Chris Yates – The Lost Diary

Chris Yates talking about his lost diary

UPDATE: The book has been successfully funded so keep an eye out in the coming months!

I have spoken about Mr Yates in past posts - he is one of my favorite fishermen; he is beloved by nearly every British angler as an author, photographer and staunch advocate for vintage fishing gear and methods. Over the last few months, in anticipation for Maine's fishing season, I read a few of his books - each one is a masterpiece. I knew through Yates' reputation and his previous works that I would love these books, but as each one unfolded I became further charmed and impressed by Yates; his philosophies, his love for the outdoors, nature and, of course, tea. All of which resonate with me and my beliefs.

When I came to the end of "Nightwalk", Yates' magical and lyrical book about walking through nighttime British countryside, I was keen to find out what he was up to next. It was in this search that I came across his intended crowd funded next publication. Entitled "The Lost Diaries" the book is exactly that, a  book of his recently rediscovered fishing diaries dating from the 1980s, including "the last days Chris spent fishing at Redmire after his record catch and the early days of the Golden Scale Club." 

How to Fish and On Fishing at Sea

So for my sake, and for the sake of all those that love and cherish nature,  the outdoors and Yates' writing, take a look at this video and perhaps consider donating to this book. Funding is being sourced through unbound.co.uk which is very much like kick-starter. For a minimum donation of GBP10 you will receive a copy of the book and also have your name published in the back.

So far I have read "How to Fish", "Nightwalk" and "On Fishing at Sea " these are still readily available and I cannot speak highly enough of them.

The Secret Worlds of Colin Fletcher

Secret Worlds of Colin Fletcher

I just finished "The Secret Worlds of Colin Fletcher" a truly engrossing collection of Fletchers stories, each one painting an increasingly vivid picture of Fletcher through his musings. He strives endlessly and at times aggressively for solitude as he passes through different, changing landscapes hunting an epiphany, an answer to a question which haunted him; just how is it possible (if at all) for man to live in harmony with nature in the modern age.

This is not an instructional book like "The Complete Walker" and is less of a travelogue than "The Man Who Walked Through Time" but I feel it's essential reading for anyone true lover of the great outdoors.

Okanui Shorts My Sad Farewell

My Okanui Classics in the outback somewhere

Elastic? Gone. Waistband? Gone. Drawcord? Long gone. Colour? Faded. Loved? Most definitely. Missed? Most certainly. Farewell to my Okis.

It was nearly eight years ago that I bought a pair of Okinui shorts from their store in Noosa, Australia. Since then they have been around the world with me many times and have rarely been out of arms reach. Their cotton has been worn to blissful softness and their shape is perfectly tuned to me. I love these shorts but I feel they have run their course and it is time to let go.

Okanui Classics

Okanui board shorts were fathered by Sydney surfer Dick Ash. He was brought up in Avalon on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia in the 1950s and made his first pair of board shorts when he was about fifteen. Using mail bags scrounged from the local post office he sewed them together using his mums sewing machine and, as the legend goes, he cut out the letters S.A. Aust. from the mail bags and told his friends it stood for 'Surfing Association of Australia'. Ash began making board shorts for his surfing friends and the Okanui legend began.

My new Okis

The Okanui 'Classic' board short as we know it has been around for over 30 years, it has become a part Australian surf lore and the company is still owned and run by Dick Ash from Byron Bay, NSW. The 'Classic' is still available in a range of bright, hibiscus patterns from 100% cotton, is manufactured in Fiji and made to last. These fantastic shorts can be bought online at Okanui.com

Before Christmas last year I finally came to terms with the fact my shorts weren't going to last forever; I think eight years is a good run for any piece of clothing nowadays and I hope my new pair is up for the challenge.

Ötzi's 3,300BCE Gear List

Ötzi's Gear Image Copyright of South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology - www.iceman.it

Something a little different for this gear list, but absolutely fascinating nonetheless.

Ötzi the Iceman was discovered in 1991 by hikers in the Ötztal Alps, on the border between Austria and Italy. He is the oldest naturally mummified human ever discovered. Believed to be 5300 years old, Ötzi and his equipment are incredibly well preserved perhaps due to, among other things, his body being almost immediately covered by snow which protected him from scavengers and the geography of the area he died in. His skin, teeth, personal items and contents of his internal organs were all found intact, and were able to provide a remarkably detailed background for the ancient mountain man.

Ötzi - Image Copyright of South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology – www.iceman.it

His equipment list also paints a fascinating and vivid picture about how he lived. It is believed that Ötzi was a herdsman, due to the large amount of animal fibers on his clothing. Items like his copper axe, bow and reed mat suggested that he was able to hunt and be self sufficient allowing him to stay in the mountains for extended periods of time with his herd. The list of items found with Ötzi is detailed below...

Ötzi's Axe Image Copyright of South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology - www.iceman.it

Clothing
Coat made from goat hide Goat leather loincloth, 33cm x 100cm fastened with a belt Bearskin cap with leather chin strap Calf to thigh leggings made from goat skin, loops at the top can be threaded through a belt, laces at the bottom are for threading onto shoes Double layer shoes, inners made of grass outers made of deerskin with bearskin soles Belt with pouch 4-5cm wide made from calfs leather

Equipment
Grass Cape used as a mat or possibly a backpack Backpack made form a large piece of bent hazel wood with larch wood slats and a hide sack attached Quiver made from chamois hide with yew support rod Copper bladed axe Flint bladed dagger with sheath 1.8m Yew bow 14 arrows Small tree-bast net Birch-bark containers stuffed with maple leaves with lit embers for starting fires

Tools and sundries
Antler multi-tool 2m Tree-bast string 2x Animal sinews Retoucheurs tool or pressure flaker (for refining flint items) 4 Arrow tips Flint scraping tool Flint drill Small fine flint flake Stag antler tips Bone awl Tinder fungus (Fomes fomentarius) Stone disc

First-aid
2 Strips of hide threaded with fruiting body of the birch polypore fungus.

There is still uncertainty about how Ötzi died but the prevailing theory is that he was in fact murdered. He had an arrowhead embedded in his shoulder, the wound from which had not healed and there was a significant head wound. It is not clear if the head wound was caused in a fall, occurred postmortem or was inflicted by the his attacker as the final act of murder. However he died, it is remarkable to think that he has been up in the mountains, preserved in the ice, and has silently sat through the entire development of the modern world.

All the images are used with permission from South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology they own the copyright for all of these images please be considerate and seek permission if you wish to use any of them. Visit www.iceman.it for more details about this amazing story.

Tea Chronicles Pt.11 – Alan Hall

Alan Hall - Wild Food Trailguide, 1973

This may sound stupid to some more experienced foragers, but I've been hunting wintergreen for some time now - I'm not sure how it eluded me so readily but I never seemed to track any down. I have found a lot of reference to wintergreen in many books but I think "The Wild Food Trailguide" by Alan Hall was one of the best. The book was written in 1973 and is one of the classic guides for the North American forager. I particularly, and understandably, like the expansive wild teas section.

“WINTERGREEN Gaultheria procumbens

IDENTIFYING CHARACTERISTICS: This tiny plant is actually a shrub with stems that creep along the surface of the ground or just below it. At interval along the stem, leaf-bearing branches that look like individual plants thrust upward. They are 3 - 6 in. high and have a distinct woody character. The shiny evergreen leaves are clustered at the top of the branches. The leaves are fleshy and tender, pale yellow-green with tinges of red or sometimes almost all red, and smell strongly of wintergreen when crushed; the older leaves are shiny, dark green with lighter undersides, have a tough leathery texture, and are less frangrent.”

— Alan Hall - Wild Food Trailguide, 1973

Wintergreen Tea

The really great thing is that wintergreen grows all year round, due to this I figured now would be as good a time as any to look for it as, there is little else in leaf in its size range right now. Doing a little hiking last weekend I made a point of hunting wintergreen and almost immediately I came across a little patch by the trail head. After that it seemed to be everywhere, maybe I got dialed in. The main thing I checked for was that the leaves actually smelt of wintergreen - the easiest way to make a clear identification.

Wintergreen Tea

So with the Trangia cranked and the water boiled I threw in a small handful of wintergreen leaves and steeped them for about ten minutes. The resulting brew was great; it had a pleasant but mild minty flavor with a foresty, leafy tang. Very refreshing. Next time I think I'll add a BIG handful and try and eek out some more flavor, but it was an impressive start.

The leaves can be dried but some of the flavor is lost so it's best to use them freshly picked. Hall also goes onto to describe a root beer like concoction which can be made similarly to tea. If I get a big harvest next time, I might give it a try.

"The Wild Food Trailguide" is an excellent book worth hunting out. Hall mentions 16 wild teas in its pages, so you may hear more from this very interesting read.

Clyde Ormond – Survival Fishing Kit

Clyde Ormond's Otudoorsman's Handbook

It's interesting when looking at VHD site stats, just how and where people come from to get here. For some reason the VHD picks up a lot of traffic from people searching for "Survival Fishing Kits," a subject that I've never gone into, until now. Now that winter has set in, and course fishing is largely out of season, it's time to make one, and where better to start than Clyde Ormond's survival fishing kit? It's no secret he is one of myoutdoors heroes and luckily his writings contain a lot about fishing.  His survival fishing kit from "The Outdoorsman's Handbook" is as follows.

“Dozen fly hooks 10-yard roll of mono filament fishing line Small bobbin of silk thread 6 Paper clips

The 12 hooks should be of assorted sizes, ranging from #12–#4. They should be of the wet-fly types, and of good quality. The majority of hooks should be of average size #6, #8, #10 ...

Half a dozen wooden matches, paraffin dipped to be waterproof, should be included to start a fire for cooking the fish. The entire kit will fit into a plastic envelope, which should be sealed tightly with plastic tape. If it is sewed into the pocket of your fishing jacket, you’ll be sure not to leave it behind when you venture into remote areas.”

— Clyde Ormond - The Outdoorsman's Handbook, 1975

Clyde Ormond's Survival Fishing Kit

At the time of writing, Ormond speaks confidently about using this minimal kit in the lesser travelled wilderness areas to easily catch fish. The included paper clips are for constructing make-shift rod guides, which can be lashed to a branch or pole, and the silk thread can be used to make flies–on the fly, so to speak. As well as Ormond's previously featured emergency clothes-pin lure, he also has instructions for tying emergency flies by hand, using equipment in this kit along with everyday scavenged items, everything from scraps of shirttail and aluminium foil, to his own chest hair and found eagle feathers. I'm hoping to try these out in the future.

Clyde Ormond's Survival Fishing Kit

So here we have it, I don't have a fishing jacket, as-such, but this can now live in my hiking and fishing ditty bag, just incase.

Paul Petzoldt

National Outdoot Leadership School History

Having read Paul Petzoldt's wonderful "Wilderness Handbook" I was familiar with his work with the National Outdoors Leadership School (NOLS), however I feel like I got a real insight into the great man from a set of videos filmed in the 1960s about NOLS. They give such a fascinating look into the roots of the school and into Petzholdt; his experience, passion and philosophy of the outdoors.

NOLS - Thirty Days to Survival

Petzoldt is a real hero, with a truly incredible resumé. In his youth he climbed extensively in the Grand Teton range and eventually founded the Petzoldt-Exum School of American Mountaineering in the 1930s. He spent time living in England which gave him the opportunity to climb in Europe, particularly in the Swiss Alps during the late 30s where he honed his skills and made a double traverse of the Matterhorn in one day with his climbing buddy Dan Bryant of New Zealand.

Petzoldt was selected to go on the first American expedition to K2, and during the Second World War he became a representative of the Department of Agriculture in Lend-Lease and then became a tutor to the troops of the U.S Army's 10th Mountain Division. After the war, he went on to teach thousands of youthful American's to love and thrive in the outdoors through the 'Outward Bound' program in Colorado in 1963, and then through the founding of NOLS in 1965. He was a true outdoors philosopher and pioneer, believing that youngsters should not be taught at, rather they should be involved in their own progression and learnings.

Sadly Petzoldt died in 1999, however his legacy lives in the people he inspired and through NOLS which still runs to this day. Thank you to NOLS for sharing these videos and for keeping his legacy alive.

Weston the Pedestrian

Edward Payson Weston

On 22 February 1861 Edward Payson Weston stood outside the State House in Boston, and with his sites set on Washington D.C., he strode forward on his first walk across America. This walk was undertaken as a result of a wager he placed on the 1860 presidential election. Weston lost by betting against Abraham Lincoln and as part of the terms of the bet he was to make an appearance at the swearing in of the new president. 10 days and 10 hours after setting off from Boston, having battled snow, rain and mud, he arrived in D.C. The media coverage his walk gained was the inspiration that led him to become one of the most famous pedestrians in American history.

Weston was born in Providence, Rhode Island on 15 March 1839. He served as a Union spy in the American civil war and, as the story goes, he developed his keenness for walking after having his horses shot from under him, forcing him to walk to deliver dispatches. This ability to walk paid dividends when he was employed as an office boy and eventually a reporter for the New York Herald - in a time before telephones and cars he was able to get to breaking stories before the competition.

Edward Payson Weston

Weston's second large walk was in 1867 from Portland, Maine to Chicago - a journey of 1200 miles which he covered in just 26 days. At this time he took part in many indoor and outdoor pedestrianism contests and even travelled internationally, spending 8 years in Europe challenging local walkers. In 1879 he defeated "Blower" Brown, the British champion, by walking a truly incredible 550 miles in 141 hours, 44 minutes in one of the "6 Day Races" at the Agricultural Hall, London, earning himself the famous Astley Belt. All the while he was spreading the word about the benefits of walking and cautioning people about the over use of the automobile and the perils of a sedentary life.

Over the following decades Weston achieved more super human walking feats. In April 1906 he walked  100 miles in less than 24 hours from Philadelphia to New York. In 1907 he repeated his walk from Portland, Maine to Chicago and shaved 24 hours off his original time. In 1909, at the age of 70, he walked the entire width of the United State; from New York to San Francisco a distance of 3,895 miles in 104 days 7 hours. He made the return journey the year after, covering 3,600 miles in 76 days, 23 hours and 10 minutes. His last big walk was in 1913 from New York to Minneapolis to lay a cornerstone of the Minneapolis Athletic Club, 1,546 miles which he covered in 51 days.

After so many high profile, incredible feats Weston slipped into obscurity. He became estranged from his wife and children and ended up in the care of his long time secretary Miss O'Hagen. In 1927, on the corner of 11th Street and 7th Avenue in New York City, he was struck by a taxi cab and never walked again. The motorcar, which he so vehemently rallied against in the promotion of a pedestrian lifestyle was the thing that eventually ruined him. It is said that he was rescued from poverty by the author Anne Nichols, who became his benefactress in his final years yielding him $150 per month to live on. He died of old age 2 years after the car accident.

So what makes Weston such a special character. To start with he was an incredibly accomplished athlete. He was one of the greatest walkers in the world and if he lived nowadays he would probably have sponsors and be on TV. Sadly, he has come to represent an obsolete ideal, a way of life that everyone has turned their back on. What he stood for seems almost quirky and twee, but at the time he was making a real stand and championing an alternate and legitimate lifestyle.

It would be hard now to repeat the routes that Weston took, sadly we now have to drive somewhere so that we can walk.

If you're interested in finding out more about Payson and the art of professional, long-distance walking,  "Weston, Weston, Rah-Rah-Rah!" and "King of the Peds" by Paul S. Marshall and "Man in a Hurry" by Marshall, Nick Harris and Helen Harris are all great places to start.

Tips from the Archive #007

Bradford Aniger - How To Stay Alive In The Woods, 1956

A tip from Bradford Angier, one of the godfathers of outdoor writing. This  is from "How to Stay Alive in the Woods" first written in 1956, it is common knowledge how to use a watch to find north, but if we reverse the principle it is also possible to set your watch by using a compass.

Tip 007 – Setting Your Watch Using A Compass.

“If we are in the United States or Canada and want to set a watch, let us ascertain by compass which way is due south. Then using the shadow to help us keep the hour hand of the watch pointed at the sun, let us turn the hour hand until south lies midway along the shorter arc between it and the numeral twelve. The watch will then be set within a few minutes of the correct local standard time.”

— Bradford Aniger - How To Stay Alive In The Woods, 1956

Vintage Campsite Brochures

Vintage Campsite Brochures

I was fortunate enough to be sent a collection of vintage American and Canadian campsite brochures from the 60s and 70s.

The collection was sent to me by Justin V. Clark who came across them while archiving the papers of Grady Clay. Clay, now in his 90s, is a veteran American landscape, architecture and urban planning journalist, he has led an extremely illustrious life. He is the author of many books, was a long-time editor of Landscape Architecture magazine and also the former Urban Affairs Editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal. Clark believes these brochures are from the many cross country trips which Grady took during his research. You can find out more about Clay here most of his books are still available from Amazon.

 You can view large versions of the entire collection here.