Go Ahead ... Just Do It!

I am asked occasionally if I teach people how to survive.

My response is that I can’t teach anyone to survive … that I teach skills that people can use to help them survive in a bad situation … but, ultimately, it’s up to every individual to discover within themselves the will to survive.

People can have all the gear in the world, be well rehearsed in a myriad of skills to go along with their stock of tools, but survival is as much a psychological challenge as it is a physical one.

The “will to live”, or lack thereof, is going to play a huge role in making it, or not making it, especially if a bad deal turns into a long-term situation.

A lot of things can be bought and learned. The psychological thing? That’s something else altogether. Even well trained people can break down and give up under pressure. The psychological factor is a biggie.  

So I’ve been thinking over some things after doing a skills training camp this past weekend. Kind of mulling this over in my own mind and thinking about some of the basic stuff associated with the craft.

Here’s those thoughts in a nutshell.

Tools

It is relatively easy to prescribe a basic list of proven tools to carry in a kit.

The 10-C’s outlined by Dave Canterbury [Cover, cutting tool, cordage, container, combustion, compass, cotton bandana, candling devise, cloth sewing needle, cargo tape] is a list hard to improve upon. Most of the items on the list have been around longer than any of us modern folk have. Duct tape is a modern thing that has no historical heritage but it is certainly handy to have and has multiple uses. Canterbury outlines the items in a way that they all start with the letter “C” so folks can easily remember them.

The main question, where these C’s are concerned, is whether you will procure them in high dollar fashion or in common man fashion.

I am, as a common man, a fan of the common man. Most common folk can assemble a kit simply by scrounging around home through the extras of this and that and not have to spend so much as a dollar. You can go the high dollar route and spend a lot of money. I mean A LOT of money on these items.

Out of the shed and kitchen drawers … bought from the high dollar dealers. Those are the two extreme ends. There is a lot of distance between those ends. The truth of the matter is that for a couple or three hundred dollars a person can put together a really good kit that will go a lot of miles. And that includes buying a good pack and adding some items (without overdoing it) that are not part of the 10-C thing.

The important thing is to just do it … assemble a kit and get started. Improve the kit as you go. Make some upgrades when something needs replacing.

Techniques

Here is where the rubber begins to meet the road and keeps hitting the road step after step.

You can have all the gear in the world … all the high dollar gear that’s on the market … but without knowing how to use it, without knowing how to identify natural resources, and without knowing how to utilize natural resources … all you have is a nice looking pile of weight.

It takes a generous amount of time to develop skills. Developing skills requires a lot of getting into the dirt … into the woods … into the bush … down on the creek … time after time after time after time. Even then, after all these times after times, there’s still more to explore … still more to learn … still more to develop.

There are several disclaimers that I present up front when working with people.

One of the disclaimers is that I do not know everything there is to know on this subject. 

There is a lot that I do know but I do not know everything. Another disclaimer that I present up front is that I cannot teach someone everything I know in a long weekend intensive course. I can’t teach all that I know in a week. I can’t teach it in a month. Some of what I know I have been taught by a few others. Some of it I have learned reading and studying books. Some of it … a lot of it … the woods and wilds have taught me through over five decades of getting out there kindling fires, camping, hunting, and fishing. I am still learning. There is yet a lot left for me to learn.

I can show and teach a lot in a weekend intensive course. Folks can get a good start on some important skills. But perfecting those skills until the skills are owned and operating as part of their first nature is something that comes in time and only after a lot of personal time in the dirt and in the woods on their own in the weeks, months, and years to come.

Now about this first nature thing.

I don’t want my skills to belong in my second nature. I want my skills to be so owned that they move out of the second nature realm and into the first. Things that are second nature are things that you have to think about before you do them. That’s ok. Second nature is better than having only a slight familiarity with something … one of those “Oh, I read about that.” Or “Hey, I saw so-and-so do that one time on that survival show.” 

When things go really bad it’s very unlikely that anyone will successfully duplicate something they have only read about or watched someone do.

I simply think that the crafting skills necessary to get along well in the woods, bush, or wilds of wherever are important enough to rehearse until they move into the first nature realm of who we are. Any of us, even then, can encounter challenges in the wild that will test the temper of out metal.

Temper

I’m not referring to the kind of temper that causes people to get mad and fly off the handle. 

There’s a lot of that sort of temper in the world today. I see a lot of it in public forums and social media groups on the internet that focus on this subject matter. I see way too much of what I call bushcraft bravado. Mix some bushcraft bravado and temper together in a discussion and the result is generally always the same … nothing positive or productive comes out of the collision. Somebody is going to get a bent bumper or fender and somebody is going to walk away with their ego brimming over. 

I tend to avoid arenas where this sort of thing goes on.

The temper I’m referring to is the kind of tempering that comes from regular use over time. Like what happens to a rail after all those tons of weight hauled on iron wheels rolls over it year after year. It gets denser and tougher over time.

We need physical conditioning.

Even something as simple as whittling sticks into fine tinder or into snare triggers uses muscles in our hands and arms that pecking on keyboards and pushing pencils leaves weak. Most men these days no longer work at trades that builds callouses on their hands. Most of us can easily lift and move 30 or 40 pounds from one spot to another. Shouldering that same weight and walking 5 miles with it is another story altogether. 

Physical conditioning is best done gradually and consistently. Here again is a commitment of time that just doesn’t happen without making it happen.

We also need mental-psychological conditioning.

There are some scenarios that we can never be fully prepared for.

I’ll go to my grave with the belief that it was a cougar that was soft-stepping its way toward my tent at 2:00 in the morning on that mountain in Tennessee a few years ago. I’ve heard a lot of animals walking in the deep dry leaves. But never anything like that. I had no frame of reference in my mind to liken it to. It honestly rattled me. One of the local residents told me later that the big cats had been seen.

Start small. 

First a day hike or two. Build up to doing an overnight and hike out the next morning. Do a few overnights and a few long weekends before you attempt some extended trip. In our day and age 3 nights in the woods is an extended trip for most people. It takes 3 nights to just begin settling in and acclimating to the woods life.

I say it often. Most people view the wilds as some kind of foe that has to be survived. People need to get beyond that mentality and begin seeing nature as an ally to help us get along well come what may.

We put together our kit (tools). We develop a broad range of techniques (skills).  We condition ourselves psychologically and physically (temper).

For what?

So we can survive some possible something?

Sure. Being able to survive come what may is a good thing.

I like to think there is more to it than just being prepared in the event some crisis launches us into a survival situation.

If all we are doing is waiting for a some crisis then what we are doing is missing out on a lot of opportunities right now around and in front of us to get outdoors … do some outdoor adventuring … break with the monotony of modernity … do some reconnecting with nature … and do it all without having to take anything more than what we can carry with us in our kits.