Fire & Shelter Overnight

This weekend I’m heading back to the Wilderness Awareness School for a fire and shelter building class.

Keeping warm and dry are two of the foremost priorities for wilderness survival. Learning to build your own fire by friction and shelter in the woods are also great fun. This new 24-hour NatureSkills weekend introduces both topics from a variety of perspectives. Participants should their own food including something to cook over the fire for dinner. Fire Topics: philosophy of fire-making; 5-minute fires; primitive fire-making methods (bow drill) collecting/harvesting fire materials. Shelter Topics: properties of natural materials for insulation; creating individual and group shelters, using fire inside shelters; and staying overnight in a shelter that you have constructed.

I’m looking forward to more bow-drill practice.

Despite the cold, wind, and rain we’ve been having the past week or so, Weather.com says I shouldn’t freeze my butt off – but a sleeping bag is on the gear list (I didn’t think it would be), so as long as I spend enough time waterproofing my shelter, I should be ok.