Adventure/Survival - What do you do?

[Phil_Stein]

OK, combining the spirit of the recent "you survived a devastating virus" thread with the other thread on Survivorman/Man vs. Wild, I proudly offer the following...

====

You first notice as you start to wake up. Something doesn't feel right. It's drafty - did you leave the window open last night?

More fully awake, you're quite disoriented. You are not in your regular bed. In fact, you're not in a bed at all, you're in a sleeping bag, outside. None of this is clicking - you haven't been camping in years.

Was it alcohol and/or a prank by your buddies? No - no drinking last night - a bit of TV before bed, then the normal routine. Your head does feel a bit... odd, but it's an unfamiliar odd, not quite like your experiences with alcohol or anything else you can remember.

You start to get your bearings. You're wearing the same thing you usually wear to bed (i.e. not much). There's no obvious sign of civilization around other than you and your sleeping bag.

There's a rocky (natural looking) path a couple feet away - perhaps that's how you arrived. It appears you're near the base of some small mountains, perhaps rising to 2,000 feet or so. The area is not familiar to you, but the vegetation is not foreign, you could be in any set of foothills within a few hundred miles (or more perhaps) of your home. In one direction the foothill taper down to an uneven plain, in the other direction, things appear to get steeper.

Slowly, your head clears up and you begin to form a plan...

====

OK, take it from there. You can take it down the outdoor survival path if you'd like (how you'd survive in this situation), or you can go in a completely different direction, and tell me how, as a writer, you would take this opening premise and turn it into a storyline (in whatever genre you choose).

[Houngan]

open mailbox

[ElGuapo]

go west

[DeepT]

Climb a bit up the hill / mountain so you can survey the landscape. Assuming your do not see a city or road, look for a river. If you find a river, follow it downstream, it always leads to civilization.

[Aeon221]

Die of exposure within a few hours.

[spiffy]

I'm fairly certain this is where I stumble upon a tranquil wooded glade and pond where a fair maiden has chosen to masturbate furiously for lack of a strong, rugged man to please her. My pyjama pants, to her delight, are only one drawstring away from off.

chica-chica-boin-boin-

[Talisker]

Using the skills I've learned from Bear Grylls, I would walk the 300 yards to the highway, head to the nearest hotel, and order a big, fat, juicy cheeseburger from room service.

[wonderpug]

This is why I always carry a town portal scroll in my pajamas.

[Houngan]

This is why I always carry a town portal scroll in my pajamas.

I don't leave it to the chance I might not have my pajamas.

H.

[Stroker Ace]

At 18:00, I remove my shirt and stuff it in my backpack before fording a river. Once I reach the other side, I flex for the camera before putting my shirt back on.

[Patrick]

I roll over and go back to sleep.

[Hanzii]

This happened to me once.




... except that it was a wheeled bed on a parking lot, and I woke up when one of my very superior officers were honking his horn because apparently my bed was parked in his spot.

[Enidigm]

Personally i'd hike to a nearby high point to see what is going on nearby, and then stake out to it.

As a writer ... this premise could be a hundred different beginnings. Is it a shifted scifi world, is it punishment for double crossing some crime boss, a psychological game, simply a plot device to start a 10-book series about wizards and dragons? Who is this person, why was it them that this happened to, what is their story, history, personality, flaws, ect? Who they are will inform what they do here, even if the reader isn't completely aware of this person's complete identity.

[Phil_Stein]

As a writer ... this premise could be a hundred different beginnings. Is it a shifted scifi world, is it punishment for double crossing some crime boss, a psychological game, simply a plot device to start a 10-book series about wizards and dragons? Who is this person, why was it them that this happened to, what is their story, history, personality, flaws, ect? Who they are will inform what they do here, even if the reader isn't completely aware of this person's complete identity.

That's sort of the angle I was thinking about. I was reading the survivorman/man vs. wild thread, and also that wiki poking holes in man vs. wild, and thinking how all they have to do is either stay alive for a week or so, or traverse anywhere from a few miles to perhaps a hundred miles to be back in civilization, and DONE with their little adventure.

But it's easy to imagine more difficult scenarios (even if they are perhaps a bit implausible.) If you were truly stranded in the wilderness, and not even certain if civilization existed, and if so, how far and in what direction it was, things would be pretty difficult.

From a story perspective, you could make it a bit like the beginning of the first Jason Bourne movie (where, IIRC, he is found in the midst of the Mediterranean, with no memory of how he got there), albeit of course on dry land and alone in this case. You could go sci-fi with it, fantasy, or semi-plausible action-adventure.

I remember reading, years ago, about a hard core survivor-type guy who set off into the woods naked (some big national park or something like that), with a goal of surviving for one year. He succeeded, and it was a pretty interesting story, IIRC.

[Houngan]

That's sort of the angle I was thinking about. I was reading the survivorman/man vs. wild thread, and also that wiki poking holes in man vs. wild, and thinking how all they have to do is either stay alive for a week or so, or traverse anywhere from a few miles to perhaps a hundred miles to be back in civilization, and DONE with their little adventure.

But it's easy to imagine more difficult scenarios (even if they are perhaps a bit implausible.) If you were truly stranded in the wilderness, and not even certain if civilization existed, and if so, how far and in what direction it was, things would be pretty difficult.

From a story perspective, you could make it a bit like the beginning of the first Jason Bourne movie (where, IIRC, he is found in the midst of the Mediterranean, with no memory of how he got there), albeit of course on dry land and alone in this case. You could go sci-fi with it, fantasy, or semi-plausible action-adventure.

I don't mean this to sound snarky, but have you watched Survivorman? The last one I saw, he was in the Kalahari desert, and the temperature was 140 degrees during the day. It's not all New England forest.

H.

[Phil_Stein]

I phrased myself poorly. Survivorman certainly puts himself into difficult situations, and I doubt I would do very well in them. But that seems to be due mainly to the extreme terrain he puts himself in. In my scenario, the short term survival issues are not so severe, but the longer term issues are probably harder (potentially the need to travel a very long distance and/or live in the wilderness for a very long time).

Given more forgiving terrain that might be reasonably familiar to many of us (hilly woodlands), but a potentially more difficult task, how would I (or you) fare?

[Enidigm]

In survival situations there are four necessities - water, food, shelter, and rescue, in that order. In your hypothetical, RESCUE will inform his actions on the other three. If i climb a nearby hill, and see a lake, some houses, ect., i'm rescued in all but deed. I can skip looking for water or food or anything. If i climb a tall hill and clearly see no sign of men for 60 miles in any direction, my next thought is immediately to water. I can probably survive for a week without food, although after day two it would grow to be extremely tiring.

What get's interesting with this question is trying to figure out where to go next if you're completely lost. If i'm within 200 miles of my current residence, i know the geography well enough in basic form to figure out what general direction to go. If i wake up somewhere in East Asia, it's whole different sort of problem. Ultimately though, the character is going to try to "get out" of his predicament unless for some reason he finds evidence or reason to convince him escape is impossible.

[Houngan]

Perhaps I phrased myself poorly. Survivorman certainly puts himself into difficult situations, and I doubt I would do very well in them. But that seems to be due mainly to the extreme terrain he puts himself in.

Given more forgiving terrain that might be reasonably familiar to many of us (hilly woodlands), but a potentially more difficult task, how would I (or you) fare?

Ah, I see. Well, the scenario is having nothing other than a sleeping bag and pajamas, so I'd say I (we) would be in pretty bad shape. Throw in a pair of shoes, and odds go way up. Cigarette lighter, and higher still. Stroud has shown that you can go for days of effort without food, and I'm assuming the easier terrain means water won't be a big problem, so I figure:

1. No shoes - Thirty miles, then dead
2. Shoes - 80 miles, then dead
3. Shoes + Lighter - Sit on your ass and start a big fire, rescued.

H.

[Enidigm]

Yea, i didn't read carefully enough. No shoes is a huge, huge debit on your account, as bad as not having water.

But you do have the sleeping bag? Shredded bag + bark = hacky, crappy pads for your feet, that would probably slow you down by half your normal walking speed, but is still better than nothing.

[Phil_Stein]

Yeah, the shoes issue is a big one, and I was waiting for somebody to notice it.

The sleeping bag could be useful, but it would be hard to cut up without a knife, and it probably doesn't have enough metal to a useful source of that.

I'd probably try to fashion shoes out of bits of the sleeping bag, and protect my body as best as possible with the rest (and or PJs, if I'm wearing them), as moving through woodlands naked (or nearly so), would probably be painful.

Assuming no signs of nearby humanity, you have to find a water source. Without a vessel to hold water, you need to stick fairly close to a creek, lake, or whatnot (i.e. setting off on a 10 mile journey over a hilltop without water would probably be a bad idea).

I think if I could find a flowing body of water, I'd try to improvise a raft of some sort. Assuming this happens in August, the water temperature would probably be tolerable, and even on a crude raft, you could probably move a lot faster than on foot (without real shoes).

[Houngan]

Sounds good to me. Downstream is easy, saves your feet, keeps you hydrated, and leads to civilization.

H.

[DeepT]

Having or not having shoes being critical is important to the terrain, which was poorly described.

Your at the base of some small mountains:
What is the general altitude? Are the tops of these mountains covered with snow? Is the climate arid, frigid, temperate, or wet?

A frigid environment will be a big problem. An arid climate may be a problem (the ground could become very very hot). Temperate or wet isn't a big deal.

This this rocky path, mostly solid stone or more like gravel? Walking up a mostly solid stone mountain for a short distance to get a better vantage point isn't a big deal on your feet.

What kind of vegetation? Grasses? Forests? Both of those are very easy on the feet. Cacti in a desert environment would present a problem, such that walking on a plane or rocky hills in the middle of the day would be a big problem.

If you could find a river, not having shoes might be a total non issue. Just float down stream, you can make very good time in the water. Then again, we do not even know what kind of stream this is. If the mountains are not ice capped, then it is most likely spring fed, which while cold is quite swimable. Rivers formed from melting snow, it would not be. You could still walk beside it down stream. You will have fresh water, a supply of food (fish and wild berries that grow near the river).

[Phil_Stein]

Well, in part I was a little vague because I wanted everyone to be able to project themselves into terrain they were familiar with.

High foothills/low mountains is meant to be the kind of terrain that exists in many parts of the world. I guess most specifically I'm thinking of the terrain in southern Missouri that I'm familiar with (although 2000 foot peaks are probably too high for that area), or perhaps the foothills of the Appalachians.

No snow/ice.

Mixed terrain - woodlands includes mostly wooded areas, but some pastures and open areas. They're not that easy on (bare) feet, IMO.

The rocky path was to provide a possible means by which you were delivered to this location without leaving obvious traces from the delivery crew. It's not man made - call it an exposed area of solid rock/natural gravel.

It's August in the Northern latitudes (i.e. anywhere from northern Alabama up to southern Canada). Let's say your daytime peak might be in the 80s or 90s, and nighttime in the 50s or 60s.

[Houngan]

Unless I'm dropped into a wilderness of pillows, my city feet are going to be good and ripped open within hours.

H.

[DeepT]

There is a difference between "not that easy" vs "hard". Yeah, walking through the woods on a bunch of leaves with the occasional stick isn't as east as walking on a shag rug, but it is far from hard.

I have run in fields, swaps, and forests barefoot many times as a kid. Pine forests suck, those damm pine cones (especially the little ball ones) really hurt when you step on them. However, walking with care in a pine forest should easily allow you to avoid them. Most forests I have been in just have normal leaves and the forest floor is very soft. I would say walking on asphalt or concrete for a long time would be worse then walking in a forest or meadow.

It has also been my experience that briars (I dunno what they are called, the little pea sized balls of thorns) are not very competitive plants and only thrive where other plants have problems. A lush grassy field is fairly safe, where as some scraggly grass with a lot of bare earth is a haven for those things.

It sounds like the environment you describe is fairly pleasant. I think the big problems would be eating a poisonous plant, getting bitten by a snake (which will avoid cold waters), or maybe a large animal like a bear or panther might attack you if you threaten it.

[Adam Altmann]

If you decide to start toward the uneven plain, turn to page 4.
If you decide to climb, turn to page 15.

[Phil_Stein]

This (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taum_Sauk_Mountain) is sorta what I was thinking of. We went camping in this county last year. The highest peak only has an elevation of 1772 feet above mean sea level, and less than that above the surrounding terrain.

One issue when you climb a wooded hill is that it may be difficult to find a clearing from which you can see out. We'll assume one exists though, to make it easier for you :)

[ElGuapo]

I'd use the Universal Edibility Test for anything I eat, and should be good to go. Of course, just because you can eat it doesn't mean it will provide you with great nourishment, so long term you have to find better food sources.

I wouldn't drink out of holes in the ground, mud puddles, or even ground water if I could help it. If it's feasible, I'd set up leave traps for rain. If it doesn't rain for a bit, then I'm drinking running water from the most aerated part I can find.

I'd definitely find a river and follow it if I could. That will always lead to some kind of civilization. If it joins a bigger river, then you follow that. If it ends in a lake, you walk the lake shore and look for roads. I'm not climbing a mountain to see where I am. If I'm way out in the wilderness with nothing to eat, that's going to take too much energy. Better to start moving while I have energy reserves. If the mountain/hill was pretty small and I saw an area I could see out, maybe, but I doubt it. What am I going to see, anyway, tons of forest? It's not like I am going to recognize the place.

For shoes/clothing, I'd try to make shoes out of whatever I could, even the sleeping bag, but I'd try not to rip it. A sleeping bag would be very useful at night, keeping you warm. Maybe I'd rip off my pajama arms, if they had any, to make cloth shoes.

[Houngan]

There is a difference between "not that easy" vs "hard". Yeah, walking through the woods on a bunch of leaves with the occasional stick isn't as east as walking on a shag rug, but it is far from hard.

I have run in fields, swaps, and forests barefoot many times as a kid. Pine forests suck, those damm pine cones (especially the little ball ones) really hurt when you step on them. However, walking with care in a pine forest should easily allow you to avoid them. Most forests I have been in just have normal leaves and the forest floor is very soft. I would say walking on asphalt or concrete for a long time would be worse then walking in a forest or meadow.

It has also been my experience that briars (I dunno what they are called, the little pea sized balls of thorns) are not very competitive plants and only thrive where other plants have problems. A lush grassy field is fairly safe, where as some scraggly grass with a lot of bare earth is a haven for those things.

It sounds like the environment you describe is fairly pleasant. I think the big problems would be eating a poisonous plant, getting bitten by a snake (which will avoid cold waters), or maybe a large animal like a bear or panther might attack you if you threaten it.

Two things; when you were a little kid, your feet were tougher from going barefoot often, and you didn't weigh very much. Also, we're talking about walking dozens of miles out of a wilderness, not just across a field.

H.

[jpinard]

Do I still have both my kidneys?

[Phil_Stein]

jpinard, in your case, you wake up with a few surgical scars, in addition to the rest, and all is well with your body. :)

Whenever I have one of those daydreams about being born centuries ago, I have to ignore the fact that I'd have been dead at age 6, of appendicitis.

Fortunately, appendectomies were pretty routine by 1975.

[Arioch]

I would cry like a little baby until the reality show producers who did that to me become embarrassed and get me out of there.