Went out Thursday to the Hoosier National Forest. I took a small pack and what I had in my pockets.
My gear list
1 1qt cooking pot
a few utensils
A canteen cup (stainless steel)
1 camp knife(general purpose knife of my own design)
1 10" mill file
1 diamond hone
1 pocket chain saw
1 Marble's camp axe
Cold Steel Spetznas shovel.
1 compass
10 X 50 binoculars
1 10X10 tarpoline
1 air mattress
thin fleece blanket
1 2 L canteen of water
3 bandanas
flint and steel fire starting kit
100 feet of paracord
1 roll of Gorilla tape
My pocket survival kit
Small note pad and three pens
BugOFF all natural insect repellent
the boots and clothes I was wearing
WARNING THE FOLLOWING ITEMS ARE POLITICALLY INCORRECT. I also took my longbow, five broadhead tipped and two small game head tipped arrows, shooting glove and license as it is archery deer season here in Indiana.
I did take some food, enough for the first day and a half. Some pre-beaten eggs in a naglene bottle, some pico de gallo in a zip bag to go with the eggs. 4 Kashi granola bars of different types. small bag of jerky. an onion, a head of garlic. sea salt and pepper blend cranks. one can of corn beef hash (because it's been in the larder for a year) one can of beans and a small bag of rice. 1 pound of ground coffee. and various and sunder tea bags that I always seem to have in my pockets and spare room places in my packs etc.

I get ther before first light I look at my map and I know I can head due East for over 75 miles.I figure 10 is farther than most folks go so I open my glove box and get one last bit of gear pacce counter beads. After pacing off 100 meters, for example 65 paces with your left foot, pull down the first bead from the line with nine. Continue this until all nine beads are down. After the next 100 meters pull down a bead from the line with four and reset the nine beads. This marks 1 kilometer. When all the beads are pulled down at 4900 meters pace off another 100 meters, pull all the beads up to mark 5 kilometers, and start again. With practice you can be sure of your pace count day or night.
Sort of like saying the rosary while you walk. Which is where no doubt the idea for the beads came from.
So dead reckoning 10 clicks in.
I was right, after the first click the detris of human contact began to thin out. After 2 I hardly saw any and just beyond that none at all. So I went just half a click more. It was full on day by then so I circled an interesting looking clearing and found not one trace any human had been here before. The turkey and racoon and possum sign where incredible. 200 yrads to my northeast was an oak ridge and that would be where I would try to ambush a wary whitetail. So I went to the north side of the clearing where there was a huge boulder sticking out of the ground. and a made a A-frame with the trap with the boulder to the rear and my fire pit and entrance to due south. I blew up my air mattress and set up my bed. I gathered rocks for my fire ring and then tinder, kindling and fuel for my fire. I then built my fire and made myself some scrambled eggs with pico de gallo and some cowboy coffee.
Then I went into the middle of the clearing and took three bearings so I could find this place again. I could see a fire watch tower due north, High Tension powerlines due south One that was about 10 dgrees west of due south had a pecular red ball on the wires right next to it Due West from the direction I had come I marked a lightening struck giant sycamore I had used as my last dead reckoning landmark. Then I went looking for a water source. I found a small creek just over the hill. It was 11:50 am and as I crested the hill I saw several deer drinking from the stream. I sat down and waited for them to drink their fill.
They moved off toward the south and that is when I saw in the distance the corn fields, at least 2 miles away. Through the trees I doubt anyone not raided in corn country would have known what the little visible patch of golden brown that far away was. I went back to camp and made a water filtration tripod with my three banadas. I dranks the last liter of water in my canteen and went to the stream to fill it. the stream was slow moving and down from where I could see it normally was(did I mention it was 95? and has been for months seemingly) anyway it waqsn't muddy upstream from where the deer had been drinking and I filled my canteen halfway and took it back to camp and filtered it and then built up my fire and boiled it. while it was still real close to boiling I poured it into my canteen in order to kill anything that might still have been in there from the creek.
I decided to take a nap and then circle up into the oak ridge in the early afternoon and then over to the corn field edge and back to camp before dark. Bow in hand I slowly walked the route I set for myself. I made note of all the sign I saw and where and marked on the map places I thought it might be worth standing at dawn and dusk.
Aside from all the beauty I witnessed and the abundant game sign I saw the acorns corp appears low this year. So most of the deer sign was between the creek and the corn. Well it was about 6:30 when I turned toward camp. When it's the first time you've been somewhere it's better to only travel in the daylight. I got back to camp about 15 minutes before first light. Just before I got to camp I had the occassion to draw and release an arrow. As I am not sure of the sensiblities of my readers I will spare you the details. I'll just say when I got back to camp i had roaste squirrel and rice for supper and a cup of green tea. I watched my fire, prayed and communed with God for an hour or two and crawled into bed. I slept like a child in the bossum of its mother. I woke up about an hour before daybreak, stoked up the fire, Thanked God for the New Day and made cowboy coffee and a sort of fried rice and squirrel dish for breakers with what had been left over from supper. Yes they didn't get refridgerated but I put them in zip bags and recooking them I am sure made them safe to eat. I filtered a full canteen of water but instead of boiling after filtration I added an iodine tablet I had and then two little concentrate bottles of sassafrass tea I remembered I had in my pack. The sassafrass would kill the iodine taste and if I drank it enough I'd exude a natural insect repellant through my skin. Anyway I scouted and hunted all day. It was way too hit to take it really seriously. I didn't loose another feather shaft all day. I went back to camp made up some baked beans with a bit of jerky in them and sat quietly eating and thinking how grand this almost this two days had been. I decided to come home first thing in the morningI completely erased my camp foot print but I stacked my fire ring rocks up at the rear side of the boulder under some shrubbery that grew there. For when I return to this little enchanted glen. The walk back to the car was uneventful as was the 2 hour drive home.
Now some tips from the humourous side of life.
Remember to skin test a leaf on your arm before using it for more delicate business after your morning latreen.
Cowboy coffee is not "good to the last drop" Leave the dregs in the cup.
If you're on a really steep hill and you notice your boot needs tying, wait until you've found a level ledge or shelf before you tie it. Your somersaulting and cartwheeling down the heel isn't nearly as funny with no one to see, point and laugh.