Two things anyone who enjoys being outdoors should know how to make are fire and friendship bracelets.
At least those were the skills that came in handy Thursday when I found myself lost in a redwood grove practicing wilderness survival skills.
Well, OK, I wasn't really lost — definitely not in the way several people in the area have been recently. My wilderness was just off a beaten path in a not-too-deep forest less than a quarter mile from a busy paved road on the outskirts of Santa Cruz. It was no Mount Hood or Oregon wilderness or Castle Rock State Park. It wasn't freezing or dark, and I wasn't wondering how I would get back.
That was the point. We've all heard the recent stories about people getting stranded in the wilderness: the climbers lost on Mount Hood in Oregon, the man from San Francisco who died in the Oregon wilderness after trying to find help for his wife and children, the couple who got stuck in a ravine after walking to a waterfall in Castle Rock and the two local motocross riders who became disoriented while riding near Nevada City.
I wanted to make sure if I ever found myself in their place, I would at least feel like I had a chance of making it back home.
So I sought out Cliff Hodges. As the CEO of Adventure Out, a Santa Cruz company that offers a variety of outdoors classes including survival skills, I figured he could help me get a better handle on wilderness survival. I knew I had the right guy when the 27-year-old Santa Cruz High grad told me he sometimes goes camping for several days with nothing more than a knife, just for the fun of it.
Hodges wasn't going to be the kind to show me the best way to get cell phone reception in the wilderness. No, he wanted to go back to basics. He wanted to get indigenous.
"If you think about it, thousands of years ago people survived off the land," he said. "Now we have all this technology, so I have thousands of years to unteach. It can take a long time."
| The lesson started with what Hodges called the four essentials of outdoor survival: shelter, water, fire and food. They should be sought out in that order, he said, no matter how much your stomach complains. |
"Or, you're going to die from some other reason."
With my stomach already rumbling from skipping breakfast, I started to worry the end might be nearer than I thought.
But Hodges wouldn't have any cowering. Looking as confident as a boy scout and sounding as determined as Gloria Gaynor, he assured me that if I learn a few basic skills, I will survive.
"When it comes to survival skills, so much of it is, 'God, that's the easiest thing in the world, why didn't I think of that?' " he said.
He proved his point by showing me how to build a shelter.
We started with just one body-length arced branch, which we balanced against a tree. Then we leaned smaller branches against it, making it look like the rib cage of some dinosaur. A lattice of twigs made the next layer, which held up the bushels and bushels of leaves, moss and groundcover we tossed on top. The small room resembled a sleeping bag. Instead of an inch of down, though, we would need to pile on 6 to 10 feet of brush to get enough warmth.
Building it right, Hodges said, would normally take an entire day.
Next on our list of priorities was water. But since we didn't bring any purification tablets — and since I had a full Camelbak — Hodges said we were going to have to move on to fire. After all, the best way to purify water in the woods is to boil it by dropping hot rocks into it, and that's hard to do without fire.
I didn't argue. Starting a fire in the woods appealed to my inner pyromaniac.
But first, we needed to make cordage, a fancy word for rope.
Hodges grabbed three dried strands of grass and began to twist them until they formed a loop. Then, he twisted part of each individual strand and wrapped it around the loop between his fingers. The method seemed vaguely familiar, and Hodges confirmed my suspicion.
"To you and me, it's cordage," he said. "When I teach girl scouts, it's a friendship bracelet."
Just think what a nice present they would make for my would-be rescuers.
For now, though, the bracelet would serve as the string on my bow drill, which Hodges said is the best fire-starting device outside of a lighter or matches. I tied the bracelet to the bow, which was a sturdy arced branch as long as my inner arm. Then I used the bow to drill a spindle I had carved from cedar into a cedar plank. The friction creates smoke and ash, which burns a tuft of tinder placed under the base piece of cedar.
We then collected that tinder and carefully tucked it into a bigger piece. Then we huffed and we puffed and — poof — the tinder exploded into a flame right in my hand.
It was so cool, I almost wanted to really get lost, just to have a reason to try it again.
Almost. But come to think of it, maybe I'd better work on my friendship-bracelet building skills a little more.
Contact Julie Jag at jjag@santacruzsentinel.com.
Five survival essentials
There are five things Cliff Hodges of Adventure Out says you should carry with you to greatly improve your chances of surviving in the wilderness.
- GPS: The device goes against Hodges' teachings of indigenous survival skills, but he said it's almost impossible to get lost if you have one (and know how to use it) because it gets its information from satellites, not cell phone towers.
- Knife: Preferably a sturdy one. 'If I had only one tool, I'd want it to be a knife,' Hodges said.
- Matches/lighter: Starting a fire without one is possible, but it's not fast or easy. A lighter is preferable, especially in inclement weather.
- Rope: Sure you can make your own, but rope doesn't take much space and can also be good for tinder. A nylon cord works best.
- Water-purification tablets: You'll need water before food, and this way you won't have to purify it the hard way — by heating rocks, hollowing out a log pot and then dropping the hot rocks into the wooden water pot to boil the water.
If You Go
WHAT: Adventure Out survival skills class.
WHEN: 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jan. 28; classes also available Feb. 25 and March 18.
WHERE: Santa Cruz Mountains.
COST: $85.
DETAILS: E-mail survival@adventureout.com or visit www.adventureout.com.
