Not a good idea for novices (actually a really bad idea). Maybe your project could involve getting the basic training and knoweldge to work up to a 3 day survival scenario. Getting prepared for something like that doesn't happen overnight. You "might" want to start with a little hiking, camping and backpacking to gain expierance and check out gear.
Eventually, if you work up to a 3 day survival project, having an expieranced observer and safety procedures in place should be included in the plan.

Dave

if you're looking for some type of validation or "nod" from this community, i think at this point you should realize that you will not be getting it. everyone has given you solid, potentially life-saving advice and you have yet to respond that any of it has penetrated into your cerebral cortex. you're putting yourself at risk by attempting what you say you wanna do...if the worst should happen, God forbid, make sure you tell your family the URL of this website so they can't blame ETS.


both les stroud and bear grils have back-up plans and ways to extricate themselves should things get hairy.


with the advent of modern video editing software you can easily create the impression of 3 days of a survival situation. no need to be reckless.

Funny, that was my first thought, too. Though it was just a movie it actually demonstrated very well how the average urban dweller tends to react when caught by something unexpected outdoors. Face it, most people today are totally unused to the wilderness. Lack of any outdoor skills, false confidence in their own abilities, fear of the unknown, it all adds up so quickly. If you look at the Blair Witch Project the situation was pretty much bizzare. There was not even any situation to speak of, nothing directly hostile in the environment. Those kids were not facing any serious challenges nor were their lives ever in danger. Yet they were defeated by their own imagination and eventually took entirely pointless steps that could have resulted in a tragedy. It took just one person to break down mentally and the entire group collapsed.

Not to rant too much but just one more point. I find it interesting how people with little outdoor experience fail to make a proper list of priorities. Food is always on top. So everyone assumes bringing a rifle will do the trick. Unfortunately, nobody seems to think ahead. It takes skill (and lots of time) to hunt successfully. Takes more skill to skin an animal and prepare the meat. Ray Mears does it with a sharp flint on TV though, sure looks easy. Then of course dragging the carcass to the camp sounds like a terrific idea, only it's going to invite predators from all over (but that's so easy to forget). So you might well wake up in the middle of the night with a bear or cougar having a feast by your side (hope it won't pick you for dessert). Sad to see common sense so lacking these days. PPPPPP...

I've read this thread and I have a suggestion. Ziggy, why don't you all just go backpacking? Take a class at the local outdoors store, get some appropriate equipment and just enjoy the outdoors. Thats plenty challenging enough for some folks who "don't know that much about the wilderness or the forest in general." You will find a lot of support for that endeavor in this forum and lots of ideas for improving your safety and comfort. Just a thought.

Hi, Ziggy.

I know a little about Cdn. shield and boreal forest country, though I don't pretend to be an expert. My primary experience is in the foothills and mountains of Alberta, which share similar features.

I think you have laid out an interesting project for yourself. (I've been on a few film sets myself, including -30 C on the ice of a Northern lake with a brisk wind -- now that's fresh.) If you do it right, you'll have a remarkable and memorable experience. If you do it wrong, as others have warned, you'll have a big mess.

I guess you've set yourself a pretty large psychological challenge as well. In fact, that's probably the biggest part of it. Otherwise, the bottom line (for any three-day tour) is: dress warmly, keep dry, boil your water, eat a bag of granola or GORP (good old raisins and peanuts), and don't chop any arteries.

And congratulations: you've done the right thing by admitting that "I don't know anything." That's the first step in acquiring meaningful knowledge. A lot of people try to fake their way through, macho style, and get into deep trouble as a result. The only way to "know it" is to "do it" -- and a big part of that is "doing" your homework.

You have a lot a research ahead of you. Don't skimp on it.

First, hit a good library. There are almost certainly books on survival techniques and local edible plants. Read them closely, and take them with you.

Next, pick up the phone and talk to forest rangers or park rangers that operate in the same general area. They can steer you toward an appropriate location, away from obvious dangers, and give you a rundown on active wildlife in the area. Since they'll be the first ones called out for search and rescue, you can bet they'll make every effort to help you avoid trouble.

For what it's worth, here's how I would set things up:
- Set up a nice, comfy base camp within sight of your vehicles ... tents with no-see-um netting, sleeping bags, clean water, spare clothing. Have food, but keep it in your vehicles. Keep your camp meticulously clean of any food-like smells to avoid wildlife surprises.
- Make sure somebody knows where you are and when you will be back. If cell phone coverage is available, make sure you have one.
- Set up your "survival camp/ film set" no more than an hours' walk from base camp (I think you're doing that already).
- Don't set up in a high-risk forest-fire zone. Take a spade along, and build your fire in a location where it can't possibly spread.
- If you can convince someone with experience to come along and hang out off camera, do it. You won't regret it.
- I suspect you'll find more "easy" food in and around water than anywhere else. Roasted cattail roots anyone?
- Don't eat anything unless you're triple-sure it's safe. This is not the place to play to the camera. Avoid mushrooms.

Last, be prepared for the most relentless, bloodthirsty predator in the area (neither bear, cougar, nor wolf): the black fly. Without DEET and headnets (and even with) they will make you intensely miserable, and possibly swollen/sick with their anticoagulant venom. Heed the old song: "... and the black fly, the little black fly, always the black fly, no matter where you go ... I'll die with the black fly a-pickin' my bones, in old Ontar-io-i-o, in old On-tar-i-o..."

I hope things go well. Be safe first and foremost.

Let us know how it goes.

Ziggy just some words of advice from an "old timer"

1. Don't take a rifle, you're inviting trouble
2. An axe can be very dangerous. If you're going for 1 night you won't need an axe. Use deadfall for fire and shelter.
3. WATER, WATER, WATER. Take lots of water

I'm a pretty experienced camper and one more than 1 occasion I've done survival training. Spent more than 1 weekend in the woods as a teenager with only 3 matches, a pocketknife and the clothes on my back. Lived to tell about it.

Try a "mild" weekend of backpacking first. Carry everything in that you think you'll need including a) water b) food c) supplies. Make sure you have a first-aid kit (a good well stocked one) and have some knowledge of what do do with it. Take a tarp for making shelter and plenty of rope/line with you. Depending on the weather take at least a couple of blankets or a sleeping bag. Take a poncho or other rain gear. Make sure you have firestarting material and know how to use it, practice first.

Don't think you can "Rambo" your way around the woods.

Be safe, be smart.

I definitely agree with RAS on this one.

I remember my first camping trip all too well, a friend and I brought in several 2-liter bottles of water, food, tent, axe, rifle, sleeping bags, etc... and this was only for a 1 night trip about 3 miles from my home.

Growing up "in the woods" so to speak, I was very comfortable using an axe or a rifle. The rifle was more of a backup in case of rabid animals. To an untrained person, however, a rifle can be a liability as you would often try to shoot an agressive animal as opposed to trying to avoid it.

Back to my main point, you want equipment with you. No one should knowingly put themselves in harms way without proper survival surplies. The whole point of Doug's site is to be prepared. If you carry even the most basic of survival equipment with you, you stand a greater chance of surviving if things go wrong. With that knowledge, why would anyone venture into the woods with almost nothing in the way of gear?

If you want to experiment with survival skills, do so, but only in a safe manner. As RAS suggested, try making a figure 4 trap, see if you can catch supper. Go fishing with just line and hooks. Try setting snares. And, if you catch something, see how difficult it really can be to skin and prepare. Try to start a fire using flint and tinder you find in the woods. But always have backup!

Make sure you have adequate fire starting tools / matches / lighters. As an Assistant Scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts, I'm often amazed at the inability of some scouts to start and build a proper fire. This is a skill that is crucial for any sort of outdoors experience.

Make sure to carry a proper knife and multitool. Have enough water with you, but carry a way to treat / boil water if you need to, or to show how it's done. Bring along food, properly sealed. Nothing worse than running into a bear that has been attracted by the scent of food left lying around. (Trust me, I've seen this in a boy scout camp! Luckily the scout was not hurt too badly!)

As the scout motto says, "Be prepared!"

And for God's sake, please let people know exactly where you will be, how long you will be away, and when to notify SAR if you don't return. You state you will only be 1 km away? Bring proper communication equipment. Even commercial talk-abouts (walkie talkies) should work for that short range. But test for that distance before relying on it.

To sum it up, bring plenty and enough equipment to surive for longer than you plan on being there, just in case. You don't have to include it in any shots. Don't be silly and try to eat plants you are not sure about. As many have said in this forum, food is not critical, but water is!

Come back safe!

You don't know what you don't know. If you did, you wouldn't have asked the question to start with.

Dave

3 days is not survival, it is a camping trip. Unless you are treading water at sea, or are somewhere where hypothermia is a concern, 3 days is nothing.

IMO, the 3 day camping trip isn't really the issue, making a "survival" video is the issue. Not being subject matter experts, making a survival video as a school project could be tough -- UNLESS, the video is about the process of actually learning survival techniques. Then if you fail to get a fire going using spark based techniques, you're demonstrating that it isn't as easy as some survival experts make it out to be on TeeVee. Talk about why it didn't work: not enough tinder, not enough spark, tinder is too wet to take a spark. When you do get a spark to catch, wave your arms like Tom Hanks on Castaway.

Start the clock and make that shelter from the sticks and brush in the area and when it's finished stop the clock (time lapse photography to show the shelter at various stages). It takes considerable time and energy.

Make some traps and put them out. Demonstrate how the traps work (Figure 4, deadfall, et al)

If you catch anything worthy of dinner you can consider yourselves very successful. Odds are every time you take the camera to check your traps they'll be empty.

You get the idea, document on video your attempts at learning the techniques, success's and more importantly the failures. It's all about the process.

Good luck.