Could you survive in the wild, by yourself, for a month?
If it really came down to it, could you survive in the wild? Would you know what to do? How prepared would you be?
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I think a better question would be, can the wild survive with me for a month?
I’m just kidding, I would probably survive for 5 days and then just give up.
No. I watched a TV show about a wilderness man trying to make it alone for a month…he couldn’t do it. He began going crazy, so he called help to fly him back home.
I teach wilderness skills. I don’t want to brag, but I really can survive with just a knife and a fire piston. I have slept outside in a debris hut in sub-freezing temps. I admit, though, that my friction fire skills need work, hence preferring to have the piston. If I had my pack with me, it’d be a breeze.
@SpatzieLover That communication and interaction is huge. I usually teach my students about the “Rule of 3’s”: You can live three minutes without air, three hours in inclement weather, three days without water, and three weeks without food. These are just rough guides. A friend of mine added one on either end: three seconds without safety/protection, and three months without love.
Physically I could do it.
Emotionally, I don’t know if I could. It would be much easier if I had someone to interact with, even if they didn’t know what they needed to do to survive.
You see, I’m thinking about living in the wild for a little while. I’ve done it for a week and it was absolutely AMAZING. I loved it. I’m just contemplating the pros and cons.
I would love to do a few days alone, but I’m not sure how well I could manage a month. Physically, yes, but emotionally, I’m not so sure.
If you’re concerned about the emotional or psychological sides of it, you could clear your calendar for a month, but make it possible to go home earlier than that if you needed to.
If you have the time to prepare yourself for a month of isolation, I think you could do it. If you were forced to do it, you may have more problems.
It also will help if you have a safety plan to get yourself out if it became too much for you.
The wilds where?? In the Alaskan wilds no. On an island in the ocean in spring packed with coconuts and bananas? Maybe. lol
I know how, but I don’t know if I could. One month wouldn’t be too bad, but I am on medication, so I would probably get sick after a couple of weeks without it.
I carry Swedish Fire Steel and a Leatherman with me everywhere. And I am pretty good a fishing. I would miss beer more than people.
I have gone camping and hiking in the sierra’s for a week. I could do it.
@KatetheGreat Also, I note from your profile that you seem to be a vegetarian. Living out in the bush veggie style is cool for a week, maybe even a couple, but everyone I’ve known who lived in the wild has said some meat eating is a must. Luckily it’s spring, so you can still eat mostly veg. Hope you’re prepared for that. Personally, wild meat is quickly becoming the only type I want to eat. Okay, plus bacon.
Can I ask what kind of training you have? Go to any of the big name wilderness survival schools?
I know that I could, and I plan on giving it a shot at some point.
I’m willing to bet that 98% of the rest of Fluther couldn’t do it, though.
Nope :)
I might be able to if I learned a little more between now and the time I’d actually do it. But most likely, I would not be able to do it…
If I could collect the supplies from home, like tools, rope and basic food(flour, spices) to take, then yes. Dropped from a heli with only the clothes on my back, yes – but only in summer with good weather for at least the first week. Otherwise I would really suffer. Sad but true.
I hold up my hands and say “NO WAY!” I would die. My idea of camping is a three star hotel. If my poor husband had to be with me, I would be murdered. He has done all that outdoors stuff and loves it… I would probably drive him mad within a day. “So where can I plug this in…?” “And the nearest shops are where?”
No. Probably not. I’d try really hard, though.
Yup, I am Appalachian—have grown up learning what plants I can eat in the area where I live, I know a bunch of ways to catch fish and trap small game (and can clean game for cooking). Can start a friction fire and know how to use flint and steel with the fuzzy stuff in milkweed pods or similar vegetation to get the spark going. I already spend a lot of time alone. Would do better in summer than winter though . . . and better in my own locale than a foreign environment where I don’t know the plants. Would want to take my granddad’s knife and a journal to sketch what I see and write about how I feel.
Would depend on the weather, I think. And if I had matches. And a knife.
Not only could I survive in the wild for a month, depending on the location and the season it is quite likely I could thrive.
I often have people tell me (largely as a result of my interest in arcane arts) that if the world goes to hell in a hand basket they are coming with me.
If I am ever stranded on a deserted island it is my sincere hope to be able to offer my “rescuers” a good meal and a nice glass of brandy before they take me back to “civilization”.
I do that year round with my mother in law so yes!
I’m sure I could physically. But mentally I don’t think so. I have a habit of talking to myself when I’m bored, and the concept of me talking to a leaf that is now my best friend worries me. Who knows, my friend could even be a fish head.
Not anymore. I’d be extremely wimpy. lol
Obviously we would all do what it took, ultimately I assume, but…I’d be crying and whining the whole time.
I like the outdoors and I like nature but I don’t want to eat grasshoppers and sleep in the weeds either.
No, but I’d like to learn.
@incendiary_dan I have no formal training in a “wilderness survival school”. I have however lived in the wild for a week by myself as a challenge. My adoptive father taught me very well. He was very skilled at survival and he did teach a lot of classes and I sat in on them. I’m not thinking of doing this for an entire month. I’m thinking 2–3 weeks. I’m going to do a little cheating by bringing emergency protein bars and other vital things for when I begin to feel weak from the “into the wild veggie style” diet. That’ll be one of the very few things I’d actually bring.
@incendiary_dan The one I watched…the guy tried doing too much on his own. He had a small emergency food supply and no contact with friends. I think either, he should have been in the wild with a friend, or in the wild with a food supply.
He went buggy rather quickly. He was supposed to be in the Yukon for 90 days. He made it 50, but the last 20, I began questioning his sanity.
@KatetheGreat Awesome. I didn’t go to any of the traditional wilderness schools, either. Basically all of my colleagues went to Tom Brown Jr.‘s Tracker School, so I’m often the odd man out. I learned through other avenues, like studying anthropology and good old trial and error. I say bring whatever you need to make it easier without weighing yourself down, both physically and metaphorically. Good luck!
@SpatzieLover Sounds interesting. Do you know the name of that one?
I was a big fan of “Alone in the Wilderness”, which was about a guy who moved to Alaska to live in a cabin he made by himself, intending to stay only a year and ended up staying for 30. He had monthly visits, which I think reinforces the idea that we need other humans, if only just for companionship.
@incendiary_dan Ahh, good to know I’m not the only one without the training of wilderness schools. Trial and error is the best way to learn for me. I’m quite excited for this, so thanks for the luck!
On a side note, you should try out your survival skills out in Siberia one day. I believe you’d find it exhilarating.
@incendiary_dan Alone in the Wild it was worth the watch. It compelled me to watch it each week as it unfolded. I found myself rooting for him…then feeling like he really should have had a visit quickly, as things turned bleak. He began questioning his sanity more & more.
I think I could do it, with a friend. I’d prefer a handy, good-sense of humor friend On my own, one month? No way.
Me? Ha crap no. I can barely take out the garbage without getting killed by the bushes out back.
I would NOT know what to do, seriously. First thing on my mind would be; get your ass back to civilization. My dad always told me; listen up offspring, if you ever get lost in some forest, climb a tree and look for faraway skyscrapers. Then head in that general direction. If no skyscrapers are to be found, climb the tree at night, and see if you can spot a mass amount of light on the horizon. Then head in that general direction. I won’t always be there to pull you out of the bushes!!
Actually that’s not really how it went but…nah man, I highly doubt I could make it in the wild. My ex boyfriend was in cadets a a kid, and for one project, they were left out in the wild to fend for themselves for a whole week. Of course, everything was monitored and if someone needed urgent help, it would be provided immediately. But from what he said he did all week, I doubt I could.
Making ’‘mazes’’ for fish to get lost in by sticking sticks, branches and twigs on river edges, eating raw porcupine, collecting mildew and maintaining his shelter…man.
They were given some water and food to start off with, but that was all. I could not do this.
Stick me in a back alley for a month, with five bucks and rubber elastics and I’ll know what to do, but not in the wild. On the other hand, one’s need to survive might surprise me.
“If it really came down to it.” Translating that to no other option available, fuck yeah! I mean, if it’s a case of survival then bring it on mother fucker nature. If on the other hand it’s for purely recreational purposes, then nah, better shit to be doing thanks.
First off that would be heaven to me. And yes I could survive… not only survive but thrive in the wilderness. I would hike to the nearest lake and build some sort of shelter near it. I’d sharpen a stick to make a spear, and spend as long as it takes to make a fire. I’d attempt to make a bow and arrow. I know how to make one but I’ve never tried. I’d set up traps. I would love to be stranded in the wilderness for a month. Bring it on!
@rock4ever Just remember that your first bow will look like crap, guaranteed. Might shoot like crap, too. The second one will as well, just less so. And so on.
Survival hunting bows are easy enough to make if you have cordage. Just make one out of bundles of thin branches, like coppiced willow. I’d dry them out for a week before making the bow. Maple might be good too, since it’s harder to start off with, and would require less drying.
@SpatzieLover I’ll definitely check that out, if my computer cooperates!
I just had a migrating pond turtle in my yard on his/her way to my neighbors pond. I thought about what it would be like to eat that turtle if I was starving.
I only got as far as how I might possibly kill it.
Bang it on a tree? Poke it to death with a stick? Hit it with a rock?
I couldn’t get past the killing part.
So, while I agonized over how to kill the turtle I would probably die of starvation in the end.
@Coloma While in the wild, your primitive instincts tend to take over once the idea of starvation hits. I’m pretty sure that you’d find a way to live for a while. :P
@Coloma They’re good with barbecue sauce. :P
@Coloma Best way to cook a turtle in a survival situation is to bang its head with a hammer then turn it upside down and place it in coals of your campfire.
This is a Shohone recipe, but they didn’t hit it with a hammer first.
I wonder if turtle is any good…?
Can we have a laptop?
Turtle Soup recipe from Emeril Lagasse.
BTW, you could cook it in its shell. However, the shell can also be polished and used to make any number of useful, not to mention gorgeous items. Seems a shame to waste that resource by tossing it on a fire.
@yobob, if you don’t get the fire too hot, you can reuse the shell.
Yes, after you eat the turtle you can send a message off in it’s upside down shell.
Toss it in the river, ocean.
My message would say…..
” Please send Corona and Mexican food ASAP!” lol
@WestRiverrat It might even give a unique finish to it if you polish it later. Plus, if you haven’t got something else at hand “cooking pot” is a great use of the resource.
@SpatzieLover Solar battery chargers are really useful for that. I want to get one to keep charging radios and things.
@Dutchess_III My experience with eating turtle has been that different parts of it taste like different animals. I should mention that the only turtle I’ve eaten was a snapping turtle. The neck part, which is most of what I ate, reminded me of tilapia. My friend ran into the room at one point, gnawing on a part, and yelled “The armpit tastes like darkmeat turkey!”
@incendiary_dan So far, the solar is ok for batteries and phones, but not reliable for things like computers. The crank power technology is much better for emergency situations, though.
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