AKA: Four Days in the Bush With Dave Canterbury

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Dave’s pics of this weekend

Day 1 -

I had no idea what to expect. I had zero experience with Dave’s Pathfinder system and knowing that this was going to be and “advanced” class, I was actually a bit nervous. I was hoping that I could bluff my way through with the knowledge I already had from just growing up in the woods.

I had contacted him earlier about what to bring: “So, is there anything I should bring? Anything I shouldn’t bring?…” etc.

He tells me “Well this is an advanced class, we’ll be making just about everything we’ll be using, so the 5 C’s should just about do it.”

I thought, Great… WTF are the 5 C’s? So some research was in order. It turns out the 5 C’s are common everyday items that I carry all time as it is.

1. Cutting tool,(knife, machete etc) .
2. Combustion, (fire).
3. Cordage, (rope, twine etc).
4. Container, (something to cook in and store water in. It has to be metal so that you can actually stick in the fire).
5. Cover, (weather appropriate clothing and shelter: tent etc)

There are 5 additional C’s but those are just bonuses.

So, the day comes and I show up at our muster point, the Lake Quinault Lodge. I get there plenty early and there’s already one or two other guys there as well, though I had no idea that they were there for that and me being the introvert that I normally am, didn’t go around asking everyone “Are you here for the survival school?”

Soon enough though, a guy walks into the lodge and gathers us all up to head outside and muster up around the van and get our safety briefing. Here’s where my apprehension set in. Dave immediately said “Lose the food guys. Leave it all in your cars.” Awesome. I still wasn’t even sure of our final destination and had no idea of the resources we would have at hand. Since the description said it was in the Quinault, I had it in my head that we’d be up higher in the rain forest. At least there, I thought, I could get chantrelles and berries and such.

He continued on with the briefing: “You’re going to be hungry. You’re going to be thirsty. You’re going to be wet and tired. You are going to experience what it’s like being out in the wilderness with no grocery store down the road to run to when you’re hungry. If any of you have a problem with that, speak up now because it’s an hour and a half drive in there and nobody’s going to be too happy if you lose it and we have to haul you out of there.”

Holy crap, what am I doing?

We signed the liability waivers, piled into two vans and set off. About 20 miles down the road it turned to gravel. The van kept bottoming out and the brush encroached on the road, scraping down the sides of the van, tighter and tighter. We came to a bridge that looked like it was made from an old railroad flat-car. We crossed it and kept driving, eventually coming to the end of the drivable road. everyone piled out, gathered our packs and got ready to head out.

Dave gave another short briefing, pairing each of us up with another member of the class, explaining that having a partner in these situations helps maintain safety and the division of labor allows for more efficient use of time and resources. My partner for the weekend was a guy named Ken. He was from Longview, where I used to live, so we had that in common.

The general concensus of the entire group was that we had way more crap in our packs than we needed, but were still not prepared for what was coming. “Oh well,” I said, “I’d rather have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.”

Hiking down what was left of the old road we passed what was left of an old van that had fallen into a ditch and been abandoned. Ah, that’s why we parked at the top of the hill.

Soon the road turned to brushy overgrown trail. I was constantly on the lookout for resources and luckily there were salal berries fully ripe just lining the trail in spots. Shortly the trail opened up into a marshy looking area and then a large, flat sandy area which I figured, correctly, would be our new home for the next three and a half days.

We were told to get our camps set up and muster back up in about half an hour. Ken and I each brought hammocks so I set out for the tree-line to find the perfect spot. About 50 feet in there was an opening and trees spaced just far enough apart to accommodate us. We hung our hammocks and quickly made our way back to the main fire-pit.

Dave, Critt'r and Iris

Our first task. Dave explained that we are going to go by order of general priority in an emergency situation. First thing you need is fire. It can warm you, sterilize water, and overall, it’s a psychological boost that can help you make it through a stressful situation. Our task was to start primitive fire. No lighters, no magnesium/ferro rods, nothing but what you can find out here. That left the proverbial rubbing of sticks as our only option. There’s a couple ways to do this: Bow-drill, hand-drill and fire plow are the most common. Everyone went for the bow-drill option as it is the most reliable of the three. We were not allowed to do anything else until we started this fire.

As everyone scrambled to gather materials I took a moment to survey our area of operations. We were camped about 100 yards from the Pacific Ocean. There was a wide, slow moving river emptying into the ocean about 200 yards north. A large swampy marsh/estuary immediately inland and to the south was dense coniferous forest. At the mouth of the river was an island prominently marked with rock arches and a large tunnel in bisecting the main portion of it. It was a truly impressive area.

After I took it all in I gathered our needed supplies. A long flexible stick for the bow. A piece of paracord for the bowstring. A flat plank for the fireboard. A perfectly straight piece of wood for the spindle, and lastly, a fist sized rock with a dimple suitable to press down on the top of the spindle.

After carving the starting groove for the spindle, Ken and I set to work working that bow and spindle back and forth with all our might. I don’t know if any of you have ever started a fire this way, but it is not at all as easy as it seems. Some people got theirs going in as little as a half hour. Ken and I worked on it for probably 3 hours; sweat was pouring, my patience was rapidly waning, I was starting to get hungry.

Dave made an announcement: “Jason’s coming around with some food. It’s not much, but it’s some basic carbs to help you out.”

Cool, I couldn’t wait to see what it was… Jason came by our little operation and handed us a ziploc baggie with about a cup of uncooked rice in it. All I could think was, “Holy hell, you crafty bastards.” We needed fire.

Finally, after I would say about three and a half hours working at it, we got a viable little coal, dropped it carefully into the tinder bundle we so meticulously crafted, and started to gently blow. My heart lept when I saw that smoke growing. I blew and blew and before I knew it my fingers were burning in the flames. It felt so good. From this point on we could start fire by any means we wanted. Hello Bic.

Finally Fire

After the fire building came the next surprise. We needed to build a bowl from naturally found materials that could boil at least 16 ounces of water. For us that meant finding a piece of driftwood large enough to be burnt out in the style of a dug-out canoe, only a lot smaller.

We found the perfect piece of wood, brought it back to camp and began the hot, dirty process of putting coals on top of the wood, letting it burn a while, dumping it off and scraping away the charred wood. Over and over and over. It wasn’t so bad though, sitting by the fire visiting with all the new friends, getting to know each other because we were in this together.

Making the bowl

Simultaneously to everything else going on, we needed water. The river was tidal and even at the strongest part of the out-going tide it was too salty. The same with the marsh. We settled for a stagnant pool someone had found up in the woods. There was no discernable movement of the water, but we had spent so much energy, we needed hydration. The water hauling and boiling was an ongoing process. Each group had designated dirty and clean containers to avoid cross contamination, and eventually we outpaced ourselves and resorted to drinking the water fairly warm, before it had time to cool. It tasted nasty but it was very much needed.

Crit’r brought in a salmon and we roasted it in Native style: Stuck it on a stick with supporting cross-members.  It was delicious, but by no means filled us up.

Salmon on the fire

By this time it was getting late, everyone was shuffling off to bed so Ken and I followed suit. I put one last pile of coals and wood in our bowl, picked it up and used it as a torch to light our way back to the hammocks in the trees. I stoked it one more time as I hung my pack on a tree under the tarp, crawled into my sleeping bag and into the hammock. I was beat. I think I was asleep in about 2 minutes after getting situated.

Today was one hell of a trial by fire, if you know what I mean. Who the hell knew what the morning would bring. We would soon find out.

Read part two here