Mountain Shepherd Wilderness Survival School part 4

Student Profile
Name: John Hull
Occupation: Regional Economic Development Manager
Marital status: Happily married and father of two
About John: John and his wife, Lindsey, enjoy several
outdoor activities including hiking, camping, and bird
and wildlife watching. John has drawn on his extensive
experiences in the outdoors as he serves as Assistant
Cubmaster and leads outdoor activities for his son's Cub
Scout unit in Vinton, VA
Motivation for taking course: To learn new information
and knowledge that can help out in a disaster or wilder-
ness situation.
Final Thoughts: You'll learn...a lot of very useful
information. Everyone should avail themselves of
the training at Mountain Shepherd. It's an excellent
learning opportunity.

[This is the fourth part of a four-part eyewitness report. You can be notified when each article is published, just subscribe above. Your email address will be kept confidential. All photos (c) 2010 Sandi Bird]

It was not yet sunset. Two friends sat on a rock at a scenic overlook along the Blue Ridge Parkway. It had been a good day, and the two sat talking and laughing. They were looking forward to their unobstructed view of the setting sun. The friends were just a few feet from their car. It was still daylight. It was a traveled area. Neither knew that in a short time they would be in a survival situation that would ultimately take the life of one of them.

How many times have you or someone you know stopped at one of the many overlooks that we enjoy along the Parkway?

...As I was getting ready to close out this eyewitness report series I happened upon the April 28, 2010 article on The Roanoke Times' website about the brutal April 5th Parkway shooting incident in which one victim died and one survived. The survivor, Christina Floyd - a petite, 5'6" tall 18-year-old,  was interviewed by The Roanoke Times and excerpts from that interview were published in the ensuing article, entitled "Not without a fight: survivor of parkway shotgun shooting recounts story".

As I read the article, one thing really caught my attention. It was something that Mountain Shepherd instructor, Reggie Bennett, repeated frequently throughout the four-day training. In talking about a Positive Mental Attitude being a necessity for surviving in any survival situation, he talked about a "will to live" or having a "reason to live".

The young woman had been shot in the back with a shotgun from a distance of no more than 12 feet away, and the blast punctured her lung. As the attacker grabbed her to throw her over the cliff Christina made a decision. During her interview Floyd shared the thought that fueled her decision to fight her attacker with the determination that saved her life that day. She stated, "I thought, 'Some cop is going to tell my mom and friends I'm dead? Hell no!' "

Were it not for that will to live, that determination to not give up when survival may have seemed impossible, she would have been another grim statistic.

Students Leita, John and Joe reviewing the topo map.

Survival situations don't just happen in places like the Alaskan wilderness or deep in some backcountry area of one of our national forests.

I said it in at least one of my previous articles an I'll say it again. Anyone can suddenly find him- or herself in a survival situation.

After attending the four-day training at Mountain Shepherd Wilderness Survival School and receiving the priceless instruction from Reggie, I am passionate when I say that I believe every person I know would benefit from attending one of MS's training classes. Even if it is only the two-day course.

Back to Day 4 of our class: Day four of the Hidden Pursuit course was our "final exam". We broke up into teams of two and our objective was to evade the "enemy" as we escaped the "danger zone" and navigated through the woods by map-and-compass to the place from which we would be "rescued". The two hour exercise was intense as we crawled through the woods in our camouflage, trying to remain quiet and unseen by the enemy who was searching for us. It took the entire two hours to navigate less than a mile of terrain. Both groups remained undetected, and there were times I couldn't even see my own team member just 10-20 feet ahead of me.

As we made our way back to our camp through the woods I thought about all that I'd learned. I was feeling a confidence that I'd not experienced before. I felt empowered. I knew that I had been given the knowledge...the tools that I needed to increase my survival odds the next time I found myself in a survival situation.

Name: Leita
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: World Bank employee
About Leita: Independent and fearless, Leita is a world
traveler with over 40 countries under her belt.
Motivation for taking course: "I've always wanted to
learn how to take care of myself properly in the outdoors...
if things go well - everything's OK, but if things go badly
a lot of us wouldn't know what to do."
Thoughts at the half-way point: "This course definitely
takes you out of your own box and I think the things I
learned will not only help in the wilderness, but they will
translate into everyday life. I think it's well worth the time."

Teacher and students filed back into the Lodge classroom one final time to discuss the events of the last four days spent learning in Mountain Shepherd's ruggedly beautiful indoor and outdoor "classrooms". We each talked about how those things had impacted us both now and in our future outlook. As one the students agreed that Reggie had accomplished his goal. We all felt more empowered to handle the unexpected things that life might try to throw at us.

I asked Reggie to share some closing remarks with my readers, and this is what he had to say: "Mainly this school is about empowering. It's about giving as much practical information as possible, so that when you do go into the wilderness...either by yourself, with friends or with family...or even if you're going overseas or if you're in a natural disaster or a terrorist attack...you're prepared. Everything I teach here, yes it does work in the wilderness, but it also works in the city too.

Knowledge is king. Like I have said, this is a modern-day survival school. We focus on the modern. I do love the primitive too, and we do teach the primitive in a different course, but when it comes down to it, your brain and modern-day equipment is probably what's going to get you through a survival situation."

Afterthoughts:

May 5th in Bangor, Maine five young female college students came upon a fellow student who was being stabbed. It was a life or death survival situation. The five women jumped the assailant, overpowered him,and held him down until police arrived, saving the victim's life. They remind me of two of the things that Mountain Shepherd teaches: Always be prepared to help others and have the will to survive.

Some people come by that naturally...and for those who don't, there's Mountain Shepherd Wilderness Survival School in Catawba, Virginia.