What should I put in my kit?

[madmax]

How about mistakes on the Pot and Machete's? You get a pot, a machete, and the clothes on your back. Eventually we allowed a pocket fishing kit and life was good.

1. On the first one a guy brought a Swiss Army knife as his machete. Machete's rule on these things in FL. Like for shelter building.

2. I noticed on post #1 he was bringing a 12" X 3" container. Let's say it's metal. It still isn't big enough. You have to collect water, boil
it, AND LET IT COOL so that you can drink it. Several brought too small containers at first. We did one with harvested bamboo about
twice as big. We should have harvested more.

3. You won't like a lot of the food you scavenge and catch. We are spoiled on salt and sugar. The stuff out there is pretty bland. We
literally had food for the taking from the time we paddled up to camp to the time we paddled out. Some just couldn't stomach wild
food with no seasoning or gagged even thinking about eating insects. They sat there for 3 days hungry. Bite the head of that grub
first before you chow down. This one bit back. oops

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Termites are great! Pull the legs off those grasshoppers after roasting in the fire
and chomp. Get over being squeamish.

4. Practice your skills BEFORE you try "survival" camping. Our very own Highlife mastering the bowdrill on a Canoe trip.

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5. Don't give up too quick. We tried vines for line and thorns for hooks etc. We gave upand munched sadly on heart of palm. Daywalker quietly made a bow and arrow and had a bit of dinner Trust me when I say Daywalker could walk out into the scrub with a knife and be just fine for however long.

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[Rick]

Seriously, you just made the Florida "list". I hope Santa puts coal in your stocking for posting that.

[madmax]

Was it my deviated septum?

[hunter63]

No,.... It was the worm with out the tequila...... LOL

[madmax]

FYI. I know all the old guard are shaking their heads over this scenario. It was not a "what if" thing. It was "What do I NEED to survive fairly comfortably for 72 hours in FL scrub. A pot and a machete was what it boiled down to. A pocket fishing kit makes it really not so bad. 4 day P&M's have been done solo.

[kyratshooter]

Do the participants supply their own pot and machete or is the combination specified?

And are the P&M adventures done solo or can they be a group thing?

[crashdive123]

They supply their own. Group or solo. Everybody does bring an emergency bag. The goal of these was for the individuals to test themselves, not end up in the paper.

[madmax]

As far as I know, I'm the only one to do 2 - 3 and 4 day solos. I don't know that it's more difficult dealing with "aloneness" or the group dynamics that crop up when everyone's tired, sleep deprived, and hungry.

To answer it's been done a coupla ways. But you choose your pot and blade. We also all had emerg. bags with extra clothing and 1st aid. Nobody wanted to die out there over a simple challenge. The 1st aid was put into use when one of us cut deep into a finger. I evac-ed him after some excellent 1st aid work by a couple of our guys. The emergency room folks even complemented the work. You never know when having a coupla trained wilderness 1st aid on hand pays off. He had to have several surgeries to regain full use of the finger. Had he "toughed it out" or the 1st aid had been less, the outcome would have been different.

[M118LR]

FYI. I know all the old guard are shaking their heads over this scenario. It was not a "what if" thing. It was "What do I NEED to survive fairly comfortably for 72 hours in FL scrub. A pot and a machete was what it boiled down to. A pocket fishing kit makes it really not so bad. 4 day P&M's have been done solo.

Don't forget the cough syrup bottle of oil of Citronella. Stuff works so good Canada banned it for awhile. It's an anti-fungal and sunburn ointment also. It's also way safer on little ones than any of the heavy jungle deet. Used to be able to get it at any RX, think I still have half a bottle so a little goes a long way. In wet, humid, or high heat environments it can be mixed with Vaseline or skin lotion, on early spring canoe trips in the boundary waters or higher north just apply it straight every couple of hours.