Alaska Experiment

[crashdive123]

I liked in episode 2 where she (of the husband wife team) said that she would never look at meat on her plate the same again after they took the sheep. Just never thought about what it took to get it there. It would be nice if more people "would think" about what got it there.

[Omid]

man if I had been there I would have survived so easily... they get cabins and rations, fishing poles, guns, knives...

[nell67]

You think it's a game Omid???

[Aurelius95]

man if I had been there I would have survived so easily... they get cabins and rations, fishing poles, guns, knives...

... like a high hanging curveball that didn't break. Who's going to hit this one out of the park?

[crashdive123]

Easy? OK, keep telling yourself that. Hope you never have to find out for real.

[Rick]

I picture myself at month three gnawing on the fishing pole because all the food is gone.

So you've got 117 inches of snow on the ground, Omid, (Valdez averages 303 inches. That's 25 feet, by the way. Whittier, about 250 inches.) what are you going to do with your little fishing pole, knife and gun now? They are trying to get stores in for the winter, you know.

[trax]

... like a high hanging curveball that didn't break. Who's going to hit this one out of the park?

I was just tapping my bat on the plate there, Aurelius.

Omid, are you the bb gun killer from another post or was that some other wonder child on here? Get a map up on your monitor of North America, don't need anything fancy, just something that shows latitude and longitude. Now, start at the 48th parallel or so and start counting north, line by line until you get to where Alaska starts. Keep going Alaska's a big place. Why are you doing this? Well, for one, what the hell else you got to do with your time? But more importantly, all those thousands of square miles of real estate you just marked off are littered with the corpses of people who said "surviving would be so easy". I imagine it gets just as bad counting south, but for different reason. This is why the forum is here Omid. K?
Check the posting about that McCandles kid if you think surviving in the wilderness anywhere is a game.
I think that's going over the fence.....

[Aurelius95]

You know, it's not that I think it's a game. Far from it, but my wife and I were talking about it and feel confident we'd do well in this scenario... until I started seeing all the stuff these teams were going through. When I first started watching, I thought the wall-tent couple would do pretty well. Now, it looks like AK is kicking their butt! Perhaps it's fancy editing (notice the level of "scruff" on the faces changes at times, indicating it's not always chronological), but the experiment is definitely much more difficult than any of them dreamed it would be.

While I would love the opportunity to try living like they are, I think it would be extremely difficult. Those going into it with a big head and even more grandiose ideas about how "easy" it would be, will probably wind up like Trax mentioned - a corpse.

[trax]

I didn't mean to imply that you thought that way Aurelius, apologies if that's the message I sent out. I was trying to respond to your 'curve ball that doesn't break' which I thought was very well phrased

[klkak]

Missed the crab bait, Klak. My bad.

Instead of expending all that energy tracking the wolf wouldn't they have been much better off doing something different with the meat? I kept thinking they would be out tracking and come home to find a bear had raided their "freezer". They were burning like 4000 calories a day for no reason (you live there so tell me if I'm wrong).

I would think a .22 in your hands is just a tad bit different that a .22 in his hands. Just my opinion.

You are not wrong. However I would be keeping a sharp eye out for the wolf while I was looking for more food. The bears in their area should be holding up and not out wandering around.

It's funny to think that I have one of those "Davy Cricket" rifles. I carry it caribou hunting to pop ptarmigan. It's great for that. I did drill the hole in the peepsight larger. It was way to small for hunting.

[klkak]

You know, it's not that I think it's a game. Far from it, but my wife and I were talking about it and feel confident we'd do well in this scenario... until I started seeing all the stuff these teams were going through. When I first started watching, I thought the wall-tent couple would do pretty well. Now, it looks like AK is kicking their butt! Perhaps it's fancy editing (notice the level of "scruff" on the faces changes at times, indicating it's not always chronological), but the experiment is definitely much more difficult than any of them dreamed it would be.

While I would love the opportunity to try living like they are, I think it would be extremely difficult. Those going into it with a big head and even more grandiose ideas about how "easy" it would be, will probably wind up like Trax mentioned - a corpse.

Alaska does not care whether you live or die. It doesn't care how good or well prepared you are. You can make all the right decision and still die or you can screw up in the worst way and some how survive. Alaska is a place of extremes. One thing I have found in my time here. If you venture into the bush enough you will come "face to face" with your mortality and realize how fine a line you truly walk.

[canid]

rick there's just something about a nice tall meat cache that takes most of those problems right away.

klkak: to me it's the difference between what the .22lr can do and what it will do. don't get me wrong, it's a good and time honoured cartridge but you might not get the twenty chances for that 1 in 20 shot.

[trax]

klkak: That's well worded, and I have to say applies to a lot of places other than Alaska, although having spent most of my life in the north, I can certainly relate.

.22 lr for shooting wolves? Yeah, that'd work, I haven't seen this tv show but I have a sense based on what other members here have posted that the wolf had absolutely nothing to worry about. Personally, I think if you're anywhere in the north and you leave a goat wandering around or staked out in the yard, you're kind of inviting the wolf over for dinner

[Aurelius95]

I didn't mean to imply that you thought that way Aurelius, apologies if that's the message I sent out. I was trying to respond to your 'curve ball that doesn't break' which I thought was very well phrased

Trax, no worries. I knew your response was not aimed at me. I was just admitting my feelings of "over-confidence" perhaps, and realized as much. I'd still like to try it, but I'd hope to have enough respect of the wilds to survive it. But like KLKAK said, it may not matter, either way!

[klkak]

rick there's just something about a nice tall meat cache that takes most of those problems right away.

klkak: to me it's the difference between what the .22lr can do and what it will do. don't get me wrong, it's a good and time honored cartridge but you might not get the twenty chances for that 1 in 20 shot.

Canid you are absolutely correct. Sometimes I forget that I was raised with a .22 in my hands so I have a unique confidence in my abilities with it. While others like those on the show have little or no experience. Everyone please forgive me for this.

[klkak]

klkak: That's well worded, and I have to say applies to a lot of places other than Alaska, although having spent most of my life in the north, I can certainly relate.

.22 lr for shooting wolves? Yeah, that'd work, I haven't seen this TV show but I have a sense based on what other members here have posted that the wolf had absolutely nothing to worry about. Personally, I think if you're anywhere in the north and you leave a goat wandering around or staked out in the yard, you're kind of inviting the wolf over for dinner

Please don't think that I advocate using a .22 for hunting wolves. It is the only weapon they have.

Nope, the wolf has nothing to worry about, I doubt they will ever get a shot at it and I don't see the wolf breaking into the cooler and taking the meat. As the winter progress's I can see how the wolf may become a danger to the man and woman.

The goat they are referring to is a mountain goat that was killed and butchered and put in the cooler.

[Sourdough]

Remember to put a "TIN" skirt on the legs of that cache.

[Rick]

Klkak - ptarmigan? Can't you just pick them up? They don't even have a brain do they? Don't they survive on cellular instinct?

[klkak]

Hmmm...., I've never been able to pick one up unless its been shot first. You can get very close to them though. That why the little Davy crickett with CB .22's work so well.

[trax]

klkak, no worries man, I knew what you meant. I came at it from pretty much the same perspective as you, I've used one for over forty years so I'm pretty sure of my shot.

Rick...don't be fooled my friend, ptarmigan are the psycho killer upland game fowl from hell.

I have managed to snare them in my day and once I was making a campfire, had my nephew out getting a Christmas tree and I guess we'd settled so close to it's nest that a ptarmigan did the faked broken wing walk past me. My nephew was walkign up with an armload of firewood and said "Hey uncle, look..." The silly bird was limping right past me so I grabbed it and chopped its head off. So, I guess, yeah, sometimes you can just pick them up. LOL, it only happened once.