Field Craft Weekend Dec 18-20 @ Paddy Creek Wilderness.

[aswayze]

Fieldcraft Weekend Dec 18-20 2009 at Paddy Creek Wilderness. 

Who:  This event is open too anyone interested in East Wind.   East Bloc, NATO, Undecided, does not matter. 

What:  Extensive night movement training/familiarization.  We will be backpacking the entire 17 mile loop of the Big Piney trail at night, with NODS and our gear. 

Where:  Roby Lake trailhead of the Big Piney trail:  Exit from I-44 at Rolla to Hwy 63 south. Go 35-miles South to Licking on Hwy 63 and then take Hwy 32 west at Licking. Go 16-miles Hwy 32 to Roby then take Hwy 17 North about 1 mile to the Roby Lake Recreation Area sign on the east side of the highway.

When:  We depart Roby Lake at 22:00 hours FRIDAY night and plan to be back around to Roby Lake by dawn on Sunday. 

Why:  The purpose of this event is to give attendees extensive familiarity with both night operation as well as extended patrols with their gear.   If you need to shake down your equipment, this is the event to do it on.   Attendees will have the opportunity to patrol with night vision, practice navigation at night (it’s harder to follow trails than you might think)   plus live out of their packs. 

Gear required: 

East Wind correct backpack (no civvy gear)
Sleeping pad
Sleeping bag
Bivy or shelter half
1 Canteen and Canteen cup (or canteen and mess kit for East Bloc)
Clothing appropriate for the weather (plan on cold)
Warm hat
Gloves or mittens
Red filtered flashlight (NO HEADLAMPS)
East Wind correct compass
East Wind correct uniform
Poncho or goretex.
Helmet (to mount NODS to)

DO NOT overload yourself.  Keep your load lean and mean, you have plenty of walking to do.   You can get by just fine without all of life’s trinkets.   1-2 quarts of water with you will do fine, we will reload along the way treating water from springs and creeks.  No need to try to pack along 2 gallons. 

Cost:  Cost for this event is the usual $25 and as usual includes food. 

By the numbers:
1-4 attendees (I am going walking with or without you clowns) we will go lean and mean.

At 5-8 attendees, we will add a squad gasoline stove for group use and a second Gen 2 NOD.

At 8-16 attendees we break into two groups each moving the opposite way on the loop.  Each group adds a PRC-77 (or R105M or Clansman etc), carries a squad stove, visual signals and 2 NODs.

At 16-24 We break into 3 groups with the third group taking a divergent route. 

Who is up for some night work? 

[Stagg]

I'm in.

[warnick]

we can do the last .5 mile of the patrol EB style. that'll allow me to roast a marshmellow or two before going to sleep.  The most important thing to remember with night movement is to always have midnight snack planned for the return, even if it means saving that "cookie with sugar pan coated chocolate disks"( an M&M cookie to normal people) from your MRE.

I'm in plus one. I managed to talk on of the midshipmen into coming along.

[K. Cox]

I'm game.

[aswayze]

Looking at the weather on this I think we are in pretty good shape. 

Staying just below freezing on Friday night so everything should be dry.  Going into Saturday we pick up some snow which should help out a great deal on keeping warm since the temps are also dropping.  Saturday night, we get down into the 20s but again have some snow on the ground so visibility should be pretty good and we ought to be able to move a little easier.

With the snow coming, I am going to greatly suggest packing along and using shelter halves.   A good layer of snow on the outside of your shelter half makes everything pretty cozy inside.  A good layer of snow on the outside of the bivy doesn’t give the same effect.  (Although it is still better than no snow)  Carried as a half (not the whole tent) the shelter half is pretty reasonable weight wise.  If some of you guys do not have complete units, sound off and let’s see if we can get you fixed up with loaners.   Also keep in mind that it is a WHOLE lot easier to sleep out in the daytime if you have something between you and Mr. Sun particularly if Mr. Sun decides to peek out after covering the whole world with a blanket of nice bright white stuff. 


Rapier, you know for sure if you are in or not at this point?   

Stagg, if you are having to work second shift, you can pick us up by going to the Paddy Creek campground on the east end of the place.  Take the trail north from there and expect to find us bivouacked at or about waypoint 10 on this map http://www.ouachitamaps.com/picture_library/Paddy%20Creek/Paddy%20Creek%20Map%2011x17.jpg

Remember that you guys need to have at least 1  canteen + canteen cup for this trip as well.  If you need one sound off and we can either track one down for you or get a loaner.   You are welcome to bring camel backs as well but I will caution you that the failure rate of bladders in prolonged sub freezing environments is pretty high. 



List at this time is: 

Swayze
Warnick
Cox
Dalton
Jackson
Fitzgerald

Rapier (?)
Stagg (?)
Brock (?)

Since we have to take 71 out of here, you guys want to meet up at my place t around 6 pm?   That get’s us there a tad late but also avoids rush hour. 

[Stagg]

That is some pretty hilly terrain, considering that the creek is about 1000, and the hilltops are 1200-1300 I'm assuming Feet.

Anyway, Yep I'm still working Friday, but getting out early at 2100hr.  At this point I'll still be coming.

[aswayze]

1 day out and the weather is staying pretty stable.  Temps are staying below freezing so we should be able to stay pretty dry until Sunday at noon by which time we should be long gone.   If it was 5 degrees warmer, we would be a LOT colder out there since going above freezing is bad in the winter if you have even a paltry amount of snow around. 

Got all of our stuff set up, food wise we are just doing 3 X MRE per person + some more hot drinks, soupy things, etc to help keep up the hydration.  I do have 1 Spanish meal ration pack that can be requested as an option to the standard USGI one if someone is curious and will also make available Humanitarian Daily rations as an option as well if anyone would prefer to try one of those.   First one to call the oddball rations gets them otherwise it’s MRE. 

Each person attending is also getting a box of trioxane bars and one of the old school canteen cup stoves/stands (hence the demand for having a USGI canteen and cup).   I use mine all the time at One Shepherd and training events to make coffee and such, I’ll show everyone how they work both with and without the trioxane bars. 

We have 1 PVS-14, 1 PVS-7 and 1 D300 NOD to switch off between people for the trip so everyone should get plenty of NOD time.

On the way home Sunday I am going to be meeting up with Matt and Ben Mercer (Ben is on Christmas break from boot camp) and will be handing off some MKT stuff then am going to go tent and camo spreader set shopping at a place just north of Springfield.  You guys are of course welcome to come along, this guy has a great deal of pretty useful and exciting stuff for VERY cheap. 

[aswayze]

Here’s who we have with squad gear assigned.  I already have all of the squad gear set out so you guys do not need to round anything else up.  We’ll issue all of it out at the meet up and make sure everyone has all of the other gear they need before we push off.  If someone comes up short, I’ll dig out loaners, god knows I have enough of this stuff. 


Warnick - map, extra NOD batteries, D-300 NOD
Fitzgerald – Stove fuel, bulk water capacity (Empty),

Jackson – Mini light sticks (trail for Stagg), Camera, EL Note pad
Swayze – PVS-14, Squad stove, map, 550 cord, sewing kit, purification tablets

Cox – PVS-7, 100 MPH tape, cat eye vinyl
Dalton – Squad stove pot, UV flashlight

Stagg – D300 NOD, bulk water capacity
 

We will rotate out NODS so every attendee will be using every one of the NODs we are bringing along at some point or another.  Having a NOD assigned to you merely means that you are carrying the case for it and are responsible for it during the daylight hours. 

See you guys at 18:00

[d.thomas]

trail for stagg?? thats awful nice of you...make sur you actaully activate the glow sticks though....lol