My son and his friend are big fans of the show Survivorman. Friday, they came down to survive the weekend quasi-survivorman style. They build a shelter out of sticks and limbs on the property. They covered it with hay and debris found around. Mike had his bow with him to catch food to eat. I told them both that they lacked either intelligence or common sense as the temperature Friday night was forecast to drop to -10 and the windchill was supposed to drop it to -30. They got everything set up and had a small fire going. At 11:00 PM, I couldn't sleep as I was concerned for their well being. I got dressed and drove back to where they were. I told them to get their butts into the truck and come up to the house to sleep. After a little complaining, they obeyed me and came in. They hadn't been able to catch anything to eat and had not eaten all day. At midnight, I made them a small meal to eat and sent them off to bed.
Yesterday morning, they got up early and headed back out. First, they cut a hole in the pond ice with a hatchet and tried ice fishing. By early afternoon, they had not caught anything so Mike took his bow and went in search of furry edible critters. Mike just bought his first bow this year and I thought he'd be going hungry again. My wife and I went to visit my aunt who is in hospice and is not expected to stay with us on earth much longer. When we got home, I went back to where they had their shelter, I was shocked, yet proud to seethey were cooking two rabbits over the camp fire. Mike had been able to get two with two shots! I returned home knowing at least they wouldn't starve. Last night, the temperature dropped to 6 degrees, but at least there wasn't any wind. They survived the night and came up to the house at 6:00 this morning. I asked why they came in so early and was told that the snow that started falling around 3:00 AM was able to sift through the roof of the shelter and the fire they had out in front of the shelter caused the snow to melt on their sleeping bags and both bags got quite wet.
Even though I forced some cheating on their weekend plan the first night, I am still quite impressed that they were able to face the extreme cold this weekend and on their first attempt do quite well. They both said they wanted to do it again, in late spring.
Do any of you do this extreme camping?