Wild Trails & Tall Tales

- by Roland Cheek

 

A CHRISTMAS TO REMEMBER

"Dear Mr. Roland Cheek. Hi, my name is Trevor Alton. I'm 11 years old and live in Montana City. I love to go camping and hiking. We don't get the paper so it was by accident I saw your column. I would like to learn more about how to 'survive' in the 'wild'. I was wondering if you could please write back and tell me some things I should know. This is of course if it is convenient for you."

Here are some excerpts from my letter to Trevor:

"... I've been caught in a driving downpour without raingear, lost a mitten during a blizzard; even been stupid enough to find myself without matches--or without dry matches. But if one perseveres and is smart enough to learn from his mistakes, then he'll acquire the kinds of skills that make him a survivor on any kinds of lands and in any weather. I know no shortcuts to learning these things."

I told Trevor it was my good fortune to have several older mentors who were hard teachers:

"Some of that teaching included making fun of me when I did something stupid. But I learned to laugh along with them and their criticism served to insure the same error was not repeated."

And I told Trevor much could be learned by reading:

"I cannot emphasize how much you can learn of the outdoors through books and magazines and newspaper articles--by the simple act of reading. Nothing--repeat--nothing is as important in later life than is reading today. There's an old adage that goes: 'the man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read." And I used Lewis and Clark, Jedediah Smith, Bill Sublette, John Fremont and John Wesley Powell as examples of explorers and mountain men who rose to fame and fortune because they could read.

I told Trevor he could find tips on camping, fire building, map and compass reading, and an entire raft of other outdoor skills in his local library. And I told him he could find those books written for a youth level he can understand.

But above all, I told Trevor he needs to practice, practice, practice on his own, in his own back yard or hiking a trail near home. "It means getting wet and cold and thirsty and hungry. And it doesn't mean running home every time you are uncomfortable.

"If you do it right and do it often, you'll develop such a love for the outdoors that your week won't be complete unless you are out amid the fields and forests watching leaves turn color in the fall or grass greening in the spring. You'll learn the best dry flies to use for cutthroat trout on a summer evening and learn how to stay sheltered from biting wind in winter. You'll learn to appreciate nature and respect wildlife of all kinds, from beetles to buffalo, eels to elk, deer to deer mice.

So parents ... here are some Christmas ideas for the youth in your home: a good daypack with pockets on the side for storing necessary stuff like a compass; sturdy hiking shoes; a folding knife with leather carrying case to fit on a belt; a decent set of raingear; a lightweight down or Dacron-filled sleeping bag and/or sleeping pad.

But there is nothing you can do that will pay greater dividends for you child than to set aside time to take him or her hiking or camping or fishing of hunting. That's a Christmas to remember!

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