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From June 16-24, 2000 I participated in a wilderness
survival course hosted by Ron and Karen Hood. The course
was conducted in the Frank Church/River of No Return
Wilderness of Idaho. This was not a very demanding course
physically. Rather, the purpose of this course was to
practice skills we had learned through the
Woodsmaster
video series and elsewhere. We called ourselves the
Tractors: If you eat dirt like we eat dirt, then your
must be a tractor!
Bill Qualls
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Friday night and Saturday morning were spent at Bruce Meadows/
Bear Valley Campground in the Frank Church/River of No Return
Wilderness. This is a view of Elk Creek, just below our
campsite. Such spectacular scenery was the norm, not the
exception. |
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Tom Cruise (yes, his real name) enjoys a sweetroll
before we hit the trail. |
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Joe has a new friend. (Not to worry Kristie: I know Joe
missed you very much.) |
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Our rations were limited. This bag holds all of my food
for seven days. |
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The Tractors as they hit the trail.
Back row: Rik, Wally, Ray, Rob, Steve, Jim, Rachel
Front row: Tom, Karen, Bill Q., Eric, Joe, Bill H. |
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Ron decided to use a load bearing vest for this trip.
It was comical to watch him put it on. I believe he
concluded that while the vest worked fine for a three
day outing, it just wasn't appropriate for a week long
trek. I would never use one: I sweat a lot,
and after only a short time Ron was soaked front and
back with sweat. |
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On the trail at last! That's Steve Hales of Ketchikan,
Alaska in the foreground. |
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Much of the area we hiked through had been burned in a
fire some time ago. When these dead trees are down, it
makes for very slow cross country hiking. Like walking
through a giant game of "pick up sticks".
Ron's dog Kuma is leading the pack here. |
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Here is our first glimpse of Corduroy Meadow, where we
spent much of our time. |
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Another view of Corduroy Meadow. This portion had a long
boardwalk to cross on. Of course, most of the meadow had
no such boardwalk, and the meadows are quite wet this
time of year. I wore boots the first couple of days, then
wore sandals for the remainder of the trip due to the
water. |
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Ron has a layed back approach to navigation. |
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This is "Radio Ray" at camp 1. I think Ray consistently
had the best shelters, many of which were constructed
over a fire bed for warmth. |
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This is Bill Hay at camp 1. Bill had a lot of success with
trapping throughout the week. One day he set up six snares
and came back to find three with squirrels! He later spent
some time with me, showing me some of the finer points of
trapping which he had learned. I caught a squirrel later
in the week. |
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We had very good weather throughout the week. We had rain
one night only. On the first day we had a rainbow without
any rain. Very pretty. |
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I always purify my water. I recommend Polar Pure. |
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This is where a few of us went for a swim at camp 1. Rik Palm
expressed some concern that he had accidentally swallowed
some water while swimming. I told him it probably wouldn't
be a problem, afterall we hadn't seen any dead animals in
the water. |
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Okay, Rik. Now you can worry. We found a dead elk in the
water later that day. Those Tractors who had not been
purifying their water emptied their water bottles. One of
the Tractors emptied his stomach. |
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I was really disgusted when Ron waded in with a rope so
we could drag out the elk. But that's what we're here for,
right? Dig in boys! |
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I decided to take a piece of hide from one of the legs in
hopes of making a pouch. The elk had been in the water
so long that you could run your hand along the hide and
remove what little fur remained. It would be impossible to
describe the smell. |
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Here's the piece of rawhide I salvaged from the elk.
Making something useful from it turned out to be a lot
more work than I had planned. |
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The brains of the elk were too far gone to be of any use,
so brain tanning was out. I didn't have any tea bags, so I
couldn't do that (tea contains tannic acid). My only remaining
option was to urine tan, so I had to soak the hide overnight
in a bag of urine. I've had to pee in a cup before, but
never in a bag! |
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The next step is to stretch out the hide so it can dry,
then scrape off any remaining meat and fat. (The urine is
supposed to simplify this process.) I whittled small
wooden pegs to hold the hide to the ground while
stretching it.
The two straight things you see next to my knife
are leg tendons from the elk. After drying, this
sinew is pounded to separate the fibers, which are
then twisted into cordage. Sinew is the survivalist's
first choice for cordage as it is so strong. |
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The next day, after scraping the hide I smoked it to remove
the smell (which at this point was still quite strong!)
Then I had to "break the grain" by laying it on some soft
ground and pounding it with a smooth stone. |
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This is me modeling the finished product. I made a button
from a piece of bone. I designed the pouch to carry my
canteen cup. I've had the cup for many years and it has
been with me on many of my outings. Consequently, it has
a lot of sentimental value. |
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Many of the Tractors were intrigued by the prospect of
doing some primitive forging, having just seen the latest
volume of the Woodsmaster video series. This is Eric
Stoskopf with the "mini-forge" he made from an old Coleman
fuel can and some clay from the creek. |
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Here is the mini-forge in action. Radio Ray made a very
functional billows from a trash bag. A piece of bone
was used to separate the billows from the forge so the
billows (bag) would not melt and to maintain an open
airway while the billows was filled. Ron and Wally look
on as Ray operates the billows. |
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A close-up shot of the mini-forge in action. Eric forged
using old nails and a horseshoe found at old camps.
The metal got red hot in this forge!
We had made the charcoal earlier by building a fire and
covering the partially consumed wood with dirt to smother
it. Eric made a small chisel with this forge. |
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Enough skills for awhile...here's a picture of me and
my shelter at camp 2. I find a brown tarp far less intrusive
than the more common blue tarp. I got mine at Menards. |
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We were each allowed to bring a pound of
bannock.
Perhaps the most common use for the bannock was as dumplings
in cream of chicken or tomato cup-of-soup. But by far the
best use of bannock was when Rob Simonich found an unopened
bottle of vegetable oil and he and Eric made donuts for
everyone! That's roughing it with style! |
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This tree next to the campfire in camp 2 seemed to collect
more junk as time went on. I guess you could think of it
as a primitive closet? |
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Nichi is a one year old Mastif. She had so much personality,
she was like one of the family. Here she snuggles up to
Karen. Or is Karen snuggling up to Nichi? |
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As we left camp 2 we had to cross the creek. Another reason
why I wore sandals most of the week! |
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This is me on the way to camp 3. |
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Resting at a rock on the way to camp 3. That's Rachel
and Joe on the rock. I don't have any pictures of camp 3:
we got there late, and the mosquitos were pretty mean
so we left early the next morning. |
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This is a scene from the meadow adjacent to camp 4. |
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Camp 4 was adjacent to this large meadow which was
covered with blue camas. This picture doesn't do it
justice. |
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This is me holding some blue camas. The root and tuber
of blue camas is edible raw or cooked. It's quite good.
How do you tell blue camas from its highly toxic relative
death camas? Death camas has a white flower. So when you
dig up camas, only eat the ones with a blue flower
attached! |
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This is Rachel Hales, Steve's daughter. Rachel spent
much of her time studying plants. |
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This is me and my shelter at camp 4. Prior to this trip
I was having second thoughts about having purchased the
Anaconda knife, but it really came in handy. |
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Having finished my pouch, I decided to try some trapping
on Friday. Here's a picture of a snare. Use 20-24 gauge
stainless steel wire. Place the noose in the hole. Secure
the other end to a stake and drive it into the ground,
attempting to minimize the slack in the wire. Remember,
squirrels aren't too bright. Pounding in the stake will
keep them away for a short time only! |
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Check your traps periodically. I set three traps and
checked them every 20-30 minutes. Sometimes the squirrel
will get past your trap, pushing the loop out. Don't be
discouraged: this is a good thing! At least you know
that hole is active. Reposition the noose and check back
later. If you have a squirrel, you'll likely see some
fresh dirt as shown here, from where the squirrel has
tried to retreat into his hole. |
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If you catch the squirrel around the neck, you can pull
him out easily. If you catch him around the stomach, as
I did here, he will really give up a fight! Here Bill Hay
uses his walking stick to dig out the squirrel while I
keep the snare wire taut. |
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Here's my squirrel. Cooked him by boiling with bullion.
What does squirrel taste like? Well, it's a red meat.
Good, but chewy. |
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Bill Hay helps Steve Hales get his squirrel out of the
hole. |
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Here's Steve with his squirrel. If you look carefully,
you'll see that this squirrel was caught twice! Steve
had set a snare earlier and the wire broke. So he reset
it and caught this squirrel. It was caught around the
neck, but still had the old snare wire around its
waist. Clearly these animals aren't too bright! |
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End of the week. This is me with Ron and Karen. (Karen's
the pretty one.) |
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Here's the group shot at the end of the week. Now we
will all head back to Garden Valley.
Back: Ray, Joe, Wally, Steve, Jim, Rik, Rob with Nichi
Middle: Rachel, Bill H., Tom, Eric with Kuma, me
Front: Ron, Karen |
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This is the Garden Valley Hotel - a two story log cabin
hotel! It's brand new and very clean. I liked it. We
showered then went to Ron and Karen's for dinner. Then
back to the hotel, and then to the Boise airport in the
morning. |
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Post script. I really miss the woods!
Copyright © 2000 by Bill Qualls.
Last updated July 22, 2000.
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