Stuck In The Woods

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Here’s the scenario:

You awake to find yourself in the woods, naked with no tools and the nearest habitation is 500 miles either way.

Have you got enough “woodcraftsmanship” to…

  1. Make fire
  2. Make some kind of tool/weapon to enable you to hunt
  3. Set traps
  4. Find water
  5. Find suitable material to cover yourself
  6. Build a shelter of sorts
  7. Know what vegetation is good to eat and which to avoid
  8. Avoid dangerous wildlife
  9. Build a canoe if you found a stream/river
  10. Get back to civilization

These questions asked because I’ve always admired the old pioneers like Davy Crocket, Daniel Boone, Jebediah Springfield :stuck_out_tongue: and the rest. Just wondered if the old spirit is still alive and kicking in the US.

2

How about other countries? Or are you only asking US Dopers?

3

Anybody, I just figured that the US having ginormous woods would be a good place to start.
Here in the UK we have woods but only diddy ones and dangerous wildlife is pretty thin on the ground. Also 500 miles either way would see us in the sea

4

Starting from completely bollock-naked, it would be tricky, but I think I’d stand a better than average chance… let’s see:

1. Make fire
Yes. I know several methods. Easiest (if the sun is shining) is to use my glasses (I still have those, don’t I? - If not, that probably puts my chances back down below the average). I’ve also succeeded with fire-plough, bow drill and flint methods.

2. Make some kind of tool/weapon to enable you to hunt
If there’s flint available, It’s going to help a lot with this and with many other things, but I can do it without (use fire to sharpen and harden arrows, for example)

3. Set traps
Probably. I can make baskets for trapping fish, I know how to make a few different sorts of traps for land-based animals

4. Find water
Yes. I know how to boil it in a container made of bark too.

5. Find suitable material to cover yourself
Probably the tallest order of the lot - given that if you need it, you probably need it fairly quickly, but the other items on the list are also urgent. I can do it, I’m just not sure whether I can make a good job of it in the time available. I can make strong cords and fibres out of the bark of saplings and other materials. I can knit, sew, weave, etc.

6. Build a shelter of sorts
Easy.

7. Know what vegetation is good to eat and which to avoid
In the Northern Temperate Zone, I’d be fine. In the tropics, I might be in more trouble unless there are wild versions of more familiar produce around.

8. Avoid dangerous wildlife
Pretty much, although it depends on what it is

9. Build a canoe if you found a stream/river
I’d probably make a coracle if I could get enough animal skins.

10. Get back to civilization
Not sure I’d want to, but unless I was on a remote island, yes - follow a river downstream - if there’s no civilisation before reaching the sea, then pick a direction and follow the coast.

5

I thought you couldn’t make fire with glasses because it doesn’t focus the light in one area. I’d like to know how if you can.

You’ll have to ask me in a couple of weeks. I’m taking a four day primitive stills meet next month. I’m hoping to learn how to knapp stones, build bows and atlatls, make fire, fish, primitive cooking, and a number of other things like that. I’m really looking forward to it.

6

WooHoo! Vacation.

7

Yes to all. And I agree with Mangetout - coviering yourself would be the toughest task. I’d probably build a fire first…then even after fashioning a hunting device, skinning even a deer wouldn’t cover me completely because I’m not shapped like a deer. It’s be very stinky too. If we could [Hi-Jack] and say we were clothed, it would make for an easier survival scenerio. But ease is often the last thing encircling a survival situation.

8

Well, I’d die because I’d probably forget every single thing I know about survival (which isn’t much more than I picked up by watching the Discovery Channel), and without any way to feed by Straight Dope addiction, I’d perish in a matter of a day or two.

9

Actually they used eyeglasses to make fire on Survivor this season.

10

Depends if you’re near or far-sighted - I’m far-sighted and my glasses (which have convex lenses) will focus sunlight into a small, bright spot (actually an image of the sun) which will ignite dry materials almost instantly.

If you’re near-sighted, the lenses would be useless for this purpose, as they do the opposite.

11

Mangetout:

Well it seems you are pretty well equipped to cope but you never said how you’d go about finding water.
Also: Are you 100% certain you know a “good” fungi from a “bad” one?. I sure as hell don’t.
#8. Dangerous wildlife in the UK is limited to roaming hordes of pissed up footie “fans”. There are a few wolves I think but they are more scared of humans than we of them.

#9. You’re in the UK, large wild animals other than deer are pretty much a no-no apart from badgers and I wouldn’t want to tangle with one of those buggers. I reckon a coracle is going to be a bit difficult so I’d try for a fallen log with some branches as hand holds…but that’s just me.

So anyway, gimme your phone number 'cos I’d just hunch up against a tree whimpering if I were lost in the woods

12

Wild wolves have been extinct in the UK since the 17th century.

I don’t like my chances without tools of any kind, I would think it would depend greatly on the weather conditions when I was ‘dropped’ as well as what area in the US it was. If I was dropped somewhere nearby, say in the Great Smoky Mountains, I feel reasonably confident that I could start a fire using the drill and bow technique. Hunting would be difficult, I might possibly be able to set a fish trap, but without a knife to fashion a spear I’d likely waste far too much valuable time in those early hours/days trying to knap a decent edge to make it worthwhile to attempt anything more ambitious than a rabbit stick. Finding water wouldn’t be too difficult, go downhill in that area and you’re almost certain to encounter springs or creeks. A suitable material to cover myself would be a tall order, without a decent edged blade stripping trees to make bark cloth would be very difficult, as would bringing down any animal large enough to skin (not to mention the difficulty in skinning animals without a knife). I’m pretty knowledgable about wild plants around here, that wouldn’t be much of a problem. Avoiding dangerous wildlife means bears… and that would keep my awake at night but luckily they’re shy creatures and most likely will avoid me as long as I keep alert and don’t surprise them. There is no way I could built a canoe without tools. I Might be able to make a reed raft, maybe… if there was suitable materials on hand… I’d likely just walk. Getting back to civilization could be done as long as I didn’t panic, oriented myself, took my time, had water and headed east or west consistently. It would all be very chancy, one stomach bug or accident, chance encounter with a bear, mistaken direction or wet cool weather and I would probably die.

13

In the UK? His biggest problem will be staying dry!

If you are in desperate straits the numbers game with fungi in Britain is in your favour - there aren’t all that many poisonous ones, and fewer fatal.

No wolves, yet. There’s a chance they may be re-introduced in Scotland on deer-control duty, but no definite plans.

14

Rivers and ponds are fairly reliable in the Northern Temperate zone. Failing that, there’s digging a deep hole in a low lying spot, drinking the fluid from fish eyes.

I am very reliably familiar with perhaps a dozen good common edible species (as well as anything dangerous they could be mistaken for) - I would leave the rest alone (just as I do now), but I probably wouldn’t bother much with fungi - they’re not terribly nutritious in a survival situation, unless you happen across them in great abundance. Nuts, fruit, roots, insects, meat, fish - that’s where it’s at when it’s life and death.

15

There are populations of wild boar in the UK (escaped from zoos and farms - and since they are originally native to these lands, I’d say they still count) - they’re probably our most dangerous large animal - if you’re unlucky enough to encounter one unprepared.

Arguably the most dangerous land animals we have are wasps - and these are not to be underestimated.

16

And of course there are unidentified big black cats, apparently.

17

I’m quite confident that if I had a knife I would survive. Naked and no tools? I may survive, but I’d answer no to most of your questions. I know how to make fire with the bow method, but I don’t know where I could find anything that is useful for the string without a knife.

18

Let’s not forget the R.O.U.S.'s either! One must watch around every corner for those…

19

Count me with brewha. I can do all that stuff, quite well in fact. But without a tool to start with, I’m in trouble. If there is flint around, I could probably knap a knife of some sort, but it would take forever and I’d ruin my hands doing it.

20

Lokij: I’m sure I read somewhere that there was a plan afoot to release wolves back into the wild in the UK. Whether this was done or not I don’t know but I have a feeling it was…or what Struan says