3 Days Solo Survival in the Rain - No Food, No Shelter, No Water

Just taking a break because it's a little warm. I've been stripping off layers because it's getting warmer as the day goes on, but I'm also acutely aware of the fact the temperature is going to drop quite a lot tonight. I came in with a thermal undershirt, a vest and a jacket, obviously this fleece shirt as well, and yeah, it's probably going to drop at least 20 degrees tonight down into the 30s. I didn't really bring anything with me, like I say, I didn't bring a shelter, didn't bring any food, didn't bring any water. What I did bring is this little pack which my stepson gave me for Christmas, and I said he bought it for me to do a video with, and I thought that was really cool, and then I said when it gets a bit warmer I'll use it, and then I completely forgot I had it, so yeah, I figured I'd come out and do a video with it tonight. It has a couple bits in that you've seen already, the paracord, I added some bits to it, like this mylar sleeping bag thing that my wife actually bought me for Christmas as well and I haven't used, but obviously the whole point in having survival equipment is that hopefully you won't have to use it, I do understand that. What else is in here? I added the saw, a little silky gumboy, I brought my axe, I brought my gun and some decoys. This is actually my favourite little honey hole for duck hunting, I saw quite a few on the way in, so I had to canoe in here, I've got the decoys and the gun and I'm probably going to throw out the decoys tomorrow morning, see if I can't get some food. I added my little titanium canteen kit, a rag, because I've found on multi-day trips and even in survival situations it's better to have a rag than toilet roll. I know that sounds terrible but at least you can wash this or reuse this over and over again and toilet roll is just, you're getting rid of it every time. And there's a couple more items in here, there's a schmog which I haven't opened yet, a little shovel thing, I added that, foot powder, very important for me, and then in here there's a little box full of a bunch of stuff and we'll go through that as I get to it and use it, talk about it a little bit. But yeah, all good stuff, should be interesting, should be fun, I can say hopefully I'll be able to get a duck or maybe even a squirrel, but right now what I've really got focus on is finishing this shelter, getting some firewood and getting it all toasty warm for tonight, so that's the plan. I don't know how well you can see, back behind me I've got my decoys, as I've been doing this I keep seeing a couple ducks landing over there, so hopefully if I can put my decoys out here, next time a couple come in they should land in the decoy and I'll be able to run down there and bag myself one. Okay, well as you can see I've got quite a bit of the sides done, but I just need to get on with it now. I've been trying to make it too perfect, I've been trying to do it as if it was a long-term shelter and not just a survival shelter that's going to keep me warm and dry. So further down behind me I just need to throw some ribs on and start brushing it in. It is nice and warm in here, I can feel it with the wood, but I need to get some boughs and stuff to cover it, try and help keep that rain out tomorrow. So inside this little kit that came with this bag, there's a bunch of little items in here, but one of which is a Mylar blanket, emergency blanket. So what I think I'm going to do is take this out, I have that Mylar sleeping bag thing, I'm going to take this out and I'm going to throw it over the top of the ridge on the shelter before I put the boughs on, that way it'll give me a little bit more rain protection and it'll also help with heat retention as well, so that's what I'm going to do. Right, shelter's in the books. Looks pretty good, feels pretty warm in there. It's super quiet when you go inside, so that tells me it's probably got a decent amount of insulation on it, but I can still see points where there's light coming in down at the bottom end, so I'll have to do something about that. But right now it's getting pretty late, I've got plenty of firewood here, but I need to boil some water and drink something. I'm very hungry, I can hear a little squirrel down there, so maybe I'll light the fire and go see if I can't track him down. No ducks, no ducks so far. Well there you go, just a little squirrel. I paddled out to get my decoys and I thought I could hear a duck down to the left, so I paddled down there, got out as far as I could go, and no duck, but this guy just popped up enough for me to get a shot at him, and yeah, thanks buddy, thank you. So I'm going to be eating something tonight, even if it's not a lot. I think I'm going to cut him up and put him in the stew pot, that'll be the best way to make sure I use everything off him. Got all my firewood prepped, got this sphagnum moss, wizard's beard, no, is it? Whatever, wizard's beard stuff that I got off one of the trees that came down earlier. Inside this little kit is a fire starter, so I'm going to use that to try and start the fire as well. Okay, luckily I was able to find some birch. Let's try the one out of that kit again. I just need some surface. It did go for a second, my knife's not very sharp. There we go. Right, I got the squirrel in the stew pot, got some water on to boil, and I'm going to get ready for bed. I think I'm going to boil that squirrel overnight, let it steep, let it soften, if that makes sense. I'm going to boil this water, I'm going to drink it, I'm going to get ready to go to sleep, and I'll see you guys tomorrow bright and early. I'll be up before dawn to get the ducks going. Fingers crossed. Morning. A long night, just a little uncomfortable. I didn't get a chance to get the pine boughs last night for my bed, or yesterday rather. Sleeping on the ground isn't ideal. Wasn't too bad because everything here is all soft pine needles, but it'd definitely be nicer with some boughs in there to take some of that weight off me. But the fire was nice and warm, even though it burns out real quick because it's all pine, but it burns real hot, which is nice. Squirrel stew got devoured in the middle of the night. The soggy wet meat got his little tail hung up above my shelter to ward off evil spirits. Keep me safe. Plus it looks nice, and we didn't get up with the ducks before the ducks came in to set out decoys and stuff. It was pretty tired and it was cold, so I just wanted to get the fire going and hang out by the fire. I know I'm starting to warm up again, I'm starting to feel warmer, but then I do have like every single layer on. So yeah, I think the plan is, let this go out. I know it's not gonna burn, and then probably paddle down, see if we can't scare up some ducks, and then wherever they scare up, you know, all day yesterday I was scaring them, and then they would fly out and then fly back in. It might take an hour or two for them to come back, but I think if I scare them up and they fly out, then I go set up a blind and some decoys where they were, and hopefully within a couple of hours or so, just sit and wait and they'll come back into where I am. That's my plan anyway. Right, I've just been tootling around the lake, pond, beaver slough, whatever you want to call it. Just quietly looking for spots where the ducks might be hiding. I did get a shot at two of them as they flew past. They sort of, as I was coming out down this way, they came out and then circled back around, but I missed. And yeah, there's not a lot of stuff going on down here. I did see two otters just playing. They were looking at me. I They were suspicious and they took off, but yeah. So I think what my plan is, because I've been watching the clouds and the weather get greyer and greyer, is to go back up here, hopefully flush out some more birds and probably throw my decoys out close to the shelter. That way, because they all take off and they go back up towards my shelter. They come down here, turn around, go back up and out that way. So hopefully, if I do that, then when they come back in, they'll see my decoys and pop themselves in the middle of them. That's what I'm hoping anyway. I just don't want to get caught out away from my shelter if it really starts raining. Plus I want to button that shelter up and get some boughs in there for my bed before it rains. If it rains, but I just want to make sure that I have a nice dry bed to sleep on. Last thing I want to do is get wet and then have my bed be wet as well and be sleeping in a wet bed. That's what I'm going to do. Right on cue, it's raining. I don't want all these big stick bits on top. Okay, I feel much better. Smells good too. I've got the majority of them up where my head and chest will be, my shoulders. Hopefully take a bit more weight off them. A squirrel close by. Obviously you get the mylar sleeping bag in here. Should be good. Hopefully I'll be able to sit in here and take a nap while it rains. It's been coming down for quite a while out there now but touch wood I've been staying pretty dry in here. It's not been so bad. The camera lens is probably fogging up because it's warmer in here. There's a little bit of runoff at the sides but where I am in the middle is absolutely fine. It's pretty toasty as well. I mean obviously I've had to put my jacket and my vest on but I think what I might do anyway is light the fire and see if I can keep it going. I've had a little nap. I've got some energy but hopefully if it gets any worse I should help to keep things dry. Yes, the fire is hot. I'm just gonna pick at what's left over of my squirrel stew. Ate some of it last night but not a whole lot. Got into the legs. It's very tender now. A little bit of rib meat. Squirrel back strap because I'm very hungry. I would show you more of it but I don't know what YouTube allows. Also got some pine needle tea over there steeping. It's so soft now. It's raining again so back in the little hole I go. Thankfully it stopped raining. It must be, I think it's after five now. It's done nothing but rain all day apart from that brief spell in the middle where I was able to get out and cook some, well not cook but eat up that squirrel stew and a little bit of needle tea and since then it's just done nothing but rain and rain and rain and it was worse. At one point it's just been so cold. It's just that, you know, damp cold type that gets into your bones so it's been tough. It's one of those where I wanted to light the fire but then as soon as I get out to get stuff I'm just gonna get wet and damp which will make it even worse. The bottom of my trousers just from walking around to pick up firewood right now is just soaking wet. I did at one point, a duck landed right there and I tried to scramble out of the shelter and as I got out it took off so that wasn't worth it. I just figured it's not worth getting wet and then trying to stay warm once I get wet. It's easier to stay dry. I don't have to worry about food. You can go nearly two weeks without food. You just need to focus on staying warm, staying dry. Hopefully my shelter stayed nice and dry. I've stayed pretty dry. I could say as long as I can get this fire going and dry myself out, dry out my clothes as much as possible before it gets dark and it gets even colder I should be okay. I'd like to say collect up as much firewood as I need. I've got plenty around me. I've got some big pieces here that I should probably just cut up with the saw and stick them on. They should burn for a while. That's the plan right now. It's just to get dry. Well that was one of the longest nights of my life I think. When you saw me laying here next to the fire all toasty warm it started raining again so I got back inside the shelter. Luckily it wasn't as heavy as before and it wasn't enough to put the fire out. It lasted, I don't know, maybe like half an hour. Once that was done I got back out, got the fire stoked up again, spent more of the night laying laying here next to the fire. I tried laying in there but then my ends of my trousers and my knees from kneeling down and getting wood would be damp so that my legs would get cold. So I just spent most of the night lying here. I'd go get the firewood, stoke it up and then when I'd get cold I'd go get more firewood. Luckily someone in my comments had told me the old Russian proverb he who cuts his own wood will be warm twice. It's very true because I'd go process wood and that would warm me up. I'd get it on the fire, the fire would be warm, I'd be comfortable, I'd lay down. I wouldn't say sleep, more like take a nap until it started to die down again and I'd be cold and uncomfortable. Then I'd get up, stoke it up again. But yeah, that's why it's a bit later in the day to be honest because once that sun came up it got a lot warmer and it was too nice just laying here. I'm just tired so tired, hungry, thirsty. But it was a different experience, different experience to what I normally do so I'm glad I did it. I like this shelter, I love this spot. This location is perfect, perfect location. I think I'll be coming back here and using this again, if not making it into something bigger and better. But yeah, if you like it give it a like, subscribe if you haven't already and I will see you on the next one. Take it easy.