For 3 months this winter I camped deep in a forest and it was probably the most fun I ever had, so heres the story.
I went to stay with a friend who was squatting a house nearby one of the coolest national parks in southern france. We decided we wanted to explore the forest and set up a base camp we could use, we know our times gonna be limited here, this house is probably worth more than a quarter of a million euros so we're thinking to have it as a back up.
We set out in early one morning in our warm clothes with an axe, our bivis, summer sleeping bags and enough food for a couple of days, clean water is everywhere so we just carry empty bottles, we walked about 10 miles into the forest but it took us all day, not using trails, trying to find a perfect spot. It's easy to navigate with the river and huge mountains in the background but difficult ground, steep and rocky. As it's getting dark we find an awesome spot, a clearing above the river, on rocky ground with a lot of dead standing trees. Not too far from home but not too close. We get to work clearing the dangerous trees, so we don't get squished or bashed in the night, some we literally push over they're so rotten. Clear the ground, start a fire and bed down exhausted. We have to wake up every couple hours and add more wood to keep from freezing.
At daylight we get to work selecting some trees to take down, it's hard work and we wish we had a saw but we get it done and drag them back to camp. We set up a seriously long fire pit, using nearby rocks we gather to stop it spilling over, and put up some rope to help us get down to and back up from the river for water.
It's late in the afternoon when we decide to head back to the house, but after hours walking end up lost, unable to find the way we walked in so just head in the right direction. The terrain is insane, it's a mix of walking, clambering and climbing. It's time consuming and darkness is fast approaching. We see a lot of deer and hear a lot of activity going on, owls, rustling noises. We're still in the freaked out by nature stage and we know there's wolves but we're trying to keep level headed about it when in the distance we faintly hear howling. We decided to keep on walking instead of setting another camp, we know we're close and those wolves didn't sound that far away. As it becomes pitch black there's a set of headlights streaming through the trees and I feel relieved as hell.
Once we make it onto the road we realise we we're walking in the wrong direction - following the wrong river into a kind of half valley around the corner from where we need to be. It's about 4 miles or more home, but we get a ride most the way in the back of a van with this guys cool sheep dog who's as happy to see us as we are to get a ride.
We went back for food but also to bring a nice big used canvas tarp we bought, 4m by 3m. It's heavy but perfect for what we need. This time we load up as much food as we can carry into the tarp roll and fold it and grab an end each. We also buy a bow saw and 3 blades and head back to camp. It took us as much time to find it the second time as the first, eventually climbing the rocky river banks till we found our rope, then back tracking to get up the steep hill with our tarp, no one is gonna find this place. We put our tarp up badly, set a fire and climb into our bags. Our long fire is awesome, it keeps your whole body warm head to toe, plus you dont have to cut logs into small pieces.
Next day everything gets going, the saw lets us process wood like an axe on steroids. There's enough dead trees we'll never run out of firewood, it's still hard work but everythings going twice as fast. We put the tarp up properly, about 2m high. It creates a real nice feeling, and we build a rack to store our firewood and reflect heat into the tarp area. 2 people makes all this real easy compared to doing it alone. With the fire and tarp winter camping is awesome. Barely any bugs. Between us we have probably 10 different ways to set a fire, several lighters, matches, strikers, charcloth, torch batteries, if the fire goes out we'd probably end up with hypothermia, so we're diligent and sleep lightly our sleeping bags are 2 season and the temperature drops hard at night, only heating up if the suns out, the river keeps it cold.
Next few days and weeks we spend scouting the surrounding area, we find some weird and interesting stuff, some strange metal hoops coming out the ground on the rocks above the river, where the river is choked by rocks there's the bumper off a car, tons of wood, a handbag and various shit we don't know what is, looks like ancient car parts. We move it all out the river but since we cant pack it out we just make sure there's nothing that can cause harm and leave it in a pile. Handbag was empty. The water is pristine here, we drank it straight from the river and never got ill. We find a lotta shotgun shells, we know people hunt here so we're careful to make ourselves visible. By the time we get back to camp each day we're a bit wet from crossing the river and cold, we hang our clothes to dry, get in our sleeping bags while we cook a meal and get to sleep next to the fire.
Over the days we keep exploring the forest, there's loads of deer, animal tracks and marks everywhere, we startled a female wild boar, got real close to deer, honed our tracking skills. Some nights the wolves howl but we never saw one, there can't be many and their range is huge. Whenever we're away from camp and start to feel cold or get wet we light a small fire to warm up and dry out. By the time we run out of food we're always annoyed we have to go back to the house.. We just go for resupply and come straight back out.
We got spooked one morning when we found a giant wolf footprint a few meters from our camp, we never heard a thing and guess the fire kept them from getting closer. It's real difficult to track here, relying more on disturbances than footprints, we tried to track those wolves but came up empty. Another morning we woke up scared half to death by the sound of gun fire.
We built makeshift elevated beds outta logs and rope that were ridiculously uncomfortable until we added pine branches and they became tolerable, we built several little camps miles further into the forest so we could explore further in. We cleared trails and eventually made it to the other side of the hill, where the forest has been cleared to create grazing land and there's a small town where everyone is a sheep farmer. Had a run in with a mountain wolf dog (those suckers are huge and not to be messed with). It snowed, the top of the hill had probably a meter or more. We tried to build a igloo and failed. There were legal proceedings going on to kick us out the squat, which had grown to about 20 people, we figured a few weeks and it was gone, over the time a few people came to check it out but always left after a couple nights. We spent all our days making new paths, exploring new areas, learning the habits of the animals and finding cool shit in the forest. We established a good trail to get to the town, the squat and sheep town, we didn't get lost anymore, we explored every corner we could.
By the time we started to see shoots on the trees we looked like serious forest people, I don't even know what people thought when we rolled into town every 10 days to buy food, our clothes were haggard, we had forest beards, unkept hair and had turned a grey black kinda colour, maybe from the fire or the dirt. I lost about 10kgs in weight. But we never felt better.
By the end the tarp was ruined, or not worth saving, rain, snow, mildew and fire had taken its toll. We left it up.
The squat, lasted until about a week ago when we were forced to leave. The front door was like a noticeboard there were so many legal notices stapled to it.
I left for home the next day, after driving everyone to where they needed to be. Winter was over and I need to get stuff sorted at my place. My van battery died even though it was unplugged so I had to keep the engine running even to fill up with gas. I drove for 20 hours straight scared it wouldn't start or there'd be no one would give me a jump. Made it back a few days ago and decided to write this before i forgot.
So what I learnt, you don't need winter sleeping bags if you have fire. An axe is awesome but a saw and an axe is unstoppable. Never let the fire completely go out. You'll never use the flint and steel. Camping and exploring is awesome, and makes you feel like a kid again. Camping for 3 months will wreck your back. Don't hit yourself in the foot with an axe. And there's a lotta mice in the world.
I went to stay with a friend who was squatting a house nearby one of the coolest national parks in southern france. We decided we wanted to explore the forest and set up a base camp we could use, we know our times gonna be limited here, this house is probably worth more than a quarter of a million euros so we're thinking to have it as a back up.
We set out in early one morning in our warm clothes with an axe, our bivis, summer sleeping bags and enough food for a couple of days, clean water is everywhere so we just carry empty bottles, we walked about 10 miles into the forest but it took us all day, not using trails, trying to find a perfect spot. It's easy to navigate with the river and huge mountains in the background but difficult ground, steep and rocky. As it's getting dark we find an awesome spot, a clearing above the river, on rocky ground with a lot of dead standing trees. Not too far from home but not too close. We get to work clearing the dangerous trees, so we don't get squished or bashed in the night, some we literally push over they're so rotten. Clear the ground, start a fire and bed down exhausted. We have to wake up every couple hours and add more wood to keep from freezing.
At daylight we get to work selecting some trees to take down, it's hard work and we wish we had a saw but we get it done and drag them back to camp. We set up a seriously long fire pit, using nearby rocks we gather to stop it spilling over, and put up some rope to help us get down to and back up from the river for water.
It's late in the afternoon when we decide to head back to the house, but after hours walking end up lost, unable to find the way we walked in so just head in the right direction. The terrain is insane, it's a mix of walking, clambering and climbing. It's time consuming and darkness is fast approaching. We see a lot of deer and hear a lot of activity going on, owls, rustling noises. We're still in the freaked out by nature stage and we know there's wolves but we're trying to keep level headed about it when in the distance we faintly hear howling. We decided to keep on walking instead of setting another camp, we know we're close and those wolves didn't sound that far away. As it becomes pitch black there's a set of headlights streaming through the trees and I feel relieved as hell.
Once we make it onto the road we realise we we're walking in the wrong direction - following the wrong river into a kind of half valley around the corner from where we need to be. It's about 4 miles or more home, but we get a ride most the way in the back of a van with this guys cool sheep dog who's as happy to see us as we are to get a ride.
We went back for food but also to bring a nice big used canvas tarp we bought, 4m by 3m. It's heavy but perfect for what we need. This time we load up as much food as we can carry into the tarp roll and fold it and grab an end each. We also buy a bow saw and 3 blades and head back to camp. It took us as much time to find it the second time as the first, eventually climbing the rocky river banks till we found our rope, then back tracking to get up the steep hill with our tarp, no one is gonna find this place. We put our tarp up badly, set a fire and climb into our bags. Our long fire is awesome, it keeps your whole body warm head to toe, plus you dont have to cut logs into small pieces.
Next day everything gets going, the saw lets us process wood like an axe on steroids. There's enough dead trees we'll never run out of firewood, it's still hard work but everythings going twice as fast. We put the tarp up properly, about 2m high. It creates a real nice feeling, and we build a rack to store our firewood and reflect heat into the tarp area. 2 people makes all this real easy compared to doing it alone. With the fire and tarp winter camping is awesome. Barely any bugs. Between us we have probably 10 different ways to set a fire, several lighters, matches, strikers, charcloth, torch batteries, if the fire goes out we'd probably end up with hypothermia, so we're diligent and sleep lightly our sleeping bags are 2 season and the temperature drops hard at night, only heating up if the suns out, the river keeps it cold.
Next few days and weeks we spend scouting the surrounding area, we find some weird and interesting stuff, some strange metal hoops coming out the ground on the rocks above the river, where the river is choked by rocks there's the bumper off a car, tons of wood, a handbag and various shit we don't know what is, looks like ancient car parts. We move it all out the river but since we cant pack it out we just make sure there's nothing that can cause harm and leave it in a pile. Handbag was empty. The water is pristine here, we drank it straight from the river and never got ill. We find a lotta shotgun shells, we know people hunt here so we're careful to make ourselves visible. By the time we get back to camp each day we're a bit wet from crossing the river and cold, we hang our clothes to dry, get in our sleeping bags while we cook a meal and get to sleep next to the fire.
Over the days we keep exploring the forest, there's loads of deer, animal tracks and marks everywhere, we startled a female wild boar, got real close to deer, honed our tracking skills. Some nights the wolves howl but we never saw one, there can't be many and their range is huge. Whenever we're away from camp and start to feel cold or get wet we light a small fire to warm up and dry out. By the time we run out of food we're always annoyed we have to go back to the house.. We just go for resupply and come straight back out.
We got spooked one morning when we found a giant wolf footprint a few meters from our camp, we never heard a thing and guess the fire kept them from getting closer. It's real difficult to track here, relying more on disturbances than footprints, we tried to track those wolves but came up empty. Another morning we woke up scared half to death by the sound of gun fire.
We built makeshift elevated beds outta logs and rope that were ridiculously uncomfortable until we added pine branches and they became tolerable, we built several little camps miles further into the forest so we could explore further in. We cleared trails and eventually made it to the other side of the hill, where the forest has been cleared to create grazing land and there's a small town where everyone is a sheep farmer. Had a run in with a mountain wolf dog (those suckers are huge and not to be messed with). It snowed, the top of the hill had probably a meter or more. We tried to build a igloo and failed. There were legal proceedings going on to kick us out the squat, which had grown to about 20 people, we figured a few weeks and it was gone, over the time a few people came to check it out but always left after a couple nights. We spent all our days making new paths, exploring new areas, learning the habits of the animals and finding cool shit in the forest. We established a good trail to get to the town, the squat and sheep town, we didn't get lost anymore, we explored every corner we could.
By the time we started to see shoots on the trees we looked like serious forest people, I don't even know what people thought when we rolled into town every 10 days to buy food, our clothes were haggard, we had forest beards, unkept hair and had turned a grey black kinda colour, maybe from the fire or the dirt. I lost about 10kgs in weight. But we never felt better.
By the end the tarp was ruined, or not worth saving, rain, snow, mildew and fire had taken its toll. We left it up.
The squat, lasted until about a week ago when we were forced to leave. The front door was like a noticeboard there were so many legal notices stapled to it.
I left for home the next day, after driving everyone to where they needed to be. Winter was over and I need to get stuff sorted at my place. My van battery died even though it was unplugged so I had to keep the engine running even to fill up with gas. I drove for 20 hours straight scared it wouldn't start or there'd be no one would give me a jump. Made it back a few days ago and decided to write this before i forgot.
So what I learnt, you don't need winter sleeping bags if you have fire. An axe is awesome but a saw and an axe is unstoppable. Never let the fire completely go out. You'll never use the flint and steel. Camping and exploring is awesome, and makes you feel like a kid again. Camping for 3 months will wreck your back. Don't hit yourself in the foot with an axe. And there's a lotta mice in the world.
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