After years of solo survival, the wilderness and its harsh realities are about to be amplified. For the first time, a new dynamic enters the equation as our seasoned survivor faces the ultimate test: navigating the untamed west coast of Vancouver Island with his son. As the sun dips below the horizon, they must immediately pool their limited resources and assess their surroundings, with nothing but their sea kayaks and a few essential survival supplies.
Making it through the first night proves to be a challenge, with the cold sand offering little comfort. They discover the surprising warmth of sleeping on logs, elevated above the rising tide. The following morning, a dense fog blankets the coastline, presenting a significant disorientation hazard and forcing a change in plans, with fishing on hold to ensure safety.
Venturing inland, they explore the outer perimeter, identifying trees rich with bark for potential use and discovering a bounty of edible red and blue huckleberries. The allure of an animal trail offers a glimmer of hope, but the uncertainty of its destination looms large. This episode delves into the primal instincts of survival, the complex bond between father and son under extreme pressure, and the unforgiving beauty of the wild.
#Survivorman #WildernessSurvival #VancouverIsland #SurvivalChallenge
Making it through the first night proves to be a challenge, with the cold sand offering little comfort. They discover the surprising warmth of sleeping on logs, elevated above the rising tide. The following morning, a dense fog blankets the coastline, presenting a significant disorientation hazard and forcing a change in plans, with fishing on hold to ensure safety.
Venturing inland, they explore the outer perimeter, identifying trees rich with bark for potential use and discovering a bounty of edible red and blue huckleberries. The allure of an animal trail offers a glimmer of hope, but the uncertainty of its destination looms large. This episode delves into the primal instincts of survival, the complex bond between father and son under extreme pressure, and the unforgiving beauty of the wild.
#Survivorman #WildernessSurvival #VancouverIsland #SurvivalChallenge
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FunTranscript
00:16Oh, that's bad. It's going to be bad.
00:29Oh, that's bad.
01:02For years, I've been surviving in the wilderness alone. I've had to struggle and starve, climb and hike. I've had
01:09to deal with the heat, the wet, and the bone-numbing cold and all of it alone. Would it be
01:15easier to be with another person, finding food, finding water, building shelters, starting fires? And what if this other was
01:25my own son?
01:28You know, every year, hundreds of people venture out into the wilderness and they take off on a little day
01:34hike, a simple afternoon of fishing. They find themselves turned around, disoriented.
01:39Maybe a bad storm comes in. Next thing you know, they're lost or stranded. They're away from their tents, their
01:46sleeping bags, their food, their equipment.
01:49And they have to survive and hope that someone comes to the rescue or they can find their way out.
01:55Well, that's the situation for Logan and I now. We're going to have to survive out here as two.
02:01We might be twice as strong and be able to exert twice the effort. We also have two miles to
02:06feed. Out here, on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
02:12An ideal beach cove like this is deceptively attractive. It makes survival look like it could be easy. But survival
02:19is never easy.
02:23You can pretty much tell from the long shadows that the sun is on its way down and it's going
02:28down fast. I give it maybe another hour.
02:30So what we really need to do now is pool our resources, get together, figure out what is we have,
02:35what's in Logan's kayak, what's in my kayak, do our zone of assessment check.
02:40Zone number one, zone number two, what's close, and then tomorrow, zone number three. But for now, we just got
02:47to make it through the first night.
02:49We've got everything that's on the sea kayaks and we brought along a few little survival supplies.
02:53Fishing kit with just basic lures. Logan's set up for spin casting and I'm set up for fly fishing.
03:00We've got a survival bag that we've got at the survival store. We've got this bivy sack and I just
03:05want to try them out.
03:07Snare, chap? Nope. No, that's a saw.
03:09Saw, okay. So this is one of those little saws you get in different survival kits.
03:14I've used these before and they, I don't know, they always break on me.
03:19Logan has done only minimal camping over the years.
03:22He knows nothing of survival and what I've been going through to live through a survivor man ordeal.
03:28I need to find out, is it going to be an asset or a liability?
03:33We're not going to have a fire tonight. That much is clear.
03:36Logan's asked if he could go do some fishing and in a way I could come down hard and say,
03:40are you crazy? We were out here for the night. We've got a fire going.
03:44We've got to find a place to settle down.
03:46But he doesn't have the experience of being out in the bush like this.
03:49So, letting him fish. Basically going a little easy on him.
03:53Whoa, ho, ho.
03:55I know what those are.
03:56These are very large wolf tracks.
03:58So we've got a potential company here in the form of quite a large wolf.
04:06Well, that'd make things interesting now, wouldn't it?
04:10That didn't take long at all.
04:12There goes the sun.
04:15And with it, the warmth.
04:17We'll see how we do sleeping on the sand.
04:26Logan and I decided that it's a heck of a lot warmer actually laying up on these logs.
04:32It is on the sand.
04:34Using our life jackets as padding, paddle jackets as blankets.
04:41Actually, not that bad.
04:43The bonus, actually, is we're up high enough, too, that if the tide comes in, we're above it.
04:52There won't be any sleeping under the stars tonight.
04:54The west coast is notoriously wet and foggy.
05:02See, this is the reason for people getting disoriented and lost.
05:07Fog.
05:08When it gets to be this thick, you can't find your way out there.
05:12There's no point in Logan going out fishing this morning.
05:17I don't want to let him go out into that.
05:20He gets to turn around in that, won't see him again.
05:24While the sun burns off the fog,
05:26Logan and I take to the bush to explore zone number three, the outer perimeter.
05:35The aboriginals in the area would harvest all this bark by cutting here
05:39and then pulling the strip up the tree
05:44and taking that and then using that for everything from baskets to housing to clothing.
05:50These trees will get bigger and bigger and they can harvest more,
05:52so this is a whole area of it.
05:56There's a whole bunch of red huckleberries up here.
06:00This is awesome.
06:06The only poisonous berry around here...
06:09Oh, here's a couple more.
06:11There's a twin berry.
06:13What does it look like?
06:15I'll show you if I find one.
06:17Yeah, that totally helps.
06:19This is a blue huckleberry on this tree right here.
06:23And, uh, that's great.
06:25They're in season.
06:26Here, here's two.
06:28You like them?
06:28They're not bad.
06:29They're a little sour.
06:31You see, that's the difference of just...
06:34sitting around and not doing anything
06:35and going for even a small hike
06:38when we find these berries.
06:43Hey, look at this.
06:45That looks like a trail to me.
06:47It's left or the right?
06:48We'll just follow it a little bit this way.
06:51Animal trail or something.
06:53That's the thing about finding established trails.
06:56They're extremely tempting.
06:58When you're lost, they're like salvation.
07:00Well, I mean, it's which way to turn, right or left, right?
07:02In this case, I know left has got to take us to the beach.
07:08Where does right go?
07:10How far does it go?
07:12Check this out, Logan.
07:16Okay, so let's remember this one
07:18because this tree, easy to get to,
07:20and this is an awesome overhang shelter
07:22if it starts to rain on us.
07:24We may even want to make our shelter here anyway.
07:28I don't know.
07:29Would you rather be here or on the beach?
07:31I'd rather be on the beach, personally.
07:32Still rather be on the beach?
07:33Yeah.
07:33All right, but if it starts to pour rain on us,
07:36this is three minutes up from the beach,
07:40we can come up here and get out of it, obviously, right?
07:44Yeah.
07:46The beach is a familiar place for Logan,
07:48and so it only follows that he prefers to stay there.
07:52One thing I'm starting to get a little worried about is water.
07:55We have to find water we can drink, Logan.
07:59Yeah.
08:00There's some dripping there.
08:02There's a slow drip up there.
08:06There's no real good source of fresh water at this beach,
08:10so these little drips are all we have at this point.
08:13It's a big problem.
08:14With our water supply coming in drips,
08:16it'll likely only be enough for one,
08:19but we are too.
08:20It's always been the irony of surviving
08:22beside an ocean of salt water
08:23where you can die of dehydration.
08:25For now, I'll let Logan head off
08:27and do something he's familiar with.
08:29Well, there he goes.
08:30We're both suffering from a little bit of a lack of energy.
08:33I don't know if it was the hike that we did a bit earlier or what,
08:37but we're both dragging,
08:38and we're not actually lifting each other up right now,
08:40which is strange.
08:41We need to have a fire that Logan really wants to fish,
08:43and, of course, it's clear blue sky, right?
08:45So who knows?
08:46Maybe he'll get lucky.
08:48I got work to do.
08:50It would be a lot better if Logan would work with me,
08:53but I have to ease him into this thing that I call survival.
08:58I see something else I can grab even easier.
09:01Sharing jobs and responsibilities
09:03can be much more effective survival for two or more people.
09:06Ferns.
09:11While building, I look out
09:13and see Logan swimming in the cold ocean water
09:15with his kayak floating nearby,
09:17I'm questioning my decision to let him go fishing alone.
09:21What are you doing?
09:23You flipped.
09:30It's been two days of survival off the coast of Vancouver Island,
09:33and Logan, my son,
09:35has made a seemingly simple and benign mistake
09:37by flipping his kayak into the water.
09:40In a survival ordeal,
09:42little accidents like that can kill
09:44and must always be taken seriously.
09:46What are you doing?
09:47You flipped.
09:52So you totally flipped?
09:54Yeah.
09:55Just trying to maneuver the stuff around.
09:58Not even with the fish.
10:02Luckily I was close,
10:03not too far out.
10:05Yeah, I mean,
10:07you're a good kayaker.
10:08I'm trying to figure out what happened.
10:12I mean,
10:12if that had happened way out there,
10:14you would have had some serious trouble.
10:16Just with the fishing rod and everything,
10:17trying to get it in,
10:19there's nowhere to put anything,
10:20so you're leaning to different sides,
10:22just trying to hold the rod out there.
10:23Yeah.
10:25It's not for balance.
10:27Break anything on the kayak at all?
10:29No, it was just,
10:29the kayak didn't flip,
10:30I flipped into the water.
10:32Well, all right, well,
10:33ironically I'm working on a fire,
10:35so get all this stuff out in there.
10:37We've got perfect sun.
10:38Get it all out drying in the sun
10:40and throw in the other stuff.
10:42Let's just get you dry.
10:47So Logan flipped the kayak,
10:51but he flipped it only about 30 feet from shore,
10:53which is lucky.
10:53If he flipped it way out in the center somewhere
10:55or had gone out into the waves a bit,
10:57would have been some pretty serious trouble.
11:00Beautiful day.
11:01It only takes a second to change everything,
11:03for the worse.
11:05Now I really need to get a fire going for him.
11:07After I fell,
11:08it was shock for a couple seconds
11:11and all of a sudden I was like,
11:12oh my God, I'm in the water now.
11:14Luckily I didn't have my spray skirt on.
11:16I thought I'd take it off,
11:17just sheer luck that I didn't have it on
11:20because if I did,
11:21I would have just flipped over
11:23and been stuck hanging upside down.
11:25That would have been really bad.
11:27It was really cold.
11:29My heart rate's starting to slow down a bit.
11:31I'm starting to feel a little bit
11:33like I'm going into shock.
11:35By the time I got back to the beach,
11:37I was cold.
11:39I was really cold.
11:40I was shaking.
11:41I was a little bit frantic.
11:43I was worried about getting hypothermia
11:45or going into shock
11:47and being in real trouble
11:50because, man, it was cold.
11:52I'm still a little bit chilled right now.
11:54But working like this,
11:56building a shelter,
11:56will get me nice and warm.
11:58So it's, uh...
11:59Yeah, I was pretty lucky.
12:03Well, I feel kind of bad for Logan.
12:06Wiping out in a kayak,
12:08he said his heart started racing
12:09when he had to go back out for the paddle.
12:10It shows him how quick something can turn around.
12:12Fortunately, because it's a beautiful day,
12:14there's forgiveness.
12:15And he can dry his clothing out in the sun
12:18and calm himself down and help me now.
12:22What I thought of doing was
12:24taking your lip balm
12:25in my little kit of flies.
12:29There was some Q-tips and Band-Aids.
12:33So I'm just going to take the Q-tips
12:35and I'm going to steal the cotton off the Q-tips.
12:37I've got six Q-tips,
12:39so I'll do three to start this.
12:42And, Logan, I want you to watch how I do this
12:44in case you need to do it later, right?
12:46Yeah.
12:46Wax from the lip balm,
12:47put it into the cotton ball,
12:49fluff that up so it takes a spark.
12:51One thing, when you start striking,
12:53your striker to get a fire,
12:55if you're going to use the blade of your knife,
12:57which people argue about,
12:58say never use a blade.
12:59I don't mind using a blade
13:01because I get a really good, strong spark that way.
13:05But do it high up on the blade here
13:07so you don't dull the main cutting edge down here, okay?
13:11As I say before every fire,
13:13wish me luck.
13:18Whoa, there we go, there we go.
13:21All right, that's got it.
13:22What do you think?
13:22Not a bad idea, eh?
13:23Just some Q-tips, lip balm,
13:26and we are in business with a simple spark.
13:28Nice.
13:32Finally, Logan gets busy
13:34and pitches in to work on our necessities.
13:36For now, we'll simply build
13:38some small fern mattresses
13:39to keep us off the cold sand.
13:41But we're taking our chances
13:43that it won't rain overnight
13:44on the Northwest Pacific Coast.
13:48Let's see how this water's doing.
13:52Oh, best in time.
13:55It's full to the brim.
13:58Oh, that's good.
13:59All right.
14:01We've got a very small,
14:02but a constant supply of water at this point.
14:07Better?
14:08Thanks.
14:09It's always a strange thing
14:10with trying to convince people,
14:12actually even adults,
14:13trying to convince them to constantly drink.
14:15It can be tricky,
14:16especially in the wintertime, actually.
14:19But keeping people hydrated is vital
14:22in any survival situation, that's for sure.
14:25All right, I'm going to put this cup back.
14:44Two little tiny patches of sphagnum moss.
14:47You can use it for toilet paper
14:48if you need to.
14:50Although, big question I get asked all the time,
14:52and you're going to find us out,
14:53you won't be going to the bathroom
14:55until we get back in civilization.
14:59You just won't need to go
15:00unless we catch a lot of fish.
15:03Banana slugs.
15:05Unfortunately, we can't eat them.
15:07It's too bad, though, eh?
15:08These guys are edible.
15:09You don't like that idea?
15:10Yeah.
15:11You might in a couple days.
15:12Berries and slugs.
15:18I see water.
15:21It's either ocean bay or fresh water.
15:23I don't know.
15:25There's a bunch of those berries.
15:27Oh, hey, you know what?
15:27There's salmon berries here, too.
15:29Yeah, that's what I'm looking at.
15:33There'll be a lot of bears come through here.
15:35This grass is all pushed down quite a bit.
15:38As great as these berries are,
15:40they're not going to be enough.
15:42I'm hoping we catch some nice big fish.
15:50The groundwater here is brackish,
15:52fresh mixed with salt water.
15:55Come on, show me some water up here.
15:58Let's try my old trick here.
16:01Squeezing some sphagnum less.
16:09All of these plants here,
16:12there's about four or five different edible plants
16:15that we can gather and eat up.
16:18It's been good finding the berries.
16:20They represent familiar food for Logan,
16:22and familiarity goes a long way
16:24towards helping someone feel confident surviving.
16:27What we want to do in this case,
16:29this is sort of a rare situation.
16:32We want to actually sort of save the plant,
16:35and it's called rice root.
16:36And I think you're going to like
16:38what you taste underneath.
16:40Pull everything back and away from it.
16:44You see that?
16:44Yeah.
16:45That white?
16:45So there's a bulb underneath.
16:47If you pull them out,
16:48those little rice things fall off it,
16:50and you just eat them raw.
16:53Then, for the plant...
16:54Yeah, there's lots in the hole.
16:55There's lots in the hole.
16:56That's what's going to happen, right?
16:57So cover over the hole
16:59and just transplant that,
17:00you know, another foot or two away.
17:02Okay.
17:03And then it sort of spreads the plant
17:04and enables it to keep growing.
17:06This way, we're actually harvesting the plant...
17:09Rather than just...
17:10Rather than just destroying it and taking it.
17:12In a survival situation like this,
17:14you want to know what exists in every direction.
17:18So coming down here,
17:19finding this green patch
17:20and being able to see all these wild edibles,
17:23none of that would have happened
17:24if we hadn't gone for the walk
17:26to see what was around us.
17:27We have not sat down and said,
17:29okay, we checked out our bodies,
17:30we checked out our gear that's in hand.
17:32We need to see what's further afield.
17:34That's zone of assessment one, two,
17:35and then three.
17:37So far, that's only one cup of water
17:39in each of us
17:40and a few mouthfuls of wild berries.
17:42We have to seek out a stream or river
17:44to keep us in fresh water.
17:51In too many ways,
17:53Logan doesn't really know what we're facing.
17:55He's relying on me to show him the way,
17:57which is fine,
17:58but it's also very draining on me psychologically.
18:01We tried to do some fishing for a bit
18:03and it didn't work out.
18:04Line tangled up on us.
18:06I couldn't get it going.
18:07I got like one cast in
18:08and it was like went 10 feet
18:09and then that was it.
18:10On the way back,
18:11I noticed a nice big halibut
18:13and if I had a spear with me,
18:15just smash
18:16and I get the nice big halibut for dinner.
18:20Logan's sense of what's possible
18:22is positive and good,
18:24but not necessarily realistic.
18:28There we go.
18:29I think I got it going.
18:35Oh, it's hard on my arms.
18:37Logan's about to learn a valuable lesson
18:39in poor quality survival gear.
18:42Oh, s***.
18:45That hurt.
18:46Ow.
18:53I saw it broke.
18:56Tried to put it back together.
18:58Doesn't really work,
18:59but I'm going to give it a try.
19:05My personal struggle with Logan as a father
19:07is convincing him to eat what he's not used to.
19:10He's much like I was when I was his age,
19:12hungry but picky,
19:13and that won't do in a survival situation.
19:18Gathered some seaweed while we were out.
19:21I'm just going to get all the rice root into the cup here.
19:23You can boil it up and make it a little softer.
19:26And now some of the seaweed.
19:27Kind of like making a bit of a miso soup, I suppose.
19:30This is just little bull kelp.
19:34This food I've gathered from the ocean side
19:36is appealing to me,
19:38but I'm familiar with it.
19:39I know what's important
19:41is just to get any kind of sustenance into our bodies.
19:44Logan is in a still too casual state of mind about it all,
19:48as if he's just out camping.
19:49But if he starts losing energy,
19:51it's going to hurt both our chances of surviving.
19:56Oh, the water tastes horrible.
19:58Let me try the rice.
20:03That's way better.
20:05It's nice and soft.
20:08This is so dangerous, what you're doing.
20:11It's good, though, eh?
20:12It's like, it's almost like real rice.
20:13It's not bad.
20:14It's better than nothing.
20:15I know, but seeing you two go for a second
20:17means you must like it.
20:18Or it means you're hungry.
20:20True.
20:24Want the last scoop of rice?
20:25I'll be back.
20:33Hmm.
20:34Maybe he's stuffed.
20:36It's crazy.
20:37But sometimes the obvious escapes you
20:39in a survival ordeal.
20:40And we'd forgotten to utilize
20:41the emergency sleeping sacks
20:43the previous night.
20:45What?
20:45Where's this going?
20:46I don't know.
20:47No, exactly.
20:48Don't touch my stuff.
20:49Okay, fine.
20:50Stop it!
20:51I'm just growing it up, man.
20:52Okay.
20:53You want me to help you get in that?
20:54No.
20:55Okay.
20:56I'm not poor.
21:02All right, good night.
21:03All right.
21:10We fell asleep well,
21:11and then the fire died on us.
21:13And he got pretty cold.
21:15Didn't die out completely,
21:16so I got it going again,
21:17but colder than the first night, strangely.
21:19I think I found his breakfast.
21:21All right.
21:23They're definitely alive.
21:27This could be a serious meal for us.
21:31Logan actually got up.
21:33I guess the fire warmed him up
21:35and went for a walk.
21:37It's pouring down on the rocks.
21:39He should be on his way back.
21:40What I want to do is
21:42I'm going to put it on the fire,
21:43and it'll just naturally open up,
21:45and I won't have to pry it open
21:46with a knife.
21:48I know Logan's stomach
21:49is getting to the better of him.
21:51It's a problem.
21:52I'm trained in this,
21:53and you bring someone in,
21:55take them out of their comfort zone.
21:58Some of the simplest things
21:59can be pretty rough
21:59for just about anybody.
22:03Sometimes even the easiest food to gather
22:05doesn't come without some kind of danger.
22:09My biggest worry right now
22:10is not so much our hunger.
22:12It's red tide.
22:14You can die from red tide.
22:15There's a couple different versions of it,
22:17but I don't want to have
22:19any of the versions.
22:20So what I'm going to do
22:22is do a bit of a poison test.
22:25This actually also works into...
22:27Ooh, this does look good,
22:29I've got to say.
22:32All right, so I'll take a small piece of it.
22:34Of course, the color of this happens to be red.
22:35That doesn't make me feel any better.
22:37It probably has no bearing on anything,
22:39but still, I'm going to put it
22:42just in my lip here,
22:45just in between my lip and my gum.
22:47I'm going to hold it there
22:47for about three minutes or so,
22:51and I'm going to try not to swallow.
22:54So I'll leave that there
22:58and see if I get any kind of
23:00tingling or numbing sensation.
23:07Three days into surviving with my son
23:09off the northwest Pacific coast,
23:10and the ocean is proving bountiful.
23:12But without a good supply of fresh water,
23:15lots of food can become a moot point.
23:20All right, I guess it's been long enough.
23:23My mouth feels fine.
23:24No tingling, no numbing sensation.
23:27A little word of caution here.
23:28This is not the be-all and end-all way
23:30to test for red tide, not at all.
23:31In fact, what some people do,
23:33I've heard, is they'll take
23:36one of the mussels,
23:37and they'll throw it out for the seagulls,
23:39and they'll watch the seagulls,
23:40and if the seagulls don't eat it,
23:42or they come down and spit it out sort of thing,
23:45it stays away.
23:49Wow.
23:51It counts really good.
23:52That is the best mussel
23:54I've ever eaten in my life right there.
23:56I'm going to leave one for Logan.
23:58Hopefully he'll like it.
24:00Logan is out searching for bait to fish with.
24:03It's what he knows,
24:04and keeping him busy
24:05is the key to keeping him positive.
24:07But I've noticed something.
24:08A good percentage of my energy
24:10is now spent on figuring out
24:12how to keep Logan motivated.
24:14These clams are a great score
24:15as far as I'm concerned,
24:16yet once again,
24:18Logan turns up his nose
24:19to good survival food.
24:22Anything?
24:22A little bit of a tingle on my tongue.
24:24You feel a tingle on your tongue?
24:25Tiny kind of bit right in my tooth.
24:28Well, then, let's not take any chances.
24:30Mm-hmm.
24:31Let's go get some fish sent.
24:33I have no way of knowing
24:35if Logan is just being picky about the food
24:37or if he really feels a tingling sensation
24:39on his lip from the clams.
24:41Either way,
24:42I'm not going to push the issues.
24:44That right here,
24:45this bladder rack,
24:47the juice inside,
24:48having been tested,
24:49is SPF 15.
24:52You can eat it
24:53and protect your skin with it
24:53at the same time.
24:55I'm making another spear
24:57for my dad.
24:58I've been working on this one
24:59for a while,
25:00so I'm just going to
25:01touch it up a little bit.
25:03I'd never make a spear
25:04in a place like this
25:05as I believe it to be
25:06a waste of time.
25:07But perhaps I can learn
25:08a thing or two
25:08from Logan as well.
25:12Here we go.
25:13Hopefully this is going
25:14to be good enough.
25:19Heading out to catch fish
25:21is a good proactive thing to do
25:22to keep our minds on survival.
25:24But it's still our lack of water
25:26that has me the most concerned.
25:31Got a nice big bulk up here.
25:41You see the way
25:42all the weeds are bent?
25:44So the tide's coming back in.
25:49What's with the water?
25:50What do you mean?
25:51Look at it.
25:52It's all, like, weird.
25:54Weird?
25:55Yeah, it looks like
25:55there's, like,
25:56something in it.
25:57Yeah, you know why?
25:58Why?
25:58This is, uh...
26:00This is fresh water
26:01coming out here.
26:02Lots of it.
26:03So it's the fresh water
26:04mixing with the salt.
26:06This is awesome.
26:08This is a river
26:08coming out of here.
26:09This is a full-on,
26:10solid river.
26:13See how far up
26:14we can get.
26:15Little rapids up there.
26:19We'll come up to a river.
26:20This is awesome.
26:21Exploring provides answers
26:22and solutions.
26:23A half a cup a day
26:24of water dripping off a rock
26:25will not sustain us
26:26for much longer.
26:27And this is only a short paddle
26:29from our base camp.
26:30We don't really need to go
26:31all the way up to the poles.
26:32This water's rushing so much
26:33it's got to be fresh.
26:35So I'm just going to test it.
26:40Why don't I just go up here?
26:43Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
26:44There's a flounder right in front of me.
26:45Get me your spear.
26:49Hurry up.
26:50He's still there.
26:51I'm going to do two of them.
26:52Come over here.
26:53You work this camera.
26:54Okay.
26:55These two spears
26:56were Logan's idea
26:57and I had figured
26:57they were nothing more
26:58than a way to keep him busy.
27:00Got him!
27:01I got him!
27:02Perfect.
27:03I got him!
27:04Oh, man, your spears
27:05were a great idea.
27:06That's awesome.
27:08Look at that.
27:10What a great idea.
27:12Logan, if it wasn't for your spears
27:13we wouldn't have this.
27:14I know.
27:15We would not have this guy.
27:16I was kind of like
27:16writing off your spears
27:17going, well, whatever.
27:18The chances of that happening
27:19were next to nothing.
27:21And look at that.
27:22This is one of those
27:23incredibly lucky moments
27:24that can be the turning point
27:25in a survival situation
27:26moving things towards the better.
27:29And with it comes an ample supply
27:31of fresh water
27:31that we can bring back
27:32to our camp
27:33in the dry bags.
27:35I can't believe
27:36we caught a fish.
27:38Tide's coming in.
27:40We've got our first real meal
27:42in a few days.
27:44When the tide is in
27:45the stream is obscured
27:46and easily missed
27:47when you paddle by.
27:49But at low tide
27:50it becomes much more obvious
27:51proving that even
27:53the timing of exploration
27:54makes a big difference
27:55in how you survive.
28:01You hadn't made those spears
28:02just wouldn't happen.
28:04And especially making
28:05two of them like that
28:06we would have been
28:07standing there going
28:07there's a fish
28:08and then we would have
28:08been looking for something.
28:10You know?
28:11And likely, you know,
28:12probably lost them.
28:13I want to save all the guts
28:14so we can use it as bait.
28:16It's a little harder to do
28:17than your standard
28:20average bass
28:21or pike.
28:22That's the heart.
28:24And I'll eat that for sure.
28:25Same thing with the liver.
28:27So I just want to get rid
28:28of the intestines.
28:29Now with both ample
28:30fresh water
28:31and this fish
28:32survival is about to take
28:33a turn for the better.
28:35That is so long as I don't
28:36go and do something foolish.
28:45Oh.
28:50Oh.
28:54Oh.
28:56Oh.
28:57Oh.
28:59Oh.
29:00Oh.
29:02Oh.
29:04Oh.
29:06Oh, that's bad. It's going to be bad.
29:11What did you do?
29:14I moved the fire up under the rock, got that all going.
29:17Went over to feed the fire on my bare feet.
29:21And I stood too close to where the old fire was, and I stood right in a hotbed of coals.
29:26That's not good.
29:27Oh, all my weight down on my foot at the time, too.
29:30Oh, that's not good. It's in cold water, and it's still burning.
29:34Oh, sh**.
29:37Whatever this is, it's going to be one of the worst burns I've ever had, I think.
29:46It's the best thing I can do is just keep it in the water.
29:48There's really no better remedy for a burn than immersion in cold water on a constant basis.
29:52If I'm lucky, it'll eventually stop the pain and any tissue damage done by the burn.
29:57What a dumb move.
29:59Step right into what was the hotbed of coals and sand.
30:04With my bare foot.
30:07Just start to get, you know, excited about having a big fish to cook, and you get careless.
30:16Okay.
30:17You good? No open wounds?
30:18No.
30:27Well, let's get back to cooking that fish.
30:38One thing you'll never be short of in ocean survival is spare rope.
30:44Oh, I can feel my toes starting to burn again.
30:48Okay, this is like every ten minutes, I've got to go get my toes in the ocean.
30:53Oh, shoot.
30:55I'm just going to do a little bit of in-the-field wilderness medicine here.
31:01Wow, that's not looking so good.
31:04I walked along and I grabbed it just as it was washing up.
31:08This stuff here, ladder rack.
31:10And this stuff will actually work to draw the heat away from the blisters.
31:18I'm just going to squeeze it.
31:19There's like a goo here.
31:23I didn't know better.
31:24I'd say it feels like it's working already.
31:26Probably better than modern medicine.
31:29That was a foolish mistake to make.
31:33You know, I'm not concentrating like I normally would.
31:36I've got Logan to think about.
31:38I didn't really want to push him, you know.
31:40I mean, I have to push him when it comes to eating.
31:42Out here, you get what you're lucky to get.
31:46And you eat it up.
31:52Tomorrow is Logan's 16th birthday.
32:00What we're going to do is we're going to build a catamaran-type style with the two kayaks.
32:06So I've got to get a bunch of nice long logs.
32:08Not too big, not too heavy.
32:10Just kind of thin and stable.
32:12Because, I mean, with me dumping my kayak, just sitting in it.
32:16If you get a big fish, I'm going right in the water.
32:18And it's pretty windy.
32:24Logan's working on binding the raft so we can head out together and fish without fear of flipping the kayaks
32:29in the water.
32:29I'll work on getting the fish cooked.
32:31In between giving him a hand and cooling my burnt foot off in the ocean.
32:41Every beach, everywhere in the world.
32:45Floatsome, useful for survival.
32:47How is it?
32:48Good.
32:49It's awesome?
32:50Not bad.
32:51I would have left it in for another 10, 15 minutes.
32:54Let it, uh...
32:54You know what?
32:55Let the sliminess go away.
32:56I couldn't.
32:57You know why?
32:57It was going to fall through.
33:01Think of it as sushi, which we eat raw.
33:03I mean, we could have eaten this whole fish raw.
33:05So.
33:09Yeah.
33:09It's good.
33:10Get it all into you, man.
33:12Because I ate up the organs.
33:13You didn't want them.
33:15You've got to get food into you.
33:17You're feeling stronger.
33:20You're not going to eat more?
33:21No, I can't get much in my stomach right now.
33:23Why not?
33:24Just having not eaten the last couple days kind of thing.
33:27All right, so we'll put all this nice fresh meat into the cup, and then we'll boil it
33:31up, and that'll cook it more.
33:33Cook it the rest of the way through.
33:34Okay.
33:36So, I'm sorry to push on this, but the more nutrients that get in you, the better.
33:39No, I know.
33:39It's just, it's hard to get it down.
33:41But it's just like fish broth.
33:43It's awesome.
33:43I know, but it's fish broth slimy.
33:50Seriously, dude, you've got to get out more.
33:53The dynamics of being out here with my son are strange for me.
33:57We must survive effectively.
33:59I can't let my guard drop.
34:01For if I do, we both suffer.
34:04And I can't deny the fact that having to think for two is taxing on me.
34:08And yet the huge advantage is the camaraderie.
34:11And this day is Logan's 16th birthday.
34:13So maybe I can consider this like a rite of passage for him.
34:29Hey, come here, Luke.
34:36Someone left a message.
34:42Thanks, Ted.
34:43Happy birthday.
34:44Thanks.
34:45I love you.
34:45Happy time.
34:47I'm glad we're out here together on this.
34:49Yeah.
34:49It's a lot better than you being alone.
34:51I don't know.
34:52Well, it's a lot better than me missing your 16th birthday.
34:55Yes, sir.
34:56I'm glad you're out here.
34:58Me too.
35:00With the celebrations all done, we still need to eat.
35:03One fish between two people after four days is not good enough.
35:07We need more.
35:08And we do have fishing tackle, a huge advantage for survival.
35:14We want to take advantage of this.
35:15It's calm waters.
35:16There's nothing more than a breeze.
35:19You know, when that wind picks up and you get whitecaps out here like there was the other
35:22day, yesterday, we don't stand a chance of coming out here for fish.
35:26What do you think?
35:27I think we're good.
35:28All right?
35:28It's pretty darn stable.
35:30We're locked together here.
35:31Yeah.
35:31Okay, drop her down.
35:33Let's see what you can do.
35:35If good luck evades us here, we'll be in trouble.
35:38We've cleared the site of berries, and the only plants left on the land are bitter greens.
35:42So we'll be stuck with a diet of seaweed and bull kelp.
35:53We've taken advantage of that.
36:04You got one, though?
36:06Yeah.
36:08All right.
36:08Well, keep bringing them in.
36:10Oh, that's not.
36:11That's a dinner right there.
36:12Okay.
36:16can we do this what do you think keep coming keep coming ah yeah that's dinner right there
36:24baby that's beautiful awesome that's one and that's all that's needed sometimes in survival
36:34just something anything to boost your spirits to bring about some psychological comfort and
36:39keep you going till the next day you got one okay he's in my boat sweet job Logan that's two
36:51binding the kayaks together to make a catamaran is working out we're stable and yet mobile enough
36:56to paddle out into the bigger ocean you're trolling right
37:09oh I got a fish
37:14it was so small that I didn't really feel it all right there's my contribution not a bad outing
37:22poor fish they're not huge but they're still gonna feed us today
37:29finally having two people in a survival situation is showing itself to be advantageous digging a fish
37:35cooking pit has never been an option for me when I was alone you know that's not bad it helps
37:42that
37:42we're on a beach the effort of doing this alone has always been too much to make it worth my
37:47while
37:48that's about perfect what we need to do next is get a fire going in here and that's gonna be
37:51your job
37:51I'm just gonna leave Logan alone to get that fire going but for now I've got to get something to
37:59wrap
37:59the fish in and I know what I want he knows how vital it is to get that fire going
38:04and without any
38:06matches nothing more than a spark and some cotton lip balm hopefully he can get it going
38:15it was a difficult thing for me to consider if Logan uses up all the good fire starting supplies we
38:21have then everything gets much tougher but I've got to begin to start relying on his help there we go
38:27that's what I'm looking for this is skunk cabbage and it's a perfect way to wrap the fish one for
38:34underground cooking while I'm at it all this salal is what I need as well all right I'm hoping he
38:48got
38:48the fire going all of this works a heck of a lot easier with two of us I mean the
38:55reality is that
38:56if it wasn't for Logan I never would have had spears to catch that fish yesterday and if it wasn't
39:00for
39:01Logan I only caught one tiny little fish he caught three so all of a sudden survival with two starts
39:08to pan out as being a little more advantageous I don't see fire I don't see smoke this is not
39:19good
39:19news on a few levels spark it up yet god no no did it did it get a flame no
39:26no flame at all no flame
39:28I had flame for like half a second and I died is it still in there do you still have
39:32it barely let
39:35me try grass is my favorite you can in a pinch spark right into grass and get it to go
39:42sometimes
39:44so you need a good splay of spark unfortunately Logan has left me with only one tiny barely visible a
39:51little bit of cotton fluff here we go all right here's my flame now we got to get a big
40:09fire here
40:09nice and hot let it burn and get all these rocks heated up you okay yep are you bummed out
40:15because
40:15you didn't get the fire don't worry about it man it's not it's hard to get a fire with just
40:20a spark
40:20it's a lot different when you got a lighter or matches you know believe me it took me a long
40:25time
40:26before I could get fired oh but this is gonna be nice check it out looks good eh I feel
40:34like I'm on a
40:35cooking show you gotta keep a way of keeping the fish clean and this is the way skunk cabbage leaves
40:41to make pit cooking effective we'll have to work together in a timely manner and yet we should be
40:46out of daylight in just an hour or two what do you think we drop that in the pit to
40:53cook up yeah
41:01what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna pull all this fire out and then when I say go salal in
41:05fish on top of
41:06the salal tube lands on the fish and then those leaves flat all right now cover over so we want
41:13to trap steam inside and cover over completely the water poured in through the bowl kelp will hit the
41:23hot rocks and steam cook the fish oh yeah I can hear it steaming like crazy all right well it's
41:33open
41:39oh yeah I can feel the heat that's for sure super hot I think we're almost there
41:47it's small fish almost good not getting the fire going was a blow to Logan's ego but eating some
41:54real fresh fish after four days with little food will be a big boost to his morale wow oh yeah
42:01cooked
42:01beautifully it's tender buddy oh my god Logan that's amazing
42:13it's a good dinner these are your fish mmm one of yours too yeah just a little guy
42:21well happy 16th birthday bro thank you that's a great way to end the day
42:34there have been things that I was right about when it comes to surviving as to I was right that
42:40the camaraderie can keep us moving forward and help us to seemingly ignore the pain in our stomachs
42:45from a lack of food I was right that when we work together on certain tasks it all becomes much
42:50easier
42:51to accomplish but I underestimated how much effort I need to spend to keep my son motivated and I was
42:59wrong to write off at least in my mind if not to his face the idea of making spears as
43:04being anything
43:04other than unnecessary Logan has a long way to go to do what I do but he's made the first
43:10step
43:11and the journey of survival is the same as any other journey in life it starts with one step
43:17but continues only if you keep moving
43:21oh yeah really hit the camera takes out the camera
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