Okay, between girl scouts, 4H Outdoor Adventure club and attendance of multiple 4H Hunter Safety Days (I know, I know, I don't hunt. For some reason, if you were in the shooting club, you went to Hunter Safety Day, regardless of actual shooting interests) this is my breakdown of the quiz.
- The one I got wrong was the boiling water question. I answered filtered. Like someone, (I think it was charby) mentioned earlier, I did not assume I had the means to boil water. Usually, you do have some way to filter (or at least sort of filter) water. Boiling means you've got fire and something to contain water that won't burn up. Acquiring clean water is dependent on what your resources are.
- Speaking of resources, the quiz didn't cover what resources you had when you got lost. There is a big difference between having a full backpack and having only the clothes on your back. Clothes in my back would suck, but I'd probably make it a few days, at least in forested areas (less confident in swamp or desert) Full pack? High possibility I'd tell the rescue team to just leave me some food and come back in a week or so.
- The question I had wording beef with was the moon question. It was a silly question. My first impulse was to hit east because I was thinking of what way I would be facing, not the way the moon's lit surface was facing. Seems dumb to ask about which way the moon was going when the point was knowing which way you are going.
- Shelter is always better than fire and it isn't hard in the woods. You stack some broken branches and then pile leaves and mast all over your structure and stuff yourself inside with more leaves (preferably dry, but damp will work too) and viola! Warm and toasty shelter.
- despite oodles and oodles of outdoor survival instruction, I didn't get the bug thing right because of any of that. You watch enough nature shows and you learn that brightly colored insects and whatnot evolve their colors as a defence mechanism. It's basically telling the world "Hey! You eat me and die, so look for dinner somewhere else!"
- they had a lot of questions that related to hypothermia being the real danger but failed to explain that hypothermia is the big danger. Also, no mentions of how to deal with injuries and variations in ecosystems.
Finally, I honestly don't think I'm being egotistical, but I could probably keep myself in one piece for a few days at least. I was pretty decent at starting a fire with flint and steel (it is one big reason I could manage to place every year in Sceneca Run. The other girls could run faster, but I could start a fire faster and hit the target with the muzzleloader. Ha-ha!)