Alone

[Jared]

Finally watched the reunion.

Not that much to it, just went through each of the contestants with a few questions and show their highlights.

Carleigh had to be hospitalised for a bit, didn't say how long. But she said it took her 5 months to feel back to normal.

 

[mrostov]

The 'bushcraft instructor' who got medically pulled due to starvation had plenty of food stored was the only guy who brought a bow to hunt with. As the weather finally got cold enough for the wild pigs to operate in the daytime, he was so weak from starvation that he couldn't string it.

All in all, they should have taken heed how hunter-gatherers in cold climates actually worked. The contestants spent way too much time on crafts, carving wood, etc. (one guy made a rake......) instead of spending as much time as possible rounding up a surplus of food. They fished but most did it to supply food as needed. They wasted too much time on trapping and making ineffective traps. They did very little to no real hunting in an area teeming with game.

 

[Robson Valley]

mrostov: I'll buy into that. To this day, I watch First Nations stockpiling food for the winter.
The quantities required are enormous. Food fuels every other last minutae of your existence.

Why didn't the BC guy eat what he had? Surely he had half a clue about his caloric consumption.

I harvest berries for pies in the winter. It's pointless to go into the winter with less than 20lbs.
Hoping for a good crop this year. I'd like to go 40+ for the first time and see how I get on.
Most of what grows where I live is nibbled on by the birds but goes unharvested.

I want 80lbs grapes, 30lbs black currants and 40+ lbs Saskatoon/Service berries (Amelanchier sp)

You and I might look upon it as a 1-car garage. Nothing could be further from the truth.
FN people use them as smoke houses for salmon. As in 100-200 salmon at a time.
The most mouth-watering, delicious-looking meat on the planet. I might have another opinion by March.

I smoke some 30+ lbs bison meat each year but it's really a company treat rather than a required staple for my winters.

Somebody: it is possible to dry rhubarb and then reconstitute it?

 

[Jared]

Season 4 started this week in the US.

Back to Vancouver Island, and it's 7 pairs of family members being dropped in apart and one has to travel 10 miles to find the other.
The 10 items are split between the two of them.

One team took a bar of soap!?

 

[GGTBod]

My home made soap would be one of my ten items no doubt at all, I sat there nodding in agreement with every reason the couple who took soap said for why they take soap, my home made soap is also a great insect repellent, i am almost invisible to ticks because of it

 

[Robson Valley]

Any idea which TV network runs this series? Darned if I can find it in among the hundreds of satellite channels that I get.
Watch how fast and who gets onto the coast. Shelter within sight of the ocean. Fire is good.
You can't starve on the coast. Twice a day the tide goes out.

 

[GGTBod]

Sorry mate not even broadcast over here i am having to download via pirate bay using a torrenting software, like a criminal

 

[Robson Valley]

Ah. Online. I shall snoop a little. Thanks for the tip.


Fantastic! It's on The History Channel. Season 4 starts June 15. I've missed the casting special (June 08).
I hope that the winners are among those with enough sense to head for the coast first to eat, then look for eachother.
No messing about in the Salal & Rhododendron jungle.
I tripped and fell once in that.
Did a 180 as I went down.
Stopped by the vines at 45 degrees.

 

[GGTBod]

I watched the pre show let me fill you in on the new format

each team is two family members, one is the hiker and the other gets dropped at a specific area 10 mile away and they have to make their way to the other contestant, they have one rucksack with 10 items between them, the person who is not the hiker is dropped off as previous seasons to make a camp ready for the hiker to arrive too, all the hiker has is a compass and a compass bearing they have to follow, seems they think this 10 mile hike is going to take a week or more to do, both members have a tap out button, if one of them taps both are out.

I was dubious when i first read about the new way as i thought it was a way to bring the bickering of regular reality tv to alone which it is but it does add a good element to it and all the people involved seem really cool outdoorsy nutcases, so i will be watching with an open mind hoping to be entertained and maybe even educated too

 

[Robson Valley]

Ah, good. Thanks. The west coast rainforest has a jungle of an understorey, broad leaf vine-like plants mixed with Devil's Club.
Visibility can be as little as 3-4 feet. It's not open like a pine plantation at all.

Come inland 500-800 miles to my place. I'm in the west facing wet side of the Rocky Mountains. Interior Cedar Hemlock biogeoclimatic zone.
Some different species but the same off-road issues with travel on foot and visibility. There's essentially nothing to eat in the rain forest.
The earlies of explorers all recorded water-people, sea-faring people, people living on the coast line or along big rivers like the Fraser and Skeena.

10 miles? That is going to be one grunt of a march. If you swear in a forest, does anyone hear your profanity?

 

[Jared]

If you're in US/Canada can watch it online

http://www.history.ca/alone/

 

[Jared]

My home made soap would be one of my ten items no doubt at all, I sat there nodding in agreement with every reason the couple who took soap said for why they take soap, my home made soap is also a great insect repellent, i am almost invisible to ticks because of it

Whilst they allow a bar of soap, bug repellent is prohibited. So no idea if you'd be allowed it.

 

[GGTBod]

My soap is just soap made from all veg based oils and naturally repellent to bugs as it is about 30% pure pine tar resin before i soponify it, instead of using just vegetable based oils like coconut and castor oil to make it i replace 30% of my oil with pure pine tar resin, i can't really explain further without explaining how i make soap but i basically make my own version of this, my version is 100% natural, organic and vegetarian friendly

 

[GGTBod]

The soap the couple had looked like it was a pine tar style soap too

here is a dodgy screen grab of theirs it definitely looks like a pine resin based soap

 

[Robson Valley]

Jared, thanks for the idea to watch on line. I live at 53N in the Rockies, about an hour west of Mt Robson, just shy of 13,000'
Nothing around my house more than 9,000'. Probably snowed down to 3,000' last night. Rotten cold/wet & windy in the village.
On TV, there's Close-Captioning which overcomes a couple of my hearing challenges. Louder ain't better. I wonder if that's done on line, as well.

 

[SCOMAN]

Without trying to occur a mods wrath does anyone have a link that's streaming the show?

 

[Snufkin]

If they are couples now it's not really alone anymore is it?

 

[Robson Valley]

They have 10 miles of west coast rainforest jungle-bashing to find eachother.
If they're too far inland to follow the coast, I do hope they find eachother.

 

[Snufkin]

Oh dear, I just watched the first episode of season four. It looks like they are taking the full reality TV route. After how season three ended I understand they needed to change the format, as watching people starve to death was painful. I had hoped they might give the participants a real chance at long term survival by dropping them at the beginning of autumn rather than at the end, so they had a fair chance to stock pile supplies to see them through the winter. Alas, they are going the cheap route, rather than expanding what was a really interesting format.

 

[bopdude]

I sat here a minute thinking what to say, I haven't a clue ? I don't want to spoil it for others though, lets just say it's early doors !!!