Thought I'd share

[billdawg]

I just got done with an advanced wilderness survival class through the local college here. I htought I'd share some pictures. It qwas pretty challenging, espeically, since it sleeted and rained sat. night,lol. Anyway, here are some pics of my shelter and area. This class was teh continuation of one I did a few weeks ago. We were given a map, wiht out our known location, but a location of where we were to go to set up to be rescued. All we had was a wool blanket(doubled as our pack), what clothes we brought, 2 cups of rice, 2 potatoes, an oinion, a can of sardines, and a dark chocolate bar. I brought my knife, the survival kit I had made in the earlier class, and my canteen/canteen cup.

[hunter63]

Congrats, your on your way.
It seems that you pasted/survived, or you wouldn't have posted.
Experience is the best teacher, and doing' it is certainly the way to go about it.

You were there over nite?

What would you say were you high points about the experience?
What were your low points?

[billdawg]

Congrats, your on your way.
It seems that you pasted/survived, or you wouldn't have posted.
Experience is the best teacher, and doing' it is certainly the way to go about it.

You were there over nite?

What would you say were you high points about the experience?
What were your low points?

It was all weekend. Started on friday and got 'rescued' sunday around 1300 suday. The highs, were that my shelter rocked. I got it done about 1/2 hour before the sleet hit, and it didn't leak a bit. The lows were, and it wasn't that bad, was being by yourself for that long, and time really dragging. I did a lot of wood gathering, but it did get monotonous, with the long hours of solitude(which was part of the teachings). I also felt good with how well I did overall. I walked for about 3 hours, looking for my 'spot', but by 330, I wasn't there yet(it was supposed to be marked with ribbon), but I knew daylihgt was running out in a few hours, so I stopped and started to make camp while I had daylight. I knew I had to be close(I ended up being only abuot 500 yards off). But out of the other 6 students(we all had different areas unknown to the others, and left at different times), 2 of them, never found their sites, adn walked back to the group shelter, where we started, 2 found their sites, but had to throw up their shelters up in the dark, during the sleet storm, and had a misreable night, and none of the other 3 had good fires they said. My fire burned great for the whole time.

[Sourdough]

Thank you.

[crashdive123]

Well done. Sounds like you had a good time and learned a bit in the process.

[Old GI]

Looks like a super course. Now, if that shelter had a poncho for a roof; I'd call it home (at least, several years ago).

[Ken]

Congratulations!

There's one thing you can be certain of - when you acquire such skills and experience, you will have a level of self-confidence that most people will never understand.

[billdawg]

Looks like a super course. Now, if that shelter had a poncho for a roof; I'd call it home (at least, several years ago).

Yep, that's what the green is.

[hoosierarcher]

Bravo, Good dawg!

[hunter63]

It was all weekend.....(reasonable time).The highs, were that my shelter rocked.

The lows were, and it wasn't that bad, was being by yourself for that long, and time really dragging. I did a lot of wood gathering, but it did get monotonous, with the long hours of solitude(which was part of the teachings). (good deal, it should be)

I also felt good with how well I did overall. (you should, congrtats)
I walked for about 3 hours, looking for my 'spot', but by 330, I wasn't there yet(it was supposed to be marked with ribbon), but I knew daylihgt was running out in a few hours, so I stopped and started to make camp while I had daylight. ( I agree)

I knew I had to be close(I ended up being only abuot 500 yards off).

My fire burned great for the whole time. ( thats why it's so important)

I edited your post a bit , looking for the high points

Thanks for the feed back.

Seem to me there are stages, of a outing like yours.
1) Excitement, and apprehension, how am I gonna find my spot, how's the weather, how much daylight do I have, can I get a shelter up, etc.

2) Find your spot, whether it was the right one, or one of your choosing, a decision, then get to it , always kind of a relief, something to do.
Seems you made the correct decision on just picking a spot, before dark.
Stuff doesn't ever go completely as planned.

3) Relief of sorts, shelter up, fire going, make something to eat, sit back a reflect on the day. Try to sleep, adrenaline still pumping from the events of the day.

4) Long night, especially if it was raining, sleeting, windy.....noises all around.

5) Morning and you realize that you survived, and feel pretty good about it , so you get to work.

6) When you get caught up with chores and relax a bit, that's when the mind starts working on you, ....what am I supposed to do now...find the correct spot? move or stay put?, gather more wood, explore, take a nap, gather more wood, some thing to eat?

7) Boredom, I glad it was part of the instruction, need to work on stuff to do instead of just waiting.

Keep in mind that yours was a finite time, 1300 on Sunday.... now think of what it would have been like if you had no clue, when or if, anyone was coming or even looking for you.

Sounds like it worked out fine, you've done well, pilgrim.

Give you something to think about and plan for the future.

[your_comforting_company]

excellent job BD. I bet you learned quite a bit about yourself over the weekend, all the other lessons aside. If there was one thing you would want to pass on to newcomers wanting to do such as this with no training or instruction and nothing but a knife and the clothes on there back What would you tell them?

[Rick]

Having a bag full of tools is of little use if you don't know how to use them. Nice job and a nice learning experience. Thanks for sharing.

[Sarge47]

Sounds like you did good. What did you take away from your experience?

[Sarge47]

Here's a hint...http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...hlight=enemies

[Aurelius95]

Very cool, BD. I took a wilderness survival course two years ago, but it was definitely a beginner's course compared to your outing. I'd be interested to hear what thought of your time alone in the wilderness.

[billdawg]

The thing that I took away most, and being in the military, I already knew it, but it drove it home even more, was make a decision and stick to it. Survival isn't rocket science, it's basically common sense and logic. I mean, stopping before it gets dark, so I had plenty of time to make camp, was paramount in my mind. And as I found out later, a couple others didn't think that way, and paid the price by being miserable all night. The solitude does weigh on you. Even though, I wasn't sure when they would come. I did kinda start to wonder if I should look for the correct place, or stay put. I had in my mind a timeline of what I wanted/needed to do if the day started to go on, with no 'rescue'. So I guess, the thing I learned the most was, use the time to plan for other options.

[Ted]

The thing that I took away most, and being in the military, I already knew it, but it drove it home even more, was make a decision and stick to it. Survival isn't rocket science, it's basically common sense and logic. I mean, stopping before it gets dark, so I had plenty of time to make camp, was paramount in my mind. And as I found out later, a couple others didn't think that way, and paid the price by being miserable all night. The solitude does weigh on you. Even though, I wasn't sure when they would come. I did kinda start to wonder if I should look for the correct place, or stay put. I had in my mind a timeline of what I wanted/needed to do if the day started to go on, with no 'rescue'. So I guess, the thing I learned the most was, use the time to plan for other options.

You got it man! Common sense and thinking ahead, I give you a A-plus...LOL!

Sounds like a great class! Glad you enjoyed yourself!

[Sourdough]

So did you get an A++ for the course........?