Training Primer: To plan and execute a solo hike into a remote conservation area where a story can be told. Execution: I planned a hike into the Isinglass Conservation Preserve, inventoried my Bushcraft / Survival Pack, and Saturday morning I hiked as planned. My pack weighed in at 26.6#, carrying also a water bottle carrier with my Garmin GPS i67 with SOS. Lessons Learned: Always rebuild your #2 kit after a trip and inventory it before a trip. Yes, sticky topic but a very real one. This was a great hike, good exercise, and one for which I could tell a story. Please see my Photo Journal posted in the Wilderness Mastery School FB Group. Not a member? I can help with that.

Training Primer: Saturday morning I am going to empty my LLBean Continental Weekender pack, do a flat layout and inventory the contents with the express purpose of eliminating excess items and repacking the Weekender Bag. I will undertake a four mile hike, cross country off-trail. During the afternoon, I am going to set up my hammock and tarp for a campsite in my back yard. I will reconstitute a freeze dried dinner with water boiled from either a fire or a stove. I will spend the night in the hammock adding a foam pad under me and foresters quilt for cover. In the morning I will make coffee and call it an exercise. The weather forecast is for mixed conditions and I am starting the exercise rain or shine.

My woods has a creek running through it. And pines on both sides. So I went with pine and birch bark for this exercise.