Teaching A Class – Wilderness Survival Part 1

Recently I have joined something akin to The Boy Scouts but for adults. It is called The Adventureman’s Guild and the Adventuremen plan a lot of cool stuff. I joined specifically for an event called the Great American Monkey 1000, which is a 1000Km ride on Monkey Bikes. Monkey bikes are little motorcycles that sort of look like minibikes. These crazy mofos are going to ride 700 off-road miles on these minibikes in and around Moab, Utah. That sounds too weird and wonderful to pass up, so myself and three buddies are joining the fun.

Before the event is scheduled to happen in October we met some of the other Adventuremen. The group is fairly new and they really have a desire to get outside and learn. They have also adopted the same structure the Boy Scouts use so it is familiar to me. I was a boy scout and all three of my children are Eagle Scouts. I was very involved with their trips, camps, and scouting activities.

In Scouts I used to teach a merit badge class in Wilderness Survival. When I was a scout it was my favorite badge. In fact, after I earned the badge once, I purposefully did not turn in the paperwork so that I could take the class again. Spending the night in a shelter that I made myself was my favorite part. When my kids became

couts it was my favorite thing to teach.

Now that my kids are grown, I didn’t think I would ever teach it again, but the Adveturemen have a merit badge process, so I am teaching them techniques to survive in the wilderness. We are doing it in a way that is extra fun. About 12 guys will be participating in the wilderness survival event and many of us will be bringing our Monkey Bikes. We will be camping overnight in shelters we build from small emergency packs that we assemble.

I made a little video about it. Here it is.

And here is a short video I made for the general population about 5 things you should always take with you when you go into the wilderness. This video I shared on social media because it is meant for a general audience.

I hope these videos help you prepare for a big adventure. I also hope the 40 or so Adventuremen that are going on The Great American Monkey 1000 head my advice and avoid trouble.

I’ll try to post some pictures and possibly video from our Wilderness Survival class. I don’t expect it to look that impressive. The Wilderness we are using is a campground that is no more than 3 miles away from a Walmart and an airport. Ha ha ha!