I'm always fine-tuning my gear. Here's what I carried on my belt for bush whacking up Hapuakohe.
The belt is a Dutch Army pistol belt. I wanted a wider belt to make the load carry more comfortable.
On my right hip, at the 4 o'clock position, I carried my
Mora Garberg knife, and in front of that is a recycled sports drink bottle. I didn't have a large enough clip, so I used a bungy cord to attach the bottle to the nelt. On my left hip, at 9 o'clock, was a Silky Pocketboy pruning saw. It's in the plastic case it came in because I don't have a good sheath for it yet.
Unfortunately, while bush whacking through a dense section, the Silky came off my belt because this split wire came apart. Let's mitigate that.
Here's a bunch of recycled bicycle inner tube a cycle store rescued from their rubbish bin upon my request. Cross sections of inner tube make heavy duty rubber bands called "Ranger Bands". The Garberg went through the rubber easily and I had a Ranger band a few millimeters in width.
And here is the Ranger band fitted. The trick is to rub the band vigorously between your hands to soften with a bit of friction heat. The heat makes the band pliable which then tightens a little as the rubber cools. There are microcracks in the plastic, but I expect the mount point will hold up until I replace the sheath with something better.
And, here's the Silky back on the belt. I'm glad I had the saw belt mounted rather than in my pack because I needed the saw a number of times to clear the route.
You might've noticed the water bottle is only about 150ml or 750ml down. That doesn't seem like much water consumption for a couple of hours bush-whacking. Well, I had a 2.4 litre bottle in the car and drank a lot before heading out and again when returning. I had more water in my vest if I needed it and the means to purify more water.
Here's the dog supervising my work. She gives my work a sniff of approval since the gear tweak means we can go bush whacking again soon.
Until next time.