SurvivorDude - Cricket Eating

Thought some of you might get a kick out of Nomad75 eating a cricket…

3 comments November 6th, 2007

SurvivorDudes - The Results

Well the SurvivorDude weekend was a success. The low temp was 32 degrees, so we got to see how our skills held up to the freezing weather. Here’s how we did on our goals…

• Shelter - Built a shelter out of natural materials. Probably wasn’t rainproof, but was a nice windblock and held the fires warmth in.
• Food - We foraged for food and found dandelions, wild onions, insects, and fish. Also made Chicory coffee, but the chicory was foraged from my yard before we left in case we couldn’t find any on site.
• Cooking - Built a hobo stove out of a tin can and also cooked on the fires coals.
• Fishing - Made a fishing pole from a green branch. Used floss for the line and brought a hook with us. Also made a fishing net from an old clothes hanger and a plastic bag.
• Water - We filtered water using the charcoal/sand method. We also boiled water in an aluminum can using a tripod we built from limbs.
• Fire - Attempted the bowdrill method, but had no luck. We used chemicals and also used flint and steel and were successful.

I’ve posted a few pictures and a video below. And am giving a little more description for anyone interested. I definitely feel like I could survive for several days in the wilderness here in the southeast US. Winter would be a challenge, and surviving on small amounts of food would also be a challenge.

The shelter took some time. I’d say 1 hour to get the frame cut, built, and assembled. We used vines and then some cord we salvaged from the trash to tie the structure tight. We used stones to support the two legs on the front and sharpened the ends of those poles and jammed them about 4-6 inches into the ground. The covering is made of small limbs with leaves and some moss and leaves. The bed inside the shelter was made of dormant grasses and some leaves. These finishing touches took another hour.

We found a place to camp near a creek. This proved invaluable and we spent about half an our fishing. We made a net using a salvaged subway sack (clear) and an old coat hanger. Nomad75 caught about 10 fish using this net. I caught a whopping…. 1. But the method worked, and with some patience you can make a small meal of these little fish which ranged in size from your pinky to middle finger.

We foraged and found onions which we boiled with the fish. We also found dandelions we boiled as well. We also found acorns but only tasted them and decided not to spend the time to cook the bitterness out. Nomad75 also cooked a grasshopper and ate a cricket which jumped into our shelter as we were eating. Bad timing little cricket… bad timing. I skipped the insect feast and made some chicory coffee. Which wasn’t too bad, but was a bit on the bitter side.

3leftsmakesapar and myself also made a fishing pole. Which actually looked pretty sturdy. He fished with it for half an hour to an hour but had no luck. With more time we may have been able to catch something. We used a piece of Styrofoam we found as a bobber.

The hobo stove worked well but I couldn’t get it to boil water. I did get it to simmer things and tiny bubbles formed on the bottom of the cooking pot (an aluminum can). I made a door to put coals in the stove and fed small sticks in for fuel. I ended up boiling on the fires coals by pulling a little channel of them out from the fire.

We filtered water using sand and charcoal then boiled it. This was done on a tripod which we used later to hold an aluminum can over the fire to boil water. The filter worked well, but was a slow process. So, after the first batch of water we boiled ongoing. It is recommended that you boil water for at least 5 minutes to kill the possible bacteria in it. We boiled for about 10 minutes each time.

All in all, a great trip. No ill effects from the food or water, which we were very safe with. I wouldn’t recommend doing this yourself unless you have read up on it and are very sure of the things you are eating. We did quite a bit of research for this trip coupled with books we have read in the past and techniques we’ve actually had to use before. It is also key to find items you can get clean to cook with. Several of the tin cans we saw were rusty and we couldn’t use them. But once you’ve studied up, this is a great way to make sure you know how to handle yourself if you became lost or stranded in the wilderness.

And last but not least, a little video of us eating the Dandelion Fish Wraps. MMMM, weeds and boiled minnows, everyone’s favorite….

Thanks to Nomad75 for all the research and prep work. Thanks to SherGrayWin for all the firewood gathering. And thanks to 3leftsmakeapar for the fishing expertise and help documenting the trip.

8 comments November 5th, 2007

Welcome to Survivor”Dude”

We’ve all seen SurvivorMan and Man vs. Wild by now. And we’ve all seen the controversies behind Bear Gryls method. And we’ve all wondered if we could survive out there on our own with only our wits and some McGuyver spare parts to use.

Well I’m going to do it this weekend for the sake of Outdoorzy. I’m sacrificing myself for the sake of a blog post… what a noble cause… I’m heading out with three other Outdoorzy members; Nomad75, ChrisG, and 3leftsmakeapar. Only two of us will be “surviving.” The other two will be documenting the trip and laughing while we eat bugs.

I know you’re all thinking “Man this guy is dumb if he thinks living in the woods for 2 days is “surviving.” Okay then, I’m not actually surviving. More like testing some skills and trying some things out to see what works and to see if I can pull it off. That’s why this is called Survivor”Dude”… because it’s kinda half-baked. Here’s the plan.

• Take all our regular gear, and then only use it if we need to
• Take 4-5 items each that you would find in the trash
• Bring a knife or multi-tool
• Spend 24-36 hours in the wilderness, several miles from a road or civilization
• Come back without getting some gastro-intestinal funk from eating something dumb
• Make a Shelter
• Get clean drinking water
• Find or catch some food (even just a little)
• Build a fire using only natural materials
• Build a stove or cook items on the fire that we find

Should be fun. I’ll report back next week and let everyone know how it goes.

-SURVIVORDUDE

It will probably look more like this blooper real from SurvivorMan…

9 comments November 1st, 2007

Fruita Weekend! (well,not so much)

With real snow season right around the corner the desire to get out and enjoy the last scraps of any summer sport is thick. Ok Fruita weekend cancelled.. My desire wasn’t great enough to go camp in sub-freezing temps, desert wind, and mixed precipatation. No visit with Tater Tot, the unofficial mayor of Fruita and well deserving of his own blog. If you make it to Fruita, (If you don’t know you better ask somebody) seek out this amazing local personality. Be prepared for hugs-a-plenty and be careful when he goes in for a cheek kiss. If you’re slippin he will sneak one pass the goalie and get you on the lips.

So I guess that leaves riding whatever is dry around here and watching Mike race cross.

Mike, off the front.

American Cross fans, all six of us turned out in full force. You know hundreds of people in Europe come out to these races to watch, cheer, and drink. We have football and nachos.

“Frenchie” turned 72 on Saturday and was out to race both days. On Sunday he had a few too many post race “recovery drinks” and drove his car onto the snowy course… race officials were not pleased.

We got off our bikes Saturday just in time, the weather came in hard. 10 inches in the valley, who knows what we got up top. The weather channel says we are getting some warmer temps this week,,, lets hope we can keep some of this early dump as base.

Best part about cross? Hot racing action rain snow or shine!

Including snowman, 7 race fans on day 2.

Deep in the pain cave

Wet clean up, aisle one.

I did manage to schmooze my hands onto a bunch of FRS this weekend. I had tried this stuff a little before and I have to say it rules! I am pretty particular about what I consume before, during and after training / racing. When you find what works stick with it. Personally I have found a mix of Accelerade/Hammer Gel/Endurox/Big Mac’s to be what makes my engine purr.

FRS now added to the regement for pre-game /maintenance. Try some, tastes good, tell your local shop to get it. I’m not usually a sucker for endorcement, I personally would tout about anything for a check. However, Lance sees fit to put his name on this stuff instead of the newest male enhancement formula.

2 comments October 21st, 2007

How to be Thin…. get Outside?

So, what are the secrets to being or staying thin? Well Real Simple magazine thinks they’ve found the formula. They’ve compiled 13 different attributes of thin people from different scientists and organizations to create “The Secrets of Thin People.” One of the things that keeps people thin which might interest us outdoor sports enthusiasts is… well basically, outdoorsy people stay thinner!

From their blog - And why are there fewer fat Coloradans? “My take is that, traditionally, Colorado has attracted people who value outdoor living and health and wellness more,” says James O. Hill, Ph.D., director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, in Denver, who has lived there for 14 years. “People will take off every Friday because they go to the mountains. They’re willing to prioritize health and wellness.”

Okay, so it’s not ground breaking. But hey, it’s nice to see the media recognizing that an active outdoor lifestyle can improve your quality of life. Thanks Real Simple.

Add comment October 12th, 2007

Nature Valley Roasted Nut Crunch

I am a big fan of Nature Valley Oats N Honey granola bars so when I got the chance to review Nature Valley’s newest line, Roasted Nut Crunch, I jumped at it. Unlike other bars, Oats N Honey have serious crunch factor and Nature Valley kept that crunch in their new nut bars.

Nuts are a great choice when hunger strikes because they are healthy and filling; the only things I have to watch are the fat content and sugars. Here is the “skinny” on Nature Valley’s Roasted Nut Crunch:

Ingredients:

Almond Nut Crunch
Almonds, Peanuts, Sunflower Seeds, Sugar, Corn Syrup, Salt
Calories 200, Calories from fat 130, Sugars 6g, Protein 7

Peanut Nut Crunch
Peanuts, Sunflower Seeds, Sugar, Corn Syrup, Salt, Almond Flour
Calories 190, Calories from fat 110, Sugars 7g, Protein 7

When I unwrapped one of the Roasted Nut Crunch bars, it looked a bit smaller than a typical granola bar but it was packed with almonds, peanuts and sunflowers. The bars look like they would melt in your mouth but it was extremely crunchy.
I would definitely recommend this new line of bars for anyone from a quick bite at work to a well deserved snack after a hard mountain bike ride. My only caution would be that the fourth ingredient is corn syrup, but other than that I felt good about putting these bars in my body.

Add comment October 8th, 2007