bacpacbaby and I went for a hike today and stopped by the creek for lunch. The mosquitoes were nasty, so I put her bug net on her stroller and fired up the canteen stove and cup right away to brew some coffee and help fend them off a little bit. I wanted to get it going quickly so I used my Coleman triox tabs and the mini BIC on my lanyard to get it going.

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Starbucks VIA. YUM-O!

Mother Nature threatened rain and t-storms so I decided to use the GI ponchos in my day hike pack to make a shelter in case she snuck up on us. While she slept, I used paracord with square lashings to put up a ridge pole, lashed a corner to the stroller and then made a tri-pod for the fourth corner of the shelter. I used clove hitches for all the lashings, including the one on the stroller, and used the jute twine tie-outs that are always attached to the poncho to attach it to the frame. (Lesson of the Day: It takes a little fiddling to use the stroller as a lashing point for a tarp. It was fine for sun and falling tree debris and bugs, but if it had rained, I would have needed an adjustment to the placement of my lashing to prevent water from getting in the stroller. I went over the canopy to the side, and I should have used a longer piece of cordage to go over the handle and under. I played a with it more before I packed up, and finally got it, but it wasn't as easy as I anticipated it being.) The second poncho was my ground sheet to protect me from the muddy forest floor.

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Once it was up, I started a little smokey twig fire to chase the mosquitoes away. I wanted a fire quickly so I just did a twig fire, with wood shavings, river birch and cattail for tinder, on a platform of birch branches that I cut with my Bacho Laplander, and with a brace made from someone else's old fire dog. (I also made a platform to hold my kindling while it waited to be burned.) Taking the opportunity for a little more practice, I lit it with my Mora LMF.

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Then I sat down and enjoyed my coffee and snack before the sky started rumbling and we headed for home, both pretty happy.

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Here's a little video showing a bit more detail, including what I pack when I take bacpacbaby out on one of our typical fall days:
[YouTube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdhLxx9y-jE[/YouTube]

Thanks for lookin!