BILL HAFEMAN

Bill Hafeman was a master birch-bark canoe builder from Big Fork, Minnesota. CBS interviewed Hafeman in 1982, where at the time Hafeman was seen as one of the last craftsman left in America still building these canoes. CBS returned in 2008 to interview Hafeman’s grandson, who carries on his grandfather’s legacy, building birch-bark canoes by hand in the north woods.Hafeman in his 1982 interview…“I wanted to live in a wild country like the Indians did … I didn’t want to live in a city where you go to work by a whistle, go home by a whistle.”WATCH: Hafeman Boat Works 1982, 2008

Quinzee

Head on over to Winter Campers and learn how to make a quinzee and a variety of other snow shelters for the coming season:

A quinzee (also quinhzee) is a combination of an igloo and a snow cave. Quinzees are suitable in marginal snow conditions, or when a crust is not available for igloos, or when there is not enough deep packed snow for a snow cave. On the flip side a quinzee won’t last an entire winter season as do some igloos. Usually quinzees are made for 2-3 sleepers.Quinzees require a fair bit of work to complete and are usually used when spending more than one night in the same spot. If built properly a quinzee will be warmer to sleep in than a tent.

Youtube: Iris Dement and Emmylou Harris - Our TownMP3: Iris Dement - I've Got That Old Time Religion In My Heart

GO XC SKIING

Just about any thrift store or garage sale has a pile of these guys. Usually leaning among the dozens of pairs of downhill skis, you’ll find some old 3-pin cross-country skis, almost always for less than twenty bucks. They also pop up in the ‘free’ section on Craigslist all the time. If you’re lucky, the boots will come with. If you’re really lucky, those boots with be your size and in a condition that still looks like something you’d be willing to put on your foot.Current cross-country skis have gotten shorter in design, but for the skis from the seventies and eighties, the old rule generally still holds true: When standing with your arm outstretched straight over your head, you should be able to cup the tip of the ski in the palm of your hand (pictured above). Waxless skis, introduced in the early seventies, have a fishscale, textured pattern on the bottom of the ski (kick zone) between the skier’s feet and the snow.  If not waxless, grab some $9 wax at your local outfitters, throw on that Norwegian knit, and get outside.

ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE

The Sierra Club is helping to lead a petition to establish the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as a National Monument. This year marks 50 years since President Eisenhower signed the papers to protect Alaska's upper-most reaches and it's wildlife. Established in the northeastern extremes of Alaska, the ANWR holds the largest variety of flora and fauna of any reserve north of the arctic circle. Growing concerns about oil drilling in this sensitive area of our nation and the building effects of climate change are the Sierra Club's cry for establishing this area as a new National Monument, with more restrictions on such private interests. And for good reason. Pictured above are Sierra Club Conservationists Edgar and Peggy Wayburn, who in 1980 were instrumental in the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which expanded the Arctic Refuge and effectively doubled the size of the US National Park System.

GAITERS

December is here and that means snow.  Feet of it maybe, depending on where you hang your hat.  A winter-time gear staple should definitely be a good pair of gaiters.  Generally made of heavy nylon/cordura or Gore-tex, gaiters prevent snow from slipping in the top of your boots, with a closure at the top and an instep strap at the bottom.  Lace hooks help keep the gaiters from riding up.  Good rule of thumb when buying gaiters is to err on the small side.  You want these guys to be snug. After brushing up on your quinzee building, grab a pair. Any types of gaiters that y'all swear by?

OUR LIVES IN OUR HANDS

From Folkstreams.net ...

This 1986 film examines the traditional Native American craft of split ash basketmaking as a means of economic and cultural survival for Aroostook Micmac Indians of northern Maine. This documentary of rural off-reservation Indian artisans aims to break down stereotypical images. Basketmakers are filmed at their craft in their homes, at work on local potato farms and at business meetings of the Basket Bank, a cooperative formed by the Aroostook Micmac Council. First person commentaries are augmented by authentic 17th century Micmac music.

Watch it at Folkstreams!

STEHEKIN, WA

Stehekin is a small unincorporated community, settled just south of North Cascades National Park in northern Washington state.  The community today boasts 75 permanent residents along with a one room, log cabin schoolhouse that was in use up until 1988.  It now stands on the NPS' National Register of Historical Places.  Pictured above is the schoolhouse and a student beginning his trek home, from the National Geographic book American Mountain People (published in 1973).  It is noted in the margins that students would ski up to 5 miles into the surrounding mountains to and from school each day.  Yes please.

THE FIREWOOD POEM

Memorize it!  Just in time for the holidays:"Beechwood fires are bright and clearIf the logs are kept a year,Chestnut's only good they say,If for logs 'tis laid away.Make a fire of Elder tree,Death within your house will be;But ash new or ash old,Is fit for a queen with crown of goldBirch and fir logs burn too fastBlaze up bright and do not last,it is by the Irish saidHawthorn bakes the sweetest bread.Elm wood burns like churchyard mould,E'en the very flames are coldBut ash green or ash brownIs fit for a queen with golden crownPoplar gives a bitter smoke,Fills your eyes and makes you choke,Apple wood will scent your roomPear wood smells like flowers in bloomOaken logs, if dry and oldkeep away the winter's coldBut ash wet or ash drya king shall warm his slippers by."by Celia Congreve

KIRTLAND'S WARBLER

The Kirtland’s warbler (Dendroica kirtlandii) is one of the rarest warblers in the wood warbler family. The bird’s only known nesting places are in small spots of the northern lower peninsula and upper peninsula of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ontario. It wasn’t until 1996 that they found nests anywhere other than 60 miles from Oscoda County in rural Northern Michigan (and very few still). Kirtland’s warblers nest only in the low, ground level branches of young jack pine trees, between 5 and 15 feet tall. Once the trees mature to above this height, the lower branches die, along with their sheltered nesting spots. It’s ironic that the embrace of Smokey’s “Only You” initiative in fire prevention may lend to the eventual end of the Kirtland’s warbler without proper management. No fire means no natural rotation of trees, no new young jack pines.

Buck Season At Bear Meadow Sunset



It's always a real good time to wade through Folkstreams, and last night, while eating spinach pizza and packing for a trip to Colorado, I watched BUCK SEASON AT BEAR MEADOW, a 1984 documentary about a camp in Northern Appalachia where the men hunt the "traditional" way, driving the deer, drinking loads of whiskey and beer, telling jokes and laughing without many teeth. Just in time for eating turkey.Enjoy the preview above and watch it in full here.

PADDLE TO THE AMAZON

For two years from 1980 to 1982, Don Starkell and his teenage sons Jeff and Dana paddled a hand-crafted, 21 foot fiberglass canoe from Winnipeg, Canada to Belem, Brazil, completely self-supported. Account of the 12,181 mile journey was compressed from thousands of pages of Starkell’s salt-stained, smeared, loose leaf diary entries into a book, Paddle to the Amazon. Starkell and his son Dana both hold the Guinness World Record for having completed the “longest canoe journey ever” (Jeff dropped out in Mexico). The group endured modern pirates and starvation, dodging bullets and drug cartels along the gulf coast from Mexico, eventually along and through South America. Almost ten years later, Starkell lost the tops of all his fingers and five of his toes in attempts to trace the Northwest Passage by kayak. After three years, and nearly 3,000 miles, the trip was cut short by just 30 miles due to frostbite.

BRADFORD ANGIER

Known in the seventies by some as “Mr. Outdoors”, Bradford Angier along with his wife Vena authored and illustrated more than 35 books on topics ranging from foraging wild foods to several how-to’s on building your home in the woods. The couple left their home in the city in 1947 in search of a life reflecting Thoreau’s Walden-pond vision, and eventually restored an old prospector’s cabin with salvaged materials in Hudson’s Hope, BC. You can grab most any of their books at your local bookstore for next to nothing. Those covers on the old paperbacks are golden.

BLUE BLAZES

Snaking through America’s north woods, the North Country Trail will eventually stretch from Eastern New York State westward to North Dakota for more than 4,600 miles.  Almost 3,200 of these miles are currently certified by the NCTA.  As many as 10 thru-hikes have been recognized since it’s plan began in 1978.  Due to the trail’s length, location, and orientation, it is necessary for thru-hikers to endure a good chunk of the northern state’s harsh, winter conditions.  While just a baby in the shadow of the AT, this blue-blazed trail will eventually become the longest trail in the National Trails System.  Nimblewill Nomad completed his thru-hike in 2009, nearing the end of his quest to hike all 11 National Scenic Trails.