Wilderness Secrets Revealed: Adventures of a Survivor

by Andr -Fran ois Bourbeau, Les Stroud (Foreword by)

Overview

A lifetime of wilderness adventures and the resulting insights relating to nature’s intricacies as experienced by a master in the art of primitive wilderness survival.

"Fire! Wake up! The shelter is on fire!"

His students affectionately call him "Doc Survival." He’s Quebec’s Indiana Jones in a forest setting. Searching for the treasures of the wilderness has been his life-long quest; with passion as his only guide, he has dared to penetrate the forest on its own terms, facing increasingly difficult challenges in the hope of becoming nature’s confidant, of learning her secrets.

Professor emeritus André-François Bourbeau holds a Guinness World Record for voluntary wilderness survival in the boreal forest. Herein lies his path and his stories, unadulterated: gritty and often comical mistakes punctuated by inspiring successes. What remains of this lifetime of experimentation is one man’s everlasting love of the wilderness and its intricacies, a rousing reflection on our own human priorities, and need for deep connection with the environment and other fellow beings.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459706965
Publisher:	Dundurn Press
Publication date:	06/04/2013
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

André-François Bourbeau is professor emeritus at the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi where he taught for over 30 years in the Outdoor Adventure Program he co-founded. He also founded and directed the university's outdoor research laboratory. Bourbeau lives in the Saguenay region of Quebec.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Bob Henderson Acknowledgements Preface Introduction

One: The Hunt Two: Garlicky Three: Spicy Four: The Swamp Tramp Five: Up Here, Sir Six:  Dear Frank Seven: The Farmer Eight: Sandals Nine: Licking My Chops Ten: Banquet Time Eleven: Cold Hole Twelve: Batman Thirteen: Ferns Crack Me Up Fourteen: Survivathon Fifteen: Captain Haddock Sixteen: Retropulsion Seventeen: Camping with a View Eighteen: Clean Dirt Nineteen: Birchbark Pillow Twenty: Unexpected Swim Twenty-One: Surprise

Conclusion About the Author

Editorial Reviews

In this celebration of life and career, Bourbeau (Surviethon) narrates his evolution from frog-hunting boy to wilderness-surviving young man to canoeing-with-a-baby father. He lays bare his mistakes, from misidentifying plants to choosing lousy campsites, with plenty of humor, mild chagrin, and a touch of cheekiness. This is not a wilderness survival manual, though it imparts some riotous lessons on what not to do, but rather a biography of the man known to his University of Quebec students as "Doc Survival." Bourbeau gives a play-by-play description of some of his wilderness adventures, par-ticularly a one-month stint in the backwoods of Quebec. In his conclusion, he explains how to assess risks and draws a line between good and bad risk taking. Bourbeau also outlines the four factors of wilderness survival–physical capacity, psychological outlook, specific technical skills, and decision-making–and how to improve them for maximum survival chances. Readers get a sense of Bourbeau's awe for and connection with the wilderness, and he exhorts them to protect it in its natural, wild form, sans chalets, lookouts, and even hiking paths. Unfortunately, the tone is surprisingly juvenile for a pro-fessor emeritus and at times the language borders on foul, but, despite these drawbacks, Bourbeau has crafted an engrossing read. Canadian distribution: UTP. U.S. Distribution: Ingram (May)

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