Sunday, August 14, 2011

A True Prepper...!


This, my friends, is what being prepared is all about!

The story could have turned out so much worse if the basics had not been taught to this young man! One more reason to practice with the family or even by yourself.

Knowledge is power and it also may be the very tool that saves your life...or the life of a loved one!

Talk about being prepared
Boy Scout found after building shelter to survive night in Utah woods

By MARTIN GRIFFITH
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Aug. 13, 2011, 6:53PM

He was scared, but the 12-year-old Boy Scout still knew what to do when he got lost during a Utah wilderness outing: He built a shelter made of tree branches and wood to get through a cold night and he covered himself in dirt to stay warm.

Jared Ropelato's lean-to — a crude structure the Boy Scout manual advises Scouts to build if they become lost — kept him warm enough so he could sleep after the overnight low in northeastern Utah's Ashley National Forest dipped to 31 degrees in the area, said Daggett County sheriff's spokeswoman Karen Peterson.

The boy was wearing only jeans and a shirt, and had no food or water, when he went missing around noon Friday. He had gotten lost while on his way by himself back to camp from a nearby lake, walking a total of eight or nine miles before searchers on ATVs found him Saturday morning some four miles from where he started, Peterson said.

"He did everything right last night," his mother, Dawn, said. "We said he was smart, and he's smart."

Peterson also praised the boy, saying that building the lean-to was "good thinking" and it saved him from the elements. He told the Deseret News of Salt Lake City that he had learned to build the structure last year at Scout camp.

"We're just so glad that this story has a happy ending," Peterson told the Associated Press.

Jared's mother told the Deseret News that her son's biggest scare came when he encountered a bull moose. He got cold during the night, but not too cold. He fell in a river Saturday morning, "but he's still dirty," she said.

Jared resumed walking Saturday morning before he was found at 8:40 a.m. in good health, ending a search effort that included about 200 people.

"There were a lot of tears not only from family members, but from searchers as well," Peterson said. "Up to that point, Jared had been missing for 20 hours and 40 minutes."

Nicole Ropelato, a third cousin of Jared's, said the family was thankful for searchers and that the boy remembered the instruction about lean-tos.

"At such a young age to be calm enough to think like that is something," she said. "That's incredible what he did. We're just elated that he was found in good condition. We were worried for him and very scared."

The boy earlier had been advised by a Scoutmaster to walk with another Scout from the lake back to camp, Peterson said. The Scoutmaster gave him the advice after finding him going in the wrong direction while returning to camp.

"He never got a buddy before heading back to camp," Peterson said.

Asked if he would still go camping after his overnight ordeal, Jared simply said, "yeah."

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/7696364.html#ixzz1UxnLQFMl

Forget about the end of the world, forget about the apocalypse! Just a camping trip can test your survival skills more than you know!

Let's get some fresh coffee and talk this over, OK? Maybe more training and prepping is in order!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wish more people was as prepared as this kid! especially older people that really should know what to do when getting lost. I´m glad he managed to stay calm until they found him :-)

Have a great day!
Christer.

HermitJim said...

Hey Christer...
That's the whole point of being a Prepper! Learning the skills needed to survive in an emergency, then practicing them before a real emergency arises is so important!

Many of us try and stay prepared for just about anything that might come up. I'd say this young man is certainly on the right track!

Thanks, my friend, for coming by today!

Sixbears said...

All kids should learn this stuff. Mine did.

Of course, the main thing is that the kid had the presence of mind to do what he was trained to do.

Dizzy-Dick said...

Good for that boy. I grew up in the woods. I feel more at home in the woods than in what is called civilization.

HermitJim said...

Hey Sixbears...
The main thing is that he didn't panic!

I'm glad he remembered all his training and came out OK. Should be a wake-up call to everyone out there!

Thanks, buddy, for coming by today!


Hey DD...
Many of us were fortunate enough to grow up where we could play outside in the woods and the like...and were allowed to do so!

Our parents did us a big favor, I think!

Thanks, my friend, for coming by today!

Mayberry said...

At least we know there's one kid out there who knows how to survive!

HermitJim said...

Hey Craig...
Guess we can all take some comfort in the fact that at least some of the younger generation are learning good skills!

Cudos to his parents for letting him have the opportunity.

Thanks for the visit, my friend!

TROUBLEnTX said...

Am i the only one that thinks if he had listened to his scoutmaster, he never would've been lost in the first place?

JoJo said...

Glad that story had a happy ending. One other lesson to be learned in scouts or any other survival is to carry and compus.

HermitJim said...

Hey Trouble...
Like most kids, he heard and almost followed the directions given. Lucky for him, he remembered some of the important things he was taught!

Bet he pays more attention next time!

Thanks for coming by today!