The Woodsman's Journal Online: June 2021

Sunday, June 27, 2021

Keeping Your Gear Dry When Canoe Trekking

Map Scales...Say What! ©

Map scales, photograph by the Author.

Did you ever give much thought to those bars and numbers on the bottom of your map? Probably not. Most people don’t pay much attention to the scale of a map, or really understand it.

“So, what do those bars and numbers mean”, you might ask, and “what map scale is the best to use when travelling in the wilderness”?

Great questions!

Larger is smaller...

Excerpts from Staying Found, by June Fleming, from pages 30 and 31.

To be of any use at all, a map must show the locations and distances of places accurately, all while shrinking the real world down to a convenient to hold, use and carry, piece of paper. To do this, everything on the map must be drawn proportionally smaller than it is in the real world. The proportion chosen for a map is its scale.

The scale from my 1978 Algonquin Provincial Park Canoe Routes map, showing both a bar scale and representative fractions, photograph by the Author.

Simply put, the scale of a map is the relationship between the distance on the map and distance on the ground in the real world. A map scale might be shown as a graphic scale or a bar, or it might be given as a “representative fraction”, where one unit of measurement (either an inch or a centimeter) on the map represents a larger number of the same units on the ground. For a map scale of 1:62,500, an inch on the map represents 62,500 inches or almost one mile on the ground.¹ The first number in a representative fraction is the map distance and it is always 1. The second number, which is the ground distance, is a larger number, and the larger this second number, is the smaller the scale of the map is, so larger is smaller!²

The two map scales which are most useful to travelers in the wilderness are the 7.5-minute map, also known as a “7.5-minute quadrangle” map, and the 15-minute map. The 7.5-minute map has a scale of 1:24,000 and covers 7-½ minutes of latitude and longitude, or an area of about six by nine miles, and with this scale just over 2-½ inches on the map equals a mile on the ground. Topographic map coverage for the United States has been completed at this scale and most areas have maps of this scale available.³

The 15-minute map has a scale of 1:62,500 and maps 15 minutes of latitude and longitude, or ¼ of a degree, this is an area of about twelve by eighteen miles, and 1 inch on the scale equals about one mile on the ground.⁴

The differences between map scales, an excerpt from “Map Scales”, by the U.S. Department of the Interior, found HERE.

So, which one do I choose?

A 7.5-minute map shows only a quarter of the area of a 15-minute map, but it is easier to read and shows more detail, which might be useful when travelling through rugged terrain. One big problem with this size of map scaling is that if you are looking for a landmark which is more than a few miles away, it might not be on the map! A 15-minute map shows less detail than a 7.5-minute map, but it covers more area and includes more landmarks.

Robert S. Owendorff, who was the inventor of the “Shadow-tip Method” of direction finding, felt that 7.5-minute maps, with their scale of 1:24,000, were the best for wilderness travelers to use, because they show more detail than the 15-minute maps. He did feel that you could use the 15-minute maps for wilderness travel if you were willing to give up on the extra terrain detail.

June Fleming, the author of Staying Found, thought that the solution to the 7.5 or 15-minute map dilemma was to use both maps. She suggested that you use the 7.5-minute map (1:24,000 scale) for your main area of travel and that you use a 15-minute map (1:62,500 scale) or even a 1:250,000 scale map as an overview, to get “the big picture” of the terrain and the landmarks.

An excerpt from Staying Found, by June Fleming, from pages 32, who notes some of the thinking that you will have to do to determine which map scale is the best for you.

Ultimately the decision will come down to what maps are available for the area that you are travelling through. If the scale that you want is available, great! If not, then you will have to make do with a different scale of map. If the are that you are traveling through is mapped in both the 7.5-minute and 15-minute scales, even better, you can either choose to bring one or even both scale sizes.

So, next time you look at a map, look down at the legend and see what scale it is, because now those bars and numbers will mean something to you.

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “You’re Going Canoeing...But What About Your Feet! ©”, where we will talk about what to wear on your feet when you are canoeing.

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site. I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Notes

¹ 62,500 inches divided by 12, equals 5,208 feet or, .986 of a mile.

³ "The larger the number, the smaller the scale" sounds confusing, but it is easy to understand. A map of an area 100 miles long by 100 miles wide drawn at a scale of 1:63,360 would be more than 8 feet square! To make this map a more convenient size, either the scale used or the amount of area included must be reduced. If the scale is reduced to 1:316,800, then 1 inch on the map represents 5 miles on the ground, and an area 100 miles square can be mapped on a sheet less than 2 feet square (100 miles at 5 miles/inch equals 20 inches, or 1.66 feet). On the other hand, if the original 1:63,360 scale is used but the mapped area is reduced to 20 miles square, the resulting map will also be less than 2 feet square.”

From “Map Scales”, by U.S. Department of the Interior

³ “The U.S. Geological Survey publishes maps at various scales. The scale used for most U.S. topographic mapping is 1:24,000. Maps published at this scale cover 7.5 minutes of latitude and 7.5 minutes of longitude; they are commonly called "7.5-minute quadrangle" maps. Map coverage for the United States has been completed at this scale, except for Puerto Rico, which is mapped at 1:20,000 and 1:30,000, and a few States that have been mapped at 1:25,000. Most of Alaska has been mapped at 1:63,360, with some populated areas also mapped at 1:24,000 and 1:25,000.”

From “Map Scales”, by U.S. Department of the Interior

⁴ The exact amount of coverage depends upon the latitude, the closer to the equator, the more square miles the map covers.

From Staying Found by June Fleming.

Sources

Fleming, June; Staying Found, [Vintage Books. A division of Random House, New York, NY, 1982], pages 16 and 30-32

Owendorff, Robert S.; Better Ways of Pathfinding, [The Stackpole Company, Harrisburg, PA, 1964], page 18

U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Earth Science Information Center (ESIC), “Map Scales”, https://pubs.usgs.gov/unnumbered/70039582/report.pdf, accessed May 27, 2020

Sunday, June 20, 2021

Survival Survey, Don’t Be Like Most Americans ©

The wilderness as found in Algonquin Provincial Park, photograph taken near the shores of Lake Louisa by the Author. According to a recent survey, 62% of Americans believe that they could survive more than two weeks in the wilderness alone, could you survive?

The other day I was reading an article written by Chris Melore, called “Average person thinks they can survive for 2 weeks in the wilderness — but most can’t start a fire”. It got me to thinking about a conversation my wife had with someone who told her she wanted to bug-out of the city and live in the wilderness, unfortunately this individual doesn’t know how to disinfect water, how to find food, or start a fire, or ... anything!

Did you ever wonder what the “average” guy, thinks that the wilderness is like and what they know about the wilderness?

Now if you are reading this blog then you are not an “average” person and you probably know how to start a fire or at least are in the process of learning how to. Sometimes, I wonder if most Americans, you know “Joe Six-pack”, the “average” guy, thinks that the wilderness is like a campground or city park, which it is most definitely not. So hopefully, this article will help you understand some of the “average” people that you might meet in the woods.

The survey was commissioned by Avocado Green Mattress, and it was performed by OnePoll, who tested 2,006 people across the United States on their “Nature Knowledge”, and this is what they found.

A campfire on the shores of Lake Louisa, Algonquin Provincial Park, photograph by the Author.

The survey found that only 17% of respondents felt “very confident” about their ability to start a fire “if only given a flint (without a fire starter, lighter, etc.)”. That isn’t surprising, in fact, I would have been more surprised if the percentage were higher! Before the invention of the match in 1827, or “lucifers” as they were soon called¹, everyone knew how to knock sparks into char-cloth with a flint and steel and blow them into a flame with some tinder. But now, with matches and the ever-present BIC ® Lighter, starting a fire with flint and steel is no longer a common skill and is only something that a small percentage of people still know how to do. That is not to say that we all shouldn’t know how to start a fire this way, because we should! Flint and steel never freeze up like lighters can in the winter and it doesn’t matter if they get wet. Flint and steel are an excellent back-up method for starting that, oh so important, fire.

I would have been interested to know how many people felt “very confident” about their ability to start a fire with a lighter or with matches, because in my experience most “average” people that I have taught, have a hard time even with modern tools starting a fire -- especially when the weather is wet.

A black raspberry plant, photograph by the author. More on black raspberry plants can be found HERE.

Only 14% of the respondents felt very confident in their “ability to identify edible plants or berries in nature” and just over half of the respondents, 52%, were confident in their “ability to identify different types of trees and plants”, and yet of these respondents only 26% were able to correctly identify a black oak leaf when shown a picture of one and only 35% knew what poison ivy was when shown a picture of it. Even more amazing only 34% of the respondents knew the difference between a deciduous and a coniferous tree!²

Eastern poison ivy, photograph by the author. More on how to identify poison ivy can be found HERE.

I guess the good news is that almost 65% of the respondents were able to identify maple leaves and 55% could identify ferns!

The shores of Lake Louisa, Algonquin Provincial Park, at dawn. Photograph by the Author.

So, if you can start a fire with flint and steel, and if you know the difference between a deciduous and an evergreen tree, can identify an oak leaf and a poison ivy plant from a picture then the good news is that your wilderness skills are way above those of the “average” American!

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Map Scales...Say What! ©”, where we will talk about those bars and numbers on the bottom of maps that no one pays attention to or really understands anyways.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Notes

¹ From “Friction Matches Were a Boon to Those Lighting Fires–Not So Much to Matchmakers”, by Kat Eschner.

² A deciduous tree is a tree which lose its leaves every fall, and an evergreen tree is a tree which keeps its leaves all year round. While most evergreen trees are coniferous trees and have needles, the evergreen American Holly, ilex opaca, which can be found throughout much of eastern North America, has leaves. And not all trees with needles are evergreens either, the Tamarack, larix laricina, is a needle bearing, deciduous conifer! So, you see, not all evergreens are coniferous and not all deciduous trees have leaves.

Sources

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/friction-matches-were-boon-those-lighting-firesnot-so-much-matchmakers-180967318/, accessed June 17, 2021

Melore, Chris; “Average person thinks they can survive for 2 weeks in the wilderness — but most can’t start a fire”, May 24, 2021, [© 2021 41 Pushups, LLC], https://www.studyfinds.org/americans-survive-2-weeks-wilderness/, accessed June 8, 2021

Castronuovo, Josh; OnePoll, (Personal communication regarding “Nature Test” survey performed for Avocado Green Mattress, June 11, 2021)

Sunday, June 13, 2021

Wild Strawberry Season is Almost Here©

A wild strawberry plant growing along a dirt road, in the Alleghenies, photograph by the Author.

It is almost wild strawberry season! Mmmm...I love wild strawberries!

There are two types of strawberry plants that you might encounter in the woods this time of year, the Wild Strawberry, fragaria virginiana, which is the species of strawberry that is native to North America, and the Woodland Strawberry, fragaria vesca, that was originally native to Eurasia, but is now widespread in North America. It is thought that the Latin genus name “fragaria” is from the Latin word “fraga”, which is from “fragrans”, for the fragrant smell of the fruit¹. Both strawberry plants look similar and in fact both are found throughout most of the provinces of Canada and throughout most of the United States². The woodland strawberry is found most often in hardwood and mixed forests, in swamps, and even on damp ledges. The wild strawberry is a known as a pioneer plant and is found in a wide variety of habitats, but most often it is found in sunny areas that have been disturbed either by plowing, lumbering or fire³. You will often find them along a dirt road, or a rail line. Interestingly, the wild strawberry and the woodland strawberry cannot hybridize with each other because they are genetically incompatible and that is why they can share the same range and yet remain separate⁴.

So how do you know which type of strawberry you found, woodland or wild?

A wild strawberry plant found near Freedom, in Cattaraugus County, New York. Note how the unripe fruits are round and not conical. Photograph by the Author.

The wild strawberry is the most common type of strawberry, so when in doubt that is probably what you have found. Both the wild and woodland strawberry plants flower from April to June, depending on how far north in their range the plants are found⁵, and unfortunately, their blossoms are similar and are not much use in determining which is which. However, if you find a plant with fruit on it, then it is easier to tell them apart, since the fruit of woodland strawberry is more conical in shape and the seeds stick out of the surface of the berry. The fruit of the wild strawberry is more round, and the seeds are imbedded into the berry. If there is no fruit on the plant, you can still tell them apart by looking at the tip of the leaf. The central leaf tooth of the woodland strawberry is about the same size as the adjacent teeth. The central leaf tooth of the wild strawberry is smaller and shorter than the adjacent teeth.

A wild strawberry plant found near Ellicottville, in Cattaraugus County, New York. Note how the central tooth on the end of the leaf is smaller than the other teeth, this shows it is a wild strawberry. Photograph by the Author.

As an aside, over the years I have noticed that unless there is fruit on them, most people can’t identify wild strawberry plants. In fact, a lot of people, when they see a wild strawberry plant, ask me if it is poison ivy, because it has three leaves.

An old saying that can help you identify poison ivy but remember, not all plants that have three leaves are poison ivy! Graphic by the Author.

First, let me assure you that while poison ivy does have three leaves, not every three-leafed plant is poison ivy, the old saying above notwithstanding.

Poison ivy, photograph by the Author.

It takes more than simply having three leaves to make a plant, poison ivy and the excerpt from The Woodsman’s Journal Online Field Guide, below, will help you correctly identify this poisonous plant. For more information on poison ivy, read “Poison Ivy: “Leaves of Three, Let It Be” ©”, HERE.

An excerpt from The Woodsman’s Journal Online Field Guide, graphic by the Author.

A wild strawberry plant growing along a dirt road, near Ellicottville, New York, photograph by the Author.

So, go one out into the woods and enjoy those delicious red strawberries, either the wild or the woodland variety! And don’t forget to come back next week and read “Survival Survey, Don’t Be Like Most Americans ©”, where we will talk about what most Americans know about the wilderness and survival, and it ain’t much!

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Notes

¹ From “Fragaria virginiana”, by Missouri Botanical Garden

² It is thought that the woodland strawberry, fragaria vesca, was introduced in the early years of the European colonization into North America. Today, the woodland strawberry is found in the southern parts of Canada and in all U.S states except Alaska, Nevada and in a strip across the southeastern states from Kansas east and south to Florida. The wild strawberry, fragaria virginiana, is even more common and is found in all the Canadian provinces and in U.S. states except Hawaii.

The distribution of the Woodland Strawberry, fragaria vesca.

From “Woodland Strawberry (Fragaria vesca L.)”, by Mark Jaunzems, HERE

³ “The wild strawberry (Fragaria virginiana), a native of eastern North America, is a pioneer plant that thrives where trees and other vegetation have been cleared or burned. Such an environment was prevalent here before widespread European settlement. In landscapes with no human influence, fires set by lightning quickly eliminated trees and brush. Indians frequently burned the groundcover around their villages to make hunting and traveling easier.

When European settlers arrived and began farming, they often abandoned their agricultural fields after the soil nutrients were depleted, a practice that also encouraged a strawberry-friendly environment. Early travelers and writers, such as William Bartram, described locations with hundreds of acres of strawberries that flourished in these favorable conditions.”

From “How Our Native Strawberry Became World-Famous”, R. Kelly Coffey

⁴ The woodland strawberry is a diploid with 2 sets of chromosomes and wild strawberry is an octoploid with 8 sets of chromosomes.

From “European Woodland Strawberry by, John Hilty.

⁵ Interestingly Mark Jaunzems writes that the time to look for flowering strawberry plants is at the same time as the peak blooming time of the common dandelion, who knew!

From “Woodland Strawberry (Fragaria vesca L.)”, by Mark Jaunzems

Sources

Jaunzems, Mark; “Woodland Strawberry (Fragaria vesca L.)”, United States Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service, https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/fragaria_vesca.shtml, accessed May 31, 2021

Missouri Botanical Garden; “Fragaria virginiana”, http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=291715#:~:text=Fragaria%20virginiana%2C%20commonly%20called%20wild,forming%20large%20colonies%20over%20time, accessed May 31, 2021

Sunday, June 6, 2021

A campfire warm and safe. Could you light one if everything were wet? Photograph by the Author.

I remember canoeing down the upper fifty miles of the Allegheny River, near Warren, Pennsylvania, more than a few years ago. It had rained so heavily in the two days before the trip that the river was between five to eight feet higher than normal. There wasn’t a bit of dry firewood or tinder in all of Warren County, wood that normally would have snapped when bent, just bent before cracking partway through, instead. Even looking for dry tinder hanging evergreens branches was useless, everything was soaked!

But since my son and I were doing a reenacting canoe trip, with late 18^th century food, blankets, gear, and clothes, we didn’t bring a liquid fuel stove or Kelly Kettle to cook on or to boil water with. We had to build a campfire at each of our stops, even if all we could find was wet wood and tinder!

“Could You Survive”, January 12, 1982, from the Spokane Daily Chronicle, page 15, the question...

Our situation was much like the question the author of “Could You Survive”, asked on January 12^th, 1982, which was “If you had a few matches in a dry match book, which of the following would be best aid in getting a fire started”?

Which would you choose? Photograph by the Author.

So, what would you choose, some dry twigs stored in a tinder bag in your pack, some dry paper, another book of matches or a candle or two?

The author of “Could You Survive”, January 12, 1982, chose candles, photograph by the Author.

“Could You Survive”, January 12, 1982, from the Spokane Daily Chronicle, page 15, the answer...

The author of “Could You Survive”, January 12, 1982, chose candles, and I agree with this whole heartedly! If everything is wet you will need to have a sustained flame for ten to fifteen minutes to dry out your tinder and kindling enough to burn and to put off enough heat to dry out other material so that it can burn, which then dries out more material, etc., etc., etc.

Personally, I prefer tea candles because the foil cups will hold the melted wax and prevent it from spilling onto the ground and being wasted. Also, once the fire is going, you can rake it out of you fire-set with a stick and save the leftovers for later. I always keep one or two tea candles in my tinder-bag¹, unless I am reenacting the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries, when I would use period correct candle stubs in order be as authentic as possible.

And using candle stubs is how I got those campfires going on that long ago trip down the Allegheny River.

For your reading pleasure here is the entire article.

“Could You Survive”, January 12, 1982, from the Spokane Daily Chronicle, page 15, HERE.

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Wild Strawberry Season is Almost Here ©”, where we will talk about how to identify wild strawberries and what types you might find in the woods.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Notes

¹ The Authors tinder-bag

The author’s tinder-bag, clockwise, (1) Ziploc® bag with birchbark, dryer lint old jute twine and cotton pads, (2) my waterproof tinder-bag, (3) a tea candle, (4) strike-anywhere and UCO Stormproof matches and striker, (5) a mini-BIC^® lighter, (6) a Landmann Fire Starter and (7) petroleum jelly as a fire sustainer.

Sources

U.S. Airforce Survival School; “Could you survive?”, Spokane Chronicle, January 12, 1982, page 15, https://books.google.com/books?id=EutWAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA8&dq=%22spokane+daily+chronicle%22+%22could+you+survive%22&article_id=7061,2461546&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiz3YDv8N_wAhX0B50JHWFkDS8Q6AEwAHoECAAQAg#v=onepage&q=%22spokane%20daily%20chronicle%22%20%22could%20you%20survive%22&f=false, May 23, 2021

About Me

I live near Buffalo, New York and have more than 25 years of experience in the outdoors. I enjoy being in the wilderness, paddling a canoe or exploring the woods, when I am not researching survival, woodcraft, camping skills or life on the Old Northwest Frontier of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. I am a published author and I have been a guide for Birchbark Expeditions and an Outdoor Skills trainer for the Boy Scouts since 2014. I am also a martial artist, having studied several different combat arts over the past 30 years. Currently, I am the author of The Woodsman’s Journal Online and BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.

The Woodsman's Journal Online

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Sunday, June 27, 2021

Keeping Your Gear Dry When Canoe Trekking

Map Scales...Say What! ©

Sunday, June 20, 2021

Survival Survey, Don’t Be Like Most Americans ©

Sunday, June 13, 2021

Wild Strawberry Season is Almost Here©

Sunday, June 6, 2021

Could You Survive? Building a Fire When it is Wet ©

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