Primitive Pottery and Cooking

Back in late November my crew mate Rosy and I gathered clay from a canyon on one of our day hikes. The clay had washed down through the middle of the canyon. Clay particles, being lighter than sand and dirt, settled on top then dried and cracked. When we gathered it we simply brushed off sand from the bottom of the piece. No purification was necessary.

After gathering the dry clay we put it in a bucket and broke it up into small pieces. We then added water to liquefy it. The clay sat in the bucket (with lid on) until about 2 1/2 weeks ago when we finally decided to use it.

Pure clay pieces gathered from the canyon.


The first thing we needed to do was figure out how much temper material to put into the clay. We used sand from the yard as temper material. Temper is added to the clay to prevent shrinkage when drying and thermal shock when exposed to fire. To figure this out I experimented with different percentages of temper using instructions from practicalprimitive.com. In the picture below, the five disks in the upper left corner each have a different percentage of temper from 0%-40%. After air drying them for several days it turned out that they all seemed good. None cracked (too little temper) or crumbled (too much temper).

It wasn't as easy making pots as I hoped. The toughest part for me was adding new coils of clay to a pot and getting it to adhere without squeezing so much that I made the pot too thin. All the creations pictured have 0% temper (which is best for holding water) except the one at bottom center. It was about 20% tempered. My hope was to make it into a cooking vessel. Inside it are beads and a three-legged (one leg fell off) turtle pendant I made. At bottom left is a combination plate/pot lid that I cracked by accident during the drying phase. At top center is a pipe that Kevin made. At top right is Rosy's teapot. The bottom right pot Rosy made using another bowl as a mold.



I meant to add some designs to my creations by pressing leaves on them but I missed that part of the drying phase overnight. I used a spoon to burnish them the best I could which aligned the clay particles making it shiny and better for holding water. After a day of drying some of the pots had small cracks in them. I used leftover clay to patch up mine. It is recommended to dry pots at least a couple days and preferably two weeks. Knowing that the climate is so dry here we probably could have gotten away with 2 days if we wanted. Instead we waited till we got back from our next hitch giving them about two weeks to dry.

From everything I heard and read about firing pots I had the impression that the chances of pots cracking or blowing off chunks during firing was really good so I fully expected to walk away with nothing but the experience. On the firing day there was pretty gusty wind which was bad since sudden changes of temperature (thermal shock) cause cracking and shattering. To counteract this, we set up a wind block as seen in the pictures.

To start we set the pots by the fire to warm them up. Over the course of an hour we gradually moved them closer and rotated them. The goal was to drive out the remaining atmospheric moisture. Heating too fast can cause moisture in the pot to boil which causes shattering.



After the pots were warmed up and dried, we raked the fire out into a ring and put the pots in the middle where the fire had been. For the next three hours we gradually moved the ring of fire in closer until it was totally on top of the pots.

Here you can see how the pots changed color during firing.

I dropped a piece of glass in the fire to test the temperature. Supposedly if you can melt glass then it is hot enough for clay. Unfortunately it melted on a few of the pots. Near the end of the four hours we added a lot of small wood to spike the heat up. Then we let the fire die naturally.



The following day we checked the pots. To our satisfaction none had shattered. All of them had some amount of cracking which isn't surprising given they cracked during the air drying phase. Despite a few hairline cracks, my little cup held water. My cooking vessel dripped water from the bottom, but I was able to cook up a couple eggs in it. It appears the eggs plugged up the cracks too because it now holds water. Overall it was a great success.



While we waited for the fire to die we took the opportunity to cook some meat on the coals. No need for a grill, oven or pan. The coals flake right off.



I also experimented with cooking ash cakes. I mixed flour, cornmeal, raisins and sunflower seeds together with water to make patties. I threw them onto the white ash and a few minutes later they were ready to eat. For more information about how to make them check out the ash cakes article at practicalprimitive.com.

The Body Hollow

Every since reading Practical Primitive's article about the body hollow shelter, I've wanted to build one. Sitting in the backyard one day not long ago I gazed upon the large pile of tree branches given to us by our neighbor. Then I glanced at the yard composed of sand. The words "build a shelter" popped into my head.

In the desert of the southwest there are few trees. Those that are around don't have leaves suitable to build a shelter like the debris hut. So one way to make a shelter is to dig and make it underground. The body hollow is basically half underground and half above ground.

For excellent instructions on how to build one, go to the link in the first paragraph. It has a great series of pictures. I won't try to recreate that here, but I'll tell you my experience.

I used a shovel to dig out the trench. My neighbor thought I was digging a grave until I explained what I was doing. Since the soil was pretty soft and I didn't have to dig very deep, this didn't take too long. The trench is the length of my body.



I filled the trench about half full with debris (leaves, needles and other detritus), then laid sticks across the trench. After that I started adding more debris on top. I made a little A-frame at the entrance to make it easier to crawl into.



I scrounged around every corner of the property to find debris. I even crossed the street to a vacant property and stole a binful of leaves. I laid sticks on top to keep them from blowing away. In front of the entrance is a ball of pine needles to plug up the doorway after crawling in.



The shelter should really have another foot of debris on top of it but I just didn't have the resources for that without opening a leaf raking business. If I could have I would also have filled the inside up so that I'd have to burrow in. I tried to sleep in it two nights. Both nights I made it through about 3 hours before bailing. The first night it was 47 degrees when I crawled out. Inside the shelter I was a little cold, but I could have toughed it out if I had to. It was definitely warmer than 47. At least the bedding was comfortable to sleep on.

Since I don't plan to gather more debris, I'm going to wait till the weather gets warmer before I try again. I think I could do mid-50s. If I were to do it again I'd probably try to lower the roof over my legs to make less air space for my body to have to heat up.

Spring Time in the Mojave

How lucky I am to be interning in the Mojave this year. Weeks ago I heard that do to the relatively copious amount of rain this winter that the flower bloom should be the greatest in 5 or more years. My crew and I got to experience the bloom for 5 days of hiking last week. I took pictures of many of the 30-40 flower species I saw.

Hairy Sand Verbena


A type of Phacelia


Various flowers including a few types of primrose and Hairy Sand Verbena


Desert Dandelion


Yellow Cups


Purple Mat and Cooper Goldflower



On one of our hikes I came across these awesomely huge yucca plants that I'd never seen before.

Giant Nolina (approximately 12 feet tall)


Giant Nolina



The hibernating creatures have also started to emerge from hiding. I also almost stepped on a snake while hiking. He was out sunning himself and didn't notice me. It wasn't a rattlesnake thankfully. It was just a little guy that I haven't identified. It's definitely an exciting time in the desert!

Hitch #10: Pacific Crest Trail Monitoring

For our 10th hitch my crew was tasked with monitoring/inventorying the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). We split into two teams to cut the amount of trail to monitor into two 47 miles sections. Rosy and I volunteered for the southern section which was supposed to be tougher because of the lack of water sources, the heat and the numerous OHV (off-highway vehicle) intrusions on the trail. That left Miz, Monika and Kevin for the northern section. The plan was to meet at a spring in between the two starting points in 5 days.

A map I made of Rosy's and my trip using the GPS data we collected. I plotted the OHV intrusions (yellow dots) to give you and idea of how bad a problem it is.


Our packs were heavy because we had to carry water for two and a half days for drinking and cooking. Our first guaranteed water was 22 miles from the start. Adding more weight was the extra gear we had to take to perform the monitoring including the GPS device with extra batteries and charging equipment, a heavy two way radio and a thick pack of paper to take notes on. To add even more weight we had to carry a sizable first aid kit and water filter. Our saving grace was that after 32 miles we crossed a major highway where we left our truck with half our water, food and gear. The other crew had to carry everything from the start although they split gear between three people and didn't have to carry as much water since there were more water sources.

The first day we met at the field office and talked with the BLM folk about the mission. After all the discussion, planning and driving we made it to the trailhead at about 2:30pm. We got in about 5 miles that afternoon which was nice because that day didn't count towards our 5 days. We realized that night that neither of us knew how to work our stove very well. Either that or the pump was broken. We never got it to work during the trip. We opted to make a small cooking fire instead which worked well. We also realized that our radio didn't work so we wouldn't be able to communicate for our 6pm check-in with the other team.

The next day we headed from the valley into the hills. It wasn't long before we were stopping every 50-100 meters to collect data on an OHV intrusion. You can see in the map above the mass of yellow dots between the first two camp sites. It was really ridiculous how many there were. If we were really to mark every one we would have stopped even more frequently.

Dirtbikers tearing up a whole new area! They are considered the greatest threat to the Desert if not all wilderness areas in the US.


It was often a challenge to stay on the PCT because OHVers had made it indistinguishable from their trails in many places. We came to a small hill that had a route on either side and one going straight over. Since there was no route marker we choose the right path which ended up being the wrong route. After awhile we discovered this and found our way back to the trail.

Also in this area there were many trail washouts. The trail was completely gone due to erosion. Most washouts occurred in a sandy section where it is nearly impossible to maintain a trail. It was not easy walking through these with heavy packs.

One of the 23 washouts we hiked through and documented. The whole trail is sloped with no horizontal surface to walk on and in the middle you can't even see signs of a trail anymore.


Near the end of the day we approached a higher elevation (>5000 ft) area and came across our first snow. Since we got to it late in the day it was soft and we sunk in most steps we took.

Rosy knee deep


Fortunately, we were able to find a pretty nice clearing to set up camp. As we were running low on water we improvised and melted snow for our cooking water and a little to drink as well.

Night 2 camp site


The following day we started out in the higher elevation pine forest with hopes that we'd seen the last of the OHV intrusions. At this point we had entered the radius of the burn area from the August 07 fire. Unfortunately the OHV intrusions didn't cease. As it turns out OHVers like to destroy forests as well as deserts!

Many OHV intrusions and burned up signs combined for a very hard to find trail. At one point we found ourselves at a dead end looking down a very steep slope and we knew at that point we weren't on the trail anymore. We looked out into the distance and saw that the trail was actually about 300 meters away on the next ridge. We decided to stop taking line data at that point until we were back on the trail. In the map above you can see the break in the red line between night 2 and 3.

In the afternoon we descended out of the mountains and into an extremely windy valley where there were hundreds of wind turbines. Here we arrived at our first water source. Originally we had planned to camp there but we got there early and since it was cold and windy, sitting around camp wouldn't be fun. We hiked on into the wind. It was about 4pm although the cloud cover made it seem like dusk when we found a refuge from the wind. We camped in a perfect ditch/wash with a large thicket for a wind block and firewood.

The morning we had a short 5 mile hike to highway 58 where our vehicle was stashed. Unfortunately our GPS battery died so didn't get data for that stretch. We made it to the truck before 10 AM and gorged ourselves on extra food we had stashed there. Since we only had 16 more miles to the rendezvous point and two days to get there we decided to take the rest of the day off. We spent the night at a county park in the mountains where we had a hell of a time starting a fire. The wood was so damp from the snow melt that it took us three tries to get one going even with the stove gas. Even then we had to constantly fan it to keep it going. Thankfully we only needed to bring water to a boil for the meal we ate.

The next morning we drove back to 58 and started the last leg of our journey. After a 1 mile flat section the next 6 miles were uphill. Eventually the trail leveled off as we hiked along a ridge. At one point on the trail we came across some interesting tracks. They were about 3 inches long and wide. I saw no claw marks present so I determined that they were Mountain Lion tracks. I didn't take the time to take a really good picture, but maybe you can see a track in the picture below.

A Mountain Lion track?


The next day we hiked 5 miles to the rendezvous point arriving early at about 10 AM. The original plan was for us all to hike 16 miles back to our vehicle at 58 the following morning. We arrived early hoping that the other team would be there too so we could knock off some miles making the final day less than 16 miles.

When we got to the meeting point it was a relief to see their camp set up. After all we hadn't communicated with them as planned for 5 days since our radio didn't work. They were however no where to be found. We sat around all day waiting for them. We were a little upset that they blew our chance to cut our 16 mile day down to 10 or 12.

When they finally came back we heard their interesting story. It turns out that 20 miles into their trip they were in such deep snow that they routinely lost the trail and had wet, cold feet all day. The final straw was when they woke up and there boots and socks were frozen stiff. They had to start a fire to thaw them out. They bailed on the assignment and hitchhiked to their truck. The beautiful part was that their truck was parked a quarter mile up the road from the rendezvous point so we didn't have to hike the 16 miles to our truck at all.

We drove out and I ate 4 Arby's roast beef sandwiches.

The End

My Cunning* Moccasins

I finished my new pair of moccasins yesterday. They feel great. They feel like thick socks in a way. I customized them to my feet. There's no need to break them in! Three of my crew mates are still working on theirs. We pooled money to buy the materials so we could get a better deal. The materials cost about $25 but there is lots of extra material left over.

I based my pattern on the second one on this webpage: NativeTech. Each moccasin comprises four pieces of leather plus one leather lace. I used buffalo leather for the sole which is about twice as thick as the golden colored deer leather that makes up the rest (upper, cuff, tongue).



Thick buffalo leather for the sole makes the moccasin more durable and comfortable especially in the desert where there exist more prickily plants. Since it is less flexible and more expensive than deer leather I didn't use if for the whole moccasin.

I purposely made the sole piece wrap up off the ground both to protect my feet, but more importantly to protect the stitching. I hope the stitching will last longer since it shouldn't be touching the ground much. The thread is actually artificial thread used for making bowstring so I'm not too worried about it. Another advantage of this design is that when the sole wears out I can replace it without having to make a whole new pair of mocassins. I already cut up a back up pair of soles for this purpose.

As shown in the pattern on the NativeTech page, the edge of the upper piece is folded over before it is stitched to the sole. The thread goes through the upper piece twice before attaching to the sole. This makes for a sturdier connection. In the picture below you can see this.

This picture makes it look like I have a clown shoe on.


For the lacing, I cut a long thin strip of leather. I chose to have the mocassins lace up like shoes. The lace zig-zags through the tongue piece and pulls the cuff piece tight. I like this style because no lacing has to wrap around the back of my heel or leg. My first pair of mocassins had a lacing that wrapped around my achiles tendon which was awkward for movement.

While I'm not thrilled about the golden yellow color (I was hoping it would be colored more like the sole), I am pleased with the design, fit and comfort. I plan to try them out in the field soon.

*Inside joke: When playing our homemade game of Apples to Apples, my green card was "cunning" to which "moccasins" was my best option.