FOOD - Survive: Mountains (2016)

Survive: Mountains (2016)

FOOD

Food is important in a survival situation but generally in mountain environments can fall behind water and shelter in importance. You can live for weeks without food or even longer while surviving on a reduced calorie diet. It is important to try to maintain calorie intake in order to keep your body functioning properly and your thought process clear. In addition, without proper calorie consumption, it is likely that you will have more trouble staying warm. In the mountains, which typically have storms or cold weather, this can easily complicate the situation even more.

A critical component to thinking about food in a survival scenario is to be able to step out of your comfort zone. Keep in mind that many insects are edible, including crickets, June bugs, lice, many species of ants, grasshoppers, dragonflies, and earthworms, to name a few. You can eat many insects raw or toast them over a fire, and they provide a fairly nutritious protein-filled food. Insects provide 65 to 80 percent protein, compared to 20 percent for beef. Avoid insects that sting or bite, are hairy or brightly colored, or have a pungent odor. Also stay away from spiders and insects that are known to carry diseases, like ticks, mosquitoes, and flies. When searching for insects, look under down trees, rotting logs, or in grassy areas. You can often find large concentrations of insects in these locations. Don’t forget to look underground also if there is a path to an underground nest.

Larger animals will be much harder to catch and prepare, so typically they are not worth the effort. Concentrate on smaller animals, which are more abundant and easier to prepare. Most animals that crawl, swim, walk, or fly are edible.

It doesn’t make sense to hunt for game unless you are going to be stationary for a couple of days. You are better off moving toward your next resupply and looking for edible plants, which are more common and require less time and energy to acquire. Make sure to eat only plants and mushrooms that you can positively identify. I recommend steering clear of mushrooms in an emergency situation. Identifying mushrooms can be difficult and must be precise. Many species look similar and there is not much room for experimentation, since some mushrooms are highly toxic even in low doses.

If you get into a tough situation and run out of food, here are some general guidelines to follow on recognizing edible plants without carrying a guidebook.

GENERAL RULES FOR EDIBLE PLANTS

Generally speaking, “Leaves of three, let them be. Leaves of four, eat some more.”

Other general rules to avoid potentially harmful plants are to stay away from any wild or unknown plants that have:

✵ Milky or discolored sap

+Tip: Lichens exist in most alpine environments. There are no poisonous lichens. You can soak them overnight and then boil them in water to remove the acids and the disagreeable taste.

✵ Beans, bulbs, or seeds inside a pod

✵ Three-leaved growth pattern

✵ Grain heads with black, purple, or pink spurs

✵ Almond scent in woody parts and leaves

✵ Dill-, carrot-, parsnip-, or parsley-like foliage

✵ Spines, hairs, or thorns

✵ Bitter or soapy taste

Note legumes in the foreground. Most legumes are not edible.

+Tip: Most new growth on coniferous trees is edible and rich in vitamins. You will see it is a brighter green on the ends of the boughs. You can either eat this or steep it to make a nutritious tea. Just stay clear from eating anything from cedar trees since they are poisonous.

If you are trying a new plant or berry, ingest small quantities. Allow at least 24 hours before eating more. If you are trying to identify potential edible plants, do not ingest more than one unknown plant in a 24-hour period. If you can safely ingest the plant, make sure the plant is abundant enough to be worth your while. Keep in mind that some plants have parts that are edible and other parts that are not.

HOW TO IDENTIFY POISONOUS PLANTS AND TREAT REACTIONS

Poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac, and stinging nettle are fairly common on parts of the Appalachian Trail (AT) and Pacific Coast Trail (PCT), and on lots of other hiking trails in the United States. Know what they look like, and do your best to avoid them.

Poison sumac and stinging nettle are a little harder to discern than poison ivy and poison oak, but they are respectively less common and less irritating. Stinging nettles only usually burn for about 15 minutes and don’t leave a residual rash, so they are relatively harmless. If you rinse and then cook or boil stinging nettles, they are edible and nutritious. They taste like cooked spinach.

Identification
“Leaves of three, let them be” is a good rule of thumb for both poison ivy and poison oak.

Poison ivy: Three pointed leaflets with smoothed or toothed edges and varying in length from 2 to 4 inches. It can grow as ground cover, a shrub, or a vine. The leaves are often reddish in spring and green in summer. Poison ivy is normally found in forested areas and along the edges of forested and open areas. It also grows in rocky areas and open fields. Typically likes full sunlight and isn’t very shade tolerant.

Poison oak: The plant grows as a shrub or a vine, with leaves shaped like oak leaves. Also divided into three leaflets. The underside of the leaf is often lighter than the surface and has tiny hair filaments. The leaves also change color seasonally, from bronze when they are unfolding, to green in spring, to red in fall. It is usually found near running water in damp, semi-shaded areas or bright sun.

+Tip: Even if you aren’t ultrasensitive to the plants—you don’t have an immediate reaction— it’s helpful to know what the plants look like. I have knowingly but unavoidably touched poison ivy and poison oak many times. I try to find a creek or water source to wash the contact area, hopefully within 30 minutes. If I didn’t know what the plants looked like, I could end up with a nasty rash. But by washing soon after, I have avoided the itchy rash, which can bother you for days. This also prevents spreading the urushiol even more.

poison tomac

poison oak

Basically if a plant looks angry, then it probably is not edible.

+Tip: It’s an old wives’ tale that you can spread the rash by scratching it or by breaking blisters. Scratching can make the rash itch even more, but once you wash off the urushiol, you can no longer spread the “poison.”

Poison sumac: This is usually a dense shrub or small tree; the leaves grow in pairs, with typically seven to thirteen pairs on a branch. The leaves are always smooth, and small white or gray berries can hang in clusters from the stalk. Leaves also change seasonally and can be green or red.

Keep in mind that the urushiol (the plants’ irritating oil) is not just on the leaves. It’s on all parts of the plants, including the bark, vines, roots, and twigs, and can rub onto your clothing, shoes, or dog and later get onto your skin if it is not washed off. Also, it can be released as smoke and inhaled when the plants are burned.

FISHING

After gathering plants and insects, fishing can be a relatively easy way to gain food, and necessary nutrients. Make sure to cook all fish that you catch. There are no poisonous freshwater fish, but the catfish does have barbs on its dorsal fin. Be careful of these protrusions, as they can cut your skin and subsequently get infected.

The simplest way to catch fish is to look for seasonal pools in creeks that may be drying up. This often isolates the fish into these areas and they won’t be able to escape up- or downstream. All you have to do is get the fish ashore, and then they are all yours. Sometimes it is easiest to just grab and push them onto the bank, instead of trying to hold onto them. If this is not an option based on the climate of the mountain range, there are a few other ways to catch fish.

First, it is important to be aware of their behavior. Fish tend to feed more heavily before a storm and usually aren’t actively feeding after a storm, when the water can be muddy and elevated. Fish will often rest in places with an eddy in an area with heavy currents. They will also congregate in deep pools, underneath brush, beneath undercut banks, or in and around logs, foliage, or other objects that can offer shelter. Fish and salamanders also can be attracted to light at night.

How to Fish

First you will need to prepare a fishing instrument. This can include a wood gorge hook, wire hook, thorn hook, carved wood shank, or a spear point. You can make these in the field out of wood, pins, needles, wire, metal, bone, thorns, or turtle shell.

To make a wooden hook, find or cut a piece of hardwood about 1 inch long and ¼ inch in diameter. Cut a notch at one end for the point and put the sharp object (wire, nail, bone, etc.) in the notch. Securely fasten the sharp object by tying it in place. To make smaller hooks, use smaller material.

To make a gorge, use a piece of wood, bone, or metal. Make it sharp on both ends and cut a small notch in the middle to tie into. You will bait this by placing something on it lengthwise, so when the fish swallows the bait, it swallows the entire gorge.

making a fish gorge gorge bait

The first method, and probably the most straightforward, is to replicate what you would do if you had a fishing rod or fly-fishing setup. Use your cord as your reel and attach bait to your hook or gorge. If you use the gorge method, make sure that your bait covers the entire length of the gorge.

Basket Trap

A basket trap can be constructed using sticks and vines and making them into a funnel shape. You close the top, leaving an opening large enough for the fish to swim through.

Pool or Shore Trap

Gather wood of decent size and length and choose a good location where you can funnel the fish into a smaller area. This will take some time to construct but makes it much easier to catch fish. Plus, once you have built it, you should have a good source of food for a while.

fish basket trap draw on the inside preventive escape

Spearfishing

Spearing works best in a waist-deep or shallower pool, with larger fish. To make the spear, cut a long straight sapling. Sharpen the end to a point or attach a point made from a knife, metal, or bone. If you don’t have a sharp object, you can split the sapling a few inches from the end and insert a piece of wood to spread the area. Then sharpen both sides of the separated halves.

Find an area where there is a fish run or gathering of fish. Place the spear point in the water and move it slowly toward the fish. When you are close enough, impale the fish with a sudden pulse. Do not try to lift the fish on the spear, as it could slip off. Instead, pin it against the bottom of the stream; keep one hand on the spear and grab the fish with the other hand.

tick branches or pieces of wood

HUNTING

Before you start hunting, you want to make sure that you will be able to kill the animal once it is caught. You can use a rock for this purpose, or you can make a rabbit stick, spear, or sling.

A rabbit stick is a strong stick that is about the length of your arm. You can throw it if you need to, and it can be handy for many small animals that freeze as their main defense strategy.

A spear can be good for fishing and for small game. You want to jab with the spear and refrain from throwing it, as it rarely works when thrown.

To make a sling, put a rock or a few rocks into cloth or fabric and then tie cordage to close off the fabric. Cut the cordage to also create a 2-foot length coming off that you can use to whip the rock and fabric at something.

Birds

All species of birds are edible, although the flavors will vary. If you skin fish-eating birds, they will taste better. Knowing bird behavior will enhance you chance of success. For example, some birds won’t leave the nest during nesting season, even when they are approached. Pigeons, and some other species, can be taken from their nest by hand at night. Most birds nest in the spring or early summer. Roosting sites, waterholes, and common flight paths are good areas to catch birds.

If you find a nesting bird, remove all but two or three of the eggs. Make sure to mark the eggs that you have left behind, as the bird will often lay more eggs to fill the clutch. Then you can continue taking the fresh eggs while leaving behind the marked ones.

Mammals

All mammals are edible. As mentioned previously, it will be much more efficient to concentrate your efforts on smaller animals. Keep in mind that all mammals will fight when cornered or to protect their young. Even squirrels have sharp teeth that can inflict wounds that can become infected. Scavenging mammals, like opossums, can carry diseases.

white-tailed deer about 2 1/2 “- 3 ” Moose about 4 1/2 - 5 dog 2 1/4 - 4 coyte front heel track pattern crow turkey ruffed grouse tracks not to scale weasel fisher cotton tail rabbit bobcat

Amphibians and Reptiles

Most frogs are edible and live close to the banks of waterways. Just don’t confuse them with toads, as several species of toad excrete a poisonous substance through their skin. Steer clear of any frogs that are brightly colored or have an X on their back.

Most reptiles are also edible when cooked. You could eat them raw in an emergency since they are cold-blooded and do not carry the same blood diseases as warm-blooded animals. Make sure to avoid eating the box turtle, as it largely dines on poisonous mushrooms and can build up toxins in its system.

Most snakes are also edible. See the section on preparation of fish and game for how to prepare a snake for consumption.

BOW AND ARROW

A good bow can take a very long time to make, but you can build a functional short-term bow in a lot less time and replace it just as easily. Find a piece of dead, dry hardwood about 3 to 5 feet long without any knots or branches. Whittle down the large end until it has the same size as the small end. Always scrape from the side of the wood facing you, otherwise the bow will snap when you use it.

Make arrows from the straightest dry wood you can find. They should be about half the length of the bow. Arrowheads can be made from sharp rocks, bone, metal, or glass. Notch the end of the arrows by cutting or filing, so the bowstring will fit in them. You don’t need feathers or any materials near the notch, although they will help the arrow fly straight.

making a bow note the ends shave wood becomes inside a bow

To make the bow last longer, remove the bowstring when it is not in use.

TRAPS AND SNARES

If you place several traps, you have the ability to catch more game than one person with a gun. You must be familiar with the animals you are trying to catch and their behavior patterns, and try not to scare the prey away by leaving any signs of your presence.

Look for active areas with obvious signs of runs or trails, scat, tracks, chewed or scratched vegetation, nests, or feeding and watering areas. Make sure to set your traps or snares up without alerting the animal. You don’t want to disturb the soil or vegetation in the area, and you might even want to build the components in a different area. Do not use freshly cut or live vegetation, as they will usually bleed sap and this has a distinct smell that can alert animals.

Also make sure to remove the human scent from the area and the trap. It is difficult to remove the human scent, but you can mask it by having mud on your hands. Cover the smells on the trap by coating it with mud or dirt, let the trap season for a few days without touching it, smoke it over a fire, or use the gall and urine bladder from previous kills (do not use human urine). Camouflage the trap after you place it.

Try to funnel the animal toward the trap using its game path. This should be a bit farther from the trap than the animal’s body length. Most animals will choose to continue in the direction of travel rather than turning around. The funnel doesn’t have to be really thick, just a deterrent to veer from the trail or run. Ultimately the channel should become slightly wider than the target animal’s body so that it can’t go around the trap.

funneling trap

Baiting a trap increases your chance of success. The animal should know the bait so it draws it to the trap. Make sure that the bait is not also widely available in the area of the trap.

Construction of Traps and Snares

There are a lot of varieties of traps and snares, but the most important part is the trigger. If your trigger is not acting well, your trap or snare will be useless.

A deadfall is a fairly simple trap, with the premise that the animal triggers an object to fall, which thereby crushes or incapacitates the animal. Make sure the weight is heavy enough for the animal you intend to catch. One of the best methods to create a trigger for a deadfall is called the figure 4 system. You will likely have to practice this before you ultimately set up the trap to catch something, as it can be tricky getting the balance right. The system requires notching out three sticks and balancing them in the shape of a 4, as seen in the diagram below.

front view side view upright stick relese stick front view top view bait stick bait

palute deadfall closeup rock bait

It can be easier to balance the system using the Paiute deadfall method instead of the figure 4 system. They are similar but instead of the horizontal stick in the 4, use a small piece of wood tied to some cord. Loop it around the vertical stick in the 4 at a 90-degree angle to prop the cord. Bait the horizontal stick extending underneath the rock. When the animal disturbs the bait, it will release the trigger.

The bottle trap is another fairly simple trap similar to a deadfall. This works mainly for mice or voles. You dig a small hole with an opening that is smaller at the top than the bottom. This inverted opening prevents the animal from escaping. Prop up a rock or tree bark a couple of inches off the ground. The mouse will use this as a hiding spot and then fall into the hole.

bottle trap

A simple snare is one of the easiest systems. It is a noose that is well placed over a run or a den hole and attached to a firmly placed stake. A wire noose is the best option, as it won’t slacken. If the noose is made of cordage, you can use spiderwebs, twigs, or blades of grass to help hold it open.

A drag noose is similar to a simple snare but is intended for an animal run. Use pointed sticks on both sides of the run and then lay a stick across the top. Attach the noose to the stick and place the noose so it will be at the animal’s head height. The animal will get caught in the noose and pull the cross-stick off the supports. It will then drag the stick, which will promptly get caught up in the other forked sticks that you placed on the side of the run.

Simple snare

chpt_fig_038

A noosing wand is another method to catch small animals and birds. It often requires a lot of patience, as the user is involved with the process and can’t just set up the trap and leave. You want to find a branch or pole as long as you can comfortably handle, and attach a slip noose or wire to the end. You then slip the noose over the animal’s neck and pull it tight. Focus on an area outside an animal den or a bird’s nest. Use a rabbit club to kill the animal after catching it.

A twitch-up snare is a noose and a trigger to catch the animal. The trigger is typically a sapling under tension that lifts the animal off the ground and creates increased force to disable the animal. Use a sapling with good flexibility and can be bent without snapping. This is a good trap because it can catch an animal traveling in either direction. It works well in conjunction with a funnel to channel the animal toward the trap. Make sure the trigger is a hair trigger but also able to support the tension of the twitch. Use a stick or branch as the trigger that can handle the tension.

twitch-up snare

A squirrel pole is a long branch placed against a tree in an area displaying a lot of squirrel activity. Make several nooses along the pole on the top and the sides. Start the nooses about 2 feet from the top and bottom of the pole and fasten the nooses to the bottom. When the squirrel gets caught, it will struggle and fall from the pole and get strangled. You can use more than one squirrel pole in a location to increase your catch.

squirrel pole cross section saare attach from below

An Ojibwa bird pole is more functional in open areas near feeding and watering locations. Most birds like to perch above the ground, and that is the beauty of this trap in an open area. Find a straight branch about 5 to 6 feet tall, without any branches and preferably of a non-resinous wood. Sharpen both ends and then cut a small pen-size hole through the top of one of the ends below the sharpened area. Cut a 6- to 8-inch stick so that it is slightly bigger than the hole you just made, and shape it so it barely fits into the hole. Tie a knot in some cord around a small weight, like a rock, about the same weight as the bird species you are targeting. Pass the free end of the cord through the hole and then tie a slip noose to the far end of the smaller perch stick. Tie an overhand knot in the cord and place the perch in the hole. The weight will pull the cord through the hole until the knot prevents it from pulling all the way through. Make sure the noose covers the whole perch and is on both sides. The goal is for the overhand knot to release and allowing the weight to drop as soon as the bird lands on the perch. The noose will then grab the bird’s feet. If the weight is too heavy, it could cut off the bird’s feet, allowing the prey to escape.

A bow trap is fairly straightforward and is a very deadly trap, so take care if building this. A bow trap is essentially a bow and arrow sitting horizontally off the ground with a trigger or trip wire across the animal trail. The trigger will send the arrow flying. See the diagram for details.

*very dangerous! approach from back only bow trap

PREPARATION OF FISH AND GAME

Once you catch something to eat, you must know how to prepare it; otherwise, you will have wasted your time and energy, and will increase your chance of getting sick.

Fish

Do not eat any fish that seems spoiled. Cooking spoiled fish will not alleviate all issues, and this could lead to a serious condition. If a fish has sunken eyes, bad odor, or bad taste, or is slimy or discolored, do not eat it.

Fish must be eaten or cured shortly after catching them. They spoil very quickly in warm weather. Cut out the gills and blood vessels near the backbone. Gut fish that are more than 5 inches long and skin them. You can cook fish by boiling or skewing a whole fish on a stick and roasting it over a fire. The most nutritious way in a survival situation is actually to boil the fish with the skin and then drink the broth or use it to cook something else. You can also smoke fish to preserve it for later. Make sure to remove the head and backbone when curing it.

Snakes

Take extreme caution when trying to catch a poisonous snake. Keep in mind that a snake can lunge rapidly and in any direction. Make sure to pin its head so it can’t strike you.

Rattlesnake in striking position.

To skin a snake, cut the head off and then cut the skin down the body 7 to 10 inches. Peel the skin back and remove the entrails. Cut the snake meat into small sections and cook by roasting or boiling.

Other Game

After you have killed the animal, cut its throat and let the animal bleed out. When you make cuts, insert your knife and cut up through the skin to prevent getting hair on the meat. If you are near water, clean the animal. Then place the carcass on its back and cut it from throat to tail, cutting around all sexual organs. Remove the musk glands so the meat doesn’t get tainted, then remove the other entrails and the urine bladder, making sure not to spill urine on the meat. If you do so, wash it off the meat as soon as possible.

You can eat the heart, pancreas, spleen, kidneys, brain, tongue, and liver—just make sure to cut the liver open and inspect for parasites. The liver should be a deep red color. If it isn’t, throw it out. Cut the hide from the legs toward the cut you already made in the body and remove the hide. Cut off the feet and head. You can use these as bait for smaller animals. Cut the meat into smaller pieces to transport and cook.

skinning and butchering larger animals

+Tip: Taking shorter breaks or eating while on the move will help prevent you from getting cold. When you do take a break, put on another layer before you get cold. Your body uses more energy to heat back up than it does to maintain the same temperature level.

For smaller animals, like squirrels, cut around the midsection, place your fingers under the skin, and pull to remove the hide. Remove the entrails by cutting the body and pulling them out.

skinning small game

You can preserve meat by smoking, drying, freezing, or salting it. Most of these methods will require you to remain in the same place for an extended period. To dry the meat, cut it into small strips and hang it on a rack with sunny exposure and good airflow. Cover the meat somehow to keep the flies off.

To smoke the meat, you can either build a rack in a tepee shape or have the fire in a hole below ground and a wood rack above. The fire doesn’t have to be big or hot—it only needs to smolder so it smokes. Don’t let any of the meat touch the fire. If you have the choice, do not use resinous wood. Use hardwood and even slightly green wood, as it will smoke more. Meat smoked overnight should last about a week, and meat smoked a few days should last 2 to 4 weeks.

In cold temperatures, you can freeze or refrigerate the meat to preserve it longer. If you have salt, you can also soak the meat in saltwater to preserve it.

chpt_fig_045