Could your outdoor adventure turn into a survival situation? In this eye-opening conversation with wilderness expert Tim MacWelch of Advanced Survival Training, we dive into the essential skills and knowledge that could mean the difference between life and death when venturing into Virginia's beautiful but sometimes unforgiving wilderness.
Tim shares critical insights about why even experienced hikers and outdoor enthusiasts can find themselves in trouble, including unexpected weather changes, injuries, becoming lost, or accidents that can escalate quickly.
The conversation takes a practical turn as Tim addresses listener questions about survival priorities that help you focus on what matters most in an emergency.
Whether you're a casual day hiker or seasoned adventurer, this conversation delivers practical wisdom that makes the outdoors safer for everyone. Let’s Go!
This is Part 2 of a two-part episode.
Follow VAOA Podcast:
Instagram I Facebook I Newsletter Sign Up
Support the Show! Buy Me A Coffee
Shop the Virginia Outdoor Adventures Merch Store!
VAOA Podcast is Sponsored by:
Virginia Association for Parks
Advertisers:
Virginia State Parks Spring Interpretive Programs
Keep Going First Aid - Promo Code: VAOAPODCAST
Mentioned in this Episode:
Connect with Tim MacWelch: Website I Instagram
Advanced Survival Training Promo Code: VAOA15
Episode 34. Foraging for Wild Edible Plants
Fan Mail - Send Jessica a Text Message
Contact show host, Jessica Bowser:
jessica@virginiaoutdooradventures.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jessica Bowser (00:00):
From the Blue Ridge Mountains to the
Chesapeake Bay, Virginia is amecca for outdoor travel and
adventure. Virginia outdooradventures Podcast is your local
guide for hiking, camping,kayaking, travel and so much
more. Get the information andthe inspiration to plan your own
adventure right here inVirginia, I'm your host. Jessica
(00:23):
Bowser, could your outdooradventure turn into a survival
situation? In this eye openingconversation with wilderness
expert Tim mcwelch of advancedsurvival training, we dive into
the essential skills andknowledge that could mean the
difference between life anddeath when venturing into
Virginia's beautiful butsometimes unforgiving
(00:45):
wilderness, Tim shares criticalinsights about why even
experienced hikers and outdoorenthusiasts can find themselves
in trouble, including unexpectedweather changes, injuries
becoming lost, or accidents thatcan escalate quickly. The
conversation takes a practicalturn as Tim addresses listener
questions about survivalpriorities that help you focus
(01:07):
on what matters most in anemergency, whether you're a
casual day hiker or seasonedadventurer, this conversation
delivers practical wisdom thatmakes the outdoors safer for
everyone. Let's go. This is parttwo of a two part episode.
Virginia Outdoor Adventures issponsored by the Virginia
(01:29):
association for parks, V, A, F,P champions parks across the
Commonwealth. Registration forthe annual conference is now
live. Join us may 1 throughfourth at occaneechi State Park.
This year's conference willfeature a tour of Staunton river
battlefield State Park, a guidedpaddle program at occaneechi,
(01:49):
perfect for those working onpaddle quest, and a special dark
sky program at Stanton RiverState Park, plus special guests
and speakers, workshops andpanel discussions, meals and
lodging provided, plus plenty ofopportunities for conviviality
around the campfire with likeminded Park enthusiasts.
Register for the VA FP annualconference today by clicking on
(02:12):
Virginia association for parksin the show notes of your
listening app. Ben fromreidville would like to know,
how do I find shelter? I want tolive like the kid from my side
of the mountain. That's
Unknown (02:27):
that's such a classic.
So many people get interested inwilderness survival because of
books like that and hatchet andall these other, all these other
publications that they read inmiddle school or or some, some
point in their formative years,and so, yeah. So our protagonist
lived in a little hollow treefor my side of the mountain. We
don't quite have the luxury ofthe old growth forests that you
(02:50):
know, Virginia and the MidAtlantic once had. There are
stories of giant hollow sycamoretree on the banks of the Ohio
River, which was used as ameeting place for First Nations
peoples and and this, thishollow tree was so big 30 people
could go inside and sit downtogether, oh my, be out of the
(03:12):
weather and have a have ameeting. Or, you know, like,
like, just, just get out of therain. So there used to be some
really massive trees, andthey're not here anymore, but
you can still sometimes find thehollow tree, the hollow log, the
rock overhang. You can findnatural shelters. You just want
to be very aware that a shelterfor you is also a shelter for
(03:35):
wildlife, and we don't know ifthere's going to be a
rattlesnake or a black widownest. We don't know what's going
to be up in that hollow log ortree or little cave or whatever
sheltered spot you found. So youcould build your own if you knew
how to build a leaf hut out ofsticks and leaves, and that's
(03:55):
something that we teach on ourclasses, where if you knew how
to put some other type ofshelter together, then we don't
have to rely on finding one in agood spot. Mind you, you know,
you don't, you don't want tohave a shelter in a bad
location, but you could make itin in a preferred spot, rather
than waiting to find it,
Jessica Bowser (04:15):
yeah, kind of like we did during the Bush
craft crash course, I could seethat being really warm in the
elements. They
Unknown (04:22):
are, yeah, the coldest I ever spent a night in one of
those shelters. It got down to14 Fahrenheit, and I was just
wearing, you know, a jacket andjust normal clothing. And I got
inside of one of those leafshelters, and I did have a few
hot stones in there, not hotenough to burn my skin or
anything just hot enough to actas a radiant heater, you know,
(04:44):
like those little hot handpackets. I made it. I didn't
sleep great, but I got a fewhours here and there, and that's
enough to keep somebody alive.
You know, survival is not alwaysabout comfort. We have to forget
that survival will not always bea comfortable thing. That we're
going to do, but it keeps usalive so that we can go chase
comfort later. Yes,
Jessica Bowser (05:06):
and I don't know why I never did hot stones
before. I'm so glad you showedus that I've heard people say
that you could take stones fromthe fire and put them in your
sleeping bag. And my brain wasthinking, why would I ever pick
up a rock out of a fire and putit into my sleeping bag, but you
showed us how to do it, and wewere it was a very cold day when
(05:26):
we did that bush craft. Course,I was freezing all day. I had to
go to my car and get a blanketto wrap around myself, and then
you picked up this flat stonethat you had propped up at just
the right angle near the fire,and put it on my seat, and I sat
on it, and all of a sudden I waslike a completely different
person. It saved me. Yeah,
Unknown (05:44):
it's a game changer.
This is ancient technology thatmodern people have just lost
touch with. But a rock can be aheat battery. It's a thermal
battery, and so your naturalinstinct was correct. If you're
imagining a rock from out of thedepths of the fire, it's going
to be too hot to be against yourskin or against your clothing or
your bedding. But if we don'thave it in such a hell fire
(06:07):
situation, if it's just proppedup near the fire, just gently
soaking up a small amount ofheat, then it becomes a heat
battery. And so we want to getthat rock maybe 130 degrees, 120
degrees, just tap water hot. Youcan touch it, you know. And it's
it's going to hold that heat fora while, especially if you wrap
(06:27):
it up in some cloth to insulateit and hold that heat in.
Longer, the heat will escapeslowly. And the longest I ever
got on a hot rock in my sleepingbag was seven hours. But it
stayed warm all night long,seven hours of of just very
gentle heat. And so, yeah, it's,it's old tech, but it still
works.
Jessica Bowser (06:49):
It's literally better than the hot hands that
you buy, because those are eighthours. But these are bigger.
Unknown (06:55):
They're bigger. Yeah, they could be any size you want.
I mean, I've done hot rockmattresses before, where you
actually, like, build a flatrock platform, burn a big, long
fire on top of it, move the fireoff, bury it with a couple of
inches of soil, and then coverthat with a couple inches of
leaves, and that holds in theheat. And so you could actually
(07:18):
lay on that and sleep all nightlong, you know, and be
incredibly warm, too warm at thebeginning, but then it's just
right for a couple, you know,couple hours in the middle of
the night. But that's a lot ofwork. So now we've burnt a ton
of calories to have one night ofwarm sleep, you know. So we've
got to have the calories comingin to justify the calorie
(07:40):
expense of doing somethingextravagant like that. But you
know, in certain situations,having a trick like that up your
sleeve, you know, could reallymean a could mean a lot. Let's
say your friend has hypothermia.
You build them a hot rugmattress, and now they can lay
on it and they can recover. Sospeaking
Jessica Bowser (08:01):
of fires, Wren from Hampton Roads would like to
know, can you make a fire withminimal smoke, like if you want
to hide out, one
Unknown (08:08):
of the biggest tricks is to use sticks that don't have
bark on them. So if you've gotdead sticks that you've
collected off of trees, and youcan peel the bark off just
easily. Just just peel off barehanded or with gloves on, that's
going to make less smoke. And ifnoise wasn't an issue, we could
split little pieces of wood andmake small pieces of kindling
(08:29):
and burn those, and that willmake less smoke. And so smoke is
the result of incompletecombustion. If we can get our
fire running more effectively,we won't have that smoke. There
are different ways to do this. ADakota fire hole is a little pit
with an airflow trench, and thatcan burn much more efficiently
than an open air fire. It'sessentially a wood stove in the
(08:51):
ground. More correctly, it's arocket stove in the ground. So
look that one up. Ran the Dakotafire hole, and then just for a
fire on open ground, just burnreally, really good, dry, small
pieces of stuff with no bark,and you shouldn't have hardly
any smoke at all.
Jessica Bowser (09:09):
So if you were trying to accomplish the
opposite, and you wanted to befound and you wanted to create a
lot of smoke, then you wouldwhat burn a lot of wet things.
Or what would be the advicethere?
Unknown (09:21):
Yeah, that's an excellent flip side to this
scenario. So if we want to gainattention, then, like you said,
we're going to burn wet stuffthat's going to make a lot of
white smoke. We could burn stuffthat is rotten. We could burn
stuff that's got a lot of barkand not so flammable parts to
it. And we can burn things likefat wood and pine knots, those
(09:42):
will darken the smoke and makeit more gray, because,
individually, fat wood andthings like that will burn with
a black smoke. And so when wemix that with a white smoke, we
get a gray smoke. And then, ifyou had some modern junk, you
know, let's say your car brokedown, you know, in the middle of
Saskatchewan in. And you startripping out plastic parts, like
(10:03):
the glove box and all that otherjunk, if we if we throw plastic
pieces or motor oil or anythinglike that into a fire, then we
will get black smoke, and that'shighly visible, especially
against like an overcast sky, sowhen the sky is kind of white
and you've got a column of blacksmoke that's hard to miss.
Interesting. All right, we're inthe gasoline. It's going to blow
(10:25):
up and don't roll a tire ontothe fire. If it's still on the
rim, that also will blow up, anddon't burn brake fluid, you'll
die. That's the opposite ofsurvival. So just keep those
little
Jessica Bowser (10:36):
things in mind, good things, good things to
know. All right, Jan fromsouthwest Virginia, would like
to know about snake bite care?
Unknown (10:44):
Another excellent question. Sometimes it's our
fear of scary animals that keepsus from going into the woods.
I've met a lot of people overthe years that won't go into the
woods because of bears. They'vejust seen too many nature shows.
They don't want to get eaten bya bear. They won't go and snakes
are another one of those thingsthat we instinctively fear. You
(11:06):
know, this is just wired intous, because for millennia, if we
step on a snake and it bites us,and, you know, we didn't have
hospitals and all that stuff formost of human history, we're not
going to make it, or we're goingto lose a lot of tissue, or
we're going to have some otherhorrible time. So the natural
fear of predators, snakes,spiders, even bees, the natural
(11:30):
fear of these animals is valid.
Most people that are going tosuffer a snake bite, it's going
to occur on the foot or theankle. So this is lower part of
the body. There is a smallerpercentage of people who are
going to have snake bites on thehands and forearms. It's a very
specific demographic. Jessica,can you guess who gets bitten on
the hands and forearms? Peoplewho are messing with the snakes,
(11:53):
the people who are messing withthe snakes. And there's a very,
very like, laser focuseddemographic for that,
Jessica Bowser (12:02):
I'm not going to say it. I'll let you say it.
Yeah, I'll say it. I don't care.
I was one,
Unknown (12:06):
so I was a male between 18 and 25 at a certain point in
my life. And yeah, we would, youknow, handle serpents and do
other dumb things. We sometimesare our own worst enemies. And
so at no point should you try topull a fever when and pick up a
deadly serpent and play withthat or or do anything with it.
(12:26):
And you certainly don't want toscoop it up and put it in a box
or a bag after it bites you andtry to take it to the ER. That's
the fastest way to shut down anER is when you show up with a
snake bite, and then you've gota snake in a Rubbermaid bin, and
you drop it and it gets loose inthe emergency room. That's
happened. That's a thing. So,yeah, again, like the search and
(12:48):
rescue, let's help the peoplewho are trying to help us and
and we'll just go in with adescription of the serpent and
the two bite marks, you know, inhopefully, the footer or ankle,
you know, in the event that weget bitten by snake. But yeah,
this, this is a great questionfrom Jan. So snakebite care is
has so much pop culture loresurrounding it, and most of it
(13:08):
is just not good medicalpractice. So the old westerns
that show us cutting and suckingon a wound, no, no, that is a do
not do. There's a lot of reasonswhy we do not want to do that,
and so we don't even have, wedon't have an hour to go into
all the reasons. That's aterrible idea. So just don't the
venom extractor products don'tpull out much either. And so
(13:32):
that also is ineffective. And sothe best thing we can do for the
event of a snake bite is to puta dressing on that wound. Slowly
make our way to definitivemedical care. We're going to
need to go hit at least anurgent care center. This is
going to be above and beyond theCVS Minute Clinic. We're going
(13:53):
to have to hit an urgent carecenter or a full on hospital. So
if we were bitten by arattlesnake, a Copperhead or a
water moccasin, they're going togive us the same antivenin. And
these snakes are closely relatedtheir kin, and so that one
single medical intervention isgoing to is going to be able to
(14:15):
save us, and we may not die froma snake bite. You know, if we
did not have access to medicalcare, we're going to have a
tremendous amount of pain, a lotof different symptoms. It's not
going to be fun. We may have ahole eventually rot in our
tissue where this where the biteoccurred, that could get
infected, and then we're goingto die of sepsis later on. But
most of your pit viper bites,you know, are not that
(14:38):
dangerous. About 7000 people getbitten in the United States
every year from these types ofsnakes, and the number of deaths
from that are usually under adozen. You know, it may be only
five deaths a year. Now this iswith access to modern medical
care, and so if we remove thatfrom the equation, then. Course
(15:00):
we would see the fatalities goup, but yeah, we just want to
obviously not step on the snakein the first place. The more
vigilant you are, the morelikely you are to spot these
camouflaged snakes because acotton mouth, you know, the
rattlesnake, the copperhead,they all have different patterns
(15:20):
in their scales that make themcamouflaged, and I almost
stepped on a Copperhead onetime. It was just coiled up in
the leaves. And I don't know howI spotted it before I stepped on
it, but I did, and I did notstep on it. And most of the
time, these things are not outto get you. You know, they're
just doing their thing, and weaccidentally step on them.
They're hurt, they're scared.
They lash out and they bite you.
(15:44):
And maybe up to a third of thebites from adult venomous snakes
are dry bites. A dry bitedoesn't deliver much or any
venom. Adult snakes can regulatetheir venom output, and so they
may just be trying to warn you,scare you off, you know, get rid
of you. And they need to savethat venom, because that's part
(16:06):
of their digestion for, youknow, biting the mice and all
the other little things, so theydon't want to waste it on
something too big to eat, like ahuman. You might not even have
any Venom if you get bitten, butvigilance is just the the first
step we don't want to, you know,be reaching into an old wood
pile and startle a venomoussnake, and we want to watch
(16:27):
where we put our feet when we'rehiking. Yeah.
Jessica Bowser (16:29):
And for anybody who wants to know more just
about snakes, I have an entirepodcast episode about that, and
that's episode 62 Virginia'svenomous and non venomous
snakes. So for someone who'slooking for more information,
that's a good resource, and I'lldrop that link in the show notes
with campgrounds open and warmertemperatures on the horizon,
(16:51):
Virginia State Parks islaunching its spring interpreter
programs offering visitors ofall ages the opportunity To
explore the natural and culturalwonders of Virginia, the diverse
programming is designed toinspire curiosity, foster
environmental stewardship andprovide enriching outdoor
experiences for families,students and nature enthusiasts
(17:13):
alike. Highlights include floraand fauna programs learn about
Virginia's native speciesthrough up close encounters and
expert talks, historical andcultural tours, step back in
time with interpretive walks andhands on history lessons,
outdoor skills workshops, gainvaluable knowledge on topics
(17:33):
like archery, camping, fishing,kayaking, backpacking and more,
Junior Ranger adventures, funand educational activities
designed to engage youngexplorers, citizen science
initiatives, participate in realworld research projects that
contribute to conservationefforts, self guided programs,
explore at your own pace withgeocaching, discovery,
(17:57):
backpacks, photo scavengerhunts, stargazing, tree
identification, birding andmore. Join us at Virginia State
Parks for exciting, familyfriendly events that invite you
to explore the outdoors. For afull schedule of events,
including park locations andprogram details, click on
Virginia State Parks springinterpretive programs in your
(18:19):
show notes. Tim, we're gettingpretty close to the end here.
Glenn sent me a message onFacebook and wants to know what
is the most dangerous myth ormisconception about wilderness
survival, another
Unknown (18:33):
excellent question. So there are plenty of myths. No,
you cannot chop the top off of acactus and just drink out of it
like a water barrel. You know,no, the moss does not grow on
the north side of the tree. Youshould buy a compass. So there's
a lot out there. But I wouldsay, from my experience, one of
the biggest myths is thatoutdoor enthusiasts don't need
(18:56):
survival skills. That's just nottrue. If you go out enough, you
will need these skills sooner orlater. You know, we're playing
Russian roulette here. We'rerolling the dice, and one of
these days is going to come upand we're going to lose. And so
if you never go into the woods,you know, maybe you don't need
wilderness survival, but if youever, ever plan on enjoying the
(19:19):
outdoors, then then you shouldget some and some stuff to
protect you. Think of it as aninsurance policy. Survival
skills are like a life insurancepolicy, but the good news is to
keep you alive, like that's thebenefit. You don't have to die
to activate the policy, like if,if survival is your life
insurance policy and you use itand it works. Then, then you
(19:42):
stay alive.
Jessica Bowser (19:43):
Last question comes from Scott from shell
rock, Iowa, not Virginia. AndScott says, I listen to a lot of
outdoor podcasts, and everyonetalks about the 10 essentials,
but never hear anyone explaininghow to use them. So the
Unknown (19:59):
10 essentials were.
Developed in the 1930s by amountaineering club, and back in
the day, these were 10 separateitems that every mountaineer
should have, and some of itreally isn't that practical for
woodland, wilderness survival.
Some of the original items werethings like sunglasses and other
things that you would need athigh elevation on the snow. So
(20:20):
what people have done over thepast couple of decades is to
rewire the 10 essentials intosystems. These are groups of
supplies. And so the updatedlist is a navigation system
that's a map and compass. And soby learning how to use map and
compass, we don't get lost, wedon't activate search and rescue
in our local area. So that's agood thing. So learning how to
(20:41):
navigate and bringing a map andcompass is the first one. Sun
Protection is still, is still onthe list, and that could be
sunscreen, sunglasses, you know,like long sleeve clothing for
whatever terrain you're dealingwith. But that's not as relevant
for us in Woodland environments,insulation is a big deal. Like I
would have put that as numberone insulation. So this is
(21:02):
clothing. It could be stuff likea space blanket. It's whatever
we can use to keep hypothermiafrom sending us into shock. And
so that's another facet. Othersystems are illumination. That's
like a headlamp or flashlightfirst aid supplies, a fire
making system. So that's Biclighters and maybe some Vaseline
(21:23):
cotton balls, a repair kit thatcould be duct tape, a multi
tool, a Swiss army knife, zipties, super glue, you know,
whatever you're comfortable withusing for repairs. Nutrition is
a system, and so that could justbe a bunch of, you know,
Snickers bars, or the survivalfood bars that I mentioned with
a five year shelf life or orwhatever you like. You know,
whatever you're able to use, ahydration system is number nine.
(21:48):
That could be the disinfectiontablets and a bottle go with a
full bottle. Then once you drinkit, then you can start finding
water and using the tablets todisinfect it. And then the final
thing could be an emergencyshelter, so that could be above
and beyond a space blanket. Thiscould be something like a little
biv sack, especially areflective one. And so each of
(22:09):
these 10 systems is pretty selfexplanatory, like, like, you
know, we could figure it out,but it does help to research all
the off label uses and all thelittle the little quirks and
little special things with thesedifferent systems and items,
Jessica Bowser (22:29):
be prepared on your next adventure with
beautifully designed, highquality first aid products from,
keep going. First Aid choosefrom, keep going. 60 piece
loaded mini kit. 130 piece gokit, or 270 piece super kit,
featuring attractive designsthat are compact and lightweight
as well as durable and waterresistant. Kits include
(22:51):
practical items such as tickremovers, Sting relief bandages
and more and fit easily in yourpack. Keep going is a small
family owned business thatoffers a satisfaction guarantee
and ships from the USA. As alistener, you can receive 10%
off first aid kits using thecode V, A, O, a podcast. Check
(23:12):
your show notes for the link.
These were all really excellentquestions, and I wanted to thank
everybody who submitted aquestion. We're going to wrap
things up here. But before yougo, Tim, I've got a couple of
other points I want to hit.
First of all, can you tell usabout some of your upcoming
courses? Yeah,
Unknown (23:29):
absolutely. So if you didn't get enough foraging in
the last episode, I have severalspring edible plant classes
coming up. And if you can't makethose, I have them year round,
there are plenty ofopportunities for classes coming
up, wilderness survival,heritage skills. I've got
gardening classes, blacksmithingclasses, bow making classes. So
(23:50):
if it's something outdoorsy, Iprobably have it to offer.
You've got
Jessica Bowser (23:55):
courses that I didn't even know could be a
course, like if I when I wasscrolling through your website
to see what you had coming up. Iwas like, I didn't even know
this was a thing. It's sofascinating. All the different
things that you offer and allthe opportunities to learn
something new. I think somebodycould take classes with you all
year round and just beconstantly learning. Yeah,
Unknown (24:15):
I do have some people.
I call them my repeat offenders,and they come see me, you know,
a couple times a year. For manyyears, I've had people with me
for 20 years now, and so like, Itry to come up with a new class
every couple years. It's been awonderful experience. So share
Jessica Bowser (24:30):
this stuff and your upcoming foraging classes.
Are any of those at Sky MeadowsState Park?
Unknown (24:35):
Yeah, we've actually got several sky Meadows classes
on the books for this year.
There are three foraging classesat Sky meadows, and there will
be a spring one, a summer oneand a fall one. And then, of
course, most of the classes areat our private our private camp
in southern Fauci County, okay,
Jessica Bowser (24:54):
yeah, I really enjoyed that foraging class.
Also, I learned that noteverything is some. Thing you
should be putting in your mouth,and so you have to be really
mindful.
Unknown (25:04):
Yeah, not every plant is our friend. Okay,
Jessica Bowser (25:06):
so where can people register if they want to
sign up for one of your courses?
Folks can
Unknown (25:11):
find out more about the classes at Advanced survival
training.com. So that's advancedwith a D advanced survival
training.com. Perfect.
Jessica Bowser (25:21):
I'll drop a link to that in the show notes so
that people don't have to searchfor it. It will be right there.
Ready to increase your outdoorskill set. As a listener of this
podcast, you can join Tim forhis outdoor courses using an
exclusive discount code choosefrom primitive cooking, foraging
for edible plants, treeidentification, herbal medicine,
(25:43):
sustainable gardening, off gridcooking, blacksmithing, AX
craft, rope craft and so muchmore. Click on Advanced survival
training in your show notes anduse the discount code vao a 15
for 15% off any of Tim'sextensive course offerings.
Register soon. Offer expires onJuly 1. We're going to do a
(26:07):
really fun giveaway. I don'tknow how many folks know this.
Tim, you are a New York Timesbest selling author too.
Unknown (26:14):
I know isn't that crazy? It still kind of blows me
away. So yeah, I've written overa dozen books, and we have three
of those become New York Timesbest sellers.
Jessica Bowser (26:23):
That's so fantastic. And you have a really
awesome selection of books tochoose from. And we're going to
be giving away two of those. Sothe first one is the ultimate
guide to survival shelters, howto build temporary refuge in any
environment. Started to flipthrough this book a little bit,
and you've got some really greatphotos in here. It's very easy
to follow along and very easy toread. So I think this is a
(26:46):
wonderful resource that peoplewill enjoy. And then the other
book is how to survive anythingfrom animal attacks to the end
of the world and everything inbetween. This book just screams
your name all over it, Tim, evenif it didn't have your name as
the author.
Unknown (27:01):
Yeah, that's that's very much my style. That one was
one of our New York Timesbestsellers.
Jessica Bowser (27:06):
Oh, my God, and I can see why. So this book is
going to be hard for me to shipto whoever wins it, because I
want to keep it for myself. I'mgonna have to order one. It is
so cool, like the illustrations,just the ease of being able to
understand what you're whatyou're reading here. It's like
the different scenarios arethings that I never would have
thought of either. Like, what ifyour plane crashes and, like,
(27:27):
all these crazy things. It's sointeresting. I just started to
flip through and I found myself,like, actually sitting down
reading it, reading like,reading it, reading it. So I
might have to get a copy of myown, but that's a really fun one
too. Well, I'm glad
Unknown (27:41):
you enjoyed it. Yeah, yeah, you go ahead and read the
whole thing, you know, spillcoffee on it and just whatever.
And then we'll send that one outas a special, like a special
edition. We're gonna
Jessica Bowser (27:52):
give away these two books, and I think we're
gonna have a couple of differentways to enter the giveaway, if
listeners would like to enterthe giveaway right now and not
wait for it to come out onsocial media, which I think
we're going to put it up on thesocials too. Go ahead and go to
your show notes and click onSend Jessica a text message and
let me know what your biggesttakeaway was from this episode.
(28:15):
I know Tim you and I would bothlove to hear feedback from folks
how they enjoyed this, what theylearned, how they plan to
actually use what they learned?
I think all of that would befantastic. And then on the
socials, we'll probably havesome more opportunities to share
the podcast episode and get someadditional entries into the
giveaway.
Unknown (28:33):
That's exciting. I really appreciate you creating
this opportunity to share thesebooks with people.
Jessica Bowser (28:39):
Yes, it's going to be excellent. Whoever wins is
going to be lucky. All right, soTim, let's wrap it up. How can
listeners connect with you?
Folks
Unknown (28:46):
can email me? If you jump on the website for my
classes, advanced survivaltraining.com, you'll find my
email. And so if anybody has anyquestions or wants to find out
more about the opportunitiesthat I offer, which include kids
classes, a lot of people don'tknow that I run kids classes.
I'm just a big kid myself, andthat's actually where I started.
I started running kids classes30 years ago this coming
(29:08):
September, so we have ananniversary coming up, but I
will occasionally check in onInstagram, and that handle is
advanced survival training onInstagram, perfect.
Jessica Bowser (29:19):
Okay, and I asked you this question when we
did the episode about foragingfor wild edible plants. I'm
curious if it's changed at all.
But what is one piece of gearyou can't live without? I
Unknown (29:31):
am very partial to my knives. I said the plural word.
I have a lot of differentknives. I just keep going back
to just a really basic likeScandinavian wood carving knife,
those really simple Mora knivesfrom more Sweden. They're not
expensive. They have a greatedge. And I do so much with
those. I make so many things,and I just use them all the
(29:53):
time. Yeah, there are otherthings that are, you know,
indispensable as well, yourphone, your smartphone. You.
Know that our first questiontoday, Kevin said he's got a
phone in a car. Why does he needsurvival like if you've got a
phone and it's got signal, youdon't have to go into survival
mode. You call for help, aphone, a lighter, a space
(30:14):
blanket, a knife, a bottle ofwater, just those simple things
that'll get you really far inthe game. Scott
Jessica Bowser (30:21):
from Iowa, when he sent in a question, he also
mentioned that he had boughtthat Mora knife that you
recommended in the foragingepisode, and he loves it, so he
was really grateful that forthat recommendation. Good,
Unknown (30:34):
good. Yeah. I mean, I'm not a brand ambassador. You
know, they don't, they don'tsend me a dime for dropping
their name. It's just, it's justa great piece of equipment, and
so I'm happy to turn people ontoit, perfect.
Jessica Bowser (30:47):
Yeah. And during the, during the Bucha, course,
you showed us a bunch ofdifferent knives, including the
gas station knives andeverything in between. And what
the difference is, because,honestly, how many people know?
I really, unless you're usingknives all the time, you
wouldn't know why buying the gasstation knife is a bad idea.
Unknown (31:05):
You get what you pay for sometimes, and then
sometimes you get a really gooddeal. And so, yeah, it's
important to understand that,you know, maybe that single
knife that costs $100 is not asgood as you know that that that
other really practical knifethat costs $20 you could have
five really good more knives,you know, for, you know, the
(31:27):
cost of some of these, you know,single, you know, kind of high
end Bushcraft knives. And maybethey don't even perform as well.
Jessica Bowser (31:34):
Good point, and you showed us how to sharpen
them and everything. So goodskills, good information to
have. Thank you so much, Tim forbeing a guest on Virginia
outdoor adventures. I certainlyhope to see you at an upcoming
course.
Unknown (31:47):
I would love that.
Jessica, yes, thank you so muchfor having me on as a guest
again, and hopefully yourlisteners will have had fun and
have more questions and want meto come back and have another
episode.
Jessica Bowser (31:58):
That would be great, because you have so much
knowledge, I'm sure that wecould do yet another one of
these episodes on a completelydifferent topic. Yep, you name
it all right. Tim adventure onVirginia. Outdoor Adventures is
inspired by and supported bylisteners like you, which is why
(32:18):
your messages and feedback meansso much to me. You can text me
directly by clicking on SendJessica a text message in your
show notes. I answer questions,respond to comments and share
your feedback on the show. Nevermiss a new episode. Sign up for
my email newsletter and receivemy listener resource guide with
the top podcast episodes aVirginia outdoor bucket list and
(32:42):
exclusive brand discounts for mylisteners. Click on newsletter.
Sign up in your show notes orvisit Virginia outdoor
adventures.com thanks forlistening until next time.
Adventure on you.
From the Blue Ridge Mountains to the
Chesapeake Bay, Virginia is amecca for outdoor travel and
adventure. Virginia outdooradventures Podcast is your local
guide for hiking, camping,kayaking, travel and so much
more. Get the information andthe inspiration to plan your own
adventure right here inVirginia, I'm your host. Jessica
(00:23):
Bowser, could your outdooradventure turn into a survival
situation? In this eye openingconversation with wilderness
expert Tim mcwelch of advancedsurvival training, we dive into
the essential skills andknowledge that could mean the
difference between life anddeath when venturing into
Virginia's beautiful butsometimes unforgiving
(00:45):
wilderness, Tim shares criticalinsights about why even
experienced hikers and outdoorenthusiasts can find themselves
in trouble, including unexpectedweather changes, injuries
becoming lost, or accidents thatcan escalate quickly. The
conversation takes a practicalturn as Tim addresses listener
questions about survivalpriorities that help you focus
(01:07):
on what matters most in anemergency, whether you're a
casual day hiker or seasonedadventurer, this conversation
delivers practical wisdom thatmakes the outdoors safer for
everyone. Let's go. This is parttwo of a two part episode.
Virginia Outdoor Adventures issponsored by the Virginia
(01:29):
association for parks, V, A, F,P champions parks across the
Commonwealth. Registration forthe annual conference is now
live. Join us may 1 throughfourth at occaneechi State Park.
This year's conference willfeature a tour of Staunton river
battlefield State Park, a guidedpaddle program at occaneechi,
(01:49):
perfect for those working onpaddle quest, and a special dark
sky program at Stanton RiverState Park, plus special guests
and speakers, workshops andpanel discussions, meals and
lodging provided, plus plenty ofopportunities for conviviality
around the campfire with likeminded Park enthusiasts.
Register for the VA FP annualconference today by clicking on
(02:12):
Virginia association for parksin the show notes of your
listening app. Ben fromreidville would like to know,
how do I find shelter? I want tolive like the kid from my side
of the mountain. That's
Unknown (02:27):
that's such a classic.
So many people get interested inwilderness survival because of
books like that and hatchet andall these other, all these other
publications that they read inmiddle school or or some, some
point in their formative years,and so, yeah. So our protagonist
lived in a little hollow treefor my side of the mountain. We
don't quite have the luxury ofthe old growth forests that you
(02:50):
know, Virginia and the MidAtlantic once had. There are
stories of giant hollow sycamoretree on the banks of the Ohio
River, which was used as ameeting place for First Nations
peoples and and this, thishollow tree was so big 30 people
could go inside and sit downtogether, oh my, be out of the
(03:12):
weather and have a have ameeting. Or, you know, like,
like, just, just get out of therain. So there used to be some
really massive trees, andthey're not here anymore, but
you can still sometimes find thehollow tree, the hollow log, the
rock overhang. You can findnatural shelters. You just want
to be very aware that a shelterfor you is also a shelter for
(03:35):
wildlife, and we don't know ifthere's going to be a
rattlesnake or a black widownest. We don't know what's going
to be up in that hollow log ortree or little cave or whatever
sheltered spot you found. So youcould build your own if you knew
how to build a leaf hut out ofsticks and leaves, and that's
(03:55):
something that we teach on ourclasses, where if you knew how
to put some other type ofshelter together, then we don't
have to rely on finding one in agood spot. Mind you, you know,
you don't, you don't want tohave a shelter in a bad
location, but you could make itin in a preferred spot, rather
than waiting to find it,
Jessica Bowser (04:15):
yeah, kind of like we did during the Bush
craft crash course, I could seethat being really warm in the
elements. They
Unknown (04:22):
are, yeah, the coldest I ever spent a night in one of
those shelters. It got down to14 Fahrenheit, and I was just
wearing, you know, a jacket andjust normal clothing. And I got
inside of one of those leafshelters, and I did have a few
hot stones in there, not hotenough to burn my skin or
anything just hot enough to actas a radiant heater, you know,
(04:44):
like those little hot handpackets. I made it. I didn't
sleep great, but I got a fewhours here and there, and that's
enough to keep somebody alive.
You know, survival is not alwaysabout comfort. We have to forget
that survival will not always bea comfortable thing. That we're
going to do, but it keeps usalive so that we can go chase
comfort later. Yes,
Jessica Bowser (05:06):
and I don't know why I never did hot stones
before. I'm so glad you showedus that I've heard people say
that you could take stones fromthe fire and put them in your
sleeping bag. And my brain wasthinking, why would I ever pick
up a rock out of a fire and putit into my sleeping bag, but you
showed us how to do it, and wewere it was a very cold day when
(05:26):
we did that bush craft. Course,I was freezing all day. I had to
go to my car and get a blanketto wrap around myself, and then
you picked up this flat stonethat you had propped up at just
the right angle near the fire,and put it on my seat, and I sat
on it, and all of a sudden I waslike a completely different
person. It saved me. Yeah,
Unknown (05:44):
it's a game changer.
This is ancient technology thatmodern people have just lost
touch with. But a rock can be aheat battery. It's a thermal
battery, and so your naturalinstinct was correct. If you're
imagining a rock from out of thedepths of the fire, it's going
to be too hot to be against yourskin or against your clothing or
your bedding. But if we don'thave it in such a hell fire
(06:07):
situation, if it's just proppedup near the fire, just gently
soaking up a small amount ofheat, then it becomes a heat
battery. And so we want to getthat rock maybe 130 degrees, 120
degrees, just tap water hot. Youcan touch it, you know. And it's
it's going to hold that heat fora while, especially if you wrap
(06:27):
it up in some cloth to insulateit and hold that heat in.
Longer, the heat will escapeslowly. And the longest I ever
got on a hot rock in my sleepingbag was seven hours. But it
stayed warm all night long,seven hours of of just very
gentle heat. And so, yeah, it's,it's old tech, but it still
works.
Jessica Bowser (06:49):
It's literally better than the hot hands that
you buy, because those are eighthours. But these are bigger.
Unknown (06:55):
They're bigger. Yeah, they could be any size you want.
I mean, I've done hot rockmattresses before, where you
actually, like, build a flatrock platform, burn a big, long
fire on top of it, move the fireoff, bury it with a couple of
inches of soil, and then coverthat with a couple inches of
leaves, and that holds in theheat. And so you could actually
(07:18):
lay on that and sleep all nightlong, you know, and be
incredibly warm, too warm at thebeginning, but then it's just
right for a couple, you know,couple hours in the middle of
the night. But that's a lot ofwork. So now we've burnt a ton
of calories to have one night ofwarm sleep, you know. So we've
got to have the calories comingin to justify the calorie
(07:40):
expense of doing somethingextravagant like that. But you
know, in certain situations,having a trick like that up your
sleeve, you know, could reallymean a could mean a lot. Let's
say your friend has hypothermia.
You build them a hot rugmattress, and now they can lay
on it and they can recover. Sospeaking
Jessica Bowser (08:01):
of fires, Wren from Hampton Roads would like to
know, can you make a fire withminimal smoke, like if you want
to hide out, one
Unknown (08:08):
of the biggest tricks is to use sticks that don't have
bark on them. So if you've gotdead sticks that you've
collected off of trees, and youcan peel the bark off just
easily. Just just peel off barehanded or with gloves on, that's
going to make less smoke. And ifnoise wasn't an issue, we could
split little pieces of wood andmake small pieces of kindling
(08:29):
and burn those, and that willmake less smoke. And so smoke is
the result of incompletecombustion. If we can get our
fire running more effectively,we won't have that smoke. There
are different ways to do this. ADakota fire hole is a little pit
with an airflow trench, and thatcan burn much more efficiently
than an open air fire. It'sessentially a wood stove in the
(08:51):
ground. More correctly, it's arocket stove in the ground. So
look that one up. Ran the Dakotafire hole, and then just for a
fire on open ground, just burnreally, really good, dry, small
pieces of stuff with no bark,and you shouldn't have hardly
any smoke at all.
Jessica Bowser (09:09):
So if you were trying to accomplish the
opposite, and you wanted to befound and you wanted to create a
lot of smoke, then you wouldwhat burn a lot of wet things.
Or what would be the advicethere?
Unknown (09:21):
Yeah, that's an excellent flip side to this
scenario. So if we want to gainattention, then, like you said,
we're going to burn wet stuffthat's going to make a lot of
white smoke. We could burn stuffthat is rotten. We could burn
stuff that's got a lot of barkand not so flammable parts to
it. And we can burn things likefat wood and pine knots, those
(09:42):
will darken the smoke and makeit more gray, because,
individually, fat wood andthings like that will burn with
a black smoke. And so when wemix that with a white smoke, we
get a gray smoke. And then, ifyou had some modern junk, you
know, let's say your car brokedown, you know, in the middle of
Saskatchewan in. And you startripping out plastic parts, like
(10:03):
the glove box and all that otherjunk, if we if we throw plastic
pieces or motor oil or anythinglike that into a fire, then we
will get black smoke, and that'shighly visible, especially
against like an overcast sky, sowhen the sky is kind of white
and you've got a column of blacksmoke that's hard to miss.
Interesting. All right, we're inthe gasoline. It's going to blow
(10:25):
up and don't roll a tire ontothe fire. If it's still on the
rim, that also will blow up, anddon't burn brake fluid, you'll
die. That's the opposite ofsurvival. So just keep those
little
Jessica Bowser (10:36):
things in mind, good things, good things to
know. All right, Jan fromsouthwest Virginia, would like
to know about snake bite care?
Unknown (10:44):
Another excellent question. Sometimes it's our
fear of scary animals that keepsus from going into the woods.
I've met a lot of people overthe years that won't go into the
woods because of bears. They'vejust seen too many nature shows.
They don't want to get eaten bya bear. They won't go and snakes
are another one of those thingsthat we instinctively fear. You
(11:06):
know, this is just wired intous, because for millennia, if we
step on a snake and it bites us,and, you know, we didn't have
hospitals and all that stuff formost of human history, we're not
going to make it, or we're goingto lose a lot of tissue, or
we're going to have some otherhorrible time. So the natural
fear of predators, snakes,spiders, even bees, the natural
(11:30):
fear of these animals is valid.
Most people that are going tosuffer a snake bite, it's going
to occur on the foot or theankle. So this is lower part of
the body. There is a smallerpercentage of people who are
going to have snake bites on thehands and forearms. It's a very
specific demographic. Jessica,can you guess who gets bitten on
the hands and forearms? Peoplewho are messing with the snakes,
(11:53):
the people who are messing withthe snakes. And there's a very,
very like, laser focuseddemographic for that,
Jessica Bowser (12:02):
I'm not going to say it. I'll let you say it.
Yeah, I'll say it. I don't care.
I was one,
Unknown (12:06):
so I was a male between 18 and 25 at a certain point in
my life. And yeah, we would, youknow, handle serpents and do
other dumb things. We sometimesare our own worst enemies. And
so at no point should you try topull a fever when and pick up a
deadly serpent and play withthat or or do anything with it.
(12:26):
And you certainly don't want toscoop it up and put it in a box
or a bag after it bites you andtry to take it to the ER. That's
the fastest way to shut down anER is when you show up with a
snake bite, and then you've gota snake in a Rubbermaid bin, and
you drop it and it gets loose inthe emergency room. That's
happened. That's a thing. So,yeah, again, like the search and
(12:48):
rescue, let's help the peoplewho are trying to help us and
and we'll just go in with adescription of the serpent and
the two bite marks, you know, inhopefully, the footer or ankle,
you know, in the event that weget bitten by snake. But yeah,
this, this is a great questionfrom Jan. So snakebite care is
has so much pop culture loresurrounding it, and most of it
(13:08):
is just not good medicalpractice. So the old westerns
that show us cutting and suckingon a wound, no, no, that is a do
not do. There's a lot of reasonswhy we do not want to do that,
and so we don't even have, wedon't have an hour to go into
all the reasons. That's aterrible idea. So just don't the
venom extractor products don'tpull out much either. And so
(13:32):
that also is ineffective. And sothe best thing we can do for the
event of a snake bite is to puta dressing on that wound. Slowly
make our way to definitivemedical care. We're going to
need to go hit at least anurgent care center. This is
going to be above and beyond theCVS Minute Clinic. We're going
(13:53):
to have to hit an urgent carecenter or a full on hospital. So
if we were bitten by arattlesnake, a Copperhead or a
water moccasin, they're going togive us the same antivenin. And
these snakes are closely relatedtheir kin, and so that one
single medical intervention isgoing to is going to be able to
(14:15):
save us, and we may not die froma snake bite. You know, if we
did not have access to medicalcare, we're going to have a
tremendous amount of pain, a lotof different symptoms. It's not
going to be fun. We may have ahole eventually rot in our
tissue where this where the biteoccurred, that could get
infected, and then we're goingto die of sepsis later on. But
most of your pit viper bites,you know, are not that
(14:38):
dangerous. About 7000 people getbitten in the United States
every year from these types ofsnakes, and the number of deaths
from that are usually under adozen. You know, it may be only
five deaths a year. Now this iswith access to modern medical
care, and so if we remove thatfrom the equation, then. Course
(15:00):
we would see the fatalities goup, but yeah, we just want to
obviously not step on the snakein the first place. The more
vigilant you are, the morelikely you are to spot these
camouflaged snakes because acotton mouth, you know, the
rattlesnake, the copperhead,they all have different patterns
(15:20):
in their scales that make themcamouflaged, and I almost
stepped on a Copperhead onetime. It was just coiled up in
the leaves. And I don't know howI spotted it before I stepped on
it, but I did, and I did notstep on it. And most of the
time, these things are not outto get you. You know, they're
just doing their thing, and weaccidentally step on them.
They're hurt, they're scared.
They lash out and they bite you.
(15:44):
And maybe up to a third of thebites from adult venomous snakes
are dry bites. A dry bitedoesn't deliver much or any
venom. Adult snakes can regulatetheir venom output, and so they
may just be trying to warn you,scare you off, you know, get rid
of you. And they need to savethat venom, because that's part
(16:06):
of their digestion for, youknow, biting the mice and all
the other little things, so theydon't want to waste it on
something too big to eat, like ahuman. You might not even have
any Venom if you get bitten, butvigilance is just the the first
step we don't want to, you know,be reaching into an old wood
pile and startle a venomoussnake, and we want to watch
(16:27):
where we put our feet when we'rehiking. Yeah.
Jessica Bowser (16:29):
And for anybody who wants to know more just
about snakes, I have an entirepodcast episode about that, and
that's episode 62 Virginia'svenomous and non venomous
snakes. So for someone who'slooking for more information,
that's a good resource, and I'lldrop that link in the show notes
with campgrounds open and warmertemperatures on the horizon,
(16:51):
Virginia State Parks islaunching its spring interpreter
programs offering visitors ofall ages the opportunity To
explore the natural and culturalwonders of Virginia, the diverse
programming is designed toinspire curiosity, foster
environmental stewardship andprovide enriching outdoor
experiences for families,students and nature enthusiasts
(17:13):
alike. Highlights include floraand fauna programs learn about
Virginia's native speciesthrough up close encounters and
expert talks, historical andcultural tours, step back in
time with interpretive walks andhands on history lessons,
outdoor skills workshops, gainvaluable knowledge on topics
(17:33):
like archery, camping, fishing,kayaking, backpacking and more,
Junior Ranger adventures, funand educational activities
designed to engage youngexplorers, citizen science
initiatives, participate in realworld research projects that
contribute to conservationefforts, self guided programs,
explore at your own pace withgeocaching, discovery,
(17:57):
backpacks, photo scavengerhunts, stargazing, tree
identification, birding andmore. Join us at Virginia State
Parks for exciting, familyfriendly events that invite you
to explore the outdoors. For afull schedule of events,
including park locations andprogram details, click on
Virginia State Parks springinterpretive programs in your
(18:19):
show notes. Tim, we're gettingpretty close to the end here.
Glenn sent me a message onFacebook and wants to know what
is the most dangerous myth ormisconception about wilderness
survival, another
Unknown (18:33):
excellent question. So there are plenty of myths. No,
you cannot chop the top off of acactus and just drink out of it
like a water barrel. You know,no, the moss does not grow on
the north side of the tree. Youshould buy a compass. So there's
a lot out there. But I wouldsay, from my experience, one of
the biggest myths is thatoutdoor enthusiasts don't need
(18:56):
survival skills. That's just nottrue. If you go out enough, you
will need these skills sooner orlater. You know, we're playing
Russian roulette here. We'rerolling the dice, and one of
these days is going to come upand we're going to lose. And so
if you never go into the woods,you know, maybe you don't need
wilderness survival, but if youever, ever plan on enjoying the
(19:19):
outdoors, then then you shouldget some and some stuff to
protect you. Think of it as aninsurance policy. Survival
skills are like a life insurancepolicy, but the good news is to
keep you alive, like that's thebenefit. You don't have to die
to activate the policy, like if,if survival is your life
insurance policy and you use itand it works. Then, then you
(19:42):
stay alive.
Jessica Bowser (19:43):
Last question comes from Scott from shell
rock, Iowa, not Virginia. AndScott says, I listen to a lot of
outdoor podcasts, and everyonetalks about the 10 essentials,
but never hear anyone explaininghow to use them. So the
Unknown (19:59):
10 essentials were.
Developed in the 1930s by amountaineering club, and back in
the day, these were 10 separateitems that every mountaineer
should have, and some of itreally isn't that practical for
woodland, wilderness survival.
Some of the original items werethings like sunglasses and other
things that you would need athigh elevation on the snow. So
(20:20):
what people have done over thepast couple of decades is to
rewire the 10 essentials intosystems. These are groups of
supplies. And so the updatedlist is a navigation system
that's a map and compass. And soby learning how to use map and
compass, we don't get lost, wedon't activate search and rescue
in our local area. So that's agood thing. So learning how to
(20:41):
navigate and bringing a map andcompass is the first one. Sun
Protection is still, is still onthe list, and that could be
sunscreen, sunglasses, you know,like long sleeve clothing for
whatever terrain you're dealingwith. But that's not as relevant
for us in Woodland environments,insulation is a big deal. Like I
would have put that as numberone insulation. So this is
(21:02):
clothing. It could be stuff likea space blanket. It's whatever
we can use to keep hypothermiafrom sending us into shock. And
so that's another facet. Othersystems are illumination. That's
like a headlamp or flashlightfirst aid supplies, a fire
making system. So that's Biclighters and maybe some Vaseline
(21:23):
cotton balls, a repair kit thatcould be duct tape, a multi
tool, a Swiss army knife, zipties, super glue, you know,
whatever you're comfortable withusing for repairs. Nutrition is
a system, and so that could justbe a bunch of, you know,
Snickers bars, or the survivalfood bars that I mentioned with
a five year shelf life or orwhatever you like. You know,
whatever you're able to use, ahydration system is number nine.
(21:48):
That could be the disinfectiontablets and a bottle go with a
full bottle. Then once you drinkit, then you can start finding
water and using the tablets todisinfect it. And then the final
thing could be an emergencyshelter, so that could be above
and beyond a space blanket. Thiscould be something like a little
biv sack, especially areflective one. And so each of
(22:09):
these 10 systems is pretty selfexplanatory, like, like, you
know, we could figure it out,but it does help to research all
the off label uses and all thelittle the little quirks and
little special things with thesedifferent systems and items,
Jessica Bowser (22:29):
be prepared on your next adventure with
beautifully designed, highquality first aid products from,
keep going. First Aid choosefrom, keep going. 60 piece
loaded mini kit. 130 piece gokit, or 270 piece super kit,
featuring attractive designsthat are compact and lightweight
as well as durable and waterresistant. Kits include
(22:51):
practical items such as tickremovers, Sting relief bandages
and more and fit easily in yourpack. Keep going is a small
family owned business thatoffers a satisfaction guarantee
and ships from the USA. As alistener, you can receive 10%
off first aid kits using thecode V, A, O, a podcast. Check
(23:12):
your show notes for the link.
These were all really excellentquestions, and I wanted to thank
everybody who submitted aquestion. We're going to wrap
things up here. But before yougo, Tim, I've got a couple of
other points I want to hit.
First of all, can you tell usabout some of your upcoming
courses? Yeah,
Unknown (23:29):
absolutely. So if you didn't get enough foraging in
the last episode, I have severalspring edible plant classes
coming up. And if you can't makethose, I have them year round,
there are plenty ofopportunities for classes coming
up, wilderness survival,heritage skills. I've got
gardening classes, blacksmithingclasses, bow making classes. So
(23:50):
if it's something outdoorsy, Iprobably have it to offer.
You've got
Jessica Bowser (23:55):
courses that I didn't even know could be a
course, like if I when I wasscrolling through your website
to see what you had coming up. Iwas like, I didn't even know
this was a thing. It's sofascinating. All the different
things that you offer and allthe opportunities to learn
something new. I think somebodycould take classes with you all
year round and just beconstantly learning. Yeah,
Unknown (24:15):
I do have some people.
I call them my repeat offenders,and they come see me, you know,
a couple times a year. For manyyears, I've had people with me
for 20 years now, and so like, Itry to come up with a new class
every couple years. It's been awonderful experience. So share
Jessica Bowser (24:30):
this stuff and your upcoming foraging classes.
Are any of those at Sky MeadowsState Park?
Unknown (24:35):
Yeah, we've actually got several sky Meadows classes
on the books for this year.
There are three foraging classesat Sky meadows, and there will
be a spring one, a summer oneand a fall one. And then, of
course, most of the classes areat our private our private camp
in southern Fauci County, okay,
Jessica Bowser (24:54):
yeah, I really enjoyed that foraging class.
Also, I learned that noteverything is some. Thing you
should be putting in your mouth,and so you have to be really
mindful.
Unknown (25:04):
Yeah, not every plant is our friend. Okay,
Jessica Bowser (25:06):
so where can people register if they want to
sign up for one of your courses?
Folks can
Unknown (25:11):
find out more about the classes at Advanced survival
training.com. So that's advancedwith a D advanced survival
training.com. Perfect.
Jessica Bowser (25:21):
I'll drop a link to that in the show notes so
that people don't have to searchfor it. It will be right there.
Ready to increase your outdoorskill set. As a listener of this
podcast, you can join Tim forhis outdoor courses using an
exclusive discount code choosefrom primitive cooking, foraging
for edible plants, treeidentification, herbal medicine,
(25:43):
sustainable gardening, off gridcooking, blacksmithing, AX
craft, rope craft and so muchmore. Click on Advanced survival
training in your show notes anduse the discount code vao a 15
for 15% off any of Tim'sextensive course offerings.
Register soon. Offer expires onJuly 1. We're going to do a
(26:07):
really fun giveaway. I don'tknow how many folks know this.
Tim, you are a New York Timesbest selling author too.
Unknown (26:14):
I know isn't that crazy? It still kind of blows me
away. So yeah, I've written overa dozen books, and we have three
of those become New York Timesbest sellers.
Jessica Bowser (26:23):
That's so fantastic. And you have a really
awesome selection of books tochoose from. And we're going to
be giving away two of those. Sothe first one is the ultimate
guide to survival shelters, howto build temporary refuge in any
environment. Started to flipthrough this book a little bit,
and you've got some really greatphotos in here. It's very easy
to follow along and very easy toread. So I think this is a
(26:46):
wonderful resource that peoplewill enjoy. And then the other
book is how to survive anythingfrom animal attacks to the end
of the world and everything inbetween. This book just screams
your name all over it, Tim, evenif it didn't have your name as
the author.
Unknown (27:01):
Yeah, that's that's very much my style. That one was
one of our New York Timesbestsellers.
Jessica Bowser (27:06):
Oh, my God, and I can see why. So this book is
going to be hard for me to shipto whoever wins it, because I
want to keep it for myself. I'mgonna have to order one. It is
so cool, like the illustrations,just the ease of being able to
understand what you're whatyou're reading here. It's like
the different scenarios arethings that I never would have
thought of either. Like, what ifyour plane crashes and, like,
(27:27):
all these crazy things. It's sointeresting. I just started to
flip through and I found myself,like, actually sitting down
reading it, reading like,reading it, reading it. So I
might have to get a copy of myown, but that's a really fun one
too. Well, I'm glad
Unknown (27:41):
you enjoyed it. Yeah, yeah, you go ahead and read the
whole thing, you know, spillcoffee on it and just whatever.
And then we'll send that one outas a special, like a special
edition. We're gonna
Jessica Bowser (27:52):
give away these two books, and I think we're
gonna have a couple of differentways to enter the giveaway, if
listeners would like to enterthe giveaway right now and not
wait for it to come out onsocial media, which I think
we're going to put it up on thesocials too. Go ahead and go to
your show notes and click onSend Jessica a text message and
let me know what your biggesttakeaway was from this episode.
(28:15):
I know Tim you and I would bothlove to hear feedback from folks
how they enjoyed this, what theylearned, how they plan to
actually use what they learned?
I think all of that would befantastic. And then on the
socials, we'll probably havesome more opportunities to share
the podcast episode and get someadditional entries into the
giveaway.
Unknown (28:33):
That's exciting. I really appreciate you creating
this opportunity to share thesebooks with people.
Jessica Bowser (28:39):
Yes, it's going to be excellent. Whoever wins is
going to be lucky. All right, soTim, let's wrap it up. How can
listeners connect with you?
Folks
Unknown (28:46):
can email me? If you jump on the website for my
classes, advanced survivaltraining.com, you'll find my
email. And so if anybody has anyquestions or wants to find out
more about the opportunitiesthat I offer, which include kids
classes, a lot of people don'tknow that I run kids classes.
I'm just a big kid myself, andthat's actually where I started.
I started running kids classes30 years ago this coming
(29:08):
September, so we have ananniversary coming up, but I
will occasionally check in onInstagram, and that handle is
advanced survival training onInstagram, perfect.
Jessica Bowser (29:19):
Okay, and I asked you this question when we
did the episode about foragingfor wild edible plants. I'm
curious if it's changed at all.
But what is one piece of gearyou can't live without? I
Unknown (29:31):
am very partial to my knives. I said the plural word.
I have a lot of differentknives. I just keep going back
to just a really basic likeScandinavian wood carving knife,
those really simple Mora knivesfrom more Sweden. They're not
expensive. They have a greatedge. And I do so much with
those. I make so many things,and I just use them all the
(29:53):
time. Yeah, there are otherthings that are, you know,
indispensable as well, yourphone, your smartphone. You.
Know that our first questiontoday, Kevin said he's got a
phone in a car. Why does he needsurvival like if you've got a
phone and it's got signal, youdon't have to go into survival
mode. You call for help, aphone, a lighter, a space
(30:14):
blanket, a knife, a bottle ofwater, just those simple things
that'll get you really far inthe game. Scott
Jessica Bowser (30:21):
from Iowa, when he sent in a question, he also
mentioned that he had boughtthat Mora knife that you
recommended in the foragingepisode, and he loves it, so he
was really grateful that forthat recommendation. Good,
Unknown (30:34):
good. Yeah. I mean, I'm not a brand ambassador. You
know, they don't, they don'tsend me a dime for dropping
their name. It's just, it's justa great piece of equipment, and
so I'm happy to turn people ontoit, perfect.
Jessica Bowser (30:47):
Yeah. And during the, during the Bucha, course,
you showed us a bunch ofdifferent knives, including the
gas station knives andeverything in between. And what
the difference is, because,honestly, how many people know?
I really, unless you're usingknives all the time, you
wouldn't know why buying the gasstation knife is a bad idea.
Unknown (31:05):
You get what you pay for sometimes, and then
sometimes you get a really gooddeal. And so, yeah, it's
important to understand that,you know, maybe that single
knife that costs $100 is not asgood as you know that that that
other really practical knifethat costs $20 you could have
five really good more knives,you know, for, you know, the
(31:27):
cost of some of these, you know,single, you know, kind of high
end Bushcraft knives. And maybethey don't even perform as well.
Jessica Bowser (31:34):
Good point, and you showed us how to sharpen
them and everything. So goodskills, good information to
have. Thank you so much, Tim forbeing a guest on Virginia
outdoor adventures. I certainlyhope to see you at an upcoming
course.
Unknown (31:47):
I would love that.
Jessica, yes, thank you so muchfor having me on as a guest
again, and hopefully yourlisteners will have had fun and
have more questions and want meto come back and have another
episode.
Jessica Bowser (31:58):
That would be great, because you have so much
knowledge, I'm sure that wecould do yet another one of
these episodes on a completelydifferent topic. Yep, you name
it all right. Tim adventure onVirginia. Outdoor Adventures is
inspired by and supported bylisteners like you, which is why
(32:18):
your messages and feedback meansso much to me. You can text me
directly by clicking on SendJessica a text message in your
show notes. I answer questions,respond to comments and share
your feedback on the show. Nevermiss a new episode. Sign up for
my email newsletter and receivemy listener resource guide with
the top podcast episodes aVirginia outdoor bucket list and
(32:42):
exclusive brand discounts for mylisteners. Click on newsletter.
Sign up in your show notes orvisit Virginia outdoor
adventures.com thanks forlistening until next time.
Adventure on you.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.