So a friend asked me to accompany he & another guy on a "knife only full survival immersion." Okay says me!
Our gear: shorts, pants
t shirt, light long sleeve shirt
foot wear
hat
knife
I advised the fellas that despite our "knife only" gear maximum I planned on bringing some asthma meds.
The other two guys had small backpacks containing emergency gear in case of an emergency.
We had a light breakfast together and embarked on a hike into the depths of a vast national forest.
Monday walking in we collected:
Solomon Seal root
Lady Thumb
Stinging Nettle
Hog P nut
Cleavers
Chick Weed
Bass Wood tree leaves
Ox eye daisy flowers
and we were fortunate enough to collect two large black rat snakes.
Another bonus was I found 30' of real 7 strand 550 para cord tied between two trees at an obvious stream side camp site whose tennants had littered the place up.
I also found an old lamp cord I collected to make copper snare wires out of.
By early after noon We found a good place to camp with nearby safe wild water flowing right out of a mountain side.
I skinned and gutted the snakes retaining the innards for bait.
We found some dry box elder and made a large two man bow drill kit. The woods were quite damp and there was a good chance of rain this day and a very high likley hood of rain tomorrow. I left the fire ring & fire making details to my comrades and went out to scout the area and set some dead fall traps.
On my scouting I found some old gatorade bottles and glass beer bottles I scavenged to become our water bottles. I set a figure 4 trap and made a minnow trap out of a littered 2 liter soda bottle using snake intestine as bait. I also had collected a good tinder bundle from various rock out crops that made just enough shelter to keep the first 2" of woods litter at the rocks base dry. I found a few game trails as well as some nice holes in a small stream that should hold fish.
I headed back to camp to make sure it was in order & to see about bedding. I kicked up a high pile of leaves to make a debris hut out of later. On another look about I found a large piece of rolled up thin plastic. I told the team about it and they immediately decided to take advantage of it for shelter as it seemed just barely big enough to keep the three of us out of precipitation. I erected the plastic sheeting lean to style with 4 of the inner cords of the para cord. I looked at my pile of wet leaves and was not elated at the thought of sleeping in it, but wet, buggy and scratchy & slimy trumps freezing and not sleeping at night with me every time.
The one guy with us that I did not know let out a happy hoot and holler as he headed back to camp. Here is was not even late afternoon on the first day of a knife only trek and he walks into camp with two NICE cat fish. We had collected the two snakes in two seperate locations as they sunned themselves, but that was not skill- it was dumb luck!! But this guy already has two cats???? I was really impressed and glad I was with a primitive skills master guru- and already having thoughts of learning lots from him. I asked him how he had collected the fish and he told me with a hook and fishing line from his pack, using worms and grub for bait. Out goes the guru thoughts from my cranium. He must have identified the look on my face as he exclaimed "well.....I had them, so I used them."
*I got nothing against more modern survival techniques, but I did not understand how it fit into our "knife only" scope of this trip or, nor, did I identify an emergency for which to use the emergency gear from their packs...... I was not pleased but *I let it go.*
We bow drilled up a nice fire and poached the snake and cats and veggies in the "emergency" cook pot. ** Eventually I was to learn this stranger had set out two steel coon traps and 8 limb lines for cats!!**
It was nearly dark when I learned this.
Per them telling me """emergency""" gear was permitted to be brought along, I had pitched in ONLY a gps and a bivy/ water proof thin sleeping bag cover. Begrudgingly I too dropped our original theme of "knife only" and slid in my bivy bag, wormed into my wet leaves and was off to sleep here our first night.
My friend slipped into a bivvy bag and the stranger whipped out a nice large US wool blanket. **
Tuesday:
It got QUITE, unseasonably cold in the night and I woke cold and restless several times equating a poor night's sleep. My compadres wanted to move and look yonder for resources and a new camp, so we struck camp and were on our way east after having dinner left overs for breakfast.
Enroute to we really did not know where we collected:
5 box turtles(!)
Solomon Seal root
As much Stinging Nettle as we could practically haul,
Spider Wort
(small) Poke leaves
Cross Vine leaves for tea
And some reishi (sp) & Ear of the Woods mushrooms off a couple of old logs.
We had found another source for safe wild water and a moderately decent place to camp near some more rocks that gave minimal dry tinder materials, but unfortunately the water source and camp spot were about a quarter mile apart. We had scavenged another two liter soda bottle which upped our bottling capacity to about a 1.5 gallons so we went with it and deemed it good'nuf.
I again erected our plastic sheeting lean to, and we made a fire ring. We were on a larger flow now and I often heard geese honking. I went to see if I could rabbit stick or rock a goose. The suckers were quite wary and maintained a 70-100 yard safe zone betwixt me and them regardless
of my approach angle or how sneaky I was.
Back at camp water was in 3/4 gallon cook pot ** and my friend was getting the meat from 3 of the turtles.
The stranger who was a nice guy and becoming a friend had been absent for several hours and he eventually came in with 5 little small mouth bass snatched out of the water by modern hand line.
One of my team mates had found two 4'x4' ish pieces of black plastic sheeting and they planned to use them for blankets.
Here tuesday I was tired from not sleeping well and feeling the weakness of reduced calories. Headaches were light and dull I imagine from my morning coffee withdrawals.
8 limb lines were placed for fish. We bow'd up a nice fire, cooked our vittles and I was first off to bed.
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