| "Camping's Forgotten Skills: Backwoods Tips From a | | | | The common sense answer is: When it comes to |
| Boundary Waters Guide" -By Cliff Jacobson | | | | saving your life, you can't know enough. This |
| A good way to prepare for potential emergencies is | | | | publication fits into the "Be Prepared" mantra of the |
| to read and learn from informative books. "Camping's | | | | Boy Scouts, and improvisation is something everyone |
| Forgotten Skills: Backwoods Tips From a Boundary | | | | interested in survival should know. |
| Waters Guide" is one of those resources. | | | | Realistically, there isn't enough real wilderness left to |
| First published in 1992, author Cliff Jacobson is an | | | | spoil any of it, no matter how remote the area. Go |
| Eagle Scout, a teacher and guide in the Boundary | | | | camping and make a bed of boughs or a shelter by |
| Waters. He has written 11 other wilderness-related | | | | cutting down a tree and you'll get some infuriated |
| books. | | | | wacko (like me) in your face. |
| Jacobson writes that it's important to have high tech | | | | But it is possible that you end up with bits and pieces |
| equipment, and know how to use it. But (and here's | | | | of equipment when your canoe capsizes in the middle |
| where we get into the survival common sense | | | | of trackless wilderness. Or you may have to flee an |
| philosophy) what happens if you become separated | | | | office building that's on fire or collapsing because of |
| from your stove when your canoe capsizes? How will | | | | an earthquake. |
| you repair a large tear in your tarp or tent fly? Can | | | | In these similar survival situations, the only tools you |
| you start a fire to prevent hypothermia? | | | | will have are what you've got and what you can |
| This book is full of old tried-and-true techniques of | | | | improvise. This book can teach you some skills that |
| camping and wilderness survival and grownup Boy | | | | may prove to be invaluable. |
| Scouts will recognize some of the techniques. The | | | | Now, maybe your idea of survival is to go primitive. |
| book shows such skills as how to make a lean-to and | | | | Your survival kit will consist of a survival knife |
| bed out of pine boughs. And it's interesting to see | | | | knapped out of chert, and you'll rub two sticks |
| how to make a reflector oven out of a metal | | | | together to make fire. You will forage and hunt for |
| rectangular gasoline or vegetable oil. | | | | food, and become one with nature in the tradition of |
| Other little-used skills include improvising camp | | | | the original inhabitants of this country. |
| implements out of tin cans, a packsack out a leg | | | | Good luck with that. I admire people with the |
| from a pair of jeans, and a tent from a tarp. | | | | dedication to learn and preserve those aboriginal skills. |
| But, you might think, I already have the gear and | | | | But this book is not for you. |
| set-up for wilderness survival and shouldn't need to | | | | For the rest of us, "Camping's Forgotten Skills" would |
| improvise anything. Why read this book? Isn't the | | | | a valuable addition to any prepper or wilderness |
| common sense approach to have the gear and know | | | | survival library. |
| how to use it? | | | | |