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Article on this Page: Survival Trek Log by Glen MacKay.
Other Articles Now Available:
• Index of Journey Intros on Study Sites, Hazards, Awareness, Journaling & Sketching, Tracking, Birding & Plants by Chris Chisholm.
• Class Notes from blog on Bugs, Amphibians & Seaweeds edited from Wolf Camp students.
• Woods Lake Species List by Wolf Camp staff.
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• Camper Preparedness & Emotions by Chris Chisholm.
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• Law of Fours: The Order of Survival by Chris Chisholm.
Survival Trek Log
By Glen MacKay, former camper and current apprentice at Wolf Camp
Day 1 (Aug 28th) – sunny, 78°F at Everett, clear skies
I walked to location, gathered pine boughs from 20ish year old trees in clear-cut, gathered a fireboard, spindle, possible bow, and a handhold for a bow drill kit. Ate blackberries. I met Chris in the afternoon (I was waiting at the end of a logging road, he was coming through the woods from Woods Lake to make a trail for me). We went to see "Jason’s side of the Mt." shelter (a large burnt out tree stump that Jason roofed). Then we went to primitive camp, which Chris had discovered on his way out to me that the DNR people had found it (he estimated a little over a month ago, based on the sagging blue tape put up around the earth lodge in pieces). We then proceeded to boateater cover landing, which is now my primitive campground. (After some deliberation, we decided that the opening right after the trail to boateater was indeed the best spot). First thing he showed me was how to find some natural rope from a root of a downed hemlock (for bowdrill). Backing up, at primitive camp (the old one DNR found) we found some nylon rope, a bow drill bow (much better than the one I found at the clear cut), cordage made from a plastic bad, 2 giant burn bowls, and some toilet paper. Chris cut down a dangerous old snag next to where I was going to build my shelter, and then left. That evening I gathered 2 bundles of bracken fern fronds for more bedding (in addition to the pine boughs) and then set to work on my bow drill set. Since Chris brought me a 5 gallon container of water to drink (he said in a survival situation water sources, unless downstream from a farm, are usually not infested with giardia to the point of getting sick, and would be relatively safe to drink from, but he didn’t want me taking chances in this exercise). I didn’t have to worry too much about getting fire because I had pure water, which was good, because I didn’t end up getting any. The hemlock root I gathered was too thick to wrap properly around the spindle (so I used my shoelace), and I ended up using the bow found at old primitive camp because the one I found broke. And after all that the spindle, with only a rock to sharpen it with (I didn’t bring a knife on this trek), kept popping out of the handhold. So I went to bed with no fire, but plenty of water and shelter (or so I thought).
Night 1 – slightly windy, then calm. Clear until just before morning, 56°F at Everett
This night was horrible! I think I got a total of 1 hour of sleep the entire night. I didn’t have my bedding set up comfortably at first, and then when the night cooled off I didn’t have enough, and got very cold. The major problem, however, was the mosquitoes. There were tons of them, and they pestered me all night. As for animals I heard some crashes of large wood chunks (could be the neighborhood bear, there are a lot in this area) but because there was no noise prior to or after the crashes I think it was just deadfall coming down. The sleep I did get in was dozing half the time and shifting about the other half for the last 2 hours of the night. As soon as I heard a rooster crowing I sat up and waited for dawn (it was about time). I learned that you should always get two times as much debris for bedding as you think you need, and green bracken doesn’t work well, because it wilts and shrivels overnight. The boughs also seem to lend themselves more toward a mattress, but make sure to lay them carefully, or you’ll get the thick branch part digging into various parts of your body.
Day 2 (Aug 29th) – cloudy to constant light rain in the morning, clearing a bit later, and then more rain. Very damp, 57°F at Everett.
Woke/got up before dawn (hard to tell how long before, the sky was completely overcast). Tried to work on my bowdrill set as soon as it got light enough, but I had to leave the area because of the impossible amount of mosquitoes. There were probably 20 on me at once. I’ve never seen so many (no wonder I couldn’t sleep even though I rarely was bit (my face was totally covered by a hoodie and bandana), the noise of all those buzzing insects was louder than one would expect possible). So I wandered around a bit in an exhausted stupor. The sky told me to get working on a decent shelter, so I started a lean-to. The workmanship ended up being quite poor, but I needed a workable rain shelter quickly. I finished shingling it with skunk cabbage leaves just as I felt the first drops of rain. Off to get more bedding! After a quick radio conversation with Chris I decided it was better to make the longer walk to get old sword fern fronds instead of more green bracken. I have used sword fronds before, so I knew they would work. As I was gathering it started to rain. I got 2 bundles, carried them back, one in each arm, to my lean-to, and stuffed the ferns and myself inside. It’s been (I think) and hour now under the shelter, most of it writing all events these past two days so far. Time to attempt a nap.
Now it’s morning of day 3, time to tell you of the events so far. I napped for the rest of the time it was raining yesterday, which was around 4 hours, according to Lorien (she started her survival trek at 11am that morning). Then it cleared up a bit and the rain stopped. I went and gathered another 1 _ bundles of ferns (the two times the debris you think you need is still off, get about five times) and then took apart the bedding in my shelter to rearrange everything for max comfort and warmth. Bracken ended up being useful as an under mattress layer for evening out the ground. As I was pulling my bedding I found that the bracken was actually still warm, so it is a good insulation layer, just not a good blanket. After that I started working on bowdrill, to no avail. So I went to Lorien’s shelter at the suggestion of Chris to help bowdrill with her (she had brought a knife, and consequently had a much better kit). We worked on that for quite a while, and then Chris and Scott came over. Chris brought elder and lemon Balm leaves to help repel mosquitoes. A little before they showed up it had started raining again, but Lorien’s place was under the grandmother and grandfather trees on the trail to primitive camp (for those of you who know the landmarks), and so we stayed relatively dry. Chris and Scott also tried to get a bow drill fire, but were unsuccessful. The grain on Lorien’s fireboard was too close, making hard to get good dust, so we made a new one. Then her spindle ran out, so we made a new one of those. We even tried using Scott’s magnesium block, but that didn’t work either: it was just too wet out with 100% humidity.
Night 2 – rain, 52°F at Everett
Nice night. A little chilly, but I was able to sleep through it. The mosquitoes were almost non-existent, although I heard a few around. I’m not sure if it was the rain, or the lemon balm/elder that did it, but it sure was nice. The shelter kept me quite dry, only a few drips got through. I woke up maybe four times just long enough to roll over, shift the debris, and then fall back asleep. All in all very successful for a primitive tent and sleeping bag, though I think I will try to get more ferns and skunk cabbage still. I did have to take off my wet shoes/socks to get my feet warm enough to be comfortable.
Day 3 (Aug 30th) – rain, then slowly clearing, 64°F at Everett
Woke up to rain, decided to wait for the rain to stop before moving too much because I was wearing all cotton clothes (bad idea). I was writing here when Scott came by with presents: crushed chips and warmish coffee. I couldn’t say no. After that I got up and went to Lorien’s camp with him to work on fire once again. This time we did it right, first going out and selecting a spindle that had wide grain, then spending an hour or so making a nice fire pit (lined with mud to keep the small underground roots from catching and spreading the fire underground), and then carefully constructing a teepee fire, as well as a good tinder bundle. All of this, combined with the fact that the rain had stopped two hours before and things had started to dry/clear (much less humidity in the air – humidity makes a far bigger effect on weather or not you can make fire than I expected) got us a fire on basically the first try. It didn’t hurt that there was three people on the bowdrill. Moral was boosted quite nicely with the fire. A little while later Scott left to make some traps (one for raccoon, one for squirrel, one for fish). Chris Laura, and Megan then came to take down the earth lodge at old primitive camp. Turns out that the blue tape was no DNR, but a game that the day camp played there! So that turned out well. It was odd that DNR would have taped it off so shoddily or done it at all, because there are no permanent shelters allowed in DNR land, but an earth lodge, being made out of wood poles and bark, is in no way permanent, thus it was totally legal. So Chris, Laura, and Megan worked some more on the lodge. Laura had brought us some cattail root, making our harvesting easier. Lorien and I took turns watching the fire and gathering more ferns/firewood. We passed the day this way, sitting around the fire and talking a fair amount as well. We made two batches of wilderness tea (Scott’s recipe) by boiling huckleberries, huckleberry leaves, and hemlock needles (the tree, not poison water hemlock from the carrot family). The tea was actually quite good, and a useful survival tea because hemlock needles have lots of vitamin C and clean your mouth out (slightly antibacterial) and berries have lots of electrolytes (salt and a little sugar), which is essential to being hydrated (being hydrated does not just mean drinking a lot of water, but having the correct balance of electrolytes to water). We made the tea in a glass jar set on the fire. Cattail was simply set on the coals. At dusk I went back to my camp to tuck in. Lorien stayed at hers with the fire. After about 5 minutes Scott came through my camp from boateater cove. I then bunked down for the night.
Night 3 - clearing through night and cooling down to 51°F (at Everett)
The beginning of this night was fine. There were a few more mosquitoes then the previous night, but the elder/lemon balm kept them away from my face enough to not have them be a problem. I had some trouble falling asleep, but did after a time (probably no more than an hour and a half after getting in). However, late into the night (or quite early in the morning, Scott estimates 2 am) the forest cooled down to the upper 40’s. I learned that night that 40’s are very cold. I woke up nearly shivering. All the mosquitoes had left because of the cold. Through much deep breathing (it commands your body to increase your metabolism, burning more calories, but making you warmer. I asked Chris and he said it is worth it to burn more calories in a survival situation if you become too cold.) I feel into an unsteady dozing state that lasted the rest of the night. I was awoken on one occasion by a loud animal sound, somewhere between a scream and bark. This happened twice, and was quite frightening. Later I talked to Scott and he said it was probably some sort of crazy bird, or a cougar (it was apparently doing the same thing very close to Lorien’s camp where Scott was staying either before or after it did it in the proximity of my camp). Eventually I fell back into the uneasy dozing until dawn.
Day 4 (Aug 31st) – clear skies, 67°F at Everett
Got up very early (no reason to try sleeping any longer) and stuffed my sweatshirt with some bedding. I then proceeded to jump up and down and wave my arms about like an idiot until I was a little warmer (but still quite cold unfortunately) and then went over to Lorien and Scott’s camp (Scott had slept there on night 3). They were both still in the shelter, expressing the same discomforts that I had that night (well, Lorien was warm between Scott and the wool blanket, but Scott got cold). I started work on a tinder bundle and dry pencil lead from hemlock (the best source of pencil lead sized sticks) to get the fire up from the coal or two that was left burning. I got the fire going shortly, and after a little bit Scott and I went to check his traps. We got two fish, but nothing more. I learned about the "figure four" deadfall trigger and the "cone in a cylinder" fish trap. We came back to Lorien’s camp and cleaned, cooked, and ate fish (we cleaned them far away to avoid attracting animals to camp). We made coffee in the glass jar, and we cooked a few venison chunks that had been gathered from a fresh road kill deer a week or two ago. The meat is delicious after four days of nothing solid except cattail. "Hunger makes the best seasoning" is very true (the coffee was great also, even though it was just grounds boiled over a fire and then the water sipped off over the top of the grounds). Scott and Lorien went back out to check the traps again (we reset them after we checked them, putting venison and peanut butter on the squirrel trap that went off and got nothing (the bait was taken) and venison on the raccoon trap that had had the old bait of peanut butter licked off with out the trap being sprung. With venison the bait had to be pulled off, which will spring the trap. We also put venison in the fish trap along with the chicken bone with a little meat and the apple half.) Now I’m sitting here watching/tending the fire while they’re away. They said they’d be back in an hour, but it has been a few hours at least. I feel like I should be doing something like gathering some more debris or working on my project, but I have to wait here until they get back.
[Diagrams and explanations of traps]
Scott and Lorien came back, nothing from the traps, Scott took a nap, Lorien and I sat around the fire. A bit later Scott got up and I tried to rock boil in a nalgene (lexan variety) and Lorien rock boiled some plantain-dandylion-huckleberry-salal berry-cattail root stew (lots of water, very thin stew). The rock for me was wider than the mouth of the bottle, so I melted it in. The water inside did boil and the bottom of the bottle did not melt. The moral of that story is you can rock boil in a nalgene, as long as you are smart enough to get a rock smaller than the neck of the bottle. Then Lorien and I went to get some more sword ferns while Scott watched the fire. Tonight Lorien is planning on ditching the wool blanket she used last night and the morning before (Scott had brought it for her) so she has to get a fair amount more fern fronds. I gathered one smallish bundle, walked it back to my shelter, took a short break to drink a full nalgene and then refill, and walked back to Lorien’s camp and now I feel exhausted. It is somewhere around five o’clock on the fourth day and now I am really starting to feel the effects of the sleepless and foodless situation I am in (I am burning more calories than normal – at least at the beginning of the trek - as well as not eating or sleeping as much). I feel very tired, but at the same time I feel a little clumsy and loopy. It will take willpower to get me to stay tonight and go back tomorrow rather than go home tonight, especially with food and a bed, or at least a sleeping bag and pad, just on the other side of the lake, But I suppose this extreme pushing of your limits is where you really get stronger, and I will stay this one more night to make it to day five, even it is a horrible night. My consolation is tomorrow I get to go home, eat, and sleep as much as I want, more or less whenever I want (probably quite early).
Now that I think about it I see my activity levels decline fairly steadily over the week, from working in the high 70’s for over half a day the first day and still feel fine to today sitting around the fire for most of the day, then doing a measly amount of work and feeling completely drained. Scott made a good pint in saying that if this was a real survival situation we would be gathering as much cattail and huckleberries as we could, but since this trek is about practicing the skills and seeing what it takes to survive, not to decimate everything edible in the region (or useful; I took one skunk cabbage leaf from each plant when I harvested them for my lean-to rain shelter rather than saving energy and taking every leaf). This region will be used in the future for people doing similar treks in the future, plus tomorrow I’m going to go and eat/sleep a lot, so there is no need to go crazy with harvesting.
I think that I’ve found another reason to get a good shelter the first night. I believe I’ve worked up a negative physiological association with my shelter, or night in the woods, or something. I feel…bad…stomach sinking and heart beating a little harder at the thought of spending the night there. It’s odd because once I actually get in the shelter I feel fine, but the thought of sleeping there feels bad. I have been in very good spirits for hardly eating during this whole week. Now I feel myself in good spirits occasionally between bouts of tiredness and general cruddiness. I find it interesting that the more tired, slow, hungry and everything else I’ve described to you I feel the more I end up writing here, even thought I am starting to miss letters and write confusion sentences. [when I put this in digital form I fixed those errors] I just stood up and got quite dizzy. My nose is stuffing up, not good for sleeping. I better stop before I jinks myself.
Last evening I went to bed at sundown, shortly after writing above.
Night 4 – 50°F at Everett, clear skies
This night started out well with the extra fern bundle, except for my nose. The nose and the temperature caused me to get into a very interesting state of being half asleep and half awake for a long time. It was like my brain couldn’t decide what to do. I would be thinking about things normally (or so it seemed at the time) and then all of a sudden an image would pop into my head, and it seemed 100% like I was seeing it in real life. Trippy. For example I was lying there with my mind going around waiting for sleep, and then all of a sudden I could see my debris next to my leg on fire. I sat up and looked down, and it was pitch black outside, no fire. Another time I was lying there with my eyes closed and I could swear that someone started shining a flashlight in my eyes. My mind did a double take for a second and then I opened my eyes to, once again, pitch black. The second half of the night was the standard cooled off forest cold suckiness. However, at first light this night I decided to try to go back to sleep (2 reasons, 1: it had been decided that I would wake up Lorien when I got up, and I figured she didn’t want to be waken up at first light, and 2: It had started to warm up again). I succeeded beautifully, sleeping till around 7:30 (from 4:30 or 5).
Day 5 (Sep 1st) – clear skies, 80°F at Everett
I got up and took pictures of some of the plants that had been used on the trek, and then went over to Lorien’s to get started on cleaning up. She was reluctant to get up, even though it was around 8 at this time. I’m glad I didn’t try to wake her at dawn. We took the skunk cabbage leaves off her shelter (to make it not look recent) and then brought all the non-natural stuff over to my camp. We took a few more pictures at my camp and then Chris showed up. He told me I could leave up my shelter up, so we said our goodbyes to the forest and hopped in kayaks, with Chris and all our stuff in a canoe. Paddling back across Woods Lake in the morning was a great end to the survival trek. It was an awsome experience, and I was in far better spirits for the duration than I would have expected. I was actually extremely happy and alert for probably 85% of the time. I also felt far less hungry for the majority of the trek than I expected. I learned a lot about not only these survival skills, but also myself. It sure got hard at the end there though. Now I’m warm and drowsy sitting in a char in the mid afternoon sun (3pm) in the den. I just woke up from a 3 _ hour nap, and my insides are stuffed with the giant breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and eggs I had at the Sultan Bakery this morning, with Alfey’s in the works tonight. This is the end, and I’ve survived!
Glen’s Survival Lessons
&Mac183; Cotton is completely useless in any wet weather, and is not a very good insulator even when dry (unless you have a ridiculous amount of layers). Its primary function seems to be comfort in dry, warm areas. Fleece is good, wool is better.
&Mac183; Human’s instincts are stronger than we realize; in this case the instinct for social interaction hit me hard on the morning of the second day. I hadn’t slept and the clouds had come in and I didn’t know if/when anyone else was going to come out. I felt horrible, a sinking deep-rooted feeling in my stomach that made me wish I was anywhere but in that situation. The only thing I can relate it with is the most extreme nervousness where you just wish you were far away. Because society has basically been made to fulfill all our base instincts with a huge safety buffer it was a very new experience to feel one being violated.
&Mac183; Knives are not necessary for your basic survival needs such as air (obviously), shelter, water (as long as you find a relatively clean water source), and a little food. Making fire or anything that requires a similar level of finesse (such as snares/traps) is almost impossible without a knife, unless you have a lot of experience and skill with the thing in question (like making/using a bow drill kit).
&Mac183; Making a good shelter (waterproof if necessary, but always five times more debris that you think you need) would be key in an actual survival situation, and to get it up as fast as possible (1st or 2nd day it should be ready to use for a week, instead of having the 4th day where it still could use work, as it happened for me). You must build the shelter when you have the energy to make a good thorough one. The lack of sleep and staying up all night reduces moral and saps energy very quickly, far more so then not having food or other "essentials" (the exception may be water in extreme climates).
&Mac183; The key to survival may very well be to be prepared with a few key items before you go. NO COTTON. Cotton clothes ended up being a huge detriment to the rainy portion of my survival trek, and had I not borrowed Scott’s wool poncho for the morning of day 3 and then gotten a fire to dry my clothes I would have been in serious trouble. Even night 2 would have been horrible, as I had been given another cotton sweatshirt from Chris after running a wet errand for him on the evening of day 2. Actually, come to think of it, all the time I’ve been out here I’ve been cold (not the first day of course) until right now (day four afternoon). I can’t think of what it would have been like without this extra sweatshirt. Right now I still fell a residual chill from the past 3 days even thought it is sunny, I’m next to a small fire, it is in the mid to high 60’s, and I’m wearing pants, two sweatshirts and a tee shirt. Cotton underpants/tee shirt would be ok, but it is essential to have an outside non-cotton layer in this environment. Ensure that you have good footwear as well; non-cotton socks are a must, and waterproof shoes would be a good idea. My cotton socks and breathable running shoes sucked out heat and comfort as soon as they got even slightly damp. I was better off not wearing them in the wet. Clothes seem to be a much bigger factor than I ever expected, but now that I think about it it makes sense, clothes are shelter, #2 on the survival list after air (staying clam). The next most important thing to ensure survival is a toss up between a knife and a good water bottle. I think having a good bottle. Glass is good because you can boil water in it right on the fire. The next best thing is a nalgene because you can rock boil water in it. A pot would be better, but I doubt anybody will be willing to carry around a pot for all their minor jaunts into the woods in case they get lost. A knife is next on the list. It doesn’t have to be a big camp knife; anything will help quite a bit over a sharpish rock. The knife may actually be more essential then the good water bottle now that I think about it, because the specific water bottle is to allow you to purify water in a fire, but unless you have primitive fire experience, and a good amount of it, it is very difficult to get fire without a knife (or lighter). Having good clothes, any kind of knife, and a decent water bottle with you when you get lost may be the difference between surviving and not, especially in not perfect weather (that is, if you know some basic survival knowledge, specifically how to build a shelter). After having the little knowledge necessary for basic survival and a few key items it is quite easy to survive (although not really comfortably unless you get a fire) in the North West climate at this time of year. The only real help after that would be having extensive experience, or a more unusual item such as a pot, lighter, or tent/sleeping bag. A lighter would actually be a very good item to add to the knife and water bottle to carry around with you.
&Mac183; Clear skies means the night is going to be quite a bit colder than the day, while cloudy skies means you won’t get too much of a temperature drop.
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