Me and my childhood friend Riley would do a similar thing. I lived in Tennessee and where I lived there was a small bamboo forest (no joke). To get there we would travel a dried up and vegetation overgrown ditch/river area that was at least 10 feet deep in most areas. Small streams, and ponds were scattered in the paths. We took cheap samurai swords with us into the bamboo forest and practiced chopping them down like in the movies. We wouldn't waste the bamboo, we took the trees home with us and used them to make thing like smoke bombs (dirt), pepper bombs (any hot spices), knife holders (steak knife in a bamboo housing), practice swords, and... incendiary devices (kerosene yeaah Riley once burned his eyebrows off throwing one in a fire which caught my pants and jacket on fire). Those days seem like vivid dream looking back at them. Good simple times of exploration and care free fun.