Sometimes letting a person fail, (in a safe environment) is a great way to get the light to go on in their head.

One of the interesting things that happens every year with our boys doing their first Wilderness Survival trip is that they always seem to think it's going to be easier than it is at first. They figure that if us old dad's can go and camp for the weekend with just what's in our pockets and get by, how tough could it be for them? Most of them have a first night that's cold, maybe a little wet, and then they get smarter!

In this case, the adult instructors go through the same scenario as the boys. (Except that we have all used/practiced/worked with that small collection of items in our pockets, and maybe fanny pack, many times before.) When we hike into the site, the adults pick an area, and the boys pick an area. Not far apart, but, enough that they are working independently on their "shelter", fire, etc. After a couple hours, we go see how they are doing. Most of them have something cobbled together. They won't be comfortable, but, they'll live. Then they come visit our camp... the eyes start taking in a much more "comfortable" picture. Then they spend another hour before dark trying to make some "housing upgrades".

Unfortunately, we can no longer teach how to cook snakes, frogs, rabbits, etc. Politically incorrect. <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> We explain how to do it, but, until you actually do it, you just don't get it.

The lasting lessons are ones where you have to actually accomplish something with your own hands. I still remember the old woodsman that taught me to cool off your edible small game in a river, because when you skin it, flees and bugs will tend to leave the cool flesh alone, where they will be all over freshly killed warm exposed meat in a heartbeat. I knew that, because we had caught a rabbit, and skinned it immediately, and then had the flea patrol to deal with. He always cleaned stuff in the river anyway, so as not to attract skunks and raccoons later that night with the remnants.

Another time when I was a boy, a friend's dad showed us how to smoke squirrel meat. He also demonstrated that on a cold weekend, meat you caught Friday that had maggots on it Sunday morning was still ok if you cut off the part the maggots were on. (Then he ate the maggots, and we all had to try to eat them too...protein I guess, he said they are just bug larvae anyway, and like most things, he said they'd taste like chicken...well, they didn't taste like chicken, more like a cross between pungent tasting jello and dirt. Still, now I know that I could eat them and live if I needed to, although I'd need to be pretty hungry.) Where the heck do maggots come from anyway?

After all that, what do we learn? Well, the boys always seem to have a better assortment of gear with them when they camp/hike after the Wilderness Survival course. They know how hard it is to improvise, and so they understand the importance of the right equipment. They know that they could get by without some of it if they are healthy, uninjured, and the conditions are good, but, what if any of those things change?

It's actually fun to do this stuff if you're in the right frame of mind, I'm kinda lucky I get to teach it. I have to say, however, that my wife is never really pleased to see my son and I when we return from one of these adventures...we have to enter thru the garage, none of that "campfire/dirt/guy/baked bean" smell is getting into our house!