Back in 1970 or 71, I took a young “disabled” friend named Billy on a week end “Survival Camp Out” after he had ask (begged) me several times. It was an interesting week end under the stars. Rules were that we could take a pack with bedroll, cook pot, fishing line & hooks and other line of choice, gun, and a knife.
I took a bedroll consisting of a light wool blanket and small pillow. No need for padding, I was young and tough then. Also took a .22 rifle and my pick of knives back in those days, a Buck Pathfinder & Barlow pocket knife.. I also took a 1 qt. Canteen, canteen cup, a 3 qt. iron cook pot, a small pkg. of instant coffee, and a Carbide light. I knew the cook pot wasn’t true “survival on nothing by a long shot” but also that it would be real nice. It was!
My friend had a rather large pack but the contents were secret. After opening it part of the contents proved to be a sleeping bag suitable for freezing weather!
The weather was suppose to be nice so I didn’t expect to need much in the way of weather protection except to construct a “lean to” because we do have Very Heavy Spring night dews here and waking up wet and clammy isn’t my idea of a “good morning.”
We drove out to a section of pretty woolly woods and parked my car in a secluded spot where it was somewhat camouflaged. Then off we went on foot.
We didn’t go real in the sticks but enough to satisfy my partner! Just a mile maybe.
First off I wanted to get a shelter set up as that would take the most energy of course and wanted to get it done before nightfall and get some hunting in. Oh, if only we had LED’s back in those days! Flashlights were not something to be relied on so the light of the day (or night) was a miner’s carbide lamp. You put calcium carbide in the bottom and water in the top. Then you turned a lever on top to adjust how fast the water dripped into the bottom to mix with the carbide and generate acetylene gas which was force out a little pinhole orifice in the middle of a shiny reflector. They made amazingly bright and reliable lights as compared to flashlights back then.
The one rule though on the carbide light was that it could not be used to start a fire. If it were For REAL survival, that would have been the easiest way going to start a fire. By the way. After you put the carbide and water in the lamp and set the water to drip, there is a spark wheel on the side of the reflector and you cup your hand over the reflector and then quickly drag it across the spark wheel and usually the lamp will POP on right away. Spark Wheel, think like a Zippo lighter wheel. Battery flashlights in those days weren’t a whole lot better than they were in the 50’s and a couple hours of good light was about all you could expect, so the carbide lamp was always my camping flashlight.
Getting the lean-to set up was also first priority as we would clear a “safe area” for the campfire.
It was fairly dry and I certainly didn’t want to be in the middle of a woods fire that I started myself!
There was a small water hole only about 100 ft. or so from the site I chose and I was able to cut some nice green Willow saplings for the Lean-To frame poles there. Got the frame made and although I could have used some of the nylon line I’d brought in my bag, I used some thin green fibrous vines I found growing down by the water hole to make it more “realistic.” They were very strong and also easy to work with and were easy to tie off closing the windings to lash the poles together with simple clove hitches. We cut and laid thin Willow saplings along the back side of the Lean-To from ground to top cross pole and then laid green pine boughs over them and had a nice comfortable “temporary” shelter.
I didn’t think the water hole was large enough to contain any “real fish” but there could have been a turtle around although I didn’t see any “slide marks” the snappers here always leave. Just for S&G’s threw in a fishing line with hook baited with worms that were easy to dig in the soft soil around the place. There was however a Real PRIZE all around one side of the water hole as for a food source! One whole side was growing thick in nice Cattails! They were both at the waters edge and into the water and were pretty easy to just pull up without having to dig them.
I pulled up a good supply of them, rinsed the roots off and carried em back to the campsite to be part of our future supper and then prepared to go hunting. What’s them cattails for Bill ask? Supper, later on. I gotta get going if I’m going to get any hunting in this evening and I might set a trap or two also. While gathering the materials for the Lean-To, I’d already gotten some tinder and a bit of firewood for our campfire. Billy ask, what am I suppose to do? YOU need to do something very important Bill! Gather us some firewood! We need firewood because I want enough to burn most of the night and don’t want to have to go look for firewood first thing in the morning before breakfast ya know! OK Jim! I’ll get the firewood!
I left him and set off with the .22 rifle and some line that I thought I might use to make a trap or two. Found a couple rabbit runs but they didn’t look like they’d been used in a long time. Thought, “what have I got to loose but a few minutes” and set a couple quick snares with my very limited knowledge of snaring back then. Didn’t know if a rabbit would be able to kick its way out of the nylon line snare I’d made or not but put it up. All my rabbit trapping had been with box traps. Found what looked like a good place for squirrels with some not to old cuttings on the ground under a Hickory nut tree but didn’t see any squirrels and it was a little early for them to be coming in anyway. Kept walking and found both some pepper grass and wild onions and stuffed my pockets.
Then I saw something! It was moving in the weeds and I didn’t know if it had seen me yet and I didn’t know what it was either, just weeds moving! I crouched and stayed as motionless as possible with rifle ready. A couple minutes or so passed and then it poked its head out of the weeds looking towards me. It was a coal black Skunk! I kept the rifle front sight on its nose and it just stared at me from maybe 50 feet away. Then it turned its head and when its lung lined up with my front sight I squeezed the trigger. That is the trick to shooting skunks head or heart shot and the skunks sprays every time but a lung shot skunk most of the time will die without spraying. The thing did what skunk almost always do and rolled on his side. Now, had this been a REAL Survival situation, I would not hesitate in the slightest to eat that skunk!! No sirreee! There just like rabbits to taste and once skinned ya can’t tell em apart if their tails are cut off. I shot it for two reasons though. 1. To see what Billy would do and 2. Those things are hell on duck nest. One skunk can pretty well wipe out all the ducks nest around a small pond! They love to eat eggs, especially Duck eggs! I figured I just helped out the area duck population immensely there. I left the skunk lay and stuck a stick I cut off with some leaves on top into the ground in those weeds as I “Wanted!” that skunk on the way back, hehehe.
Kept walking and then I saw something promising for a kill. Nothing there at the moment but a nice fresh clean out on a ground hog hole! I eased back in the weeds and waited till the light was getting dim but no sign of Mr. Groundhog so I checked the area for a good place to sit for a morning hunt and started back towards the Hickory tree to check for squirrel activity. It was a bit later than I had thought and by the time I got there I didn’t have but a few minutes to stay and didn’t see anything of a squirrel so headed on back to camp carrying the Black skunk prize!
I kinda sneaked into the camp area and had to hold myself in to keep from laughing out loud. We needed “some” firewood and Billy had done his job for sure! He was still a crackin and poppin dry wood and dragging it in and there was a pile already there probably three times the size of the Lean-To! One thing for sure, we won’t be running out of firewood! At that time I “fast walked” towards camp with rifle in hand and Black skunk in the other holding it by its tail.
Soon as Bill spied that cat he started hollerin, I AIN’T EATIN THAT!! I AIN’T EATIN THAT DAMN THING!! YOU SAID YOU WERE GOIN HUNTIN BUT I AIN’T EATIN NO BLACK skunk!!! THEN I couldn’t hold it in any longer and did bust out belly laughing!
Well Bill, YOU said you wanted to go on a “Survival Camp!” I don’t care, I ain’t eatin no damn black skunk. I brought this just in case! He reached in his pack and pulled out a big can of pork & beans! No, No, Bill, we aren’t eatin the skunk. I just shot it cause they wipe out all the duck eggs and I was a funnin with ya. I am gonna go rebait the hooks with part of it though and then put it out on the other side for the coyotes to eat. Figured a nice chunk of skunk thigh on each hook would be better turtle bait than the worms and then I put the skunk out for the coyotes, which by the way we heard “singing” later on in the night.
Now Bill, I gotta get the fire started and then I’ll show ya what we’re gonna eat “tonight” and you put them pork & beans back in your pack! I had also found a couple pieces of flint rock along the walk where I’d been near the groundhog hole. They tell me flint isn’t native to this part of the country but the Indian’s carried it all in here to make arrow heads, spear heads & tools. They sure must have carried in a LOT of it as much as lays around! Now a Buck Pathfinder is made out of some kinda stainless steel that won’t spark but my old Barlow had high carbon blades and the back of those blades would produce a spark when struck with a sharp flint edge. I shaved a small handful of tinder from a very dead dry branch by scraping the knife edge along it, not cutting into it. Then cut into it to fuzz up a few little twigs and showed Bill how to stack em and then put the fuzz tinder into a small hole in the fuzzy curled sticks & now hoped for the best! Striking the back of the knife blade again and again proved enough to work up a sweat bent over there and it was almost getting dark enough to see a spark when there must have been one because there was a hint of smoke in the fuzz. Blowing ever so gently into it, the smoke became more and there was a little spot soon about the size of the end of a cigarette and then “poof” FLAME! We had a fire! No danger of running out of firewood either thanks to Bill, hahaha.
Suddenly Bill reaches into his pack again and pulled out a book of paper matches wrapped up in either waxed paper or something. He says, “I brought these just in case!” I didn’t know if ya could REALLY make a fire like that or not and I wasn’t takin no chances so I brought these just in case! THAT time I could not hold back the laughter = BILL!
Well we got a lean-to and very large amount of cattail roots, wild onions and pepper grass and a nice fire going. Time to cook the first “survival supper.” Peeled the cattail roots all the while Billy is carefully watchin. Hmmm, never heard a eatin cattails before. Ya sure they ain’t poison? Ya, Bill, there fine. They will be anyway, soon as we get em cooked up with these wild onions. We need some fat & protein to go with this but this is what its gonna have to be here tonight. Saved the canteen of water we each brought with us for drinking and got some water from the hole where the cattails were growing to fill the cookpot and set up a pot holder with a couple nonporous rocks and got them going along with some chopped wild onions. I still remember they smelled pretty good and Bill thought so also.
After they cooked till tender I ask him if he wanted to eat em in chunks like they were or like “mashed taters” & he thought maybe they would be better mashed so I started at them with my fork and the end of a clean stick I had cut to make a stirring stick to cook with & got them pretty well mashed up. Soon we had our meal for the night and with a bit of the pepper grass sprinkled around on it and mixed in it was pretty good. Not that we were starving or anything being the first night but he thought it was a really Great Survival Meal for us, hahaaa.
Sat around talking for a while and looking at the beautiful sky then decided it was time to turn in as I wanted to be up very early and off on the morning hunt for ole Mr. Groundhog. When it was starting to get light I got up and stirred the embers from the fire and there were still plenty to get a fire going real easy. Just added a few twigs and gently blew on them and they popped into a blaze right away. It was really nice for this “Survival Camp” that we were having such beautiful weather, hahaha. A nice miserable downpour would have changed the situation for sure!
On with the hot water as I wanted a cup of hot coffee and brush my teeth before heading out.
I did bring my toothbrush as there were no rules against that but in lieu of it any good hardwood stick would work fine, just takes a little longer.
I took off with the rifle and told Bill that he should go pull & dig some more cattail roots as I was pretty sure they were gonna be needed. If you see some of those wild onions, grab a pocket full also and I’ll look for more where I found those yesterday.
I got to the hickory nut tree early enough and waited for a squirrel to show but had no luck there. I did however find some nuts that had over wintered and still seemed to be in good shape and stuffed my pockets with all I could find. Good fat source there!
When I got close to the groundhog den I started crawling till I got to a position where I could see the hole and wasn’t more than 50 feet from it and to my advantage the sun was rising to my back putting it in ole groundhogs eyes “IF” he showed. I had a pretty good feeling about it though from the looks of the fresh clawed dirt around the hole yesterday where he’d been cleaning house. I’m laying there intently eyeing the hole and notice that these “weeds” I’m looking through are wild carrots! People call em Queen Ann’s Lace I think but there wild carrots and later on I’m gonna check if they wintered well which they should have in this protected area. Not taking any chances of moving NOW for sure though!
I bet it wasn’t 15 minutes when ole groundhog poked his head up out of the hole real sleepy eyed and surveying the area. His head wasn’t very big which was a good thing also. They get pretty tough with age. About another 3—4 min. And he’s out of his hole and ambles down a path diagonal to my line of sight. About 20 ft. Out of the hole he decided its a good place to lay down and absorb some of that warm sun before going out for breakfast. I let him lay there for a few minutes and carefully raised the old Remington pump into sight and then let out a low whistle.
Immediately he sat straight up and I didn’t give him any chance to take off for the hole before squeezing the trigger. Pop, he rolled over sideways and started to get up & then just quivered a little bit and stopped moving. I had already pumped another round into the chamber but it wasn’t needed. The hollow point had entered his ear and didn’t exit the other side of his head. Their tough critters but the little .22 hollow point had done its job and scrambled his brains for him.
I went ahead and gutted him right there and left that smelly mess for the “yotes.” Groundhogs do smell right bad when guttin, or to my smeller anyway. Now I checked those wild carrots and sure nuff, they were mostly ok so I got a nice pocket full of em from the soft sandy soil and headed back to camp. Hey Bill! We’re gonna EAT now!
Tell ya what! You take these nuts and get a couple rocks not big nuff that ya smash em and be careful and crack em open. I’m hopin they ain’t to dried out yet but won’t know till ya do that ok. Well that made him happy as a possum in a duck egg nest and he was real careful not to damage them and they were still plenty good. Had a small handful so we split them as there wasn’t any breakfast = TILL I saw that empty can of Pork & Beans! BILL!! You fudged. What ELSE you got in there? Nuthin, really, nuthin! Them was it but I was hungry and didn’t know if ya was gonna get anything.
I skinned out the hog and cut up the hams for the stew pot. By now Bill knew how to peel out the cattail roots so he was doing that while I scraped the carrots and we got it all in the pot with the onions and went to the water hole to get some more which was easier now that we had an EMPTY pork & beans can to carry with! I took the forelegs and back & strung them on sharpened sticks and slowly roasted them by coals scraped aside from the fire while Bill kept adding wood which he was really good at. Ya know Bill, your gonna have to get some more wood for tonight the way your feeding that fire. Dat’s ok, I know where there is plenty over there where a big ole tree fell over. GOOD! Slowly finishing off the nuts and having another cup of coffee while the young hog roasted we sat there and talked about “how exciting” this is :-)
The groundhog was young enough to roast well and we had a real nice mid day lunch of the legs and doing lots of hand picking all the meat off the backstrap and little pieces in the shoulder & ribs. The stew pot slowly cooking was for a real survival man’s supper:-)
Bill did gather more wood and after he had a pile large enough for me to say Enough, we went on a close to camp hike and I showed him some edible plants and even found a couple morel mushrooms but they were to dried up to eat by now. Found coon, possum, coyote & groundhog tracks. All but the groundhog tracks were very close to a tiny stream running through the woods where we also saw the “wrong” kinda snake but left it be. A Copperhead. The day seemed to fly by as he was having so much fun. Then came supper time and we dished into the stew with our canteen cups and Bill thought that was one of the best meals he’d ever had! Still remember him sayin “MAN This is GOOD!” Night came soon and sleep came fast that night as we laid there and watched the sky for shooting stars and listening to the yotes sing. Come morning we had what was left of the stew for breakfast and then sadly had to head out. We stirred the ashes of the fire out thin and then carried several pork & bean can & canteen cups of water from the hole to make sure it was dead out before leaving. Rolled up our 2 fishin lines while getting water and stowed them in the pack.
Getting back to the car and heading out, I don’t think Bill quit talking for a single breath all the way home! Man Jim, THAT was the BEST Survival Camp I’ve ever been on! :-)
Never regret that weekend. For “HIM” that weekend HE was like Jerimiah Johnson, haha :-)
I was SO SHOCKED when I seen him in the hospital 35 years later and first thing he ask “You remember that Survival Camping Trip you took me on? Time WELL SPENT!
Blue Skies aka Mingo, IN
