Sat, Jun 5 2010, Sun, Jun 6 2010 - Gary’s Survival Series #2 (View Original Event Details)
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For Gary’s Survival Series # 2 event, twelve of us headed to McCrae Lake north. The bugs greeted us as we parked just off the highway on an ATV trail. Most of us had our bug jackets handy. The rest improvised (check out the photo of the bride). Our plan is to hike west for about 6 km and get lost. We headed in about 100 meters and found our first yellow trail marker. The trail is not used very much, which makes it challenging at times. Along the way we can see signs of bear activities (poo and over turned rocks and moss). Over hill and across various streams and numerous beaver dams we arrived at Wasa Lake. We’re about 2 km east of Georgian Bay. Over about 1 km I dropped off the teams of 2 to survive the night. The teams are usually about 200 meters apart. Just far enough to be relatively isolated from each other. All the teams will have to build their rain proof shelter, collect water and purify it, collect wood and make a fire and generally survive the night. Two by two I drop the teams off in a location and record their GPS coordinate, so that on Sunday morning I can return and “un-lost” the teams.
Tamara and I are the last teaming and we head back to find a nice stop on the other side of the lake. It was a hot and sticky hike in our bug jackets so I wanted to find a nice site that we could go swimming at without wading through beaver pond mud.. It took a little searching and we found a great site on the other side of the lake. Rock access to the water. The wind was blowing so the bugs were under control. The sun was out so we decided the first priority was a swim. The water was nice.
Tamara brought, 3 large 177 liter garbage bags and some tuck tape (similar to duct tape but clearer and tinner). It worked well! We worked together and cut open 2 of the bags length wise and the third width wise. We shingle taped them together with tabs of tape on both sides. We strung up our nylon line to form our ridge line of our shelter. We attached 1 foot long cord to the plastic bags using an acorn and button knot arrangement (check out the photos). With some sticks and rocks we secured our waterproof roof. Inside the shelter we added small sticks and leaves to get us off the moss covered bedrock and covered it with our back packs and spare garbage bags to form our water resistant floor. Well it took us about an hour to complete the shelter.
In our exploration of our site we found an old canoe that was stashed in the woods by some fisherman?. Sorry no paddles. But a small piece of plywood might come in handy. Being an engineer and with Tamara’s small saw I made like a jigsaw and quickly fashioned 2 crude paddles out of an old piece of plywood. Let’s go and explore our “new lost world”. We headed to the swamp but quickly discovered this was hard work and returned to the deeper waters of our lake. Over an hour or 2 we observed beavers, a pair of loons, a Blue Heron, 2 abandon Osprey or Blue Heron nest, picture plant flowers and various other small birds. As we traversed the lake we ran into Tom & Klara and Ken & Grace and they were surviving quiet well. Ken and Tom also decided to try swimming out after our recommendation. Back at camp we had a small supper.
We made a nice small fire on the bedrock lookout and around 10 pm we climbed into our shelter to survive the night. I could here the rain started sometime in the middle of the night. The temperature dropped into the single digits and I had to put on my fleece hoody to stay toasty. Glooves and my bug jacket keep me safe from the black flies and mosquitoes. Tamara got here her space blanket out and that did the trick for her. Our secret cold weather survival tool was Misty. 80 pounds of heated fir, just add dog food. Sometime in the middle of the night we could here a wolf / coyote pack singing out.
7 am, well it’s morning. There is a light rain falling. Were bone dry in the shelter!. I wolf down a few snack bars from the breakfast food bag and I am off to “un-lost” the teams. The routine is we pick up the teams and ask them what worked and what did not work. Take a photo of their shelter and pick up the next team. By the last team we pack up the last shelter and return with everyone. More or less everyone sees what the other teams came up with in terms of shelters and fire pits. Check out the photos for all the different survival shelter photos.
The rain has finally stopped and we all go back to my camp for breakfast/lunch. After a good breakfast everyone is coming back to life. Just before 1pm we start our 6 km hike back out to the cars. The trail is easier to follow now with our stored GPS track to follow and we make it back to the cars in about 2 hours.
We drive down to Clearwater for an early supper and to square up all the carpool / trip cost details.
Another successful adventure! Look for Gary’s Survival Series #3 for our next adventure! See you all soon. Gary
Have some photos from this event that you'd like to share in our photo album? Please forward them to Erik Sonstenes at photos@torontooutdoorclub.com. Please note that we prefer to receive the photos in approximately 640x480 or 750x500 pixels - do NOT send original high-res photos. If you have a LOT of photos, please submit up to twenty of your favorites (only) for a day event, or up to forty of your favourites for a multi-day event. Thank you.