Pickle Meadows info

[RoyalM]

I'm opening this thread in an attempt to gain some knowledge of what i'll be up against in a couple of weeks time.

I'm in the Royal Marine Reserve here in the UK and we're conducting an exercise based at Pickle Meadows. It's 21 miles northwest of Bridgeport.
LINK

I've been here before but later in the year, around November time, and find myself wandering what to expect this time.

So any info on daily temperature, precipitation (if any), average sunset and sunrise times, any midgies/mosquitoes, plants or animals to avoid, kit I should take think knives/boots/saws...............etc.

If you think it may come in handy then post it here.

Thanks all in advance.

 

[WILLIAM.M]

http://stevenojai.tripod.com/westwalker.htm

 

[dawsonbob]

I'm going back a long way here, RoyalM. I went through Pickle Meadows three different times (back when dinosaurs roamed, and the earth was young): once for a winter survival course (they of course sent me back to the hot Vietnam jungles afterwards), once for a summer survival course, and once for a mountain leadership course (still not sure what that one was about, but junior officers just go where they're told to go).

As I remember it you have the valley where the compound is, and everything else is vertical. It's very rugged mountainous terrain. In the winter it was cold, of course, but really pretty (except while humping a pack, or trying to evade the instructors in that portion of the course). You don't care about that, of course, because you'll be going in the summer. If I remember it correctly, I went in late mid to late June. Oddly enough there were still small patches of snow some places in the higher elevations, but it was very hot in the valley most of the time. I remember there being mosquitos, but not heavy concentrations of them (I'd just come back from my first tour in Vietnam, so anything less than thick clouds of mosquitos would have seemed light to me).

I don't remember there being any other insects that were terribly bothersome at that time.

As far as plants to watch out for; there are some patches of poison oak around, but the training cadre will warn you of those.

Snakes: There were quite a few rattlesnakes in the area, although we never had any problems (I only saw two).

As far as kit, I'm not sure which course you're going through, so I couldn't really tell you. For the mountain warfare course or leadership school, you might be able to bring some of your own kit. Good boots are a must in that terrain. I would make sure that I had a good knife, too. A saw would be nice, but I don't know if they'll allow it nowadays.

If, on the other hand, you're going through the EE&S course, then don't worry about it. They're going to take away everything you have, anyway.

I really can't remember much more that I can tell you. After all, it's been almost 45 years since I was there.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.