Masonboro Island Survival Trip

EMT_Lee

EMT_Lee

Joined
Feb 6, 2009
Messages
2,281
So, me and Joezilla went on a 3 day trip to Masonboro Island off the coast of North Carolina to try and primitve camp with minimal supplies. PSK, neck knife, and a chopper were the majority of the gear. Granted, we took some water and a couple other odds and ends, but we roughed it.

Masonboro Island is on accesable by boat, so we had to kayak/canoe out to it. Well, we ended up getting caught out at low tide, so we had to drag the boats through thick marshy mud the last leg of the journey. It was pretty rough, and I was wearing leather flipflops. So, my feet got pretty trashed. We did manage to gather some clams on the way, though, and a crab. For those who dont know, clam beds are full of old clam shells which are razor sharp. Pretty hazardous to walk across. Anyways, on to some pictures...

Here's Joe showing his PSK before we headed off
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Here's my view getting to the island
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Here's Joe digging for clams. Fun, but dirty!
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Here's Joe foraging in the little patch of woods that were on the island
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My neck knife, the Izula
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More to come...
 
Here's the clams we gathered. They are in a sink that we found on the beach, and used as a bowl for the remainder of the trip.
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Here's a view down the island from our camp. It's cool to be on such an isolated beach.
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Izula on the beach!
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Here's our firepit. The bottom is lined with sea shells.
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Joe setting up our grill. Made from stiff reeds found growing in the dunes.
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And our clams cooking on the grill
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This is all the pictures I got, which missed a lot of stuff. I forgot to change batteries before the trip. However, Joe will be along and he's got more pictures (and some video). The trip was a blast. Thanks for looking!
 
Rockywolf said:
Looks like a blast! Talk more about your gear, please.
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Gear was very minimal. A neck knife (RC Izula), a chopper (Gerber camp axe), and a PSK. My PSK was a Pelican Case 1020, mainly with fire starting gear (Fatwood, jute twine, tin foil, etc.). It also contained fishing equipment housed in a Camel Snus tin, as well as a trash bag, salt/pepper packets, bandaids/steri strips, and a mini bic, etc. Water was two 5-gallon bags.

Granted, I also had a backup pack with me, just in case. It had a dry change of clothes, poncho, wound kit, jerky, tarp, etc.

But, the entire point of the trip was minimal gear in a harsh setting. So, there was not a lot of gear to speak of. The island itself was pretty barren, mostly just beach without shade or shelter. There were inlets around the island, though, that provided us with crabs and clams to eat! Joe had a similar PSK, a custom neck knife, and a Condor machete.

We also had one of JK's Hudson Bay knives that he sent along for us to test out. Joe has the pics for that, though.
 
Rockywolf said:
So you used the tarp as shelter? How did you rig it? What did you sleep on/in?
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No, we did not use a tarp as shelter. The tarp was there "just in case". We slept on the sand, under the stars. I chose to sleep behind a dune, to have a barrier from the wind.

During the hotest part of the day, we foraged around and found enough driftwood/logs to set us as a shelter and used the shell from the boat sink (shown holding the clams) as a base. I dont have a picture of the shade-shelter, though, because my camera died. But, it was just used to sit under during down-time in the -really- baking sun.
 
Sounds like alot of fun. I remember being at the National Training Center (ft erwin) in Cali a few years ago with nothing but my Spyderco Endura. Myself and another was placed out in the open desert with our clothes on and one 5 gal. water jug. 8am till like 4am. Hot as hell during the day. I found some old Commo wire and tied it to the small scrub bushes (tied lower there tough) and cut alot of bush and made a shelter. We did this for a week. At one point I dug out a old foxhole to help keep the sun off. It was so cold at night. It truly SUCKEDDD. I will never forget it. Or the SOB that stuck us out there.
 
will post pics when I get a chance. Packing right now.
 
caine said:
Sounds like alot of fun. I remember being at the National Training Center (ft erwin) in Cali a few years ago with nothing but my Spyderco Endura. Myself and another was placed out in the open desert with our clothes on and one 5 gal. water jug. 8am till like 4am. Hot as hell during the day. I found some old Commo wire and tied it to the small scrub bushes (tied lower there tough) and cut alot of bush and made a shelter. We did this for a week. At one point I dug out a old foxhole to help keep the sun off. It was so cold at night. It truly SUCKEDDD. I will never forget it. Or the SOB that stuck us out there.
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I'll get to that mineral mountain review at some point dude! Its a time thing. I've had it for years now and it works great.
 
I'll post more text later! I'm going 100 MPh right now, sorry guys
 
You can almost see my nuts in one of those pics. Now, that would have been a treat for everyone.
 
nice pics guys.. its been a long time since i have been on the island. good idea on the clam grill as well.. how much water did you get out of that solar?

oh and why did the wildlife officer stop you guys??
 
great stuff guys...:thumbup: looks like a lot of fun...

Lee--- duuude... i thought my farmers tan was bad...:eek:
 
hung-solo said:
nice pics guys.. its been a long time since i have been on the island. good idea on the clam grill as well.. how much water did you get out of that solar?

oh and why did the wildlife officer stop you guys??
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He was tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty... :p
 
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