Remember This If You Want to be Warm ©

 

Photograph taken October 12, 2020 in the Allegheny Highlands, this rock shelter and reflector faces east and is within 100 feet (approximately 30 meters) of the summit of a 1,700 foot (518 meter) high hill.  From the Author’s collection.

 This article can be used by experimental archaeologists, re-enactors or historical trekkers of the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries, and by anyone who is interested in wilderness survival – Author’s note.

 

You are overnighting in a rock shelter, or you are “misplaced”, and you need a survival shelter and a fire, but how do you make sure you sleep warm?

 

An illustration from “But If You Do Get Lost”, Outdoors USA: 1967, by Kenneth M. Cole, page 91.

With any survival shelter or windbreak, or if you are an experimental archaeologist, a re-enactor or a historical trekker, with a lean-to or open-faced tent, you should always sit between your fire and the back wall of your shelter or windbreak, and you should always build a reflector, and here is why.

 

An excerpt from Handbook For Boys, by the Boy Scouts of America, June 1953, page 157

 

If you want to be warm, sit between your fire and the back of your shelter or windbreak, so that the heat from your fire, reflects off the back of the shelter, and warms up your backside as well as your front.  If you put the fire between you and the back of your shelter, your backside will be cold. 

 

An excerpt from Winter Camping, page 89-90, in which the author recommends building a reflector.  The author, Warwick S. Carpenter was born in 1881and died in 1966 and was 32 years old when Winter Camping, was originally published in 1913.

 

Since an open fire radiates heat in all directions, you can catch and reflect some of the heat that would otherwise be wasted and lost, by building a short wall or reflector, made of rocks or logs, on the opposite side of the fire from you and your windbreak or shelter.  Your reflector will absorb the heat of the fire and re-radiate it back towards you, much like a cast iron fireback does in a fireplace.  In the same way, the shelter’s ceiling and walls will also reflect the fires heat back at you. 

 

Additionally, the reflector will also help to channel the smoke upwards and away from you, much like a chimney. 

 

An excerpt from Winter Camping, by Warwick S. Carpenter, page 127.

Also, always remember to keep your fire small and sit or sleep close to it.  A big hot bonfire wastes wood and you can’t get close to it.

 

An excerpt from Arctic Survival Guide, by Alan Innes-Taylor, page 62.

Interestingly, most survival experts and authors during the 20^th century recommended building a reflector in front of your fire.  The one glaring example of a survival expert during this time, who was anti-reflector, was Alan Innes-Taylor, who was the author of Arctic Survival Guide, and his greatest complaint about fire reflectors was that they block half of the space around a fire, a space that Mr. Innes-Taylors thought could be better used, to sit, to cook, or to dry wet clothes in.

 

An excerpt from the Boy Scouts of America, Camping: Merit Badge Series, 1963, page 38.

 

Reflectors can be made of green logs, either piled or propped up, from a convenient boulder, from piled up stones or even from dirt and turf.  They can even be made by finding a conveniently placed boulder and setting up your shelter and fire in front of it.  But what they should not be made from is the trunk of a live tree!  If you do this and you are lucky, you will ONLY severely damage the tree, likely causing its death.  If you aren’t lucky, you might set the tree on fire, and if you are truly unlucky, you might even start a forest fire. 

 

An excerpt from Games and Recreational Methods, Boy Scout Edition, by Charles F. Smith, page 294.  Note how the fire lay is between the tent and the reflector and that “Adirondack” reflector is made of piled rocks and the “Nessmuck” reflector is made of cut green logs.

I hope you are never “misplaced”, and have to overnight in a survival shelter, but if you are, I hope that you remember these tips and stay safe and warm.

 

Photograph taken November 12, 2017 in the Allegheny Highlands, this rock shelter and reflector faces west to southwest and is within 300 feet (approximately 90 meters) of the summit of a 2,100 foot (640 meter) high hill.  From the Author’s collection.

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Nocake, Pinole, Even Rockahominy...It’s Still Parched Corn To Me!  ©”, where we will talk about how to make parched corn, the original Native American and early Euro-American iron ration.

 

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!

 

 

Sources

 

Boy Scouts of America, Camping: Merit Badge Series, [Boy Scouts of America, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1963], page 38

 

Boy Scouts of America, Handbook For Boys, [Boy Scouts of America, New York, New York, June 1953], page 157 and 300

 

Smith, Charles F.; Games and Recreational Methods, Boy Scout Edition, [Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, 1925], page 294

 

United States Department of Agriculture, Outdoors USA: 1967 Yearbook of Agriculture, [United States Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1967], p 87-89

 

It’s Not Too Late For A Fall Adventure, Part One, Planning ©

 

Algonquin Provincial Park, between Welcome and Harry lakes, photograph by the author.

  

What with COVID, and the Canadian/U.S. border being closed for the duration, I’m not going to get to Algonquin Provincial Park this summer, bummer!  But it’s not too late for a fall adventure!  So, I’m starting to plan and outfit an adventure that is both closer to home and doesn’t cross international or state borders.

 

 

“I’ve never planned a wilderness adventure before?”, you say.  Okay, I’ll walk you through what I do to plan an adventure and later, in “It’s Not Too Late For A Fall Adventure, Part Two”, coming soon, I will talk about how to outfit your trip and gather your gear and food.

 

To plan a wilderness adventure, first you have to answer these four questions; do you want to hike or canoe, where do you want to go, how long you do want to stay and how many people are going, and lastly, when do you want to go.

 

 

Question one, do you want to canoe or hike?  Since my wife and I are planning on going on the adventure together, we decided to go canoeing, not a hiking, so...

 

 

The second step is deciding where you want to go on your wilderness adventure.  These days, with COVID closing the border between the United States and Canada for unnecessary travel and with some states quarantining other states, your choices of where to go are a little less than it might have been, if there wasn’t a pandemic.  If you live in in New York State, you could plan an adventure in New York’s Allegheny State Park or in the Allegheny National Forest, in Pennsylvania, or in New York State’s Adirondack Park, or in other areas of Vermont, Pennsylvania or New York¹.  When planning a canoe trip, in Pennsylvania or New York, you could plan a trip on the Allegheny River, either starting and ending within New York’s Allegheny State Park, or the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania, or you could start in one and end in the other.  You could also plan your canoe trip in New York State’s Adirondack Park. 

 

My wife and I decided, since we have never canoed in the Adirondacks before, that we would go there.

 

Mead Run in the Allegheny National Forest, from Wikimedia, “Mead Run3”, found HERE.  To find information on Allegheny National Park, go HERE.

 

Long Pond, in the Saint Regis Canoe Area., from Wikimedia, “Long Pond - St Regis”, found HERE.

 

 

You could go for two days, three or four days, or maybe even a full week or more, it is all up to you. 

 

How many is going is also up to you, however, check with the area that you are going to as they might have restrictions on how many people can be in each camp site.  For example, in Algonquin Provincial Park you are allowed only nine people per site and the Adirondack allow only ten people per tent site and eight per lean-to.  Also, you should always go with a buddy or two, and never alone, since in the case of an accident, you are, well, alone and there is no one to help you!  For more on this see “The Buddy System ©”, HERE.

 

Fall is kind of hectic for us, what with back to school and all, so we decided to go for a three to four-day trip, over a long weekend.  Since we were going to the Adirondacks, we went to Raquette-River Outfitters’ website, which is excellent and full of route suggestions, HERE, and then to their three-day trip section, HERE, before we settled on Lake Lila.

 

An excerpt from Adirondack Atlas’, “Lake Lila” map found HERE.

 

 

Photograph by the author.

 

The last step in planning your trip, is to decide when you are going, and for this step you need to check your personal calendar and decide when you are free. 

 

After you have decided exactly when you are going, it is time to outfit your expedition and gather your gear and food.  For more on how to outfit an adventure, look for “It’s Not Too Late For A Fall Adventure, Part Two, Outfitting ©”, coming soon!

 

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 Currently, as of August 21, 2020, New York State’s list of restricted states is:

 

Sources

 

Adirondack Atlas, “Lake Lila”, https://adirondackatlas.org/?token=71943e36e7f5dfe92bd4ce1f4ee83fff, accessed August 12, 2020

 

Collins, Joan; “Canoe Camping on Lovely Lake Lila”, Hamilton County Dept. of Economic Development & Tourism, https://www.adirondackexperience.com/blog/2014/10/the-lure-of-lovely-lake-lila, accessed August 12, 2020

 

Editorial Staff, “Featured Waters: Lake Lila in Long Lake”, The Adirondack Almanack, July 6, 2018, https://www.adirondackalmanack.com/2018/07/featured-waters-lake-lila-in-long-lake.html, accessed August 12, 2020

 

“Lake Lila”, New York State, Department of Environmental Conservation, https://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/76408.html, accessed August 12, 2020

 

Raquette River Outfitters, “Canoe & Kayak: Route Suggestions & Trip Planning”, https://raquetteriveroutfitters.com/routes-and-trips/, accessed August 12, 2020

 

Raquette River Outfitters, “Three Day Canoe & Kayak Trips”, https://raquetteriveroutfitters.com/routes-and-trips/three-day-trips/, accessed August 12, 2020

 

United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resource Conservation Service, “Welcome to the Allegheny National Forest!”, https://www.fs.usda.gov/allegheny, accessed August 12, 2020

 

Wikimedia, “Long Pond - St Regis”, July 19, 2006, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Long_Pond_-_St_Regis.jpg, accessed August 12, 2020

 

Wikimedia, “Mead Run3”, May 28, 2006, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mead_Run3.JPG, accessed August 12, 2020

 

COVID-19, And A Simple, Homemade Respiratory Mask, Part Two ©

 

A do-it-yourself face mask, made with a vacuum cleaner filter bag and a gas mask, as a joke, photograph by the author.

There are a lot of different articles on the web these days, which write about how to make your own COVID-19 face mask (an example is found HERE), but I would rather use peer-reviewed study whenever I can.  So, for information from a Cambridge University study, titled “Testing the Efficacy of Homemade Masks: Would They Protect in an Influenza Pandemic?”, read on – Author’s note.

It has been widely reported in the media that you can make a do-it-yourself COVID-19 face mask from a vacuum cleaner filter bag.  But what is the best household material to make a DIY face mask out of?

 

A do-it-yourself face mask, made with a vacuum cleaner filter bag and a gas mask, as a joke, photograph by the author.

Hmmm...That got me to thinking.  I even had visions of putting a vacuum cleaner filter bag onto the hose end of the Russian gas mask that I bought last year for Halloween.  Now, I never trust what I read in the news, without checking it out first, and so, I did what I always do, and I did some research.

I found and read the 2013, Cambridge University study, “Testing the Efficacy of Homemade Masks: Would They Protect in an Influenza Pandemic?” which wrote about using vacuum cleaner filter bags to make face masks (to read the study go HERE, and for a very good summary of the study, read “What Are The Best Materials for Making DIY Masks”, HERE).

But, before we get into the nitty-gritty of what is the best household material to make a DIY face mask out of, let’s talk about what face masks are supposed to do.

A commercially made surgical mask and a commercially made N95 mask, photograph by the author.

Face masks such as commercially made surgical masks or commercially made N95 masks¹, reduce your exposure to airborne contaminants by sealing off your mouth and nose from the free flow of outside, contaminated air and by filtering the outside air before you breathe it in.  Face masks can’t prevent infection, they can only reduce your chance of becoming infected.  Also, if you are already ill, they will reduce the chance that you could spread your illness to others, by the respiratory droplets you produce when coughing, sneezing and talking.  Also, no matter how efficient a face mask is at filtering out contaminants, if you don’t practice good preventative measures, like regular handwashing, not touching your face and eyes and social isolation; it will not reduce your chances of becoming sick.

 

An excerpt from “Testing the Efficacy of Homemade Masks”, page 416

So, what did the authors of the 2013, Cambridge University study, titled “Testing the Efficacy of Homemade Masks” find when they tested common household items, including vacuum cleaner filter bags?  What is the best household material to make a DIY face mask out?

According to the authors, Davies et al., breathability is as important a consideration in face mask design, as filtering efficiency.  This is because, if the material that your mask is made of is difficult to breathe through, then your mask will be less comfortable to wear and if it is not comfortable to wear, then that will influence how long you will wear the mask.

So, let's look at the household items that were tested and see how they stack up on both breathability and filter efficiency, when compared to a commercially made surgical mask.  The authors of “Testing the Efficacy of Homemade Masks” tested the following, a 100% cotton T-shirt, a scarf, a tea-towel², a pillowcase, an antimicrobial pillowcase, a surgical mask, cotton blend cloth, linen, silk and of course, vacuum cleaner filter bags.

  

The authors of “Testing the Efficacy of Homemade Masks”, tested these household items against Bacillus atrophaeus, a rod-shaped bacterium, that is .95 to 1.25 µ (micron) and against Bacteriphage MS2, which is .023 µ (micron). 

 

An excerpt from “What Are The Best Materials for Making DIY Masks?”, March 3, 2020, by Paddy Robertson.

When the researchers tested these various household items against the .95 to 1.25 µ (micron) sized Bacillus atrophaeus, they found that the vacuum cleaner filter bag was 94% efficient at blocking these .95 to 1.25 µ (micron) sized particles, the tea-towel was 83% efficient, cotton mix or blend cloth was 75% efficient, 100% cotton T-shirt was 69% efficient, followed by an antimicrobial pillow case at 66%, a scarf at 62%, a normal pillowcase at 61%, and with all other fabrics being between 60% and 58% efficient.  By using two layers of tea-towel material, two layers of 100% cotton T-shirt or two layers of normal pillowcase material, the researchers found that filtering efficiency increased to 97% for the tea-towel cloth, 71% for the 100% cotton T-shirt material and 62% for the pillowcase cloth.  As a comparison, when tested, a commercially produced surgical mask filtered out 96% of the .95 to 1.25 µ (micron) sized particles of Bacillus atrophaeus in the atmosphere.

 

] An excerpt from “What Are The Best Materials for Making DIY Masks?”, March 3, 2020, by Paddy Robertson.

Since the COVID-19 virus particle is only .1 µ (micron) in size, the crucial test, in light of the current worldwide pandemic, is the test the researchers performed using Bacteriphage MS2, which at .023 µ (micron) is smaller than the COVID-19 virus particle.  When this test was performed the researchers found that the vacuum cleaner filter bag was 86% efficient at blocking the .023 µ (micron) sized particles, the tea-towel was 72% efficient, cotton mix or blend cloth was 70% efficient, an antimicrobial pillow case at 69%, a normal pillowcase at 57%, a 100% cotton T-shirt was 51% efficient, followed by a scarf at 49%, and with all other fabrics being between 62% to 54% efficient.  In contrast, a commercially produced surgical mask filtered out 90% of the .023 µ (micron) sized Bacteriphage MS2 particles from the atmosphere.

So, what does all this mean.  If you are only measuring filtering efficiency, then you would want to make your mask from two layers of tea-towel material, or from vacuum cleaner filter bag, since these had the highest filtering efficiencies in both tests and were equivalent to a commercially made surgical mask, with regards to filtering efficiency.  However, filtering efficiency isn’t the only consideration when designing a face mask, just as important is breathability.

The authors of “Testing the Efficacy of Homemade Masks” felt the comfort and breathability of the DIY mask was just as important factor as filtering efficiency, since you will not wear a mask that is difficult to breathe in or uncomfortable to wear, for very long.  If the mask you are wearing is difficult to breathe in, you will have to work harder to get enough air, this is particularly a problem if you are doing heavy labor or have an underlying breathing difficulty.  Additionally, a mask which is difficult to breathe in may suffer from air leaks around the edges of the mask, as the wearer struggles to draw in enough air.

 

Based on data from “Testing the Efficacy of Homemade Masks”, Davies et al., graph by the author.

To determine how breathable ordinary household materials were, Davies, et al., measured the pressure drop across the materials, noting on page 417 of “Testing the Efficacy of Homemade Masks”, that the pressure drop across a mask would be, “a useful measure both of resistance to breathing and the potential for bypass of air around the filter seal”. 

What the authors found, is that the vacuum cleaner filter bag and the two layers of tea-towels, while the best at filtering, were the worst when it came to breathability.  The two household materials that came the closest to the breathability of a commercially made surgical mask, were two layers of 100% cotton T-shirt and two layers of normal pillowcase material. 

 

Don’t use a vacuum cleaner filter bag to make a do-it-yourself face mask, according to the authors of “Testing the Efficacy of Homemade Masks”, photograph by the author.

According to the authors, Davies et al, the answer to can you make a face mask from a vacuum cleaner filter bag, is yes, yes you can make a do-it-yourself COVID-19 face mask from a vacuum cleaner filter bag, but you wouldn’t want to, because a vacuum cleaner bag is stiff, there might be issues with fitting it properly and even more importantly a vacuum cleaner filter bag is not easy to breathe through!  And while the vacuum cleaner filter bag and two layers of tea-towels made the best filters, they were the worst when it came to breathability, and therefore the authors concluded, they should not be used to make face masks.  Instead, they found, that you should use two layers of 100% cotton T-shirt material or, as a second best, two layers of pillowcase cloth to make your do-it-yourself face mask, as these would be the most comfortable for long term wear, have the best breathability, and at 71% filter efficiency for two layers of 100% cotton T-shirt material and 62% efficiency for two layers of normal pillowcase cloth, when tested against the .95 to 1.25 µ (micron) sized Bacillus atrophaeus particles, still remove a high level of contaminants.  These two materials when tested against Bacteriphage MS2, which at .023 µ (micron) is smaller than the COVID-19 virus particle, had for a 100% cotton T-shirt material, a 51% filter efficiency and for normal pillowcase cloth, a 57% efficiency.

For instructions on how to make a do-it-yourself, homemade face mask, according to the study a "Simple Respiratory Mask" read “COVID-19, And A Simple, Homemade Respiratory Mask ©”, found HERE.  And for a video demonstrating how to put on the mask built according to the study a "Simple Respiratory Mask", go HERE or HERE.

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 For my European readers, a United States N95 respirator is the equivalent of a Filtering Facepiece against Particles (FFP)-2 mask.

² A British tea-towel is made of a strong fabric with a thick weave and is called a kitchen towel or a dish cloth in the United States.

Sources

Achenbach, Joel, Sun, Lena H., and McGinley, Laurie; The Washington Post, March 30, 2020 “CDC considering recommending general public wear face coverings in public”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/cdc-considering-recommending-general-public-wear-face-coverings-in-public/2020/03/30/6a3e495c-7280-11ea-87da-77a8136c1a6d_story.html, accessed April 3, 2020

Davies, Anna, BSc, Thompson, Katy-Anne, BSc, Giri, Karthika, BSc, Kafatos, George, MSc. Walker, Jimmy, PhD, and Bennett, Allan, BSc; “Testing the Efficacy of Homemade Masks: Would They Protect in an Influenza Pandemic?”, Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, Vol. 7, No. 4, April 9, 2013, [Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc., Cambridge University], page 413-418, https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/0921A05A69A9419C862FA2F35F819D55/S1935789313000438a.pdf/testing_the_efficacy_of_homemade_masks_would_they_protect_in_an_influenza_pandemic.pdf, accessed April 3, 2020

Robertson, Paddy; “What Are The Best Materials for Making DIY Masks?”, March 3, 2020, https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/best-materials-make-diy-face-mask-virus/, accessed April 6, 2020

Robertson, Paddy; “Can DIY Masks Protect Us from Coronavirus?” March 3, 2020, https://smartairfilters.com/en/blog/diy-homemade-mask-protect-virus-coronavirus/, accessed April 6, 2020

Simpson, Leah; “Trump says N95 mask makers 3M 'will have a big price to pay' for selling to higher bidding foreign countries as he invokes Defense Production Act and forces the firm to supply to the US”, Dailymail.com, April 3, 2020, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8183153/Trump-says-N95-mask-makers-3M-big-price-pay-selling-higher-bidding-countries.html, accessed April 3, 2020