Les Stroud is my Idol

“Oops…my squirrel is burning…”

— Les Stroud

So, there was a show on Discovery Science Channel in 2004 that’s now being re-run on the regular Discovery Channel called “Survivorman.” We first discovered it as a stripped down, half-hour version of the full-lenth, hour long TV show about Les Stroud (Wikipedia? & Official), a guy who is dropped off in the wilderness with his camera equipment and a pocket knife and then left alone for a week. Recently, the Discovery Channel started showing the full-length versions on Friday nights, so we’re getting to watch a few that we missed, as well as watch the rest of the episodes that we have seen.

It’s just crazy what this guy does… For example, “this week’s” episode, Les is left in Canyonlands, Utah with a mountain bike and his pocket knife. He cannibalizes the bike for parts (uses tubes to drink wanter and stoke fires, uses the inner tube to act as a canteen when he rarely found water, used the frame as part of his shelter, etc.), used ancient techniques to set up traps to catch animals, and built shelters to help withstand the 15 F nights (i.e. cold, if you don’t have a sleeping bag…which he didn’t…).

So yeah, if you can, you should record this show and watch it. Or if you’re at home on a Friday, check out the Discovery Channel. w00t!

P.S. Nathan, next summer, we’re going to get dropped off in Alaska. We’ll have to eat Grizzly Bears to survive. It’ll be stupendous.