Hike to the river, April 8 2007

Today I took a 8km hike into the back left side of the forest surrounding the river, and initially was going to fish there. It turned out to be a very hard thing to do, there was about 3 feet of snow, and under that snow the 1' of water from the flooded river. I only got in one cast, then spent my time making a small shelter that I will turn into a resting point for my canoe journeys in the summer.

I started by securing a 5ft length of 2.5 dia balsam to the two small balsam trees which are about four feet apart. I then cut another 5 foot length, and two smaller 2 foot supports. I secured the supports to either side of the 5 foot length, to form a 3 sided rectangle. I attached the supports to the underside of the existing length. I drove two pegs into the ground at the intersection of the free hanging half of the bench, and secured them to the pegs. A couple of under supports, and a third length on the bench, and the rough version was done. I thatched 3 inches of pine boughs on the top for comfort.


Click to enlarge

Roughly completed bench


Top view


Brewing pine needle tea


River is directly in front of bench

I'll build a small 15ft dock to pass the bit of cattail and vegetation between river and shore for easy canoe landing.

When the bench is done, it will have a roof and enclosed sides. Here's a rough sketch of how it'll look. (side view)