My wife and our two children, ages 6 and 8, set out to test our survival skills this Memorial Day weekend by hiking into the primitive camping area of Dinosaur State Park in Glen Rose, Texas.  This park is famous for the preserved dinosaur footprints in the river bed.  Actually, this trip was the first time anyone in our family has camped in an area that did not have the luxury of vehicular access.  We considered it a challenge and decided that we would all have a good attitude and have fun regardless of the weather or other obstacles that we would inevitably face on the trip.

Dinosaur Valley Hike

One of the biggest challenges is determining what to pack, for each person, in order for our family to be completely self-sufficient for 24 hours in the wilderness.  Most of the available backpack space quickly becomes occupied with sleeping bags, clothing, food and water.  We had picked up a new 8-person tent which was too big to fit in the backpack so I carried it by letting the straps from the carry bag hang from my shoulder.   One item which was not essential proved to be the most rewarding…a queen sized inflatable mattress.  Since we couldn’t carry fold-up chairs, the mattress gave us a place to lay down and be comfortable as a family after a long hike.

Dinner consisted of Spaghettios cooked in the can on a small propane burner.  We lit a small ground fire in order to roast the marshmallows for S’mores.  We had brought 4 whole corn husks but nobody was willing to wait for them to cook on an open fire.  Mostly, everyone was thirsty which by this time had made me acutely aware that we did not pack enough water.  We rationed what we had and ended up with plenty, but it is wise to not underestimate the amount of fluids a family of four will consume on a mile hike uphill in 85 degree heat and high relative humidity.

The event would not have been complete without a thunderstorm looming only a mile or two from our camping spot.   We took a short stroll before dark and were forced to head back to camp as the lighting seemed to get closer to our position.  I turned on the NOAA emergency weather alert radio station to find out that a severe thunderstorm was only five miles from our position with small hail, heavy rain and damaging winds.  Luckily, the storm passed just to the southwest of us.  The rest of the night proved to be very pleasant.  Aside from my son’s random nose bleed and my daughter stumbling through the tent for “itch cream”, we all slept very soundly.

After consuming some chocolate cake doughnuts (a traditional breakfast treat while camping in our family), my kids and I spent the next hour simply exploring the surrounding wildlife.  I pointed out the small ferns, lichens, ant-lion holes and the occasional mushroom.  We packed up our belongings and headed back down the trail to the car.  The trek down seemed much shorter than the treck up.  We finished off our weekend by taking a dip in the Brazos river.  Despite the amount of work involved, we all had fun and learned a few things on our outing.

As as survivalist, I am always prepared for the event that all cell phone and landline communications go down for an extended period of time.  The confusion created when the general public cannot communicate through normal means leads to a breakdown of rational behaviour.  You don’t want to get caught up in traffic that will soon follow this confusion.  I solved this problem…or at least prepared for it…by obtaining a license to operate ham radio equipment, although it is possible to obtain backup emergency communications equipment and use it legally without being licensed.  For instance, a CB radio, although limited in range, will provide you with two way communication in the event of an emergency.  Other options include satallite phones and handheld two-way consumer radios that can be purchased from sporting goods stores.

I opted for the amateur radio license primarily for the extended range offered by using local “repeaters”.  Repeaters allow for extended communication by allowing an incoming transmission to be retransmitted through an “offset” frequency.  The retransmitted signal is boosted in power and in most cases has the benefit of more gain through an antenna that is optimised for the frequency.  The transmit antenna is also physically located on a tower or other tall object to extend the range.  In short, you can listen on one frequency and talk on a separate frequency.  The switch between the two is handled by your radio’s software, so in effect, it is seamless to the operator.  The hardest part is programming the radio to use the repeater!  More on that in a later post…

You can obtain a license to operate amateur radio license by contacting your local amateur radio association.  More information about repeaters is available here.

My wife and I, and a few friends, attended the recent Dave Matthews Band concert in Dallas, Texas.  The weather had been especially foul during the whole day, interrupting our dinner plans with heavy rain and lighting.  We had only hoped that the weather would hold up long enough for us to get to our seats.  You could imagine how surprised we were to to learn that although we all had reserved seating at the venue, our seats were situated just outside of the perimeter of the covered pavillion.  As soon as I had made that determination, it began to rain.  Despite the willingness of some fans to allow themselves to be covered in mud and rain in the lawn seating area, my group stayed dry thanks to the help of these emergency ponchos.  They fit in the smallest of places, and don’t hold up beyond one or two uses, but they really came in handy when we needed them.   We finished the concert to the tune of Ants Marching with a cool beverage to help us brave the weather.