Alone in the Wild

[dogwood]

The Lodge;-

http://www.tincup-lodge.com/newhome.php?page=tincuplake

This page seems to infer the lake is in a dog leg and is 16 miles long

http://www.highonadventure.com/Hoa01aug/Yukon/yukon.htm

Would seem to be at one end of the lake, and i thought i remember Ed saying he had to Paddle to the other end of the lake to drop off his Film rushes.
Given the distance and length of the lake i would say that quite respectable.

How far from other people is alone? I think that would qualify for me.

I think you misread the pages above. The lake is 8 miles long -- both the sources above say that (one says 12K, the other 8 miles).

The lodge sits at the midway point, so if you're at TinCup lake, you're never further than 4 miles from the lodge (or at worse, you have to canoe across this smallish lake.)

On a lake that small he could SEE the lodge the whole time, for heaven's sake and see people flying in an out and boating, etc.

And Dogpack lake -- where the lodge has its tent camps -- is even smaller so he could certainly see them too.

If it works for people, that's fine. I'll watch the show when it airs here too, I'm sure.

But I'll watch it the whole time knowing the thing is a fraud because they pretend he's really alone. I just wish TV would take the time to do a really *honest* outdoor program...

I'm glad he's a good cameraman It would be awful to have guy holding a beer wander into the shot while he's whimpering about about being so alone

 

[TeeDee]

Your Right. Me Bad.

I stand corrected. Thanks!!

 

[lostagain]

I'm glad he's a good cameraman It would be awful to have guy holding a beer wander into the shot while he's whimpering about about being so alone

If the producers let that shot slip out on TV, that would make good viewing

Since watching the first episode last week, I've been impatiently waiting the seven days like a kid waiting for Christmas. Enjoyed last nights episode even more.

I doubt I'll ever get the chance to experience two months remote camping in such a spectacular place and for that reason I'm extremely jealous of the trip this guy has made.
I find his struggle to find food very good viewing and like most have shouted at the tv once or twice! Why leave the canoe when it can carry your stuff? and as Rich pointed out - tie some branches together and float round your obstacles - seems he's making his journey harder than it needs to be (is that for tv or just inexperience?).

I'll watch the programme anyway now I know there's a lodge round the corner. He is still surviving alone (I hope) and the nearby lodge can be seen as a way out if things become too much. Providing he continues to manage alone (and the producers aren't throwing mars bars through the trees) then he's doing what he set out to do, albeit a little less alone than we were led to beleive.

However, they have misled the viewers and some reasearch would have shown what happened to a certain presenter called when they found out a travel lodge was involved!! Learn from others mistakes first then go make some of your own.

 

[locum76]

On a lake that small he could SEE the lodge the whole time, for heaven's sake and see people flying in an out and boating, etc.

You are presuming, of course, that the lodge had customers at the time Ed was there.

Why do you want to give the guy such a hard time, the show is really good and Ed an interesting guy with extensive wilderness experience.

If he could see the lodge surely that would just make matters worse, knowing that people/ company/ a flushing toilet were so close but out of bounds to him. The man would then be imprisoned in his own free space.

Rob

 

[Walks with dogs]

Again I find myself startig a post with ***. Its a very bad habit.

If I go out in the hills even in the tiny UK and don't se anyone all day, I've spent that day alone. If I did that for a month, even if there were people 4 miles away on the other side of a lake I'd consider myself to have been alone.

Where he was , in my view I'd call that being alone in, er, the wild.

No doubt this is somewhat misleading by the TV company but I can't say I'm surprised.

The bloke done good. I'd hate to think of him achieving what he did and finding all this criticism on here. Fair play to him. The TV company, mixed views. They have at least made a programme that shows how truly difficult this situation is.

 

[BorderReiver]

It's TELEVISION chaps.

It's ALL PRETEND, even the serious stuff is dressed up to improve the ratings.

You'd all be much happier either just sitting back and enjoying the entertainment, or chucking the box in the nearest skip.

BTW, it's a well known factoid that you can feel lonely, depressed and isolated in the middle of a city, so the tears could have been genuine.

 

[locum76]

Does anyone fancy a BCUK moot at Tincup Lodge next year.

 

[launditch1]

Why cant all the nay-sayers get out there and do it themselves?Show us how its done for real...

Just enjoy it for what it is.

 

[w00dsmoke]

Hats off to the guy as it's a great show but it's been mis-sold a little bit imho. If it really went pear shaped, help is relatively close at hand. I've been on certain parts of the planet where I've thought I've been 150 miles or so from other folk and that felt liberating but pretty scary too. 25 or so miles is not completely alone in the wilderness in anyone's book when float planes are flying over however all it does is give this guy a "little" bit of security just in case. Maybe the insurance company demanded it who knows? It still doesnt detract from my view that it's great telly, and still pretty couragous on his part.

 

[BOD]

But the whole thing starts to look utterly false though...

In other words, what we're really watching is someone having an extreme dieting experience in the woods.

IQUOTE]

:You_Rock_

Yes we have been cheated again, I agree, even though his experience may have been genuine.

Les Stroud he is not. Samuel Hearne he definately is not. But 50 days resisting the smell of steak wafting over the lake from the lodge is an achievement

 

[Bushwhacker]

Why cant all the nay-sayers get out there and do it themselves?Show us how its done for real...

Just enjoy it for what it is.

Yes, this ^

I bet a pound to a pinch of s**t that even RM would say that it would be no picnic.
Some people are under the illusion that the woods are like the garden of Eden.

 

[Nigel]

The problem is alot of people who do bush-craft think that rubbing sticks carvings spoons is the key to utopia in the wilderness.

 

[rancid badger]

Why cant all the nay-sayers get out there and do it themselves?Show us how its done for real...

Just enjoy it for what it is.

You're right

I watched this last night, I wondered why he was thrashing through the brush around the lake, when he could have wrapped up his gear in his tarp and plodged the shallow bits and swam the deeper bits

It may have been for the dramatic effect or it may have been lack of experience or even exhaustion. I have to say he looked pretty rough to me and there are numerous things I and I'm sure, many others would have done differently.

There are too many armchair experts, who have little or no experience themselves but love to spout the stuff they have read in books or seen elsewhere on TV,DVD etc.

I feel that the program is TV entertainment. It's never quite what it appears to be. TV producers are in the business of selling what they make

There will be plenty of people who would do it all differently, others would follow the 'monkey see', 'monkey do' path and yet others, who simply regard the whole thing as ridiculous and even irresponsible.

He was obviously in danger, as already noted; you are in significant danger just tootling around the local woodland or hills by yourself.

I find I can watch this, unlike some of the crxp churned out by the likes of the latest 'Chief Scout'

If any of you think you can do better; get a TV producer to fund it for you and then totally ignore all the instructions and contract obligations given you by said producer

It'll make pretty boring TV, much like most of the armchair expert stuff on youtube for example but I'm sure you'll have a great time

in short; it's better than some and worse than others

 

[Zammo]

Just wanted to add my 2 pence worth to this thread.

First of all I wanted to say I am thoroughly enjoying the programme.

However I was quite surprised like other on here, that in the first week when he watched the squirrel chirpping away instead of shooting it but he did say it was because it was to cute to kill, not that he had a problem with killing animals.

I think he also said in yesterdays episode that he didn't kill it because it isn't the kind of thing you'd expecte to kill in the uk. I just think at that point he hadn't become attunded enough to his survival needs. Plus he had killed animals before, he mentioned he was brought up on a farm and he and his brother would go out snarring rabbits (which funnily i'd consider cute animals) and sell them to the local butcher.


C4's handling off the doc also quite mystifies me a bit.

Why did they not run the programme when he was actually there? The way the website has been set up and with his daily tweets and such, it would have made much more sense to do this. Maybe put it on a weeks delay at most but to wait until he's come back before airing it is just stupid, we already know the outcome plus we can watch the rushes up to his last week now if want (at present i've stopped myself from doing this).

Also there seems to be big holes in his knowledge and how C4 have prepped him, he admitted in one of the rushes videos that he had never paddled a canoe and had no idea how to steer the thing! He also was later looking at animal tracks and said he didn't have a clue what animal it was and even any information about them he then reeled off some names Lynx, Elk, Carribou, Timer Wolf. He should have been drilled in this before hand.




Lastly with regards the revelations thats theres a lodge on Tin Cup lake, C4 have actually revealed this info already on their website (actually all the info on the link is quite interesting as it details alot of things I think should have been explained in the first episode):


http://www.channel4.com/programmes/alone-in-the-wild/articles/the-faqs-how-the-programme-was-made


What happens if Ed disappears?
If Ed fails to send one of his routine OK messages or his tweet, the producers will alert an experienced local outdoorsman and a bush pilot who runs a seasonal fishing lodge on Tin Cup Lake, 10 miles within range of Ed's expected locations, who is on 24-hour call to help Ed in an emergency. He will overfly Ed's GPS position as determined by his satellite tracking device, and Ed will signal him with a chopper flag. If Ed holds the flag open and still it means 'I'm OK', if he waves the flag vigorously at the airplane it means 'Land as soon and as close as possible'. The pilot may also signal Ed to phone production.

If Ed fails to respond, the pilot will initiate search and rescue operations. He has a float plane available 24/7 to get him as near as possible to Ed’s location.











I think chances are C4 would have booked all the reservations at the lodge for editors, researchers and other production crew. Which would have prevented the the odd kid in an inflatable dingy ambling into Wardles isolation.

 

[Broch]

Some started criticising the producers for not taking enough account of the risks and now they’re being criticised for there being a sensible response time to any severe problems. He didn’t (to the best of our knowledge) use the support team so he did it alone. I’m sure there are plenty on this forum that couldn’t spend a night on their own on the Yorkshire moors or in a Scottish forest.

Having watched the second episode I think it’s a great antidote to all the ‘this is how easy it is to do this’ programmes. It shows it as it really is. OK we would all have made different decisions sitting here behind our computers but what would we have done once we had started getting hungry? Hell, I have difficulty concentrating when I’ve missed elevenses!!

I am surprised at what he doesn’t seem to have tried – baited traps, long lines, etc. He is very wary of bears (perhaps rightly, I don’t know) but if you are hungry and a hunter why ignore something moving in the woods? Surely, if you were thinking straight, you’d want to see if it was edible – it may have been a porcupine.

So, in summary, surprised at some of his actions, accept that many of them may have been because he was not thinking straight, a good demonstration of how tough it is on your own.

Broch

 

[tobes01]

I've got to say I'm loving the programme, having initially expected to ridicule it.

I was struck by Ed's mood swings last night. A year ago I lost 4 stone in 8 weeks on a crash diet which allows you 500 calories a day. One of the side effects of the diet that I wasn't ready for was the mood swings (nothing in the literature, but others reported them). I got really very depressed at points, often just for an hour at a time. When I finally came off the diet, the first thing I wanted was brazil nuts, and I don't even like them. I reckon my body was craving selenium to sort out the brain chemistry.

The odds are that we're watching Ed go through something similar but more acute. He'll be in ketosis as his body burns off its fat because of lack of carbs, and that's stripping out a lot of minerals that are needed to regulate moods. Add in fear, loneliness, it's not surprising he's struggling. I bet if they were dropping in 3 square meals a day he'd be a) happy and b) bored rigid.

Just my 2p worth.

 

[rik_uk3]

So, we've been cheated have we? He was only about 10 miles from the lodge? Thats about 9.5 miles further away from help than 99% of the 'bushcrafters' here achieve on there deadly dangerous jaunts camping spitting distance from their cars. The biggest danger most of us are in is straining our backs carrying heavy cold boxes full of food or cases of beer ***.

I'm appalled at how some here, who have read the books, watched the DVD's, and are great at carving a bloody spoon or making a
'possibles pouch' but never done the real thing, slag this chap off; most of us would have bottled it long before he did.

Why don't some of you get together, go off to your camp spot in the Home Counties or Wales for a few days and film yourselves surviving ONLY on wild food you find. You would come home lighter for sure. I'm serious about this, do it right, get yourself weighed before you go, take a medic with you, and film the event. A couple of observers would have to go to stop any cheating. Make it a five night event. If I win the lottery this weekend I'll happily fund it.

 

[tobes01]

Well said. Chatting with the Woodlore instructors, one reckoned he'd lost a stone and a half in a week on the Journeyman course, and he's an instructor!

 

[BorderReiver]

So, we've been cheated have we? He was only about 10 miles from the lodge? Thats about 9.5 miles further away from help than 99% of the 'bushcrafters' here achieve on there deadly dangerous jaunts camping spitting distance from their cars. The biggest danger most of us are in is straining our backs carrying heavy cold boxes full of food or cases of beer ***.

I'm appalled at how some here, who have read the books, watched the DVD's, and are great at carving a bloody spoon or making a
'possibles pouch' but never done the real thing, slag this chap off; most of us would have bottled it long before he did.

Why don't some of you get together, go off to your camp spot in the Home Counties or Wales for a few days and film yourselves surviving ONLY on wild food you find. You would come home lighter for sure. I'm serious about this, do it right, get yourself weighed before you go, take a medic with you, and film the event. A couple of observers would have to go to stop any cheating. Make it a five night event. If I win the lottery this weekend I'll happily fund it.

As I said before, it's a TV program.

He didn't have to do it; he wasn't lost, he deliberately put himself in that situation, with inadequate preparation, to make money by making an entertainment for TV.

That is not big or clever, as my gran used to say.

 

[locum76]

Hi.

Since I'm bored today, I've got time off at the start of my annual leave and I'm generally waiting about to go to Achray, I emailed tin cup lodge to see if they had any contact with Ed Wardle.

They have just replied saying they had no contact with any of the production crew and no-one was staying at the lodge at the time.

Here's to lazy days.

Rob