Primitive Survival Outing 1

Well I just got back from my first ever primitive survival excursion.  The intention of this trip was to learn and I definitely did that!  There were a few things that I did that I was good at and it turns out I had a decent understanding of. On the other hand there were some things that I could have done to save myself some grief.

Building shelters is something that I haven't really done a whole lot of.  I have been working on a primitive hut but that's on a much larger scale than any shelter I cold build in a day.  I had some ideas that I hadn't really learned from anyone but just thought up the concept and decided to try it out.  Twisting the two sweetgum trees together so they would be braced across the tree trunks was something I had thought up.  This idea of the cross beam was really good.  I didn't have to use any cordage for binding and that is a huge time saver when you have to make your own cordage.

Fire was another thing that I felt like I did pretty well at.  I've messed with friction fire a fair bit but have never been able to get a coal.  I mostly tested out the hand drill method.  Since it had rained that morning and most everything was wet I decided to go with the more efficient yet more complex bow drill method.  It took several hours to get everything just right but once I did it was as if the stars had aligned and I was able to create a coal.  I've made fires from coals before so once I had that coal it was a piece of cake.

There were plenty of things that I learned and need to improve on.  It got a little bit chilly and my shelter was hardly insulated at all.  That's the main reason why I didn't sleep well.  Being a Florida boy I guess I just didn't really think much about the cold.  I'll certainly keep that in mind next time I'm out on a chilly night.  Also I didn't gather enough firewood so I need to not but such a lazy butt and be prepared for a long sleepless night.