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| The opening of 90% of horror movies. |
So this Sunday I felt that with all my talk of survival in the woods I really haven't spent much time there. I decided to man up and just head out to the unknown. The Unknown was of course the local woods near my school, its actually some kind of environmental area, whats important is that it gave me a chance to see if I was man enough to last one day in the woods. I was running on bare essentials some simple energy bars and water, my knife (S&W Rescue Knife), compass, matches and some dyer lint, small first aid kit, and the clothes on my back.
It was a simple trip into the woods, I just needed to get out there and see what it was all about, find out if I would have a fighting chance or just be up shit creek. I found out that I'm not all talk, and I still have a ways to go. Using some of my survival knowledge I was hot on the trail of some deer which are pretty common around here.
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| Fresh footprint from a white tail deer. |
It had rained recently so tracking by footprints wasn't to hard but 1 wouldn't be enough I kept on the hunt.
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| Shows me that it wasn't just a single deer. |
I came across several more as I ventured in deeper into the brush, traveling off the beaten path lead me to a stream and more evidence of these elusive deer. (I should make note that 1. I wasn't actually hunting deer 2. tracking them wasn't my only intention in going into the woods.)
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| Yeah...thats deer poop. |
and......
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| I think I was on the right trail. |
Of course I took a moment from that to find something that I could eat in an emergency that I didn't have to catch, we all know where this is going, I'm about to have a Bear Grylls' moment.
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| Also found some ant hills, not much I could do with that though. |
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| Beetle, the other other white meat. |
Yeah, after walking around a bit further I came across a downed tree trunk, I noticed this one had tiny holes in it, so without really thinking about it I started smashing it open with my crappy Walmart boots (note to self, next big purchase, proper boots) until it cracked open to reveal among other bugs, to huge beetles. I was surprised that I had made a good call on that, of course I didn't eat them because I'm not being followed by a camera crew somewhere in South America, but if I had to, there they were. I kept moving after this, still off the main path and got some great use out of my knife clearing some thorns from my path. I also came across some large mushroom and other plants I couldn't identify. I am working on learning plants that are of use but I at least took a pic of the 'shroom.
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| This looks a little less psychedelic and a little more deadly. |
I had been in the woods for a few hours now, I decided to check out a small clearing and find some wood to try and construct a fire. I failed at the fire epically but in the clearing across a gully I found my little family of deer I was tracking, oddly they really didn't notice me (more likely they were use to humans) but as they ran along I did notice that if I was hunting these guys, purely for survival of course, I would be within easy kill range with most kinds of firearms (including high caliber pistol or bow & arrow).
All in all, it was a nice experience and I learned some stuff like, I suck at making real fires, need better boots, need a real bag and I need to learn to recognize local plants at least. But I found out I'm not a survival failure and that I wouldn't be the first to go down when the SHTF. Its a Good feeling.
