Sunday, January 08, 2012

Surviving the Elements (in a field trip)

This fall we took a survival field trip at the Chippewa Nature Center.   First we learned about compass work and how quickly you can get off course if you don't have a compass.
 I don't know if it was the fire building or the shelter building that was the more fun.   I helped Deborah's team get their shelter built.   Good thing we had two tarps and some rope in our "backpack".
 We had to create a shelter that would keep us dry and would house all the members of the team.
 Our "door" to our shelter
 The finished shelter.   Notice how we piled up lots of leaves to help keep out the wind at the bottom.
 Looking in through the door.   And yes, our whole team, including me, could fit in there.
 Aaron's team made a huge shelter that could shelter all three teams (as long as the wind didn't come from the east!).
 The outside view of Aaron's shelter.
 Now on to building fires!   Aaron and his partner set up the sticks in preparation for lighting.
 Deb was teammates with the only other girl in the group.   
And the girls win!   They got their fire going by only using 2 matches.
All of the boys really enjoyed building fires.
 Then we tried to make a fire without matches.
 Note:   Always bring emergency matches.   Otherwise you will die of cold!   Not one of us could even get a puff of smoke going.


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