|
Well it's time to try to get this website going. I hope to add information to this site at least once a month.
Where to start? You have already taken the first step, your reading about surviving in the wilderness, and learning from others.
Next step to take is before you leave home. So your planning a trip into the great outdoors in Florida. Start with looking at a road map, get an idea where the roads are in the area you plan to be. See what roads and waterways border the area and the directions they traverse and how far away they are from where you plan to be.
Check the weather forecast. You don't want to venture out if a hurricane is on the way, but if a cold front is coming you can plan to take an extra shirt and jacket with you.
Learn and plan what to do if you or someone else in your party gets injured or sick. Basic first aid is something everyone should know. Cuts, scratches, burns, twist and sprains are common occurrences in the outdoors and are easily dealt with if you know how and are prepared. Duct tape is a handy thing to have along and is helpful in all of these instances.
Let someone know where you are going and when you plan to be back. Be sure it's someone not going along with you.
Put together a kit. Remember you survive with knowledge and will power, but some things can make it easier.
...A ‘SURVIVAL’ KIT… Preparation for entering the wilderness is an individual undertaking as everyone has individual needs and wants. With that being said here are my suggestions for items everyone should carry on your person whether you are going… ATVing, boating, camping, canoeing, fishing, hiking, hunting or just ditty bopping through the boonies. These items are very useful to say the least and can make any unexpected-extended stay in the wilds a bit more comfortable. 1. Whistle 2. Waterproof matches ( 5 or more ) 3. Cutting tool 4. 15 feet or more of 60 lb. or stronger braided fishing line 5. 2 or more fishhooks 6. A small piece of aluminum foil 7. 16 inches of duct tape 8. Compass 9. Anti-diarrhea pills ( two or three should be enough ) 10. 24 inches of braided cord 11. Waterproof container ( to hold most of above items ) 12. Pocket poncho There are other items that are also useful and should be in your pack or pouch or on your mode of transportation. But first let’s cover the above items. 1. A whistle can be heard further than the human voice in most cases. If you are lost or hurt it can help others to find you. Save our souls or S.O.S is a worldwide distress signal and is three short, three long, three short blasts of the whistle. 2. Waterproof matches will help you start a fire which can be a comfort if stranded at night and can be used for signaling for help or aid in being found, the light at night and smoke in the day. It can keep you warm and cook food and also sterilize water. Most animals avoid fire including bears, panthers, alligators and the mosquitoes don’t like the smoke. You can make your own waterproof matches by spraying ‘strike anywhere’ matches with a lacquer spray paint or my favorite, dip them in melted wax. Even with strike anywhere matches it is a good idea to carry a piece of the striker from the side of the match box or from a book of matches. 3. A cutting tool is a knife blade or razor knife or anything that is sharp enough to cut fishing line, flesh or carve wood. You may need to clean fish or dress out a bird, snake, or small game animal to cook. Even though you most likely carry a knife, having one in your kit is a good idea. I made a small one out of a hacksaw blade that fits in my waterproof case. 4. Strong braided fishing line can be used for fishing of course but also for trap building, tying things together such as shelter material or to repair clothing. 5. Fish hooks are for fishing. They are great for removing splinters too, and you can catch frogs and other things with a hook as well. It can even be used as a coarse needle. 6. Aluminum foil can be fashioned into a lure for fishing and a cup to boil water to clean a wound. It helps hold things together in your kit too. 7. Duct tape can fix a lot of things. Use as a bandage on cuts or to bind a sprained ankle or wrist. You’ll think of a lot of uses for duct tape. 8. A compass is handy to guide you in the wilderness and getting out of the wilderness. Hold it still and level away from any metal objects. Learn to use it and have faith and trust in your compass. If you left your car on an east west highway or road and headed north, you know to return to the road you need to go south. Your compass will help you. Do not depend on moss growing on the north side of a tree in Florida. Here moss grows where ever it wants. 9. Anti-diarrhea pills are appreciated when you drink the water and it contained bacteria or anytime you have severe diarrhea. Diarrhea will cause dehydration in a short amount of time and it’s hard to travel when you have cramps every few minutes. Don’t take the pill at first sign of a problem but give your system a chance to adapt. If symptoms worsen or persists for more than a couple of hours, then take the medication. 10. Parachute cord or other similar braided cord can be used as a lanyard, or a tourniquet and as a bow string to start a friction fire by bow drill method. 11. A small waterproof container to hold these items in one location is important so you can have them in good condition when you need them. 12. A small rain poncho can be used to help keep you dry as you travel and as a shelter at night. You can use it to collect rain water, ( generally a safe drinking water ) and to carry water. It will help to keep you warm and mosquitoes don’t bit through it. The cheap ones will do for a day or two, an emergency space blanket is better in the winter. There are many other uses for the above items, so this is by no means a complete list of uses but you can get an idea of how handy these things can be. Don’t think you need a large case for these things, mine fits in my pocket. I don’t recommend wearing it around your neck using the cord or fishing line as a lanyard. If you fall in a canal, river or lake and it gets caught on something you could drown.
Some other useful items ;
Having spent much of my time in the jungles of Central and South America, Southeast Asia and other areas of the world. I have learned that a large sharp blade such as a machete is a very valuable tool and I keep one in my truck and the car and never go out in the canoe or boat without one. I also carry one when I hike any major distance from my vehicle. Some uses include; making a quick shelter, cutting firewood, making a raft, clearing a trail, build a ladder, harvest palm heart, build traps, kill fish or animals, build weapons, protection..... the list is staggering. Get one and learn how to use it and it can make your time in the Florida wilderness easier. Its a great camp tool as well as a survival tool. The machete needs to be sharp and a file can sharpen and keep it sharp. Be careful, a machete can cut off a hand or foot in one swipe. If you don't want to carry a machete carry a hatchet or the largest fixed blade hunting style knife you can.
Ziploc bags (freezer bags best) and coffee filters are great to collect and filter water, and combined with a military style canteen and stainless steel canteen cup to boil your water and store and carry it you can have an extensive supply of safe drinking water. The canteen cup can also be used to cook your food.
A ferro cerium type fire starter such as the metal match or magnesium flint fire starter is great for starting hundreds if not thousands of fires, but you need to know how to use it. I will explain later and let you know about some great tinder's common in Florida. Practice before you need to use it. If you have one use it and save your matches for when you really need them.
Insect repellent can make a big difference in your comfort, ability to think and in your frame of mind. Mosquitoes can be very annoying at certian times of the year most any place in Florida. Also there are biting flies, chiggers, ticks, biting ants and other insect pest's. Even though mosquitoes won't drain enough blood to kill you, you may wish you were dead. There are several makers of small containers of 100% DEET as well as DEET free repellents available. Find one that works for you and carry it. You'll thank me later! There are plants that repel mosquitoes and other insects but if you don't know what they are they can't help you, also they can be scarce in many locations and are not effective for very long.
There are many other things that can make survival easier, enough stuff to fill a 40 foot camper, but with the things above and the knowledge and skills to use them you should be able to survive the Florida wilderness long enough to get back to civilization.
 Survival Shows (We will cover the how’s and whatnot’s in detail later) Most of you have watched some type of survival TV show or some U Tube or web site video’s on survival. Please understand and try to remember that what you are watching has more to do with ratings and ego than survival or getting back home safely. Most of what you see is staged and or exaggerated in some way. There are times when you may need to take chances but think long and hard of what your doing and the end result of your action before you try jumping on a six foot alligator or hundred pound plus wild hog. (Or a baby wild hog for that matter, as mama hog who weighs two hundred pounds or more is sure to be near by and will come to the aid of her squealing offspring.) Also remember even though you can make strong rope and string from plant materials this is a time consuming task and requires the correct types of plants to be successful. If your life depends on it be sure you do it right. People in the past planted hemp and other special plants to make string and rope because it is a strong flexible fiber, and then spent weeks preparing the rope, and even though you can make rope and string from some bark, cattail, bull rush and other plant fibers in a short amount of time, try tying a simple square knot in it and snapping the rope sharply and pulling on it with all your strength before you use it to climb down a well or cliff or up a tall tree. Remember a broken limb, leg or arm, when your alone in the wilderness is a LIFE THREATING injury. Running in a survival situation is a fools follie as this increases your chance of a serious injury. Trip while walking you could get hurt but trip while running your going to get hurt worse. Running also triggers a chase instinct in most predatory animals. It may look good on TV but if you don’t have a camera crew with radios and a medical staff following you and a helicopter standing by ……. OH wait, if you have this your not in a survival situation you are only playing games and you can afford to feed your ego and be a macho man (or woman).With all this being said, Les Stroud (Survivor Man) does try to keep it real more than any of the other shows I have seen. He is by far the most believable and I do believe he knows his stuff. I suspect he adds drama to his shows for ratings and I do suspect he is most qualified in the northern parts of the American Continent.
Survival is not a competition between you and others but between life and death or your safety and injury. If you are with someone, don’t compete with them but work with them to get out safely. And don’t take chances just to impress someone, because if you fail and get hurt your going to look stupid and put a greater burden on the other person when they have to take care of you.
Fire is man’s best friend when lost. It gives you heat when your cold, light when it’s dark, makes most food and water easier and safer to eat or drink, and makes us feel secure and safe. It also has resulted in many people being found when lost. It is a great tool, the best tool I know of when in the wilderness. NEVER , I SAY AGAIN, NEVER GO IN THE WOODS WITHOUT A WAY TO CREATE FIRE. To depend on primitive methods of fire starting as your only way to start fire is at the very least foolish. To depend on modern ways of fire starting as your only way to start a fire is at the very least foolish. This is not a contradiction in terms but a fact. You should learn to start a fire by friction and other means incase you loose your fire starting tools, but finding the resources to start a friction fire once you decided your not getting home that night, can often result in a night without fire, and even if you do succeed, it is more time consuming than flicking your Bic lighter or striking a match, thus leaving less time for shelter construction and food gathering. However depending on modern meothods of fire making has it’s down side too. You can loose your lighter or matches or they can malfunction and fail to light, or you could be stranded longer than you expected and run out, after all you didn’t expect to be in a survival situation in the first place. For some reason on the survival shows they never have a lighter or matches but remember to take a Ferro cerium striker or a fire piston or a 9V battery and steel wool or some other item to start a fire. And they can always find the right materials to start a fire in just a few minutes. To be fair, once in a while they fail to make fire but seldom does this occur. Now you can live without fire but any one who has spent much time in the wilderness will tell you a fire makes your stay a whole lot more pleasant. Oh, by the way you can’t just grab two sticks and rub them together and get a fire, but with the right two sticks and the correct method, some time and the right conditions you can make fire. It’s a good idea to learn how and what materials you can use that are found in the area you’ll be visiting.
Shelter is an important factor in a survival situation however it’s importance depends on other factors. For instance if the nights are clear and stay in the high seventies or low eighties and you have a fire you can get by with a bed of palm fronds or dry grass to keep you off the damp ground, but if it’s cold, windy and or rainy you’ll need a good strong shelter to protect you from the elements. If you are moving, that is traveling to get back home you only need the most basic shelter for the conditions, but if your staying put and waiting for help then a more substantial shelter should be constructed. Unless you plan to live in the woods I don’t think a full size log cabin or chickee is necessary. A poncho or emergency survival blanket will be very useful in constructing a quick shelter if you remembered to take one along. Many TV shows tell you to take a garbage bag with you for its many uses, for me a poncho works best as a poncho and if I remember to take something it will be a poncho but if I don’t have a poncho and find a garbage bag I will use it. If its all you have, use it. I do take garbage bags with me camping to put garbage in and I find they work great for that purpose and they are handy to keep clothes and other things dry. Water is needed to survive. In Florida water is usually plentiful but at times of drought can become scarce and not all water is drinkable. Do not throw away your water bottle or canteen when its empty like they do in old movies, you’ll need that canteen or bottle later when you do find some water you can drink. On the subject of water I feel the TV shows get it right for the most part. Never drink seawater, if you can, always boil or purify water before you drink it , and only drink urine or use a seawater enema as a last resort, that is when you are sure you will die if you don’t do something. Learn where to find drinking water in the type of area you will be going into before you go. You cannot go too long without water before damage to your body occurs, usually just a few days. In one day you will notice a difference in your ability to think clearly, talk coherently and you’ll normally suffer from sever headaches. When this occurs you need to hydrate soon. I’ve heard it said that “ you can live twentyone days without food but only seven days without water “. It may vary a little from person to person but it’s fairly accurate. My biggest problem with the TV survivor shows is on the subject of food. Insects may be a great source of protein but no matter how good the protein content is, if you can’t keep it in your stomach long enough to digest it and for it be absorbed by your system it will do you no good and if you regurgitate it, that will do more harm than the protein you my have gotten as most insects are small and so is the total food value. If the idea of eating something disgust you DON’T EAT IT . Being sick in the wilderness is not fun and can be dangerous. It is true that in many cultures people eat grubs, spiders, scorpions, various insects, beetles and their larve as well as worms, raw internal organs, fecal matter, after birth and many other things that most of us find hard to stomach. If you have eaten some unusuall item and know you can keep it down, then, if you encounter it while on your extended stay in the great outdoors then by all means eat it. However be sure you are eating the exact same spieces as not all that look similar are the same. For instance you can eat a green tree frog, skin guts and all, ( if you can keep it down ) but if you eat a whole Cuban tree frog you’ll get sick as the skin of the Cuban tree frog produces a toxin that prevents most animals from eating them. The Cuban tree frog is very common in south Florida, more common in most southern areas than the green, squirrel, or barking tree frogs. Also most all insects and small creatures have parasites and when you eat them raw you too will have these parasites. Heres an idea, if your smart enough to remember to take a survival kit ( primitive camping kit ) then you should have some fishing line and a hook so, catch the insect or frog and use it as bait when you come across any body of water deep enough to support a fish population and if the fish won’t eat it then its probably a good thing that you didn’t either. Also in your kit you should have a way to make fire to cook and thus kill parasites in what ever you do decide to eat. Now not all you see on these shows are bad, there are many good ideas that you may be able to use to help you to get out of trouble. Wildlife is seldom as dangerous as they make it seem, but can be dangerous, so its best not to do things to provoke any animal and remember try to avoid close contact with any animal you think may be dangerous. Man is not considered a food source by wildlife in Florida but a very hungry large alligator won’t pass up a meal if he thinks he can get it without getting hurt. If you step on a snake or mess around with it, it will bit you in self defense. Grab or go near a baby animal and its mother will most likely attack you to defend its offspring. Use commonsense and the wildlife will not harm you, at least not in Florida. Recently, at night I encountered a female panther (puma) with two grown cubs ( larger than she is ) and stood no more than thirty feet from them. They looked at me standing there holding my small LED flashlight and wishing I had my camera, then wandered off into the woods. No signs of aggression or fear as I did not approach them or run or make any sudden moves. You will find I preach what I practice and practice what I preach most of the time. But like a parent teaching a teenager to drive I’ll teach you the correct way even if its not the way I always do it. But in this instance standing there and talking to them in a soft calm voice was the best thing to do.
If you enjoy watching survival shows continue to do so as I do. They are very entertaining and do have some useful information. But remember ratings are the most important thing to them or the show won't be aired and you would never have seen it. Also remember they have a lot of training and experience and usually some support near by. Still the shows are often entertaining and fun, so enjoy the show.
WILDERNESS SURVIVAL
OR THE ART OF PRIMITIVE CAMPING
All it takes to survive in the Florida wilderness is a good attitude, will to continue when things go bad, and knowledge of the art of primitive camping and living. You may find it hard to believe but our ancestors lived a more basic life. Their once was a time when their were no computers or internet, cell phones,GPS locators, micro wave ovens, electric stoves, refrigerators, air conditioners, cars, trains, planes, electricity, propane, gasoline, Wal Mart stores, Home Depot or any stores. No matches, lighters, plastic tarps, light weight tents, pots or pans and yet their were people. How could they exist? How did they travel? Answer; by primitive means.
Primitive camping is the art of living in the wilderness without all the modern tools and supplies. Sure that 50 foot camper comes with everything but it won't go every where I like to go. And none of the gadgets in it will do me any good if I wander away from it and get lost. Now I can and do carry things with me that will aid in making camp, fire, and find a way home. I like the GPS units and with them I can find my way around the woods and back track to where I started but I found depending on them can be dangerous. I discovered that the best waterproof hand held unit and spare batteries are no good once you drop and lose the unit in a four foot deep cypress pond. (If you find a GPS hand held while in the Big Cypress Bear Island unit, please contact me.) If I did not have some knowledge of where I was it could have been a long day. The small compass was also handy but I could see the sky and the sun sets in the west and knew that was the direction to the road where the truck was parked. I came up on the road about 400 yards south of the truck.
Primitive Camping
with some moderen tools
The art or skill of primitive camping is something you can learn but their are no stead-fast rules. However common sense will dictate some things are a given. Don't sleep under a dead tree or a coconut tree or anything that can fall on you and hurt or kill you, it's a given. Don't tease or mistreat wild animals that can hurt you, that's a given. Don't build a fire where there is a lot of dry tinder materials all over the ground like pine needles, especially on a windy day, it's a given. You get the idea, you need to use common sense. experience will teach you a lot but learning from another's experience is a smart move, it can save you time and trouble and sometimes keep you from getting hurt.
OK, let's say you were in the Big Cypress Swamp hiking the Florida Trail and wandered off the trail following a colorful bird or interesting animal and you lose track of the time. Then you notice the sun is getting low in the sky and the early April air is turning cooler. You check your timepiece and it's almost 5:00 PM. You realize you've been off the trail for over an hour and it will be getting dark soon. What do you do? I'll tell you what a lot of people do. They try to backtrack in a hurry and end up "LOST IN THE EVERGLADES". Some continue to travel even after dark and end up getting hurt. At some point panic sets in and then fear takes hold and the situation gets worst.
What you should do is stop, look around and think. How much time do you have before it's too dark to safely travel and how long do you realistically think it would take to get back to the trail and to the planned campsite. You can start backtracking but start looking for a place to camp and spend the night. Gather fire tinder and kindling as you walk and think of what type of shelter you'll need for the night and what materials you have and what you will need as well as how long it will take you to construct this shelter. If you have a tent use it. If you come across a body of water and have an empty container, (water bottle, zip lock bag etc.) collect water that you can purify later. Before the sun reaches the treetops in the west you should have picked a campsite, gathered firewood and collected the materials to build a simple shelter. Now you can prepare your campfire but don't light it yet. Next setup your tent or construct a simple shelter to protect you from wind and rain, and help retain heat. When you have completed your shelter if their is still a fare amount of daylight left then gather more firewood. When the sun has sunk below the treetops but before it gets too dark to see you should start your fire, that is if you have a lighter or matches, if not, start your friction fire while the sun is still in the sky as the humidity rises after sunset and the cooler air also hinders efforts to start fire in the primitive ways.
 Florida Cottonmouth defensive mode
If you planned ahead and followed these simple directions you will have water, firewood and shelter for the night. This bit of comfort should give you some peace of mind. Another idea that I use is to carry a health bar and I like to carry a flavor that I don’t like. When I have one that I like the taste of, it’s hard to save it for when I’m really hungry such as a time like this. If your hungry enough a flavor you don't like will taste just fine. And if you have a packet of instant coffee or tea your morning won't be so bad either. Little comforts like this can make a big difference in your day.
|
