Hahaha...
This was really funny... XD
The other day I was in Drafting, as is usual, and the freshmen in that class were talking instead of working...
Well, as is usual, for them.
This conversation really got my attention, though. Heh.
There was this guy talking about what he did last summer and what his father does, working on his tree nursery. Apparently, they both went delivering trees all over the nation last year, when school was out.
Toward the east coast, however, my classmate started getting bored and asked to be dropped off at a campground for the next three or four days of the trip until his father made the round and came back to pick him up on the way home. His father said that was okay and let him get his stuff together and choose his food.
Wow. This story made me think of a city boy lost in the woods.
(And he was from N. Idaho? XD )
He expected the food he chose to last him at least until the third day. Not only did he "get bored" and eat it all in the first 24 hours, but this food was a bag containing a variety of smaller bags of chips.
Before he went camping, his father told him to go ahead and make sounds, like whistling and singing or talking loudly, so that he didn't find himself in a situation with a bear. Most people here take it to understanding that you do this when you're walking about and might frighten or surprise a bear.
Well, I guess he didn’t. Every night he was up there, as he fell asleep in his tent, he decided that he would keep the bears away by yelling into the dark until he fell asleep or his voice grew hoarse.
Ya' know, I bet that kept away anything within a mile radius. (Including fellow campers...) So maybe it worked after all?
Unless it attracted predators that thought he sounded like a dying animal… XD
The next day he became hungry and decided he should try to attain his own food. He tried catching fish in the water nearby... with his hands... and chased rabbits through the forest.
Bluntly said, he went hungry that evening.
The next day he got a bit luckier. He found a turtle.
(At least he didn't have to chase it.)
The mosquitoes and such are, of course, really annoying. But people who look into it can find natural ways of avoiding them. Apparently this kid read about one method in the book called
Hatchet. This book states the known fact that mosquitoes don't like smoke.
He decided that the best method of utilizing this was to strip and stand in the smoke by the fire, paying special attention to "smoke" each arm, leg, et cetera.
I told him, "Ya' know... that method works just fine with clothes
on..."His response was a thoughtful look about his face.
...
It's a good thing that he probably scared away all of the other possible campers with his screaming at night. Honestly, it might've looked like he was out there
dancing around that fire, naked, in the middle of the woods at night... which could be perceived in various ways. I think I would be concerned, to say the very least.
He was very fortunate that his father came early in the morning of the fourth day.
I suggested that he read up on survival and camping before his next go. Also, I told him that he should consider a journal for daily entries. He’d probably find that really entertaining when he becomes 70. XD
