Trial by fire at Santa Cruz survival camp

A dozen people were trying to start fires by rubbing sticks. For 13 years, the Adventure Out company has been running a day-long class on how to survive being lost in the wilderness. Do exactly what I do,’ said the teacher, survival expert Jack Harrison, and then he grabbed a couple of sticks and started a fire in about a minute. Lighting fires is what the human species does, along with using language and making tools and playing the harmonica. The survival school rents out the scout camp when the Boy Scouts are off earning merit badges someplace else. [...] said Harrison, you whittle each end of a short stick to a point. After the friction creates a small glowing coal — something like the tip of a cigarette — you transfer the coal to a bundle of shredded fiber, blow on it and the thing bursts into flame. The Chronicle started whittling, with a Swiss Army knife. A Swiss Army knife is a cute little thing, with its tiny blade and its fold-up geegaws. A Swiss Army knife is the mark of someone who believes the wilderness to be a happy place full of chipmunks and songbirds and unopened wine bottles. The spinning stick kept slipping out of position, the shoelace kept unwrapping, the pointed end kept wobbling. [...] after no end of coaching from Harrison and no end of sweat from the student, the Chronicle got the thing to ignite. [...] you grab every dead pine needle and dead leaf in the vicinity and toss them on, until the thing looks like a pile of what you load into the green bin on garbage day. Fortunately, a student gathering dead needles and leaves has plenty of time to chat with his fellow dead leaf gatherers. Sara, a den mother in Duke’s Cub Scout pack, said the Scouts were short on survival skills and she wanted Duke to learn to build a fire with sticks before it was too late. [...] hollow out a big piece of tree bark, collect some water in it and then drop in a superheated rock from the fire, until the water bubbles for a spell. Harrison dropped a hot rock into his tree bark cup full of filthy water and said it was now safe to drink, in case any of us were thirsty. No one was, so class was dismissed, although not before Harrison made a plug for the next class in the survival series — an overnight intensive in which you actually sleep in the debris huts you construct and eat bugs, too. Adventure Out’s wilderness skills and survival classes are offered in Santa Cruz and Marin counties.