You can kill C. botulinum by cooking it in a pressure cooker at 250F for 30 minutes. I doubt anyone took a pressure cooker with them on the show however.
You can kill C. botulinum by cooking it in a pressure cooker at 250F for 30 minutes. I doubt anyone took a pressure cooker with them on the show however.
It seems that despite the thousands of videos on the internet, in the end, the contestants fall back on personal experience. David remembered catching crabs in his youth. Nichole had foraged for those plants before. Jose had personal experience in watching or building a canoe. I have seen too many times when people are experts after you show them how to do something when before they were lost at what to do. Experience and then actually using what you have seen on the internet is vital. I have seen many times on this forum about how important snares and traps are. This is what should be done. One hundred traps and snares. I know rivers. I can't say I know rivers like those who have showed me, but I know that I would hunt the rivers relentlesly. The minnow, the crayfish, and all the animals are there to trap or snare. On the other hand, I would have never had any experience to catch the crabs as David has done. The ocean for me would have been guess work and how it related to fresh water. I think the greatest mistake of the contestants is failure to find the best creeks or rivers for the salmon run. It is a massive failure of lack of experience, despite all the videos, of the habitat.
I googled Patigonia and they said the temps were like 77 to 29 degrees Fahrenheit. Seriously. I'm moving there. LOL
I can camp comfortable at 29 degrees in my South Florida bag and a cheap fleece liner.
Those temps are also a sweet spot for most foraging books.
reminds me of the ol' joke.... A rich jewish couple are stranded on a deserted island. The husband asks the wife, "Did you give the monthly donation to the synagogue?" "No dear". "Great, it won't take them long to track us down."Originally Posted by NightSG
I've taken a vow of poverty. To annoy me, send money.
http://www.youtube.com/user/FinallyMe78?feature=mhee
If you're in something for the long haul, like being on this show, knowing how to get food (and water)...animals and plants...and putting out the effort to get it, constantly, is vital. Fire and shelter and other crafty things are important...but you gotta get that food. Seems many of them don't try too much to do that. Instead their solution is to conserve. But you can't just conserve, doing nothing, indefinitely. All the other things that you need to do, including getting that food and water, takes energy which you get from food and water. Instead of being bored and sitting around and talking about how they start dwelling on things, they could be instituting a lot more activities geared for food.
The pessimist complains about the wind;
The optimist expects it to change;
The realist adjusts the sails.
- William Arthur Ward
They seem to have a preference for places where it gets cold. I was sort of hoping for something in the Tropics for a completely different climate challenge. OTOH, I guess heatstroke can be sneakier than hypothermia, so it could be a liability issue.
Walking Tree, their food gathering activities are determined and controlled by the tide rhythms. They can gather at low tide and fish at high tide and when the weather is bad and the seas rough they can do neither.
That means that they are going to have serious down time due to those sea rhythms and the 100 inches of rain that fall annually in that area. You simply can not do anything for long portions of the day.
None of the contestants in either series have had any success at trapping or hunting on land due to the nature of the land and apparent scarcity of small game. No, occasional mice do not count!
Rather than running around burning calories while frantically seeking what is not available they conserve their body fat as much as possible. It is actually the smart thing to do in this situation.
If they are sedentary or nearly inactive they may not burn but 1000-1500 calories daily. The old 2200 daily calorie need is for a "moderately active" person. The guy that walks a couple of miles each day and exercises at the gym for an hour. That is why we can diet at 1500 calories and never lose weight in the real world.
A pound of fat contains 3500 calories so if you get 400-500 calories a day and only use 1000 to sustain life you will only lose a couple of pounds each week.
These guys know this and they loaded up and gained weight before the series, or should have. Last year's winner, Allan, gained 20 pounds before going in.
If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?
(kyratshooter) I mean stuff like - within the fishing limitations you mention, for example, instead of one gill net or one water-oriented foraging excursion, couldn't they create several fish trap areas instead of just one? Stock up on a bunch of crabs as someone suggested, or Nicole getting all the salmon she can while they're there and smoke them for future meals, trot lines, many land based traps, try to lure in a bird, etc.
Last edited by WalkingTree; 07-12-2016 at 07:54 PM.
The pessimist complains about the wind;
The optimist expects it to change;
The realist adjusts the sails.
- William Arthur Ward
Dave knows how to build a bird trap. Maybe he hasn't because sea birds are off limits to them?
http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...6146#post46146
You know when the show comes on it shows Jose turning over in his canoe/boat whatever you want to call it. If that has already been shown I've not saw it. I'm just wondering if that is yet to come or if it is something that happened when he first tried the boat and the editors just put it on the intro to get more interest in the show.
It hasn't been in the regular footage yet, so you may be right about yet to come or a tease.
One of the things that all the contestants from last season spoke about in interviews was the amount of editing done by the producers which eliminated much of their "work" and almost all their foraging.
All they showed was people sitting or lying around moaning and complaining in the rain when the participants were walking great distances beachcombing, hunting in the woods and going on extended hunting and fishing trips away from their camps. They were also getting more food than was shown in the edited script. They were hungry and losing weight, but they were getting some food.
Jose turned his boat over the first time he got into it, that is why he added the outriggers. He was right at the shore and in no danger, so it was a learning experience and led to modifications.
If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?
I don't think he actually went in the water that time did he? When it comes on he clearly goes in the water.
Seems like they would have showed him drying out and trying to avoid hypothermia. I could be wrong though.
Apparently Jose's boat still works well enough...but I thought that his outrigger floats needed to be a few inches lower.
The pessimist complains about the wind;
The optimist expects it to change;
The realist adjusts the sails.
- William Arthur Ward
IMO, Jose went way too complex considering the time crunch; the quickest boat is simply something that floats, with outriggers added. He could have done that in a day. OTOH, what he has now is pretty nice, and probably easier to paddle than what he could have whipped up quickly. Personally, I'd have gone for flat bottom, though, both to minimize bending needed and to keep the draft as shallow as possible so as to get closer to shore without grounding.
As for food gathering, yes; the best policy would be to experiment with several hands-off methods and expand as much as possible on the ones that work. Even primitive crab pots are a lot less effort than manually jigging for each crab. Same for trotlines, snares, fish traps, gill nets and land-based fence traps. Bonus is that once the equipment is made, it's very little additional effort to experiment again with seasonal changes when your initial success methods are pulling in less than before. Then there's always hunting and active fishing to bring in some variety. Identifying winter-hardy plants and farming them near camp is another long-term option as well.
That's a good point and one of my biggest complaint for the show's editing. They need to show more activities and less whining.
Yea, I don't think that scene has occur yet. I still think Jose will fall into the water and probably what will finally push him to tap out. He'll realize it's too dangerous and don't want to risk making his wife a widow.
Dave (Pict) is the winner!...........
Geezer Squad....Charter Member #1
Evoking the 50 year old rule...
First 50 years...worried about the small stuff...second 50 years....Not so much
Member Wahoo Killer knives club....#27
Yep Dave held out.
Jose rolled the kayak, soaked everything he owned in 40 degree water and decided he would not make it through the night.
Actually he hit the tap out button while he was still in the water and stood waist deep in the ocean until the boat arrived. I think he was so cold and weak he could not pull the boat to shore.
Larry finally went completely bonkers and remembered where he put the phone at the same time. I do think he has had a life changing experience if he puts what he talks to work in real life.
They smuggled one of Dave's daughters in to tell him he had won. When he saw her he lost it, I think he thought he was hallucinating for a moment. He didn't realize why she was there until she told him he had won! It was a cool reunion.
I expected him to look at the crew and comment that he still had fish!
They did not go to Dave's camp until the next day after Larry tapped out. I think they wanted to let him last until day 65 for the pickup.
These guys went 2 weeks longer than last years contestants.
Last edited by kyratshooter; 07-14-2016 at 11:43 PM.
If you didn't bring jerky what did I just eat?
Congrats to Dave ......My knees could feel the hit when he fell.....Thought that was it......
Congratulations to all those that even tried it in the rain and cold....
That was hard to watch.
Geezer Squad....Charter Member #1
Evoking the 50 year old rule...
First 50 years...worried about the small stuff...second 50 years....Not so much
Member Wahoo Killer knives club....#27
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