By Cody Fongemie, Contributor at Wild Nexus

Most of us tried to make fires as kids, especially boys in the pre-cell phone era, wandering the backyard with plastic survival kits. We felt confident until our dad stepped in, and suddenly there was a bonfire. After some survival TV, we thought we had it down. So we bought a good knife and ferro rod, only for them to sit unused in our gear bags.

Vermont, Late March

Years later, I was invited to Vermont for a survival course with several others from the military community: the basics of fire-making and water purification in the wilderness. My buddy and I drove three hours from Connecticut into the Green Mountains, arriving at the school ready to go.

Our instructor, Jon, the owner of Accipiter Fieldcraft, who would later become a good friend, wasted no time humbling us. He began by instructing us as we hiked up the side of the Green Mountain Range.  The ground was damp, and you could feel the moisture in the air from all the recent rain and the snowmelt running down the Hills. As we arrived at the little clearing Under The Pines and the birch trees, I began to wonder if it’d be possible to even make a fire in such a wet place.  Taking my place in the learning circle, I watched as the master of his craft began his lesson.

The Spark

Jon walked us through everything carefully: how to hold the knife, how to angle the ferro rod, how to strike. Then he sent us into the woods to gather materials: birch bark, twigs ranging from matchstick-thin to expo-marker-thick. Once I had my pile, I got to work, and that’s when the frustration set in. I did exactly what he’d shown us and couldn’t get a spark. John eventually came over, made a few small corrections, and then it started happening: a spark, then another, and finally one of them caught a curl of birch bark shavings. My fire was going. As I sat back and fed it, something clicked. These are skills that any outdoorsman and that I need to get good at.

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You Don’t Have to Be in the Backcountry

As the day went on, while processing water and building a quick rain poncho shelter, that realization kept deepening. Most of us who hunt or fish are used to stepping out of the truck and walking a few hundred yards to a stand or a blind. We’re not backcountry explorers. But you never really know what a day in the field can turn into.

I found that out firsthand on a piece of coastal marsh. We could see houses from where we stood on a patch of marsh in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Nothing remote about it. But our boat was stuck in the marsh mud as the tide receded. One of my buddies had gotten wet while setting decoys in a marsh and was starting to get cold.  As we watched the sun sink lower, the tide began to move in. I began to game-plan the worst-case scenario: senior tah would need a fire to keep us warm. While the guys waited with the gear, I began moving around, searching for any fire materials and thinking through shelter options, as the tide finally came back in and the boat began to float. Thank god, but I did not panic because I was prepared.

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What’s In My Kit

Since that day in Vermont, I’ve never gone into the field without my fixed-blade Esee knife, a ferro rod, and a half-gallon Ziploc with an emergency blanket, a lighter wrapped in duct tape, water purification tablets, and a Snickers bar. The wrapper catches a spark well. That day, the Ziploc was in my wader pocket and my knife on my chest rig. Still, gear is useless without skills and practice. So every season, spring fly fishing or fall hunting, I spend a day in the backyard on fire-making basics and make sure to get a class with Jon once a year. It sounds like overkill until you’re wet, stuck, and watching your buddy shiver.  

Skip the Quarter-Zip

So the next time you’re eyeing a third $300 quarter-zip, consider spending that money on a day-long survival class instead; you won’t regret it. These are skills we’ve quietly let go of, replaced by lighters, GPS units, and the comfortable assumption that nothing will go wrong. One day it might. It’s better to know what to do before that day comes.

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