The Pathfinder Express

Finally got the plane tickets squared away to get my buddy Doug and I to Dave's Pathfinder gathering & camp out. We will fly in on July 30th and fly out on August 4th. As usual I am sure that I will find a few things to pick up and bring home. I wonder if the airlines will buy the story that a hand made self bow is really grandma's walking stick? Well, Ohio is about to be invaded by two Oregon boys!

It's finally here! Dave's TV show DUAL SURVIVAL on the Discovery Channel

DUAL SURVIVAL : Programs : Discovery Channel : Discovery Press Web

SURVIVAL EXPERTS WITH VASTLY DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS PUT THEIR SKILLS TO THE TEST IN DISCOVERY’S ALL-NEW ‘DUAL SURVIVAL’
Experts, One Military-Trained and One Naturalist, Show What It Takes to Make It Out Alive
(Silver Spring, Md.) – Experts agree there are some very basic – and universal – rules for surviving in the wild. Find shelter, find water, find food, find help. Beyond that, there’s not much they agree on. Meet military-trained Dave Canterbury and naturalist Cody Lundin – trained survival experts featured in Discovery Channel’s all-new 10-part series DUAL SURVIVAL, premiering Friday, June 11 at 10PM ET/PT. Together, Canterbury and Lundin take on some of the planet’s most unforgiving terrain to demonstrate – in their own way – how the right skills and some creative thinking can keep you alive.
Dave Canterbury joined the U.S. Army at age 17, eventually becoming a Special Reaction Team (SRT) instructor and sniper. He trained soldiers in the U.S., Central America and Korea in unarmed combat and close-quarter techniques. After leaving the Army, Canterbury worked on a reptile farm and as a commercial fisherman and diver in the Florida saltwater marshes. He put his background, skills and training to work for the next phase of his career – learning and now teaching wilderness survival.
Cody Lundin, who was trained in survival by Native Americans, teaches minimalist self-reliant skills to students from his home deep in the Arizona desert. He spent two years living in a brush shelter in the woods where he slept on pine needles and cooked over an open fire. Today, Lundin lives off the grid in a self-designed solar earth home in the wilderness of northern Arizona where he catches rain, composts waste and pays nothing for heating and cooling. And he has been going barefoot for more than 20 years, part of his indigenous survival strategy.

Together, with their drastically different backgrounds, the duo is dropped into a scenario that could happen to anyone: marooned boaters, lost hikers, stranded mountain climbers. Equipped with minimal gear that would have been carried in the real-life situations, Canterbury and Lundin must draw upon their arsenal of skills to devise extraordinary ways to use what they can find in their surroundings, as well as ordinary objects, and demonstrate what it takes to stay alive. How will they use a 35mm camera, condoms and a pack of cigarettes in the Laos jungle? Or a car battery, electrical wiring, tires and seat cushions from a broken-down car in Peru?

Baby owls

P4260320, originally uploaded by Oregon Mike.

Amazing encounter with two baby owls. When I first found them, they startled me because they were right at my eye level on a branch. Four big eyes staring at me. I tried to take a pic of them but I was so close my movement of getting the camera off my belt spooked them. Good thing they only flew about 10 feet away.

View all the pics and video on this link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oregonmike/sets/72157623972437158/

Looks like they are Saw-whet owls. On the owl website it says:

" Hunting & Food: These Owls hunt mainly at dusk and dawn and most often use the "sit and wait" tactic to drop down onto prey on the ground from low hunting perches."

This is exactly what they must have been doing when I first saw them as they were right at my eye level. Heading back to that area today, maybe I will see them again. Kind of doubt it though.

Just a few add ons to Dave's common mans meal kit.

Just a few add ons to Dave's common mans meal kit. For some reason I like to figure out how to do things on the cheap. It was all Dave's idea to start with.

This is my solution for a handle for the Guyot Designs bottle

This is this is my solution for a handle for the Guyot Designs bottle, this is just one option of many. I made this in the field using items from my fishing kit and some snare wire.

8x10 tarp shelter

8x10 tarp shelter, originally uploaded by Oregon Mike.

Just a simple fast shelter that can be carried in almost any pack. 8x10 tarp, tent pegs and a hiking pole.

Alsea River Hike

Alsea River Hike, originally uploaded by Oregon Mike.

This is a video I took on a solo hike I did Sunday 01-31-10. The area is closed, but myself and later a few other were out there. It was great to have the place to myself for the first few hours. I am new to this video stuff and it will get better. I will still be doing my regular blog posts in addition to the video. This time I will let the video stand on it's own.