AF Hunter

My son and his friend are big fans of the show Survivorman. Friday, they came down to survive the weekend quasi-survivorman style. They build a shelter out of sticks and limbs on the property. They covered it with hay and debris found around. Mike had his bow with him to catch food to eat. I told them both that they lacked either intelligence or common sense as the temperature Friday night was forecast to drop to -10 and the windchill was supposed to drop it to -30. They got everything set up and had a small fire going. At 11:00 PM, I couldn't sleep as I was concerned for their well being. I got dressed and drove back to where they were. I told them to get their butts into the truck and come up to the house to sleep. After a little complaining, they obeyed me and came in. They hadn't been able to catch anything to eat and had not eaten all day. At midnight, I made them a small meal to eat and sent them off to bed.
Yesterday morning, they got up early and headed back out. First, they cut a hole in the pond ice with a hatchet and tried ice fishing. By early afternoon, they had not caught anything so Mike took his bow and went in search of furry edible critters. Mike just bought his first bow this year and I thought he'd be going hungry again. My wife and I went to visit my aunt who is in hospice and is not expected to stay with us on earth much longer. When we got home, I went back to where they had their shelter, I was shocked, yet proud to seethey were cooking two rabbits over the camp fire. Mike had been able to get two with two shots! I returned home knowing at least they wouldn't starve. Last night, the temperature dropped to 6 degrees, but at least there wasn't any wind. They survived the night and came up to the house at 6:00 this morning. I asked why they came in so early and was told that the snow that started falling around 3:00 AM was able to sift through the roof of the shelter and the fire they had out in front of the shelter caused the snow to melt on their sleeping bags and both bags got quite wet.
Even though I forced some cheating on their weekend plan the first night, I am still quite impressed that they were able to face the extreme cold this weekend and on their first attempt do quite well. They both said they wanted to do it again, in late spring.
Do any of you do this extreme camping?

ZachCL

Sounds like those boys had a good time. I can remember once when I was a bit younger getting flooded out of a good camping trip, I would bet melting snow would be much worse. Tell them boys to wait till spring for their next survivorman.

early in

I'm glad they had a good time, but with temps like that I think they're nuts!!

mossberghunter93

i wanna try doing that

bloodcrick

AF, I loved that story Thats just awesome!!!

mauser06

whew...thats just nuts!!

ive never tried to survive....but quite confident i COULD....when i was younger that was a favorite subject of mine to read up on....then i would spend the summer and weekends in the woods trying the stuff i learned...never caught critters or anything of the sort, but only because it was never legal and i wasnt truely trying to survive...but i loved building different shelters, making fires different ways, and using stuff in ways that arent the intended use....always had a good time and learned alot...also built homeade contraptions while i was out there...made pretty neat fishing devices that i hollowed out a soft cored stick and made plugs for the end...hole through the middle held the line...the hollow portions held sinkers and hooks and such...they worked i tested them...

always good stuff to know...PA dont have much BIG deep woods, but i hunt and fish as far as possible...and almost always alone....i like the piece of mind knowing that if i had to surivive, i should beable to last a couple days...

AF Hunter

I went on winter campouts when I was in boy scouts decades ago, but not in that cold of weather. Then in the army we had field exercises in weather that cold, but we slept in squad tents with heaters in them! Oh to be young.....and lacking in common sense!

NY/Al

Thats pretty cool! Im taking a survival class for PE this spring, we pretty much get dropped off in the middle of no where and stay for three days, all we get is a few basic tools, no bows and arrows though.[8D]

Rhody Hunter

sounds cool . that will build character and give you a great sense of accomplishment being able to do that. They will always remember that camp out.

niehenke

Thanks for sharing that cool story. My son is only 3, but he really makes me laugh. We going hunting in our house and he tells me to be very quite. He likes it better when he can go hunting for me and I fall as if I were shot.