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Lost! My Gear for Surviving an Emergency Overnight Camp

Description

This November, I was intrigued by the thought that hardly anyone is out enjoying the great outdoors, specifically camping and canoeing, this late in the fall. It is the shoulder season, and it seems only hunters and musky fishermen are out. What if I could show that shoulder season is just as fun and rewarding as winter and summer camping?

Really, it comes down to owning and using the proper gear, even if that means the gear that can be carried on your back in a small day pack.

So, off I went for two days with no tent, a tiny tarp, no sleeping bag and no sleeping pad.

Tags: My Self reliance,shawn james,winter camping,Bushcraft,Woodcraft,Survival,Primitive skills,Nature,Preparedness,Camping,Fire,Self Reliance,Self Sufficiency,Living Off The Land,Off The Grid,Survival Kit,Bushcraft Kit,Firesteel,Ferro Rod,Carving,Primitive Shelters,Feathersticks,Campfire,Campfire Cooking,Bushcraft Breakfast,Fjallraven,Wild Edibles,Foraging,Life Hacks,Camping Hacks,Canoe,Canoeing,Fishing,Hunting,outdoors

Video Transcription

Shawn James here from my self-reliance and I am out on a two-day November solo canoe camping trip in the rain is I'm gonna sleep outside as if I got lost on a hunting trip with my canoe I have just a minimal some minimal gear that I can carry in a day pack that I would normally carry in a day pack when I'm going hunting for small game so stay tuned and hope you enjoy it and thanks for watching

let's go over the contents of the bag real quick well we still have a good light got the Sun on me I don't know that's not too bright but the clouds are starting to roll in so we're gonna get that rain to think for sure so in the back here I've got some rain pants with that rain coming and I definitely don't want to keep these dry and where am i fjällräven cabs I guess they are and they are not wax right now I've been wearing them all summer and I don't like the wax on them because my legs sweat like a bastard so I've got got these not not waterproof even if I did there's still not under percent waterproof so it still wants the rain pants with this kind of weather that's coming in so I've got colca tack coca tat hydrous hydrous 3l these are actually dry pants for kayaking for water sports and they have the feed in them you'll see me wearing these and almost all I'm like all my canoe trips so rather than just wear regular rain pants which I would if I was just out for a walk in the woods when I'm in the canoe I want to wear these in case I don't wear them tight around my waist to keep the water from getting into them and tip of good wear a dry top is well underneath my hunting stuff but it was so warm I didn't want to wear that full outfit on this trip but I'm gonna bring rain gear I might as well hop good stuff with feet in them that are gonna keep me dry and warm if I do spill on the canoe so that's in the back

inside have got my day pack which you see quite often and it's not just for wearing as a day pack it's also of course keeps all my camp here neat and organized so I've got my I've got lighters all over the place of course got some water treatment stuff but this is my personal hygiene kit and the top here easily accessible got a thermometer on there inside I've got my cup this is what I'm gonna be doing all my cooking in this weekend or these two or three days that I'm going to be out here I have paracord everywhere I have snare wire that I always have with me and they're the hairs right now the varying hairs I'm not in a area that I can legally hunt them have to be north of the French River in Ontario to trap them with a with a hunting license down here I can shoot them but but I cannot trap them legally emergency situation of course I would and right now because the snow is not down but the weather got cold varying hairs that are turning white apparently heard that a couple days ago or yesterday so they're really standing out but I'm not not hunting a swamp although I might go for a swamp walk some more I'll see what I can find so cup spoon that's my complete cooking and eating utensil kit for a day trip you went remember I just packed this for a day trip as if I was going hunting so fucking sick gonna stop for lunch I'll just boil water right in that cup have some oatmeal or some spruce tea or fine tea or something so that's all I brought cooking

always have a headlamp should always have a headlamp some kind of lighting emergency lighting that's regardless if you're just going up for the morning if you're stuck out there and you need to get back at night and it gets dark on you or you get hurt nice to have that light always carry that got my huge honking fire steel that goes with me almost everywhere I've got another one on my belt where paracord got a few of these as bit fuel tubs there can actually boil a cup of water just with one of these tabs so these are handy for getting fire started when it's really wet oh if you know if you're getting cold and hypothermic and you're losing your coordination nice to have a really good fire starter that if you light it's gonna stay lit if it's good even to get your hands warm sometimes you get so cold and hypothermic gut you can't handle a knife properly do a feather stick or to break up some twigs and use a lighter so it's nice to have a strong fuel source I also have my spot gen3 cumin activating it quite as often but I will send my wife a an okay sign okay signal tonight and I'll do that again in the morning especially because she knows I don't have proper gear out here tonight and it's gonna get pretty cold and wet which could cause hypothermia that's it Mike deepak back in there got gloves two or three four pair of gloves scattered around like here always do that at this time here's your hands get cold and the things don't dry out very well but very quickly these are really liking these actually I bought them for kayaking a couple years ago or paddling bike kit maybe the spring yeah for fishing the spring and neoprene on the back leather grip on the on the palm so they're actually quite a bit warmer than even a wool glove when a wool glove gets cold or when a wool glove gets wet so I really actually like these for everything not just paddling I like it for

walking around in the woods or hunting you a use of your full use your hands your fingers and you know wet on the vegetation and stuff from do in the morning actually it's nice to have those more paracord more firestarter it's waterproof

these hurricane matches or something either hurricane matches with some cotton got that a Canadian outdoor equipment that my day pack I'm gonna start carrying this I think a lot more when I'm on just short trips its that survive outside longer the SOL vivvy that emergency Bibby that he use I might as well carry that it's pretty small and light and you think it's cool tonight or I get wet I might jump in that I'm gonna try not to use it because I don't want to always count on I don't I want to find out if I can do without this thing but I think it's small and light enough that I probably will keep it as a standard item in my day pack always do something a little bit different with cutting implements so I'm just gonna bring actually a a bigger camp axe but I thought you know there's so much wood in Ontario in this area so much dead pine and oak that probably didn't need to anything significant plus it's not all that cold so not gonna need a roaring fire not going to need great big logs but I brought that anyway for splitting and for cutting a boughs for my bed that is going to come in handy the cutting implements I like to have ideally if I could have everything I wanted I would have a a bow saw our buck saw a an axe of some sort you know ideally a little bit bigger one than that more like that for stag small forest axe from Grand Prince for his Brooks this is a hultafors classic it's a very small once more for carving and detail work then I have my

spend forget this I'll put the dimensions in the comments below as well that's my spend bucks off goes together pretty good it's a good saw I'm hoping they pick up with a little boreal agawa canyon boreal 21 so I think that's the ideal saw for me but that's the one I'm using on this trip if I don't carry this if I hope she have an even smaller bag or if I'm running out of room I'll put the leave this at home and I'll use a silky pocket boy lot smaller and I can put it right on my belt it's a ground sheet it's one up use in the past for winter winter camping actually like to unit for winter camping on the ground that'll care if I ruin it's just a I guess it's a ground sheet from a somebody's tent that I found on a portage and Algonquin Park so I've got it and I threw it in might use it here is my ditch kit I'm gonna wear a lot of this probably at night so instead of a sleeping bag really what I have is extra clothing so I love multi-use things if I have to have a limited space in this bag if I have to choose between a sleeping bag and extra clothing around it pick extra clothing cuz I get cold during the day I can wear this I'm not gonna wear a sleeping bag during the day and even if I'm sitting around camp getting cold of course I can put this stuff on I cannot put a sleeping bag on I'm working around camp so it's a basically quick rundown though have a Eddie Bauer down jacket it's really warms like 800 fill and you know I wear it all winter I have a down hat that's similar to that I have pair of woolen underwear bottoms wool long underwear top and in a wolf buff merino wool buff so goes around the neck keeps you warm then I can pull it up and actually use it as a hat as well so that is yeah well and a big pair of icebreaker wool socks in here as well so that would be what I'll wear tonight I think

then on the bottom of the kid I have this first-aid kit Trent Presler from Presler Woodworks you should check out his social media accounts pretty cool came up and spent a couple days with me and I'll gone can park and gave me that great paddle on this this first-aid kit so I'm gonna I'll go over this first-aid kit to in another video gloves a my water bottle that's it that's my entire kit I didn't bring a filter this time of year is too much danger of that many that Sawyer many freezing on me so I didn't bring it instead I just brought some some water treatment tablets so one tablet goes into this 1 liter of water and I can boil in my cup as well that's my emergency water really is boiling water in the cup so that's it that's the entire pack so you'll see there's no sleeping bags no sleeping pad I've got the tarp for a shelter I've got a little bit of food not much for cooking implements and that's it so let's see what I can do to get a bed made here and I'll be wearing those probably tonight keep me dry along with this raincoat

it's a gore-tex guide fishing guide jacket I think I got this one at Bass Pro Shops actually Cabela's has one similar and a really really good rain jackets I bought this back when I had the boat get it on George Bay you really want this really heavy-duty gore-tex double thickness rain jackets great hood just fantastic I mean it's storm proof it's bomb proof rain gear I have the full fib as well but I wanted to be practical I would never wear that bib walking around the woods hunting it's just way too bulky and and hot and not packable if I was going to take it off it's just not going to pack my bag so that's a reasonable size that actually would bring that 4 L wear a pair of thin gore-tex camouflage hunting pants so let me put this stuff away let's get this camp built before the rain comes in

About the Author

My Self Reliance

My Self Reliance

Shawn James Canadian outdoorsman, photographer, guide and self-reliance educator. Writer for Ontario Tourism. myselfreliance.com Outdoor adventures, including survival, bushcraft, canoeing, kayaking, hiking, snowshoeing, fishing and camping.

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