Lone Star Odyssey- First Steps

by David Wilson

  Thrusting those memories aside I turned to the task at hand. Everyone was ready to go, I walked over and unlocked the roll-up door, “Everyone ready? Don and Mat will lead out first until we get on the highway, until than they will stay about one hundred yards ahead of us. Beth, stuff that hair up under you hat, try and not advertise that you're young and pretty. Ben you will be first in line behind the front guard, let them know on the radio if they get too far ahead, I want them looking forward for any trouble not trying to watch us. Beth, you fall in behind Ben, keep about 5 to 10 yards between you and him, Jeff, you follow Beth, and I will bring up the rear. Stay off the radio unless you see danger. Use the clock method to indicate direction. The lead element will be 12 o’clock. Keep your eyes open and watch everything. Ben, you keep your eyes on the lead element, Beth, you keep your eyes to the right from 12 o’clock to 2:00. Jeff, you watch to the left from 12 o’clock to 10:00. I will cover the rest. Any questions?” Everyone just looked at me with impatient eyes.

  I nodded and reached down and pulled the roll up door about three feet and squatted down to take a look. Seeing no movement, I finished pushing the door up, I motioned everyone to go and walked back to my bike and got on. Rolling the bike forward, I eased my bike and trailer down the ramp and we all fell into the order I had explained. Over the next few hundred yards there was some learning going on with the gears and the shifters but all in all we worked it out and the first hour went by uneventful. We actually made pretty good time down to Highway 32 and over to 29 South.

  Stopping at the intersection of highway 32 and 29 for a water break. I walked over to Don and said, “Don I think it would be best if we stopped and made camp once we cross over the Rocky Gorge Reservoir. If I remember correctly that is all State Park and we should be ok off the road there. It will be 5:00 PM by the time we get there and we all are going on a couple hours sleep. That way we all can get some rest for a full day of riding tomorrow. What do you think?” “Sounds like a plan to me. I know I didn’t get much sleep last night and I know the boys are wiped out, not that any of them are going to admit it,” Don replied.

  We were back on the road in ten minutes after everyone had time to grab a quick snack and drink some water. After an hour of weaving around the occasional stalled car we crossed over the bridge crossing the Rocky Gorge Reservoir. Once we were all across and had passed all of the guardrails leading off the bridge, Don slowed down and coasted to a stop at the head of a dirt road leading off the highway to the west. There was a half inch thick cable across the road strung between two telephone pole size posts on either side of the dirt road. Don got off his bike and leaned it against one of the posts and walked over and picked up the cable, it had enough slack to allow the bikes to pass under it. Moving up to the front I got off my bike and pushed it under the cable and moved about 25 feet down the dirt road. I stopped and looked back over my shoulder, “Well are you all waiting for a written invitation or what. Let's get off the road and down into the timber before someone sees this circus,” and turned back to walking my bike down the dirt road.

  Chapter Nine

  After walking about 300 yards down the road I began to see water though the trees. I parked my bike by a tree and turned to wait on the rest of the group. Ben arrived first and I told him to hold everyone at this location while I made a quick recon of the area. Slinging on my M4 I moved into the woods to the west for about 100 yards and stopped to listen. After standing for about five minutes in the shadow of a huge oak tree I moved north to where I could see the reservoir. Stopping I listened, hearing nothing I was again reminded of a couple of Twilight Zone episodes where someone woke up and everyone else was gone. The quiet was so complete. My thoughts turned to my kids, they were so young, they wouldn’t remember how life was before the lights went out. Oh they will miss their iPad, boy will they, at least for a while but they will adjust and soon forget all about them. I have to get home and fast!

  Completing my recon I return to the group and was pleased that they had settled into a 360 degree perimeter around the bicycles. No chatter on the radios, that is outstanding. I walk over to my bike and indicate that they should follow me. I move off the road/trail to the point where I had first stopped to listen. “Gather around,” I said keeping my voice low, “Sound can carry a long ways, especially over the water. We need to keep the noise down as much as we can. I’m going to show you guys a few things while we still have daylight, which won’t be for long but we will use what we have. Beth, get me a double handful of twigs no bigger than a pencil. Mat, get me a double handful of sticks no bigger than your index finger. Ben and Jeff, clear me off a five foot circle right here,” pointing down to where I was standing. “Don, if you would stand watch while I’m showing these guys this. Thanks.”

  Turning to my bike trailer, I pulled my pack from the trailer and pulled on the straps to open the top of my pack. Opening up the drawstring I reached in and pulled out my bag that held my Solo stove. By the time I was back at the spot Ben and Jeff were done clearing off the forest floor in a five-foot circle and both Beth and Mat were back with the wood. I stepped back to my pack and grabbed my 40 oz stainless steel Klean water bottle and pulled a Bic lighter out of my outside pouch. Walking back over to the group I squatted and told Beth and Mat to lay the sticks down next to me. I opened the Solo bag and pulled out the Solo Pot. Lifting the lid I pulled the Solo stove out of the pot. Tipping the stove over the fire ring fell into my hand follow by a zip lock bag. Sitting the stove on the ground I picked up a few of the twigs Beth had gathered and broke them to a size that would fit into the stove. Picking up one of the twigs I opened the zip lock and stabbed one of the Vaseline impregnated cotton balls and set the zip lock behind me. Fishing the lighter out of my pocket I lit the cotton ball and dropped it into the stove. Picking up a handful of the twigs I began breaking them into the right size and dropping them into the stove on top of burning cotton ball. I next sorted though the finger size sticks, selected three and dropped those into the stove. I than sat the fire ring right side up on top of the stove. I rinsed the pot out with a little of my water, than filled the pot with about 24 ounces of water. Looking up I said, “And that is how you build a fire to heat water for coffee or as in this case for our Mountain House meal. Any questions?” Beth ask, ”What are those things in the zip lock?” “These are about the best fire starters there are. But to answer your question, they are nothing more than Vaseline impregnated cotton balls. Just take a handful of cotton balls and about a tablespoon of Vaseline and squeeze it all together in a zip lock and than you have your fire starters. It will take about seven minutes to bring that pot to a boil. The pot holds enough water for two Mountain House pouches. While we are waiting for the water to boil lets go set some fishing lines.”

  Walking back to my ruck, I pulled out two more small bags and my Platypus Water System. Turning to the group I said, “Grab your Water System, that is one of the first thing you must always do. Drink as much as you can, filter water and fill all your containers. Than you re-fill the filter bags so you can top off in the morning. Also I want everyone to fill their dirty water bags before we leave in the morning. That way if we stop tonight and there is no handy water we will have plenty. Jeff, grab Don’s water kit while he stays here with the food.” I handed Mat the slightly larger of the two bags and said, “Hold this for the next lesson.” Taking the smaller of the two bags I headed towards the water, stopping by Don, “Don when that is boiling open two Mountain House bags and dump half the water into each bag. Seal each of the bags and squeeze them a couple of times to mix them up. Go ahead and add a few more sticks to the stove and set another pot of water on to boil. I’m going to show these guys how to set up a couple of YoYo fishing rigs and a couple of snares so in the future they can do it without us.” Don nodded, “Can do, good idea to show them.”

  Walking down to the water I motioned for the group to fill their water systems and to hang them from a tree so the filtering process could take place. Standin
g and watching them fill their bags, I squatted next to the water and filled my own bag. Moving back to the trees I cut off a small branch, leaving about two inches of limb sticking out from the tree. Hanging my dirty water bag from the cut limb I laid my clean water bag on the backside of the tree in the shade. As the others filled their water filtration bags, I said, “let’s talk a little bit about our food situation, I once read a study that stated men should consume a minimum of 1,500 calories a day unless supervised by their doctors. Even at 1,500 calories a day a man conducting normal activity will lose weight. For a healthy adult male to maintain current body weight, most adult men will need to consume 2,000 to 3,000 calories a day. According to another study, I think it was out of the Mayo Clinic; a 160-pound person spends about 511 calories per hour while hiking with a pack at a moderate pace. That works out to burning about 4,088 calories over an eight-hour period of hiking (2.5 mph x 8 = 20 miles). I don’t know about any of you but that sounds like a lot of calories to me. I am not a medical doctor, but I don’t think anyone could survive or keep up this pace on taking in ½ the calories that you expend each day. This might work if all we needed to do was travel 250 miles. But multiplying that distance to 1400 miles, you have nowhere near the amount of calories to sustain your body let alone maintaining 20 miles a day. I will say that attempting to keep up a 20 mile a day pace is almost impossible if you are having to hunt, trap, and fish along the way. First you have no way to preserve the meat for any length of time and hunting, trapping, and fishing takes time not even counting the time to clean and cook your success. Additionally, we need to start immediately supplementing our food with game and edible plants. There are many rivers, lakes, and ponds in the Eastern United States. Water means animals and fish and with some knowledge and a little bit of luck we can easily supplement our supplies with fresh meat and edible plants. But all of this takes time. The key to the success of being a hunter/gather is that you get more calories from your hunting and gathering than you expend.”

  Next I moved back to the waters edge and stopped at one of the trees standing on the waters edge waiting for the rest of the group. After everyone was finished hanging their water bags and had rejoined the group, I squatted and opened the bag and pulled out a YoYo fishing reel and a small plastic box. Opening the box I selected a hook that already had a leader on it. Clipping the leader to the fishing line, I again reached in and pulled out a small jar of bait eggs. Moving over to the tree I flipped the 5/50 cord already attached to the reel over a low hanging branch. Catching the end as it wrapped around the branch, I clipped the small carabineer on the end of the cord back onto the YoYo reel. Tripping the reels catch I pulled off about 15 feet of line being careful not to tangle it. I tossed the bait hook out into the deeper water. Setting the catch on the YoYo reel, I proclaimed the task was complete. Ben said, “I have seen those on the Internet but have never seen one used. Do they really work?” “As well as anything. If a fish takes the bait it will trip the reel and snag him,” I explained, “Lets go set a snare before it gets too dark.” Walking along the edge of the woods I stopped at an opening into a blackberry patch. I pointed out the animal run and again squatted down near the mouth of the run. “Mat hand me that other bag.” Taking the bag I reached in and pulled out a small animal snare, a support wire, my support wire driver and a cable extension. Unwrapping the snare I explained to them the basic of setting a typical snare. Extending the loop of the snare out to about six inches I laid it to the side. Picking up the support wire and driver I showed them how to place the support wire into the ground. Taking the snare I pushed the support wires end into the holder on the snare and adjusted the snare to about three inches off the ground. Fluffing up the grass around the snare I explained how it helps to channel the animal so they must pass though the snare. Attaching the extended cable I secured the cable to a small sapling nearby. “Class dismissed, so each night a couple of you will set out a couple of YoYo’s if we are near water and several snares. This will teach all of you skills you are going to need and will allow us to augment our food supply. Once we get to the cabin in the mountains I will show you how to set a deer snare. Remember it is all about gaining more protein than the amount of energy expended to gain that protein. Any questions?” Beth again raised her hand, “Will the snare kill whatever animal gets in it?” “Not always,” I replied, “If the animal tangles around a tree or bush, more than likely it will be dead. If it does not tangle, most of the time not. You will find most of the time when you snare a rabbit or squirrel they will be dead. A coon, most of the time he will be caught around the head and at least one leg. If you catch a coon around just the neck many times he will be able to pull the snare off with his paws. Be very careful approaching any animal in a snare. We will use Beth’s .22 to shoot any thing caught larger than a rabbit or squirrel. Any animal will bite, do not take any chances. If as you approach the area where you set a snare and you cannot see the snare or a caught animal be very careful, circle around the area until you can see the snare. A live animal will sometimes hide and they will attack if you get within reach. Oh, and if by chance you see that the animal is a live skunk, please come and get me or shoot it from a distance. If you get within 10 or 15 feet of a live one you will get sprayed.” Ben ask, “How successful is snaring?” “It depends on how much pressure is or has been on an area. If the area is not hunted a lot, chances are good. It is all about using the least amount of effort or energy to gain meat protein. If you walk five miles and only catch one rabbit you are at a net loss. You ended up spending more energy than you gained. Does that make sense? That is why we maximize our chances by using the YoYo reels and snares as we are using very little energy so anything we catch is a positive gain.” There were head nods all around. “Lets head back, I’m sure Don has dinner ready by now. Get some food, clean weapons, and get some sleep,” I said. Turning I began heading back towards camp, “As soon as we get back to camp, go ahead and get your snivel gear set up before it gets dark. Mat, you have latrine duty tonight, its not a punishment, we will all take turns, dig a slit trench about 8 inches wide and 2 feet long and about a foot deep. Leave the shovel sticking in the dirt pile and tie a chem light to the shovel handle so everyone can find the trench. Anyone using it, and do use it if you need to go, use the shovel to cover any mess you make.” Jeff said, “Just what exactly do you mean by snivel gear,” getting chuckles from everyone. “What?” he said, “Like any of you knows what he’s talking about either.” “Settle down,” I said attempting to not chuckle myself, “Your so called snivel gear is your sleeping and shelter gear. Your sleeping bag, poncho liner, could be your rain gear, just depends on the situation on what exactly it is. By the way, it was a good question. If at anytime I say something that you don’t understand, ask. I tend to speak military most of the time, so if you don’t understand, ask. It could be important.” “Next question,” Jeff said, “You referred to this snare as a small game snare, does that mean you have bigger ones?” “Good observation,” I said, “Yes, I have a dozen coyote snares that can be used to snare larger animals such as deer. I wouldn’t recommend attempting to use this size on a western mule deer, but on these white tails around here the coyote size snares should be able to hold them. Although it will more than likely destroy the snare. Always save the parts of the snares as I can make more from the parts.” As I finished talking we arrived back at our campsite.

  Not seeing Don immediately, I called on the radio, “Don where did you take off too?” Two guys I had never seen before stepped out from behind a large oak tree. One of them was a big guy and he was holding Don by the arm and waving around a large bladed knife. His buddy had Don’s M4 and was pointing it in our general direction and both were grinning like they had won the lottery. The men were dressed as what most people would consider motorcycle gear. The big guy with the knife launched into a speech telling us what he was going to do to Don if we didn’t all drop our weapons, raise our hands and surrender.

  Well last time I checke
d I’m not even part French, so like that was going to happen, like never I thought, I was standing slightly behind Mat and clearly saw that the guy with the M4 was unfamiliar with the weapon. The big guy holding Don wanted to talk as he was shouting all kinds of threats. Blah, Blah, Blah, I thought as I stepped forward and around Mat and palmed my Glock from my right hand drop leg holster bringing the Glock up into a good two handed position while pushing the Glock into the firing position. My first shot caught the idiot waving around the knife in mid-speech, his last by the way. The jacketed hollow point struck the big man dead center of his chest about six inches below his chin. The second road struck the big man about two inches lower and two inches to the left of the first shot. He dropped like he was struck by lighting with a surprised look on his face. I took another step forward and fired twice into the guy holding Don’s M4. He was so surprised by my actions that he didn’t even attempt to raise the weapon in his hands. I don’t think he ever clearly saw me, he was too busy staring at his now dead friend with a confused look, disbelief that we wouldn’t just do what they wanted. Both bullets took him center of the chest and he too dropped to the ground, dead before he hit the ground.