Practice makes Perfect. For many years while learning my craft I used to go out in Winter taking less and less kit each time as a way of pushing myself. Can I survive well without a sleeping bag? Light a fire with just a striker? Each time I pushed a little harder. I rarely traveled alone on these trips, its good to learn but it is stupid to die trying.

Its part of the learning process to go out in the forest and practice, it just you do need to learn first. I sent a tweet out a few months ago that I think sums up my thoughts on going out to the wilderness before you learn basic survival skills:

"Skydiving; rent aircraft, buy parachute, dive out, you will learn as you go. Insane, but with Survival this happens all the time!" @brucezed August 26, 2013

We have a healthy stock of SPAM and canned ham, that we rotate through the kitchen, by using them in soups and stews and such. We also stock cans of chicken/turkey/ham/salamon, but these aren't as popular with the family so I don't stock as much.

Canned tuna is a staple day hike or quick meal around here. Plain tuna gets paired regularly with mayo and/or relish/pickles, celery, fresh herbs, nuts, or whatever other yummies we have on hand. The little flavoured tunas are a bit pricey but packed with flavour. My personal favourite it to add them to raman noodles, but they're also great in sandwiches, wraps and salads or on crackers. It's probably the most versatile canned meat our family uses.

I've been trying to recreate the flavours using plain tuna but frankly, it's a PITA right now, so I bite the bullet and buy a few cans of the good stuff every week. One or two for my day pack, and an equal number for the panty.

What do you hope to learn?
What are your goals?

Call and ask what are the goals and endpoints of the class.

See if they match.

If not, move on.