Dual Survival?

[kcscout]

So definitely an off topic here... but when I think of camping I often think of the what if scenarios... like what if I wasn't somewhere with all of the luxuries of having endless supply of food and water and I needed to find a way to survive 'for real' for a couple of days. Similar to the discovery channel dual survival. Although the closest might have been growing up that we always carried a water jug with us driving in rural areas in case our car broke down. I know in the show they might take a typical scenario where you are vacationing and you get stranded because of a number of reasons and then you have to find out how to survive.

Just wondering what others think of the dual survival program and how legit you think it is or practical?

I know for my son's boy scout troop it is almost always car camping effectively, but I have seen some friends post things on FB that showed groups going out with everything they needed on them backpacking/camping... Thinking that could be rather hard to do or at least not much experience with it.

[terasec]

Re: Dual Survival?

i enjoy the show,
while i am not going to go barefoot in 3 feet of snow,
you could learn a bit from it,
while very little need to learn every plant/method they encounter,
can learn about the type of woods terrain one spends the most time in.
learn 1 or 2 edible plants that you encounter frequently,
primitive fire starting is 1 thing i enjoy watching and would like to learn,
where i hike/camp, water is generally plentiful, whether its drinkable is another matter,
so i try to carry small hand pump filter, that makes the nastiest swamp water safe.
i also switched a couple plastic containers to metal, as metal has various uses.
compromised a little bit of weight for versatility, my water bottle is metal so i can boil water if i need to.
i split up my first aid kit and firestarter material, keep some in my pack and some on my persons.
also whatever you take from the show, its best to practice it before you need to do it in a real emergency,

[Mike]

Re: Dual Survival?

If you spend enough time wilderness camping; ie backpacking, distance canoeing, etc, you will eventually find yourself in a survival situation even if you try not to.

I have always tried to plan well and know where I am when backpacking, but on longer expeditions like when we hiked the Continental Divide for six weeks or when we canoed the Boundry Waters / Quetico for three weeks, we got lost or off track for extended periods of time and had to search and hunt food, be smart about water, know mountaineering and map reading, etc.

Many times, it was the smarts picked up from years of experience, God given resourcefulness and courage that got us through situations where one wrong choice could have brought death and disaster. I have been on trips where some members of the group thought they were smarter than the rest of us, did things their way, and died on that trip.

So, if you want to put yourself on the edge, just camp more - farther and farther. However, I do not recommend trying to make things difficult by leaving things out of your pack like knives, matches, shelter, etc. Bring good hardware with you and then experiment with survival techniques like starting fires without matches, etc.

Remember that walking on the edge of the razor is tricky business. You usually end up falling on the side of safety and comfort or falling on the side of disaster. You usually don't get to walk the edge very far without getting cut.

[renodesertfox]

Re: Dual Survival?

Cool vibes Mike! Excellent read!

[Mike]

Re: Dual Survival?

Thanks for the compliment Hogsnapper and Renodessertfox.