My seven-day Walk-about with the Wilderness Awareness School definitely ranks high high up there in adventure trips.
Appreciating the simple things.....
Sleep deprevation can make you grumpy, but not our group. Our first night out, we all made some pathetic or no attempts at shelters and shivered our way through the remains of the night. We were all inspired to learn how to make better windbreaks, more insulated padding all around, use everything we could to layer over us, and get over shyness in spooning close to a buddy or several buddies for warmth.
Night #1: a pathetic little bit of shelter overhead,no insulation under him, not enough to sleep, and no buddy to share body heat on a very cold night-- Stephan buddied up the next night.
What did I eat?
Yes, I ate bugs, among lots of other edible plants: wild onion-- the size of a large pea with lavender flowers that were quite tastey, loquatium root-- it's a lot of digging and then peeling off the skin for a long skinny root, bitter root-- a little easier digging and also a lot of peeling off the outer skin, dandelions-- not many where we were, mint flowers and leaves-- the purple flowers were delicious, elder flowers (only tea), miner's lettuce-- two fingernail size leaves per person so we wouldn't overharvest, lambsquarter, cattails (on the third day-- heavenly), currents: red and gold--a bit dry and mealy but tasty and chewy, thank god for them and their carbohydrate relief on day three, and many other plants.
I wasn't in a hurry to eat bugs but the fatigue of not eating more than a few leaves in the first two days combined with hiking all day and barely sleeping from the cold and inadequate shelters we made. (we were learning how to make shelters in the coyote mentoring style: through observation of what didn't work and determination not to repeat mistakes from the night before!)
The big black ants were surprisingly delicious, but quite a chore to catch and eat without getting bitten. I only managed to eat four, but they were as tasty as the best raspberries I've ever had. Probably extra tasty since I was so weak from not eating, sleeping, and dehydration.
- Our fearless leader, Johnny showing us where the precious blank ant larvae were
I also like the roasted grasshoppers but wasn't so keen on the lizard-- kind of tough and leathery. The rattlesnake was interesting and had a nice flavour-- not at all like chicken I didn't eat very much since there were 10 students, 3 instructors and only one snake for all of us.
...currents from heaven, Day 3.
"Score!"-- note my serious expression, ha, I was really hungry-tired.
What I craved the most to eat:Nuts, especially walnuts or almonds.
Next would be any kind of meat, chicken or beef. After that, fruit or vegetables, a nice potato sounded good, too. My stomach shrunk pretty fast though, and I wasn't craving food much after the first day. I was only craving protein and fat to have more energy.
By day four, we all finally figured out how to make a warm, comfortable debris shelter! What a treat to sleep at night. I found out that leaves inside a garbage bag really make an enormous difference for warming my feet, and extra inches of debris make all the difference in sore hips for sleeping on the ground. At this point, I felt like I had "arrived" and could be quite comfortable and rested with just my surroundings to work with.
What did I learn most about survival?
To keep a positive, calm state of mind and conserve my energy. Our instructors were inspiring role models. Their steady, calm demeanor gave us all confidence and energy that we could survive anything. I could tell they were tired and whoozey, but they conserved their energy and looked like they could go on forever. It's amazing how long you can go on one liter of water, especially if you breath through your nose and slow down your breathing. Similar to scuba diving, when you panic, you burn up your oxygen tank under water from breathing too fast, you want to slow down your system so you don't burn calories and fluids.
I've never been driven to the place where I needed to function the way the rest of the animal kingdom does: in conservation and I appreciated being in this state. I felt similar to how the birds and chipmonks behaved around me-- singing in a relaxed manner, digging around for food, getting water occasionally, and not worrying about the neurotic things I usually find myself thinking about. I felt remarkably calm and peaceful, moreso than I can ever remember. Once I had some protein and fat in my system, I did not feel a need to kill insects or animals. The insects and animals that I did kill, I felt very close to and grateful for their lives and the connection I had with them. I felt the grief with killing each ant and also the flipside of satisfaction in having the sustenance they provided. The intimacy of eating in this way was very profound. Once I had some protein, I was content eating plants again and found I didn't want to kill anything unless I really felt depleted. There was something reassuring in knowing my human nature in a survival setting did conserve energy and wouldn't waste food or another life in overindulgence.
Current Oasis
Having been a strict vegetarian in the past, which included spending a year eating only fresh and raw foods, this experience of living off the land gave me such an appreciation and deeper respect for my connection in taking the lives of plants, insects and animals.
The other lesson I learned was to adapt to feeling uncomfortable. In survival, sometimes you will be cold, hungry, tired, uncomfortable. Just accepting that discomfort makes the situation easier to tolerate. Eventually the sun will rise in the morning or there will be water as long as one is willing to ride out the discomfort.
Would I do it again?
For sure, especially if I could stay out longer. I was just learning how to make my shelters warm and comfortable and getting my bow drill technique to work. I love the pace of wandering and the feeling of connecting to everything with very little weight to carry on my back.
I'm back from the National Feldenkrais Conference held in Portland, Oregon. I presented two workshops this year "Learning to Read Your Own Tracks: The Feldenkrais Method (cm) for Walking" and "Applied Tracking and Functional Integration Lessons for Making New Trails."
These workshops integrate my study with nature awareness and tracking and apply the observation and inquiry skills to the Feldenkrais Method. I hope to teach more advanced trainings to practitioners in this area since there is so much that tracking inquiry provides in observation skills.
I'll be writing more about it soon and if you'd like more information, please write me.
Annie Thoe is an Assistant Feldenkrais Trainer and Practitioner in the Feldenkrais Method with 22 years of experience in bodywork. She has taught numerous modalities of massage therapy, supervised students and practitioners, and teaches locally and nationally. She is on the Board of Directors for the Wilderness Awareness School in Duvall, Washington. In addition to her outdoor naturalist study, Annie has an extensive background in martial arts, sports, and music.
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April, 2007
