Self-Reliance

Life in our modern times definitely has its perks. It has its conveniences. It has its own brand of skills sets that acclimate and accommodate us to the trends and technology that give this age its character.

This is, like it or not, the computer age.

Even the phone that I carry. Smart. Checks my email. Calls up the weather. GPS and road maps. Internet. Applications of all sorts that can be downloaded and accessed at the touch of the screen. Camera and video recorder. A portable phone that is a whole lot more than a phone. I have grown accustomed to it. I use it a lot. I hate to say it but I have, in some ways, become dependent upon the smart technology it provides.

Modernity and all its smart technology? I like it and I do not like it … all in the same breath.

I admit it. I am inclined toward being a dinosaur when it comes to all this modern technology but I am forced by the times to keep up the pace though I am, more often than not, out of breath and trotting behind trying to stay in sight of the tail end of the pack that is running wildly ahead.

My preference is for simpler … a lot simpler … a lot less fraught … where life can be enjoyed at a slower pace … where simple self-reliant woodcraft skills trump all the smarts offered in the gadgets and gizmos that govern modern life.

I think this personal preference is one of the things that draws me to folk like Nessmuk, Kephart, and that vast host of woodsy pilgrims and pioneers. Some of them left behind written legacies. Most, though, are unsung heroes whose lives were never chronicled in pictures and on written pages … the forgotten ones … like many of my ancestors being discovered through Shirli’s genealogical research. Those were some courageous souls. Knowing the recorded history of those early Colonial times it is quite easy to surmise the physical challenges they faced and the will they lived with to overcome those challenges.

It is not difficult to show folk basic woodcraft skills … those four areas that cover fire, water, shelter, and food … areas that may indeed utilize some modern materials in our kits … areas though that do not depend upon the technology designed into smart phones and other computerized gadgetry. It takes only a little time, a few days, to walk a group into a wilderness setting where putting these skills to work is a short-term necessity. That experience is a step in the right direction. It is, however, merely a step, especially where the food item is concerned. Staying fed in a long-term situation is a full-time job.

Self-reliance is developed.

I think we are born with it in our nature. I also think our self-reliant nature is something that is discouraged by this modern culture that promotes pack sameness and something that is discouraged and dumbed down early in life. That element in our nature has to be individually rediscovered and positively developed.

Sure the skills can be taught to those willing to invest the time and effort in learning them. But becoming self-reliant is something that is developed over time. Self-reliance involves a skills set. It is, however, more than a set of skills. It is a concrete mindset. It is a developed lifestyle that folk rediscover and grow into. It is something that sets us apart from the rest of the pack.

Skills? I can teach them.

Mindset and lifestyle? No. I cannot teach these.

I can only show them.

Record Keeping and Upcoming Trapping Camp

Record keeping.

I have for a lot of years kept a small notebook and writing instrument in my shirt pocket. It is handy to have for jotting notes and numbers from time to time. I prefer one with a sewn binding. The little spiral wire bound ones do not hold up and tend to lose pages. Waterproof versions are available though they cost a good bit more.

Sure. That little notebook in my pocket is old school. Smart technology has fairly well replaced it. Smart technology is great but it has a way of letting you down deep in the woods when the battery runs out of juice.

A small notebook and something to scribble with, in my mind anyway, should be part of our kit … whether it is carried in a shirt pocket or in a pack. Mental notes have a tendency, even on a good day, to get lost in the barrage of mental notes that pile up. On a bad day … in unfamiliar territory … when health and safety depend on remembering a particular rock or tree or bush … it is wise to have some things mapped on paper.

One of the things that I mentioned to the guys on our early winter adventure on the Conecuh trail was the importance of journaling … keeping a written record of their experiences that they can look back on as a means to chart their progress and personal growth. Having a designated woodcraft journal also provides a place to jot down questions that arise and answers to those questions that are discovered by either asking someone or taking the time to research a discovery.

I also mentioned to the guys that I would be providing them with some questions to answer as a starting point in their journals. Write the question. Think about the question. Answer the question.

These are questions that I will be asking again around our evening fire at our trapping camp that is coming up.

1.    What was the most enjoyable thing you experienced in your wilderness experience on the Conecuh Trail?

2.    Why was it the most enjoyable?

3.    What was the most difficult thing about your wilderness experience?

4.    Why was it the most difficult?

5.    What can you do between now and the Late Winter Camp to be more prepared?

Our trapping camp is scheduled for January 3-4 provided winter rains do not flood the bottoms making it impossible to hike in.

Kits are definitely required. Dress appropriately for the weather conditions.

Individual students will be responsible for building their own cook fires and preparing their own supper and breakfast.

We will hike in from Jude’s.

Schedule:

Saturday

Hike in promptly at 12:00

Establish an overnight camp

Set traps

Cook fires and supper prep

Evening campfire and group discussion

Sunday

Breakfast fires and breakfast

Run the traps

Deal with the catch

Pack and hike out

Boots On The Trail - Early Winter Camp

There is a world of difference between hearing about something, reading something, watching something, rehearsing something and physically getting out there doing something where everything you have heard, read, watched and rehearsed must be reliably put into practice.

Advance preparation is always a critical ingredient for any endeavor worth adventuring into. This is especially true when it comes to walking off into wild natural places where the conveniences, comforts, and controls of home are left behind.

Our trip this past weekend, one involving a slightly challenging hike in, was an opportunity for the guys to put into practice the hearing, reading, watching and rehearsing they have been doing over the course of these past months of classes and exercises. It was much more than that though. It was an immersion … a baptism of sorts … into an environment that was completely different from any they were familiar with … one that moved not according to our dictates but rather according to its own design where our abilities to manipulate conditions are totally ineffective.

I did not measure the distance on the map. It was, I am guessing, between two and three miles from where we parked to where we set camp. I had no set schedule. No set teaching program in my pocket. The lack thereof was not neglect or oversight on my part. It was intentional.

I was not interested in putting together a highly regimented weekend for the group that kept them jumping through hoops to satisfy my own leadership expectations and stroke my ego. I was more interested in this long weekend being a major disruption of their normal regimented life-routine, something that would be replete with its own lessons.

We were not in a hurry. Well, we did kind of hurry to get under our shelters when that rain came through Saturday afternoon. The rain did not last long. Just long enough to get things nice and wet to add a touch of challenge to things. But that is one aspect of being out there where we do not have a control panel. The only real time factor that I paid any mind to was making sure the supper cooking was done and water containers were full of processed water before dark.

Despite the lack of a syllabus or regimentation there were numerous opportunities for impromptu sessions and critiques. There was time for the guys to hike the mile to the pond and fish. There was time for me to slip off to squirrel hunt and explore. It is a good thing we carried rations with us.

Sure. There is a need for guidance and structured teaching. The established basics are fairly well set in stone. I think though that Montessori was onto something important and that, where learning these skills and developing proficiency and confidence in wilderness settings is concerned, more of the Montessori System that develops personal initiative is appropriate not only for children but also for adults. Not only where woodcraft skills are concerned but for all of life.

There is a lot that can be taught. There is a lot though that has to be caught through personal experience and those aha moments that arise on their own through personal experience where personal experience becomes the greatest and most gifted teacher. It is not what is taught and parroted back that is the best measure of growth and development. No. It is what is caught that truly grows and matures a person … whether they are ten or fifty years old.

It was, and is, my hope that some catching took place over the course of the long weekend. I did a little catching myself. I also had the opportunity to do a lot of observation and make some mental notes where this group is concerned … mental notes about some things that I am familiar with and take in stride as givens in wilderness settings that the unbaptized are not familiar with.

One of these has to do with the way our senses, especially our sense of hearing, seem to suddenly come alive when we bed down out there on the ground deep in the woods far away from our familiar security blankets. We hear every sound and the sounds we hear are not the sounds we tune out at home because of our familiarity with them.

Those physical senses … sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing … are ours for significant reasons. We are not, at least on this continent, far from the top of the food chain. Our hunter/gatherer ancestors in a more primitive world depended on their senses much more keenly than we do in the modern world we live in. When we take ourselves out of the modern world picture and place ourselves in a more primitive environment those senses instinctively begin kicking in.

The guys did good. They did really good and I am proud of them. I have to admit though that they had a worn and weary look when they crawled out of their shelters Monday morning. It had been an adventure but they were about adventured out and ready to pack it in.

There was a side of me that did not want to roll up. I took my time, swallowed a 600 calorie breakfast of cereal/fruit bars for a blast of energy, finished that second canteen cup of instant coffee, loaded my pack, and hiked out with them. Had I stayed behind it would have been a long walk home.