Survivorman & Son | Episode 2 | Wabakimi | Les Stroud

[Music] don't worry don't panic it's just starting to rain now and wind's picking up [Music] [Music] this is not fiction this is fact well over 50 of all people that get lost in the wilderness are either hunters or anglers and like all survival situations it happens so easily the weather might be great the day's warm and sunny in the wind light you've got a good boat and fishing tackle and you'll only be gone a few hours and yet in one instant one turnaround of circumstances a situation can turn into an ordeal and sometimes even a nightmare of epic proportions my son logan and i are putting ourselves into a scenario that happens for real every year this is a common story and nearly every fisherman's been through it especially if you go on flying trips in this case with my son so it's a father-and-son trip plan the day it's the big long day boat for quite a few hours down the lake maybe even pack a lunch end up at a set of rapids like this spend the whole day fishing got one look at that then you go to leave and either your motor won't start or you're out of gas now you're in a survival situation and that's the case for logan and i we're stranded at the bottom of the lake miles from safety miles from our cabin here in northern ontario the camera that followed us in this far leaves us here alone and in five or six days a plane will come for us and we'll hope to signal them from wherever we end up there are cabins dotted here and there on this lake and we need to get to whichever one is closest but that's many miles away so at this point you just got to put all the realities together there's no way of paddling ourselves home normally i would say we we stop and do all of our assessment check go through everything we've got but in this case because the sun's going down and because there's a ton of firewood i'm actually going sort of breaking my fire yeah yeah get a fire going and then we can have a big fire going so we've got it going through the night what i'm thinking is why don't you let me get the fire going okay don't you clean the fish well logan works on the fish the reality is that we're we're in a what is what's not an established campsite but it's a place that people do frequent to fish there's even actually in the fire pit there's a grate and an old frying pan so it doesn't make it not be a survival situation it still is but at least we have a few advantages and i've got something that i'm pretty sure i can start a fire with because we do not have matches and we do not have a lighter but we can make a spark we've got strikers found this big old frying pan just around the campsite so i'm gonna i'm gonna use it to cook up the fish with too many bugs often what i find is the best thing in a situation like this is to get logan doing something that's uh familiar to him that's uh feels comfortable like uh cleaning the fish because in a survival situation if you can feel comfortable and do things that are familiar psychologically you're just a little stronger it's a lot to think about when you find yourself in a survival ordeal someday logan may find himself in a survival situation where all the familiarity is absent like in a jungle or a desert for now as his father and the one with the skills my job will have the added pressure of keeping his motivation up and keeping him from becoming too casual about survival because that's when bigger problems can strike this place might get used a lot but i think it only gets used a lot in the spring it's been a while since people have been here for sure a nice campsite is one thing when you're on a well-stocked camping trip but when you're stuck there days away from safety it might as well be in a jungle survival is still about adapting and using whatever means you can to make it through we've got some bug spray bug spray is highly flammable so theoretically a spark plus a highly flammable substance should equal a fire i want to do this quick before the spray evaporates bug spray quickly runs out which is why i usually suggest bug jackets and screens for an emergency kit whoa nice that worked like a charm see that look yeah awesome beautiful man that bug spray took that spark bang gasoline it's good to know it's kind of dangerous we have the advantage of starting off with the day's catch the hope is we won't be skunked when it comes to fishing for survival too often lost victims waste their first 24 hours being complacent when in fact they should kick right into action on the other hand it's good to settle and get organized before making any rash moves all right fire eat up our fish and sun's dropping down the only thing i'm really worried about now is a really bad night of mosquitoes i think it's better for logan and i just to eat this up now could invite problems with theirs we don't usually have any issues with bears we need trouble but got a lot of fish smells around the campsite wow that's good nice job my instincts always tell me to immediately gather as much information about my situation as possible it's not the same for logan he hasn't honed any survival instincts that he can draw upon yet so i need him to pay attention to what knowledge i'm looking to gather we need to do zone of assessment number two what are we carrying with us right a hatchet hand saw one of these travel thermoses unfortunately it's all rubber on the outside so i'm a big fan of bringing metal cups even boiling we've each got a seat pillow from the boat full set of fishing tackle which is great and there's a few things in there i think we've got we can use that there's some light sticks right uh there was the bug spray that you had and then that's it there's nothing left there's no bars to ration out there's no sandwiches to cut up there's no cookies to give out or to count this was our day pack we had some paper towels logan's got a cup too there's your couple here but unfortunately it's also plastic huge bonus we've each got rain gear and rubber boots brought all that stuff with us again just expecting a day out not knowing what we're gonna get weather was so i think that's about it finding ripe fruits or berries or any kind of plants is completely dependent upon the luck of the timing in a survival ordeal i often hear the comment why didn't you just gather berries but most wild berries are only ready for two weeks out of the year fortunately for logan and i we're here at just the right time in the middle of black bear territory with a million ripe berries that's incredible because this is enough to actually make a difference for us you know it's not just a quick munch and we can travel tomorrow with them let's go let's do this right time of year to get lost that's for sure i can tell you how often i'm in a place and i get told about how great the berries are or the fishing is or whatever and then it's like well it's just the wrong time of year this is one of those situations where the energy spent gathering food is equaled by the amount of food that we can gather to be able to sit in a spot like this and have literally thousands of blueberries our fingertips uh is a huge bonus and it'll serve logan and i really well putting the odds in our favor by gathering all these berries right now while we're stuck here it's a good thing to do logan is experiencing a survival situation that so far consists of good luck and familiarity he's at a campsite we've caught fish the weather is nice we have blueberries if he grows complacent as a result he won't be of any help to me in affecting better survival when we really need it it's adversity that has taught me my greatest survival lessons but how far am i willing to go to get logan to experience adversity it's the toughest question any parent has to answer it's our second day of surviving in canada's far north and with our boat motor disabled we're challenged with the task of paddling many miles to reach a cabin at the other end of the lake we've caught fish pick berries and the weather is in our favor for now the only option we have is to paddle this big tin boat and paddle it actually uh against the wind unfortunately you know this is that's what happens probably to the tune of a thousand stories of summer fishermen break down their boats break down and you find yourself paddling in this case we know the lake's empty we also know there's other cabins that we might be able to get to along the way so logan's just uh lifted up the motor so it's out of the water and uh we're gonna get paddling pushing a tin fishing boat forward with a pair of canoe paddles is not easy it drives home the importance of every fishing boat having proper oars instead of paddles for want of a good set of oars people have died there's no reason why we can't fish along the way i mean we gotta eat we'll get the wind with us for now that's good you know if the wind really picks up we could use the tarp for a sail that's true the tin boat represents a way out the time out on the lake represents relief from mosquitoes and a chance at catching food and it would seem that the survival winds of fortune are blowing in our direction we got a tailwind why don't we put the tarp up okay works this will work it's going in the right direction there we go there we go yeah that's easier than paddling let's just keep this up and see how far it takes us [Music] i don't know why a lot of people just seem to be panicky about drinking water out of northern lakes i don't think you can get water much cleaner than this we've got to stay hydrated no matter what and the old trick for not feeling hungry is to keep drinking as much water as possible as quickly as our tailwind came up it stops and we're back to paddling the fact that the wind is at our backs is another stroke of luck unfortunately we're paddling away from a massive field of berries earlier this morning though while logan slept at sunrise having struggled through the night i got busy in the berry patch proving again the proactive survival is the only survival [Music] surprise for you this morning check it out [Music] awesome [Music] i'm hoping that logan is understanding now how important it is in a survival situation to never be passive logan i know we can catch some fish so we can eat gives us food we got plenty of water other than getting a good shelter set up what more do we need the reality is we need to travel we need to get ourselves out of here and so it becomes a decision do you stop and fish do you spend a lot of time fishing it's an important decision to make because you spend a lot of calories motoring all the time and uh if it's a long long way then you gotta temper it with getting some food energy along the way we're just gonna take a bit of time to see if we can catch something if not we're back to paddling okay we got one fish on fish on all right just a little baby pike just a little guy well we've got one as my dad would say we wouldn't have starved and we won't starve tonight back to paddling it's fishing for survival now everything is kept you never know when the good luck will end after many hours of paddling our attention turns to sheltering for the night and logan is frustrating me by letting me make all the decisions see this clearing up here let's pull into it and see see if it gives us any good locations to set up a shelter logan's usual calm and passive personality leaves him content with me picking out a spot but i need him to think because two minds are better than one and two days without much food takes its toll on my own ability to think clearly well i know logan's counting on me to make a good decision here and just take a shelter instead of saying you go for it wherever i want to do it but all of a sudden i feel pressure because he's got to make it through the night too if i don't come up with an answer soon tonight's gonna be upon us can we shelter here or not that's the question maybe this is why i've always survived alone i don't like the added pressure of thinking for logan's benefit out here as well as mine i need his help and i don't feel like i have it now that we stop i think the day of paddling's gonna wear me out a bit now i'm starting to feel the lack of food i don't want to let logan down i gotta figure this out [Music] as logan and i search out a place to shelter for the night i come up with an idea that i have never tried before i just had what might be a stupid idea i don't know it might be an awesome idea there's a ton of spruce trees here easily gathered cut down small trees right and i was looking at the boat and i was thinking what if what if we make two bed no if you come and look at the boat put two beds two spaces triangle on one end down at the back end triangle on the front end a pole across we've got the rope we can tie it all up so it's secure drape the tarp over top of that we basically have a mobile tent at that point that's going to be a very uncomfortable sleeve i don't i don't think it will be okay well think about this let's say we move to new location tomorrow we're gonna have to take it down put it in the boat like i'm just thinking about that i mean if all we would have to do every night is spend a concentrated hour getting boughs and five poles and we could set it up every single night and we would be able to sleep in the boat anchor the boat in a protected little cove instead of coming in on shore the only thing we can't have is a fire but we can have the fire right on shore if it was just me i'd definitely not do that you know we'll put one bed down and you try it out lie on it and if you think like oh man i could sleep like this great you know because it's i from my experience it's not gonna be that much more comfortable up on the land okay so seriously hear me out all right this is what i'm talking about we fill that slot and that slat you can have the wider one fill it all up with evergreen bells nice and big and cushiony right yep then we take and we put pole up here like this like a triangle one at the back and pull across the top and then the tarp goes over top of that and then we crawl in here you just you can sleep right there we should be protected have so the tarp comes to the outside of the boat so the rain drips off and away and then when we want to when we go to paddle tomorrow we just take down the tarp in the polls and get on our way what do you think or would you rather just do the same thing but on land let's just give this a try yeah might as well i've never tried anything like this before so the thing for me is if it works then it's awesome right it's mobile don't worry if it doesn't work be a rough night tonight that's all hey if it doesn't rain we're fine last night we slept out by the rocks right so yeah okay all right well then first things first we've got a bunch of bows let's start filling it up let's see how how it works all right logan clearly doesn't like the idea or at least doesn't think it'll work but i have to let my own experience take the lead role here a bow bed is just about bad and it can be a lot of work to build up on the land the ground here is damp but the tin boat is solid and dry so long as we can keep it that way working together can be more efficient completing the task one of us gathers while the other builds you put your feet up in here every once in a while stretch out legs but i think this can work yeah try it out tell me what you think it's not that bad i'm gonna work on the tarpon get that part ready because i'm seeing clouds come over now and just like that how fast we work becomes imperative so we can be prepared for the approaching storm in the western sky in survival you're always either dealing with weather or preparing for it all right this morning bug spray again look at that that's crazy rock and roll i got a fish to clean well it's just a little guy but it's food there's no reason why logan can't try to increase our food bounty here we go toss them in the frying pan toss them in the frying pan okay all right don't let him jump don't let him jump keep coming keep coming keep coming there we go oh yeah sun's going down and i'm just gonna hope that uh weather holds out throughout the night i don't know kind of like my new contraption there i think it looks pretty cool our hopes for a clear night sky are quickly passing as the clouds gather in the west and the wind begins to pick up it's just giving us enough time to eat our catch [Music] i'm getting fresher than that that's awesome and no bones that doesn't look friendly coming in we hold still now and wait to see if this shelter was a good idea or not this will have to do that's definitely gonna be rain coming in i'll be surprised if we don't get hit by that within moments of saying this the wind picks up with an unforgiving speed and begins to blow our fire into the forest forcing me to jump to action while logan holds down the shelter it's uh just starting to rain now and wind's picking up go in slow careful we knock it down we're screwed oh this is a bad idea let's just hold tight [Music] uh are you dry yep okay so you're staying dry all right you've got your rain gear on [Music] i don't think we're sleeping much [Music] well it could be worse it could be raining [Music] okay it's not one of my best ideas [Music] you know what red sky at night sailor's delight got a red sky over there that might be it [Music] with the worst of the storm past it's a good idea to take advantage of the lull in the wind and build up our shelter so we can at least try to sleep through the night [Music] hi buddy [Music] [Applause] this is how we got through the night cold and uncomfortable i don't want to have to do another night like that this is not the best idea [Music] [Music] what's your plan log you're gonna try and sleep a little longer i'm gonna leave you sleeping and the tarps are ripped bad [Music] logan's not sleeping in the nights very well so i've got to cut him some slack and let him sleep through the morning [Music] people get so worried about giardia beaver fever that's that's a misnomer majority is transferred by fecal matter and it doesn't it's not just beavers it's all kinds of animals it'll transfer with giardia you're really not going to feel the pain until probably the problems until about seven days later and then if you're out of si in back in civilization it's just a couple of pills in here and you're done with it but dehydration can knock you down in three days so this is a nice big lake i have no issues drinking the water straight from the shoreline here [Music] the lack of a normal supply of food combined with minimal sleep is no doubt contributing to logan's general sluggishness and lethargic state but i've got to keep us moving [Music] what's that yep it's pretty clear that the weather's giving us both some forgiveness here we've got lots of time to deal with things but yesterday we got caught so tonight i prefer to get off the water early and again we're so fortunate to have the wind at our back then we can just sort of drift with this wind and logan can fish he has more luck than i do anyway fishing just takes on such a whole different meaning when you have to catch fish too to survive and so far nothing today we'll start early to try and find a good shelter location i'm not trying to be picky or anything i'm just trying to find us a decent place to set up a shelter and be protected from storms you'd also have some wind keep the bugs down bugs were pretty bad last night and we're striking out here there's no flat ground unfortunately because there's so much daylight you know afford to be a little picky i also don't want to leave it so late we run out of time miles later a beach that looks great at first offers up no better shelter sand looks really nice but right in behind in here this is just all spruce bog that wind dies down when it gets dark if there are mosquitoes this is where they're going to be [Music] anyone who has ever canoe camped knows how difficult it can be just to find one small spot to pull up on within many miles of shoreline this is why people have tended to congregate in the same areas on shorelines for thousands of years we go too and we build where it makes sense to do so at least along the way logan and i can still try for food it's walleye wallet bring them in bring them in bring them in come on come on bring them in bring it yeah that's dinner put them in the water keep them fresh all right so there we go that's what we've been trying to do we've just been drifting we're looking at a place to set up our shelter sort of going along the shoreline just really slow we're paddling there's no wind here today so it's like kind of being stuck in the freshwater doldrums and there we go logan just caught us dinner perfectly nice job buddy so we have something to eat again tonight it's been hours of paddling with our fishing lines trolling in the water without a single hit from a fish and with no wind to push us forward either so this fish has a huge boost to our morale but we're still plagued with the search for a decent spot to pull ashore and spend the night what do you want to put in there over by that stick by that stick okay still alive still very much alive remember to talk to camera and good luck don't forget your cameras yeah okay so since we decided on staying just out in the open tonight i have to uh make us a nice bed i figure that it's not gonna rain because beautiful blue sky right now so if it does we've got the tarp nearby so i can grab that quickly if i need to in the meantime i gotta get all these spruce bows up and uh start weaving them into a bed i'm just kind of shoving them into the dirt here i try to make it as flat low as possible get rid of some of these rocks i'm just trying to weave all of these uh spruce bows in together it's the best way to keep the heat in and uh make it nice and comfy we've been able to film logan catching a walleye which is great so that gave us dinner but then i decided to match him two perfect walleye i need my sleep and i haven't been getting it so i'm hoping uh this is gonna be a better idea than sleeping in a tin can unfortunately i'm not just making this bed for me my dad has to fit on it too which means that i have to listen to him snore all night which really sucks how's it going good oh that's looking comfortable i've got the fish all cleaned up and ready to go so i'm going to clear a little space over there and get a fire going what we have in our favor is the good weather without it this would be a much different story logan's pretty much hung up on fishing so i'm gonna be the one to get the fire going again tonight and unfortunately now i'm all out of that bug spray that was kind of the magic ingredient but i still have paper towel here i'm gonna do sort of rip it up in the middle here get it down in there and get it so the fluffy part the part that i just ripped up will catch a spark i want to get cooking that fish here we go there we go there we go all it took that's all it took it just took a spark and a paper towel with the paper towel roughed up and made fluffy i got my flame beautiful [Music] it'd be good if tomorrow we'll pull out the the maps trying to figure out where we are in relation to any outpost camps or cabins or anything like that that's probably a really good idea and uh see if we can make it to one because if we get hit with more storms again that's not gonna be so pleasant [Music] loons have been singing up a storm just dancing and playing and calling logan's just settling in for the night i've been able to bring loons into me before by using my harmonica [Music] ah [Music] we'll make it through this night clear of any rain so it's an easy sleep under the stars but now onwards we go as the tedium of paddling must continue sitting still won't do us any good no matter how beautiful the area actually is it's starting to stink you always stink not as bad as your feet around you how uh how far are we forever we're still many miles of paddling until we may come upon one of the cabins on the lake that we can take advantage of off-camera logan and i become a bit testy with each other brought about no doubt by the tedium this reality that boredom and tedium can drive you nuts in a survival ordeal is often overlooked yet it can be very dangerous if you're alone you can become depressed and lethargic if you're not you can become annoyed and touchy which is why proactivity lifts the spirits during survival so here's the option it was either about another eight mile paddle or about three quarters of a mile across land let's let's take the land but we'd be we'll be leaving the boat right now the reason we're going across land is because there should be a cabin down on that other side yeah let's take the rest of that and leave the boat okay let's find a place to land this move however is risky it can be dangerous to travel across even as little as a few hundred yards but survival is always about calculated risks to make your situation better survival is about moving forward it's about going home how about right here sure [Music] okay all we have to do is go in a straight line here just keep the sun in one spot on your forehead and then we'll try and sort of stay straight as we go through okay it's best way without a compass to do this all we have to do is go go up and over land three quarters of a mile might not seem like very long ways but through the bush it is don't underestimate how dangerous this decision is all that has to happen is to get turned around in the thick bush and then what's hoped to become a short hike becomes a nightmare let's watch your footing too yeah i don't want any snapped ankles out here one wrong turn one branch in the eye and everything changes doesn't help when the clouds come in and obscure the sun no it starts raining it's not gonna be good let's just keep going [Music] now the calories are burning up fast this is an exhaustive undertaking fraught with the potential for accidents and missteps it would have been safer to simply keep paddling but the tediousness of that was taking its toll and it was time to make a change let's just hope it was the right change to make because right about now it feels like the forest is closing in on us an all too familiar feeling in a survival ordeal out here it's not overly dramatic to point out that one wrong turn could put us somewhere where we will never be seen again you know what it looks like it's thinning out up ahead if that's the case you may be at the lake ah now [Music] hey you know what i see water we're at the other side you want to look around to the right yeah all right hey dude rehydrate yourself hey get a bunch of water into you that was a tough hike there's nothing on this side shoot see we know there's a cabin on this side of the point we just walked all the way across just don't know if we've hit to the left to the right what i did try to do was air us on the side of being too far to one direction it's an old trick with compass that you can do as well basically you know you want to go in a straight line but instead you on purpose go too far to the left so when you hit the shore you'll look to the right and that's where your thing should be and we tried that for this but i don't i definitely don't see anything to the left hey there it is salvation [Music] so this has really paid off uh one thing i can almost guarantee is that the cabin will not be locked nobody locks cabins in the north ever that's just mean okay this is huge for logan and i so i don't care what's inside that cabin it's just gonna be good to get up in there for tonight wow huge huge bonus incredible you know what this is the way of the north little trapper's cabins and in this case this is a fishing lodge you can see the doors just left open [Applause] so it looks like they've been taking care of the place we stay here we got a signal fire tomorrow and we wait for plane rescue [Music] so the one thing we did actually bring with us from the boat as well was the saw so it just fit nicely in the day pack so i thought i'd bring it along that's gonna help me to take down this tree a lot easier than using my knife we've decided to build what i would consider to be a classic signal fire with three green trees more than anything i simply want logan to learn this process to grasp the concept of a fast lighting and thick smoking fire to be used for rescue that should hopefully be enough to get a nice good signal fire going and get out of here i'm going to weave these back in here we've shoved birch bark and even rubber and plastic from the camp inside the branches to help make the smoke thick it's not very environmentally conscious but this is about survival it looks good there we go signal fire ready to go as first the night spent this time in comfort and then the morning passes we'll sit and wait for the sound of a plane in the far distance you hear that yeah camera let's go let's go okay wait till we see him don't light it yet just because we hear him doesn't mean anything at this point okay here he is way over there way over there [Music] okay light it light it light it light it hopefully it'll do its thing it's coming right this way he's got to see it this is never a guarantee of course this pilot knew to look for us but often the smoke from a rescue fire can appear to be nothing more than a wisp of swamp steam and not smoke at all it takes much training for searchers to become good at spotting lost victims in inaccessible areas and remote forests and there are other camps in the area so there's no guarantee that this is the one that we made our way to that's him letting us know that he's here he's coming when they fly that low like that he's letting us know he's seen us even though logan and i put ourselves in this situation and even though logan has the advantage of having me his father with him to take the lead role and guide him through difficult circumstances i know that he would still feel the relief in this moment as the plane touches down because it'll take him back home back to safety back to all the comforts and trappings of civilized living far removed from the reality of being lost in the woods far from the reality of survival you

Channel: Survivorman - Les Stroud

Views: 1,006,059

Keywords: Survivorman TV Series, Les Stroud, Survivorman, Survivorman Les Stroud, Survivorman TV Show, Survivorman TV, Wabakimi, Survivorman & Son, father son fishing, fishing trip, stranded, intense survival situation, survival, survive, survivorman full episodes

Id: cVPTrf6WS6Y

Length: 44min 55sec (2695 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 22 2021