Wilderness Wisdom
by Greg Anderson
Owner and Craftsman
www.northwoodtraditionalarchery.com
Looking out into the forest from my garage bay door of my workshop, the forest was full of deciduous skeletons. Leaves blowing all around, with wetness in the windy air and patches of snow from last nights slushy deposit of weather.
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| Working on Bows and Arrows |
I thought of something a friend once pointed out to me. which is that southern New England has some of the most challenging weather for wilderness survival; it will often hover just above or below freezing, with lots of precipitation and wind... Cold and wet. Actually very easy to die out there over night. The wind howled and I thought "I would be worried about any one's well being if they were unprepared in this kind of weather."
Regardless of skill and knowledge in wilderness survival, it is often the most basic knowledge that is most precious, and so I will hand down this bit of wisdom I learned all to well ten years ago in the cold November mountains of North Carolina.
The weather was much like this, highs in the forties and lows in the teens at night. Windy, wet and cold.
Before I started making bows and arrows, my main interest was in wilderness immersion and survival techniques. I attended classes at the Tom Brown Tracker School and lived with my uncle in Alaska for a while before all this happened.
I was out with some friends I just met, we didn't know each other all that well, and I was new to the area, so they were showing me around. We went to a nearby national forest, can't recall the name... but that's when things started.
Firstly, the driver accidentally locked his keys in the car, with my trusty canine. we were pretty far in, but another car pulled in and we made arrangements to meet them at sunset to get a ride back into town. We made the best of it and climbed up to the ridge.
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| my favorite blades |
It took about forty minutes to meander up that way, and I had never been there. When we got to the ridge there was a breathtaking view of the surrounding blue mountains and we spent our time bouldering and climbing... by the time we noticed the sun going down, there were probably 30 minutes of daylight, and we decided to hustle... thing was, the shadow of the mountain was dark already and though we looked diligently, the trail we had come to the ridge from was obscured by shrubs and darkness.
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| Southern New England in November |
We walked back and forth on the ridge looking for the trail down, when I heard my companions shout "there it is" and scamper off to meet our ride, I was on the other side of a boulder... I saw the trail, but was unsure it was the right way and called. No answer, but then a rustling of leaves further down the ridge, and so that's where I went. The sun was setting, and twilight was upon me.
I retraced the ridge back and forth as darkness fell, and could not find the place where I had heard them call from. Eventually I found a clearing below me through the trees and thought it must have been the trail, so I climbed down. Unfortunately, I was now on the opposite side of the mountain. Back in those days, I was learning how little I knew about wilderness navigation as the temperatures fell, the wind picked up, and I listened to the mountain.
I wandered down hill from the clearing, further into the forest, and when I could not find a hiking trail, decided it would be best to spend the night and walk down in the morning. I was unequipped with any tools or fire starters, but I was layered in my clothing at least. I found a place where the wind had blown out the earth below a flat rock, and it was just big enough to fit under... as you may have guessed, the wind was still fond of blowing in there, but it was a fixer upper.
At no point during any of this, did I feel my life was in danger, as I was accustomed to living in the cold wilderness for extended periods, and this is the reason:
Here's the wisdom for if you are ever surviving out in this kind of weather, because what I did ensured my survival from cold and my life.
I took the driest leaves I could find, though damp they were, and stuffed them into all of my clothes till I looked like a scarecrow; this was now my shelter. I then stuffed the hollowed area with leaves and blocked off the wind with sticks and leaves. this all took about 40 minutes.
Then I went to sleep, plenty warm and tired.
If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have had to get up several times to get more leaves underneath me as they compressed during the night, but I'll let you figure that trick out for yourself. The hint I'll give is to look at a bird nest.
Eventually a search and rescue team could be heard calling in the distance, I believe it was around 1 am, so I guess you could say I "survived" for 8 hours. Big whoop, but they were all very surprised to see that I was doing well, and I felt like an ass. The end.
Summary: Lost and cold? Stuff your clothes with leaves! (even if they are scratchy and wet, they'll warm up and insulate you from the cold... an instant cold weather survival suit for New England. )
Disclaimer: wilderness survival is potentially dangerous. duh