Camping tips

Now that we are officially well into the camping season here in the northwest. I thought we should share some of our favorite camping tips.

One thing all of us will face when camping is laundry, even if you don’t have to wash your clothes you will inevitably need to hang something up to dry. We usually will just drape it over one of the many rope strung around camp or the back of a chair,this is not very efficient. Next time try using the little plastic clip from a bread bag, they work great as clothespins and are easy the pack.

Tired of all your cooler stuff getting soaked after a couple of days in the melting ice. Try filling old drink bottle 80% with water and freezing them before you go out next time. You won’t have the usual cooler swamp and you also end up with a bunch of fresh drinking water when they melt.

Ever trip over the guy lines of your tent when climbing out for your nightly relief, I have, they are hard to see when you are mostly asleep. Try this, take short little mostly useless pieces of tin foil and make little flags on your guy lines. The moon reflects nicely off these, not to mention your flashlight.

Always put a rock with a nice big flat top, level in the fire ring, it is so nice to have a place to keep your food and drinks warm by the fire.

Last but not least, we deal with the most dreaded camping nuisance of all, mosquitoes! You just can’t seem to avoid them, so here is a couple of useful tips. Firstly, bring some sage sprigs with you, when the mosquitoes are thick, through some on the fire, they hate it. Secondly, after you get bit, and you most certainly will, use a little dab of toothpaste, not gel, directly on the bite, it knocks down the itch and helps it heal faster.

Well that’s it for now

As always,

Stay Vigilant and Be Prepared

Will A Bite From This Snake Kill You?

Venomous Snakes in North America

 

When the weather gets nice, it’s time for the hikers, campers, and outdoor enthusiasts to come out of hiding… which happens to correlate with an uptick in snake activity (including venomous ones).

First things first, I’ll say that I’m not one of those people who believes all snakes should be killed on sight. If a snake is non-venomous, I’ll let it slither on it’s way every time. If it’s venomous, and too close to my house or yard, that’s when a decision has to be made.

In order to make that decision, I first need to identify the species of snake and determine whether or not it’s a venomous snake.

Despite the fact that we only have 4 major species of poisonous snakes to deal with in North America, it can be surprisingly difficult to calmly ID these snakes in the heat of the moment. In fact, that’s why I’m writing this article, to make it easier for the non-snake experts among us to avoid a nasty and potentially fatal bite.

The 4 Big Ones

These are the 4 groups of poisonous snakes that you may run across in the US:

  • Rattlesnakes
  • Cottonmouths
  • Copperheads
  • Coral Snakes

When I say that there are 4 major species of venomous snakes, that’s a bit of an oversimplification, BUT that actually makes the identification process easier.

You see, it doesn’t matter much if you’ve spotted a Texas Coral Snake or an Arizona Coral Snake, both are deadly poisonous. So stay away.

As always,

Stay Vigilant and Be Prepared

Welcome to NW Survival.

We are a community dedicated to providing education and training needed for survival in the Pacific Northwest. We share our insights, opinions, and offer gear reviews as opportunities present themselves. We also offer firearms safety training for individuals and groups.

Back from the batcave

Good morning,

Sadly it has been awhile since you have heard from me, but that doesn’t mean I have NRA Training Logo Suite-INST-3CSPOTbeen stagnant, I bring word from the batcave.

 

I have been busy in the field, we have completed a couple of gun safety classes. I really enjoy these classes because I feel very strongly about how important they are. If you feel that you need to own and/or carry a firearm, I believe it is your responsibility to become highly proficient with its use and safe handling. I believe you should have to show competence, not just a written exam. Just like an automobile, show me you can parallel park.

Backpack

 

My steadfast partner in crime has been insistent that we start offering pre built Bug out Bags. So we have been doing a lot of research so we can be sure to offer what we feel are the best solutions for the different type of bags we all should have. In the not too distant future you should see a selection of prebuilt solutions being offered. We believe everyone should be prepared for the unforeseen, and look forward to offering the best bags you can get. Stay tuned.

 

As always,

Stay Vigilant and Be Prepared

Food in the Backcountry – Big Leaf Maples

Most people know big leaf maples best for their helicopter seeds and large leaves but they also have beautiful off-white edible flowers that are a delicious addition to your spring diet.090426bn

The flowers are best harvested when the trees leaves are just beginning to open up. The longer you wait to harvest the flowers the less tender and more fibrous the flowers become.

To harvest them you want to break them off at the base of the green stem. And to eat them you can simply just take a bite – stem and all. They are also great mixed into a Bigleaf Maple Flower (4)salad or fry them up for a delicious treat.

Even though maple syrup comes from maple trees, big leaf maples are not commonly used for this. It’s taste is more earthy than traditional maple syrup. The maple syrup you put on your pancakes, assuming it is real, is most likely from sugar maples.

Wild Foods & Medicine has a great article on identification, preparing the flowers, and tapping the trees for syrup.

So, take some time and add these great little flowers to your salad or make it fun and fry them up with the kids for a delicious afternoon treat!

Food in the Backcountry – Dandelions

Dandelion comes from the french words – dents de lion – which means teeth of lion. It gets its name from the jagged edges of its leaves and the beautiful yellow flowers that some may say resemble a mane. They are a great wild edible because you can eat every part of the plant – from root to flower. The best part is that they are probably growing in yourdandel08-l backyard right now.

A great time to harvest these weeds are when they are in their flowering stage and growing rapidly. That is when you know the plant is fresh and ready to be harvested.

After you harvest the plant, you can throw the leaves and flowers into a salad. This will add a nice bit of bitter and color. The root of the plant can be eaten raw and is also delicious when roasted.

Roasted dandelion root tea is one of my favorite types of tea and is a great detoxifier. Check out this article about the potential benefits of dandelion root tea.

It is always a good idea to harvest where no pesticides have been sprayed. Wash your greens before eating them and most importantly, enjoy! Don’t be afraid to try something new because you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

identification-2    060

Food in the Backcountry

Hello all,

An official welcome into the month of March – the days are becoming longer, the leaves are sprouting, and the flowers are blooming!

This is the first post in the series about food in the backcountry. You’ll learn how to pack lightweight nutritious meals, how to forage safely, how to trap, and much more.

 

Just a reminder:

There is a free talk this Wednesday hosted by Trackers Earth. John Kallas will be teaching us about foraging wild edible plants in the Pacific Northwest. I’d love to see you there!

https://www.facebook.com/events/1653305501591568/

 

“It’s fun to get together and have something good to eat at least once a day. That’s what human life is all about-enjoying things.” Julia Child

Survival Hacks – Leaves

 

Leaves are a great and underused resource – they can be used for food, shelter, water collection, medicinal purposes, etc. – and they are readily available here in the Pacific NW.

vinemaple-fall-treeFood and Medicine: We are lucky to be in a bioregion that flourishes with edible plant life. It is important to study up on native plants and their uses. An entire culture flourished here with the natural environment not too long ago.

One of my favorite medicinal plants here in Cascadia is Plantain. You can find plantain in your backyard and it is easy to mash up and turn into a poultice. To use: pplantainlace the poultice on minor burns, stings, small cuts, etc. and cover it with another leaf. It is full of antibacterial and anti inflammatory properties.

A great reference book for this region is “Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast (Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, and Alaska)” by Pojar and Mackinnon.

There are also great communities that practice these skills… Trackers Earth PDX even has a wild edibles talk coming up March 9th. Check out the group here: trackerspdx.com

Event here: http://trackerspdx.com/trackers-presents

backgrounds-1423865796-NEXT_graphic_journey_rainwaterharvesting_leafWater Collection: There are multiple ways to collect water using leaves and both require some patience and creativity.

  1. You can harvest rainwater by positioning large leaves so that they collect and drain water into a container. Stems placed in the container will leave more surface area available for water collection and the water will conveniently run down the stems into the container.
  2. You can distill water by taking advantage of the transpiration that occurs naturally all day, everyday. All you need is some clear plastic – a clear plastic garbage bag would work well. While still on the tree or bush, gather up a large amount of leaves and wrap the bag around them. Tie the bag closed around the stems, making sure not to break them (you want the leaves to stay alive). Then let them sit in the sun. Water will transpire and collect in the bag. Important: Collect water from plants you know are safe. For example, you don’t want to collect water from poison oak or plants sprayed with pesticides. Stick to plants you can identify as safe and have many leaves (the more leaves the more transpiration).debris-hut-17

Shelter: Shelter is something very important and also very comforting. A nice roof over your head is sometimes necessary to stay dry in this climate and it is also very comforting to be shaded from the sun and hidden from view. Leaves make great shingles and fine insulation. You might even think about setting up a water collection system with your shelter – keep yourself dry and hydrated!

It’s important to remember the value of the resources around you and to let your creativity flow. You can find most of what you need in our natural environment.

 

Survival Hacks – Fire good

You should know by now one of my favorite topics is fire. I believe it is the most important tool outside of what you carry. Being able to start a fire can be the difference between life and death or just simply make your life a lot more comfortable and tasty.

So let’s get started with my favorite fire hacks:

  • Empty toilet paper rolls stuffed with dryer lint: This is my favorite because of both its simplicity and thrift, it is completely free and way too easy to make, to not have one on hand. Simply collect the dryer lint from your dryer, if you use communal dryers you could collect everyone’s, then simple stuff it loosely into an empty toilet paper tube. You can also cut a paper towel tube in half and make two. These make excellent tinder.
  • Cotton balls smothered in petroleum jelly: Ok, this one isn’t free and uses new materials, but it really works well. Just like it sounds, take a few cotton balls and saturate them with petroleum jelly – I usually stuff them in an old pill bottle, but a film canister would work, too. Oh wait, we don’t have those anymore but you get the idea. This is also excellent tinder.
  • Tea lights: These are so cheap and light that you should carry a few and they have so many uses that I consider them indispensable. For example: they replace tinder with a self-sustaining mini fire.

Of course all of the above hacks assume you have a lighter or matches, they are not ways to make fire without the former, they are simply aids. Which gives me the idea – we should talk about how to start a fire without a match or lighter. Keep your eyes open for that in an upcoming post.

 

As always,

Stay Vigilant and Be Prepared

 

Survival Hacks – Know them, Love them, Use them

This week we are going to focus on survival hacks tips. Mostly simple things, but some more sophisticated. But all of them worthy of your attention and application. Some of the hacks will be valuable in your everyday life as well.

We don’t always need to shell out our hard-earned dollars for solutions to common needs. Some, actually quite a few of them can be met by repurposing normal everyday items that would otherwise be considered trash.

So keep your eyes peeled for this weeks post filled with useful hacks.

 

As always,

Stay Vigilant and Be Prepared

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