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Originally published on the Kamana on-line discussion group.
Last night I decided to put my survival skills to the test. I live in northern Alberta, Canada and right now we are in a wicked cold snap. The temperature this morning here at Baptiste Lake was -40 C(-40 F). I spent the night between a large fire and a big spruce tree root ball. Spruce trees have a shallow root system and when they grow in sphagnum bogs they have a tendency to blow over easily. When the root ball flips up it is shaped like a big flat pancake made up of dirt, duff and roots. It becomes the perfect quick shelter for anyone crazy enough to want to spend the night.
All day at work(teacher assistant) I was thinking about the opportunity to hit the woods in an extreme winter situation. I knew right away that I could pull it off as I have lot's of cold weather experience. The hardest part would be the physical effort required to get the shelter ready with a spruce bough bed and enough firewood to last through the night. Also I knew that I probably would only sleep very briefly between stoking the fire and turning over occasionally to warm my backside up. Besides all that, I had to be back at work the next day. I left the house at about 6:00 P.M. and it was already beginning to get dark. I was only wearing three layers of clothing including the wool clothes that I made from old wool blankets I bought from the thrift store. These clothes would keep me warm while moving however I would have to depend on the fire to keep me warm while sitting/sleeping. The area I had picked was almost exactly one mile(I used the Roman pacing method to determine walking distance) from the house. Trees were cracking and popping like rifle shots from the dropping temperature. It was beautiful, I was warm, and loving it.
I got to the area that I had picked and soon discovered that I had many different natural shelters to choose from. There were many uprooted spruce in this area so I just had to pick the one with the best orientation to the wind. It was about 7 feet high and about 15 feet wide. There was plenty of standing birch snags around for good firewood. Spruce was plentiful however it sparks badly and has caustic smoke.
I kicked the snow away for a place to build a spruce bough bed right at the base of the upturned root. A spot for a fire was cleared and I started a fire with flint and steel. Then I want about collecting a few arm length spruce boughs from each tree so as to not strip each tree completely. I picked roughly 9 armfuls of boughs to lay down on the ground to make my bed almost 1 foot thick. Cozy Wozy!
Then I went after fire wood. LOT'S of fire wood. Please remember that by this time it is full dark and there is no moon out. I am quite used to it as I have been building shelters in the dark more than in the day over the last few years because night is the only time I could get out into the woods. My wife and kids got to bed at 8:30 and off to the woods I go. I had taken a coffee can for tea, a knife, and a Swede saw to cut body length logs for the fire. I spent 1.5 hours collecting wood until I had a pile of body length logs almost as big as a small car. That is what it takes to get through a night, believe me, I've run out of wood on other bitterly cold nights.
I finally had a knee high, wall backed, parallel fire with many more logs laying on the ground above my head and below my feet that I could grab as I needed to add more wood to the fire. Basically the setup is: Spruce root ball-- then me laying on a spruce bough bed at the base of the root ball-- then about 2-3 feet away a huge-ass fire. This is what it takes to sleep in only your clothes when it is -40 below.
Sleep was broken up with fire maintenance and wonder at the fact that I was in this situation. Very cool. In this kind of weather if I was going to be out there for a few days, I would have changed my patterns to stay awake and maintain the fire all night while working on projects and then sleep during the day when the sun warms the Earth.
At roughly 5:00 A.M. I got up to leave. Put the fire out and walked back to my house as I had to leave for work by 8:00 A.M. When I got home the local radio station was broadcasting that school busses would not be running due to the cold. I phoned the radio station and told them where I spent the night and they thought I was crazy. They gave me an on air interview and I talked about the experience. Locally I am known as Nature Boy and I have taught many kids and adults in this area all about wilderness living and survival skills. So all the kids and parents who were listening to the radio to see if school was closed would have heard my story. I can't wait until Monday, Nature Boy will enjoy a bit of fame at school.
Thanks to Dale Kiselyk for sharing this story.
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