BARRHEAD – Isn’t this year the year to learn about survival skills, especially through the winter?
There is an organization that specializes in just that near Goose Lake.
Nature Alive has a six-day adventure planned for Jan. 27 to Feb. 1.
“It's combined with classic winter tracking which is going on snowshoes into winter environments pulling a custom freight toboggan that we build behind us with all of our gear,” explained Dale Kiselyk, trek leader and business owner.
“Basically, camping in the winter but we're taking it a step further.”
Adventurers can stay in a canvas tent and a stove set up at base camp or they can choose to spend a night or two in more of a survival setting.
They can branch away from base camp and stay in more rugged shelters with big fires under the protection of the guides and instructors.
Through-out the trip guides and instructors will show people how to identify animal tracks and learn crafts using nature as the source for materials.
The first day of hiking the group will travel between seven and eight kilometres and set up base camp.
How much activity from there depends on how comfortable the participants are in trying different activities during the six days stay in the wilderness.
“We choose the Freeman River because it's definitely a little hidden gem,” shared Kiselyk.
“You leave our agricultural area in the county of Barrhead and all of a sudden it feels like you're in this mountainous stream with high cliffs and erosion paths.”
Freeman River is just right there off the edge of the highway near Fort Assiniboine.
“It's not too deep. It's easy to navigate and find safe pathways,” commented Kiselyk.
“There's always wolves, coyotes, and there's potentially mountain lions.”
For beginners Nature Alive offers an introduction to winter camping on the weekends.
For more experienced survival trained individuals there is a four-day trek traveling along Nature Alive’s registered trapline.
The four-day adventure is winter camping using a plastic super shelter with long fires for heating and cooking.
This trip includes harvesting animals along the trapline when appropriate.
People interested in the four-day trip should have some bushcraft experience.
Activities include tracking, reading the landscape, camp selection, group movement and how to pack gear on toboggans.
Nature Alive does offer a bushcraft and survival trip that provides the experience of survival and trapping.
They have partnered with Bruce Zawalski of the Boreal Wilderness Institute to offer multiple weeks of survival training.
Zawalski is a celebrated author of the book Canadian Wilderness Survival.
Between the training and the outdoor experiences people can learn a great deal about survival in the Canadian outdoors and practice those skills in a wonderful scenic environment.
Nature Alive has several different kinds of trips including canoe trips throughout the year to experience living in the outdoors and enjoying nature.
