Eating Worms

Eating bugs and worms is way over rated.

I saw a Dr. Phil show where some women were facing their greatest fear: camping. In order to go camping, and to win a reward, each woman was presented with a bug she had to eat.

Now, this is ridiculous. I've never eaten a bug on purpose, and I've spend days, months and years in the back country. Sometimes alone, sometimes with a friend. Sometimes seriously low on food. Sometimes just a spoonful of instant potatoes and and Ramen seasoning. That made a bowl of hot soup, and I told myself that was supper. Some wild onions mixed with instant rice or pasta. Its just that simple.

I've been asked how do you make people like the wilderness. How do you make a woman like backpacking? It sure isn't by asking them to prove how tough they are, by requiring them to eat stuff crawling around in the dirt.

A peaceful co existance unless required for survival is the path to feeling at home in the wilderness. When you are at home, there is no anxiety or fear.

Deer and the Common Man

I wrote about stalking deer (watching them closely) in my more philosophical blog

http://brawnyview.blogspot.com/



It reminded me of the story Hawkeye told Rainmaker and me when we shared an evening campsite on the Pacific Crest Trail.


We had climbed high onto the crest where there was no water. Below, a lovely river wound its way through the valley. As is the custom of
this 2, 658 mile trail from Mexico to Canada, one may cross water but very very seldom actually hike near it. "Always seeking the Crest" is it's motto.


Anyways, after scrounging for water from some intermittent drip on the side of a mountain while looking for a campsite, we finally cleared a spot of rocks and set up the tent. Rainmaker cooking by one tree, me by another, suddenly we hear profanity of interesting proportions. Coming up the trail, just out of view, a fellow long distance hiker.

Seeing us, he looked shocked, then happy. We all burst out laughing, and he set up camp.

Now Hawkeye is a tarp man. Lay down the tarp, set the gear around it, cover with tarp if it rains, much like a tortilla.

The conversation drifted around until we got to most feared creatures on the trail. Then Hawkeye told of the night he and a friend were camped just as we all were now: a couple in a tent, those two guys on their respective tarps. His friend had eaten supper, washed the pot, set it to the side.


Darkness fell, all slept. Until. Until a strange snorting, a pot being kicked, then a creature, turns out it was a deer, startled kicked back. The head of Hawkeye's friend was in the path of lashing hooves. Blood poured out, and the man was in grave danger.
Hawkeye asked the other people on site to watch over the injured man while he quickly hiked 6 miles for help. Rangers eventually came, and the man was evacuated.

After the story was told silence fell as we pondered the implications. Maybe the feds should require a Head Canister to protect us from deer.

The Survival Shelter

I'm really into survival and wilderness stuff.

Lately I'm thinking survival in this economy is going to take some skills too.

Things like sewing, cooking, gardening, making do with what we have, trading for what we need.

So why not blog about it? A way to share, get comments, brainstorm new ideas.
Why not?

The survival shelter I built above is very small, but adequate. It'd get you through a cold night, shed most rain falls, and be snug as a bug.
I started with a log which had landed all by itself in the crotch of another tree.
Then, placing branches, leaves and natural debris in a lean-t0 formation, I continued to shape a Bivy -type shelter for sleeping. It will hold in my own body heat because the layers of dry leaves, beneath me and above me, are great insulation.

No vegetation was harmed in the making of this shelter. No live plants were cut or distroyed.