TV Shows For Backpackers

Not many television shows are produced with backpackers in mind. Still, there are some tv shows that can be appreciated especially by backpackers. They may even contain some useful lessons. Here are some examples of the best.

The Classic National Geographic Specials

Specials produced by the National Geographic Society are great viewing when you want to get motivated for new backpacking trips. The older ones are some of the best for this, like the thirty-year-old episode where four guys built a raft and floated down the Yukon River. You can find many of these on DVD now in public libraries, as well as in some video rental stores. You can se newer episodes on the National Geographic Network and occasionally on PBS.

Les Stroud's Survivorman

This television program is all about wilderness survival. You'll find it on the Discovery Channel, the Science Channel, and possibly others. It's about one man against the elements. The man in this case is Les Stroud, who is put in various environments to survive for seven days while filming himself.

One great feature of Survivorman is that each show has a "theme. " The Canadian arctic episode, for example , has Stroud left with a broken-down snowmobile. He cannibalizes this various useful items, including the seat cushion, which he uses for a insulating sleeping pad. The Sonoran desert episode has him in the middle of a desert with a broken dirt bike, and he uses wires from this to weave a blanket of grass.

The show is creative and entertaining, but is a survival program useful for backpackers? I think so. There are specific techniques of survival that Stroud shows us and, more importantly, the inspiration the show provides. Survivorman lets you know that you can survive - and it gets you in the habit of thinking about how to use everything around you. This is knowledge that not only makes the wilderness more interesting, but could also save your life someday.

I Shouldn't Be Alive

It's a pure survival story show - all true stories of people that have survived some of the most horrible circumstances in every type of wilderness. In one episode the story is told of a couple who were stranded for nine days in the middle of winter in the Sierra Nevadas - with a baby. They really shouldn't be alive, but they are.

This is the point of watching a show like this. It is inspiring. Watch the episode where the man crashes his plane in the African desert and breaks his spine, then faces killer elephants, ants, thorns, hyenas and more. If you are ever lost in the wilderness, just recall a few of these shows and you'll know that people have survived worse situations than yours. You won't give up hope too easily.

The various "reality shows, " like survivor, are mostly drama and more about political survival than wilderness experience, but there are other things for backpackers to watch on television. These include movies that get us motivated, like the "White Wolf, " series. Movies like these may not be full of great acting, but they always put teenage hikers in beautiful setting that make us want to get the pack out and start making plans.

One final recomendation. If you can catch it on television or rent it from the video store, watch "The Edge, " with Anthony Hopkins. It is an inspirational survival story for starters. It also has some of the most beautiful scenery you'll see in a movie. You'll want to start planning a trip to the Canadian Rockies before the movie is even over. This one is my kind of backpacker television.

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4 Basic Wild Survival Foods

In my last survival article I discussed the Sacred Order; shelter, water, fire, food. When you have your shelter, water source and fire you will begin to think about eating. In this article I will discuss 4 basic wild edibles that can be easily found almost everywhere.

First, I would like to touch upon an important spiritual aspect of gathering from Earth Mother. It is important to remember to ask permission to take from Earth Mother and then give thanks, express gratitude. Give something back. A tobacco offering is appropriate if you have it. Collect what you need with a “caretaker” attitude, which means gather in a way that will leave the area healthier and better able to grow and replenish. Ponder the effect your taking will have on the next 7 generations, remember, we did not inherit the land from our forefathers, we are borrowing it from our children and grandchildren. Leave plenty for them!

Correct identification of plants is of extreme importance! Your life may depend on it! Be certain of the identification of plants before eating as some plants are poisonous. I suggest you obtain a field guide and start learning to identify edible plants in your area as well as poisonous plants to stay away from.

Pine: Pinaceae Family, Pinus Genus.

Pines are evergreens with needles that grow in clusters of 2-5.

Pine is edible year round, however you must eat from a living tree or a very freshly downed tree. Parts to eat: needles, inner bark, buds, young green cones, pollen, nuts.

Needles: Pull bundle cap off, chop needles and make tea. Steep in hot water until needles sink to bottom.

Inner Bark: This is the cambium layer. It is white in color and is edible year round. The inner bark is high in nutrients, vitamin C and sugar.

You can eat the inner bark raw, boil it like noodles or dry it and pound it into flour.

Pine Buds: Eat the bright green new ones in the spring. You can eat raw or boil them and sweeten with honey or sugar.

Pollen: Gather by shaking into a bag. Eat raw, in stew, or mix with your pine bark flour. The pollen is very high in protein.

Young Green Cones: In summer you can gather the newly forming cones and boil for a few minutes and eat.

Pine Nuts: In autumn gather the nuts from pine cones and eat raw or grind into pine nut butter.

Oak: Quercus genus.

Part eaten: Acorns

Oak is very high in tannic acid so more preparation is needed before eating.

After gathering your acorns you will want to dry them for several weeks for storage. If you are going to use them right away you don’t have to dry them.

First you will shell them. Then winnow them using a shallow bowl or basket, toss up and down to remove the husks.

You must leech acorns before using! To leech chop them into quarters and put into already boiling water for 5 minutes. Pour the water off and repeat this process 5-6 times. This process removes the tannic acid and makes the acorns edible.

Eat acorns or pound into flour. Acorn flour can be used just like regular flour. The flour loses about half it’s nutrients in 2-3 days so don’t pound into flour until you are ready to use it. Store your acorns in a cool, dry, dark place, keeps for several months.

Acorns are high in protein and fat.

Grass: Graminaceae (14, 000 species)

Parts eaten: roots, leaves, seeds.

You can eat the roots of grasses year round either raw or cooked. Eat the leaves raw or dry and pound (grind) to add to other flour. Don’t grind until you are ready to use it.

Seeds are ready when they turn are brownish in color and fall off into your hand. You can boil and eat like hot cereal or pound them into flour. The flour makes yummy breads and cakes.

High in vitamins.

Caution! Be aware of Ergot Fungus! Ergot fungus grows in the place of seed, it is enlarged, purple or black in color. Is most common in domestic rye, but can be found in grasses. Ergot Fungus prefers moist areas. Do your research and make sure you can identify Ergot Fungus!

Cattail: Typha genus

Parts eaten: new shoots in spring, flower head, leaves, pollen, rhizome (root), corms.

Shoots: Gather in spring or early summer. Always cook the shoots (bake, boil) and eat the core.

Flower head: Steam or boil and eat like corn on the cob.

Pollen: Eat raw or use for flour.

Leaves: Eat the leaves the same as grasses.

Rhizome (root): Make flour with the roots. Wash the root, split it in half, dig out the white part into a container of water. Let it settle, then pour off the water. The flour will be in the bottom. You can dry the flour for later use or use it right away to make cakes, breads, etc . Nutrients: starch and protein.

Corms: Corms are found along the roots. Feel for a hard knot and collect the hard knot. Prepare and eat like a potato. High in vitamins and other nutrients.

These are the basic wild edible foods that can keep you alive and healthy for a long period of time in a survival situation. Having a spiritual connection with our Earth Mother is the most important skill of all. Learn her voice and how to communicate with her and instead of surviving, you will flourish.

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Catastrophe Survival Tips for You, Your Family and Your Business

Whether it is a natural disaster like hurricane Katrina or an unnatural catastrophe like an upwind industrial chemical explosion, what you do now to protect yourself and your family can make the difference between life and death. After you survive, rebuilding your life and business quickly becomes critical.

Please, do not for one moment think that Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is going to be able to get to you in time, unless you have already taken these steps to rescue yourself. Tragically, even 10 days after post-Katrina rescue efforts began, there were still people starving to death in New Orleans.

It can happen anywhere (here), and it is not if, it is when it will happen. No one can predict the future, but you can take measures now so you know that you have done what you can to prepare.

Check out these Catastrophe survival tips for You and Your Family" at www.ORGANIZE.com that you can use to buy yourself and your family more time. Time is the second most important factor in surviving a catastrophe. Water is number one, so our first tip is:

1) Without water you lose your ability to make clear decisions within 24 hours. Thirst kills you faster than famine. At Work: Keep a backpack at work with as much bottled water as you can carry. Plus, put in dried fruit, power bars, your daily medications or vitamins and a small first aid kit. Keep a Family Emergency Numbers List inside too.

At Home: Put at least enough water in sealed containers so that your family will have one gallon per day for two weeks. I just bought shrink-wrapped cases of quart-sized plastic water bottles and stacked them under the backyard picnic table. Even if some of it is compromised you will still have other bottles intact. Swap water out every six months - put a reminder in your calendar.

2) Create a Catastrophe Kit on your property outside your house and garage (in a back corner of your yard, for instance). It is as easy as getting a plastic 55-gallon trash bin with clips on the lid to hold it shut. Or use a small plastic/metal garden 'shed' in your yard.

3) Clean out your closets and put in layered clothing AND tough shoes for each family member. You need a complete change of dry clothing that you can be warm enough in to sleep while dressed.

4) Clean out the camping gear you are not using: this is the perfect place for it. Tents, Tarps, Ponchos, Sleeping bags or Wool blankets (wool will keep you warmer even when wet), cooking gear, Lighters, Utensils, Can-openers and a pan to boil water.

5) Make a separate sealed container with food in it. Canned goods as complete meals are ideal. Dried foods will use precious water to reconstitute. Instant coffee keeps withdrawal headaches away. If you smoke, put a carton of cigarettes in to prevent withdrawal sickness. Concentrate on meals (e. g. beef stew, spaghetti) and carbohydrate foods like cereal bars and dried fruit leathers for energy.

6) If you eat a protein drink (or power bar) regularly, throw in a big container (or a 12-pack of cans/bars) and enough liquid to mix it up. This is a good concentrated food source.

7) Include another plastic sealed container with all of the basic medicines or vitamins you and your family must have. Some doctors will give you double prescriptions once if you ask. Clean out your bathroom cabinets and make sure to pack first aid remedies like ibuprofen, tylenol, aspirin, bandages, anti-bacterial ointment, etc . You can get cost-effective home emergency kits at Costco.

8) Important: a battery radio for emergency broadcasts; ideally a CB radio or Nextel-type network phone; your Family List with names, essential medical and contact information, as well as local emergency numbers. Call friends/family outside your state to leave update info. Local phone access is often turned off or destroyed during emergencies.

9) Maintain a Catastrophe mini-Kit for your car(s). Always have a blanket, food (e. g., power bars) and water in sealed containers. You can buy quality car emergency kits at Costco, too.

Create regular backups of your personal and business computer systems. I use Norton Ghost to image copy my entire drive onto an external hard drive and store it in the trunk of my car parked in my driveway. You probably won't be thinking about your business in the middle of a disaster, but when you survive you will need to rebuild your life and business as soon as possible.

It's more fun hassling re-creating your working drive than it is to go out of business. You can also do regular backups to remote sites on the web. I highly recommend my backup 'guru' Sallie Goetsch's weekly Backup Reminder ezine. For essential backup tips visit the FileSlinger(tm) Backup Blog www.fileslinger.com/blog

"May you and yours be safe and well. " But , do your family's Catastrophe Kits this weekend anyway, OK? Organizing cannot stop a catastrophe, but after you survive it will help you and your family in recovering quickly.

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December 21, 2012: A Dream Age Begins!

The Folktale

In the early winter of December in the year 2012, the Mayans and many other ancient cultures of antiquity have predicted the 'return of the gods' in their literature and other records. This return is actually the return of a consciousness that humans have not seen in tens of thousands of years, going back to when we were humans in spirit form. 'the fall of man' is what it is now called that we lost many eons ago. In a nutshell 'the fall of man' was a series of events that caused human beings in the spirit to become desirous for themselves and thus become human beings 'in the flesh' which was the 'fall' part. Our selfishness (desire to seek for the self alone) separated us from God and so we then manifested physical bodies in the physical world and still reside in these physical bodies today.

This means, in simple terms that the frequency that our consciousness operated on was lowered because of our lack of sharing, and it was lowered to a point that we could not maintain our spiritual bodies (today known as the light-body) and as a result we became physical creatures with physical creature issues, like needing to eat and getting rid of bodily waste as well as the need to breathe air to survive. We lacked enough of Gods divine essence flowing through us and so we needed to live like the physical creatures that we become. The problem with this is obvious in that if you have all of these physical needs and symptoms that make you selfish, how can you get back to the spiritual body where none of these physical issues exist.

The Cycle

When the 'fall of man' occurred, it happened to us as a collective. This meant that everyone experienced this fall together as a race of beings. In December of 2012, we as a collective will experience the raising of our consciousness through a raise in our collective frequency that our nervous systems operate on and this raise in frequency will be the 'return of the gods' that the Mayans and other ancient cultures spoke of. This will happen to us as a result of a shift of our solar system and galaxy that occurs every thirteen thousand years.

Our planet takes a year to go around our sun one time, and our sun takes twenty-six thousand of our years to go around the center of our galaxy one time. High energy particles escape from the series of black holes in the center of our galaxy shooting out cosmic material in only one direction (instead of all directions) in a way that divides our galaxy in half with one half (equaling the first thirteen-thousand years) getting a constant fresh supply of new matter, and the other half of our galaxy getting no constant fresh supply of direct new matter material (equaling the second thirteen-thousand years). We need twenty-six thousand years to make one full revolution of one half fresh new cosmic energy and the other half no fresh new cosmic energy.

When we are in the thirteen-thousand years with no fresh new cosmic energy we experience a lack of sufficient 'light' and as a result we become selfish and desirous to ourselves instead of sharing. When we are in the thirteen-thousand years where we get constant fresh new cosmic energy, we have an increase of light from our galactic center which increases the frequency that our nervous system operates on and as a result we experience an increase in our consciousness and the desire to share everything and help each other ceaselessly. This happens to us every twenty-six thousand years. Half of our solar systems revolution around our galactic center is happy and positive (the girl cycle) and the other half of our solar systems revolution around our galactic center is sad and negative (the boy cycle). We are at the point that we can become divine again when we are going through the girl cycle. This is what Jesus explained to his apostles and others during his time among us. As we go around our galactic center we experience either one or the other of these two states throughout history.

It is unfortunate that most people have been brainwashed to believe that humanity has only been around for a mere sixty-five hundred years or so. They have been deprived of a great revelation!

The Result

What does this have to do with December of 2012?

In December of 2012 we will officially enter 'the girl cycle' of our revolution around our galactic center and that is what the Mayans and others meant when they said that their gods would return. This will be the start of thirteen thousand years of happiness, peace and positive energy. Many early cultures spoke of this cycle like the ancient Mayans, the Hopi, the Essene community and The Cathars of early France, as well as many great souls that have counseled us over the centuries like Buddha and Jesus. We have not been openly taught of this cycle, how and why it happens and have been deprived of its secrets, the greatest of which is that the girl cycle (divine feminine) it is coming again in December of 2012 and we can regain our divinity again when this happens.

We have been led to believe that we are not worthy of Heaven or of God but this is false and misleading. We are simply going through 'the boy cycle' and it is not our fault that we are like this. In December of 2012, there will come great difficulties with this coming change. Those in power will not give up all that they have without a fight and that fight will be an attack on you and I. An attack on our consciousness!

They are responsible for the horrible things that will happen leading up to December of 2012 including the natural disasters, intentional famine and spread of manufactured diseases as well as general negativity in our society mostly through the news media. These people will make us fight each other and call it 'competition' and claim that it is good for us when they are fully aware of the devastating effects that it has on us as a collective.

Oddly enough, their efforts will fail miserably and the new era will start as scheduled. In the few years that we have left in this era, we had better brace ourselves for some very difficult times ahead. It would be prudent and smart to find out what is being said about 2012 and how to prepare for it whether it be good or bad. It is always wise to be prepared instead of sorry, especially if you have kids to care for.

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The Dangers Of The Outdoors

If you ever decide to go hiking, even for a short period of time, I can't express how important it is to be smart, and know that no matter how short of a time you plan on spending out there, anything can happen to you.

It's the really small things that people don't even think about that gets them into trouble. I am a very good example of this. I decided to go trail running a few years back, and I was feeling really energetic that particular day. Of course I planned on running in, and running out before the sun went down. So the sun started to go down, and I decided it was time to run back. Now the trail markers crossed at grey and blue and consequently, they looked exactly the same, with just a little less sunlight. I was lost until the next morning because before I knew it, there was no sun, and no moon what so ever.

I was lucky in fact. What I didn't know was that in any direction it was only a matter of miles in any direction to find a way out. I didn't know that of course and i went in circles a bit, but imagine if it was a large park, and I could have been lost for weeks. That's potential death for many reasons I can name and all i needed... was a flashlight and it would never have happened.

Stupid right? Well its really not, in all honesty, its something so simple, especially with my background, I figured it couldn't happen to me. And it happens to a lot of people and some aren't so lucky. You need to be educated at least a little bit before you go out there, and bring some emergency supplies just in case.

Every time I tell people that moose are dangerous they look at me funny like "wha"? Those are people that may try and pet the creature that can trample you to death. Or they think because they are packing a knife, they're going to fend off a bear. The chances are slim I hate to say. In fact in almost all cases people run from bears, and then what good is that knife? But if you knew that running downhill is your best chance against a bear you'd come out unscathed (most people think playing dead is best).

Just don't make the mistake of thinking that accidents, and unfortunate incidents can't happen to you. If you do your research, and bring the essential, you can always be assured that you'll have nothing but a fun, safe time.


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