The Wilderness Skills Ride was a lot of fun. Thanks to all those who attended! I started it off with a little intro and then we began to break some river rocks to make primitive blades, just in case we had to fend off any would be attackers or wild beasts... or cut some grass.
After this we strolled down the Springwater Corridor and built a debris shelter from sticks and grass. On our to do list was obtaining shelter, water, fire and food. With a shelter built we figured our next step would be to start a fire. If we were (in theory) going to drink water from the Willamette we would boil it first to kill any bacteria (though this wouldn't do anything for all the heavy metals).
I then gave a demo with the bow drill, a simple tool for starting a fire with friction.
Fire! Someone passing by at this point saw our debris shelter (which must have just looked like a debris pile) and us with a little fire and called the cops! A bit later a cop came rolling down the trail in his car. He got out and asked who is in charge. I went over and explained that we were doing a survival skills sort of workshop. He understood and said just to not start any fires. I agreed and he left. We all had a good laugh! It reminded me that predators are still lurking out there even in the urban jungle. Though they may not be lions or bears you still have to be on the lookout. After this we disscussed some of the local plants and their uses. The differences and similarities between wild carrot and poison hemlock, Yarrow's healing powers, nettles as food and cordage material, jewelweed as an antidote for poison oak, etc. I got a lot of good feedback from folks and plan to host another one of these rides again this summer before I leave for my August bike tour.
