Don’t miss it, you will have an opportunity to ask him your burning questions and learn all about his origins, style, and he’ll share his camping and backpacking tips and tricks with us! Join us by clicking HERE

Are you a father/stepfather or grandfather who would like a space to share and get ideas for spending time with your kids or grandkids doing outdoor adventure? This will be a community space of fatherhood promoting spending time with young ones as a parent and mentor, building relationships with them and navigating the different stages and abilities of a young person’s life. I’m considering creating one if there is enough interest! I am casting a wide net, not just here. If you know of someone outside of the Guild who would be interested please tell them about it and send them the following link so I can get their email and keep them updated: https://forms.gle/nAEXxkTcBF4qFDc4A

Time outside with friends! In case you missed it last night! TODAY IS THE LAST DAY to join the Campcrafters guild and sign up for the INCLUDED 6 week cohort course to start your own club…a $150 value but only $30 for the celebratory Campcrafters Guild kickoff! 🏕️ Don’t miss out on this exclusive opportunity to kickstart your own club and unlock endless outdoor adventures with new and current friends!

This price and package will NEVER happen again. Join today by going to www.honorableoutfitters.com/jointheguild before it’s too late!

Here’s a sneak peek of what awaits you:

✨ Crafting Your Vision: Dream big and learn how to turn your camping club dreams into reality! From setting goals to creating an engaging atmosphere, we’ll guide you every step of the way.

✨ Epic Camping Adventures: Say goodbye to boring trips and hello to unforgettable experiences! Discover the essential steps for planning epic camping trips that will leave your members craving more.

✨ Forge Lifelong Connections: Build bonds that last a lifetime as you foster a tight-knit community of outdoor enthusiasts. Get ready to make memories and friendships that go beyond the campfire!

✨ Masterful Management: Take the stress out of running your club with expert strategies for membership management and growth. From finances to communication, we’ve got you covered.

✨ Safety First, Always: Your safety is our top priority! Learn essential safety protocols and best practices for every outdoor adventure, ensuring peace of mind for you and your members.

But wait, there’s more! Joining the Campcrafters Guild unlocks a treasure trove of exclusive benefits:

🌟 Bi-weekly live streams

🌟 Exclusive Roundtable Discussions with industry experts

🌟 Invitations to exclusive in-person events

🌟 Skill-building courses to enhance your outdoor expertise

🌟 Monthly challenges to keep the adventure alive

🌟 Access to our ever-growing Resource Library

Join the Campcrafters Guild TODAY at www.honorableoutfitters.com/jointheguild and get ready to embark on the camping journey of a lifetime! The adventure begins next Thursday—don’t miss out!

Have you gazed on naked grandeur where there’s nothing else to gaze on, Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore, Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the blinding sunsets blazon, Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar? Have you swept the visioned valley with the green stream streaking through it, Searched the Vastness for a something you have lost? Have you strung your soul to silence? Then for God’s sake go and do it; Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost. Have you wandered in the wilderness, the sagebrush desolation, The bunch-grass levels where the cattle graze? Have you whistled bits of rag-time at the end of all creation, And learned to know the desert’s little ways? Have you camped upon the foothills, have you galloped o’er the ranges, Have you roamed the arid sun-lands through and through? Have you chummed up with the mesa? Do you know its moods and changes? Then listen to the Wild — it’s calling you. Have you known the Great White Silence, not a snow-gemmed twig aquiver? (Eternal truths that shame our soothing lies). Have you broken trail on snowshoes? mushed your huskies up the river, Dared the unknown, led the way, and clutched the prize? Have you marked the map’s void spaces, mingled with the mongrel races, Felt the savage strength of brute in every thew? And though grim as hell the worst is, can you round it off with curses? Then hearken to the Wild — it’s wanting you. Have you suffered, starved and triumphed, groveled down, yet grasped at glory, Grown bigger in the bigness of the whole? “Done things” just for the doing, letting babblers tell the story, Seeing through the nice veneer the naked soul? Have you seen God in His splendors, heard the text that nature renders? (You’ll never hear it in the family pew). The simple things, the true things, the silent men who do things — Then listen to the Wild — it’s calling you. They have cradled you in custom, they have primed you with their preaching, They have soaked you in convention through and through; They have put you in a showcase; you’re a credit to their teaching — But can’t you hear the Wild? — it’s calling you. Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what luck betide us; Let us journey to a lonely land I know. There’s a whisper on the night-wind, there’s a star agleam to guide us, And the Wild is calling, calling. . .let us go.

There is so much going on behind the scenes currently, it is incredibly exciting! Not only is there an ongoing project between two incredible blacksmiths, Darcy Quapp and Doug Lockhart, but I was asked to try out and review a hand forged skillet from Mr. Lockhart. I am not being paid for this effort, he requested an honest review and I cannot express how honored I am, being given the opportunity. If you are a follower of my YouTube channel you are quite aware of my enthusiasm and passion for using antiques and vintage equipment. I always offer my honest opinions and I try my best to be clear of functionality and performance. I have created an unboxing video of the cookware and if for nothing else than to see the craftsmanship and professional care, I urge you to check it out. Mr. Lockhart does not disappoint!

Big things are happening in the background! This upcoming fall I am collaborating with two of North America’s BEST blacksmiths, one from Hocking Hills Ohio who has taught others on the famed show Forged in Fire and another from Southern Alberta Canada who specializes in forging early American style knives, hatchets, and tomahawks. A viewer on my channel suggested a comparison series of Nessmuk vs Kephart and what better way to start the comparison than with each of their unique woods tools?

Mr. Doug Lockheart is the patriarch of Lockheart Ironworks in Logan Ohio, he will be forging the reproduction Kephart and Nessmuk axes respectively as close as he can using primary sources. Darcy Quapp of Alberta Canada is reproducing both of the knives for the project, the Nessmuk is the one depicted in the pictures of this post and MANY more on the progression can be seen by looking on the article HERE. Both men are highly qualified craftsmen who pride themselves on their quality of work with attention to detail. Each has  more than 30 years of experience. Mr. Lockheart is a full time blacksmith who runs his own school of the trade and Mr. Quapp is a metal fabricator by trade. I hope you are as excited as I am to bring these two legends into the fold to pit two iconic outdoorsmen’s tools against each other next fall and winter! 

I am not a tremendously seasoned teacher of thirty years but in the years I have taught, I thought I had gotten pretty good at it. This may sound kind of funny but from my experience, being a good teacher is dependent on three things: knowledge of the student’s level, in-depth knowledge and understanding of the content material, and experience of presentation. If you have these three key factors then you can maintain your class’ attention and just about everyone at all skill and knowledge levels will be engaged and learn something from it. One of the cardinal sins of the classroom is to assume knowledge and the foundation knowledge of your students. This leads me to the statement above and a popular analogy, try to never “put the cart in front of the horse.”

My YouTube Channel is currently in a new rhythm to shake things up and every third Sunday I am posting a camp project or gadget. I knew that the first project should be fairly simple and as the series goes on to build on the skills and techniques of the previous project, much like any subject in school right? I started out with my plan and identified the parts and materials I was going to use and as I started cutting the parts I came to the realization, “there’s another project that would make this one and all future projects easier.” I had to course correct, which happens regularly in the classroom as you read the room or realize the majority have not mastered a certain level of knowledge or skills. This is precisely what I had to do but in a different classroom!

I started to change course and as I was making the first part of the new project I realized how good it was for me to change direction because I was noticing new foundational things I would have likely missed in the first planned project! That is the beauty of teaching, as you go along you are also learning, perhaps not the content itself but the techniques and steps that make you a better teacher. I would have put the proverbial “cart before the horse” and neglected important parts to make all future jobs easier for those I was teaching and in truth, myself.

Everything has a foundation, sometimes it is not initially clear what that foundation is or needs to be but it is rarely too late to take a step back and build one for the future. The greatest sin is to ignore the lack of one and push forward anyways, and I believe this can be applied in our every day lives and direction. Spend the time to build the foundation, the structure you want to build is worth the attention and will be much stronger, especially if that structure is your life.

“Camping provides an excellent test of friendship; the rougher the trip, the better the test . Consequently, to find a friend in camp is often equivalent to finding one for life. This alone makes well worth while the camper’s necessity of taking the bitter with the sweet . But there are plenty of other results equally as good. And in the years that follow, the happy bowl of retrospection contains no pleasanter brew than the bittersweet blended of the trials and the joys of bygone camps.” Cave 1914, 194

Hard times make memorable times. I had a ton of fun as a youth camping with my Boy Scout troop and a ton of fun camping as an adult with my reenacting friends. Not all of the campouts or events I attended were ideal or picture perfect. Many were wet or cold, or wet and cold. I regularly forgot something at home that would have been useful to have and made my trip easier. Once I almost suffered heat stroke! It is funny; those times when adversity hit have stuck with me the most and the stories from them are the ones I tell around the campfire. Sure the good times were memorable and enjoyed but no story is really an adventure without some type of adversity.

My favorite story to tell is one where I pushed myself to my physical limits and used almost every skill I had learned up to that point. I was roughly 12 or 13 and working on my Wilderness Survival Merit Badge. All the Scouts in attendance earned at least 1st Class rank, the First Aid Merit Badge, and were Red Cross 1st Aid and CPR certified before they could attend. If my memory serves me, I believe the campout was in March or early April and in Ohio. We tend to get most of our snow and lowest temperatures in February and that certainly plays a large part in my story.

We were eager for this adventure, and for kids, we were equipped pretty well and knew roughly what the expectations would be but we had no idea what the schedule would be for the weekend. Our Merit badge counselors and Scoutmaster planned out the program, the point was to simulate for us Scouts a situation where we were on a winter day hike but was unable to complete it in just one day. The equipment on our backs reflected that for the most part. We had sleeping bags and a 8’x8′ plastic tarp, no tent and enough food for 1 day even though the campout was from 5 pm Friday to 1 pm Sunday. There was snow already on the ground and more snow and freezing rain inbound.

Friday night was easy, we had decently full stomachs from dinner earlier and we were not expected to hike that far. The focus was fire building and making simple shelters for the night using our tarps. How fun it was! That is, until the fire completely died out around midnight and the wind hit along with the cold setting in due to the dropping temperature. We were all dry but that was not enough for a comfortable night’s sleep.

We “woke” up, more like grumpily surrendering and acknowledging the lack of sleep we all got, put our bedrolls in order, worked to get a meager fire going and ate breakfast. Saturday was when the real trials and adventure would begin and all we knew was that there was going to be miles of hiking ahead of us and much of it was not going to be on prepared trails, roads, or paths. We finished our breakfast, cleaned up our site, shouldered our packs and made our way to the start of the hike. Merrily all of us talked and speculated what we would do. Our adult leaders informed us that our goal was to get at least eight miles in before building our next camp. We were encouraged to pick up dry tinder on our way if we could find any. The first mile was on good paths, the second mile the rain started in, the third mile was cutting across a wooded lot with brush and a refresher on how to use a compass and a map, and fourth mile we trudged to make the check point before 1 so we could eat lunch. Finally! The checkpoint was in site and our Scoutmaster was there waiting on us to greet us. The smiles of our Merit Badge Counselors to our Scoutmaster certainly gave the message they thought our progress earned us some words of celebration.

We were dogged at this point. Our outer clothes soaked through and several shoes were as well. The younger ones were wanting to quit at this point and all of us were inspected for any signs of exhaustion or hypothermia. This is where determination and grit was needed, and we hadn’t even ate lunch yet! Those who wanted to quit were surrounded by the rest, cheered on and encouraged. One of us had the idea to take some of the weight off of those who wanted to quit, this was gladly welcomed by those who were struggling and was not entirely by the rest of the group. In the end we all came together and everyone decided to push on. It was this key moment that set the mood and what the plan would be after lunch.

The second half of the day would be hiking in the four miles to finish off the expected eight miles and we were told there would be emergency scenarios that we would come across and need to respond. The last leg of our hike would be a compass course, which at the end we would find our camp site where we would need to build our brush shelter for the night and a surprise would be waiting on us. We were already tired and starting to feel sore, especially the youngest of our group. All of our attitudes started to fail by the time we hit our 6th mile. The youngest Scout who was complaining about being tired and sore feet could not be consoled. When our emergency scenarios were reached all of us found it difficult to cooperate, one of the scenarios was carrying out our Scoutmaster on a litter made from branches and a tarp, he was a big guy!

I am sure you can imagine the tensions building and a scene from Lord of the Flies as we still had roughly two more miles to go. Two from our group of six wanted to quit but the older ones wouldn’t let them. This is where Scout Spirit and the patrol method truly shined in all my years of Scouting as a youth. Two of our patrol were crying, all of us wet, cold, and tired. Our adult leaders were talking amongst themselves if they should intervene. Finally, and I don’t remember how it came about or who was responsible for convincing the others, it was collectively agreed upon that we would finish it out no matter how slow it would take us to get wherever we were going. We would take one sopping cold step at a time.

Three hours later, with not a word among the group we found and entered our campsite for the night. Some of us could muster a weak smile but the majority just slumped down wherever they could find a decently flat piece of ground. Do you recall that I said there would be a surprise waiting on us? A large well fed fire burned and a large pot of chilli soup was on the edge of it simmering. We had made it. Our Scoutmaster cheerfully welcomed us collectively and then made a round to each of us individually telling us how proud he was of our accomplishments. Our adult leaders scooped out the soup and served bowls of it out to us. Gradually we scooted closer to the fire and as our sore muscles rested and and our bellies grew full with warm food our Scout Spirit roared back to life! What was a tedious and arduous adventure full of frustration, pain, and complaining now became something of joyful recollection! We laughed, shared best and worst parts of the day, teased each other playfully, and what can only be described as celebrated.

There was still one task left for our Merit Badge, make a brush shelter. It was dark, cold and getting colder, and of course wet. We no longer seemed to mind it though and no one really complained. We had already accomplished the most difficult part, all that was left was essentially build a forest house. It did not need to look pretty, it only needed to be functional. We all pitched in and helped each other out and as soon as the last armful of leaves hit the roof of the last shelter we were in them and out like a light.

There was no struggle sleeping that night and the following morning came a bit too soon. This time the adults made the fire, had water on for hot chocolate and oatmeal. It was the best breakfast I had ever had up to that point. We were told to gather our things, disperse the material for our shelters so we leave no trace, and head out to the parking lot to head home. None of us really said too much that morning. We were still tired and ready for it to be done.

Since that campout it has been a story all of us have recalled many times, often with a bit of grief given to our adult leaders who would put us through such a thing but truly with an appreciation of having the opportunity. We gained so much from it. We grew closer as a troop. Understood how to really carry each other’s burdens materially and emotionally, and many Scouting skills along the way. We had an accomplishment few youth ever had. We didn’t get a competition ribbon, school wide recognition, and our peers back at school would just add it to the list of why we were weird. We received so much more beyond a Merit badge. Self pride, skills, knowledge that we could push beyond our perceived limits, and one heck of an adventure to tell others. It was a “war story” shared among comrades.

Now this could easily be a chapter in a book and perhaps will be a full-out written article later on but since this is a post I will try to keep the suggestions to brief bullet points and by no means is this comprehensive.

-Near a water source but not so close as it could flood or rise during a heavy rainfall and preferably a running water source like a stream, creek, or river so mosquitoes will not me so bad a nuissance. Generally 200ft away from the water source and hiking path.

-Level ground

-Look above and avoid where trees may have diseased branches, hung up broken branches, or “widow makers” that may fall on your campsite. Look for dead trees and avoid camping in their height radius. Coniferous trees are most liable for these problems

-On a higher point of ground for natural runoff and drainage during precipitation

-Try to avoid sandy or soggy soils

-Avoid areas with standing water or puddles

-An area with plenty of kindling and wood that is not laying directly on the ground

-During the warm months I prefer my tent to face the prevailing winds East to West so I can open my front and rear windows to get the fresh air flow. During the colder months I face my tent North to South so the sides block the prevailing winds. This is also important when planning out your fire position in camp and how to build it.

-Use the sun to benefit you. During cool months try to position your tent so it is in a clear path to get the sun all day from East to West. During warm months look for trees that will cast a shadow over your tent all day.

-Look for signs of large or regular animal activity, this is especially important when the wildlife include bear, moose, mountain lions, wolves, badgers, and even skunks. Animals are in general territorial, if you don’t want a visit by one, take their territory in consideration and respect the wildlife.