lil survival outing (pic Heavy)

RescueRiley

RescueRiley

Joined
Mar 22, 2006
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Went otu with Tonym for a project we are working on..the task at hand was to spend 24 hours in the bush with nothing but a knife and what we could fit into an altoids tin
Here's a few pics

Here's Tony gathering some cedar bark for tinder on the way in
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Here he is doing a little chopping for our shelter
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We used some wytthes collected ont he way in for some support lashings
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after we laid down about a 10 inch thick layer of hemlock on the ground
we began to build up the shelter
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The completesd leanto with reflective fire wall
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My spread for sexy woodsman magazine
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Tonym carving a bowdrill set from wood found on the way in
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making a fire lay
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With the shelter done and tony woking on fire I decided to work on setting some traps..so Icarved up a bunch of figure 4's
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Tony nails the bowdrill
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Seeing how much fun I was having with trapping TOny decided to make an arapuca courtesy of picts great instructions
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after that we headed to the lake to colec some water (in an oven bag from the psk) and try our hands at some fishing
Tony used a kit frm his altoids tin and I rigged up a framed cast net from a ts-shirt and a twig
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We where both unsuccessful so Tony made a fish spear
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The rest of the Night was spent around the fire by the shelter
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The temps dipped down into the high 30's and we got pretty cold But we learned allot and had an incredible time.. Kuruptd was kind enough to come along and be a photographer.. so with the 2 of them I couldnt ask for better company.. hope you enjoy the pics

We got allot of great video fotage, once we sort through it all we'll create a montage which I think will turn out well. I'll post a link in a week or 2 when it;s done.
 
Looks (and sounds) like you had a bunch of fun. Thanks for sharing the pics with us. I really need to practice more of the fishing out of my fishing kit. It is a fun activity fishing out of it.
 
Good show guys. I'm still trying to work out why Tony and John wouldn't even look at each other the next morning all awkward.:D
 
Great photos! Good skills practice guys. Looks like Tony gave that RC-5 a good workout.
 
Now we're talkin! Good stuff guys. That's a very handsome shelter indeed, lots of work goes into that. I know you guys have slept in those before; how much do you feel the reflector helped vs without one?

And I'm shocked to see you without that BK7 as your 'one' knife! Is that an izula instead?

Were you able to get any meals out of the traps? One evening/night is a lot to ask of course.
 
Is this a site you'll return to? I wonder about finding and improving a bushcraft camp like this. You know, really exercising those skills and techniques. It could be a fun and rewarding long-term project. :)
 
Thanks for the kind words guys....
only esee knives where permitted to be used on this outing, so while I had another knife with me (blind horse boat tail scandi) Tony and I used only his rc5 and an izula which we traded back and forth.
We did stay in the shelter , as I said it was a 24 hour outing.. and i would not rationalize using green vegetation if I wasn;t planning on using it to keep ma arse warm.
the reflector wall helped a bunch the weather however was wierd it was unseasonably warm evenn the high 50's when we turned in at night.. but around 2:30 it dropped into the high 30's so despite the 15 degree temperature differnece that existed between the outside and the shelter .. it still got very cold without a sleep system.
Mick there is nothing combustible in that pic... everything was soaked like a sponge, and as you can see was cleared away long before it dried.. but thanks for noticing.. experienced eyes have been the valuable resource to me regardless of what I'm trying to learn.
JohnG we will definitely return there...
SPooky, Sadly no meals came out of the traps Not pictured is a multiple snare pole, and a trot line made of a floating board..
but we went int knowing successful trapping in such a short term situation would be fruitless..
by the time we got the shelter and fire tended to and made the traps we had about an hour of daylight left.. I was pretty careful in my choices of lacation for them, but the quarry (squirrels) are active during daylight hours.. so they where up for about an hou and a half ant tnight and an hour in the am before I checked them... had we been there longer I;m sure the would have paid off.. also I would have made more.
 
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Hey fellas you guys kicked @ss - I was really impressed by how much you were able to accomplish in such a short time.
What struck me was how time consuming and labor intensive it is to set up a survival camp and put into perspective
what it would be like to try and survive with just a knife and a PSK. It was amazing to see how much hard work and effort
went into this particular endeavor. The shelter they built was strong, sturdy and pretty comfortable. The skills and overall
knowledge demonstrated by Tony and John was a tremendous learning experience.

Tony : thanks again for lending me your hammock - that thing just rocks :thumbup: (I gotta get one)
 
Excellent trip guys! My son and I are going to try some "winter" (I'm now in GA, so that's quite subjective:D). We will take a little more comfort gear as backup, but we want to limit what we use. I've done it before, but my son (11 years old) hasn't. What you guys did is a big confidence builder...thanks for sharing!

Did both you guys fit in your lean-to? Not trying to make a joke, but did you guys rotate who slept by the fire?

ROCK6
 
Hey Guys, This was done for the ESEE survival contest, so yes we will return to the ste and add to the survival camp. We will be sure to post more pics and allot of video after the contest is done.


Our biggest problem was time. We didn't plan this trip well at all, but hey, how much planning is involved in a survival situation... We should have been out at the spot early in the morning, but instead didn't arrive to the trail head till 11:20am. From there it took us about 2.5 hour hike to find a spot. We did collect materials along the way to help us. The spot we settled for, do to time, was not the greatest. It was dominated by Hemlock and on a 30 degree incline. But it was close to the lake, which was what we wanted. We needed a water supply.
The shelter took over 2 hours to build and it really took allot out of us. It is amazing how weak you can get with no food in you. After the shelter was constructed, John got started on the traps and I got started on the bow drill. We both knew the traps were not going to produce; It was after 4:30 pm by the time we set them and had less than an hour of daylight left. The majority of the squirrell activity we saw was in the decidous forrest which was about a half our hike away. We didn't feel walking there at night to check traps was a good idea. John placed the traps in good locations around sparse nutting trees. But still, they weren't set at the right time. If we had an extra day, we could have set them early, and in better areas.
The friction fire kicked my ass. I found a decent piece of Red Cedar and a nice piece of Poplar to work with. It had rained steady the day before, so both were a little damp, but I have had sucess in the past in worse conditions. However, chopping down little hemlock trees, and all the other work involved with the shelter took alot out of me. After making the hearth and drill out of Cedar, I put them down to collect debri for the shelter. Then when it came time to do the fire, they were gone. I am pretty sure we must have scooped them up with the leaves and sticks we were piling on the shelter..
So I made another set out of the Poplar. I failed at getting the coal about 8 times. I just couldn't provide enough stamina while bowing to generate the heat. I was burning out too fast. So I took a break and built the Arapuca. It was my first Arapuca trap that I built, but It worked perfectly. With my confidence up, and my arm rested, I went back to the bow drill and finally got it.
With the fire going we went down to the lake to collect water. We tried a little fishing with small lures, but to no avail. We messed around making a frog spear, and the trot line, net, and other things just to do it. There were no frogs this part of the lake as it was a steep shore line, and we never even looked for bait for the trot line. Like John said, we just went through the motions.
We turned in about 11:30pm and the temp was probably about 59 degrees. We kept the fire small, and regretted that when we both woke up freezing at 1:30am. The temps plummeted down to the upper 30's. It was a night of sllep a half our, feed the fire, sleep a half hour feed the fire. I would have killed for a cheap mylar space blanket to line the inside of our shelter with...

Anyway, it was learning experience and alot of fun. I would love to try it for 3 day, 2 night trip.

My small PSK consisted of Snare wire, reynolds oven bag, spyderwire fishing line, hooks, split shots, 3 small lures, tiny ferro rod, and a small mirror.

My clothing was a pair of light weight BDU style pants, wool socks, Black tshirt, thermal shirt, and a Fleece pull over.

Oh and since John was sleeping in the shelter with me, I had on my chain linked underwear...


ROCK6 said:
Did both you guys fit in your lean-to? Not trying to make a joke, but did you guys rotate who slept by the fire?

ROCK6
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If anything the shelter was a little too large. We did not rotate, I stayed closer to the fire and fed it all night. John and I originaly had planned to stay away from eachother in the shelter, but as the temp dropped so did our homophobia.. Hell we were practicaly spooning by 5am:p
 
tonym said:
If anything the shelter was a little too large. We did not rotate, I stayed closer to the fire and fed it all night. John and I originaly had planned to stay away from eachother in the shelter, but as the temp dropped so did our homophobia.. Hell we were practicaly spooning by 5am:p
Click to expand...

So who was the back spoon?

:thumbup::D

Moose
 
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