Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Survival workshop slated for March
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
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If you have cable television, chances are good you've seen Les "Survivor Man" Stroud and Bear "Man Vs. Wild" Grylls battling the elements in their respective television shows.
It can make for good, entertaining TV, and it can be somewhat educational, too.
But everyone knows the best way to learn something is to actually do it.
Obviously, it's not ideal to have to practice survival skills in an environment when you're actually fighting to survive. Just like Grylls and Stroud, you go to school first.
Enter Nate Mahanes.
He's the program director at the Holiday Lake 4-H Educational Center, which will host a three-day Wilderness Survival and Outdoors Skills weekend later this winter.
The camp has offered survival material as part of other workshops, such as their annual Becoming an Outdoors Woman camps. This is the debut for a full-on survivor course.
"This is a first go for us," said Mahanes, quickly adding that "the instructors have been at it a long time."
As survival courses go, this one isn't too hardcore.
There will be no cold nights in makeshift shelters or eating earthworms.
Participants will stay in dry, heated cabins. They'll eat in the camp's galley.
They'll get instruction in a variety of useful topics, including survival basics, primitive shelters, water and wild edibles, wilderness travel, fire craft and dealing with exposure to dangerous heat and cold.
In short, students will learn to deal with some of the issues that many sportsmen eventually deal with.
The March 13-15 workshop costs $165, which covers all instruction, lodging and meals. Some classroom materials will be provided -- each student will get a bow drill fire starter, for example -- but students will be asked to bring a few basics.
"No one will have to buy any expensive survival gear," Mahanes said.
There is no minimum age, though participants under 18 must be accompanied by an adult.
"Based on the material, I don't think it would be suitable for anyone under 9," Mahanes said.
The workshop is among the unique courses the camp offers in the off-season.
"We do them for a couple of reasons," Mahanes said. "Not only do we want to encourage youth development, but we also want to encourage adult development.
"And they also provide us with activities during the non-camping season."
Another intriguing workshop is the flintlock rifle building workshop that the camp has hosted for the past half-dozen years or so. This year's camp is March 8-13. The registration deadline is early, which is necessary so organizers can prepare the kits participants will put together.
As usual, Mahanes said, the class is full.
"You have to sign up within a month to get in that one," he said.
There is still room in the camp's primitive bow-building workshop, during which participants will get a chance to craft their own longbow from a wooden stave. That workshop is Feb. 22-25, and costs $550.
More information about the courses is available on the camp's Internet site at holidaylake4h.com or by calling Mahanes at (434) 248-5444.
Fish education
Striper anglers can be notoriously tight-lipped about their most effective techniques.
Fortunately, Frank Skillman is generous with his knowledge.
Skillman is among the more accomplished anglers in the Smith Mountain Striper Club, and Friday he'll be the guest speaker at the club's monthly meeting. The topic will be winter jigging for stripers, a skill that really can come in handy during colder months.
The meeting at the Moneta Community Center starts at 7 p.m. Guests are welcome.
For more information, contact club president Ken Ulrich at 890-2463 or captken@netscape.com.
