By Richard Harpham

Some years ago a good friend of mine, Jason Ingamels, the founder of Woodland-Ways, one of the market leaders in the world of Bushcraft, invited me to the Bushcraft Show. I had no inkling of the profound impact this would have on me, our company Canoe Trail and life’s crazy paving.

Richard Harpham bio
Richard has become a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society. 

Richard is a human powered adventurer and inspirational speaker who has completed over 10,000 miles of expeditions by kayak, canoe, bike and on foot including exploring the Yukon, cycling the Sahara and Canada’s Inside Passage.

At home he runs www.canoetrail.co.uk, a watersports and adventure business with his wife Ashley in Bedfordshire providing qualifications, canoe camping, coaching and paddling trips to some of the UK’s and world’s best locations. He is the former editor of Bushcraft and Survival Magazine and writes for Outdoor Adventure Guide, MoD’s Resettlement magazine and the Paddler magazine.

His adventures are supported by: Flint Group, Paramo Clothing, Olympus Cameras, Valley Sea Kayaks, Silverbirch Canoes, Bamboo Clothing, MSR, Canadian Affair, Osprey Rucksacks, Extreme Adventure Foods, Air North, Reed Chillcheater and Exposure Lights. You can follow his adventures through social media & @ www.richadventure.com

As simple as ABC

A is for Adventure
B is for Bushcraft
C is for Canoeing

The following year I was back as the editor of the Bushcraft and Survival Skills Magazine, feeling at home in this vibrant and inspiring community of outdoor people. For me as a life long paddler, expedition leader, and human powered adventurer, I shared my technical skills with them, so this article is aimed at sharing bushcraft ideas and insight back to the paddling community.

Fundamentally there seems to be in incredible synergies, core skills and opportunities linking the values and world of adventure, bushcraft and canoeing Each of strands are like braids woven together through traditional skills, our heritage and connection to the natural world and help offer better mental well being through quality time spent outdoors. In terms of bigger expeditions, then these three elements are essential for safe and challenging journeys into the wilderness.

Adventure

Adventure has been at the core of my journeying and life for almost a decade completing over 10,000 miles of human powered expeditions. My model is a simple one driven through a desire to follow traditional journeys, voyages and trails where possible making them into longer unbroken paths. Like so much of life, setting meaningful and realistic goals with short, medium and long term objectives and aspirations helps retain focus in busy lives. It did leave me feeling like ‘bananaman’ where I lived two separate lives, one away in the wilderness, increasingly at ease surrounded by huge vistas, the raw elements and honing latent skills.

These days as a coach and founder of Canoe Trail, I have the perfect job sharing my passion for the outdoors guiding people on expeditions, writing for magazines and helping people develop their adventurous side. We run two wilderness expeditions to Canada a year, to Temagami (float plane and paddling adventure) and the iconic Yukon (440-mile river journey) which helps provide my wilderness fix and ensures I get to spend almost two months a year on expedition and adventures. This is something I never take for granted and always feel inspired and humbled to be doing as a so called job!

Motivation for adventures or ‘painting your adventure canvas’ may link to a wide range of factors including:

• Bucket list – searching out those iconic ‘bucket list’ trips such as canoeing the Yukon, the Great Glen Canoe Trail.
• Racing – competitive challenges provide a strong foundation for training and raising your fitness and paddling skills. Examples include the Thameside, Waterside and Devizes to Westminster races.
• Charity – there is a compelling call to action to complete challenges for charity, a greater sense of purpose particularly when the going gets tough.
• Specific challenge – such as sea kayaking the channel, which I have completed on three occasions as part of bigger journeys.

Of course this all fits well with the ethos of the British Canoeing new performance awards where paddlers, leaders and coaches produce log books detailing rivers and open water in different geographic locations. Using maps, guide books and stories of historical paddling journeys, you can soon produce your own ever-changing menu of incredible paddling adventures.

Personally I have a huge list of places I want to explore, the majority of which are around Great Britain, as our coastline and rivers offer so much in such a relatively small area. Wales and Scotland have some brilliant wilderness areas and iconic rivers and lochs, which I am desperate to explore this winter and spring.

Completing a paddling course or qualification, or joining your local kayak or canoe club, or a group like Explorers Connect is a brilliant way to find a group of like-minded enthusiasts and it is proven that undertaking outdoor activities with a group means you are significantly more likely to stick at it. My original Big 5 kayak adventures for charity including 1000 miles from Vancouver to Alaska, involved a small team where we stuck together literally through some tough times.

Bushcraft

Bushcraft covers such a broad range of topics from indigenous people and traditional skills to campcraft and know how to survive and travel in the wilder parts of planet earth. For me I have always loved knots, wild camping, campfire cooking and life outdoors from the Scouts to time spent with friends at the Viking Kayak Club. My other side has been carving, crafting elements, foraging for food (beyond phoning a friend) and the tree ID aspects. One paradox I have found is that many bushcrafters fail to realise the extent of their knowledge to venture onto longer journeys like I seek to undertake. Eat. Sleep. Adventure. Repeat.

Organisations such as Woodland Ways immerse their participants in outdoor living and many opt for the ultimate test (the Woodland Wayer), a two-year course building a toolbox of skills to live, forage and survive, which they then put into practice living in the woodlands for a week. Don’t worry if that doesn’t seem practical right now then try a shorter course or bolt on some wild camping and overnighters to your paddling trips.
I have tried to summarise a range of different elements that you can practice to dip a toe further into the world of Bushcraft and Survival.

Sit spots and re-wilding yourself

There is something cleansing and grounding about spending time away from the digital and modern world we live in the great outdoors. Sit spots are a fantastic way to connect to the natural world giving yourselves time to be in the present, reflection and quiet time. As you sit or paddle surrounded by flitting kingfishers, drying cormorants stretching their wings or deer barking, you are lost in the magic of our green and blue spaces. Venturing out or staying out at dusk brings owls hunting, badgers patrolling and other wild families out and about. The longer you wait the more nature comes to you if you sit quietly and listen.

The crafty side – carving, cordage and making stuff

Carving is a great restorative skill delivering a huge personal satisfaction at manufacturing and hand crafting utilitarian objects and beautiful pieces. From simple spatulas, spurtles, spoons and pot hangers, they can really make camp life easier. As your skills improve you can progress to beautiful bowls and ornate works of art.

Making cordage from nettles or other plants is also fun and although that may seem a little time consuming, it is worth remembering that not more than 150 years ago, hemp rope was mainstream and was a whole industry.

Campcraft

I tend to vary my camping systems from simple tarps, bivvy bags through to tents (groundwellers). I also love nothing more than to string a hammock with an evenk hitch and drift off to sleep gently swinging between two trees (tree swingers). Having a range of options is fantastic depending on the mode of travel, canoe, kayak or SUP. Tarps (develop your tarpology), hammocks and bivvy bags are as lightweight as you can get and offer that chance to feel refreshed sleeping out under the stars.

From a survival perspective it is also good to have the knowledge to make improvised shelters from scrub and branches through to snow holing (not usually found when canoeing or kayaking).

Campfire cooking and fire lighting

With the advent of the Great British Bake Off we have found participants of our adventure school programmes, dads, lads, mums and kids keen to get their bake on. The purchase of a reflector oven or Dutch oven, literally means the sky is the limit, from simple Bannock breads to full on 4-5 dish meals. Vegetarian options also mean you can enjoy fresh food for 1-2 weeks supplemented with free-range chorizo and smoked meats. I usually supplement these foods with a mix of dried extreme adventure foods, which offer high protein and a mix of vitamins in either a dehydrated or wet ration and are delicious.

Learn to light fires with ferrous rods, fire steels, flints and even friction. Fire lighting with bow and drill. As many will know there is nothing like the first time! Watching your tinder bundle ignite into flames is an incredible connection to our ancestors.

Do try this at home or in the outdoor

Damper breads: bread and water, take butter, cinnamon and jam to spice it up.
Bannock bread: raisins, spices, flour, butter (premix in a bag).
Smors: the traditional marshmallow and chocolate biscuit.
Root veg hash browns: sweet potatos, onions, eggs, flour, paprika and cumin.
Vegetarian Thai Green (one pot curry) plus rice (second pot).

Foraging, tree and plant ID

A little bit of foraging can start with blackberries, sea weeds and muscles to add to paellas through to puff ball mushrooms in garlic. Of course make sure you know what you are consuming, as eating the wrong mushrooms can be fatal! Learn about the trees and plants as well such as willow, cherry and English maple and all of their unique properties.

C is for canoeing

As an intro to canoeing using it as a generic term, of course means canoes, kayaks and stand up paddle boards, tools for adventure and journeying. The skills are of course transferable and therefore the adventure and journeying theme means most people would be happy with any craft.

For adventure and bushcraft purposes then developing expedition skills and traditional (trad) skills are recommended if not essential. Here are some of the ones I recommend you embrace…

Navigation

In a digital world there is a risk that paper maps could become obsolete and we become reliant on GPS as our primary source of information. For me I love paper maps and see them as an inspiration and library of new adventures. On our Duke of Edinburgh programmes, it is interesting to watch students wrestle with navigation, usually for the first time. Like many skills – ‘practice makes permanent’ so keeping your skills current and honed is important.

Being able to read the lie of the land, maintain a sense of direction, observe natural features and points of interest all help. Beyond this pacing or logging speed over time helps know where you are as well as orientating the map and bearings. Once you have mastered this, move on to night navigation as a new challenge. A GPS can then be your back up, I carry a Garmin In-Reach and Topo Map Etrex as back ups.

Lining and tracking

The physical geography of rivers to lakes and their formation means different features, pools, drops and rapids brought about by the erosion of the surface terrain. Lining and tracking are great skills to have to manoeuvre canoes up and down sections of rapids (usually as a result of harder bedrock). Although these skills are taught on canoe leader and advanced canoe leader courses, it is often neglected as a skill that people practice and lock in. Make sure you have enough line on the bow and stern and maintain a good position of control using a combination of stern line orientation with both lines providing forward momentum. The trim of your canoe and use of cradles can help avoid upset craft and the odd drama.

Poling and snubbing

Poling and snubbing are a fantastic way to spend a few hours wrestling with the elements moving up and down white water. Start on the nursery slopes and dress for the occasion (we are all between falling in). There are two main stances for poling and snubbing, feet parallel (regular stance) and one foot behind and facing perpendicular (guide stance).

Connectivity is important for efficient poling or snubbing so having your legs against a seat or thwart helps with this. Learn to power your canoe upstream with the pole connected to the river bed, walk your hands with the pole stationary and propel the craft forward. Work between a power phase with bent knees and pushing, versus a stationary phase holding position using the pole. Trim the canoe bow heavy snubbing downstream and stern heavy upstream. Go for it.

Portaging

Portaging may sound like fools folly (interesting one of the most incredible portages I did was on the spit from Oliver’s Inlet to Fool’s Inlet near Juneau on the Inside Passage) but it means you can connect different bits of water adding to the variety. Of course much of the Canadian interior was explored by pioneers (First Nation and later) by men and women who portaged vast distances. Technique involves flipping the canoe on your shoulders utilising the carrying yoke. Rollers made from improved flotsam and logs can help move laden craft such as sea kayaks to help avoid long carries when the tide is out.

Sailing

Improvised sailing is a fantastic was to travel in canoes from a simple ‘downwind leg’ using a coat, tarp or old sail through to large sailing rigs making a tripod or A frame. We have enjoyed many great sailing runs on Loch Ness and other Scottish lochs. On these bigger open water stretches, we raft up two or more canoes for stability to de-risk the chance of a capsize. We generally trail a swim line in case anyone falls in.

Leadership and decision-making

Make a plan with extraction points based on changes in weather or conditions. The acronym CLAP is useful as leaders based on:

C Communications,
L Line of sight,
A Avoidance – is better than cure
P Position of max usefulness.

Agree these elements with the team, as it is important for example not to be out of sight or shouting range.

Learn rescues

Learn some practical tips for rescuing yourself and others, check the weather and know that you are facing so you can match your skills to the conditions. According to a British Canoeing report, tragically there were five fatalities in paddlesport in 2018 and of course no one sets out to have an accident! Learn the basics of self-rescue whatever the craft such as eskimo roll in a warm pool or curling/T rescues in canoes. Skills like pulley systems (mechanical advantage) for pinned canoes and kayaks, or throw lines for rescuing team mates needs to be practised so you can avoid being rusty.

Food for thought I hope for people to spend more time outdoors, learning traditional skills, journeying and adventuring following in ancient footsteps.

Bushcraft Society

A useful new community in the world of bushcraft is the Bushcraft Society, which offers, talks, online resources and different weekend courses throughout the year to its members at a subsidized rate. Once again Jason from Woodland Ways has led the way with the introduction of this new society, of which I am proud to be part of the management board.