Ideas for wilderness skills practice

D

D25

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Mar 3, 2008
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I am a paramedic, and am going to be sent on a week long stay at one of the wildfires in N. California. Since I'm going to be the medical guy, I won't be allowed to do any firefighting. I anticipate a large amount of down time, and am trying to figure out some wilderness skills to practice/ ways to kill time. My favorite such activity, fire-making is frowned upon in this kind of environment, and I figure that I'll be able to kill a few hours making a nice shelter. After that, I am afraid I will be terribly bored. This is where I need help- throw out some ideas- please.
 
Not sure if trapping is permitted in your area, but you could try and exercise some animal tracking and spend time setting up traps.

Maybe make a bench to go with your shelter.
Get lost and put your skills to test? not suggested, but who knows might be fun. Then again you wont be quite useful now will ya..
 
carving utensils, making bow drill,identify animal tracks...practice survival style fishing or hobo fishing
 
cuphead said:
Not sure if trapping is permitted in your area, but you could try and exercise some animal tracking and spend time setting up traps.

Maybe make a bench to go with your shelter.
Get lost and put your skills to test? not suggested, but who knows might be fun. Then again you wont be quite useful now will ya..
Click to expand...

I was thinking of some trap making, a la Greatful Fred's figure four dead drop, but there is alot of foot traffic around where I'll be, so actually setting something up in a productive location might lead to some really upset firefighters with pulaskis and chainsaws. And practicing navigation would be fun, but probably not conducive to my duties.
 
practice making traps it's one of my favorite activites.,,also tracking, shelter building plant id
 
Take a Plant ID book for your area and you will be busy for days. No matter how much you know, there always seems to be more to learn.
 
I was gonna say the same as brian, plants will keep you busy, There are alot of differant kinds of shelters to practice too, make some utensils, fuzzsticks etc...

Stay safe man.
 
it sounds like you probably will have to be ready to go at the drop of a hat, so perhaps you should stick to book studying for now.

there are many books that are highly recommended and are on my personal list of "to reads" that would probably be good to have and study in your down time. then when you hit home you can start practicing all the new things you have learned the theory for.
 
How 'bout making cordage and containers? These are great skills to have, but many of us rarely have(make) the time to practice them.

-- FLIX
 
finding H20, natural stone knife/hatchett sharpening, basket weaving, cloth making from the same fiber you make cordage out of. (itchy but an outer shell might be cool) bone/stone needles and drill making. flint knapping, charcoal pencils and birch bark paper making. use your home made cordage to make a hammok, as well as a survival self bow.

... well i'm tapped out
 
Thank you very much gentlemen.:thumbup: I have gone from fearing a week of boredom, to hoping I have the opportunity to stay a little longer.
 
When I first started reading this thread my first thought was man in the water drills. Build a knee high fire in fire min or less. Then I as I finished reading I realized that yeah making fires would be a BAD idea. Well something to practice another time.
 
D25 said:
I am a paramedic, and am going to be sent on a week long stay at one of the wildfires in N. California. Since I'm going to be the medical guy, I won't be allowed to do any firefighting. I anticipate a large amount of down time, and am trying to figure out some wilderness skills to practice/ ways to kill time. My favorite such activity, fire-making is frowned upon in this kind of environment, and I figure that I'll be able to kill a few hours making a nice shelter. After that, I am afraid I will be terribly bored. This is where I need help- throw out some ideas- please.
Click to expand...

This might help;

http://wildwoodsurvival.com/

:thumbup:
 
It all depends on what kind of "freedom" you'll have. Will you be confined to an area in a "ready to deploy" state or will you have time to wander about. If you confined then bring some good weed and do some reading and watch some porn and practice making cordage. If you can move about then you can track, build shelters and traps. Either way have fun!!
 
I made it back from lots of nothing going on. Thanks for all of the ideas, they certainly helped me stay sane (ish). Trying to figure out the notches on a figure 4 kept me busy for the better part of a day, but I think I got that down. I spent another couple days or so on shelters- a couple simple debris huts, and a bigger wickiup (I think is the right name- a tepee style frame with walls of brush/ boughs). I did have an opportunity to build a fire on a particularly cold morning when our Division Supervisor took pity on us- I couldn't quite make a bow/drill work though. Here are a few pics of the area-
Blue2066.jpg

Blue2071.jpg


And the smoke-
Blue2047.jpg
 
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More smoke-
Blue2039.jpg

Blue2090.jpg


Oh, and the obligatory knife picture, with the sling that I made from paracord and a section of fire hose. That kept us busy chasing crows and squirrels for hours.
Blue2079.jpg
 
Next time consider learning how to make nets. Excellent survival skill and not just for the obvious - fishing nets. Nets can also be used for catching all kinds of other critters. Nets can be used as containers and carrying bags as was the case with early peoples. Straps and belts (very efficient use of fibre), a base for a ghillie suit, etc.

Not hard to learn and it's actually quite enjoyable. In the situation you described, it would be perfect, because you can stop anytime, put it away, come back and continue on.

Doc
 
wish I would have done more of that when I did oilfield standby in northern alberta. but then being married to a four wheel drive first aid kit (my loving name for my MTC) didn't give me much chance to wander. if I go up again this winter, I'll be taking a book of knots and memorizing some cool ones, and more useful ones.
anywho gotta love that waiting for nothing to happen eh? I can't imagine how bored paramedics get, everything is exiting to us green little EMRs (EMT-B)
 
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