For most people, the idea of wilderness survival is mostly an armchair adventure. The average person rarely will see a wilderness,let alone travel in it. Therefore, when people start talking about "survival kits," perhaps they should qualify them, i.e., what is it you think you will have to survive?
Here's a true wilderness survival story from a great classic, John J. Rowlands' "Cache Lake Country." Most people, under the same conditions, would probably have died from exposure. But then, most people never travel the pathways that Rowlands did, except vicariously.
If you know of some good survival stories, maybe this thread would be a good place to share them.
"Sitting around the stove one night when it was chilly enough outside to make the fire feel good, we got to talking about our experiences in the woods. I recalled the time years ago when I capsized while running rapids in a strange stream when I was traveling alone. I had a ten-foot birch bark trapper's canoe, the kind the Indians use, broad and flat in the middle with the ends drawn in pretty fast. They are light and small, but carry a lot of freight. I was on my way south and in a hurry to get home so I decided I would rather take a chance on running the rapids than carry around them. I was almost through when the canoe swung sideways, hit a hidden rock and over I went.
I made shore all right, for my clothing was light and I had moccasins on. I never wear anything else in a canoe for if you go over with boots on your chances of landing are pretty slim. When I began to round up my belongings in the dead water below, all I had left was the canoe with a hole in the bottom, a little can of tea and about a pound of prunes that I had wedged up in the bow to keep them dry during a rainstorm. But the important thing was that I had a little watertight bottle full of matches in my pocket, so I knew I could get along.
After I had patched up the canoe with spruce pitch and bark and got under way, it took me five days to get back to civilization. On an island in one of the lakes I found gulls' nests and, not being a man to turn down anything edible in case of need, I took some of the eggs. Once I got myself a mess of trout by damming a little brook with close-set stakes and driving the fish down into a small pool. Another time I got a single fool hen, knocking it off a spruce by swinging my paddle edgewise so she couldn't see it coming. As luck would have it after I lost my outfit I never laid eyes on a porcupine, the starving man's meat, although usually there are plenty of them around. What I missed most was a little salt on my victuals. As all my pots and pans were gone I had to boil my tea in a little birch bark rogan. I roasted the gulls' eggs which, I can tell you, do not please a man's appetite, since they are so fishy in flavor."
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Hoodoo
And so, to all outdoor folks, the knife is the most important item of equipment.
Ellsworth Jaeger - Wildwood Wisdom
Here's a true wilderness survival story from a great classic, John J. Rowlands' "Cache Lake Country." Most people, under the same conditions, would probably have died from exposure. But then, most people never travel the pathways that Rowlands did, except vicariously.
If you know of some good survival stories, maybe this thread would be a good place to share them.
"Sitting around the stove one night when it was chilly enough outside to make the fire feel good, we got to talking about our experiences in the woods. I recalled the time years ago when I capsized while running rapids in a strange stream when I was traveling alone. I had a ten-foot birch bark trapper's canoe, the kind the Indians use, broad and flat in the middle with the ends drawn in pretty fast. They are light and small, but carry a lot of freight. I was on my way south and in a hurry to get home so I decided I would rather take a chance on running the rapids than carry around them. I was almost through when the canoe swung sideways, hit a hidden rock and over I went.
I made shore all right, for my clothing was light and I had moccasins on. I never wear anything else in a canoe for if you go over with boots on your chances of landing are pretty slim. When I began to round up my belongings in the dead water below, all I had left was the canoe with a hole in the bottom, a little can of tea and about a pound of prunes that I had wedged up in the bow to keep them dry during a rainstorm. But the important thing was that I had a little watertight bottle full of matches in my pocket, so I knew I could get along.
After I had patched up the canoe with spruce pitch and bark and got under way, it took me five days to get back to civilization. On an island in one of the lakes I found gulls' nests and, not being a man to turn down anything edible in case of need, I took some of the eggs. Once I got myself a mess of trout by damming a little brook with close-set stakes and driving the fish down into a small pool. Another time I got a single fool hen, knocking it off a spruce by swinging my paddle edgewise so she couldn't see it coming. As luck would have it after I lost my outfit I never laid eyes on a porcupine, the starving man's meat, although usually there are plenty of them around. What I missed most was a little salt on my victuals. As all my pots and pans were gone I had to boil my tea in a little birch bark rogan. I roasted the gulls' eggs which, I can tell you, do not please a man's appetite, since they are so fishy in flavor."
------------------
Hoodoo
And so, to all outdoor folks, the knife is the most important item of equipment.
Ellsworth Jaeger - Wildwood Wisdom
