been to last year. It is a small lake in the Salmon-Huckleberry wilderness that we discovered last year.

This lake is a nice roundy lake in the top of an old volcano caldera cone. Some of the views from the rim as we descended into the lake are spectacular, as you can see!

Looking down into the mists of time....

Mt Hood is always beautiful

My wife and I

Last year we had great weather for our trip, but this year it rained wet and frozen mix. The morning left us with patches of wet, frozen snow on the tarps and ground. It was great!

The wetness was actually an advantage as I wanted my daughter and wife to practice more bushcraft skills. We were able to start, maintain and cook over a fire with EVERYTHING soaking wet. Instead of tinder, we found dry branches and made a large pile of shavings, while I split a bunch of wood via batoning. I had brought a baggie of bannock mix. We added water and mixed it to a think consistency, rolled it into a snake, then wrapped it around an alder stick and cooked it over the fire. Amazing how great simple things taste in the wilderness!

Setting up a classic tepee fire lay

Getting ready to light

We have fire!

A froggler we found haunting our camp site

I will be filming some videos and posting articles on much of my backpacking kit, including my Hennessey Hammock with mods, my Jacks'R'Better quilt sleeping system, different tarp pitches I use with the tarp, my alcohol and canister stove systems, etc.   Until then, let me know how you like the pix and videos! Thanks for visiting our blog!