Tested my survival kit I carry in my hunting pack.

[Oldtrader3]

I think that one of the biggest differences with people now is that young men do not go into the service when they are still young adults. When I was young, most young men went through boot camp at least and many were Army Infantry or Marines. This was mostly because of the Draft and partly because the American Armed Services were 1 million strong during the cold war.

Around where I live no one, except my two oldest boys have been in the service and if they were it was a 9-5 job mostly. They did not spend 8 months of the year out in the field or over in the desert at Yakima living in the sand. Even those who only finished basic training at least had to pass and evasion, compass plotting and map reading, all night excercise just to graduate.

Not tooting my horn but it was different then. I worked for 2 summers during and for 12 months after HS as a diamond driller and survey line cutter in northern Quebec and Labrador. Then joined the Army went through 3 years of being out in the field in an Infantry Division Medic both in Germany on the Czech DMZ and the US. This was with terribly bad WWII clothing that was not nearly what you can buy now. This was living in snow fox holes mostly poaching deer (with a .45 Auto) and getting by.

In northern Quebec you can not even use a compass in about a 200 mile stretch along a huge dike of magnetite there and you learn how to get by. It also snows there in July. So you better be able to navigate with a watch and use some common sense or you are dead! I have worked outside when it was -40 F for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, in white out conditions, on snow shoes, cutting lines and manning a diamond drill, in 18 feet of snow, getting wet! I can not say that it was comfortable but we managed.

We live differently now and it shows. I guess that the skills of the old days are mostly gone now. I also went to college for seven years (2-degrees) and was a business man at a different time. The two are not mutually exclusive when everyone acts like they are! I worked with many mining engineeers who could walk me into the ground and they were college boys also (like my brother MScGeol, McGill Univ). He spent three years in rural West Africa and got stabbed in the belly several times in order to steal his running shoes. He is not an agressive personality like I am and would have given the guy his shoes and timex watch.

 

[C.Smith]

Well I thank you guys for the stories and motivation to better learn skills that can save my life. I read about them but hate to admit I've never practiced any, I need to change that.

Corey

 

[mcseal2]

Oldtrader I think you are right. Between less people entering the military and the shift of the population, especially young people seeking higher paying jobs, into urban environments people have less exposure to the outdoors and the skills needed there.

 

[35 Whelen]

Dr Mike, you bring up a great point and I will never forget the time I landed at Brooks Camp to drop off some fisherman and they just flown in a Dr on Penn Air to patch up and guy that was Swiss that got into a mess feeding a large Brown Bear out the tent window???? Bear decided he wanted more but there wasnt anymore?? Guess what happened next??? Lucky that his girlfriend beat the bear over the head with a frying pan and some others threw some wood at it and screamed at the bear.
People are absolutely numb about some things. I also saw a tourist in Yellowstone one time taking pictures of a nice 6pt Bull Elk that wanted to cross the road during the rut .................. the guy would keep cutting the bull off everytime he wanted to cross until he finally got so frothed up he just flat took him out when he jumped in front of him goreing him and knocking a tooth out of his mouth??? He was shocked the elk would hurt him???? Hello...................
Old trader you are exactly right about young fellas going into the service it has made a man outta alot of boys and would help alot of what we are discussing here.............. some of my best guides have been Army Rangers and Marines................. rock solid fellas, that you always are sad when they leave!

 

[DrMike]

35 Whelen,

You remind me of some of the scenes we witnessed when we lived in Jasper National Park. During calving season, it never ceased to amaze me that despite many warnings, people would try to get near the elk calves only to receive a thrashing from an enraged cow. These were far more dangerous than the bulls, though there were plenty of incidents with the bulls each year, as well. Also, bear jams were a constant problem. A tourist would see a bear and stop to take pictures. I never ceased to marvel at how God protects the stupid and how tolerant some animals can be.

One of the funniest stories I ever had related to me was of a tourist who was kneeling behind a bush to get a picture of a grizzly tearing at a dead tree in order to get at the termites. The man was within a matter of yards of the bruin. A park warden, seeing what was happening, called out on his loud haler, "Hey, you, tourist, get back here." The fellow half-turned and confidently held up a can of bear spray.

The bear, seeing the movement, turned and loped over to see what the fellow had in his hand. The tourist fumbled with the safety, finally popping it off, and depressed the spray ... full into his own face. Blinded, he fell to the ground moaning. The bear was befuddled, and skidded to a halt. He sniffed the man a time or two and went back to his termites.

The tourist was in great distress, necessitating intervention by the park warden who discovered that the man had gone into cardiac arrest. The warden was laughing so hard he was unable to administer CPR. Thus, he radioed for help. The RCMP arrived next, and they were also greatly amused. The bear, in the interim, wandered off and went about doing whatever it is that grizzlies do in the forest.

The fellow survived, but he left a legacy of great mirth for the Federal Park Warden service and for the RCMP each them they relate the story.

 

[Guy Miner]

Dr. Mike - I read your description of the tourist spraying himself just before I was heading off to bed. Laughed so hard I woke up my wife. My dog thinks I went nuts. I may not sleep for an hour - just thinking about that. Great story.

Guy

 

[Oldtrader3]

Boy, I never worried about bears or animals in Canada (even wolves). The enemy was no compass that worked (the magnatic dike again) and dealing with cold temperatures and hypothermia. I remember my dad falling through a stream on snowshoes in the winter in Northern Quebec when I was about -10 F derees and getting wet up to his neck in woolens and fighting to get a fire built and get him our of his clothes and into what what dry cloths that we had. We were racing against against hypothermia and trying to keep his body temperature high enough to keep him lucid and helping us getting warm. That was probably the most scared that I have ever been because he had heart disease and I was afraid that he was going to slip away in to a medical crises and die before we got him out on a pack sled pulled by me on snoeshows. He made it out about 5 miles to the car and we got it started and were able to warm him up enough to with the car heater come around and start working with us instead of against us.

We were about 40 miles from the nearest telephone and 70 miles from the closest hospital.

 

[35 Whelen]

One of my favorite bear stories is some black and white footage of a guy and his wife taken in Yellowstone in the 1950's that the park service still has to show young rangers of how unbeliveable STUPID that people were getting even back in the late 1950's when someone took a movie of this guy fooling around with about a two hundred lb Black Bear. He was feeding it dougnuts from his hand and the bear was following him around much like a dog would moaning for more dougnuts.
His wife was still in the car knitting some socks and he want to get a still picture of the bear in the car with his WIFE!!!!!!!!! So he opens the door and puts part of a dougnut on the seat and gets the bear comfortable with putting his head in thru the doorway??? The wife was just a numb as he was and keeps right on knitting...................... anyway he starts putting pieces up on the dash and the bear is going in after them and he puts them closer and closer to his wifes side of the dash and then decides to try to push on the bears backside to get it in BEHIND THE WHEEL for the picture he wants of the bear driving the car with his wife in there with it????????? Anyway of course at that point the bear freaks out and somehow reverses direction in the car knocking his wifes glasses off and lunges out over the top of this dude knocking him over backwards and runs off into the brush!
The point is that most of us cant even think on the same wavelenght that others find compleatly normal!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[C.Smith]

People are absolutely idiots around wild animals. I visited Yellowstone for the first time 3 or 4 years ago and saw things poeple were doing to get photos and closer to animals and was just amazed. I was almost hoping to see an animal go after someone so I can point out to my kids of how dangerous they really are.

Corey

 

[mcseal2]

Got my paratarp in on Thursday, went out and put it up for the first time today. Including cutting poles it took 18 minutes, and will be quicker next time since I've done it once. It is a slick little shelter. The wind was blowing 30mph and it still had very little flap, and most of what it had was my fault. I didn't allow quite enough room to stake the front RH corner down far enough forward, there was a sapling in the way. The tarp weighs 11oz and comes with it's own built in stuff sack/pocket, plus whatever you want to carry for stakes. It needs a minimum of 5 and I used 10. You can cut your own stakes, but for 1/2oz each they speed things up alot. I don't see any reason to carry poles unless you are in an area without trees, the tarp is marked to show what length poles to cut. I had 2 cut with my little saw on my SOG revolver in no time. There are pockets built into the tarp for the poles or sticks to rest in that look pretty sturdy. It's not cheap for what you get, but I think it's worth the money to have shelter this fast and easy. The pack inside is my Eberlestock J34 for size reference. It fits 1 person and gear real comfortable, and 2 would fit if needed.
I'll update later after I test it in the rain.
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