Activity for berry120
| Type | On... | Excerpt | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edit | Post #41610 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #41607 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #41131 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #41097 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #41093 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #40099 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #39997 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
| Edit | Post #39990 | Initial revision | — | over 4 years ago |
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A: Are there any modern advantages of a fire piston? I'll caveat this answer with the fact I've heard of them but never used them. That being said: Would a fire piston have any advantages over the more modern ways of starting a fire such as matches or a lighter? Not really. They require you to carry around a suitable tinder and keep that warm an... (more) |
— | over 5 years ago |
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A: When will a rattlesnake strike? When a rattlesnake gets his rattle on, what exactly is the desired reaction it's expecting from you, and what other indicators does it give you that a strike is imminent? It's a warning that it's there, it's not necessarily a warning that it's about to strike (though of course, it could.) Likewi... (more) |
— | about 9 years ago |
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A: What specific features should I take into account when buying GPS device for Geocaching? I'd say the following are important things to have: Good signal strength is a must - Geocaching will often take you into built up areas or wooded areas, and it's incredibly frustrating going round in circles with an inaccurate GPS when one with a better signal strength could home in on it with no p... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
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A: What kind of features should I look for on a good trekking backpack? I'll echo the most prominent theme in the related question, which is that above all else comfort is the most important consideration in any backpack. The worst backpack is one that ends up causing you pain after a few hours when you have to put up with it for the entire week - so trying on as many as... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
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A: Painful leather hiking boots - persevere or give up? Any advice is greatly appreciated; I can't really afford new boots Well there goes my #1 piece of advice - I don't want to rub it in too much at all, but it just goes to show how important it is to make sure your boots will be comfortable before committing. At this point it sounds like they're j... (more) |
— | over 10 years ago |
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A: How to assure safe searching for cache hidden in my own backyard? I don't want, however, to inform anyone around about that cache - I want to keep it secret only for 'chosen'. Although you don't want to, I'd strongly suggest rethinking this - does it really matter if a few neighbours know, and it stops an embarrassing incident or two when the police are called... (more) |
— | almost 11 years ago |
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A: Make UPS-like cache searchable in winter I once saw a cache that got around this problem nicely by implanting 4 relatively tall upright sticks around the other pile of sticks. I think this only worked because it was relatively off the beaten track, so others weren't likely to stumble across them and tear them down or mess around with them -... (more) |
— | almost 11 years ago |
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A: Safe looking for caches in hollows I'm lucky to come from the UK where this isn't really an issue (though we still have adders, so sometimes I'm a bit wary.) Having said that, I'll generally still take the following precautions to avoid being bitten, even if it's not life threatening (red ant bytes can still be bloody annoying for in... (more) |
— | almost 11 years ago |
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A: Freezing fingers and toes When your hands are cold then your nerves will adapt to the cold, so lukewarm water will often feel boiling hot if your hands are freezing (the old hand in hot water, hand in cold water then both hands in warm water trick shows this.) As to why water hurts but a dry heat doesn't, I suspect this is p... (more) |
— | almost 11 years ago |
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A: When to perform a filtering of the water? Filter the water right away, when filling the bottle. This way I'm sure the water inside the bottle is safe for drinking. This. Why? The main point for me is accessibility of that water. If you come to a situation where you need fresh water, then it may not just be because you've set up camp, y... (more) |
— | almost 11 years ago |
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A: An x-hour hike. Is that to the peak/summit or back and forth? I'm not sure I've seen an x hour hike advertised that hasn't been a round trip (unless explicitly stated otherwise.) This makes sense since a round trip is what almost everyone will be doing, and if it was the other way around and someone didn't realise, potentially dangerous situations could ensue! ... (more) |
— | about 11 years ago |
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A: How to make a fire without burning the ground There's two schools of thought here that I know of - the first is to avoid lighting a fire where there's ground you could easily damage, and the second is avoiding the heat getting to the ground. Combine both if you can. As far as the first goes, I won't say a great deal about that because beyond th... (more) |
— | about 11 years ago |
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A: For fording cold rivers, is there any special clothing (as opposed to makeshift bags or tightly connected raintrousers) to stay dry and warm? A lot of this really does depend on the type of river - you seem to be talking about really quite big, cold rivers, and I'd question whether you should really plan to cross these by fording at all since they can be a big risk. Sometimes a long detour really is the best option. Whether to take your b... (more) |
— | over 11 years ago |
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A: What are the odds that I stand a chance against Wild Boars? As others point out, avoiding them is key, and because they're so aggressive it's generally the better stance to take. That said, if you find yourself unavoidably coming up against one then being aggressive can work (though of course this isn't guaranteed.) Often if you attack one and the rest see th... (more) |
— | over 11 years ago |
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A: How can I report an emergency via SMS text message? Not a direct answer, but to expand a bit it is possible in the UK, however you need to register your mobile first and it's really meant for those who are hard of speech or hearing rather than poor signal areas. Having said that, if you do register and then text in a poor signal area and give details ... (more) |
— | over 11 years ago |
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A: How can you tell if a rocky outcropping (lookout) is safe? In truth, there's no real fail safe way to test this - but after a quick check over the risks are low enough that, in practice, I don't worry about it. I will however make a note of the following points: Is the area that the lookout is on prone to erosion? This is perhaps the most worrying sign if ... (more) |
— | over 11 years ago |
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A: What are the dangers of swimming in natural waters? This is highly dependent on the type of water as well as the location, but I'll summarise a few things to be aware of. In many locations most of these dangers won't factor in, but they're useful things to bear in mind if you're trying to assess the danger of a particular body of water. I'll focus on ... (more) |
— | over 11 years ago |
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A: What can I do with a retired rope and harness? I have a few lengths of retired rope (I don't climb myself, but have them from others) - they come in useful! I've used them for pulling things along, tying odd bits and pieces up securely, and when I used to do event tech work we'd often use them for rigging some of the lighter, cheaper lights (at t... (more) |
— | over 11 years ago |
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A: Logs & Rocks - Step on or over? This is one of these subjective topics where there's advantages and disadvantages both ways - I've seen people that will religiously advocate either one of these approaches in all scenarios. I'd personally scrap both those hard hit rules however and instead promote a knowledge of the advantages and ... (more) |
— | over 11 years ago |
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A: How thin is "too thin" for tent guylines? I haven't found anything on this looking around, so I'll approach it from a different perspective - why not slide a small piece of thicker material round the thin guyline as a sleeve? You could then keep this sleeve on each guyline, and go as thin as you want to without worrying about it cutting thro... (more) |
— | over 11 years ago |
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A: How should we split up a 3 person tent? Generally I find a three person tent small and light enough that you don't need to split it up when backpacking - indeed I find it's much less hassle to keep it all in one place so when you come to put it up, you know exactly where everything is. Instead, I'd advocate balancing the weight via other ... (more) |
— | over 11 years ago |
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A: Winter Camping: How to warm up your boots in the morning? Should you just put them on and warm them up with your feet or is there a better alternative? In fact, I've found just putting them on and putting up with the cold for the first few minutes isn't that bad an option when you're used to it. It feels horrible putting them on, but after doing that a... (more) |
— | over 11 years ago |
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A: What do you do if the fire does get "out of control"? If you find yourself in this situation, then there's a few steps you can take - firstly try to extinguish the fire as quickly as possible by pouring as much water as you can on the flames, and stamping out any embers that build up as quickly as you (safely) can. Urinating on the fire would also not b... (more) |
— | over 11 years ago |
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A: Is there a problem on using each boot manufactured on a different period? It's a bit odd, I'm not sure what reason in production or otherwise would cause this to happen (perhaps a month or so, but 6 months seems weirdly long.) Perhaps a fault in one side of the boot caused a big reproduction, so the dates became out of sync - I can only speculate. However, I see no reason... (more) |
— | over 11 years ago |
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A: How to create campfire which will burn overnight? It's difficult to tell exactly how long wood you've gathered will last you, unless as an expert you can gauge an accurate estimate due to the type of wood, weather conditions and other contributing factors (theoretically possible, but above my ability level.) However, there are different ways of con... (more) |
— | almost 12 years ago |
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A: Where in Europe is wilderness meeting the U.S. wilderness definition? Perhaps my favourite wilderness like place, Dartmoor, fits the bill relatively well. It's in the South West of the UK, in Devon. Generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man's work substantially unnoticeable Well, how far back are you talkin... (more) |
— | almost 12 years ago |
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A: What is the fastest style of sled? The fastest type of sled really does depend on the type of snow - if it is softer snow then you want a sled with the greatest surface area, since thin runners tend to just slow you down by sinking into the snow rather than riding on top of it. The greater surface area will spread your weight out more... (more) |
— | almost 12 years ago |
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A: Is a type of walking trailer a good alternative to a heavy backpack in off-road conditions? See the llamas looking at them weirdly at 2:10? That's because the llamas know how ridiculous it is! I'm not just referring to how it looks, I'm referring to the fact that in anything other than nice terrain it just doesn't look like it'll work. Fancy pulling that through a marsh? Even assuming the ... (more) |
— | almost 12 years ago |
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How can I make a snow shoe in the wilderness from commonly available materials and simple tools? As in the title really. In the hypothetical situation that I'm caught in the wilderness in winter and there's a heavy snow storm resulting in an unexpected level of snow, snow shoes could well come in handy. Is there a way to make / improvise them effectively using different types of wood / other com... (more) |
— | almost 12 years ago |
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A: Is there a web application that can notify you ahead of time if a certain weather forecast is predicted for a certain location? There's no such site that I know of, but there's a couple of alternatives that may suit your needs: Google calendar has an add on you can enable which shows the weather as an icon by the next few days. I find this quite useful (obviously it depends if you use Google calendar!) There's a few website... (more) |
— | almost 12 years ago |
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A: Is it safe to drink out of a rusty thermos? I'd be wary of drinking from anything rusty personally - I'm not aware of the type of metal your thermos is made from, but several can start to produce potentially poisonous chemicals when they begin to oxidise. Sure, you could be ok but I wouldn't say it's worth the risk. In terms of cleaning it, t... (more) |
— | almost 12 years ago |
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A: What are examples of inappropriate places to hide a geocache? As you point out, there's a number of legal guidelines they enforce and if the cache contravenes any of these it won't even be published (they check each one before it goes live.) But in terms of other areas that wouldn't necessarily be advised: You point out school playgrounds, but I'd go as far ... (more) |
— | almost 12 years ago |
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A: How to prevent skin cracks? A moisturiser is what you need - personally I like diprobase, you can safely apply as much as you want to and it's not that oily, it soaks into the skin nice and quickly without leaving any horrible residue. I actually use this all year round because I'm prone to getting bad eczema - so if it does t... (more) |
— | almost 12 years ago |
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How can I build a safe, effective igloo? If I want to build an igloo to keep me warm in a snowy climate, how can I go about this? What size blocks should I cut? How big should the entrance be? How can I mitigate the risk of the igloo collapsing? (more) |
— | about 12 years ago |
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What characteristics should I look for in a good torch/flashlight? I'm looking to buy a flashlight/torch (or build my own even if that works out cheaper), and am looking to take the following into consideration: Good battery life (LEDs would probably suit best in this regard) Takes rechargeable batteries of common size (so AA, C, D - some don't seem to) Rugged (wh... (more) |
— | about 12 years ago |
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A: How to be safe on lake and river ice and what should I do when I fall through? To expand on Steed's great answer, namely one point: If you have fallen into the water, it's very difficult to escape yourself I would go as far as to say it's often nigh on impossible, if you haven't been through any training, to get out of your own accord. You will panic, cold will set in qui... (more) |
— | about 12 years ago |
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A: Legal issues when entering school areas while geocaching in Europe Be very careful as far as schools are concerned - parents or staff will tend to be rather vigilant with strangers on site (especially primary schools) and I believe without permission it is technically trespassing. Geocaches really shouldn't be placed in such areas without written permission anyway,... (more) |
— | about 12 years ago |
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A: How many GeoCaches are registered in Germany by OpenCaching? The only way that you can really find this out if they don't provide the stats on the pages is to contact them. However, in terms of a slightly different question (the rough number of geocaches in Germany in general) this website says it was approaching 200,000 August last year (2011), so I'd imagin... (more) |
— | about 12 years ago |
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A: Does Moss only grow on the North side of trees? There's some truth to it in that moss prefers shady areas rather than directly sunny ones, so (in the northern hemisphere) since the north is the generally more shady part, you'd assume moss will be more likely to grow on the north of the tree. For me though, it's nothing more than a curious fact ra... (more) |
— | about 12 years ago |
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A: Are fires in natural caves/overhangs safe? Is this a real risk? Yes. However, I would have thought it's a much higher risk with soft rock, such as sandstone, which could easily crack and break apart due to heat. I'd imagine the risk would be lower with something like granite, but I'm still not sure I'd risk it unless the cave was very l... (more) |
— | about 12 years ago |
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A: Which types of wood will make food taste bad? There's no safe wood I've found that's made food taste really bad - generally if it does taste absolutely foul I'd be wary that something else was up. In the grand scheme of things though, it depends what you class as "bad". Different people prefer different flavours, and in that sense using differe... (more) |
— | about 12 years ago |
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A: Which wood sources produce toxic smoke? Yes, some sources create toxic smoke/fumes, notably: Oleander Rhododendron Poison Ivy (smoke can cause lung damage in some cases) I'm not sure of a comprehensive list, but be wary of any poisonous wood / shrub, it's probably more likely to burn toxic. As pointed out in the comment, unless you can... (more) |
— | about 12 years ago |