Camping with Dad

by Charlene
(Elkhart, IN, USA)

My father and I went camping several years ago in a forest area outside of Albion, Indiana. We took only very few items with us. While on this camping trip, we survived on natural resources such as the look food supply and plant life.

We fished and hunted for food using minimal things from modern life. I learned about what plants which were safe to eat and how to identify them such as wild onions, the many uses of acorns, and wild berries. When we fished, my dad taught me how to view the contents of their stomachs to figure out what was best to use for bait.

We used every part of each animal or fish that we ate for other provisions. An example is turtles. We used the meat to make a soup and the shells for bowls. We made acorn pancakes by pounding them into powder, mixing it with fresh water, and then cooking them on the bottom of a coffee can we had found in a field.

I learned so much about surviving in the wilderness that trip that I could live in the forest for a long time without the aide of man-made provisions.