by Woodsbum
The History Channel Series “Alone” started last night. There are two guys from BushcraftUSA that are competing and did fairly well the first episode. I look forward to seeing how things end up for them.
Here is the BCUSA thread where they discuss the show and answer questions. RangerJoe is Joe from the show and dustinf is Dustin from the show. They are both great guys and I hope one of them won the $500k.
These guys are idiots The first thing you would do in such a situation is find the straightest sapling of good width that you can find and chop it down and make a seven foot wooden spear with a sharpened point, that you can put between you and a unfriendly animal. That later on you can fire harden when you get a chance. Preferable with to trimmed of branches at right angles to one another. A foot or so from the point. So if you spear something like a bear, you can plant the but end of it at angle in the ground or against a rock or tree. An they wouldn’t be able to run up the shaft toward you. Later on you can make one of a different style for small game and fishing, as well. See:
http://cleversurvivalist.com/2013/04/25/survival-with-fire-how-to-make-a-fire-hardened-wood-spear/
As far a camp site, this what I would do: http://s1200.photobucket.com/user/wulfnor/media/Campsite_zpsidcdbjxt.jpg.html
Or better yet at the creekside cave Josh found:
http://s1200.photobucket.com/user/wulfnor/media/Cavesite_zps2zuctebb.jpg.html
Thank you for your comment. I would like to point you to this link so that you can test your skills and possibly win some money. Here is the link to next season’s casting call:https://go.mycastingnet.com/Apply/Show/LastSurvivor2
A couple of things I would like to mention regarding your post:
Having spent 10 years of my life in the military, I am all about force protection and being able to defend myself if the need crops up. Having a spear for small game is a great idea. That would help with the food situation as well as give you a sense of security. Go for it.
Seeing as how I have lived most of my life around bears and cougars (and other predators) in addition to now living in the PNW I would have done things a bit different myself. My initial concerns would have revolved around getting a good structure built, a covered fire pit with solid heat reflector, some wood inside the structure to dry, and set up some way to get water. Being cold burns calories and without water you can do more harm than good without water. The temps that they were living in were the real killer considering that they were constantly wet. Then again, I live here and have had to adapt to this environment. None of these guys were from this wet and nasty of an environment.
I am not sure where you live or what your experiences with bears are, but moving into an area with a sow and 2 cubs is not usually the best of plans. This is especially poor planning when you are talking about moving into their den. Bears are VERY lazy creatures for all practical purposes, but they will fight when you invade their territory or threaten their young. I have seen bears destroy cars because they thought that the car was threatening their young. Of course you might be a bear spearing expert for all I know. If this is the case, I defer to your experience in the matter.
Personally, I would be more leery of the cougars and wolves. The nice thing about cougars is that you can smell when they are in the area. They are ambush predators, however, so you won’t hear or see them coming. You will only smell them and have no idea where they will strike until it is too late. The wolves are much harder to detect until they are right on top of you and they hunt in packs. Defending yourself from numerous wolves with a single spear might be a bit difficult, but I defer to your spear wielding expertise.
They were equipped with bear spray. This is the most effective defense against bears and other predators. Here is a nice article about bear spray versus firearms. I will do a quick post about this for other people to take a look at this week. http://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/species/mammals/grizzly/bear%20spray.pdf
Again, it is much easier to arm chair quarterback than it is to live through the situation. Please apply for next season’s Alone. It would be great to see your approach.