So you think you're a bushcrafter? Water Challenge

  • Hey Guest, Early bird pricing on the Summer Moot (29th July - 10th August) available until April 6th, we'd love you to come. PLEASE CLICK HERE to early bird price and get more information.

Llwyd

Forager
Jan 6, 2013
243
2
Eastern Canada
I am new here and would not really call myself a bushcrafter. More of an outdoor guy.

I have been reading a few of the primitive living threads and that got me thinking about how I stack up after the better part of 40 years experience, the first part of my life following my grandfather through the woods and the later 2.5 decades more or less doing it for fun.

It was specifically THoaken's thread about living iron age style on a permanent or at least a semi permanent basis that got me thinking of an iron age scenario.

For the purposes of the challenge you are allowed an axe and a knife for gear and that is all.
All you need to do is collect water with them. If you think this primitive outdoor lark is all pretty easy, try my challenge.

So here it is...

WATER CHALLENGE

So you have caught the eye of the iron age princess Buttercup (unless you are female then roll with it and insert your own fantasy).

So you are snogging away in the roundhouse when you are caught by her dad Calgacus who beats you up and ties you to a tree. He explains that Buttercup was to be married off to the Roman General Odorous Maximus as part of some political peace treaty thing he is working on.
Since you have deflowered his Buttercup this means war so he plans to sacrifice you to his heathen gods to ask for good fortune in the upcoming conflict. He just has to go make some blue paint from some mustardy looking plants so you should be killed sometime early next week.
Two nights later Buttercups mom cuts you free from the tree and tells you that Buttercup is prisoner in one of the roundhouses and gives you a knife and an axe (they are pretty good ones because her family is rich). She tells you to rescue Buttercup and high tail it out of the village for the wild lands because she does not want to see her daughter married to General Odorous Maximus. Good luck and take care of Buttercup.
You rescue Buttercup and sneak out of the village. For two days you are pursued by the angry Calgacus but you give him the slip in the forest and make good your escape. Unfortunately after two days on the run Buttercup is exhausted and dehydrated. She is really sick and throwing up making a celebratory snogging less appealing. You know she needs water and fast so you head out into the woods to find a way to bring her water. She is hallucinating and cannot be moved. You think she may be possessed by demons but you really like her so you go to get water hoping that will help. Besides most women are possessed anyway right?

So there you have it. Take your axe and your knife, go out into the woods and bring back a liter of water to save Buttercup.

Basic assumptions;

1) Buttercup has an Iron Age gastrointestinal track so you do not need to filter the water.
2) Any axe and knife will do because Buttercup's mom gave you the best the iron age could offer on par with modern stuff.
3) Buttercup has not had water for two days but has been stressing herself more than usual with all the running and hiding she probably has less than four hours to live and will not make it past noon.
4) You could not move her any further and are at least 300 yards (or 3 football pitches) away from the nearest water source. Your container must get water that far at least.
5) This is an emergency. A pretty container is not necessary.
6) Your knife is a straight blade and not a fancy spoon knife.

Other than that, use what nature provides and save Buttercup. If you make a leather goat skin bag, document the goat to bag process in full with photos. Calgacus will not miss a single goat. Don't tell me what you would do or what you think you would do. Tell me what you actually did do. Post your examples in here with photos. Photos or it didn't happen.

ALSO; Please document your failures as they are just as relevant to the question. I almost failed myself by trying to get too fancy.


You can cheat if you want and we may never know but who learns anything from you trying to look good?


***

On my side of the pond I have to use Native American tech and Butternut is a Maliseet girl.

I had an idea of what I was going to do but no plan so I parked my car in a spot that was about 300 yards from a brook and left my nalgeen bottle on the hood. I was in an area of woods fairly average for this part of Canada not too far out of town.

I left on my quest at 1:30pm. At 1:35pm I came across junk left over as trash from an unethical modern camper that would have saved Buttercup in the first 5 minutes. Alas I was not allowed to use it.
DSCF1016_zpsd024ee08.jpg


By 1:45pm I had found something close to what I was looking for but not quite. I was about a kilometer away when I came across a younger birch tree but the bark was too new and the tree was not quite thick enough.
DSCF1017_zpsccb23ce9.jpg


A few minutes later and a hundred yards deeper in I found a tree that was more to my liking. Thicker and older with bark better suited to making a water carrier.
DSCF1018_zps82f43e45.jpg

Because of modern sensibilities I was careful not to take the inner bark (which would work better) and only took the outer layers to make my container.
DSCF1020_zps061ecba9.jpg

With a nice piece of bark to work with I quickly rolled it into a cone before it dried out and started to crack.

I should have stopped at this point but I continued on to find some spruce roots. To find a spruce tree I needed to get to a different area in the woods so about a kilometer later I found what I was looking for. Realistically I could have found one closer but was enjoying the walk.
DSCF1022_zpsddede71c.jpg


The plan was to sew up a cone after soaking the spruce roots and splitting them but it dawned on me as I walked that for that plan, I would need to split them, boil them, make a fire, and gum the cracks with spruce gum. That was going to take a lot of time. Maybe I could just roll it up and try to make due?

While walking I found a patch of tea berries that would help bring Buttercup back around. There were not too many but never look a gift horse in the mouth right? They are easy to digest and have some nutrition.
DSCF1021_zps9b016e7e.jpg


Later on as I reached the lake I came upon an example of why I hate these TV guys that encourage people to go out into the woods and try to play cave man in the first place. The woods were reasonably free of this before all the celebrity woodsmen came along.
DSCF1023_zps518bdb85.jpg

DSCF1024_zps4372f682.jpg

DSCF1025_zpse9f098d5.jpg

Looks like they had a little fire problem?

Back to my quest I tried my cone without stitching and gumming at the lake but it leaked like a sieve. The whole cone would empty in less than 30 seconds. I figured I was going to chalk this one up as a failure but then as I walked further I decided to try to scrape the bark to clean up the seal edge a bit and make it easier to fold over the tip. With a bit of knife scraping I was able to make a better seal.

Walking back to where I parked my car I came to the brook a few hundred yards away and filled up my cone. It did not leak nearly as bad. I took off at a fast walk towards where Buttercup would be and when I got there emptied what was left of my cone into the nalgene bottle to see I had about 250ml.
DSCF1026_zpsf312a091.jpg

Better than nothing. After four trips I was able to get my liter. My finish time was 3pm so about an hour and a half.

Had I been smarter I could have probably done it in 45 minutes but this was not about researching what to do and doing it perfectly. It was about going out with an axe and a knife with no real idea and seeing what I could come up with. An emergency situation where you face adversity and have to adapt and overcome an obstacle in order to succeed.

Buttercup lived.

So there you have it. A bit of fun on an afternoon walk. Now you go out and see what you can come up with and post it in here and lets see what works and what fails. No prize or awards, just that feeling you get when you do something harder than a google search.

Have fun.
 
Last edited:

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
Fun :)

We agree about the mess :sigh:

Do you know what gypsy wells are ?......round here dig down three feet and you'll be sodden wet in ten minutes.
Failing that I'm presuming that neither of you are naked, and cloth both soaks up and holds water....just wring it out over Buttercup's mouth. When she's feeling a bit better and you're fed up running back and forward with wet cloth, every few steps she manages closer to the watercourse will speed things along.

Toddy....not sure if she's a bushcrafter, but she is practical.
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
<CHUCKLE>

I once did a similar challenge based on sterile water using only a knife (no billy can etc.). It was doable but took me a day and a half to achieve! Sadly no cameras were allowed (or other modern stuff). Lots of fun...but you learn the value of a tin can pretty quick!
 

boatman

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Feb 20, 2007
2,444
4
77
Cornwall
Why pre-suppose your hero is bushcraftwise? Brought up in an agricultural village with limited woodland around he would probably have no need or chance to learn something as pointless, in his life, as making a birchbark cup. Toddy's solution is the best but they are doomed because there are no wild lands to flee to.
Best thing is the protection the chap has from his value in any start of a blood feud and the support of his tribe. She is only a women after all (possible Iron Age thinking).

Of course he could carry her to the water and I doubt if she is in as much danger as your scenario would suggest. Half an hours rest and she could walk to water. Mustn't equate our modern obsession with keeping ourselves saturated with the realities of life and death.
 

boatman

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Feb 20, 2007
2,444
4
77
Cornwall
Do it or don't. It's a game. Just don't annoy the other kids that want to play.

Being a rules lawyer just annoys the players.
If you are using an Iron Age scenario learn about the Iron Age first.
 

THOaken

Native
Jan 21, 2013
1,299
1
30
England(Scottish Native)
Hah. Top quality thread, Lloyd. I commend all participants.

Edit: Oh, and no one doubts your experience, friend... Unfortunately, I was not brought up in such a way that nature was readily available to me. I spent my early childhood and late teen years pursuing other interests such as programming, computer animation and 3D Design... all very technical, indeed. I wish I could go back to my childhood to gain more experience in the outdoors, but I can't. I'm 20 now... I better get to it, hm?
 
Last edited:

Llwyd

Forager
Jan 6, 2013
243
2
Eastern Canada
Well it is for fun so have a go. I guess on a forum there will always be guys twisting things or trying to throw cold water on ideas but a thread like this is for fun pure and simple.

It does separate the doers from the google searchers though.

There is nothing wrong with starting at the bottom. I didn't know my a$$ from an ash tree when I started either and still learn every day. A thread like this came from a curiosity of; could I apply something that I knew in theory but had never tried to a real world situation? Some folks get caught up in the fine points of the story and want to take the ball home which ruins it for the rest of us though.
If you want to give this challenge a try PM me and I will send you some photos of something easier to make on your side of the pond and while not strictly iron age it will get the job done and not break the rules.
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
Ehm, no.
Simple practicality rules in a situation such as the one you described. There are many things available that will retain water. Cloth, moss, a clay cup supported by armful of grass or leaves, will all do; and do it quickly, without the potential for injury or the necessity to spend time looking for a tree with suitable bark.
If you wish to 'construct' something more permanent, then you should have limited the OP; you didn't, you simply gave a scenario and then got shirty instead of accepting that thinking outside your box isn't necessarily a bad thing, and throwing the 'rules' at us.

Your rules limit the other probable option too though....you said that we had to provide photographs...we're not allowed to kill animals without the landowners permission, or suitable weapons licences. However, the stomach bag and bladder or beasts has a very long provenance of being utilised as a water carrier. Bascially very few here would be able to photograph themselves utilising such and item, and similarly debarking trees is also out.

Playing 'Supposing, supposing' can be good fun, but either it needs to be accepted that somethings will be theoretical or it becomes an exercise in frustration and misses out a lot of practical alternatives.

Toddy
 

Llwyd

Forager
Jan 6, 2013
243
2
Eastern Canada
Your example was great. Don't tell me about it. Go do it. Tell me the difference between wool and linen. This is as much about going for a walk as anything.

There are a dozen options I can think of, I chose one off the top of my head. Just because I gave you an axe and a knife does not mean you need to use them. Think out of the box. You could make a third tool to make the water carrier.

There is at least one option that does not require either of the tools. If you don't want to kill animals for a bladder fine; use your head and come up with an alternative.

You know I am new around here so I am not really certain. Do the people on BCUK actually go outdoors or is it all done from a computer?

Show me don't tell me.
 

BCUK Shop

We have a a number of knives, T-Shirts and other items for sale.

SHOP HERE