The-Atlantic-thefemalesurvivalist

It is good to journey towards an end, but in the end it's all about the food.

The original saying is "It is good to journey towards an end, but in the end its all about the journey".

I think the food is more accurate. Hikers get so bored with their food they start doing drastic things.
Some thru hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail told me their last resupply in Stehican, for 89 miles (about 4-5 days) was 50 candy bars and one package of ramen noodles.

I've seen guys ditch the stove and go cold food. This meant hiking out of town with a 3 pound sausage, several pounds of cheese, some bagels, some dried fruit and nuts. Lots of snickers. Very heavy, very bulky.
Then there's the guy that bought 3 cans of chunk pineapple for an evening treat. He didn't care about the weight, it was so worth it.
I've carried out a can of black olives, a birthday treat for my hiking partner. Sodas, a few beers, pressed upon us by trail angels. Then carried the crushed cans to the next town to recycle.
I've cooked my granola, eaten ramen raw like pretzels, added wild onions to the rice. Never get instant rice, or pop tarts without frosting. Just not worth the weight. A trail mix of pretzels, box of raisins and 12 ounce bag of chocolate chips in a gallon zip lock bag wasn't too shabby. When the chocolate chips melted it was more like eating chunks. It worked.

Then there's the hiker-box, trail-mix find. An assortment of unlikely stuff and god knows how many bacteria, it can be eaten while hiking, and has enough distraction for miles of guessing games (was that a dried cranberry??) I've seen gorp bags containing goldfish crackers, captain crunch, dried strawberries, m&ms, dried peas, pretzels, raisins, coconut, Cheerios, jelly beans and even taco chips.
Just throw it all into one bag, it ends up in the same place anyways.

One of my strangest resupplies was the last one the Colorado Trail by Silverton. Assured that the camp store had supplies, we were determined to not go into town, just buy some food and head out.
All they had was snacks.
So, 5 grandma cookies equaled breakfast.
Cashews, candy, chips, jerky, for lunches. A previous hiker had abandoned a drop box, so tortillas and instant black beans from said box were offered by store keeper. That became supper. Memorable.

I've learned the hard way not to have all sweets, or all salty, or all spicy. I make sure to mix it up, especially if its going to be a week before getting to town again for a resupply.

There are hikers who carry a good assortment of spices along. My favorite is cinnamon for oatmeal, garlic for suppers. Salt is not even optional. Unless all your food is already salted, you're going to need and want it. A little salt goes a long ways in making a big difference.

No matter what food you decide to survive on for a week, don't forget the water. All this has to be washed down some way.

I'm a survivor-flick addict, I admit. Survivorman, Man VS. Wild, I Shouldn't Be Alive, Locked Up Abroad. I watch them all.

This new series Discovery is showing, though, has me baffled. We have this really good looking couple out surviving for several days at a time. She has a British accent and he is a calm and collected American. With a huge bowie knife he can accomplish all sorts of things. Its obvious he has skills and I've seen some stuff I want to try.
Like boiling water as a purification process in a plastic water bottle above a camp fire.
Like using steel wool and 9 volt battery to start a fire. I tried the Grade 3 Steel wool, it didn't work, even with a new battery. I'm thinking I need the fine 000 grade. Not like this is something I would normally have on me, but any survival skill is worth knowing.
I'd like to also practice with the fire bundle: carrying a live coal in a dry but rotted log, pampering the coal during the journey for the evening fire in a new location.

But what gets me is how clean they stay, not a smudge on them after making campfires, trudging around in the desert or swamp, hunting, killing and gutting creatures. She wears a white jacket and her nails are never dirty. Yet they'll say "we've been out here three days". Seriously folks, if you want some credibility, make it a little more believable. Get dirty. Wake up from the parachute hammock with your hair messed up. Let me see a smudge on your face and your nails with dirt under them. Lose a button, or get a small tear in your pants.

Even car campers get dirty and there's no way a white shirt or jacket is going to look that good after one night, let alone 3 days in the boonies surviving the elements with no soap and water.

Its a series with potential however, so I'm going to watch it and learn by trying some of the skills in my wilderness adventures. I'll post here what happens, the good, bad, and the ugly.

A Book Review of this lengthy and well written book by authors Michael P. Ghiglieri and Thomas M. Myers would really take several postings to do it justice.

Three hundred ninety pages of gripping stories, statistical data, complete bibliography leave us with no doubt the authors have done their research.
Chapters include: Falls, Environmental Deaths, Flash Floods, Killer Colorado, Air Causalities, Freak Accidents, Suicide, and lastly, Murder.

I was amazed at some of the risks people took before their deaths: perching for photos, hiking with insufficient water, bushwhacking impossible terrain, disregarding flood warnings, swimming in swirling eddies. Also amazing were the seemingly benign circumstances and easily escaped dangers had the people paid attention.

The Epilogue sums it up quite well that as a people we have become so domesticated our adventures are sought out and not everyone who is ill prepared can be protected from them.

I highly recommend this book. At times the factual parts could bog you down, at times it reads like a Hollywood thriller. The charts at the end of each chapter summarize quite nicely the trends and highlights.
A very educational book as well, its lessons can be used in all survival situations. Be prepared, do not over estimate your abilities. Never disrespect or underestimate the wilderness or Mother Nature.

I've seen a lot of stoves on the trail.
Some guys would get obsessed with having the fastest stove and boil contests would be held. Each person starts with one pint of cold water. Then, lighting the stove, a stop watch would keep track of how long the stove took to heat the water to boiling. Usually the soda can stoves would be in a class by themselves. Backpackers with canister stoves and whisper lights just had too much power behind the flame to be fair.

We had our sleeping bags all stretched out in the shelter on the AT when a guy starts to light his stove next to my sleeping bag. This is so wrong on many levels. Number one, you shouldn't be cooking in the shelter. Course, most of us did anyways. Number two, you should be more respectful of other's gear. What if your stove leaked, exploded or tipped over (as has happened to long distance hikers one time or another)? You could send someones sleeping bag up in flames, especially a down $265 Marmot, like I had.
I politely moved my bag in spite of protestations that he was being careful.

I've seen the screw from a photon stove go flying past it's owner's eye. Another time the guy poured fuel into the priming pan, lit his stove and caught the floor of the shelter on fire.

I knocked my stove and cook pot full of pasta over when I woke up from an accidental snooze while leaning against the shelter wall.
These things happen.

Just to see what would happen, I lit a soda can stove while it sat inside my old silnylon tent, shut the screen and filmed it. Of course, the heat eventually caught it on fire. I posted this on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/user/brawny03
The response to the video was mixed. Everything from "what a waste of a good tent" "dumbest video ever" to "thanks for posting, you saved lives"

So, when you play with fire, or stoves, expect stuff to happen and be safe.
A way to put out the fire (snuffer, wet cloth, water) and a way to move the pot when the food is cooked are great ideas. Not cooking too near your flammable gear is smart. Stay awake, even if you have to walk around.

Now, I admit I thought about deleting my first film about the slow burner on YouTube. The first tries at baking with the prototype didn't go so well.

I went back to reread my
http://www.trailquest.net/baking.html
page that we did years ago and saw my mistake.

But, just keeping it real, never give up when things don't go perfect the first time. Keep tweeking it. Have patience, stay positive. By posting my first attempts others can learn from my trials as well.

Even though the first couple cornbread tasted pretty fine the pan had to be scrubbed between tests. This was not acceptable. The pancakes were pretty easy but the trick was to find a pan light enough to be worth carrying. The one I found only weighs 44 grams ( 1- 3/4 ounces). Not only that, it makes a good buffer for the pot when I want to bake a thick cake.

The second film on YouTube about baking is shorter, and very successful. It also shows a prettier stove and promotes the idea that a person can make one of these with just a few simple tools. One soda can is all you need, and a pocket knife. I love the fact that its so simple you can make it in just minutes.

I've invited my trail partner to a backpacking breakfast of brewed coffee and blueberry pancakes. We'll post the ultralighter's kitchen set, and photos. As soon as the color starts in North East Georgia a trip into the wilderness is planned.