Rods Rangers

    Rods  Rangers    -   Leave no trace

Our history

We are Rods Rangers we choose his name and have made it ours as a mark of respect for one of the greatest backwoodsman that ever lived,  a true Ghost Walker.  We started with our first independent camping trip in a very large rear garden,  to test out our kit,  packing our ex-school backpacks with everything we thought we needed or might want for a night in the wilds and were bitten by the great outdoors bug,  with no equipment and no money to move forward from an Argos tent which came with two sleeping bags,  which were only intended for summer use in a rear garden.  Plus a couple of pots,  two plates and two mugs,  an ex-army hexamine stove and a couple of old square mess tins and our shiny new sheaf knives.  Rod did not pour mockery on our kit nor fill our ears with loads of advice,  tips and complicated teaching,  instead he just kindly and gently guided us into a direction which changed us from a couple of young lads mucking about in a rear garden and hoping to go camping in the wilds into the beginnings of backwoodsmen.  We did not know or realise just how expert and knowledgeable he was and is.  In fact it was a long while after our first camping trip,  before we discovered just how knowledgeable and wise to nature and the outdoors,  he is and how good he was in any wilderness or wilds and woods and forests.  Until a long while later when we got reading more about survivalists and outdoors people.  Yes we knew he fished,  hunted and shot a lot,  sure others told us how good he was with any  weapon,  but in those early days we never dreamed just how good,  he had never been one to advertise or even talk much about his past and what he had done and been through,  instead he let us make a few mistakes and watched as we learned the right way around our mistakes with his gentle advice,  guidance and lots of encouragement.  Rod never stopped us buying some items of cheap kit as it was all we could hope to afford and only smiling when we bought two very large ex-us military deployment kit bags his only real comment was that he thought that they were very large, which was very true as each of us could get inside and hide ourselves in our own bags.  We used those bags for a very long while,  I bought an ex-German sniper sleeping bag and a fellow Rods Ranger bought an ex-British army one.  naturally enough we were desperate to get out into the wilds and explore,   not realising that even our exploring was encouraged or discouraged and directed so as to move us towards a then hidden goal of becoming true backwoodsmen.  Rod painstakingly spent a long while teaching us to put razor edges on our knives and axes,  both at home and in the outdoors.  He taught us what to look for in knife construction metals,  hardness,  handle materials and overall knife design,  coupled with quality of workmanship and suitability of purpose.  Always he encouraged us to expand our knowledge and understanding and to develop our skills and abilities.  We learned to look for ways to expand the usefulness of each item we bought.

The reality

After several years of keeping quiet and staying out of any spotlights,  we have finally decided enough is enough,  it is time someone spoke up with a few words of caution for the novices and beginners with a few honest and sensible pointers and backed it up with real sound advice and real photographs taken by the men and women who actually practice what they say and write about.  Don’t just read a book or two and think that is that,  go for walks in the countryside,  explore the woods and the wild places,  you don’t have to sleep out.  Most important is learning how to use each piece of kit you buy properly then comes developing skills and abilities before you commit yourself to spending some time sleeping out because  when you are in the in the woods and the wilds,  remember nature does not listen and she certainly takes no prisoners.  Rod the man who got us going in the right direction and has guided us all and taught us does not run courses,  he does not sell kit,  he has not been looking to make money out of us because he is the real thing and without side,  whose often used the words  "I don't teach I just allow you to learn and teach yourselves."