Mini survival event
I can’t be the only one here who would like to do what Les Stroud does on Survivorman. I would really love to do the week long thing but realistically it would be very difficult so I am willing to compromise and try a 2 night attempt but with proper gear and food. My plan is to find some place, not a park, to hike in a bit and make camp. I am looking for a nice area with a little stream or river and a hardwood forest to spend a couple of days. I don’t need to be miles deep in the woods but a 1-2 km hike in to make camp would be just right, I only want to get away not lost and I want the camp site to be the focus not the journey. I want to try some of the things that Les does, like start fires without matches and to build a shelter to sleep in and of course I don’t want to do it alone. I am thinking of making it a geocaching event and get a few other cachers to go. The event will be well after dark so in order to log it you will have to stay overnight.
Does anyone have an idea where we could go that would be suitable and allowed. I am sure I could find a spot but someone may have land or know of a place, I kinda want it to be rough and take some work to prepare the site and of course we will clean up and make it look like we were never there, after all I am a Leave No Trace camping trainer so that will be easy to do. I am also planning an overnight event in Fundy Park this winter for the brave.
Any interest? I am thinking about the first weekend in October.
Totally interested.
I’m only interested if I can revert back to my cave man days and only communicate through a series of badly formed grunting noises
like you spoke before you met Tamara?
Women teach men many things 🙂
OH MY SOUL! Les Stroud is my middle name!
I want in I want in I want in!
I think we need to have the strict minimum, as close to him as we can SAFELY get. Meaning that I will go bare bum with nothing but a knife.
We need to talk and get this going. Could be cool if not too close to when my wife will give birth.
For the badly formed grunting noices, I guess I am already there in my everyday life.
I’ve always wanted to eat a campfire grilled squirrel!
Tetagoucher would be a guy to talk to for a good spot.
If Nemo is bare bummed I am less interested.
Paul, remember I can catch squirrels and make fancy European underwear for Nemo to wear and he can eat the rest.
Paul if you are in, then I’ll at least have a G-String, home made like the one good ol Adam was wearing.
I know just the place… I was going to put a cache there but will let you do that. This spot has a brook and a waterfall, and is only 20 minutes outside of the Moncton city limits. I’ll bring up the coordinates for you when I get to my office.
Sweet!!
Looks like the weekend of October 1-2. Will see if I will go out Friday night or just early Saturday morning til Sunday noon so I get back in time to watch football. Will hide a cache instead of making it an event.
I am going out on Monday to check on a site and if it looks good we are a go. Will need to coordinate with who is going and what we will bring, Nemo will bring a knife. So far it is Paul and I going out Friday night and staying til Sunday 10ish. If you want to come out for only one night or the day time that is fine
I will give you the coords.
I’m bringing me some yahtzee! And a microwave.
Can I bring my iPad ? 😉
Looks like Nemo is in for the 2 nights and Didi is very upset that we are taking stuff, she thinks we should go out there with nothing. My plan is to try to do some of the survival things Les does, not actually attempt to live off the land. You can’t find wild beer in NB.
I think that the only thing you guys should be allowed to bring is bear spray.
so, if I see “something” half naked in my back yard, I should NOT get Gerald to shoot it, right? even if it is howling like a coyote? or running with an ipad ?
Please shoot it
With a telephoto lens
Didi tells me to write the following:
“This is not a Survivormen event, at the most it is a Survivorboys event”.
I’ve got a mental picture ingrained in my head now…lol you guys are nuts… funny but nuts. 🙂
Yeah but they are wearing loin cloth
Should have bought the book I wanted at Costco when it was still available: Edible plants in NB. I wonder if some of our insects are poisonous or are they all edible.. Ant soup?
Chapters has those books. Maybe you guys can dowload a survival manual and videos into your iPhones. Not that you’d ever need them.
On October 1 the hunting season opens for the following species: bear, grouse, wabbit, and migratory game birds. If you guys look or sound like any of these creatures then you are considered “fair game” by the local hunters….
I have 3 or 4 survival books that I am bringing for fun and to try out some things.
Why not go in with what you would normally be carrying when you are out geocaching?
Sportsman, we are not all like you, we can’t put on some camo face paint and lie for 8 hours in the grass waiting to jump a deer and slit it’s throat with a pocket knife. On the other hand you do offer an interesting scenario….hhmmmm
I always geocache with a tent in my swag bag. And sleeping bag.
He he he…, But that’s my point exactly. Is it a camping trip with the comfort and security that brings, or is it something else. If it’s something else then to be relavant you’ve got to leave those items behind that make you feel safe. Look at it this way… if you don’t carry it while out caching in the wild places, you don’t need it, right?
Sportsman, I agree with you 100%. I called Rev a wuss when he told me all what he was bringing (last time I talked to him he was bringing a Nintendo). I wanted to go there with nothing but my credit card…..but Rev made a good point: I would not be able to survive for more than 2 hours.
So, what we will do for this time, we’ll go there, and play a bit with some stuff rather than to just do it in our garage: Make fire with my glasses, chew on birch bark, smoke pine needles and throw knifes at Paul. If we get this right, then we will make it harder the next time, then harder, then harder. And hopefully one day, we’ll go out with just nothing but a knife.
Nemo is right (heaven forbid) I want to try out some things to see if possible then slowly remove comfort items over the next few trips out.
Is FEW a big number?
2-3 times a year would be nice.
Darn. I think I get why Paul may not come with us on Friday. Look at the “meteo”, rain rain and rain! Rev, I think I will reassess a day or two before, but if it’s to rain all the time, I am not sure I like the idea of staying under a tarp for a whole weekend! I don’t think my survival skills are there yet!
Nemo, looks like just the two of us on Friday with Paul coming out on Saturday. The showers will be ok as we are in a sheltered spot and the temperatures are going to be perfect so we will be fine. The showers will also keep other people from coming out to our area. Showers are not rain!
If I hide two cans of Chef Boyardee’s Great Mushy Macaroni and “meat” balls under the seat in the truck, just in case, is that cheating? Just in case I cannot digest boiled elderwood roots.
I am bringing food, I want to enjoy the time there not suffer for no reason.
If we discover that we can go without then next time nothing.
Is Zor gonna do this live??
If so I would watch instead of Big Bang Theory
As of 2030 hrs Rev and Nemo are still alive… I just had to stop in to check on them. Their hike from the vehicle to the camp site was a bit shorter than I had expected, but that will be good for when the rains start. At first light tomorrow morning they are going to hunt for something to kill and eat, that may be the first stage of starvation for them… They seem to be happy for the moment with the exception of being a bit nrevous from the sounds of breaking twigs made by the local Critter.
I forgot to mention that they are really roughing it. Their biggest complaint, no cell phone service…
Some how we ended up the the only part of the province that provides no sustenance, not even a track from an animal. I saw one set of Raccoon tracks and one, only one moose track, nothing else. It was the darkest and quietest night I have ever spent in the woods, no birds for lunch. We had a great night (thanks to some friendly company) and morning, tried out some gear and tricks but then the rain started. We were dry and very comfortable but man were we bored….lol. Once the rain got heavy we decided to go home to drink the rest of our beer. Next spring we are going to do a backpack trip, only what we can carry in and go more than 100 feet from the truck.
Here is a little summary of our adventure:
We got there late pm. First thing we did was set up the area where we would sleep, then gathered some wood for the fire, which we started pretty quickly with a magnesium flint. We then “searched” for food sources but found none. We filtered water from the stream and I ended up playing around with a water filter for the first time (my next purchase!). We got supper (canned food placed right in the fire, boiling in no time). We were visited by Zor and Critter and went to sleep relatively early. The following morning we went out hunting for partridge. Not a sign of anything but 3 squirrels, a raccoon and possibly a moose that might have been in the area a few months earlier. Hardly a crow or a chickadee; so more canned food for the rest of the day – I was really looking forward to some blue jay and squirrel casserole! Rev TRIED to cook some bannock but he’s no award-winning pastry chef! However I made some of the best coffee ever using my Kelly Kettle. We played around with some other survival techniques like making fire with a bow (which we did not succeed at doing). We were to get in our shelter for an afternoon nap and then it started to rain harder and harder. We waited for the rain to die down a bit and finally called it quits. We cleaned up the area in the best “leave no trace” way. Next time we will bring way less stuff (like only what we can put in a day pack). Unlike Rev, at no time was I bored as I was in the wild with a good friend! 🙂
Survivorman, are you serious, that man is a menace, good thing his cameraman has real survival training.
Survivor man does it alone, has won awards for his show. He also provides training to the Canadian military, he knows his stuff.
We had a intro course to survival and it was an eye opener.
That silver blanket in a bag, garbage, aside from maybe making a light reflector it is pretty useless.
If you are going to places that a more then 2 hours from madical facilties, build a survival pack and carry it.
Keep in mind most commercial kits are not very good either.
try to use items that are dual or tri usage, less weight and volume
you need shelter, water and fire
For shelter you need a means of cutting branches, a means of securing a framework. Branches will work for the roof but a small tarp keeps both rain and wind out. A bed made from 3′ of bows will more comfortable and warmer then sleeping directly on the ground. You need to stop at least 3 hours before dark to build a shelter, get a fire going and collect enough wood for the night.
Water if fairly heavy so your not likely to carry a lot on you. Carry equipment to collect and purify water from rivers or ponds. this means iodine for water sources that are likely to carry bacteria such as slow moving or still water, especially near communities. For more remote locations, filtering the chunkies out often will suffice, a good field serviceable filter is the best.
Fire, it take s a lot to start a fire and maintain a fire. You can’t always count on a lighter or matches. they can run out of gas or just get damp and not work.
You should carry enhanced matches and another not fuel using method to start a fire. Hurricane matches are built to work in harsh conditions., coated and using more burning material your more apt to get a fire going in a windy situation no matter how old they are. A firesteel fire starter working in harsh conditions as well. a steel rod and scrapper produce intense sparks that when sprayed onto a pile of tinder or enhanced staring materials will ignite easily. Cotton balls loaded with Vaseline work well as an enhanced fire starting material. Prepare a dozen, place in a ziploc bag and you’ll find it easy to start a fire after you gather enough tinder. Hand sanitizer burns well too but be careful with that, the alcohol burns with invisible flames.
firesteel
http://www.mec.ca/AST/ShopMEC/HikingCamping/StovesFuel/FuelAccessories/PRD~5018-751/primus-ignition-steel-fire-starter.jsp
water filter
http://www.mec.ca/AST/ShopMEC/HikingCamping/WaterTreatment/WaterFilters/PRD~5001-239/msr-miniworks-ex-water-filter.jsp
my bad, iodine is for viruses not bacteria. They are more of a concern near civilization.
Your right, he doesn’t have a cameraman persay, just a support crew, so it is one of them that went and took a survival course.
the support crew only does recon to make sure he’s not injured. The don’t interact with him during his week out in the bush.
Well…. not exactly true.
They are not far away AND know where he is.
They maintain daily contact via sat phone.
Before they depart into the area, they (the team) consult locals about what foods are available in the wild and other other local info, terrain, weather patterns, etc.
Bottom line, too many watch and think they are good to go just by virtue of having watched his show and never realize just how fast a situation can turn bad and how ill prepared they are.
like this guy…. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/03/04/2010-03-04_canadian_richard_code_found_dead_after_survivormaninspired_trip_into_wilderness.html
I fail to see the connection between someone making a foolish decision and what Les Stroud’s actual survival skills are. It’s been well established and documented that his show is far more legitimate and with far less support than other shows in the same genre (ie Man vs Wild, etc etc)
Poor guy. Sad story but it amazes me how fast the media targets a popular icon in order to dramatise the article for their own benefit. I usually don’t fall for that.
There is not enough in that little piece of “news” for me to judge on exactly what happened. Maybe this guy really knew what he was doing and something went wrong. Maybe what he did was stupid, who knows.
I may sound really harsh here but some surfers die trying the Big wave for the first time, some rock climbers fall to their death, and some wilderness guys die in the woods. I bet many surfers loved the movie Point Break and I bet many rock climbers loved Cliffhanger; does it make Stallone a menace?
Who really believes that Silence of the Lambs created a surge of cannibalism or that The Big Bang Theory is creating an increase of geeks in the population? Similarly, I do not believe that this poor fellow died because of a TV show.
I watched a show on Discovery Channel last night, called “Curiosity: I, Caveman” with the Super Size Me guy Morgan Spurlock. A show where 10 people, dressed with animal fur and armed with rocks and sticks, try to live for approx 2 weeks just like the cavemen. Because I watched that show last night, will I now head out in the woods for a month dressed up with nothing but the fireplace carpet and equipped with a knife on a broomstick? Come on now….
…hummm….What are you doing next weekend Rev, don’t you have a fake bear fur in your basement? LOL