A Word and Link from a Female

I found this article interesting.

(Karen is the wife of Ron Hood of "Hoods Woods")

Introducing Your Lady to the Woods
By Karen Hood
Photos by Ron Hood

Dayhike - Overnight Hike - Multi-night Outing - Survival Style

(Karen is being featured in her first volume of the new series Woodsmaster Home - Cave Cooking now available)

It's the first day of one of our private summer wilderness trips. We're taking a group of seven up for a High Sierra adventure they'll never forget. A 9-day survival excursion filled with hiking, trapping, skinning, bug eating and much more. I see some of the men looking at me out of the corner of their eyes. I know what they're thinking. "She can't be an instructor... she's married to Ron. I'll bet Ron takes care of her on these trips. Jeez, now I'm not going to be able to belch out loud. I didn't think women were into this - "survival," I mean. I'll bet she's not strong enough to do this anyway."



We head up the mountain. I tell one of the men his pack doesn't look like it's adjusted correctly. And he replies, "I've done this before. My pack fits fine." Sure enough, half way up the mountain, he's already developing compression blisters on his shoulders. During a break, as he sits down, he gives me a sheepish look. I smile gently and say, "Would you like me to check your pack?" He says, "Uh, Would you mind?" One of the lady campers looks at me with a knowing smile. I have the funny feeling he'll listen to me next time I have a suggestion.

It doesn't take the group long to learn that Ron and I share camp responsibilities equally. We work as a team to get things done quickly. It just depends on who has the time to do whatever needs to be done. At the first night's fire, folks are settling in to enjoy the warmth. I could tell that the group is still a little bit formal. Since I feel the urge, I rip out a huge belch... silence. I can almost hear their thoughts. "Did she just belch? I wish I could belch like that." It takes the group a few minutes to process what just happened. Ron fires off a couple of his own and slowly one by one the group members join the chorus. High elevation has this effect on people sometimes.

Let's talk about the word "Survival." The word carries sort of a Rambo-ish connotation. Sometimes I wonder if it is this connotation that has anything to do with female attitudes towards wilderness skills learning. We've found that only about 25% of our customers are female. When I talk to some women, they say it's the word "survival" that initially frightened them. Not many women would respond very positively to, "Kathy, on our vacation let's go Survive in the woods together for a week." This brings up a vision of her man dressed in a full-on commando outfit with green and black paint smeared all over his face, a huge sawback fixed-blade knife in one hand and legs poised for action. She thinks about the vision for a moment and says quietly, "No I don't think so. Can't we go to the Marriott?"

It is this vision which explains why I prefer to use the phrase Wilderness Skills Training rather than Survival Training. It sounds safer. Somehow commandos don't invade my vision when I think of "Wilderness Skills training."

What we need to focus on is the concept that we're here today because both genders have been able to survive equally and together. Survival training is not a "man" thing. Many women enjoy it too. I'd like to see more women enjoying it. I know from experience there's a lot of men who feel the same way I do or I wouldn't be writing this article. We've learned that survival has very little to do with gender or strength. It has everything to do with knowledge, experience, confidence and practice, practice, practice. Mastering survival techniques and learning new concepts can be an enjoyable life-long pursuit. You can never know too much, but you can know too little.

There's one thing that I've noticed in almost every group we've led into the mountains - at least one student who says that he'd love to share this experience with his special lady. He'll tell me quietly that he was so disappointed when his lady said she'd rather not come along. I always tell them to be patient, supportive, and get her up here so we can feed her a can of beans and teach her our worldly ways. This usually puts a smile on his face as he envisions his dainty little lady trying to hold in what must feel like the explosive compression from a diesel engine.

At this point I'd like to offer some concrete steps to get her involved. This has all been scientifically studied... Uh ha... even our own instructor's wives have been our guinea pigs. We know it works. For ease of application, I've broken these tips into categories. And ladies, feel free to let your man read this if you think he needs some help. :)



Dayhike:
If she's never been out in the wilderness before, this should help get her there:

Before the first outing: Don't intimidate her with stories of your prowess... ever. Don't tell her about how you went off hunting for 6 hours to fetch dinner. What she'll think about is being left alone for that amount of time. DO talk about how beautiful the mountains are going to be and how fresh the air is going to smell. Take time to let her know what you two will be doing together on the trip. Let her know what she can expect with regards to activities you'll be doing so she can get excited about the day you'll be spending together. Give her a mini survival kit to carry with her. Our Woodsmaster Volume 3 - Survival Kits shows a great, small kit that would be perfect for this. Have her watch the tape and make the kit. Tell her that one of the many things you'll be doing when you go on your outing is to practice with the items in the survival kit. This will make her excited that she'll be learning something new and give her a good idea of what activities you'll be participating in. Let her know the proper clothes to wear what shoes to wear, etc. The more open with her you are about what to expect the better.

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Overnight Hike:
Great, she's agreed to stay overnight. These tips should help you.


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Multi-night Outing:

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Happy Trails!