Krav vs. Wild write up
So I just got back from Krav vs. Wild last night. Thought I'd do this before I forget it all. This is ridiculously long, but BB said to imagine it like a season of 24 ^_^;
Back in Feb I saw a share on the Infinite Krav Maga group for Krav vs. Wild. I'm like, "that sounds SO COOL!...but it's kind of short notice". So I convinced myself I wouldn't go this year because I didn't have anyone to go with, I should save up my leave since our dumb contract at work requires that we work 1860 hours, etc... But then I thought about it. I went to the Krav Summer Camp back in 2007 with Terence and Anthony and really liked it. I planned on going again with Natalia, but soon after that, they discontinued it. Who knows if there'd ever be another Krav vs. Wild?? So I asked BB if she'd go with me this year and she said yes. So figured F-it, I'm going. Who knows when the zombie apocalypse is coming? :p
Next came the unfun part of planning logistics. Some people I knew from Infinite Krav Maga were going, but everything sounded pretty vague with them, so I figured I'd just go ahead and book all the stuff on my own. Registered with KMWW and started looking into flights. Fortunately I had enough credit card reward points for a free plane ticket. Booked BB's ticket for her, then booked a rental car later on with my AMA discount. The only thing I was worried about was the flight back home on Sunday. Camp was supposed to end at noon, and the only non-redeye flight back was a 2:55 PM. Kinda cutting it close considering the camp location is about an hour from LAX on a good day, plus we'd need time to return the rental car and get through security.
A couple weeks later KMWW sent out the list of gear we needed. The only thing on the list that was required was a sleeping bag, but the list of recommended gear was huge! O_O and a lot of it was camo, lol! Fortunately Drew used to be a boyscout so he knew what everything was. BB, Drew, and I headed off to the army surplus store in Tysons and went nuts. I ended up getting BDUs, a backpack, hat, paracord, compass, camo paint, poncho, etc... Kinda pricey, but I figure it could all go in the Zombie apocalypse/prepper box we keep in the basement. (not my own doing-- my dad gave us some survival food and gear for Christmas last year >_>) I ended up buying a new sleeping bag, thermarest air mattress, inflatable pillow, and camp towel at REI later. I figured I could reuse it all if I wanted to do any motorcycle camping in the future. Drew was nice enough to loan me one of his ka-bar knives. He has a knife collection, so he handed me about 10 knives that met the 6-10" fixed blade requirement and told me to pick the one I liked best.
In early April KMWW sent out the exact camp location. It's some sort of non-public location, and I guess they wanted to add some mystique to it :p
Finally April 12th came and BB and I met up at Dulles at 7AM. The flight out was United, so I was waiting for some sort of craptastic disaster to occur that would make us late, but we lucked out and had a trouble-free flight. Landed at LAX and waited 45 mins in line to get the rental car. We ended up with a Ford Focus wagon thing. That took some getting used to. Accelerating from a stop made the wheels lose traction or something, and then it'd just kinda wallow, then take off really fast. Brakes were twitchy too. And the thing was super-anemic on hills. And it would shudder at low speeds. If I was on a bike, I'd say it felt like it was going to stall out, but it's a car, and automatic. Oh well, I don't know a thing about cars, but it pissed me off.
We had a few hours to kill before having to report in to camp at 6PM. Per Mike's recommendation, we headed to The Grove. Found a Dylan's Candy Bar and had fun picking crazy stuff out of the bulk candy bins. Ended up eating at the farmers market at a French place. We split a potatoes au gratin. I got a super cheesy croque monsieur and BB got a steak sandwich. Left at 4:00 per Mike's very accurate suggestion, and sat in LA traffic for 2 hours. The lane-splitting motocycles blew my mind, but after sitting in the car for so long, realized it made a lot of sense and probably saved a ton of time, if you had a bike.
Found the road that led to Camp Courage and was flagged in at the guard booth. Drove farther in and got additional directions from a boy scout. Found the place and went in to register. BB and I were assigned to Team 6, tent 2. We got to pick out an MRE each. They had a beef, chicken and vegetarian. Each one had a couple of different selections, so I picked out a Southwest Chicken Stew thing and BB got a beef stew one. We were told not to open them until we had instructions to do so. Went over to tent 2 to check it out. It was co-ed and there were enough bunks for at least 40 people in there. Space was really tight, so I was having some trouble finding a place for my pack and my small rolly suitcase. Getting there kinda early was good because we both got top bunks. I don't think I would've wanted the lower ones because it was an even harder to get in an out of, and I don't think they had railings, so I probably would've rolled into my neighbors and kicked them in my sleep. Unpacked my sleeping gear for later. Saw Ehren and the rest of the Infinite Krav gang. They were on team 5 and said we should switch over to their team. I talked with the camp organizer and she said we could do it, but we'd have to get the other 2 girls on team 5 to agree to a switch. At that point, I was like meh, we'll just deal with it and stay on Team 6.
At 7 we had a spaghetti dinner and met some of the other members of Team 6. Our team didn't have any members who went to Krav vs. Wild last year, so we were all noobs. The spaghetti was pretty small and not so great, but at that point I had no idea when we'd eat next, so I managed to finish it. The rest of the team members were dudes, for a total of 9. A few older guys in their mid-30s to 40s, and then a few younger guys, I'm guessing in their mid-20s. A couple of the older guys looked like Mark Wahlberg and Jeremy Renner... We had some time to chat a bit, and then we the instructors rounded us all up and said lights out at 10:00. We'd get anywhere from 4-8 hours of sleep, and to our packs and gear all ready to go. They said to keep your clothes and shoes in your sleeping bag so scorpions don't crawl into them. I couldn't do the shoes though, I get all grossed out by shoes on my sleeping surfaces.
Went back to the tent to unpack more and get ready for bed. The hard part was juggling stuff between my rolly suitcase and pack. I didn't want to weigh myself down with too much unnecessary stuff, but getting into the rolly suitcase was a major PITA because there was so little room to do anything in the tent. The bathroom facilities were about 1/4 mile away, so I always had to think about what to bring with me. That, and I wasn't so sure about changing clothes in front of a bunch of guys. Only 2 sinks in the women's bathroom, so even though there weren't many girls, it was still a struggle to get to use the sink to brush teeth, take out contacts, etc...
Made it back to the tent and the lights were shut off at 10:00 accompanied by Taps (guess we've got some Krav trumpet/bugle players out there), before most of us finished getting stuff together. Hopped into my sleeping bag and was super glad I brought the Thermarest. The bunks were just sheet metal, so not very comfy. I laid down and listened to the ginormous frog chorus outside. Found out that Cali frogs actually go "ribbit ribbit!", while the frogs around Fairfax just kinda make a high-pitched droning noise. Next came the chorus of snores, followed by a loud metal BANG!! every few mins, followed by a lot of people cussing about how they couldn't sleep. Kept checking my watch and time was crawling by slowly. Last thing I remembered, my watch said 2:20 AM. I think I was dozing in and out before that though. Blinked and the next thing I knew, someone was playing Reveille. Checked my watch again and it was 4:00 AM. Everyone started scrambling to get their gear.
We assembled into two columns outside and had to keep in line with our buddy (aka BB in my case). We started hiking up some sort of evil hill/mountain that had my quads burning within 2 minutes. I'm so glad I borrowed my Dad's headlight. Gravel and uneven surfaces make me nervous because of my busted-now-healed right ankle. Hiked what I'm guessing was 1/2 mile up and a 1/2 mile down. Maybe not very long, but steep. The instructors told us to stagger enough so that if someone fell, he/she wouldn't take the rest of us out like bowling pins on the way down. I took it extra slow on the way down and kept a wary eye on the Asian guy behind me who was carrying an extra pointy-looking walking stick.
After the hike we went over to the volleyball court area and started doing krav warmups, packs off thankfully. Darren Levine showed up and started teaching. We did a lot of Level 1 choke defenses, which was cool. There was another instructor, John, who taught a little bit as well, and I have to say, I really liked his teaching style. Very clear and to the point. Other instructors were wandering around helping people with techniques and giving tips. That went on for 90 mins, then we had some time to get cleaned up, go to the bathroom, and refill water before meeting up again for instructions. The sun was finally up. BB and I split a Cliff bar for some much-needed calories. Had the chance to brush my teeth and take my meds. Went to the bathroom and found a bunch girls fussing over their makeup. Really?! one girl said she spent 15-20 mins on just her eyelashes.
When we met up again, we were told to ration the MRE's throughout the day. The teams would rotate through different training stations for the next 10-12 hours. I was like "10-12 hours?! @_@ ". The instructors said to pay attention during the training stations, because we need all the skills for the night missions. They passed around pics of poison oak and poison sumac. They told us that there would be an improvised weapon contest, where each group could submit hand-made weapons made of all-natural materials, for a contest. We picked our team leader, Paul, an older dude who's a hospital doctor. We were also told that Team 6 was getting a new member, another female, putting us at 10 people. Her name was Grace and she had arrived too late the night before to get registered, so she slept in her car. We were told we had to camo it up before heading out. So BB, Grace and I tried out the paint. We had no idea what to do, we just heard that you're supposed to put darker paint over your t-zone to prevent shininess, and just break up colors on other parts of your face. Without a mirror it was kind of tricky. I was jealous of all the guys who had really cool-looking camo jobs. BB and I just looked like zombies ^_^;
Talked with Grace a little and tried to be friendly. Gotta say, she was kinda out there. She lived in VA up until 10 days ago and then moved out to LA to learn dance, which she had never done before. She had taken 1 intro to Krav class before, but that was it. I was thinking to myself that Krav vs. Wild is NOT a good intro to Krav if you don't have any martial arts experience or aren't in somewhat ok shape.
Team 6 got together to head out to the first training station-- rockclimbing. I've never rockclimbed before, and I don't like heights. But I realized from ziplining in Alaska, most of the fear goes away if I know that I'm tied to something that'll keep me from smashing into the ground. The instructors showed us how to get the harnesses on. The wall had 3 surfaces-- a slanted easy one on the right, a vertical medium-level one on the left, and a really tricky vertical one in the center. We didn't have to pick colored footholds or anything, just grab whatever. The objective was to get to the top of the wall and then shoot 3 paper targets with a paintball gun. I opted for the easiest wall, which in fact, was easier than I expected it to be. I made it to the top without falling off, but I did need some help identifying which footholds to use near the top. Shooting was a different story. I don't even know if I hit the targets! :p Rappelling down was fun though.
The guys just went nuts and climbed all over the walls really fast. I was jealous. One of the instructors said "Ok, no females have tried the center wall yet. Who's going to do it?". I decided to give it a try. I didn't do very well. Vertical is a lot harder than slanted, and I felt like the rope was pulling me off the footholds. I was holding on for dear life and felt my arms starting to give out. Finally I just let go and rappelled down. Didn't want to completely burn myself out when I had no idea what was in store. After everyone got a turn, the instructors said that one of tonight's missions would involve 3 climbers and 2 safties to help the instructor holding the rope. We had to choose the best 3 climbers, which definitely was not me. We chose the young guys to do the climbing.
After that we headed to the knot-tying station. That was more my speed. But I was kinda irked when I heard the young guys joking that the girls could handle the knots while they would handle the other stuff. But then I sadly realized that in this case, it was true :( I hate it when I fit the stereotype! >:( Could not find my paracord, so had to borrow some from one of the guys. Anyway, I rocked the knot station, the only problem was remembering it all. Without paper to write it down I tried to go off of muscle memory. At the end we got to make survival bracelets, which was kinda fun.
Next was firecraft. The instructor there used to do SEER training for the military which was cool. He gave a short lecture on finding food, making fire, and setting up snares. He asked if anyone brought a magnesium block, or anything else to start fires, and we all just gave him blank stares. There wasn't anything like that on the gear list. The instructor said the key was to have enough fuel ready for the fire for when it actually caught. BB and I paired up and found a spot to build a fire. Everyone wandered around looking for kindling. We found some dried up leaves and twigs. I picked some dried up river grass. One of the instructors brought their son and daughter where were probably around 6 or 7 years old. The little girl seemed to take a liking to BB and I, so she and her brother started finding all sorts of things for us to burn. BB was smart enough to bring her Bear Grylls survival knife with her. I was overjoyed to see it had a little firestarter in the sheath. So we got to work with the firestarter trying to get some sparks. We tried for 15 mins. Lots of sparks, but nothing caught. The little girl brought us some nice dried grass, and the instructor came over to help. He said to mush it up into a birds nest and try again. Still no luck :( The instructor handed us his magnesium block and showed me how to make a little pile of shavings. We stuck them on a small leaf and put it on a pile of kindling. It finally caught after that, but we weren't able to keep it going for more than 30 seconds. I think it was the wind. oh well. The moral of the story is fires are hard to build! We walked around and saw other groups having trouble too. Vlad, one of the weirder guys in our group, was smart enough to pull the matches out of his MRE, but even then he couldn't get the fire going. I'd say a few groups got their fires going, but some didn't. After that the instructor showed us how to set up a tree snare. The rest of team 6 kinda ditched us, so we teamed up with Vlad and Grace and found a tree to set ours up on. Fortunately the previous group had left their sticks lying around, so we just reused theirs. Used the paracord and knots we learned about in the previous session. Kinda cool to learn how to do it. But the instructor said that snares only have a success rate of about 1 in 15. At the end the instructors hauled out a bucked of water with crickets swimming in it D: They said we all had to try one. I'm pretty sure people cheated though and threw theirs out. But the little girl came up to me and was like "You have to eat a cricket!". I said only if she did too. So she grabbed my hand and we went up, I fished out the smallest, most appetizing cricket I could find. The little girl chickened out. I accidentally dropped mine, and he tried to hop away. I grabbed him, dumped him back in the bucket and washed him off again. I asked for a countdown then threw it in my mouth. It wasn't *that* bad. Tasted like a pumpkin seed...but squishier. Kinda got grossed out when I had some wing stuck between my cheek and gum though. BB was freaking out and kept carrying hers around without eating it. One dude said he put it in his mouth, bit it and spat it out. So she did the same. But that just mangled the poor cricket and got him all covered in BB-spit :(
After that was paintball and team tactics. The instructor talked about how to avoid friendly fire and other things. He said he wouldn't give away too many police tactics, since we were civilians and any one of us could be psychos :p We practiced going through the course as a team a couple of times. My problem was there was so much paint everywhere, I couldn't tell where my shots were going. After that we split the team in two and played against each other. I was dreading it because I suck at paintball. I only went once before a few years back, but I got shot up so many times I've tried to block it out of my memory. For some reason, I don't process things on the ground very well. I don't play enough first stealth games or person shooters I guess :p Anyway, i was all iffy and told the instructor I suck at paintball. BB and Grace had already opted out. He said that I won't get any better if i don't try. So I went for it. Naturally, I got shot up within the first 30 seconds. Got a nice one to the face, 1 in the shoulder and a couple in the leg (which I don't even remember) :p
Next was orienteering. First we sat down around a blanket and started off using more paracord and making little bead things to count distance. I was all happy because I love craft time way more than getting-shot-in-the-face time ^_^; Then we counted out the number of paces it takes to get 100m on flat ground. My magic number is 66. So you use the bead thing to count your paces. The bottom beads represent 100m (66 paces in my case). Once you go thru all the bottom beads, you start using the top beads to count off every 1000m. Then we moved on to compasses and azimuths. The instructor had us stand in certain places, and measure the number of degrees to certain landmarks in the distance using our compasses. Then he told us to go 160m and give him a reading of the electric tower across the way. We got there and everyone was getting different readings. Then we realized that one guy had borrowed the instructor's compass. So we used that number. We got back and gave him the number and hit it dead on :p Props to BB for realizing we should use the instructor's compass :p
After that was shelter building. The instructors there showed us a basic A-frame shelter, and went on to talk about ideal places to put a shelter. They said head down with your head sticking out toward the door is best, with leaves or grass inside to cover the ground, half a door if possible. Then they gave us 30 mins to go build our own. The largest and smallest member of the group had to fit in the shelter at the same time. Everyone scrambled off in different directions to find large limbs for the frame, smaller sticks for the ribs, and grass and leaves for the shingles. The guys paracorded the frame together, and we started laying everything else on. Paul and I crawled into the structure to make sure we fit. (By the way, I love these BDUs. They're comfy, tough, easy to move around in, and scream "let's roll around in the dirt!".) We had 2 mins and scrambled to fill in the holes. BB said, "what can we do to make it better?!", and everyone scrambled to tidy it up. The instructors came over and seemed impressed. They said it was the best they had that day so far....except for the sprig of poison oak someone had stuck in the roofing D: I started getting worried because I remember my shirt top pulling up over my skin as I was trying to wriggle into the shelter. Fortunately I didn't get itchy later on. I think that station made the guys warm up to us a little bit. They had been ignoring us up until that point.
Throughout the day, the guys were grabbing sticks and rocks to make the improvised weapons. I was busy working on knots because I figured we needed it for the night missions. A couple of the guys made a crazy spear with multiple tines. We found out Vlad LOVES pointy objects and stabbing things. One of the older guys made an awesome hammer thing with a forked stick, rock, and paracord.
Also throughout the day, we kinda realized that Grace and Vlad were kinda derpy, and always the slowest. They'd slack a bit during the stations too. Vlad was fun though, but Grace was kinda bewildered.
The last station was first aid, which was nice and chill. Dug into my MRE and munched on a yummy apricot cookie bar and a pack of rye crackers. Mmmm, trans fats. We learned about triangle bandages, tourniquets, and how to splint things. They showed us how to make a stretcher out of 2 branches and a blanket. Alternatively you can use paracord or 3 jackets zipped up with the sleeves pulled in. I got to be the injured person while the guys carried me around on the stretcher.
Finally we got to go back to base camp and chill a little around 6:30 PM or so. Went to the bathrooms, refilled water, and Vlad wandered off with the spear. He came back with a squirrel stuck on it and was like, "hey guys! look what i got!". We were all impressed he had killed a squirrel with the spear....but then he said he found it already dead and just stuck it on the spear. BB and I were completely grossed out, but then realized that would give the spear a new Disease + 5 rating ;) Saw some other groups improvised weapons. There were a couple of huge Scottish guys on another team. They made a giant hammer that looked awesome. Vlad was super impressed.
Dug into the main course of the MRE. It was probably because I was so hungry, but I thought it was delicious, even cold. I felt A LOT better and my morale went up a little.
The instructors had us gather around 7:00 PM. They said they wanted us to be ready for the night missions. Rumors were going around that they were keeping us up for 24 hours straight, and this confirmed it. (The last time I stayed up for 24 hours or longer was when I was 12 and my middle school went on a trip to France. They kept us up for 36 hours to burn us out and get us acclimated to the time change. ) However, they had a nice treat for us to get us ready. One of the instructor's wives made a whole bunch of baked potatoes, with a bunch of sides. Everyone ran up and got their potatoes and added butter, sour cream, cheese and bacon. I had just eaten, but it was a real treat. Chatted with other people and found out that the loud BANG!!s we kept hearing in the tent last night was a guy with a messed up bunk. Every time he rolled over, the sheet metal would flex and make the noise. lol! Night missions were scheduled to begin at 8.
Went back to the tent to recheck all my gear. Found my stupid paracord hiding in the bottom of my pack. Checked my knives and grabbed the weighted police gloves Drew gave me for Christmas. Threw a t-shirt on under my BDU jacket in case it got cold. BB and I went to the bathroom one more time and noticed instructors digging holes in the sand of the volleyball courts. I was thinking we'd have to do an obstacle course or something.
The team got together to discuss. The missions were kept secret until it was your team's turn to go. People who went last year said they got ambushed while walking to the different stations. We weren't sure if it was going to happen again this year, but decided we needed to walk in a certain order and stay close. Tracy had the most military experience, so he took point, followed by a couple of the young guys. Grace and Vlad were behind them. Paul, the captain, behind them. Then BB and I behind him, and the other two young guys did sweep. The adrenaline and nerves started kicking in. We agreed to try and keep white headlights to a minimum, so that our natural night vision would kick in, and so we couldn't be seen as easily. Unfortunately my headlight only had white, so I had to rely on bb's red light.
Our first mission was at the volleyball courts. 2 pits were dug on opposite ends of the court, with tiki torches lining the path between. It was kinda Survivor-esque. The instructor pulled a trashcan over and reached in with a snake hook and pulled out a snake o_O He put him in one of the pits. The team split up into two. The snake wasn't venomous, but could bite. It was an albino rat snake. I thought he was cute. The objective was to pick up the snake, quickly walk him over to the other pit and gently drop him in. The next team member picks up the snake, and walks to the other side, etc... until all the team members go. Like a snake relay race :p Fortunately I don't have snake fear, so I grabbed him with my bare hands. But when I was about halfway through someone started yelling "control the head! control the head!" and I was like, "Whaa!?! is he going to bite me or something?". I think it made me hustle faster though! Grace had snake fear, but managed to make it through anyway. That station went by pretty fast, so we went back to base camp.
Paul and Tracy went inside to get the next mission and the rest of us sat outside to wait. Throughout the night, we found that the waiting was the worst part of the whole night. I got cold, the adrenaline wore off and the drowsiness set in.
Then next station was paintball. As we were walking there a truck approached and we all freaked out and jumped off the road and hid. ^_^; Fortunately we hid ride where the paintball course was. We started off with pushups and then went on to do some attacks and takedowns. Kinda tricky with the packs on. After that, the top 4 guys on the team were chosen to go onto the field to rescue an injured mannequin with a glowstick stuck to it and bring it back. If all 4 guys got shot, the team received 0 points. The problem was, one of the instructors who's done professional paintball was on the other side. The rest of us climbed up into an old trailer on the course to watch. The glowstick was super faint and hard to see. The guys on the field went in and for the first 10 mins, no one moved. It was nearly impossible to see anyway, you just heard faint rustling when anyone moved, and the occasional black shadow. The instructor chimed in after no one moved for so long to remind the guys that this was timed. Finally there was some movement as the guys tried to advance and find cover. We were about 25 mins in before anything major happened. I saw our guys running back to the starting point, then advancing again. Very weird. Finally someone made a break for the mannequin, shots were fired. He made it back about half way before being taken out by the sniper/instructor. Fortunately someone else grabbed the mannequin and got out. Final time: 27 mins @_@
We went back to base to get the next assignment. We had a lot of time to kill so we hung out in the tent and Tracy talked about some police simulations he's been through. ie- home burglary, etc.. I started getting really sleepy. A couple of guys laid down in their bunks and power napped.
The next one had 2 small platforms, with a rope hanging down between them, out of reach. We all had to do shadowboxing and other stuff to get warmed up. That's when Grace said she wasn't feeling well. The instructor took her to the side and told her she could go back to rest. So then were down to 9 people again. We started off with 5 people on one platform, while the other 4 waited and watched. The first 5 had to get across to the other platform without jumping to get the rope. If anyone fell off or touched the ground, we had to restart. All members had to do it. Everyone started discussing, and decided to tie a bunch of jackets together to try and rope the rope in. Tracy threw the jacket rope while the other guys grabbed on to his belt to keep him from falling off. He got it after a couple of tries. After that he swung across to the other platform and sent the rope back to the rest of the guys. The second platform was smaller than the first one. Vlad fell off the rope a couple of times, so they had to restart, but they made it through pretty quickly. When they were all through, it was our turn to go, with one guy doing it again now that Grace was out. We piled on to the platform and the first couple of guys made it over fine. When it was my turn I grabbed on and didn't quite make it to the opposite platform, but swung back without touching the ground. I made it across on the second try. BB was next, and just couldn't hold on to the rope. So we had to restart. She fell off a couple more times, until the guys were like, ok, she's going to have to sit on another guy's back and swing across. So one dude grabbed the rope and BB piggybacked him. He swung across but BB fell off again into the dirt. lol! Fortunately he avoided stepping on her as he swung back. After that we had to restart and the instructor chimed in and said "there's a much simpler way to do this". And pointed out the loop in the bottom of the rope. So BB stuck her foot in the loop and made it across without any problems. We finished fine after that. The guys were all really supportive and nice about it, so I was glad we had a pretty good team.
We walked back to base. I was amazed at how well natural night vision is after 20 mins or so of being in the dark. I was still nervous about gopher holes and stuff, but on the main road, I was ok.
Next was the rock climb. The young dudes were ready to go. The rest of us-- Paul, BB, Vlad, and I were told to go to the other side of the field to wait for a light signal from the guy climbing the center/hardest part of the wall once he got to the top. Once we got the signal we were to run to the wall, so he could direct us to a pickup point to find an object and bring it back. The timer started and the 2 safety guys had to throw 100 hammerfists before the climbers could start. When they were done, the 2 side climbers climbed their walls, and shot their 3 targets. After that the center guy started and climbed up. He signaled us and we ran over to the wall. He couldn't find the object with the light marker on it right away, but finally did and started waving us in the right direction. We climbed a hill and he kept pointing. Finally BB said "what's that?" so I started climbing higher to get a closer look. It was super hard to see, the light stick was dim. I was about to grab it when Paul was like "wait! it could be a trap. Do you see any wires?" i looked around and didn't see any wires or people out to snatch me, so i got closer...and realized it was taped to a 60 lb bag of concrete and on top of a stretcher ~_~ the 4 of us grabbed the stretcher and ran down the hill. I slid down on my butt most of the way. Ran the stretcher over to the drop off point. We thought we were done, but an instructor was like "the two of you in the back! (me and BB) 100 hammerfists each!". So BB grabbed the pad and i went to town. Unfortunately Paul and BB were both counting and threw each other off, so I think I went well past 100. We switched and BB threw her 100, and that was it. Whew! The rest of the team had to take the stretcher back and put it back in place for the next team.
Next was archery. We walked out to the range only to find it completely dark with no instructors. Paul called out "Team 6 reporting!". No answer. Then suddenly the truck next to us fired up and the headlights came on. I was ready to fight the truck! Then an instructor came out and told us what to do :p It sounded simple enough. Each team member would do 10 pushups, then 10 hammerfists, then shoot arrows until they hit the target. Once they hit the target, the next person could go. One of the guys on the team has a compound bow at home, so he knew his stuff. I haven't done archery since 7th grade, but I wasn't too bad at it. I got near the end of the line. The guys in front of me did really well. I was kinda nervous. I did my pushups and hammerfists then grabbed a bow. Had a hell of a time keeping the arrow on the grip. Fired the arrow. Miss. Fired again. Miss. Wrestled with stupid arrow, fired again. Miss. The guys said to aim higher, so I did. Miss. My 5th or so arrow bounced off the ground and hit the target, but the instructor didn't give it to me. I struggled. And cussed. And fired about 50 arrows. all misses. WTF?! how could I not hit the target?!! The guys kept giving me tips, I tried to adjust, and nothing. I noticed the bowstring kept hitting my arm, so I knew something was wrong. I kept apologizing to the guys for fucking up their time. But they stuck with me. I gradually learned to relax and shoot better, but the accuracy was still off. UGH! I was about to stomp that damn bow and snap all the arrows in half. My arm was starting to fatigue. Finally I got one. And the rest of the group could go. BB got it in like 5 shots. I'm so mad at myself. The guy after her had some problems getting the arrow to stay on the grip, but got it in a few as well. The archer guy went last, and nocked the arrow on the right like I did. Then he frowned, took the arrow off and switched it to the left side. He fired dead on. We finished with a time of 20 mins. Maybe I was so horribly bad because I nocked it on the wrong side? I don't know. The instructor pulled me off to the side to tell me he could have given me the arrow that bounced off the ground, but i wouldn't have won it for real. Ugh. I would have preferred that fifth arrow! He said he was proud of me because I didn't give up. blah.
After being horribly embarrassed it was about 1 AM and I was getting tired and angry. 3 more missions to go. ugh. Walked back to base. At one point Vlad snuck up and grabbed BB. Not seeing well in the dark, I thought it was an ambush and grabbed his arm and was about to start kicking him in the groin, until he started laughing ~_~
Next we walked to a hill where some instructors were. They asked for two volunteers, who then got rounded up and were told to move about 50 ft away from us. The scenario was, the two guys got ambushed and were injured. We had to find out what their injuries were, splint them, and transport them to the LZ for pickup. The clock started and one guy had a broken arm, while the other had a broken leg, above the ankle. Paul, being a doctor, went to work. The other guys started making a stretcher. I gave them my BDU jacket to use. Ran around with towel bandages and helped Paul get broken leg guy splinted. Broken arm guy could walk. Rolled broken leg guy onto the stretcher. It took 6 peeps to carry him. BB was carrying at first, so I had to run ahead and light the way for everyone else. BB got tired so i subbed in. We hauled ass down a hill to the LZ and put the guy down on the designated platform. Gotta say broken-leg guy did a great job grimacing. lol!
Sat around and waited for the next mission. Vlad had a new pointy object. He said he found a random slug on it. He proceeded to stab said slug in the face with it. Now we had a squirrel stick and a slug stick.
Next was a tomahawk throw. All I could think about was this:
We all got to practice a bit. Each person got 5 throws. They were easier to throw than I expected. I got 1 to stick...in the wrong target :p Had a little more success with the throwing knives though, once Tracy showed me how to hold them right. We had to pick one person to do a bunch of burpees and situps and stuff and then throw the tomahawks. If 1 stuck, there would be a 10 second time deduction. One guy seemed to be really good and got 5 for 5 in the practice round. He said he dabbled at home. So we let him have it. Unfortunately he only got 1 to stick. We think the cone for foot placement might have been moved at some point, which threw him off. oh wells.
Walked to the next one. Vlad was getting tired and somehow got left behind. Someone went looking for him and finally found him.
The last one was firecraft. Rolled my ankle in a gopher hole as we were going down the hill to the fire pit. Fortunately it wasn't too bad. We were being timed for setting up a tree snare and starting a fire that was sustainable. We broke off into two groups, most of the guys did fire, and 3 of us did the snare. Fortunately the tree and sticks were close at hand, so Paul, one of the young guys and I set them up. Paul and the other guy did most of it, all I got to do was hold the tree. Oh well. By the time we finshed the fire was about ready. Overall, we were pretty quick.
On the walk back, a car passed so we all moved off to the side. Apparently, the guys in the back still thought we were hiding from cars, so ran off and hid. They popped up later and followed us. Paul almost mistook them for attackers, until we started yelling that they were friendly ^_^;
We returned to base camp and Paul checked in. We were done! We were the 2nd team to finish. It was around 4:15 AM at that time. Paul heard rumors that we'd get a nice pancake breakfast in the morning, around 7:00 AM. I opted for a shower, since the other teams weren't back yet. We went back to the tent and I was trying to get my brain together enough to grab all my shower supplies and flipflops. It took me a few mins cause I was feeling all fuzzy and out of sorts. The shower would have been perfect if a big old spider wasn't in my stall. I splashed water on it to get it to move. It started climbing higher up the wall, but I kept an eye on it. I was worried it would jump on me while I was rinsing off. I heard someone say there was only cold water, but it just took a while to warm up. It would automatically shut off every few mins, so I had to keep hitting the button. When I got out all the other girls were back. Fussing about getting the camo paint off. It took forever to get to a sink to brush my teeth because everyone was fretting over their pores. BB was nice enough to give me a makeup remover wipe that did the job.
I guess we got to bed around 5. The tent lights were still on, I guess to let the stragglers in. There was more snoring, and people complaining about the snoring. I passed out in a minute. I woke up to the sound of a guy going "RARGHHHGHH!" and the sun was up. Checked my watch at it was 6:50 AM. No idea what the "RARGHGHGH!" was about, but I started waking up when I heard someone stuffing their sleeping back into the stuff sack. Other people started waking up, so I started packing. Heard an instructor yell that we had 5 mins to get outside. Threw on some clothes and jammed my contacts into my eyes.
We had an awesome breakfast set out for us. Ginormous Chipotle-sized breakfast burritos that were way better than Anita's, oj, bagels, and fruit. I got a bacon burrito and dumped taco sauce all over it. It had whole strips of bacon in it ;_; So good! only got about half way through before wrapping it up for later. The instructors told each team to clean up a designated area. Grace magically showed up again. She said she was dehydrated. We got the campgrounds. Surprisingly, there was hardly any trash around. Helped take down one of the survival shelters. Lost the rest of Team 6 but found them a few mins later. All the teams put their improvised weapons out on a table for judging. There were some really awesome ones. Nunchuks, brass(wood?) knuckle things, the giant Scottish hammer, an evil-looking thing made out of a spikey plant, etc....
After that we did awards and graduation. They handed out individual awards for best improvised weapon, etc... The individual award recipients got one of the tomahawks from last night. We got to the group awards, and unfortunately we didn't make the top 3 based on time :( I thought we did pretty good for time, but the top 2 groups really rocked the paintball round. None of their team members got shot, and one finished in 1 min 30 seconds :o I'm sure it also had to do with my awful archery ~_~ Oh well. We got shirts and certificates. After that we were done. It was only 10:30, so I was really happy we'd make the flight home. Said bye to Team 6 and finished packing.
No traffic, got to the airport, returned the rental car and flew home. I felt terrible because I was wearing my spare BDU pants because they were the only things that were clean, and carried my camo pack. Airline staff kept saying "Thank you for your service!" and trying to get me to board the plane before everyone else. I was like...huh? oh! no! my pants! SO AWKWARD ~_~ I gave up trying to explain that I was at a wilderness survival camp, because then they just looked at me like I was a psycho.
Slept a couple hours on the plane. Drew picked me up. Got home around 11 PM EST. Was planning to go to work, but this morning I just couldn't get up. Called in tired :p
Overall, crazy experience! If I knew we'd be going for 24 hours straight, I probably wouldn't have signed up. But we did it. I feel bad that the guys carried the rest of the team. I just tried not to get in the way. But none of this stuff is in my area of expertise. I'm way better at fighting than I am at paintball or rock climbing or archery :p I'll be better prepared if I go next time.
Back in Feb I saw a share on the Infinite Krav Maga group for Krav vs. Wild. I'm like, "that sounds SO COOL!...but it's kind of short notice". So I convinced myself I wouldn't go this year because I didn't have anyone to go with, I should save up my leave since our dumb contract at work requires that we work 1860 hours, etc... But then I thought about it. I went to the Krav Summer Camp back in 2007 with Terence and Anthony and really liked it. I planned on going again with Natalia, but soon after that, they discontinued it. Who knows if there'd ever be another Krav vs. Wild?? So I asked BB if she'd go with me this year and she said yes. So figured F-it, I'm going. Who knows when the zombie apocalypse is coming? :p
Next came the unfun part of planning logistics. Some people I knew from Infinite Krav Maga were going, but everything sounded pretty vague with them, so I figured I'd just go ahead and book all the stuff on my own. Registered with KMWW and started looking into flights. Fortunately I had enough credit card reward points for a free plane ticket. Booked BB's ticket for her, then booked a rental car later on with my AMA discount. The only thing I was worried about was the flight back home on Sunday. Camp was supposed to end at noon, and the only non-redeye flight back was a 2:55 PM. Kinda cutting it close considering the camp location is about an hour from LAX on a good day, plus we'd need time to return the rental car and get through security.
A couple weeks later KMWW sent out the list of gear we needed. The only thing on the list that was required was a sleeping bag, but the list of recommended gear was huge! O_O and a lot of it was camo, lol! Fortunately Drew used to be a boyscout so he knew what everything was. BB, Drew, and I headed off to the army surplus store in Tysons and went nuts. I ended up getting BDUs, a backpack, hat, paracord, compass, camo paint, poncho, etc... Kinda pricey, but I figure it could all go in the Zombie apocalypse/prepper box we keep in the basement. (not my own doing-- my dad gave us some survival food and gear for Christmas last year >_>) I ended up buying a new sleeping bag, thermarest air mattress, inflatable pillow, and camp towel at REI later. I figured I could reuse it all if I wanted to do any motorcycle camping in the future. Drew was nice enough to loan me one of his ka-bar knives. He has a knife collection, so he handed me about 10 knives that met the 6-10" fixed blade requirement and told me to pick the one I liked best.
In early April KMWW sent out the exact camp location. It's some sort of non-public location, and I guess they wanted to add some mystique to it :p
Finally April 12th came and BB and I met up at Dulles at 7AM. The flight out was United, so I was waiting for some sort of craptastic disaster to occur that would make us late, but we lucked out and had a trouble-free flight. Landed at LAX and waited 45 mins in line to get the rental car. We ended up with a Ford Focus wagon thing. That took some getting used to. Accelerating from a stop made the wheels lose traction or something, and then it'd just kinda wallow, then take off really fast. Brakes were twitchy too. And the thing was super-anemic on hills. And it would shudder at low speeds. If I was on a bike, I'd say it felt like it was going to stall out, but it's a car, and automatic. Oh well, I don't know a thing about cars, but it pissed me off.
We had a few hours to kill before having to report in to camp at 6PM. Per Mike's recommendation, we headed to The Grove. Found a Dylan's Candy Bar and had fun picking crazy stuff out of the bulk candy bins. Ended up eating at the farmers market at a French place. We split a potatoes au gratin. I got a super cheesy croque monsieur and BB got a steak sandwich. Left at 4:00 per Mike's very accurate suggestion, and sat in LA traffic for 2 hours. The lane-splitting motocycles blew my mind, but after sitting in the car for so long, realized it made a lot of sense and probably saved a ton of time, if you had a bike.
Found the road that led to Camp Courage and was flagged in at the guard booth. Drove farther in and got additional directions from a boy scout. Found the place and went in to register. BB and I were assigned to Team 6, tent 2. We got to pick out an MRE each. They had a beef, chicken and vegetarian. Each one had a couple of different selections, so I picked out a Southwest Chicken Stew thing and BB got a beef stew one. We were told not to open them until we had instructions to do so. Went over to tent 2 to check it out. It was co-ed and there were enough bunks for at least 40 people in there. Space was really tight, so I was having some trouble finding a place for my pack and my small rolly suitcase. Getting there kinda early was good because we both got top bunks. I don't think I would've wanted the lower ones because it was an even harder to get in an out of, and I don't think they had railings, so I probably would've rolled into my neighbors and kicked them in my sleep. Unpacked my sleeping gear for later. Saw Ehren and the rest of the Infinite Krav gang. They were on team 5 and said we should switch over to their team. I talked with the camp organizer and she said we could do it, but we'd have to get the other 2 girls on team 5 to agree to a switch. At that point, I was like meh, we'll just deal with it and stay on Team 6.
At 7 we had a spaghetti dinner and met some of the other members of Team 6. Our team didn't have any members who went to Krav vs. Wild last year, so we were all noobs. The spaghetti was pretty small and not so great, but at that point I had no idea when we'd eat next, so I managed to finish it. The rest of the team members were dudes, for a total of 9. A few older guys in their mid-30s to 40s, and then a few younger guys, I'm guessing in their mid-20s. A couple of the older guys looked like Mark Wahlberg and Jeremy Renner... We had some time to chat a bit, and then we the instructors rounded us all up and said lights out at 10:00. We'd get anywhere from 4-8 hours of sleep, and to our packs and gear all ready to go. They said to keep your clothes and shoes in your sleeping bag so scorpions don't crawl into them. I couldn't do the shoes though, I get all grossed out by shoes on my sleeping surfaces.
Went back to the tent to unpack more and get ready for bed. The hard part was juggling stuff between my rolly suitcase and pack. I didn't want to weigh myself down with too much unnecessary stuff, but getting into the rolly suitcase was a major PITA because there was so little room to do anything in the tent. The bathroom facilities were about 1/4 mile away, so I always had to think about what to bring with me. That, and I wasn't so sure about changing clothes in front of a bunch of guys. Only 2 sinks in the women's bathroom, so even though there weren't many girls, it was still a struggle to get to use the sink to brush teeth, take out contacts, etc...
Made it back to the tent and the lights were shut off at 10:00 accompanied by Taps (guess we've got some Krav trumpet/bugle players out there), before most of us finished getting stuff together. Hopped into my sleeping bag and was super glad I brought the Thermarest. The bunks were just sheet metal, so not very comfy. I laid down and listened to the ginormous frog chorus outside. Found out that Cali frogs actually go "ribbit ribbit!", while the frogs around Fairfax just kinda make a high-pitched droning noise. Next came the chorus of snores, followed by a loud metal BANG!! every few mins, followed by a lot of people cussing about how they couldn't sleep. Kept checking my watch and time was crawling by slowly. Last thing I remembered, my watch said 2:20 AM. I think I was dozing in and out before that though. Blinked and the next thing I knew, someone was playing Reveille. Checked my watch again and it was 4:00 AM. Everyone started scrambling to get their gear.
We assembled into two columns outside and had to keep in line with our buddy (aka BB in my case). We started hiking up some sort of evil hill/mountain that had my quads burning within 2 minutes. I'm so glad I borrowed my Dad's headlight. Gravel and uneven surfaces make me nervous because of my busted-now-healed right ankle. Hiked what I'm guessing was 1/2 mile up and a 1/2 mile down. Maybe not very long, but steep. The instructors told us to stagger enough so that if someone fell, he/she wouldn't take the rest of us out like bowling pins on the way down. I took it extra slow on the way down and kept a wary eye on the Asian guy behind me who was carrying an extra pointy-looking walking stick.
After the hike we went over to the volleyball court area and started doing krav warmups, packs off thankfully. Darren Levine showed up and started teaching. We did a lot of Level 1 choke defenses, which was cool. There was another instructor, John, who taught a little bit as well, and I have to say, I really liked his teaching style. Very clear and to the point. Other instructors were wandering around helping people with techniques and giving tips. That went on for 90 mins, then we had some time to get cleaned up, go to the bathroom, and refill water before meeting up again for instructions. The sun was finally up. BB and I split a Cliff bar for some much-needed calories. Had the chance to brush my teeth and take my meds. Went to the bathroom and found a bunch girls fussing over their makeup. Really?! one girl said she spent 15-20 mins on just her eyelashes.
When we met up again, we were told to ration the MRE's throughout the day. The teams would rotate through different training stations for the next 10-12 hours. I was like "10-12 hours?! @_@ ". The instructors said to pay attention during the training stations, because we need all the skills for the night missions. They passed around pics of poison oak and poison sumac. They told us that there would be an improvised weapon contest, where each group could submit hand-made weapons made of all-natural materials, for a contest. We picked our team leader, Paul, an older dude who's a hospital doctor. We were also told that Team 6 was getting a new member, another female, putting us at 10 people. Her name was Grace and she had arrived too late the night before to get registered, so she slept in her car. We were told we had to camo it up before heading out. So BB, Grace and I tried out the paint. We had no idea what to do, we just heard that you're supposed to put darker paint over your t-zone to prevent shininess, and just break up colors on other parts of your face. Without a mirror it was kind of tricky. I was jealous of all the guys who had really cool-looking camo jobs. BB and I just looked like zombies ^_^;
Talked with Grace a little and tried to be friendly. Gotta say, she was kinda out there. She lived in VA up until 10 days ago and then moved out to LA to learn dance, which she had never done before. She had taken 1 intro to Krav class before, but that was it. I was thinking to myself that Krav vs. Wild is NOT a good intro to Krav if you don't have any martial arts experience or aren't in somewhat ok shape.
Team 6 got together to head out to the first training station-- rockclimbing. I've never rockclimbed before, and I don't like heights. But I realized from ziplining in Alaska, most of the fear goes away if I know that I'm tied to something that'll keep me from smashing into the ground. The instructors showed us how to get the harnesses on. The wall had 3 surfaces-- a slanted easy one on the right, a vertical medium-level one on the left, and a really tricky vertical one in the center. We didn't have to pick colored footholds or anything, just grab whatever. The objective was to get to the top of the wall and then shoot 3 paper targets with a paintball gun. I opted for the easiest wall, which in fact, was easier than I expected it to be. I made it to the top without falling off, but I did need some help identifying which footholds to use near the top. Shooting was a different story. I don't even know if I hit the targets! :p Rappelling down was fun though.
The guys just went nuts and climbed all over the walls really fast. I was jealous. One of the instructors said "Ok, no females have tried the center wall yet. Who's going to do it?". I decided to give it a try. I didn't do very well. Vertical is a lot harder than slanted, and I felt like the rope was pulling me off the footholds. I was holding on for dear life and felt my arms starting to give out. Finally I just let go and rappelled down. Didn't want to completely burn myself out when I had no idea what was in store. After everyone got a turn, the instructors said that one of tonight's missions would involve 3 climbers and 2 safties to help the instructor holding the rope. We had to choose the best 3 climbers, which definitely was not me. We chose the young guys to do the climbing.
After that we headed to the knot-tying station. That was more my speed. But I was kinda irked when I heard the young guys joking that the girls could handle the knots while they would handle the other stuff. But then I sadly realized that in this case, it was true :( I hate it when I fit the stereotype! >:( Could not find my paracord, so had to borrow some from one of the guys. Anyway, I rocked the knot station, the only problem was remembering it all. Without paper to write it down I tried to go off of muscle memory. At the end we got to make survival bracelets, which was kinda fun.
Next was firecraft. The instructor there used to do SEER training for the military which was cool. He gave a short lecture on finding food, making fire, and setting up snares. He asked if anyone brought a magnesium block, or anything else to start fires, and we all just gave him blank stares. There wasn't anything like that on the gear list. The instructor said the key was to have enough fuel ready for the fire for when it actually caught. BB and I paired up and found a spot to build a fire. Everyone wandered around looking for kindling. We found some dried up leaves and twigs. I picked some dried up river grass. One of the instructors brought their son and daughter where were probably around 6 or 7 years old. The little girl seemed to take a liking to BB and I, so she and her brother started finding all sorts of things for us to burn. BB was smart enough to bring her Bear Grylls survival knife with her. I was overjoyed to see it had a little firestarter in the sheath. So we got to work with the firestarter trying to get some sparks. We tried for 15 mins. Lots of sparks, but nothing caught. The little girl brought us some nice dried grass, and the instructor came over to help. He said to mush it up into a birds nest and try again. Still no luck :( The instructor handed us his magnesium block and showed me how to make a little pile of shavings. We stuck them on a small leaf and put it on a pile of kindling. It finally caught after that, but we weren't able to keep it going for more than 30 seconds. I think it was the wind. oh well. The moral of the story is fires are hard to build! We walked around and saw other groups having trouble too. Vlad, one of the weirder guys in our group, was smart enough to pull the matches out of his MRE, but even then he couldn't get the fire going. I'd say a few groups got their fires going, but some didn't. After that the instructor showed us how to set up a tree snare. The rest of team 6 kinda ditched us, so we teamed up with Vlad and Grace and found a tree to set ours up on. Fortunately the previous group had left their sticks lying around, so we just reused theirs. Used the paracord and knots we learned about in the previous session. Kinda cool to learn how to do it. But the instructor said that snares only have a success rate of about 1 in 15. At the end the instructors hauled out a bucked of water with crickets swimming in it D: They said we all had to try one. I'm pretty sure people cheated though and threw theirs out. But the little girl came up to me and was like "You have to eat a cricket!". I said only if she did too. So she grabbed my hand and we went up, I fished out the smallest, most appetizing cricket I could find. The little girl chickened out. I accidentally dropped mine, and he tried to hop away. I grabbed him, dumped him back in the bucket and washed him off again. I asked for a countdown then threw it in my mouth. It wasn't *that* bad. Tasted like a pumpkin seed...but squishier. Kinda got grossed out when I had some wing stuck between my cheek and gum though. BB was freaking out and kept carrying hers around without eating it. One dude said he put it in his mouth, bit it and spat it out. So she did the same. But that just mangled the poor cricket and got him all covered in BB-spit :(
After that was paintball and team tactics. The instructor talked about how to avoid friendly fire and other things. He said he wouldn't give away too many police tactics, since we were civilians and any one of us could be psychos :p We practiced going through the course as a team a couple of times. My problem was there was so much paint everywhere, I couldn't tell where my shots were going. After that we split the team in two and played against each other. I was dreading it because I suck at paintball. I only went once before a few years back, but I got shot up so many times I've tried to block it out of my memory. For some reason, I don't process things on the ground very well. I don't play enough first stealth games or person shooters I guess :p Anyway, i was all iffy and told the instructor I suck at paintball. BB and Grace had already opted out. He said that I won't get any better if i don't try. So I went for it. Naturally, I got shot up within the first 30 seconds. Got a nice one to the face, 1 in the shoulder and a couple in the leg (which I don't even remember) :p
Next was orienteering. First we sat down around a blanket and started off using more paracord and making little bead things to count distance. I was all happy because I love craft time way more than getting-shot-in-the-face time ^_^; Then we counted out the number of paces it takes to get 100m on flat ground. My magic number is 66. So you use the bead thing to count your paces. The bottom beads represent 100m (66 paces in my case). Once you go thru all the bottom beads, you start using the top beads to count off every 1000m. Then we moved on to compasses and azimuths. The instructor had us stand in certain places, and measure the number of degrees to certain landmarks in the distance using our compasses. Then he told us to go 160m and give him a reading of the electric tower across the way. We got there and everyone was getting different readings. Then we realized that one guy had borrowed the instructor's compass. So we used that number. We got back and gave him the number and hit it dead on :p Props to BB for realizing we should use the instructor's compass :p
After that was shelter building. The instructors there showed us a basic A-frame shelter, and went on to talk about ideal places to put a shelter. They said head down with your head sticking out toward the door is best, with leaves or grass inside to cover the ground, half a door if possible. Then they gave us 30 mins to go build our own. The largest and smallest member of the group had to fit in the shelter at the same time. Everyone scrambled off in different directions to find large limbs for the frame, smaller sticks for the ribs, and grass and leaves for the shingles. The guys paracorded the frame together, and we started laying everything else on. Paul and I crawled into the structure to make sure we fit. (By the way, I love these BDUs. They're comfy, tough, easy to move around in, and scream "let's roll around in the dirt!".) We had 2 mins and scrambled to fill in the holes. BB said, "what can we do to make it better?!", and everyone scrambled to tidy it up. The instructors came over and seemed impressed. They said it was the best they had that day so far....except for the sprig of poison oak someone had stuck in the roofing D: I started getting worried because I remember my shirt top pulling up over my skin as I was trying to wriggle into the shelter. Fortunately I didn't get itchy later on. I think that station made the guys warm up to us a little bit. They had been ignoring us up until that point.
Throughout the day, the guys were grabbing sticks and rocks to make the improvised weapons. I was busy working on knots because I figured we needed it for the night missions. A couple of the guys made a crazy spear with multiple tines. We found out Vlad LOVES pointy objects and stabbing things. One of the older guys made an awesome hammer thing with a forked stick, rock, and paracord.
Also throughout the day, we kinda realized that Grace and Vlad were kinda derpy, and always the slowest. They'd slack a bit during the stations too. Vlad was fun though, but Grace was kinda bewildered.
The last station was first aid, which was nice and chill. Dug into my MRE and munched on a yummy apricot cookie bar and a pack of rye crackers. Mmmm, trans fats. We learned about triangle bandages, tourniquets, and how to splint things. They showed us how to make a stretcher out of 2 branches and a blanket. Alternatively you can use paracord or 3 jackets zipped up with the sleeves pulled in. I got to be the injured person while the guys carried me around on the stretcher.
Finally we got to go back to base camp and chill a little around 6:30 PM or so. Went to the bathrooms, refilled water, and Vlad wandered off with the spear. He came back with a squirrel stuck on it and was like, "hey guys! look what i got!". We were all impressed he had killed a squirrel with the spear....but then he said he found it already dead and just stuck it on the spear. BB and I were completely grossed out, but then realized that would give the spear a new Disease + 5 rating ;) Saw some other groups improvised weapons. There were a couple of huge Scottish guys on another team. They made a giant hammer that looked awesome. Vlad was super impressed.
Dug into the main course of the MRE. It was probably because I was so hungry, but I thought it was delicious, even cold. I felt A LOT better and my morale went up a little.
The instructors had us gather around 7:00 PM. They said they wanted us to be ready for the night missions. Rumors were going around that they were keeping us up for 24 hours straight, and this confirmed it. (The last time I stayed up for 24 hours or longer was when I was 12 and my middle school went on a trip to France. They kept us up for 36 hours to burn us out and get us acclimated to the time change. ) However, they had a nice treat for us to get us ready. One of the instructor's wives made a whole bunch of baked potatoes, with a bunch of sides. Everyone ran up and got their potatoes and added butter, sour cream, cheese and bacon. I had just eaten, but it was a real treat. Chatted with other people and found out that the loud BANG!!s we kept hearing in the tent last night was a guy with a messed up bunk. Every time he rolled over, the sheet metal would flex and make the noise. lol! Night missions were scheduled to begin at 8.
Went back to the tent to recheck all my gear. Found my stupid paracord hiding in the bottom of my pack. Checked my knives and grabbed the weighted police gloves Drew gave me for Christmas. Threw a t-shirt on under my BDU jacket in case it got cold. BB and I went to the bathroom one more time and noticed instructors digging holes in the sand of the volleyball courts. I was thinking we'd have to do an obstacle course or something.
The team got together to discuss. The missions were kept secret until it was your team's turn to go. People who went last year said they got ambushed while walking to the different stations. We weren't sure if it was going to happen again this year, but decided we needed to walk in a certain order and stay close. Tracy had the most military experience, so he took point, followed by a couple of the young guys. Grace and Vlad were behind them. Paul, the captain, behind them. Then BB and I behind him, and the other two young guys did sweep. The adrenaline and nerves started kicking in. We agreed to try and keep white headlights to a minimum, so that our natural night vision would kick in, and so we couldn't be seen as easily. Unfortunately my headlight only had white, so I had to rely on bb's red light.
Our first mission was at the volleyball courts. 2 pits were dug on opposite ends of the court, with tiki torches lining the path between. It was kinda Survivor-esque. The instructor pulled a trashcan over and reached in with a snake hook and pulled out a snake o_O He put him in one of the pits. The team split up into two. The snake wasn't venomous, but could bite. It was an albino rat snake. I thought he was cute. The objective was to pick up the snake, quickly walk him over to the other pit and gently drop him in. The next team member picks up the snake, and walks to the other side, etc... until all the team members go. Like a snake relay race :p Fortunately I don't have snake fear, so I grabbed him with my bare hands. But when I was about halfway through someone started yelling "control the head! control the head!" and I was like, "Whaa!?! is he going to bite me or something?". I think it made me hustle faster though! Grace had snake fear, but managed to make it through anyway. That station went by pretty fast, so we went back to base camp.
Paul and Tracy went inside to get the next mission and the rest of us sat outside to wait. Throughout the night, we found that the waiting was the worst part of the whole night. I got cold, the adrenaline wore off and the drowsiness set in.
Then next station was paintball. As we were walking there a truck approached and we all freaked out and jumped off the road and hid. ^_^; Fortunately we hid ride where the paintball course was. We started off with pushups and then went on to do some attacks and takedowns. Kinda tricky with the packs on. After that, the top 4 guys on the team were chosen to go onto the field to rescue an injured mannequin with a glowstick stuck to it and bring it back. If all 4 guys got shot, the team received 0 points. The problem was, one of the instructors who's done professional paintball was on the other side. The rest of us climbed up into an old trailer on the course to watch. The glowstick was super faint and hard to see. The guys on the field went in and for the first 10 mins, no one moved. It was nearly impossible to see anyway, you just heard faint rustling when anyone moved, and the occasional black shadow. The instructor chimed in after no one moved for so long to remind the guys that this was timed. Finally there was some movement as the guys tried to advance and find cover. We were about 25 mins in before anything major happened. I saw our guys running back to the starting point, then advancing again. Very weird. Finally someone made a break for the mannequin, shots were fired. He made it back about half way before being taken out by the sniper/instructor. Fortunately someone else grabbed the mannequin and got out. Final time: 27 mins @_@
We went back to base to get the next assignment. We had a lot of time to kill so we hung out in the tent and Tracy talked about some police simulations he's been through. ie- home burglary, etc.. I started getting really sleepy. A couple of guys laid down in their bunks and power napped.
The next one had 2 small platforms, with a rope hanging down between them, out of reach. We all had to do shadowboxing and other stuff to get warmed up. That's when Grace said she wasn't feeling well. The instructor took her to the side and told her she could go back to rest. So then were down to 9 people again. We started off with 5 people on one platform, while the other 4 waited and watched. The first 5 had to get across to the other platform without jumping to get the rope. If anyone fell off or touched the ground, we had to restart. All members had to do it. Everyone started discussing, and decided to tie a bunch of jackets together to try and rope the rope in. Tracy threw the jacket rope while the other guys grabbed on to his belt to keep him from falling off. He got it after a couple of tries. After that he swung across to the other platform and sent the rope back to the rest of the guys. The second platform was smaller than the first one. Vlad fell off the rope a couple of times, so they had to restart, but they made it through pretty quickly. When they were all through, it was our turn to go, with one guy doing it again now that Grace was out. We piled on to the platform and the first couple of guys made it over fine. When it was my turn I grabbed on and didn't quite make it to the opposite platform, but swung back without touching the ground. I made it across on the second try. BB was next, and just couldn't hold on to the rope. So we had to restart. She fell off a couple more times, until the guys were like, ok, she's going to have to sit on another guy's back and swing across. So one dude grabbed the rope and BB piggybacked him. He swung across but BB fell off again into the dirt. lol! Fortunately he avoided stepping on her as he swung back. After that we had to restart and the instructor chimed in and said "there's a much simpler way to do this". And pointed out the loop in the bottom of the rope. So BB stuck her foot in the loop and made it across without any problems. We finished fine after that. The guys were all really supportive and nice about it, so I was glad we had a pretty good team.
We walked back to base. I was amazed at how well natural night vision is after 20 mins or so of being in the dark. I was still nervous about gopher holes and stuff, but on the main road, I was ok.
Next was the rock climb. The young dudes were ready to go. The rest of us-- Paul, BB, Vlad, and I were told to go to the other side of the field to wait for a light signal from the guy climbing the center/hardest part of the wall once he got to the top. Once we got the signal we were to run to the wall, so he could direct us to a pickup point to find an object and bring it back. The timer started and the 2 safety guys had to throw 100 hammerfists before the climbers could start. When they were done, the 2 side climbers climbed their walls, and shot their 3 targets. After that the center guy started and climbed up. He signaled us and we ran over to the wall. He couldn't find the object with the light marker on it right away, but finally did and started waving us in the right direction. We climbed a hill and he kept pointing. Finally BB said "what's that?" so I started climbing higher to get a closer look. It was super hard to see, the light stick was dim. I was about to grab it when Paul was like "wait! it could be a trap. Do you see any wires?" i looked around and didn't see any wires or people out to snatch me, so i got closer...and realized it was taped to a 60 lb bag of concrete and on top of a stretcher ~_~ the 4 of us grabbed the stretcher and ran down the hill. I slid down on my butt most of the way. Ran the stretcher over to the drop off point. We thought we were done, but an instructor was like "the two of you in the back! (me and BB) 100 hammerfists each!". So BB grabbed the pad and i went to town. Unfortunately Paul and BB were both counting and threw each other off, so I think I went well past 100. We switched and BB threw her 100, and that was it. Whew! The rest of the team had to take the stretcher back and put it back in place for the next team.
Next was archery. We walked out to the range only to find it completely dark with no instructors. Paul called out "Team 6 reporting!". No answer. Then suddenly the truck next to us fired up and the headlights came on. I was ready to fight the truck! Then an instructor came out and told us what to do :p It sounded simple enough. Each team member would do 10 pushups, then 10 hammerfists, then shoot arrows until they hit the target. Once they hit the target, the next person could go. One of the guys on the team has a compound bow at home, so he knew his stuff. I haven't done archery since 7th grade, but I wasn't too bad at it. I got near the end of the line. The guys in front of me did really well. I was kinda nervous. I did my pushups and hammerfists then grabbed a bow. Had a hell of a time keeping the arrow on the grip. Fired the arrow. Miss. Fired again. Miss. Wrestled with stupid arrow, fired again. Miss. The guys said to aim higher, so I did. Miss. My 5th or so arrow bounced off the ground and hit the target, but the instructor didn't give it to me. I struggled. And cussed. And fired about 50 arrows. all misses. WTF?! how could I not hit the target?!! The guys kept giving me tips, I tried to adjust, and nothing. I noticed the bowstring kept hitting my arm, so I knew something was wrong. I kept apologizing to the guys for fucking up their time. But they stuck with me. I gradually learned to relax and shoot better, but the accuracy was still off. UGH! I was about to stomp that damn bow and snap all the arrows in half. My arm was starting to fatigue. Finally I got one. And the rest of the group could go. BB got it in like 5 shots. I'm so mad at myself. The guy after her had some problems getting the arrow to stay on the grip, but got it in a few as well. The archer guy went last, and nocked the arrow on the right like I did. Then he frowned, took the arrow off and switched it to the left side. He fired dead on. We finished with a time of 20 mins. Maybe I was so horribly bad because I nocked it on the wrong side? I don't know. The instructor pulled me off to the side to tell me he could have given me the arrow that bounced off the ground, but i wouldn't have won it for real. Ugh. I would have preferred that fifth arrow! He said he was proud of me because I didn't give up. blah.
After being horribly embarrassed it was about 1 AM and I was getting tired and angry. 3 more missions to go. ugh. Walked back to base. At one point Vlad snuck up and grabbed BB. Not seeing well in the dark, I thought it was an ambush and grabbed his arm and was about to start kicking him in the groin, until he started laughing ~_~
Next we walked to a hill where some instructors were. They asked for two volunteers, who then got rounded up and were told to move about 50 ft away from us. The scenario was, the two guys got ambushed and were injured. We had to find out what their injuries were, splint them, and transport them to the LZ for pickup. The clock started and one guy had a broken arm, while the other had a broken leg, above the ankle. Paul, being a doctor, went to work. The other guys started making a stretcher. I gave them my BDU jacket to use. Ran around with towel bandages and helped Paul get broken leg guy splinted. Broken arm guy could walk. Rolled broken leg guy onto the stretcher. It took 6 peeps to carry him. BB was carrying at first, so I had to run ahead and light the way for everyone else. BB got tired so i subbed in. We hauled ass down a hill to the LZ and put the guy down on the designated platform. Gotta say broken-leg guy did a great job grimacing. lol!
Sat around and waited for the next mission. Vlad had a new pointy object. He said he found a random slug on it. He proceeded to stab said slug in the face with it. Now we had a squirrel stick and a slug stick.
Next was a tomahawk throw. All I could think about was this:
Click to view
We all got to practice a bit. Each person got 5 throws. They were easier to throw than I expected. I got 1 to stick...in the wrong target :p Had a little more success with the throwing knives though, once Tracy showed me how to hold them right. We had to pick one person to do a bunch of burpees and situps and stuff and then throw the tomahawks. If 1 stuck, there would be a 10 second time deduction. One guy seemed to be really good and got 5 for 5 in the practice round. He said he dabbled at home. So we let him have it. Unfortunately he only got 1 to stick. We think the cone for foot placement might have been moved at some point, which threw him off. oh wells.
Walked to the next one. Vlad was getting tired and somehow got left behind. Someone went looking for him and finally found him.
The last one was firecraft. Rolled my ankle in a gopher hole as we were going down the hill to the fire pit. Fortunately it wasn't too bad. We were being timed for setting up a tree snare and starting a fire that was sustainable. We broke off into two groups, most of the guys did fire, and 3 of us did the snare. Fortunately the tree and sticks were close at hand, so Paul, one of the young guys and I set them up. Paul and the other guy did most of it, all I got to do was hold the tree. Oh well. By the time we finshed the fire was about ready. Overall, we were pretty quick.
On the walk back, a car passed so we all moved off to the side. Apparently, the guys in the back still thought we were hiding from cars, so ran off and hid. They popped up later and followed us. Paul almost mistook them for attackers, until we started yelling that they were friendly ^_^;
We returned to base camp and Paul checked in. We were done! We were the 2nd team to finish. It was around 4:15 AM at that time. Paul heard rumors that we'd get a nice pancake breakfast in the morning, around 7:00 AM. I opted for a shower, since the other teams weren't back yet. We went back to the tent and I was trying to get my brain together enough to grab all my shower supplies and flipflops. It took me a few mins cause I was feeling all fuzzy and out of sorts. The shower would have been perfect if a big old spider wasn't in my stall. I splashed water on it to get it to move. It started climbing higher up the wall, but I kept an eye on it. I was worried it would jump on me while I was rinsing off. I heard someone say there was only cold water, but it just took a while to warm up. It would automatically shut off every few mins, so I had to keep hitting the button. When I got out all the other girls were back. Fussing about getting the camo paint off. It took forever to get to a sink to brush my teeth because everyone was fretting over their pores. BB was nice enough to give me a makeup remover wipe that did the job.
I guess we got to bed around 5. The tent lights were still on, I guess to let the stragglers in. There was more snoring, and people complaining about the snoring. I passed out in a minute. I woke up to the sound of a guy going "RARGHHHGHH!" and the sun was up. Checked my watch at it was 6:50 AM. No idea what the "RARGHGHGH!" was about, but I started waking up when I heard someone stuffing their sleeping back into the stuff sack. Other people started waking up, so I started packing. Heard an instructor yell that we had 5 mins to get outside. Threw on some clothes and jammed my contacts into my eyes.
We had an awesome breakfast set out for us. Ginormous Chipotle-sized breakfast burritos that were way better than Anita's, oj, bagels, and fruit. I got a bacon burrito and dumped taco sauce all over it. It had whole strips of bacon in it ;_; So good! only got about half way through before wrapping it up for later. The instructors told each team to clean up a designated area. Grace magically showed up again. She said she was dehydrated. We got the campgrounds. Surprisingly, there was hardly any trash around. Helped take down one of the survival shelters. Lost the rest of Team 6 but found them a few mins later. All the teams put their improvised weapons out on a table for judging. There were some really awesome ones. Nunchuks, brass(wood?) knuckle things, the giant Scottish hammer, an evil-looking thing made out of a spikey plant, etc....
After that we did awards and graduation. They handed out individual awards for best improvised weapon, etc... The individual award recipients got one of the tomahawks from last night. We got to the group awards, and unfortunately we didn't make the top 3 based on time :( I thought we did pretty good for time, but the top 2 groups really rocked the paintball round. None of their team members got shot, and one finished in 1 min 30 seconds :o I'm sure it also had to do with my awful archery ~_~ Oh well. We got shirts and certificates. After that we were done. It was only 10:30, so I was really happy we'd make the flight home. Said bye to Team 6 and finished packing.
No traffic, got to the airport, returned the rental car and flew home. I felt terrible because I was wearing my spare BDU pants because they were the only things that were clean, and carried my camo pack. Airline staff kept saying "Thank you for your service!" and trying to get me to board the plane before everyone else. I was like...huh? oh! no! my pants! SO AWKWARD ~_~ I gave up trying to explain that I was at a wilderness survival camp, because then they just looked at me like I was a psycho.
Slept a couple hours on the plane. Drew picked me up. Got home around 11 PM EST. Was planning to go to work, but this morning I just couldn't get up. Called in tired :p
Overall, crazy experience! If I knew we'd be going for 24 hours straight, I probably wouldn't have signed up. But we did it. I feel bad that the guys carried the rest of the team. I just tried not to get in the way. But none of this stuff is in my area of expertise. I'm way better at fighting than I am at paintball or rock climbing or archery :p I'll be better prepared if I go next time.