Matt Doeden - Can You Survive the Wilderness?: An Interactive Survival Adventure

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YOU are lost in the wilderness. Predators roam through the forest. Hot days and cold nights will test your strength. High cliffs, rushing rivers, and deep will block your way. Any wrong decision could be your last.

How will you survive? In this book youll deal with extreme survival situations. Youll explore how the knowledge you have and the choices you make can mean the difference between life and death.

Chapter One sets the scene. Then you choose which path to read. Follow the links at the bottom of each page as you read the stories. The decisions you make will change your outcome. After you finish one path, go back and read the others for new perspectives and more adventures. Use your device's back buttons or page navigation to jump back to your last choice.

YOU CHOOSE the path you take through your adventure.

Do you have what it takes to survive in the wilderness? Far from civilization, everything changes. You cant go to the grocery store or fast-food restaurant to pick up a meal. If youre hurt, a doctor isnt just a phone call away. If youre cold, you cant just turn up the heat. Even finding safe water to drink can be a challenge.

Exploring the wilderness can be fun if you are prepared.

Bears, cougars, and other predators can kill you. Poisonous plants can be just as deadly. But the wilderness also provides ways to survive. Catching fish and small game can keep you alive. Many plants are safe to eatif you know what they are.

A survival kit can help make the difference between life and death.

Being lost or stranded in the wilderness will test both your strength and your intelligence. How will you find food? How can you get the attention of rescue aircraft? What would you do if you were staring down the jaws of a hungry predator?

It wont be easy, but if you stay calm and make good choices, you might be able to get out alive. Are you ready to find out whether you have what it takes?

As you watch the August sun dip behind the high mountains of the Alaska Range, you are filled with worry. You were supposed to spend two nights alone in the Alaskan wilderness before being picked up by a small plane. At the time it seemed like a great way to challenge yourself and your survival skills.

But now you realize that coming out here alone was a big mistake. Two days has stretched to five days, and what few supplies you brought with you have run out. And it seems that no one is coming. Your family and friends know you were headed for a solo retreat, but they dont know exactly where.

The Alaska Range stretches 400 miles through southern Alaska.

Have you been forgotten? Lost in a shuffle of paperwork? Did something happen to the pilot who brought you out here? That idea is terrifying. The pilot is the only other person who knows exactly where you are. Your family and friends knew only that you were coming to Alaska.

Your food and fresh water may be gone, but you came prepared. Your heavy backpack contains a warm sleeping bag and a small fold-up tent. Youve got warm clothes, a pocketknife, and a piece of to start fires. What you dont have is a cell phone, radio, or any other way to call for help. Youre on your own, and its becoming clear that rescue might not be coming any time soon. Civilization may be dozens of miles away or more. This isnt a bad place to survive. Youve got a lake full of fresh water, plenty of wood for fire, and lots of wildlife.

Its also the last place anyone saw you. But if no one knows where to look, theres no guessing how long it might take before youll be found here.

Its time to decidedo you wait for rescue here? Or is it time to strike out into the wilderness in search of help?

Shelter and fire will help you survive in the wilderness.

Alaska is a huge, wild place. You dont even know which direction to go to find civilization. Staying here seems like your best chance. You know how to survive. You just have to keep yourself alive until someone finds you.

The good news is that you already have a start on a camp here. Your tent is set up and youve built a fire ring out of stones. Youve even got a small kettle for boiling water. And you know the area a little. There are fish in the lake and wildlife in the thick forest. With some luck, you could survive months out here.

Your first concern is finding food. You could try fishing, but youd have to make your own gear. Or you could work on building to catch rabbits or other small game. You know how to build a snare, but catching food this way takes lots of patience.

If nobody knows where you are, you could wait here for weeks or months before rescue comesif it comes at all. You might survive the summer, but winter would surely be the end of you. Its time to move.

You pack your things. Your backpack is heavy. Reluctantly you decide to leave your tent behind to lighten your load. Youll have your sleeping bag to keep you warm at night, and you can build shelter. You give your camp one last look and head out.

Mountains lie to your east. The land gradually slopes down to the west. You dont know where you might find civilization.

The steelhead trout is found in Alaska.

A small stream feeds the nearby lake, and youve seen trout swimming there. You find a strong, straight stick and use your pocketknife to whittle it to a sharp point. Soon youve got a crude fishing spear.

The creek isnt very deep, but its moving fast. At first you try standing on the banks, but soon discover that you cant reach far enough to get to the fish. So you strip off your shoes and socks, roll up your pants, and wade in. The water is bitterly cold, but youre not giving up now.

Spearing a fish proves difficult. You make several attempts, but come up empty. Things get worse when you lunge at a trout just out of reach. You lose your balance and flop into the icy cold water. The water takes your breath away. You gasp and pull yourself up. Your clothing is soaked. You shiver in the cool late afternoon breeze.

Rolling Snare

Its time to get to work on building rolling snares. You learned this skill years ago as a Scout. First you need two Y-shaped sticks. You find some sapling branches that will be perfect. You insert one Y-shaped stick into the ground with the Y facing the ground. You then insert the other Y-shaped stick into the first to form a trigger.