Finding my footing

When I was younger, my Dad would take us camping and fishing fairly regularly. We would travel all around southern British Columbia, Canada and the car trips were kept interesting by his seemingly unending knowledge of local flora and fauna, survival skills and stories about his own childhood in England.

As a kid growing up in the post war UK, he made the most of what he had, taking multi-day biking trips just to get to some obscure fishing hole somewhere. He kept some of his books from his own childhood and shared them with us. From books on stickleback to the tales of Mr Crabtree (The creation of Bernard Venables). More than that, he shared his passion for nature and bushcraft.

Coming to Canada in the late 60s, early 70s, he spent a lot of time in and around the BC parks, mostly fishing, but camping and exploring the mountains, valleys and lakes and absorbing the local know-how: lighting a fire with your “last match”, where to get dry kindling and wood, Looking for good shelter, what to do in the presence of local wildlife, which plants, roots and berries are edible or can be used for survival, what gear and equipment worked best, where to cast that dry fly and how to pull in that wiley brook trout. And while we groaned after hearing “What will you do when you are stuck on that deserted Island with only one match?” for the 8th time that summer, it stuck.

It more than stuck, the passion was passed on. Now, as my own kids start to grow up (4, 2 and 2 months) I know what I want to do. I want to find out what and how my father learned the things he passed on to us. I want them to have an appreciation for nature and the Bushcraft skills of those in times past. I want to give them the skills to buy what they need, make what they can and use what they know. But of course, I’ll have to learn all that first.

So that is why I decided to start this blog. I want to share what I’m learning, to have some kind of reference for myself and motivation to iron out details, get feedback from others and share a passion for getting outside.

The movies and television of today paint the concept of a post apocalyptic need for survival skills. I don’t buy that, neither will I market it. It is just that too much time is spent rotting brains, when we can encourage problem solving (not just why the printer won’t work), ingenuity and creativity outdoors and hands on. In the end, even if they get just an appreciation of the outdoors that they can look back on, that would be enough.