Latest uncomfortable experience: living in the woods alone with a sleeping bag, knife, and water bottle. This weekend I did a survival course that shows you a lot in a compact time: fire-making from those “fast fire” cubes, fire making with nothing but sticks, shelter building for when it’s raining, how to build a trap for small game, what plants to eat, reflector wall builds, boiling water with just a rock and a ziplock bag, etc along with a few lectures on survival in extreme situations. The leader, over his decades of doing this for various forest and rescue teams, couldn’t count the number of times someone would just be out on a trail for a “quick” run or hike, tell no one, and then be stuck overnight with MAYBE a chance to be found. That’d be me-just “on a quick run,” telling no one, twisting my ankle on some obscure trail, then trying not to freeze my ass off. Overall, this course had some solid tactics to know.
At some point in this training, you’re by yourself. They put trackers on you so you’ll not get horridly lost. Now, this is quite a sissy course that doesn’t compare to the 10 days all Alaska courses where you get just a 3-foot piece of string and a knife. (THAT’S it.) But baby steps here. That’s my shelter right there, built from nothing but the sticks and logs and leaves I rummaged around for. It’s an entertainingly humble moment when you’re saying to yourself, “Oooh. Look at that stick. That one’s perfect!” Despite the cold, I had a long and solid sleep in that thing. Some guys apparently were freaked out with spiders and critters, but as I mentioned, this was the sissy course.
All and all, despite my prolonged dislike of camping or albeit “surviving,” I’m glad I did it, and I might consider some more advanced courses.
