Hi Everyone
I'm back already from the weekend in the woods....and it's still Saturday! That's right, I backed out before it was all over. There's apparently a beast of a storm headed this way, and since I had a banging headache on Friday when I set off, and my shelter wasn't what I had hoped (not enough practice, not perfect materials either) the sensible thing to do was to back out, as I had completed the challenge ahead of time.
That's right, the challenge. I should probably explain that if you're not sure what happened.
Well, basically g79 issued a basic challenge about how easy it would be to get food for 24 hours for each member of your Bugging Out Team (BOT). The idea is that if your BOT is made up of 10 people, you have to be able to provide enough food for all 10 people, for a minimum of 24 hours. Thankfully my BOT consists of Scythe13 (me), myself, and I. So the food requirements are not as big as some other preppers who have teams of 4 adults and 2 kids, or anyone with a family. Granted I had an advantage having to find food for 1 person, but as I'll explain, the process was still fascinating and fun.
One thing I'd like to say before I go into depth with this. I went into this knowing it was going to be heard! People are always telling us it's hard to find food, and they say how difficult it is. We hear about people starving in the woods and things like that. So believe me, I knew this wasn't going to be an easy walk in the park.
There's a summary at the bottom and a link for photos. But if you read the whole thing, it would be appreciated, and it gives you plenty of things to mock me for as well haha.
Friday at 4pm I set off on my walk, stocked up with my BOB and....well, that was it. My BOB and phones for photos. If you've not done a test Bug Out, you really should. It's a real eye opener, even if you have bugged out a couple of times, changing seasons lead to a better standard and understanding of your kit.
The destination was simple enough. A big hill I'd never been up, but was covered in trees and woodland! IDEAL!!!
The footpath was long and winding, but when I went under a bridge, I was then confronted by a path straight ahead (away from where I intended on going) or a damn steep up hill, slippery, wet, climb. That's right, I opted for that. Even with the ultra light BOB that I'd kitted with, it was a damn hard climb. The climb itself took longer than the walk to actually get to the bottom of the hill, even though it was at least 3 times shorter!!! There were a few times I thought, I've bitten off more than I can chew here, maybe I should leave my BOB and see how far I have left to go. But stupidity, and not being able to see the top of the hill said "It can't be that far I've been at this for ages!!! A couple more minutes and you'll be there." Well, stupidity won, and lived up to it's name. It took me so long to get up there. I was dripping with sweat, the rain had started and I'd slipped so many times and only just managed to catch myself before my face tasted the dirt!
When I finally got to the top of the hill, low and behold, a beautiful clearing seemed to appear. As the horizon came to eye level and I knew I'd reached the top, there were a few items waiting for me. One of which ended up being the stupid footpath I'd left earlier on!!! Damn National Trust sites!!! I'd just climbed from ground level at the bottom of the hill, above the walk way of Clifton Suspension Bridge, and I was standing at about half way up the top of the suspension bridge towers and the bridge walkway! My first thought was "DAMN IT! I'm not looking forward to going back. I'll take the stupid path back on Sunday."
Beautifully the sky started to clear just long enough to set up the ponchos for my shelter. As a recommendation, don't camp under ponchos! Mine were different sizes, and the studs that clip together were the same size, but at different intervals, so I couldn't peg them together as one sheet! That lead to a very entertaining and frustrating attempt at standardising a system. It didn't work. Had to just accept they were different sizes and work on them having an overlap that wouldn't let in water.
Once the ponchos were set up, it started to rain, so God was looking down at me and thinking, "Right, let's see how good that is" It worked! So that was a real relief. It also worked brilliantly at collecting water in a couple of places, which made gathering and purifying water redundant. If you look at the pictures you can see where I had loads of sticks to shape the ponchos. The idea was that the water would collect in certain places, but if I left it, they would overflow away from me and my stuff underneath.
So far I had learned 2 lessons:
1. Footpaths are not a bad thing to follow.
2. Get a Basha!!!
The next thing to make sure I got was a good nights sleep. Set up a space blanket on the floor, as a ground sheet, and then it was out with the sleeping gear. That was set up and dry, so it was all systems go. Before getting to sleep though I wanted to start on learning about the Foraging book I had in my BOB. In total bluntness, that book has been in my BOB since Christmas, and only AlyBear has really read any of it on our Camping trip in January 2012. It is my most neglected book :-( There were so many plants, I couldn't keep track of what seasons what were in. So I just had a little read and then got to sleep.
Woke up a couple of times in the night. Usually I have my GHB with me, and the padding on the back of the GHB makes an awesome pillow! The problem is that the padding and thickness of my BOB doesn't :-( However, I did have some clothes that I stuffed into my 'stuff bag' for the Vango sleeping mat, which made for a surprisingly decent pillow! Slept like a baby from then on.
6am, and I'm awake. Damn Spring. In winter it's not light until much later, and as people, we're programmed to rise when the sun does! Stupid Spring! haha.
Checking my thermometer the temp was just below 10degrees which meant a morning run would be a good way to get the blood flowing and start the day. I got out of bed, and as I went to put my shoes on, my head pushed the poncho up and a load of water tipped off the edge of my poncho right into my left shoe! The only thought was "I really hope the day doesn't go on like this!" Thankfully it didn't.
As I got out from under my poncho, I was struck with a beautiful view of 2 deers playing in the clearing! My snoring mustn't have scared them off! I grabbed my iPhone (for the camera) and spent the next hour stalking the deers and showing my crap skills with a camera. I'd love to have said I could have killed one with a bow and arrow, but they looked so beautiful, I probably could have done it. However, the shot would have been so simple that anyone could have taken one of them down! I'd love to say I could have shot one of them, but the thing is, anyone with a bow and arrow could have! After I stopped taking photos, I just stalked them trying to get as close as I could. At one point I was so close that there was no way I could have taken a bad photo! I pick up my phone, look down at the screen to unlock it. Look up again, and they'd gone, without a sound! But that was an experience I will never forget.
Next up came the job of actually doing the food challenge. I went back to the book and started reading again. The book had so much stuff in it, that it was doing my head in. As I got more and more frustrated, I just thought, right, I'll check out what plants I know (used to be quite into plants as a kid, and my Dad always had me out in the garden) and I'll focus on them. As I refined my search I recognised a few plants that EVERYONE probably knows:
Stickyweed (that stuff you throw on your friends backs and laugh as they walk around with them stuck on)
Stinging Nettles (everyone knows them, and most people hate them)
Dandilions (Didn't realise they were edible, but then the book mentioned dandilion and burdock drinks and I figured I was an idiot for not figuring that out haha)
Grass (Our digestive system doesn't absorb much stuff from it, but chopping it up and chewing it loads can get some nutrients out. It's mainly to help you feel full)
So those were my ingredients to start with. Next up......finding them.
Well, I started off looking for stickyweed, as I'm not a fan of nettles and I didn't have gloves, so was kind of wussing out a bit haha. Pinched off a load of sticky weed tops, took them back to camp, boiled up some water, and hey presto, a snack. Added a few dandillions to the mix and I had a nice little munch. It wasn't nice, but I've NEVER liked veg. To be fair, it didn't taste that different from a normal salad. I don't like salad, and I didn't like what I had found, but if you like salad, you'll be okay with it. Oh, and wash the dandilions loads. You'll probably find insect eggs on the underside of the leaves and although eggs are full of protein, some are probably poisonous, so I'd not recommend eating them.
Ate as much of that as I could stomach, about 3/4 of it, then figured it was time to set off and see what else was around.
Meal 1: Breakfast......Completed.
Armed with a book and an empty bowl, the next mission was simple....lunch!
Walking around I couldn't see any of the plants from the book, other than dandilions, nettles, and stickyweed. Grass isn't in the book, but I remember my college biology teacher telling us we could eat grass and that that is what our appendix used to be for. So it made sense that we could eat it. Plus, as a kid I used to chomp on grass stems quite often when walking in the woods and fields. They often tasted like apple!
Ended up getting so annoyed about walking in the woods and finding nothing that I stopped and thought about Tom Brown from Tracker School in America. I've not been, but I have been watching loads of their views and reading his books. "The pace of the wild is much slower than you're used to. Slow your speed to one tenth that of your normal walking pace. Once you have done that, slow it down some more." Was one of the quotes (maybe not an exact quote, but it was very similar). As soon as I slowed down, I saw the wild for how it really was and I really felt like a part of nature. It was freaky really to actually feel a connection to the things around me. My pace was one step every 10 seconds, or there abouts. Must have looked like a right nutter!!! But suddenly everything came alive!!! Plants that I hadn't noticed suddenly sprung out at me. Flowers popped out where there weren't any before!!! It was such a strange sensation to be observing the world at such a slow pace, but it all felt so natural. It's a feeling you can't explain. Instead of looking at the floor, or a few meters ahead of youself, you were walking so slowly that you had time to take in the world around you.
Then I remember watching a video of a tracker/wildman walking style. I was probably taking it too far doing this, walking like a total fruitcake! But every time I did one of the weird things from a video or a book, the world around came more alive! I was turning my head so slowly, but the visual data was all being absorbed so beautifully that everything around became significant. The world was no longer a mash up of shades of green and brown. It became specific plants, different flowers, animal foot prints (got a few photos of deer foot prints that I would have probably trodden on and ruined if I was walking at my normal pace).
Sorry about that. Went a bit weird then!
Basically I ended up finding so many different plants and I was so fascinated by it all, then I just went back, and picked dandelions, grass, and some fennel. Again, not a spectacular meal, but my mission/challenge was to find enough food to live off. The woods at this time of year (spring) are an abundance of food, if you know what you're looking for.
While still checking out and being fascinated by the plants around, a small wind kicked up and I checked out the weather forecast on my phone. A big ol' storm was headed this way! Considering I'd managed to find food, and LOADS of it, I'd completed the challenge I set out to do! I figured, since I know I can find food in the woods, I've tested my BOB contents and know what to adapt and change, I'm okay terminating this test early, having achieved what I wanted to do, in a much smaller timescale than I thought it would take.
Challenge Completed!
Thank you for reading!
Summary:
Change some BOB Gear (again haha)
Slow down pace in the woods and you'll see so much more around you
Learn a few basics and you'll probably be fine.
Learn a minimum of 5 plants available for each season, then add to them when you have the first 5 down pat and can easily find them!
Have fun!!!
Finding food in Spring in the woods is not as hard as everyone says it is, as long as you know what to look for!
Photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/73883511@N0...919285187/
Side note:
Everyone says it's really hard to find food in the wild. Everyone told me this, and I believed them. I think, however, that everyone has told them, and they've passed on that knowledge without actually having tested it. We've all been guilty of this at one time or another, so there will be no finger pointing or mocking. Yes people were proved wrong. But that wasn't my intention. My intention was to learn and develop as a prepper/survivalist. Oddly enough, the things people have told me are easy have proven to be hard, and the things people say are hard have proven to be easy.
Side note 2:
If anyone is wondering about protein, expand the scale of the things you're willing to eat, and you'll be able to find protein very easily. Worms, ants, crickets, maggots, grubs (from ants, bees, or wasps), and things like that. If you have a spade, you can find LOADS of worms. I was going to get a load of worms and make a worm burger by mashing them up with some spices, but I didn't have the spices with me (sorry Binary Ninja, I did promise, but I left the spices on the kitchen table by accident). If you're willing to do what it takes, food is bountiful in the wild!
I had a horrible feeling that wasn't going to post and I'd have to retype the whole thing again.
As I'm sat here the storm is just outside ready to start, so even though I did wuss out, I believe it was the wise option and I managed to do the challenge anyway. So as far as I'm concerned, the time I spend in the woods was a massive success!
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