My adventures with the great outdoors and mother nature began when I joined the scouts and learned a lot of basics at annual summer camps. Each big canvas tent would sleep six of us, and we would frighten each other to sleep with horror stories, whispering quietly even after the official “lights out, no talking” at 10 p.m. There was a lot of camaraderie as we helped each other learn basic skills such as setting up a large tent, mastering different knots, and campfire cooking—all of these skills were working towards collecting the cloth badges which our mothers would sew onto the sleeves of our green scout shirts. The lads with the largest number of badges were looked up to with a certain degree of respect for having learned so many new skills. It was a gentle introduction to the great outdoors, without night hikes or having to right yourself from an upturned canoe. Although the day hikes tested us, we had team games to see which patrol would be the overall winner for the two-week camp.
Looking back, even before I joined the scouts in the UK, I loved to go out on my bike by myself exploring. I would ride up and down on the docks, admiring the huge ships that sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. I would stand for ages watching them unload their cargo onto the dockside until I heard “Hey, what ya doin’ ‘ere?” from some port official. Then I would cycle away and go off exploring some other part of the docklands, hoping I wouldn’t be noticed again.
When I was older, in my twenties, I would often go camping alone and hiking in the mountains. I was keen on not getting lost, so I enrolled in a practical navigation course where we used just a map and compass and “micro-navigation,” using large-scale maps to help identify small features on the ground. These courses were instructor-led. Each member of the group was encouraged to lead and be responsible for route planning, keeping the group informed of progress and any changing situations. Keeping up morale was an important skill the leader had to demonstrate, as was watching for any signs of hypothermia. When this happens, the body’s core temperature has dropped below what is considered safe, and action must be taken to warm the person immediately.
I also did a few weekend courses that focused on developing skills around the campsite, such as using sticks, a flat piece of wood, and cord to make a bowstring. This can be used to generate heat by friction and therefore start a fire from the small red-hot ember you can generate. I remember guiding some German tourists on an overnight canoe trip up the Yukon River in Canada. It was raining when we set up camp. After what seemed like ages, I was able to get a fire started under rather wet conditions and received a round of applause as we were now able to have a hot meal rather than just bread and cheese. Weekend camps I attended were also instructor-led, and we were shown the best way to make an emergency shelter using branches and fir-tree boughs. We had to sleep in it for one night. Pity the poor guy who didn’t do a very good job of his, and it half-collapsed during the night. A sure lesson in “doing it right the first time.” Some of my best memories were after I moved to Canada and completed a four-month adventure tourism course in a very picturesque part of the country in the mountains. One of the first courses we did was a 10-day outdoor first aid course, learning how to treat injuries and sickness. The course was outdoors in winter, and we would pair up. The instructor would tell one person to go and hide in the bush on a small island on a frozen lake and pretend they had an injury or illness. The “injured” partner was only allowed to answer questions while the other partner asked questions to find out their ailment. The partner who was the first aider was then tasked with administering the appropriate treatment.
There was a small group of us, so we had a large mess tent with a small wood stove inside. The canvas tent was made to accommodate the chimney out through the top. The wood stove made the inside of the tent very toasty, with some of the group wanting to sleep in there rather than go to their own tents. During the day, we learned many different skills to survive in those conditions as if we didn’t have a wood stove for comfort. We were able to bring an ice auger with us, which is like a big drill to bore down through the ice. We had fresh fish for supper most nights. We also were shown how to build snow shelters, such as cutting a trench in the snow and then laying blocks of snow across to form a roof. We covered the basics of building an igloo, which is a skill that takes a lot of time to learn.
I joined the fire and ambulance services, which relied solely on volunteers. We were trained in advanced first aid and what to do in different emergency situations, both when responding to an incident inside a house or out on the highway. This was great training for wilderness survival, knowing what to bring in terms of a first aid kit and administering first aid on a remote highway. Living in the far north, summer and winter are very different, so there was emphasis on emergency treatment for someone being overcome by heat or having been out in the cold for too long in winter. An important part was using a defibrillator to restart someone’s heart and how to administer CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation).
I have learned a lot and will continue to practice and upgrade my skills. I intend to travel to the US to take part in additional training in 2025. In this part of Canada, the winters are long and harsh with snow on the ground from November to April, so itwill be an opportunity to practice my winter camping skills, see if there are any gaps I need to hone up on, and check if I have brought all I need in a Bug Out Bag.
