My last story about taking weekend road trips across continents is rather tame in comparison to what I’m about to share with you.
Have you ever watched the television show Survivorman? If you haven’t, it features a guy who gets dropped in the wilderness in a remote part of the world with usually just the clothes on his back, fending elements of nature and scavenging for food. His journey is not only one of physical endurance, but he must keep his emotions in check during often-perilous situations. Lucky for him, he gets paid to survive.
Two friends of mine, Jay and Tim, decided, for fun, to challenge their own capabilities in the northern Ontario wilderness. Here is what I learned from them:
Kenneth: What kind of influence did the TV show Survivorman have on your decision to survive in the northern Ontario wilderness?
Tim: Shows like Survivorman and Bear Grylls got me energized to do the trip. My thinking went something like, “it seems cool on TV, it looks like fun and a bit of a challenge…I’m doing it.”.
Jay: Survivorman and Bear Grylls were certainly the two that inspired me. It looks easier on TV than it is in real life. It was definitely a “seemed like a good idea at the time” decision. This quote is from one of Bear Grylls books. It explains why we did this:
Kenneth: How did you prepare for your adventure?
Tim: Brainstormed a list of a bunch of survival items. Then systematically eliminated things from the list so that we were left with only a few basic things. We also, used Google Maps to try to find a suitable area. The criteria was that it had to be the
most remote place we could find within a 1.5 hour flight time and with a suitable take off and landing spot for a float plane.
Jay: A lot of time researching. Edible food, shelter techniques, fire starting. etc. It also took a while to find a remote site with a lake big enough to land a float plane on. It is amazing when you look on Google Earth how many roads and trails there are. We wanted to be sure we didn’t come anywhere near civilization.
Kenneth: Where did your adventure take place, how did you get there, and what were the sole items you took with you?
Tim: The location was north of Lake Huron but south of Sudbury [in Ontario, Canada].I think Jay may have the exact map coordinates. We got there by float plane.
Jay: we were north of Kilarney Provincial Park and south of Sudbury. We hired a float plane that took us from Lake Scugog. Cost was about $700.
We had the following:
- A map and compass with our start and finish location marked. The pilot had the co-ordinates.
- Compass
- Knife/multitool
- Some fishing line and a few small hooks
- Snare wire
- Metal water bottle
- Small camera
- Hunter orange hat for air rescue if needed
- Clothes on our back
Kenneth: How long did you survive in the wilderness, and what did you do to pass the time?
Tim: 4 days, 3 nights. Not quite Survivorman, but enough to make it a challenge. We actually didn’t have much time to “pass”…most of the time was spent bushwacking to get to our eventual destination, making camp, hunting/gathering what food we could eat (by far our best success was from fishing). It was truly a survival experience.
Jay: 4 long days and 3 even longer nights. It is hard to sleep and keep a fire going at the same time. We had no spare time, we walked all day and searched for food constantly.
Kenneth: Were there any particularly scary or challenging moments?
Tim: Other than the bear attack? (joking). The most challenging part was all the bushwacking we had to do…it was real tough slogging. I remember the toughest section was bushwacking through extremely dense bush (it took about a hour to make it through only a quarter km or maybe a half km) only to get through the bush and then be faced with a marsh that was at least 100 metres wide and we had to cross the marsh. Plenty of moments in the marsh that required extreme concentration in order to avoid getting a big soaker just before dusk (would be a terribly unpleasant night).
Jay: when the plane disappeared out of sight. It was never real scary but it was hard on the mind. It was definitely not for the weak minded. You need to stay focused and calm even when you are tired, wet, cold and hungry.
Tim holding the remains of a fish with Jay in the background.
Kenneth: What kind of impact did the experience have on your health?
Tim: I didn’t notice any impact. I may have dropped a pound or two but I didn’t notice it.
Jay: I felt sick for a few weeks. I threw up the first meal I ate and lost over 5 pounds. Other than that I was just tired.
Kenneth: Would you recommend others to try a similar survivor-type feat?
Tim: Absolutely! I won’t soon forget the experience…the challenge, the owls at night, the excitement of not knowing what is around the next corner. But please, and I can’t over emphasize this, do your homework, be smart about it and don’t make this your first experience out in the bush! Be sure to tell someone your expected route and timeframe and bring some form of reliable communications gear in case you run into trouble.
Jay: It was one of those moments where it sounds like a good idea at the time so you commit to it and then the plane disappears out of sight and you start to wonder…but by then it is too late. It sounds like more fun than it was but I have no regrets. It is a big confidence booster to have accomplished something like this. People used to survive off the land all the time but it is becoming a lost art. If I were to do it again I would stay in one location so that I could properly build a shelter and set traps for food. We had too much ground to cover during the day and left us no time to hunt/fish or make a proper shelter.
Kenneth: Jay and Tim, thanks so much for sharing your story with ZenQ!
