I mentioned in my last blog my “Alone Challenge” experience I did with my son, I want to share more about that experience what we brought as our ten items, and what we took away from it more than just memories.
First how did we get to deciding that it was a good idea to build our own shelter and sleep out in the bush without any comforts. Well it all started when I had the brilliant idea to watch the Alone TV show with the family, thought it would be fun and interesting didn’t think my son, would be like “hey mom can we do that”. But once he asked I had no reason to say no, this would be a super cool experience, a lifelong memory and a fun activity to get out and enjoy a weekend with my son.
Firstly we had to plan and pick a date, we wanted to do it before the bugs got super bad but late enough we wouldn’t freeze, so we landed on the middle of April. We had already decided we would build the shelter ahead of time during the week as the kids had a PA day, so on their day off I took both my son and my daughter out and picked the location we wanted to do this challenge. Now we are very fortunate my parents have 130 acres so we picked a location on their property away from the house and the trail and made our shelter.
We went lean-to style, this is always my fall back, I have made many over the years with the kids, as my did used to do with my sister and I. Why? Because it requires the least amount of wood, protects you from the wind, and for the Alone challenge and sleeping out in it but limited to supplies it only needed one tarp to put over top. As we did decide to go in April there was a good chance of rain, and rain it did. In the TV show, if you have ever watched it, you can use what you find, my son and I went around and we found an old turkey hunting blind that was all ripped up from the winter and the wind, so we took that and used the random pieces of fabric to cover the sides of our lean-to. We used rocks along the back to help anchor down the tarp and again stop critters.
What supplies did we bring, we doubled up on some since there were two of us, and not really an alone challenge:
- 2 tarps (one for on-top of the shelter, and one for inside on the ground to keep us off the wet ground),
- a pot (to boil or water and cook our food in),
- some paracord (to tie the logs together, and to make our cooking stand and hang the pot….cord can be used for anything, always bring a bunch) https://amzn.to/4aJxax8
- an axe (used to make the shelter, split the fire wood, and self defence)
- a knife each (to cut rope, cut fabric, widdle wood for entertainment for a 10 year old, and as self defense ) https://amzn.to/4kJ1GMe
- 2 sleeping bags
- A flint https://amzn.to/3MotHMB
- 2 bowls and spoon https://amzn.to/40mK934
- A deck of UNO cards for entertainment (key for a long evening and distracting a 10 year old from the sounds of the night, and having some good old fashion fun) https://amzn.to/4kK7TaZ
- Canteen/ water bottles
Extra that the challenge allows you to have is bear protection and a first aid kit and the cloths on your back (the bear protection comes in handy for us, as we didn’t have bears but we had coyotes)
First we built our shelter, for us we built it in advance due to time constrictions on a weekend, but regardless we would have built our shelter first. Why? Its all about strategy and for me I had two strategic visions why I wanted the shelter to be first. As a mom making sure my son was safe and protected from the rain and animals was my number one goal, and secondly it was April so rain was likely and ensuring all our equipment stayed dry was key!
Second we collected wood so that when we built our fire we had enough supplied to keep it going as we knew we would need a fire to boil our water, cook our food, and to keep going into the evening before we went to bed.
Third it was time to light the fire up with flint, my son did that, he was a pro at it by now, but he, and I, were still super proud because it was a “survival” situation and he did it under pressure, and by this point it was raining. We managed to keep our wood dry, because of the initial strategy to build our shelter first, and we had our wood stacked inside against the wall (also gave a sense of security for another barrier against animals).
While the fire was getting built up, my son was looking after that, I got busy on building the cooking contraption to hang our pot from to make our dinner and boil our water.
Now that the fire was rip roaring away it was time to trek to the creek and get some water. We filled our pot with water walked back and tested our the cooking stand I had built. Wasn’t perfect but it worked, I also rigged it so I could raise and lower the pot based on the flames and if I was boiling water or cooking food (key so that the food doesn’t burn to the bottom of the pot). The ability to raise and lower the pot was vital to speed up cooking times.
It took longer than I expected to boil the water and so I made my sons meal first, and about an hour later I made my dinner. It was dehydrated pasta that we just had to add to the hot water and let cook for another 20-30 minutes. Turned out great, was pretty good seasoning, was nice and compact and easy to pack on this trip but any long journey or hike in camping trip.
For me, with a kid with me, but in any outdoor camping adventure it is important to clean up well after cooking and eating, so we walked back to the creek, a good 1000ft away from our camp and proceeded to wash our dishes and clean everything up. Hopefully removing any food scent from our campsite.
It was time to set up last minute items for the evening and relax and enjoy the fire. I always find that this time by the fire gets the kids talking, a great way to bond with them and create the space away from the commotion of life to deep dive with your kids completely naturally. I enjoy these moments very much, I learn things about the kids, they share stories, I share stories, stories that regularly wouldn’t come up in conversation.
It was getting dark, and honestly in the background I could hear the coyotes starting to howl far off in the distance up in the cedar bush, but I was trying to talk over so my son wouldn’t hear or notice. But as it crew darker my son naturally said he was ready to go inside our shelter. This is where the UNO cards come into play 😊 pardon the pun. We played UNO for awhile but I knew the coyotes were getting closer so I said why don’t we turn in, secretly hoping he would drift off to sleep before they made their way into the field near us. Well I think I was partially successful, as he drifted off to sleep he was woken up by the screams of coyotes clearly killing something or fighting about 5 feet from our shelter.
Part of the “bear protection” kit was a sound grenade, meant as a distress signal for people walking downtown in the city or hiking and they need to signal for help. I told my son to cover his ears and walked him through what I was doing, and I pulled the pin and threw the sound grenade out the shelter. Immediately silence from the animals, couldn’t even hear them run off, and frankly too scared to stick my head out of the shelter to check right away. I waited probably 1 minute then peaked out and saw no animals, so I told my son he was okay and went out and grabbed the grenade and put the pin back in, I came back into the shelter and my son started saying “mom the coyote is in the shelter, don’t panic mom its okay, stay still” confused for a millisecond I realized he still had his ear covered and he hadn’t heard me say they were gone and didn’t know that it was me moving around. I kinda chuckled and touched him and said “its me buddy, your okay they are gone” I proceeded to explain what had happened and how he was confused and he too had a little chuckle.
My heart by this point was honestly pumping pretty hard, I knew we would have animals whether a coyote or a bear somewhere near us during the night but never expected them to be so close, I was ready with my knife and additional protection equipment to take action as needed, but REALLY didn’t want to. Anyways we chit chatted for a bit, then I said okay lets try and get some sleep, knowing full well I was staying awake all night. About 30 minutes later likely around 11 at night at this point, my son started talking again and trying to talk, I knew at that point by the energy in his voice that he was freaked out and he too was not going to be sleeping. So I asked him if he wanted to pack it in and hike home, or pack up just our sleeping bags and walk to a cabin near by. (we had built a cabin for my sister during COVID, as she lived in an apartment at the time and this was a nice country escape for her during that time). He opted for the cabin, after I reassured him I had protective gear ready for the walk and that I had him and he was safe.
Safe and sound we made it to the cabin and slept together on the single bed, not the best night sleep of my life, but better than having him scared of the coyotes coming back. The next morning we woke up around 5:30 when the sun was starting to rise, it was raining you could hear it pouring down on the tin roof, and he asked if we could go back out light up a new fire, make breakfast and finish our adventure back at our shelter.
I was excited and yet honestly tired and probably a quarter of me was thinking I just wanted to go home and be warm, but the other part of me was super proud of him that one he wanted to finish on a high note, feel successful and battle the rain to make a fire, boil water and make oatmeal.
So we did we made our breakfast, and as we were packing up and taking down our shelter my daughter came out with my mom (she had spent the night up at their house). You could see the proudness radiate from my son to show the fire and explain what had happened during the night.
We may not have made it through the night, but we both persevered, adapted and not deterred from trying the alone challenge again. To me this related directly back to work life. You can have a horrible day, a bad career move or big mistake, but what matters is determination to pick yourself back up, strategize plan and figure out what went wrong, what you would do differently next time and continue on. I am proud that my son has those foundational skills to set him up for success in all aspects of life. And for my daughter who wanted to help build the shelter, but know this wasn’t her time, she wasn’t ready yet, to do the entire night in the shelter, and knew she would have impacted the experience for her brother, that takes bravery, self recognition and selflessness, other amazing qualities you need in life. And she came out in the morning to see how the night went because of her love for us and her curiosity. Moments like this is where I really feel these experiences are key to shaping the character of kids, but also adults, this can be done at any point in your life and you will take something different from it, shape you in a different way and build character and memories.
Everything is transferable in many facets of your life. Always make sure to plan, pivot, adapt, develop a new course of action and preserver on and find the positive and end on a happy note.
Signing off with happy thoughts and good feelings in my heart
ForestGirl003