Sam Fadala
she’ll make you pay if you don’t heed her rules. A bull moose doesn’t need an overcoat to withstand the ravages of a frigid win- ter day, whereas the aver- age man naked shivers at much below 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and 90 may feel too warm. Outdoors, we are no better than our equipment: from socks to tomahawks.
I Bud Myers and his Indian guide,
Tom Strong, left camp for a “2-mile hike” into a patch of Canadian wilder- ness. Ten days later they were found near death. They used up the few matches they had, with nothing to eat, and only the clothes on their backs, plus one green deer hide to ward off the cold. Had they been carrying the life- saving modular kit, they would have waited for help: warm, dry and safe. Instead, they were compelled to seek camp — they never found it. Medicos on the rescue team agreed, one more night out and Bud and Tom would have been victims of the outback. This campfire chat follows a trail
Sam demonstrates the modular kit on a Boy Scout camp-out, a few items not showing here, such as tie-on Woolrich rain parka. The kit may look cumber- some, but it is not, due to the fact that the daypack is narrow and the fanny- pack is out of the way. It “carries” well.
into the wonderful world that lies out- side our backyards: hunters seeking that quiet niche; fishermen walking into a trail-only lake; and hikers simply strolling into the backcountry for plea- sure. These sweet experiences turn sour and potentially dangerous when Dame Nature sends a sudden storm. Com- pass and GPS mark the way to camp or vehicle. Go for it! But sometimes you just can’t reach safety. Denied shelter for any reason, the modular kit goes into action and survival is assured in relative comfort — relative, that is, to getting stuck in a tough situation. The kit holds a promise. It promises you will make it when the chips are down. When they were handing out sense of direction, I thought it was cents, and asked for only a nickel’s worth, which is what I got. Yet, I go into wild places far from the beaten track with total confidence. GPS and compass? — sure. But if I don’t make it back to shelter, the kit will see me through.
It’s Modular The heart of the kit is two units
plus tie-ons — backpack and fanny- 36 REALITY CHECK • 2011 SPECIAL EDITION
t’s not wise to defy Mother Nature. She’s a strict old dame, and
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