Ranger Beads

One common aspect of hunting or hiking is knowing how far you traveled on your trip.  This can be pretty difficult if you don't have a GPS or a set trail you are following.  What I want to talk about is an inexpensive way to track how far you travel without spending a lot of money on a GPS 

One of the guys I coach with was asking me how I kept track of how far I hiked or backpacking trips, hunting, or just on random hikes.  I told him that I honestly didn't know how far I was walking/hiking but I usually used Google Maps to guesstimate how far I hiked after I finished a trip.  He told me that when he was in the military, they used what they called Ranger Beads to keep track of how far they walked when venturing off base.  He had one on his backpack and showed me what it looked like.

Ranger Beads

I thought it looked cool but I will admit I had heard of Ranger Beads but I had no idea how to use them or anything.  I will attempt to explain how to use them from his explanation and my one adventure I have tried it out on.

A typical Ranger Bead set consists of 9 beads on the bottom half and five beads on the upper half with a knot separating the two sets of beads.  The confusing part for this concept is that you will be keeping track of the distance you travel in meters rather than feet and miles.  You can however convert the meters or kilometers into miles after you return from you trip if you desire. One thing you will have to do prior to using Ranger Beads is measure how many paces it takes you to walk 100 meters.  What I would suggest is to go to your local high school track and walk exactly 100 meters counting how many steps you take with your right (or left) foot.  By counting the number of steps for just one foot you are able to keep track easier and count less.  The typical "step" for a human is around 2 1/2 feet or .762 meters.  This would equal out to roughly 131 total steps in a 100 meter stretch (around 66 steps per foot).  Knowing how many steps you take in 100 meters is the key to keeping accurate record of the distance you travel using the Ranger Beads.

So as I mentioned, you have 9 beads on the bottom and 5 on  the top. When you begin your hike/trip/adventure be sure that all the beads on the top are pushed all the way to the top of their section and all the beads on the bottom are pushed to the bottom of their section.  At the beginning of your hike the Ranger Beads should look like this.

Starting my hike

 As soon as you start hiking be sure to count the number of steps you are taking with your right foot.  For every 66 steps you take with that foot you will move one of the beads on the lower section to the top of it's section on the Ranger Bead signifying that you have walked 100 meters.  So if you walk 500 meters you should have 5 beads slid to the top of the lower section and 4 beads still at the bottom as shown below.

Ranger Beads showing 500 meters

After you have walked 900 meters all of the lower beads should be raised as high as they can signifying that you have walked 900 meters.  After walking another 100 meters you will then lower one of the top beads to the bottom of the upper section signifying that you have walked 1000 meter.  At this point you can either lower all of the bottom beads again to repeat the process or some people just reverse the process and just lower one bead at a time as they walk additional 100 meter lengths.  In the picture below, my Ranger Beads are showing that I walked 1300 meters which is the equivalent to .807 miles.  I know that isn't very far but this was a quick hike to try out my Ranger Beads.

My Ranger Beads showing I have walked 1300 meters

 I thought this was a simple, yet useful piece of equipment that is extremely light and easy to use. Even if you have a GPS or some other device you use to keep track of the distance you travel on a hike or hunting trip, having a set of Ranger Beads would be a good idea to place in your pack in case your GPS does not get service or runs out of battery life.  The Ranger Bead set that I received from my friend is made out of paracord but you could make them multiple different ways.  There are also a few places you can buy them online that I have found.  I will post a video I found on YouTube which shows how to make the Ranger Beads out of paracord if anyone is interested.

Ranger Beads will be with me on my hunting and hiking trips from this point on.  I don't think I will use them every time but I will use them when I want to know how far I hiked.  Some of the situations I can see myself using them in would be when I go on a hike to get in shape for hunting season or after I spend all day chasing elk or deer and I want to see how far I walked/hiked when I head back to my vehicle.

Training for Hunting

Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely HATE running... I really feel bad when people talk about how awesome it is to run a marathon, half marathon, 5K, or any running event because of how rewarding it is.  Coming from me, I cannot comprehend spending money to run any distance no matter what.  At the same time a few of my friends who talk to me about how amazing it is to run cannot comprehend why I would hike for miles up and down rough terrain chasing animals who's 5 senses are ten times better than mine are.  With that said I don't stop anyone from running their fulfilling races, but the last thing I want to do is join them.

The only problem with what I mentioned above is that if I depend on hiking in the mountains for my exercise I am definitely not going to be in good enough shape for hunting season.  At the most right now, I am only able to get out on a real hike maybe once a week... if that... which is not going to get me where I need to be come elk season!  With hunting season right around the corner and my belt line getting tighter and tighter I've decided I need to get busy!  

I've decided to start riding my bike at least 4 times a week and increasing the distance every bike ride.  It may not be as good of a work out as jogging/running, but statistically I am more likely to stick with it if I am doing something I enjoy rather than doings something just for the sake of losing weight or getting in shape.

If anyone has any other suggestions for cardio workouts without buying a gym membership let me know and I'll be sure to give them a shot. 

Another Memorial Day to Remember

Last year I wrote about my Memorial Day Weekend tradition of camping with my family.  I mentioned how the weather usually never cooperates with our plans of camping yet we decided to tough out the weather and go camping anyway.  Last year my Memorial Day Weekend was summed up with the picture below of my tent and my Jeep in our camping area.

Camping Memorial Day 2012

Fortunately this year, the weather was a lot more cooperative and was actually one of the best years for weather we have had in a long time!  Last year my wife was about 8 months pregnant and misserable the whole time.  This year was probably one of my favorite times camping because I was able to share it with my daughter who is 11 months old now. 

The area we traditionally camp at for this weekend is not necessarily the most remote area but it is away from the majority of people.  We camp next to a little creek and spend most of our time hanging out by the camp fire catching up with all of our family members.  We also spend a lot of time with family members fishing in the creek catching small Brook Trout.  My daughter loved this part of the camping trip because she decided she liked the feel of squeezing a slimy fish in her hand. 

The look on her face should tell you how much fun she was having

Of course at her age, she puts everything she can touch into her mouth... everything.... yes including the fish...

The look on my face shows you I was grossed out while laughing :)

I think the nicest part of any camping trip is not necessarily in the location, the activities, the weather, or length of time of the camping trip but rather it is is who it is with and how you spend that time.  While I went up in the mountains to one of my favorite spots since childhood, this camping trip is special because it was the first one with my daughter.  When I would have liked to spend more time maybe shooting guns or fishing in the creek, I enjoyed the time sitting next to the creek with my wife and daughter picking flowers and playing in the grass. 

I don't want to make it sound like that is all we did, but I never thought in all my perivious camping trips in this location that I would spend a good portion of my time picking flowers and playing in the grass while camping.  We did get to enjoy some good fishing trips in the creek and we also spent a lot of time with family around the campfire.  Life does change when you have kids yet the change is more of a refocusing on what really matters rather than changing. 

 

We ended off the weekend by visiting my grandpa's grave site which has been part of our family tradition for Memorial Day weekend.  We usually take up something my grandpa would have liked such as a pine tree or some other outdoors item.  This year we took a shed antler from a deer and placed in on his headstone. 

I am looking forward to more camping trips with my wife and daughter this summer where I will be able to share with her some of my other favorite areas such as taking her backpacking into some of my elk hunting spots on scouting trips and other hikes into the mountains.  I know this trips may not be my most successful in sneaking around the woods looking for wildlife but as I spend my time wisely with my wife and daughter I have come to the conclusion that the man upstairs makes up for the less successful scouting trips in the end.