Friday morning it rained. We had spent a good portion of the day Thursday in preparation and as the dark clouds loomed overhead, we loaded the car and made the journey south towards Can-tuck-ee.
We arrived and began to pack our provisions, Eileen with her two blankets and wallet suspended from a leather tumpline, my provisions packed up in a buffalo robe and suspended from a woven tumpline. I definitely wished we'd had a packhorse. The buffalo robe really wasn't conducive for a long trek in the woods, and thankfully we weren't going that far, but I knew that the buffalo robe was needed if we were to have a chance at a semi comfortable sleep during the night.
After we got in our clothes and had our packs on, we were ready to step off into the woods and on to our adventure. We headed down the hill and made our way to the camp, the same spot that our hunting party camped nearly a year ago for our Immersion event. We decided to build a lean-to shelter, mostly as a wind break and in the event of rain, we could throw one of our blankets up over it and proved a little relief. I cut a pole and lashed it between two trees, lined up poles off the back and then covered it with green growth from around the area. Eileen set about gathering firewood and soon we had a shelter built a large pile of sticks.
Theres something truly wonderful about unplugging for a bit, and spending good quality time together. We talked and laughed and just basked in each others presence. Then hunger began to set in, and we munched on some parched corn as dinner preparations began. I had decided to bring some soup fixings because of the cold weather, I thought it would help us to have something good and hot before turning in for the night. Bean and Barley soup was prepared in our trade kettle. I didn't love the results, but it was warm. We had some sourdough bread and that helped offset my distaste for the beans.
After supper, we settled in for what would end up being a long night. The cold from the ground was just too much with the rain that had proceeded it and no matter what we did, it felt like there was always a draft. The buffalo robe did its best, but we really needed more insulation underneath of us. I stayed up most of the night stoking the fire as big as I could get it, closing my eyes for a few minutes and then back to stoking. We didn't get to sleep until about five the next morning. Eileen suffered the most but she persevered. I gave her all three blankets, and sat near the fire with my blanket coat.
As the morning light sifted through the trees and fell upon our brush abode, we took courage. We had survived a miserable night and the new day offered warmth and a new set of adventures. I began to prepare breakfast in my frying pan. Potatoes, onions and salt pork fried in bear grease. It was a fine meal and an excellent way to get us energized for the day.
We arrived the bank of the river and found a spot that was close to the water. I began to make up a fishing line and prepare my pole. I haven't really done any 18th century angling, and so I wasn't sure how it was gonna work out. I saw a lot of fish activity, heard them splash, but I was ultimately unsuccessful. This is a skill that I really want to develop more in the future, so I'll be doing some deep dives. Eileen sat on the bank and did some sketching.
We eventually gave up on the fishing and began to make our way back up the hill towards camp. As we left the area, we heard a racket coming from the lake. We walked towards the bank and across the way we saw two dark figures that from the back, I mistook as beaver, but then suddenly one of them turned to the side and revealed it was in fact a pair of otters. They quickly ran towards the water and disappeared. With our sighting we were all smiles as we continued along the way, only to hear more of their sounds far on the other side of the water. We could make out their movements as the sun glistened on their fur and the water parted in their wake. They inched closer and closer back toward us, but we could only see one of them. Suddenly they moved up on to the bank and I said "Where is the other one?" Eileen said, "Umm, that is both of them. I think we interrupted something earlier." Sure enough, spring was definitely in the air. It was quite a thing to see.
We hiked up the hill and finally made it back to our lean-to, but not before an unfortunate injury occurred. Eileen stepped on a very sharp rock she didn't see which brought her full weight on it and took her to her knees and causing her to hit her hand hard on the other rocks. She was in a lot of pain and when we got her back to the shelter, her foot had already started to swell and show signs of bruising. After assessing her injury, we prepared to make lunch. I used a cornmeal/masa mixture and fried them up in bear grease in the frying pan. They turned out great and I ate my fill of them. The recipe that I used is :
50/50 Cornmeal and Masa - 2 cups
Salt
A cup of water
Bear Grease in the pan
I used my tin cup to measure out the cups, so whichever size you have should work. I made them in to small pancakes and fried them until darkened on either side.
After lunch we decided to take a nap in the lean-to and catch up on some sleep we didn't get the night before. There's not much better than an afternoon nap in the woods. The sound of the breeze rustling the tree tops is a great sound to fall to sleep to.
After that we shot my smoothbore and then decided it was time to head back home. We packed up fairly quickly and slowly made our way back up the hill and out of the woods into the 21st century.
Some things I learned :
-A Buffalo robe is only as good as the insulation underneath it. If the ground is wet and the temperatures drop, you'll still be cold.
-I need to up my fishing game
I hope you enjoyed reading about this trip. Next up for us is the immersion event in a few weeks. Until then...
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