Wilderness survival with no supplies

I've always had a primal urge to try to survive in the wilderness for at least one night, but hopefully more like a week or more with absolutely nothing, maybe not even clothes. After reading some Tom Brown, Jr. I was encouraged that it is actually possible. Break a sharp rock for a knife; make cord out of plant fibers for snares and other things; make fire with a hand drill, or bow drill; build a shelter out of logs, pine boughs, etc.

I'm wondering if anyone has ever done this or know anyone who has. Or if you have done wilderness survival, what is the least amount of stuff you had with? I realize that location and season would play a big role in whether this would even be possible. Curious to see your replies!

Edit: I have quite a bit of knowledge of wild edible plants and mushrooms. I have harvested deer and squirrels. My main curiosity is knowing how to harvest and cook these things and make a shelter and gather/boil water using only tools you acquire/create out there. And if anyone actually has first or second hand experience with it.
 

I have not done this, but back in the early 1960s there was an informal group in southern Illinois that would take turns dropping one another off in the Shawnee National Forest on a Friday night and doing the pick up on Sunday evening. They would be dropped off without supplies.

Wargeh Bushcraft
Emergency shelter, cooking etc. & always w his dog!
No talking.
Love his vids.
Any weather, any season.

https://youtu.be/qEpJbQ5p_f0

Tom Brown proves that this is certainly possible, but then he has been doing it his entire life and has the extremely broad skill set to pull it off.

I have always had the same interest and have worked on some of the skills necessary but haven't been able to practice any of them enough to go out for a week (though I might do it if I took a fall-back kit with me).

Some of the skills I have or need to work on are fire starting, identifying types of tinder, making a fire drill, identifying rocks that could create a spark, making cordage for the drill, making a cutting tool sufficient to create the drill board, etc. It is really a sequence of skills, many of which have predecessor skills required as this list shows. I'd encourage practice, practice, practice if you don't have these mastered.

Same for making traps, identifying wild edibles in your region, making fish traps or trotlines, etc. for food sources.

Are you concerned about purifying water? That's another area where any head knowledge I have has NOT been translated into practiced skills.

There are just so many aspects to this. I wish like anything that I had had a "grandfather" to teach me these skills when I was a child, like Brown did, and the opportunity to grow up practicing them far more regularly than I did. My family thought I was weird enough even from the little I did.

If this was something that I really wanted to do, I would start with learning how to make a fire when I have nothing.

Most people probably can practice on their own tiny urban lot or their land if they have some.

I guess next to a fire, water is important, maybe more than fire.  I would practice skills getting water with no tools.

I feel next I would want to learn to make a snare which would provide food.

It seems with these three skills a person might be able to survive in the wilderness.

I can't do any of these, except maybe looking for dew on leaves though not with today's drought.

Sam Benson wrote:
I'm wondering if anyone has ever done this or know anyone who has. Or if you have done wilderness survival, what is the least amount of stuff you had with? I realize that location and season would play a big role in whether this would even be possible. Curious to see your replies!

Surviving in the wilderness for one night isn't exactly challenging unless you're in an environment with extreme cold. You're just living off stored body fat. The real question is whether you can forage or catch enough calories to not eventually starve and to keep your strength up for multiple days.


I've experimented with eating various different plants that can be foraged, even tried eating large quantities of them.  Here are some of the best sources of food.  Everything on this list should be boiled and leached. Leaching means you change the water at least once to remove bitter flavors etc.)

Cottonwood leaves (high in protein. I've eaten up to about 2 cups of cottonwood leaves at a time, which cause very mild heart palpitations for me. For this reason I don't exceed this amount. Generally considered edible. Use caution and start with a small amount. )
Old Man's beard (high in calories. Requires extensive leaching for 1-2 hours and changes of water to get the bitterness out)
Pine bark (just the edible, soft inner portion. Not the woody part. Not  all species are considered edible)
Miner's lettuce (seasonal, regional)
Fresh Maple leaves (broadleaf maple is what I've eaten. Not all species considered edible. Wilted maple leaves are poisonous)
acorns

Now whether or not you can actually live on this, and how comfortably/satiated you'll be, is somewhat of an open question. I've done some experimenting and found that this things actually can make the hunger go away for a matter of hours or half a day. I'll admit I sometimes caved at the end of the day due to lack of willpower. It takes time and patience, you need to start thinking about your meal hours before you're hungry because all this stuff must be boiled. Eat before you're even hungry because it takes a while for the calories to digest.

Either way this kind of diet is at best a starvation diet. There are few indigenous cultures on Earth that have ever survived on any sort of exclusively vegetarian diet. One particular Native American tribe did eat pine bark as an actual dietary staple, and were ridiculed for it by their neighbors. Most indigenous tribes and cultures around the world certainly preferred to include meat in their diets and don't actually live on this sort of food.

For this to ever work you must consume large portions of everything, up to what you can stomach. Just keep eating. Eat as soon as your stomach isn't full, before you're even hungry. Most of what you're eating is fiber that will just pass through. What you do digest will take hours to give you energy. With borderline edibles you must mix stuff up so you're not eating too much of any one plant source.

Unfortunately, I had to travel for work and am still travelling at this time. I was never able to finish my experiment with trying to live on this sort of food. I will post updates when I'm able to. I hope this serves as a starting point and provides some options to explore edibles and this possibility. I think you could at least survive on various boiled plant leaves and bark.

Long ago I ginned up a challenge for Emergency Preparedness that a family, individual, or couple can do at home to see what they REALLY need even in a home environment for survival.

I know you're talking about "wilderness", however, this is as close as most people would come to a situation like that - unless the whole infrastructure collapses. This gives a person a wake-up call as to what life would be like in that situation.

See and dowNload my CHALLENGE INSTRUCTIONS file below in a PDF format.

Nathan Watson wrote:Surviving in the wilderness for one night isn't exactly challenging unless you're in an environment with extreme cold. You're just living off stored body fat. The real question is whether you can forage or catch enough calories to not eventually starve and to keep your strength up for multiple days.

Most of what I've read about people being "lost" supports this. If it's a matter of 2 days until rescue, that's pretty much what people do.

Consider that most places consider it illegal to "relocate" a problem animal, like raccoon which are both smart  and fairly resilient. Why? Because if they're dumped in an unfamiliar place, they don't know where the food and water sources are, and may be harassed by locals who consider the area their territory. The consensus seemed to be that the majority of animals that get relocated, die rather than successfully integrating.

So what does that mean:
It means knowing a lot about the eco system you're going to be surviving in.
It means knowing key skills and practicing them regularly so you don't forget little steps that might be critical.
It means knowing oneself, and being realistic. For example, I get cold really easily, and don't warm up quickly - that's a serious weak link in this sort of situation.

That said, many adults and children have been lost - sometimes as long as a week - and survived. It can and has been done, but personally, I'd prefer to plan a wilderness adventure with my handy first aid kit, my knife in my pocket and a quality map! My family would also, as they'd like me back at the end!

I have spent hundreds of nights in the bush with proper equipment which I really enjoy.  I have spent three nights in the bush with very minimal equipment.  Twice because of delays while hiking and the other time because I crashed a plane.  I always say: a good survival kit is the difference between an unexpected camping trip and a truly miserable night in the bush.

All that being said, I have often wondered about the same thing as the OP.  How doable it is, would really depend on your location, season, and relevant experience.  There are a lot of variables.  In any case it would be a lot of work.

One thing to consider that is often not thought of, is how being completely alone impacts your mental state.  I often hike or hunt alone and have found that there is a period of time, for me, starting on the second day and lasting 12-36 hours where it messes with my head to be completely alone in the wilderness.  After that I am good.  I would encourage anyone who wants to try surviving in the bush to first learn how to be alone in the bush with good equipment.  That way you're not trying to learn both at the same time.

Hi Time,

In the 90s I got into desert hiking, solo.   I agree, there is a mental adjustment period when one is alone.

Anne Miller wrote:If this was something that I really wanted to do, I would start with learning how to make a fire when I have nothing.

Most people probably can practice on their own tiny urban lot or their land if they have some.

Anne is right on the money with this.  I'll admit to always having a knife and something to start a fire with, but I've spent many hours practicing building a fire on my land when it's rainy, wet, and miserable, as well as when it's -25F.  Most anyone can build a fire when it's 65F and sunny and everything is dry.  Then again, who needs a fire when it's 65F and sunny?  It's an entirely different experience if you are freezing, tired, it's too dark to see, and you can't feel your hands.  You know, the kind of situation you will be in if you really need to do it.  I would practice this with a lighter first, then a fire starter, and get very good at both before I even attempted to do it with nothing.

Water or shelter is next, depending on the situation.  You can go a day or two without water if you have to.  You can be dead far faster than that without shelter in some cases, but at any rate, knowing those two things comes next.

Food is last, but necessary.  I've done the survival thing with only the standbys I mentioned, a knife and a fire starter of some sorts, but I've never done it long enough that food was a major concern.  Nathan mentioned foraging to eat.  I believe it may be necessary, and I believe you will starve to death fairly quickly if you have to rely on it.  In my mind game is the only answer, and as I said, I've never tried it long enough that that became a factor, and never killed anything while I was practicing any of these things.

With no equipment whatsoever?  I don't know that it can be done for any length of time.  If I'm being honest, I know I couldn't do it, and I'm fairly industrious.  

Trace, you bring up so good suggestions that I didn't think of.

Once a person masters those skills then ...

Try my suggestions under adverse conditions.

I didn't mention shelter which during a rain storm might make a big difference.

Thanks for the insights! I surely won't be wandering off into the woods naked without first mastering the skills to stay alive. I find it difficult to pull away from the trappings and obligations of modern life long enough to make any progress in the world of wilderness survival. Hopefully I'll have that chance someday, and extra hopefully that is by my own choice. When I was younger I desperately wanted to go to Tom Browns Jr.'s Tracker School, but simply couldn't afford it. Now that I have the money, I can't get away long enough to go! Oh life and it's ironies.

Tim Siemens wrote:I have spent hundreds of nights in the bush with proper equipment which I really enjoy.  I have spent three nights in the bush with very minimal equipment.  Twice because of delays while hiking and the other time because I crashed a plane.  I always say: a good survival kit is the difference between an unexpected camping trip and a truly miserable night in the bush.

All that being said, I have often wondered about the same thing as the OP.  How doable it is, would really depend on your location, season, and relevant experience.  There are a lot of variables.  In any case it would be a lot of work.

One thing to consider that is often not thought of, is how being completely alone impacts your mental state.  I often hike or hunt alone and have found that there is a period of time, for me, starting on the second day and lasting 12-36 hours where it messes with my head to be completely alone in the wilderness.  After that I am good.  I would encourage anyone who wants to try surviving in the bush to first learn how to be alone in the bush with good equipment.  That way you're not trying to learn both at the same time.

Intriguing reply! And great advice! I'm curious, do you still fly? What kind of plane did you crash and where and how did it happen? Did you have passengers? Were you injured? I have a lot of questions haha. I'm strongly considering trying to obtain a private pilot license and have been lightly studying informally for years, and heavily for about a year, which is why I'm so interested.  

Sam Benson wrote: I find it difficult to pull away from the trappings and obligations of modern life long enough to make any progress in the world of wilderness survival.

I thought of one more thing that can be learned and practiced even while in cities, and that is plant/tree identification. Being able to identify plant families and specifics is the first step to safely identifying wild plant foods. You start to recognize similar patterns - like what mint-family blooms look like, or certain berry family blooms. Even in a formal garden, you can learn how that simple picture for identifying the "Parts of a Flower" goes quite out the window when Mother Nature starts getting creative!

Personally, I really need to find a good book about identifying trees. I've learned several of my local trees that have distinct leaves, but I'm total crap with bark. Suggestions anyone for good tree ID learning tools?

Jay Angler wrote:

Sam Benson wrote: I find it difficult to pull away from the trappings and obligations of modern life long enough to make any progress in the world of wilderness survival.

I thought of one more thing that can be learned and practiced even while in cities, and that is plant/tree identification. Being able to identify plant families and specifics is the first step to safely identifying wild plant foods. You start to recognize similar patterns - like what mint-family blooms look like, or certain berry family blooms. Even in a formal garden, you can learn how that simple picture for identifying the "Parts of a Flower" goes quite out the window when Mother Nature starts getting creative!

Personally, I really need to find a good book about identifying trees. I've learned several of my local trees that have distinct leaves, but I'm total crap with bark. Suggestions anyone for good tree ID learning tools?

I've done quite a bit of this. My main source for ID is Trees of Minnesota by Stan Takiela, but that's only useful if you live in or near MN. A great way to get better at identifying by bark is being forced to do it by identifying in winter. It's a frustrating experience, but beneficial. That also forced me to analyze other aspects of the tree like location, size, shape, color, etc.

Anne Miller wrote:If this was something that I really wanted to do, I would start with learning how to make a fire when I have nothing.  Most people probably can practice on their own tiny urban lot or their land if they have some.
I guess next to a fire, water is important, maybe more than fire.  I would practice skills getting water with no tools.
I feel next I would want to learn to make a snare which would provide food.
It seems with these three skills a person might be able to survive in the wilderness.
I can't do any of these, except maybe looking for dew on leaves though not with today's drought.

A snare might be impossible for catching food. Fields have been enlarged and fence rows have disappeared where rabbits, quail, and pheasant might have run in the past. I would suspect that, here in the mid-west, most forested areas have been already decimated of such animals. It might be wiser to learn which plants are edible and which parts of certain plants are edible. Wild lettuce, squaw cabbage, wild carrots, nuts, bark, etc. might all supply some form of survival food - over an empty snare!

Jesse said, "where rabbits, quail, and pheasant might have run in the past.

At least those are plentiful here, sorry not wherever you live.  Too bad.

You'll need to figure out something to hunt with maybe a bow and arrow would work.

Anyway, practice, practice, and more practice is all I can say.

My understanding (limited as it may be) is that in most cases of actual forced survival situations the most important skill to master is being found.

That may not sound like a skill, but if you're not wearing bright contrasting clothes, it can be easy to look over a sleeping person in the woods, or behind a rock.

Making a controlled smokey fire, big visible cairns, or other signals would be a high priority for me if I was going to learn survival skills.

Also I think it's important not to conflate survival with comfort. A survival shelter will keep the elements off of you. That could just be a burrow under a boulder. In fact that might be the easiest shelter to make. If you have no food and water you probably don't have time to build a cabin in the woods.

Foraging for leafy plants is probably not worthwhile for the short term, and if you can find wild fruit trees you'd be mostly lucky. I agree with an earlier poster that for food your best bet is game. But hunting and fishing with zero supplies is almost impossible. SO I would start thinking about what kind of bugs and grubs are worth it. Beetle grubs are easy to find if you know where the local species tend to lay eggs. Those larvae are going to start looking really tasty after a week of nothing.

L Johnson wrote:

SO I would start thinking about what kind of bugs and grubs are worth it. Beetle grubs are easy to find if you know where the local species tend to lay eggs. Those larvae are going to start looking really tasty after a week of nothing.

Yes - that's a much undervalued source of food in my country. I've heard that earthworms are tasty to some people!

More on entomaphagy how-to: https://www.backpacker.com/survival/12-edible-bugs-that-could-help-you-survive/

I knew about grasshoppers, crickets, beetle larvae, and ants. Supposedly ant eggs are especially delicious.

I am surprised about woodlice and dragonflies, but I'm glad to know those are options as they're both pretty easy to find around here.

Honestly after reading this article I feel safer already! Food security is an important issue.

I like watching videos on survival skills: edible plants, making fire, building a shelter ... But doing all that myself? No. Only the wild edible plants, I know a lot of them and often use them when I cook. But for a night in 'wild nature' (there's no real wild nature here in the Netherlands) I take my bicycle packed with camping gear

I can do without the tent, but only when the weather is nice (no rain!) and with a sleeping bag.

Dear hubby likes to watch the TV series, Naked and Afraid"  so I see bits and pieces of the show.

Of course, these folks have had wilderness training though the show proves that people can be put on a desert island with only one item each.

Clif Notes version: Been there, done that. A few times. It sucked.
As the OP states, so much is due to environment. Most people (or peoples) who have done this long term are specialists in one bio-region. The flora, fauna, climate, weather, available resources, etc can be highly variable; even just a few miles or few thousand feet of elevation change can make a big difference.
OK, let me back up. Are we talking about a wilderness survival or or a wilderness living situation? Basic priorities will still apply: Air, Thermo-regulation (which covers both fire and shelter), Water, Calories (which is different from nutrition) and so forth. The difference is in mindset and applied skills.
A wilderness living situation is either a lifestyle choice to go native (you're braver than me!) or an extended outing for fun and education. Sustainable harvesting, primitive living skills, bushcrafting, etc are awesome hobbies with good practical applications. Just remember that it's fun because you're still in control of the situation.
A survival situation is when things are out of your control. The priority is no longer enjoyment, it's now living long enough to be found. With modern Search and Rescue, that's usually within 72 hours. All a person needs to do is hold tight and not do anything stupid for 2-3 days (assuming people know you're missing and where you went). Provided they can keep warm (or cool) and don't get too dehydrated, nearly anyone can go that long without food. Foraging and hunting is generally unnecessary. Knowing how to survive that long with just your Every Day Carry equipment is a doable goal for most people.
If this is an extended event (bugout, self extraction, disaster, etc), then the rules change. Sustainability? Strip that tree and pillage the nest, you need the calories! Chuck the hand drill and give me a thumb drill (Bic lighter)! This is likely a do or die situation. If you have to explain it to the judge, that means you lived long enough to do it.
The point to my rantings: What are you practicing for? Wilderness living skills, like many of those listed in the above responses, will impart skills and confidence for a more comfortable and enjoyable outing, even if things do go wrong. Do not mistake these for being necessary for, or even applicable to, a survival situation. Good skills done at the wrong time can still kill you. The mindsets and skillsets are different! Begin with the end in mind and understand what you are training for!
Thus ends the rant.

Must add: Knowing instructors who have hosted their own major network shows, and several "Alone" contestants, I will state that survival shows are rubbish. They exist for entertainment, NOT educational purposes, and anything you see done in them should be taken with a whole truckload of salt. Likewise, mental knowledge (watching Youtube) and physical knowledge (actually doing it) are not the same thing.
Don't even get me started on Tom Brown Jr....

Practice, practice, practice…

Plan ahead and prepare is my advice. It seems wise to become knowledgeable and skilled in survival skills before you’re confronted with an event demanding such skills, especially under adverse conditions, when time may be of the essence. Figuring out and learning such ‘on the job’ ain’t the way to go

I’m grateful for having been an adult leader with the Boy Scouts for over ten years with my two sons. We belonged to a troop with a Scoutmaster who is very savvy in ‘primitive’ skills. We attended the same summer camp for most of those years. They had a great extracurricular program for Scouts and adults called the Frontiersman Program. The program had three levels to which one could attain and focussed on primitive skills (e.g., fire making, foraging, shelter building, knots, making tools, etc). It was a hoot, and very enlightening and satisfying. And, let’s remember - first aid - using what’s available in nature.

Among all the other teachings was the importance of having an ‘essentials’ pouch you alway keep with you (flint, steel, tinder, knife, compass, signaling mirror, etc) - I still keep one with me whenever I travel.

I also attended a great fire making seminar for adults where they provided a knife, a piece of cordage, and a tree branch from which we made a bow drill set and learned how to use it.

It’s what got me into foraging, for one, on my own property, which I still practice, almost daily, for my meals. It’s the ultimate in ‘eat locally and seasonly’. I’m of a mind that nature provides just what we need, when we need it. - I’m fortunate to live ‘out in the sticks’ on seven acres in the rolling wooded hills of SE Ohio.

And, yes, I became somewhat infatuated with Tom Brown’s books which provided lots of valuable ‘knowledge’. I particularly like his book on foraging for wild edibles. His other books provide other valuable and fundamental concepts, not the least of which is a ‘mindset’, a positive mental attitude, toward the ‘practice’ of taking care of oneself anytime, anyplace, anyhow

As we were rearing our sons, they probably became weary of my common answer to many of their “how do I do this or that” questions - “what would you do if you were lost in the woods?”

The point of this is to suggest, first becoming knowledgeable in primitive skills, then practice, practice, practice.
… I’m still a hack with a bow drill ;-)

==============================
Afterthought:

Foraging offers a prime example of the tenants “Practice…” and “Plan ahead and Prepare”

I’ve be actively foraging for over 15 years and still have lots to learn. Got to thinking about various aspects of foraging as I was doing my walkabout this morning. So much to learn and experience, this is definitely an area where the two tenants apply

Consider just some of the aspects of the learning process:

Becoming knowledgable about plants (books, videos, apprenticeship, courses, etc)
- get some good field guides for identification (make sure you’re sure of what you’re picking)
- learn about poisonous lookalikes!!
- learn appropriate methods how to ‘test drive’ new-to-you plants (especially the part about how NOT to swallow when you finally get around to tasting it the first time), and subsequently, how to clean out and expel all what you put in your mouth (e.g., when it doesn’t ‘sit’ well)
- learn acceptable foraging ‘etiquette’ (e.g., pick, at most, 1/3-ish of what’s available in an area) - leave some for the rest of the inhabitants and processes of our natural world

Learning in the field: (similar to gardening)
- Learn where they live (habitats) - be aware of habitats that may be contaminated with toxic substances (e.g., road sides and adjacent runoff areas, subject to windblown overspray from nearby ‘conventional agriculture’ operations, etc)
- Learn to discern when they’re ready to pick (i.e., ripe)
- Learn to discern which one’s **are for you** (learn to connect with the plants and recognize those who say “eat me”, etc)
- Learn how to pick them (each plant has an unique, what I call, a ‘handshake’, how to grasp it)

Honor and respect and recognize the ‘sentient’ nature of our plant kingdom (Ref: “Plant Spirit Medicine” by Eliot Cowan) (e.g., we may not even need to ‘consume’ plants to receive their ‘gifts’)

Learning at home:
- How to prepare for consumption
- How to store (when appropriate)

And, of course, using plants for medicinal purposes is quite another matter

Plug for a few of my favorite foraging books:

“Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places”, “Wildman” Steve Brill with Evelyn Dean (Order it direct from his website and he might even sign it)
This is my go-to book for many aspects of foraging (e.g., habitats, growing seasons, descriptions, poisonous lookalikes, traditional uses, harvesting, preparing, cooking, and on and on)
- Note this is not a ‘field guide’ per se, even though he well describes what they look like

“Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide”, Lawrence Newcomb (a pretty unique and helpful way to identify plants)

“Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants”, Bradford Angier

And, of course, Peterson’s has numerous good field guides

Make sure the plant ID field guides you choose are applicable to the region in which you live (or visit)

Learning skills before you need them. A primitive walk in the woods is a lot different than forced survival or evasion survival. What season, what climate, what environment. A clear head makes all the difference.
Assess danger
Assess shelter
Assess water
Assess food
I've eaten some weird things playing this game, a porcupine is one of the few animals that can't outrun a man, a throwing stick can take a sage hen or rabbit. The luxury of snare wire or string is nice. Almost always I end up hungry, depending on the season calories are not always there. When going into the woods by vehicle or foot I always pack a package of tortillas and a jar of peanut butter. Not sexy like freeze dried, but you can't hurt or crush a tortilla, and a plastic bottle of peanut butter can sit in the rig for a long time. Quail breast on a tortilla is pretty good too.

Please keep in mind many of the “survival” techniques from those Tom Brown books are really only sustainable, ethical, and if ever legal, in actual survival scenarios that are best avoided if possible. Many second growth places can benefit from the brush clearing done for practicing building a friction campfire or makeshift shelter. However, in heavily travelled scenic and Wilderness areas this is not something many people could do before seriously harming the soil, ground vegetation, and wildlife habitat. Choosing to put ourselves through a test of mental and physical toughness and ingenuity does not validate poaching.

My reading of Tom Brown would indicate he advocates for a very respectful relationship with the land and its other inhabitants, and I apply what I learned from him while still following Leave No Trace Ethics in all but the most dire of survival situations. Even then I try to do as little harm as possible.

I have spent close to a thousand nights in the backcountry, and now live on the edge of a vast wilderness. Only a few of these nights have been anywhere close to minimalist survival, but I have backpacked without a tent quite a bit (just a space blanket tarp).

I have also spent a week hiking 60mi through 4+ft of snow in the Klamath/Siskiyou mtns after a fire blocked that section of my thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail (Mexico to Canada) earlier in the summer. After five days of trudging about 45mi, I had to build a fire and camp to mitigate frostbite, snow blindness and rest a torn groin muscle. To build a fire in 4ft of wet snow, I had to dig it out and build up a bed of green mountain hemlock boughs so melting snow would not put it out over and over. I had to do the same under my heavy-snow damaged tent to prevent it flooding. I had run out of fuel due to being out longer than I expected (snow was not predicted), and because it snowed before it rained that fall, the very low flowing water sources were surrounded by icy melt water that risked further frostbite and hypothermia, so I had to melt snow (very inefficient). So I cooked over the fire as well. When it started to rain and my tent and fire were in giant puddles, I knew I had to get out.

The last day of hiking was truly miserable, with frostbite and a torn groin causing me to need to drag one leg with my hands over snowy just burned deadfall. When i got to a road, the first vehicle to pull over was going the wrong way and flying a Confederate Flag in northern CA, but offered me a ride to “a party”. I asked if there would be a fire at this party. They said, “boy there is going to be a hell of a lot of fire at this party”. It turned out to be the Siskiyou County “Harvest Party”. I was introduced to everyone with “this mother-fucker just spent the last week in those mountains! get him a beer, a shot, and a joint!”. Many nice people, mostly true hippies, gave me whatever they had to share and a warm grange to sleep in. The proudly self described rednecks gave me a ride to town the next day, where I hitched back to my car. A fun adventure, and I used a lot of Tom Brown on it, but I would still not recommend anyone try it without any supplies.

I have dabbled a bit here in Aus§tralai with this during my time in Scouting, and later.
I always felt it best to take a firelighter and a cutting tool or rock though.
I figured in reality both these items are something you need quickly and yet would be the hardest to create before you died of starvation.