The purpose of this trip was to practice the skills presented in Hood's Woods "Woodsmaster" video series.  The first 5 videos in the series cover Fire Making, Shelters, your Survival Kit, Navigation, and Trapping.  This trip was also filmed, and an instructional video "Survival Camping" should soon be available.

(You can find more information about survival skills at Hood's Woods' web site:   http://www.survival.com.   Follow the links to purchase the videos, or find out about recommended knives and equipment.  The site is big, and both entertaining and very informative.)

We met and spent one night at a campsite to get our gear together, and mark up some maps of the area where we were going to travel.  We then traveled to the trailhead, and departed.   While we're at it, here's a look at the perfect mode of transportation in those Idaho hills.   

Here we are before hitting the trail...  Nice, clean, shiny faces, and shirts.

Travel was a challenge.  The meadows were swampy, and the hills were often steep and covered with blown down trees.  Here are a few shots of the group on the trail...

Ron & Karen's new dog, Nichi, was on her first trip.  She is only about one year old...  Here she collapses during a rest break, and one of the students dribbles water into her mouth.  She wouldn't even get up for that.   

On the second day, we had a class in navigation, and hit the trail.  A couple of folks filled their water bottles in the river and did not use any purification.  Their comment...  "Well, it's not as if there are any carcasses in it!"  Famous last words...

1/2 mile up stream, we found this dead cow elk in the river.  

Funny thing... they emptied their water bottles, and went up stream for some more.  ;-)

We drug the thing out, skinned it, and salvaged some sinew as well.  A couple of the folks utilized the rawhide for projects.  

These next three are of custom knife maker Rob Simonich using his SRT.  This blade was hands-down, the best chopper of the group.  Rob makes outstanding knives, and has a two year waiting list.  Several of the students had at least one of Rob's knives.  I bought this one.

(Check out Rob Simonich's web site:  http://www.simonichknives.com  for some knives of extraordinary quality.)

This next one is the ATAX, a wilderness survival tool especially designed by Ron Hood.  We were putting it through its paces on this trip, to see if there were any more changes to be made before it goes into production.  It was a tremendous performer.  It handily chopped the head from the carcass, and split the skull in an attempt to use the brains for tanning the hide.  Unfortunately, the decay process was too far along.   Here, he has cut the ivory teeth out of the elk.  

Here, Ron lashes a handle onto the ATAX to make an ax.  This is a really versatile tool.   

More skinning...  

Washing the hide... 

Wringing out the water...

Some of the projects the students worked on...  

The drum uses a piece of the rawhide from the elk.  The piece in this pic was slightly flawed, and he had to make a smaller version, but this is a good look at the type of hoop he used.  

Here one student fashions a spoon from a piece of pine.  He whittled the handle and the bottom of the bowl, then burned out the inside of the bowl by placing a coal there, and blowing on it through a piece of surgical tubing, which is part of the survival kit.  It worked quite well, and saves a ton of scraping with a knife.   

We foraged one day, and found an old cowboy camp.  With the junk they left behind, we were able to make a primitive forge.  With the knowledge contained only in Volume 9 of the Woodsmaster Series, we were able to begin the process of making tools... From there, we could have moved on to knives and other implements.  A really good knowledge base to have in a primitive, survival situation.

The bellows, which was made out of a trash bag.  

The forge itself, made out of a pot we found.  We used old elk bones for the air to blow through, and a pant leg which collapsed, and prevented hot air from coming back into the bellows.   

Working a horseshoe we found.  The rock was the anvil, we used a billet made from a pine tree as a hammer, and a fencing tool to hold it.  

Rob baking some bannock on the fire, using a grill we found with the pot.  (Arrrgh!!!  He's using my knife as a spatula!)

Some of us tried our hand at trapping, and worked the ground squirrel colonies over pretty well.   The tool...  

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The trap...

Some Blue Camus bulbs...  

And the final result...  

With some beef bullion flavoring, it made a pretty tasty stew.  Here is the flower of the Blue Camus...  The meadows were full of them, and in many places there was wild onion, and thistle as well.

And speaking of food, you will get a kick out of this one.  Take a bunch of black ants, roast them until dry, grind them up into a powder and then use them to sweeten your herb teas.  Yummy...   

Here are some of the scenic views we were privileged to have.  The photos really do not do them justice.  The blue patches out there are mostly Blue Camus... The only way a person could starve would be if they just refused to eat.   

Sheltering was important to us, the temperatures got down as low as 19 degrees F.  One night it rained.  Here are some of the versions of shelters the folks made.  Tarps and poly plastic sheets were utilized.   

Walking out of the last camp site...  The "dry" lake is somewhere over that peak... really, it is there.    

One of the cowboy stashes we found.  We used some stuff, we left some stuff.  This one was a bit more elaborate than some of the others, they put some work into it by lashing up a pole to hang stuff from, etc.   

PROJECTS:

The makings of pine pitch glue, a strong wilderness adhesive.  Elk dung, pine pitch, and a cast off can.  

The final results of Eric's drum project!  You could not tell it was not made by a primitive.  Well, maybe it was!   

The Sweat Lodge:  Some of us made a sauna out in the meadow, and had a refreshing sweat and roll in the cold stream.  

In the last pic, you can see where we built a small deflector to channel cool water into the little pool.  Can't have that water heating up, ya know!

RadioRay sends one of the early morning reports from the field.  His entire radio was contained in that little box in his lap.  Pretty cool...   

KNIVES:

Jungle Jim sharpens a stake, using his "Battle Mistress"...  

Steve... a successful trapper, at last!    

Using a Rob Simonich "Kanji" to skin a squirrel.   

A link to the ATAX...   http://www.survival.com/atax.htm

COMING OUT:

A light taste of the brush the first group beat through...  

These are not grins, they are grimaces.  Everyone's thinking, "As soon as we can get these dumb pictures over with, I can get away from this stinking person and get a shower!!"

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And a final comment on the week.  

Well, that's about the end of it...  Hope there was not too much to absorb.  

Bill