SSG: Spy/Spec-Ops Group discussion

Got any fave 'wilderness survival' books you trust?

(nonfiction)

None really, but most writing on wilderness survival these days is to be found in survival/paramilitary/militia/wannabe soldier (mercs) magazines. I have read a few of those magazines, out of curiosity, and much of the 'counsels' in them are hogwash that would make a Navy S.E.A.L. or Green Beret laugh his head off in derision.

You also have a number of 'wilderness survival' TV shows, especially on National Geographic Channel that pretend to teach the public about how to survive in nature, like 'Alaska Trappers' and 'Life Below Zero'. They do their best to make them look like real drama, but the stupid mistakes some of those 'experts' do are downright laughable (like when a trapper on a snowmobile is forced to abandon his broken machine on the trail and supposedly has to walk for two days in the middle of an Alaska Winter while bringing with him no backpack or sled, no food or water and only taking an axe from his snowmobile before starting his walk. Yeah, sure! Or the couple that go hunting for meat because they are out of it...while bringing their two year-old daughter with them but no tent or warm sleeping bag. Please, give me a break! You want to learn about survival? Then go see real experts, like Innuit trappers.

How bout the 1960s Boy Scout Handbook.
One of our scout leaders was a WWII Ranger, and he was always taking us out in the field, teaching us whats edible and whats not, how to make traps, fire, and most important not to panic and to keep your wits about you. He followed my Dad, and Grandfather, as being very influential in my younger and teen years.

The Foxfire books are pretty good as well.

The Boy Scout Handbook Sixth Edition

The Foxfire Book, Foxfire 2-3

Okay I will submit some of the titles I've read.

For example, I'm a big fan of George W. Sears (aka, 'Nessmuk'). Guy from the 1800s.

His classic, Woodcraft and Camping is beautiful, simple, and moreover authentic reading. The guy was not that tall (just 5'6") but he routinely tramped around--on foot--for hundreds of miles and weeks-on-end into the Mid-Atlantic region / Eastern US wilderness. And he was fearless when it came to canoeing. To hear tell of this guy, in his little canoe, paddling his way across Lake Superior at night during a thunderstorm, is just outrageous. He knew his canoe-manship.

But nevermind that. Sears' philosophy emphasizes not 'feats of derring-do', but instead, (he says) keep the focus on the fundaments. Building a fire, erecting a shelter, fishing, cooking over a fire. All while still bringing nothing with you into the woods but a small kit bag with fishing tackle, a hand-ax, and a few other odd-and-ends like salt or a tin-opener. What Nessmuk believes in is just entering the forest 'without a lot of fuss' and just enjoying it in the simplest way possible. He scorns people who 'make a big production' of a jaunt into the woods.

There's other, more up-to-date books but if you follow Nessmuk you can't go wrong. His techniques are also, very easy to remember--a big plus for this complicated age.

Feliks wrote: "Okay I will submit some of the titles I've read.

For example, I'm a big fan of George W. Sears (aka, 'Nessmuk'. Guy from the 1800s.

His book, [book:Woodcraft and Camping|1611489..."
Well said, same here when I go to the woods, I want to make a small footprint as possible, course I just hike, but the smaller the presence the better in my book.

another one which I admire is this: Finding Your Way Without Map or Compass by Harold Gatty. Written in the 1930s I believe. Gatty was the navigator to aviator Wiley Post when Post circumnavigated the globe, by airplane.

Gatty has a lot of material to offer but writes engagingly enough to make it a pleasant read. What he instructs you in are all the obscure, old-time, tried-and-true ways in which to 'get your bearings' in a confusing wild landscape.

He takes each in turn: arctic, arboreal, sub-arboreal, plains, desert, tropics. If you were wandering around on a moonless, pitch-black night--how could you find out what was around you? How would you know where it was safe to walk? What if everything was covered by sand or snow drifts? How would you know what direction you were facing, or if there were any danger ahead? These kinds of techniques. Pretty amazing. Simple rules of thumb.

What I was astounded by was just how sensitive plants are to sunlight and water, out-of-doors. It determines almost everything about them: the way they're shaped, the way they stand, where they grow, the way they tilt. They're incredible signposts.

Moss is on the north side of tree's if I remember correctly.
Its those litte clues you watch for.