although still quite overcast after we got hammered by rain for the last 36 hours it is not raining anymore we are just screaming down river here run three Rapids this morning one that's a pretty big waves super fun and the current in this river is just awesome just kilometres upon kilometers of fast current no obstructions just take it all in and watch scenery go by lots more excitement to come but this day 11 we only have three days left after today so the trip is coming to an end back to life back to enzyme unity we have decided to make camp after paddling through a foggy abyss like day and it's time to go get wood here's a pretty good looking one there best thing to do when you're getting firewood is get a standing dead tree off the ground and you know what's going to be driving middle is always nice and dried your best bet to go especially when you've had wet weather like today and yes the idea is when you chop you want to chop like this into it like that so on an angle and then to get those pieces you want to come like that and you can see already that's a nice and dry in the middle there go rule is get as much wood as you think you're going to need then get three times more out of a nice fire type grout some of our stuff so let's go get another one when you're taking down a large sized tree especially a dead one it could be rotting at the top I'm going to look up at it and make sure that top piece of its rod doesn't break up and bam smokey right in the head chop out a little area when you're in the dense brush with that little space you create for yourself that will allow you to get the hell out of the way jump back move back a couple steps run all the way and keep it talked snaps often come down and get you put loggers called widow-makers one thing that's easier to get more control out of your axe is sliding your hand you start your swing with your hand at the top of the axe and as you bring it down you slide that hand down to the bottom that'll give you a little bit more accuracy a little bit better control with your axe I'm chopping and sand here so it's a great idea to put something under your wood because it's just going to sink in the sand there's rocks or anything you can also ruin your oxley I'm going to start with an area about this line and there two there and I'm just going to cut this right down this one that's the easy one your offhand swing I'd like to bring my hand up around the top of my head and down like that always make sure that should you miss your feet are out of the way if my foots here see me come around like this if I miss BAM what you can do is you can split the middle of a standing dead just take a little piece out if you want to tell if it's dry or not and you just put that to your tongue and they'll make almost like a blotting effect it'll suck to your tongues stick to your tongue and if it is wet that won't have it so you'll be able to tell right away but just by touching that wood to your tongue and that's dry and that's what can save your life is standing dead and that nice dry wood you can split it you can whittle out small matchstick sized pieces in there that'll take a plane even if you don't have any birch bark or small sticks to get your fire going so key thing to remember this is a silver stag bowie-knife the way that we split wood with large knife is something called batoning and this is why I carry a large knife I put my knife just like this in the middle of it okay and then I use this smack it down like that on the other side look at that right to the draw center to whittle pieces out like this and use those to start too far with essentially using this knife right there as a draw knife that's another way you can make effective tinder you