Second quiz

[Boghog1]

I have figured it out, you took Dave Canterburys virtual school.

 

[Acme.Armament]

You are in the northern hemisphere at point A ( say somewhere in Baxter State Park) on foot without anything but a cotton t-shirt, pants w/leather belt, socks and boots. It is 9am, the temp is a summer 75 degrees with high cirrus clouds over head with a 3mph North westerly wind..

Your only gear/supplies is a 4 inch fixed blade w/sheath and a can of Dinty Moore beef stew .

Your cache w/food only is in a saddle 25 Mils SE, 4 ½ miles away from point A under the only deciduous tree among the conifers. You have no compass or map.

When you arrive you will need a shelter, a signal fire for rescue, potable water for hydration and a note leaving details of your journey.

How would you do this?

Turn to my Map and Compass Instructor and ask her.

 

[jmjkd]

Mark, First I don’t claim to be any survival expert , I’m the same as anyone else.
A scout as a kid, hunted and fished, camped with my folks, backpacked around.. I got interested in primitive living skills back in the early 80’s Tom Brown and his group about 5 years and that changed my perspective, but believe me I’m no TB, He’s one of the masters.. Then I bounced around taking all the free state courses and spending time researching and trying to do the stuff I learned, and I’m still trying. In 94 hooked up with guys at Devens 10th and learned from guys in the field. lately training with a few of Kevin Reeves’s bunch “On Point tactical” and yes Boghog I did all Catenbury’s classes beginner through advanced before he even was considered for The Dual show. I own land with 2 Jarheads and a very old navy SEAL from the UDT days. But I will learn from anyone with a good heart.

As I said none of that means shit when you’re alone, cold, wet, and in the dark. I am also a sponsor and fund raiser for the Special Olympics and a defender of abuse.

Pardon me while I adjust my halo, take a hit of Jack, pick my ass and prepare for further questioning. Hehehehehe…hehehehehe…..fart Ahhh better now…;-)
now about judging distance????

 

[mark056]

Thank you for replying to my question.

 

[coastie]

Some guys are stuck on Baxter State Park BSP and because it is such a popular area with tourists, rangers and such the best thing to do is stay put and wait for help. I agree 100% and I am truly sorry I used BSP as “a for instance”. I should have said you are in a remote place with no one around for miles and explained a reason how, why and when you got there then set the scene. That set up could have gone on 3 pages or more depending how detailed I wanted to get.

The thing is there would still be many reasons why someone might not be in that position, “why would I be in a place like that?, says the sales guy who never leaves the city. I would never go anywhere without my BOB, says the person who frequencies the survival forum daily. I never go into the woods alone, says the wife. what if I had a broken leg and couldn’t walk? what if I am to fat to walk that far?” and so fourth.
At the end of the day no matter where you are BSP or some remote place in Alaska, if you don’t know haw to get out using nature and your skills, you don’t know, no matter how you spin it.

Folks like to have everything presented in a nice organized package, they want clear instructions and all the parts labeled correctly and if not, there will be hell to pay.

Anyone out here can set the survival stage even boghog and I know myself and many others could start pointing to” the what if’s and how comes and everything else” like little Lawyers finding all the grey area’s for objections.

The reason why I love the outdoors is because you don’t get that, opinions mean nothing to Mother Nature.. Cold, Dark, Wet. Nothing else really matters at that point.

BTW, What are you saying that the kids in the Special Olympics are un-able to right rules, shouldn’t? or don’t have the ability to do things like you and I ????
You may have just opened up a whole new can of worms.

I think your scenario is probably more realistic for most of on this board than one where we would be in the middle of nowhere. Most of us arent fortunate enough to get that isolated living here on the east coast. The problem is that you want to turn it into an uber survival scenario where when the reality is most folks are better off staying put and trying to alert others to their whereabouts. Its stuff like that that gets people hurt or killed. As for covering the distance you count your paces, provided you know what your stride is in various terrain.

 

[jmjkd]

Coastie, I do agree with you. For most, the best thing to do is stay put and wait for help no matter where they are. If you don’t know about guns, leave them alone. If your furnace is smoking, don’t touch it and if you smell gas, get out of the house and wait for help.

I agree to all these safety concerns, but someone has to fix the problems, be pro-active. Someone has to check the gas, unload the guns, and get these people home.

The people who are experienced and trained step up. This fun game is for those kinds of people and I believe there are more of them out here then you know. I think people are sick and tired of waiting for things to get done for them that’s why they come out to these forums, because for many they have come to realize no one’s gonna do shit for them and they better get their ass in gear and start learning and preparing.

There’s a hurricane coming, many will just do nothing and wait, others will be pro-active. they will priorities and be ready, I would bet that most of the folks who said they would just stay put in my little scenario are the ones right now preparing, or even better have been prepared since Y2K….Go figure…;-)

 

[coastie]

Coastie, I do agree with you. For most, the best thing to do is stay put and wait for help no matter where they are. If you don’t know about guns, leave them alone. If your furnace is smoking, don’t touch it and if you smell gas, get out of the house and wait for help.

I agree to all these safety concerns, but someone has to fix the problems, be pro-active. Someone has to check the gas, unload the guns, and get these people home.

The people who are experienced and trained step up. This fun game is for those kinds of people and I believe there are more of them out here then you know. I think people are sick and tired of waiting for things to get done for them that’s why they come out to these forums, because for many they have come to realize no one’s gonna do shit for them and they better get their ass in gear and start learning and preparing.

There’s a hurricane coming, many will just do nothing and wait, others will be pro-active. they will priorities and be ready, I would bet that most of the folks who said they would just stay put in my little scenario are the ones right now preparing, or even better have been prepared since Y2K….Go figure…;-)

I tihnk you are having a bit of a disconnect with the people here. Most of the experienced people are going to stay put in your scenario. Nothing is to be gained by running the potential of getting more lost or injured trying to find a cache of food in unfamiliar territory. There are exponentially more things that can go wrong leaving vs staying put. It is risk assessment. That is something that is at the very heart of determining what you are going to do in any emergency. I have been into prepping and survival for about 20 yrs. For me it is a lifestyle. It isnt a fad. It isnt a good reason to buy a new gun or super cool truck. It isnt cool. It is a way of life. I have given up a lot to get where I am today. You can throw up all the scenarios you want but if they dont make sense you are going to get called on it. Just because we dont want to play your foolish fantasy scenarios doesnt mean we arent ready or willing to do whatever it takes to survive. That is a very false impression of a number of us. YOu want Bear Grylls give him a call and go hang out with him.

 

[jmjkd]

Coastie, first I am enjoying this conversation, and the last thing I want to do is get you pissed off and tern this into a negative because, you and others are dead on As I said
“ I agree, assessing the situation if you decide it is better to stay…stay…No disconnect here”. .
As you said, it is about risk assessment….. absolutely!!!!. You have 20yrs and I am going on what you say that many out here have experience as well.
So in those 20 years you have trial and error and can make an honest assessment on what is the safest and best thing to do. Through the years you have learned and can way it out. You have failed many, many times as we all have.

You mentioned Bear Grills, do you know how many people watch him and the other TV guys and think ” Cool, I can do that” and go out and get lost or hurt. Not cool. they can’t assess, nothing to compare it to, they don’t have 20 of trial and error..

I would rather give them a little game all safey safey on line, have them listen to all the pro’s and con’s from experience to Non experienced people out here then reaserch for them selves and maybe even take a few classes just to understand how tough it really is to do a scenerio like I offered.

People say ” I’ll just use my shoe lace and get a fire started then make a dead fall and catch my dinner.” Really??? Research it, go in a safe place like your back yard and try. You will soon realize that what these guys have said…’stay put’ is what you should do, now you know why, the more you learn and practice the better at assessing situations and more realistic you can be. . You start learning very quickly what not to do. That’s what this exercise was for. But we never even got out of the gate, the exercise never had a chance to unfold. Shot down from Pull!!!

I don’t want anyone to agree with me, seriously I don’t. I would never say do this or do that, people should research and experiment on there own to know their own limitations. .

How do you measure your pace, meters, miles, and at what =what?

 

[Boghog1]

if you want to give the inexperienced challenges why don't you challenge them to make a fire this Sunday in real life in the safety of their back yard so that way when they fail/succeed they will actually have learned something, or make a shelter and spend the night in it. again in their own back yard

 

[MisterHappy]

if you want to give the inexperienced challenges why don't you challenge them to make a fire this Sunday in real life in the safety of their back yard so that way when they fail/succeed they will actually have learned something, or make a shelter and spend the night in it. again in their own back yard

This, I think, would be a much more realistic and valuable "game" than a theoretical hike through the back woods of the northern hemisphere.

Wait till it's raining, and using what's "handy" try to get a fire going. This does not mean the grill!

If you can do it without a major problem, then move on to more adventurous scenarios.

 

[coastie]

Coastie, first I am enjoying this conversation, and the last thing I want to do is get you pissed off and tern this into a negative because, you and others are dead on As I said
“ I agree, assessing the situation if you decide it is better to stay…stay…No disconnect here”. .
As you said, it is about risk assessment….. absolutely!!!!. You have 20yrs and I am going on what you say that many out here have experience as well.
So in those 20 years you have trial and error and can make an honest assessment on what is the safest and best thing to do. Through the years you have learned and can way it out. You have failed many, many times as we all have.

You mentioned Bear Grills, do you know how many people watch him and the other TV guys and think ” Cool, I can do that” and go out and get lost or hurt. Not cool. they can’t assess, nothing to compare it to, they don’t have 20 of trial and error..

I would rather give them a little game all safey safey on line, have them listen to all the pro’s and con’s from experience to Non experienced people out here then reaserch for them selves and maybe even take a few classes just to understand how tough it really is to do a scenerio like I offered.

People say ” I’ll just use my shoe lace and get a fire started then make a dead fall and catch my dinner.” Really??? Research it, go in a safe place like your back yard and try. You will soon realize that what these guys have said…’stay put’ is what you should do, now you know why, the more you learn and practice the better at assessing situations and more realistic you can be. . You start learning very quickly what not to do. That’s what this exercise was for. But we never even got out of the gate, the exercise never had a chance to unfold. Shot down from Pull!!!

I don’t want anyone to agree with me, seriously I don’t. I would never say do this or do that, people should research and experiment on there own to know their own limitations. .

How do you measure your pace, meters, miles, and at what =what?

You should be a politician you are full of it. YOur previous statement was read as if you dont want to do my stupid game the way I want to do it you arent ready. YOu cant step up when the time comes. It can be read no other way. Bear Grills would be dumb enough to go after the food. What would you do in that situation? The scenario exactly as you laid out. You are in BSP and have a cache 4.5 miles to the SE in a saddle. Look at a map of Baxter. If you can honestly say you would travel the 4.5 miles to the cache you have no business instructing survival to people because stupid shit like that gets people hurt and killed. I cant put it any simpler.

 

[Dream to Dream]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Timber again.

Dammit!

 

[ChevyGuy91]

There's one guy in this subforum who has absolutely outstanding posts and gear reviews. Check out anything by AndyNH if you really want to learn something.

+1000 Andy's post's are awesome.

 

[jmjkd]

coastie you know what I learned in the 30yrs in the fight business? There is always one guy that doesn’t want to help the young fighters, he wants to keep his tricks to himself.

He just screams, grunts and hits the heavy bag with some stupid deformed face. But when ever it came time to live spar, he had every reason why he can’t participate, they were the wrong color gloves, it’s not a regulation mouthpiece, you said the ring was 10ft wide, I can’t fight in a 15ft ring, it’s not realistic” usually the guy with the biggest mouth was the biggest baby. I think I’ll run for Governor…

…..

 

[coastie]

coastie you know what I learned in the 30yrs in the fight business? There is always one guy that doesn’t want to help the young fighters, he wants to keep his tricks to himself.

He just screams, grunts and hits the heavy bag with some stupid deformed face. But when ever it came time to live spar, he had every reason why he can’t participate, they were the wrong color gloves, it’s not a regulation mouthpiece, you said the ring was 10ft wide, I can’t fight in a 15ft ring, it’s not realistic” usually the guy with the biggest mouth was the biggest baby. I think I’ll run for Governor…

…..

You never answered my question. What would you do in your scenario? What is the benefit of getting to the food cache vs staying where you are?

 

[jmjkd]

Yeah,,,OK!!!. Hey buddy it’s been 47 replies later an almost 1000 views and you have not answered my question.

No no coastie, time to put in the mouthpiece, glove up and get in the ring.
After all you wrote
“I have been into prepping and survival for about 20 yrs. For me it is a lifestyle. It isnt a fad.” …LOL!!!

Good enough Jeremiah go to work show us what you got. Keep your hands up, the guys won’t hit you to hard…
Right!!!!

 

[Boghog1]

You may know how to fight (I have no idea if you do) but what you are trying to teach people about survival will likely get them killed in the real world

 

[coastie]

Yeah,,,OK!!!. Hey buddy it’s been 47 replies later an almost 1000 views and you have not answered my question.

No no coastie, time to put in the mouthpiece, glove up and get in the ring.
After all you wrote
“I have been into prepping and survival for about 20 yrs. For me it is a lifestyle. It isnt a fad.” …LOL!!!

Good enough Jeremiah go to work show us what you got. Keep your hands up, the guys won’t hit you to hard…
Right!!!!

As I said earlier. You stay where you are and await rescue. It is summer time in a popular vacation area. You wont go more than an hour just about anywhere in the park without seeing or hearing someone. You will be found by someone. You sit on a log in the shade (75 at 9 am up there is going to be hot) and whittle a couple of tactical fighting sticks to pass the time and think what a dumbass you are for not bringing more gear. Who carries a 4 inch fixed blade knife and a can of dinty moore but nothing else? I have seen a lot of stuff while out hiking and in the woods but I hasve never seen anyone just walking around with a can of food, a knife on their hip and nothing else.

I will reiterate that it is foolish to go after your food cache that is 4.5 miles away. You will only get more lost especially if you are lost in BSP with just a can of Dinty Moore.

 

[jmjkd]

Boghog If presenting the idea that experience is the only teacher and that self knowledge is the only knowledge. Guilty as charged. btw I agree, back yard training is great way for guys to learn.

coaster; I didn’t think you could answer my question with all your 20 yrs. LOL even to just shut me up…
Funny all your threads out here were on the latest honeyville grain deals, irrigation buckets, converting lanterns, garden books, push planters, sewing, food allergies, Really dude!!! Really...LOL

You are just a prepper which is great, but don’t confuse it with a survival situation where you have little to nothing. it’s not survival if you have all your gear in a nice safe place, that’s called `CAMPING!!!

btw how did you get that excess 25lbs you lost with all that hiking you do? especially with that fully prepared pack you carry ….Not!!!

There are only to places where you can’t fake it until you make it.
The ring and in nature.

 

[Boghog1]

Boghog If presenting the idea that experience is the only teacher and that self knowledge is the only knowledge. Guilty as charged. btw I agree, back yard training is great way for guys to learn.

coaster; I didn’t think you could answer my question with all your 20 yrs. LOL even to just shut me up…
Funny all your threads out here were on the latest honeyville grain deals, irrigation buckets, converting lanterns, garden books, push planters, sewing, food allergies, Really dude!!! Really...LOL

You are just a prepper which is great, but don’t confuse it with a survival situation where you have little to nothing. it’s not survival if you have all your gear in a nice safe place, that’s called `CAMPING!!!

btw how did you get that excess 25lbs you lost with all that hiking you do? especially with that fully prepared pack you carry ….Not!!!

There are only to places where you can’t fake it until you make it.
The ring and in nature.

There is a vast difference from book smart to first hand knowledge smart, a guy that says he will start a fire by using a shoe lace and make a bow drill fire that has never tried it is in for a rude awakening when he does try it. it is difficult in good weather with dry materials now imagine if he didn't have the piece of kiln dried 1x3 and a perfect hardwood dowel. and instead had to use materials he gathered in the wild. some woods work better than others and there are some materials people may not think of using because they are not "wood" but might strike a fire quicker and easier like mullin or cat tail but unless you actually go out and try to make a fire reading a book isn't really going to help. I could read about welding the perfect bead but unless I break out the welder I will never know if I can do it. I can read about how to knife fight but unless I practice I will probably just get killed in the event it really happens. Same goes for shooting I can read about all sorts of great techniques but until I put it into practice I am only a quarter of the way there. I have an idea of how it should be done but no practical experience. I wouldn't want a doctor to operate on me if all he did was read books and visualize what it would be like

 

[coastie]

Boghog If presenting the idea that experience is the only teacher and that self knowledge is the only knowledge. Guilty as charged. btw I agree, back yard training is great way for guys to learn.

coaster; I didn’t think you could answer my question with all your 20 yrs. LOL even to just shut me up…
Funny all your threads out here were on the latest honeyville grain deals, irrigation buckets, converting lanterns, garden books, push planters, sewing, food allergies, Really dude!!! Really...LOL

You are just a prepper which is great, but don’t confuse it with a survival situation where you have little to nothing. it’s not survival if you have all your gear in a nice safe place, that’s called `CAMPING!!!

btw how did you get that excess 25lbs you lost with all that hiking you do? especially with that fully prepared pack you carry ….Not!!!

There are only to places where you can’t fake it until you make it.
The ring and in nature.

You got me. I am faking. Learned it all via Youtube. Cant light a fire without a butane torch and a can of kerosene. I will now crawl my fat ass back to my garden and piles of stuff.

So oh Wizard of the Woods, Prince of the Primative and King of Kung Fu, can you enlighten this now humbled and inept fatty as to exactly how you would approach this scenario. Take it right from the top. 9am Baxter, can of Dinty Moore and a Tshirt. Food cache 4.5 miles to the SE in a saddle. I can only hope that others besides me will benefit from your knowledge. If possible could you create a Youtube video so others besides this forum could learn as well?

 

[jmjkd]

Boghog sooooo right, flying spindle in the eye…

coastie are you STILL pushing, dude wtf???? ok bro there are so many ways this funny little scenario could play out and every one will have there own experience just use common sense.

Second quix.
Hypothetical exercises like this are fun and a great learning tool to do at home and everyone is free to complete the task their own way. You don’t even have to post anything if you feel funny about that, if you have a question you can ask? or Not, or send a private message. Regardless it lets you know where your weakness lies.

Here is another fun one I have the guys use on site, but can be used online as well.:

You are in the northern hemisphere at point A ( say somewhere in Baxter State Park) on foot without anything but a cotton t-shirt, pants w/leather belt, socks and boots. It is 9am, the temp is a summer 75 degrees with high cirrus clouds over head with a 3mph North westerly wind..

Your only gear/supplies is a 4 inch fixed blade w/sheath and a can of Dinty Moore beef stew .

Your cache w/food only is in a saddle 25 Mils SE, 4 ½ miles away from point A under the only deciduous tree among the conifers. You have no compass or map.

When you arrive you will need a shelter, a signal fire for rescue, potable water for hydration and a note leaving details of your journey.

How would you do this?

Note of my journey
I went on this camp trip, hiking all day, found a site and got set up for the night it’s been raining so most of the wood is wet but I kept on looking and collecting. I checked out this stream and .…
Bam got dark quick, things look different on the way back, I couldn't find my site?

Next day I start looking for my stuff but everything looks the same. Then I pop out on a trail and I see this hiker and asked, what trail am I on? the guy pulls a map and tells me this is the south east trail and if you follow this about 41/2 miles SE up over the ridge
smack dab in the middle of the saddle, you will come to three trails connecting you to the parking areas. There is a check in station there, you can’t miss it, it’s under the huge oak. They have shelter, snacks and water.
i said thank you so much man btw, what time is it???
9am

Leaving, the hiker see’s I have no gear just a knife, throws me a can of stew and says, Good luck.
Camp folk are like that.

That’s one way it could happen….

Moral of the story KISS!!! keep it simple stupid.
Survival Rule # 1

 

[pub]

I don't post on here very often, but with this thread I had to. I have no F'n clue what's going on right now. I just wasted all this time thinking there was some kind of lesson to be learned here about outdoor survival. I just threw up on my pants when the op said the hiker gave him a can of stew! WTF is the point of this thread? To confuse the sh*t out of people? If you want to just type stuff and talk out of your ass, call the thread " just want to make up sh*t and talk out of my ass". I was hoping to learn a little something. Not today.

 

[Prepper]

Perhaps I should not try because this thread is already full of fail. But, I'll try to answer the original quest. I like a challenge.

First, I agree there is no way I would make the trip to the cache unless I had other details not presented in the original scenario that made my odds of getting there to be reasonably high. Nor would I be caught out in the wild so pathetically unprepared. But here goes...

Even with a compass, the margin of error is going to be significant enough to have a high chance of missing the cache by hundreds of yards. Counting paces is much more difficult when you can't take even steps and have to be stumbling around in brush trying to find the best way through it. But, without a compass? And 4.5 miles of bush whacking? Bush whacking is very slow and exhausting. I know because I was doing it up in Maine yesterday... took me 3 hours to go about a mile through dense forest that I had never been through before. Because I did not want to backtrack that entire distance again, I was intentionally aiming for a clearing that I knew to be at the end of a logging road, in the hopes that I would be able to have a pleasant walk along an actual trail for another 2 miles back to where I started -- it worked. If I were attempting to find a deciduous tree, I would have been hard pressed to spot it from very far away... maybe about 100 feet at most. Yesterday, I was actually looking for blazed trees to find a property boundary, and I had to wander the suspect area for about an hour before I finally found one of the blazed trees that happen every 100 feet. So, I have a good idea of how critical that margin of error factors into it.

And, speaking of conifers, no way would I bush whack through them unless it was an old white pine forest with little undergrowth. I have been to BSP before, and it is wall to wall conifers with sharp brittle branches sticking out at 90 degree angles from the trunks, all intertwined -- THERE IS NO WAY TO BUSHWHACK THROUGH THAT. You'd be cut to pieces. When I am wandering around my own land up in Maine, and I encounter patches of conifers, I go around them -- just no good way through. Other hazards of bushwhacking include wet areas, blackberries/raspberries with their thorns, and boulders in the wet areas with moss growing on them that is very easy to slip on.

So, all that said, I doubt I would have left a cache in the middle of the woods with no trail around. It would be on or near a trail. And, assuming my starting position is not on a trail, I must have gotten there by trail and wandered off for some reason. So, my task would be to figure out how to get back to that trail, which would interconnect with the other trails, allowing me to take the trails to the cache. That may be well more than 4.5 miles, but that is way better than the bushwhacking scenario. And, only approximate directions would be needed to get to the trail... no need for less than 1% accuracy... you walk in about the right direction until you bump into the trail.

 

[jmjkd]

Pub thanks for posting.
There are a lot of lessons to be learned here, like stay calm and think about all your options, work through them and find the simplest way.

1.I wrote, Hypothetical exercises like this are fun and a great learning tool to do at home and everyone is free to complete the task their own way.
People told me what I should have done when they could have drawn their own conclusions, easy as I did, or very complex. It's up tp them.
2.I wrote: if you have a question you can ask? or Not, or send a private message.


People snubbed this because it was not realistic.
Now they see how easy and realistic it could have been. And that stuff happens all the time.
Pub if you wanted to learn something specific you could have just asked, If I didn’t know , there are some pretty smart guys out here to help.

This exercise is for folks to learn not me to teach. As I said self knowledge is the only knowledge.
I can think of many more conclusion for this exercise like, using pacing stones for measuring distance, lateral drift when following a course, saving the meat from the stew to bate traps in case my cache wasn’t there or an animal ate the food. It can go as far as you want it to go.
It could have been easy as my version or it could have been a bitch like prepper went through yesterday.

Prepper can I ask, when you knew you were in a place you have never been before, I know you didn’t want to back track but can you tell the folks why didn’t play it safe and stay put and wait to be found?

thanks for sharing that story.




.





.

 

[Prepper]

Prepper can I ask, when you knew you were in a place you have never been before, I know you didn’t want to back track but can you tell the folks why didn’t play it safe and stay put and wait to be found?

Why would I wait to be found, when I knew I could get back? I was intentionally there to explore the land features and property boundaries of what I am hoping to purchase. I was familiar with the surrounding logging roads and nearby land, and I planned in advance by printing topo and satellite images of where I was going to go, with possible points of interest (mainly the ridgeline where a view would be once trees are cleared) identified on the map, and my GPS device was loaded up with the info as well. I was prepared should the device fail though, and even with no compass at all I would have been able to bush whack in the direction of a logging road, where I would be all set once reached. I also knew how to identify the distant mountains to further use for determining where I am.

If I stayed put, deer flies would have bitten me until I died of thirst, and my remains would probably never have been discovered.

 

[jmjkd]

Prepper: Excellent assessment why you might not stay. It sounds to me you have some experience and were confident in yourself, you had general knowledge of the area to find your way out. In spite of the harsh bushwacking your determination held. You thought it out and even planned for your devices to fail.
Great job.

Someone else may have not done so well. If they decided that the bushwacking was to much and got discouraged they may have opted to just stay put . .

Both my scenario and Prepper’s actual trip are similar. Both had general information of the area and neither had intimate knowledge of the area, so which is best? prepper’s assessment to keep moving? or others assessment to stay put and wait for help?

 

[coastie]

Boghog sooooo right, flying spindle in the eye…

coastie are you STILL pushing, dude wtf???? ok bro there are so many ways this funny little scenario could play out and every one will have there own experience just use common sense.

Second quix.
Hypothetical exercises like this are fun and a great learning tool to do at home and everyone is free to complete the task their own way. You don’t even have to post anything if you feel funny about that, if you have a question you can ask? or Not, or send a private message. Regardless it lets you know where your weakness lies.

Here is another fun one I have the guys use on site, but can be used online as well.:

You are in the northern hemisphere at point A ( say somewhere in Baxter State Park) on foot without anything but a cotton t-shirt, pants w/leather belt, socks and boots. It is 9am, the temp is a summer 75 degrees with high cirrus clouds over head with a 3mph North westerly wind..

Your only gear/supplies is a 4 inch fixed blade w/sheath and a can of Dinty Moore beef stew .

Your cache w/food only is in a saddle 25 Mils SE, 4 ½ miles away from point A under the only deciduous tree among the conifers. You have no compass or map.

When you arrive you will need a shelter, a signal fire for rescue, potable water for hydration and a note leaving details of your journey.

How would you do this?

Note of my journey
I went on this camp trip, hiking all day, found a site and got set up for the night it’s been raining so most of the wood is wet but I kept on looking and collecting. I checked out this stream and .…
Bam got dark quick, things look different on the way back, I couldn't find my site?

Next day I start looking for my stuff but everything looks the same. Then I pop out on a trail and I see this hiker and asked, what trail am I on? the guy pulls a map and tells me this is the south east trail and if you follow this about 41/2 miles SE up over the ridge
smack dab in the middle of the saddle, you will come to three trails connecting you to the parking areas. There is a check in station there, you can’t miss it, it’s under the huge oak. They have shelter, snacks and water.
i said thank you so much man btw, what time is it???
9am

Leaving, the hiker see’s I have no gear just a knife, throws me a can of stew and says, Good luck.
Camp folk are like that.

That’s one way it could happen….

Moral of the story KISS!!! keep it simple stupid.
Survival Rule # 1

How do you keep track of your distance? How do you find your one tree? How do you not miss your cache? How are you going to start your fire and write yuor note? Who is your note to? How are you going to make potable water? I want to learn.

 

[Prepper]

By the way, you never mentioned how someone would come to know that they have exactly 4.5 miles at a specific bearing to go, yet they don't have a map. There isn't any chance that I would just stumble off that far into the wilderness and get lost, but still know exactly where I am supposed to go, without any map, compass or GPS. If I was lost, I would not know where the cache was or which way to go to get there. That sounds more like instructions you'd find written as part of a geocache puzzle, e.g. find stage 1 of the cache, open it, and instructions say to go SE for 4.5 miles... but even then, geocaches are not usually a survival situation and I go prepared in advance, at least with a map just in case GPS happened to fail in the middle.

 

[Prepper]

And jmjkd, my little walks through the woods really aren't that dramatic like you make them sound... I do it all the time. They shouldn't be dramatic either... that's kind of the whole point of being prepared in advance. Unknowns are encountered and then there are decisions to make while out there, but proper preparation will usually result in everything turning out fine in the end.

Only once was I ever in a situation where half way through the hike I was like "Oh crap I could die here or need to be rescued by helicopter". That was Mount Katahdin. 60 mph winds and an exhausting hike up the nearly vertical Cathedral Trail... but I was too exhausted to try to go back down it after reaching the summit. The only other way back that wasn't extremely steep was also 12 miles long... it was a gamble but I knew I could not make it down the Cathedral Trail, so I took the long way. I did not see a single person the entire way back, arrived after sunset and even had my path blocked by a moose for 30 minutes, and then I could barely move for a week after that. Fun times...