Fun survival experiences

[Waggy The Geek]

I have never been in a full survival situation, but I have been taught by those who have(I don't know if you are reading this, Wilderness Awareness School, but hi!), and they all have fun stories to tell. Share amazing survival experiences here!

 

[ppine]

There is nothing fun about survival situations.

 

[Waggy The Geek]

There is nothing fun about survival situations.

not true! If it is intentional and planned, it can be a very entertaining and enlightening situation.

 

[oldsarge]

Survival training, which is intentional and planned can be fun. I agree with ppine. True survival situations are not fun.

 

[ppine]

Waggy,
No one plans intentional survival situations. If you are young we will give you a free pass until you get more experience. Do not confuse "survival" with some of the stuff you see on television with cameras, a script and people behind the scenes.

I would be leery of an outfit called the Wilderness Awareness School.

 

[Waggy The Geek]

it's when you go out into the woods for a week or so, but didn't pack anything. Why are you all so prepper-y? So negative?

 

[Grandpa]

A dire survival situation for one person may just be an inconvenient afternoon for one who is physically and mentally trained to adjust to the situation. Any training at all is good and the more the better if you are going to spend time in the wilderness. Take it from an "expert", (expert = someone who has survived his own stupid mistakes) If you desire to learn survival skills, learn from an expert, not by trial and error. Looking at the website for your wilderness awareness school, the many short courses available should give you a good idea if your money is being well spent after just one or two classes. However, we hear often of graduates of these type schools that wander off to "live of the land for a week or two" who never return. It is a lifelong learning process with no set graduation date. Try a class or two but never assume you are ready to survive. Avoid letting yourself get put in a survival situation.

 

[Waggy The Geek]

guys. I'm not an idiot. I just know that there are people who do these things, experts, and I was wondering if any of these people would be willing to share stories from their experiences. Of you are not here to share a fun story, please leave.

 

[Grandpa]

Sorry to offend you Waggy. Survival experiences are not fun. Try reading the thread "Vegetarian eaten by animals"... you can just use the search key here to find it. There are several experienced survival experts in here. I just taught a class this past weekend to a bunch of boy scouts. I told many stories to back up what I was teaching. Most of those stories were not fun and did not have a happy ending. But you are sounding too much like Johnathon Crooms Dustin Self, and their teacher, McCandless himself. By all means take classes to learn more about survival but don't ever think that it is fun. If someone has been telling you "funny" survival stories, they were not really in a survival situation.

 

[Grandpa]

Okay here is a funny story that happened this weekend. We took some boy scouts on a "winter survival" campout. We really don't have much snow here. We made it up the canyon to about 6500 feet and found a nice little shaded area where there was still a foot of snow. Using shovels, the boys piled the snow up to make a "snow trenches" because there was no way to get enough to make caves. Some of the boys hiked down to the river to cut willows to bend over their trench for a roof. One boy just had to check out the ice on the Blackfoot River. He tapped with one foot, solid, then tapped with both feet and splash, in he went up to his hips. Luckily, the outside temp was nearly 60 degrees, the others quickly got the wet clothes off and shared their own layers to get dry back on him. In this situation, everyone had a good laugh (except the wet kid) and we had plenty of ammunition to teach some vital lessons.

 

[oldsarge]

it's when you go out into the woods for a week or so, but didn't pack anything. Why are you all so prepper-y? So negative?

I don't think anyone is being negative...just trying to put things in perspective. People sharing a survival experience are sharing the finer points of what allowed them to endure the situation in order to educate others. As grandpa said " Most of those stories were not fun and did not have a happy ending". That being said, I can recount a time during a survival training class where late one night as we slept, we heard the unmistakable sound of a body impacting the ground. Seems that one students home made hammock of vines couldn't handle his weight and snapped. I don't care who you are...that sh**'s funny!

 

[Grandpa]

As I said earlier, one mans dire survival moment is another mans slight inconvenience. I've told the story before about finding the heavily forested trail that hadn't been cleared while elk hunting. We had made a 30 mile horseshoe shaped loop that day and just had the last 4 miles to get back to camp. The map showed the clogged trail would eventually get back to the ridge above us so we worked our way straight up through the snow. Horses had a tough time of it. By the time we got to the ridge it was near dark and we knew we couldn't trust the trail. There was a nice copse of fir on the lee side of the ridge so we got the horses in out of the wind. I found a big downed tree nearby which gave us plenty of wood and a nice reflector for a fire. It took about a minute to get a good fire going while Bob rubbed the horses down. Bob was in near panic mode. He later told me if it hadn't been for the fire he would have lost it completely. I really wasn't a bit worried, been there done that. I knew a little melted snow with the pine ash floaties would ease the hunger and that morning would bring light to find our way out of there. Bob was so upset he was sweating. I just wrapped up in my poncho and went to sleep while Bob stayed awake and kept the fire blazing bright. His panic gave me a good nights sleep. I woke about 2 or 3 and tried to get him to take my place while I tended the fire but he would have none of it. I stayed awake then, talking to him to ease his fear. For me it was humorous but for him it was one step from freezing to death. I ran into Bob at a funeral just a couple months ago. After the howdy doo's he turned to our wives and recounted how scared he was that night, forty years ago. The fire was the thing that kept him from totally going into panic mode. He still couldn't understand how I was so calm through it all.

 

[ppine]

Thanks to Grandpa for filling in some of the blanks.

 

[Waggy The Geek]

maybe it would be better if I said enjoyable to the listener instead of fun. I most definitely did not mean funny.

 

[ppine]

Grandpa is right. People have much different ideas of what a tough day in the outdoors is really like. Last year I planned to take a friend fishing in late November in my 19' power boat on a big lake. The weather forecast was not so good. I asked him if he still wanted to go and my friend says "I am a fearless fisherman." I chose a smaller lake only a few miles across, and it got rough in the afternoon with horizontal rain. We were the only boat out there. I heard from some people I know that the friend's recounting of the day of fishing included the words "we almost died." So much for fearless fishermen.

 

[Pathfinder1]

it's when you go out into the woods for a week or so, but didn't pack anything. Why are you all so prepper-y? So negative?

Hi...
Going afield for a week (or so), and 'packing' "nothing"...would make for some good training...for which you would have to have some experienced instructors...!! Summer might be easy...Spring and Fall will need additional skills...and Winter (cold, with snow on the ground)...takes special expertise...ESPECIALLY with "no gear"...!! If you can make it through all seasons...THEN you will have GOOD outdoor skills...!!

 

[dinosaur]

I've hesitated to post here but I've been in several survival situations. I didn't plan them. They happened. As ppine said: there is nothing fun about survival situations. You adapt and overcome. The military can train you for some of it but that is pretty rudimentary. It takes a while to develop the skills necessary to do it well. I got most of my training from my Dad before I reached puberty. It worked or I never would have lived this long. My Dad actually taught survival training when he was in the Army. God bless him, I'm still here.

I think what Waggy the Geek is talking about is a supervised survival situation. I'd be more than happy to put you through a really nasty course on survival. I won't let you die but that doesn't mean you won't suffer.

The best thing about surviving is that once it is over it becomes funny. We laugh about it. I love to laugh and I can laugh about the bad situations I've been in only because they are over. I don't need any reminders to make me dream about them in my sleep. It sucked. I fought it. I won. It's over.

You want to learn about it? Fine. I could teach you but you probably won't like it. It sucks.

 

[ppine]

I have been watching Dual Survival lately. I like Matt Graham a lot and learn stuff from him. A recent episode was on a volcanic tropical island with precip they said was 350 inches.

They happened to kill a pig and find some land crabs. They could start a fire in the rain. Maybe this is real and maybe it isn't but it gives the casual observer the wrong impression. Even really experienced people go through long periods of being cold, wet, thirsty, uncomfortable, and especially hungry. Misery does not sell, so we don't see much of it. We get the edited version which makes it all look so easy. It ain't.

 

[ppine]

I would be willing to sign up for a long trip with the three guys above because they get it.

 

[ppine]

For anyone that still thinks survival is fun, I suggest watching some old re-runs of Naked and Afraid. It is a peculiar show in some ways, but it is one of the only ones that keeps people out there for three weeks. It shows plenty of misery, depression, arguing, starvation, and suffering from the cold. Lots of people are evacuated out for medical problems. I like the show for those reasons. They are willing to show the bad parts, instead of the "survival vacation" that some people fantasize about.