[R-G] "HE TRAVELS THE FASTEST . . ."

[Hunter Gray]

NOTE BY HUNTER BEAR: DECEMBER 22  2007

I've written this as an addendum to my quite recent post: "In The Wilds: Be Sensible" which is now on our website as "Wilderness Life And Times -- And Pleasant Survival."  I pass it along to a few lists.  And I obviously plan to do much more personally and directly In the Wilds.

In a sparky discussion on The Organizer, my oldest son, John, aptly remarked:

"Speaking as the son of a lifelong organizer, I can say this.  We never
owned a new stick of furniture.  We weren't always allowed to answer the
phone as children because men would be on the other end saying they were
coming to kill us.  It was not uncommon to come home from school and learn
that we'd be moving across the country in a couple weeks.  My point being
that we need to separate different kinds of organizers--the light load trail
rider Shane vs. those comfortably ensconced in their settings.  Great topic,
though!"  -- John Salter [Beba]

The Rudyard Kipling quote of yore, "He travels the fastest who travels alone." has stuck faithfully with me since early childhood.  As I am prone to note, I've always been a lone hunter, trapper, hiker -- and, as an organizer, a "highway sailor."  And to Kipling's observation, I'd simply add, "And who travels the lightest."

On a one day junket into the Wilds, I'll take only the rudimentaries.  Always good boots, wide-brimmed hat, adequate coat, maybe gloves, usually a gallon water canteen.  Always a knife and often a snake-bite kit -- and, if circumstances warrant it, a good rifle [and cartridges] or perhaps my revolver.  A chocolate bar or two.  And usually a hunting knife -- and matches, always matches.

I've camped by myself since mid-childhood. My hunting camps --  simply operational-base in nature -- could hardly be more basic. This held true even for my very favorite setting of yore:  a yellow-pine surrounded and secluded setting only a few yards from the rim of vast Sycamore Canyon [the Wilderness Area well to the southwest of Flagstaff.]  There I had a rudimentary lean-to arrangement which, during inclement weather, I covered with an old green tarp.  My bedroll of choice has always been the great wolfskin robe -- made from the skins of three large timber wolves killed in the Moosehead section of Northern Maine, ca. 1865, by my g/g/g uncle, Louis [Lewis] Annance, a well known St. Francis Abenaki woodsman and guide -- who raised both my great grandmother and my grandmother.  The robe was passed on to my father when he was a small child and, in due course, to me. [I've given it to Maria but I'll still use it whenever so inclined.] The robe covers me totally -- I'm just a bit over six feet -- and, if it's wet [say, from rain or snow, it always smells a little like a damp canine.]  But, bottom line, it's warm.  On a hike that goes into the next day or several days, I take two light blankets as a simple bedroll tied above a backpack.

Hunting camp equipment [reduced, of course, considerably for overnight hiking junkets]:  Light coffee pot, light frying pan, a couple of aluminum plates and cup, and basic eating utensils --  and coffee, cans of beef stew, tins of roast beef, and canned peaches and, for sure, a good can-opener. I'll usually have a good double-bitted axe and a small gun-cleaning kit.

And always one of my fine firearms:  a Winchester or Marlin big-bore lever action.  Maybe a revolver.  Two or three gallon water canteens are always very relevant. [At the Sycamore camp, I could fill-up at a large spring half a mile down, via game trails, into the vast canyon.]

There's always a bit more, but you get the idea. BTW,  I don't like cell phones in the outdoors but they do, I suppose, have their uses.

And Beba is absolutely right when it comes to our household possessions.  The great, late American economist, Thorstein Veblen, who intricately dissected and bitingly attacked the "conspicuous consumption" of the "leisure class" would find no fault with us.  Aside from my firearms and Eldri's spinning wheels and a loom, we have nothing shiningly contemporary.  We may get some new clothing and such but we are heavy patrons of thrift shops and yard sales.

Even our faithful Jeep is now more than a decade old.

But we do have, if I say so, a truly great collection of Native American arts and crafts.  And that we always treasure.

And, too, we have Ourselves -- a fast-growing and far-flung extended family characterized by solidarity -- and no secrets.

Yours, Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear]


HUNTER GRAY  [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR]   Mi'kmaq /St. Francis
Abenaki/St. Regis Mohawk
Protected by Na´shdo´i´ba´i´
 and Ohkwari'
 
Check out our Hunterbear website Directory http://hunterbear.org/directory.htm
[The site is dedicated to our one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray:
http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm
 
And see Outlaw Trail:  The Native as Organizer:  http://hunterbear.org/outlaw_trail1.htm