Survival weekend

[Natty Bumpo]

This is just the sort of thing I have always encouraged people need to do......instead of getting overly fixated on the kinds of things to put into some gear bag.

It is not about equipment as much as it is about skill development and making do and experiencing and overcoming challenges in the woods under a variety of conditions. In other words, it's about developing a confidence as a woodsman.

After the three day trip, de brief yourselves and determine what worked and what didn't work so well and then consider trying ten days in spring or fall where conditions are less predictable.

Don't go roasting chipmunks on sticks....they are tough as **** prepared that way.

 

[treemanx]

Havent done chipmonk a la fire yet, but I have done squirrels that way many times. Tastes just like a little chicken. The key to making sure the meat isnt tough, is not to overcook them. You obviously want to cook them enough to kill any parasites in the meat, but not so much that it makes them turn all woody. Not much of a meal by itself, but three or four will fill you up ok.

Squirrels, chipmonks, rabbits, snakes, birds, fish, frogs, crawdads, bugs, and wild edibles are all on the menu. Gonna be great!

 

[bt97006]

It may be a little early yet but i hope treemanx made out ok and had a good trip. Give us a report on how things went after you come back to civilization.

I've got to get out and do this too. I'm hearing the call of the wild

 

[treemanx]

Well guys, I got back sunday afternoon, and had a great trip! It had been a while since I had gone out like that, and I had never gone out with so much nice gear before. It was a good refresher and learning experience, and definately awesome to get out into the mountains away from everything for a few days. I'll post more of the trip later when I have more time for details. My buddy brought his camera, so I'll hopefully get some of those pics in the email in a day or two and post them. Thanks to everyone whos keeping there eye on me in this thread!

 

[treemanx]

I havent gotten the pics from my buddy yet, but I'll post a few when I get them. As far as the trip, I can boil it down to one lesson learned....

Ive never really had alot of really cool gear to take with me on trips like this, so I never really had this problem before. But now that Ive loaded up over the last few years on all the cool backpacking toys I ever wanted, I found I wanted to take it all with me. Which, as logic dictates, the little packable things that are made small and lightweight for backpacking, all together end up adding up to alot of weight.

My preverbial "eyes were bigger than my stomach" on this trip, and I packed WAY more than I really needed. I weighed my pack before leaving, and it was at around 60 pounds. I didnt think much of it, since I remember packing alot of pack weight on these kinds of trips when I was younger. Well, it turns out that I dont have the same strong body I did when I was 18-20 years old.

The first leg of the journey this weekend was all down hill, and the 60 pound North Face 5200 cubic inch pack I have didnt want to settle its weight onto the waist strap allow my hips carry most of the load. Once we got to our lake, even after being mostly a nice downhill grade, I realized that either my scale was broken, and I had actually packed 700 pounds, or that my body isnt as strong as it used to be. The things I suffered to pack in, made the weekend comfortable, but I thought about moving camp and the trip out on sunday with dread.

I packed my Springy 1911 GI, and my Ruger 10/22LR and had we seen any small critters I would have more than been able to dispatch them for supper. But as it was, all weekend the only thing we saw was one lone chipmonk and we didnt shoot it since it wouldnt have made much of a meal. The fishing sucked, and we had a crawdad trap out in the lake all weekend but all it caught was salamanders. So as far as the eat what you kill part of the weekend, we pretty much killed two MRE's each per day. (plus a little Wild Turkey for me!)

Even though we struck out on a few of the goals we had set for the trip, it was still a great time and good to stretch my legs on the mountain. I definately will be trimming the fat from my pack, so next time will be much less exhausting lugging around a 700 pound pack all over MT Hood.

 

[ORBrit]

So what is on the list of items to be left at home next time?

 

[treemanx]

Anything that doenst have an important use or function, will get dropped. I will have one water filter and a few MP1 water tabs, 2 ways for fire(lighter and Strikeforce), small med kit, canteen and canteen cup, pocket chainsaw, 2 knives, 1 knife sharpening kit, small fishing kit, para cord, extra socks and underwear, whatever food stuffs I decide to bring, like MRE's or mountain house, sleeping bag, bivy, coat. I want to keep the pack down to around 35 to 40 pounds tops. You cant carry a 60+ pound pack around the mountains for long unless your in great physical condition.

 

[Contento]

Nice report Treeman.



I think it's important to note that small game aren't as prevalent as it would seem. Either that or you're scaring them away before you can shoot at 'em!

 

[Ramjet57]

AH, so the throw on the BOB head for the woods and live off the land is a little tougher then we thought (unless you go to that Yahats backyard ) I try to think of how it would be if there were thousands in the woods with you The small and large game could be gone in no time. Although if you trap that game instead of hunting it you might see a lot more

 

[treemanx]

Good point, should have set snares out for the small game. But as I said, this was kind of an exploratory trip. Once I get my pack completely figured out, then I'll start focusing on the next thing. Its important to remember IMHO, that even though we have a lot of "knowledge" about camping and the outdoors, we are always learning.

 

[Ramjet57]

Yes we are allways learning!! And the best way to do that is to get out there, so you done good
Snares are real good for the racoon, coyote, possum, beaver, size of game in fact without a good snare you will probley lose them, and then the snares are really only good for 1 catch, for the small stuff, dead falls are nice as they don't require you to bring them with you, then again you have to have time to make and set them, all considerations, but it is nice to have a trap working for you 24-7.
I have found that trapping is one of those skills that I have just had to spend a lot of time to learn, things like where to set and how to set just seem to take experence. And some things like snaring deer you just can't practice here

Lately I have started taking what I think is the bare minumum for BOB tests and then deciding what I didn't have that I needed, before I used to take all I would like to have and then I had the 50+ pound pack and didn't like it.

 

[speelyei]

When I was about 8 years old, I used an old guitar string to set a snare in the woods behind our house. I forgot about it for a few days, and when I went back to check it, I had killed the neighbors giant orange cat. I was really fond of that cat, and it was really heavy and stiff and not a pretty thing to see. I snuffled and cried and buried it... and never told a soul. I have never set another snare since.

 

[artifactr]

What happened to the 'eat what ya catch' mantra? haha.. sorry man. bad joke but I couldn't resist.

 

[treemanx]

Yeah, we just didnt get done what we wanted to with the trip. Shoulda been setting snares, hiking up to the lakes that had fish, and going on more hunts with the rifles.