Sacramento Tracker Club: An evening of fire-making with Richard?

I was on the phone with Richard Harter, discussing possible future plans for the Sacramento Tracker Club group and soaking up whatever answers I could to my newbie questions. During our first “meeting” I had learned Richard will be one of the instructors at the free East Bay Regional Park fire-making course coming up on March 23, 2008 (carpool anyone?).

Richard shared that he did not make fire despite several courses until his 70th or 80th attempt. I told him that didn’t seem right and would discourage a lot of people. Richard agreed and then told me his early instructors left out some key techniques and pre-requisites for success that he had to pick up on his own along the way. One of the big keys is to use the right wood for each part of the bow drill set.

As we talked Richard volunteered to lead a bow drill fire-making session for our Sacramento Tracker Club group at or near his Sacramento home. This would probably be scheduled for a few hours one evening before the next 2d Saturday regular get-together.

If you are interested in joining the STC for this and other activities, please post here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wilderness_Survival_and_Primitive_Skills/

Otherwise it will be just me, Richard, and his homemade beer in his backyard trying to light stuff on fire. Come to think of it ….