Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Don't eat salamanders!
http://www.savethesalamanders.com/poiso ... bians.html
Although salamanders appear to be relatively inoffensive creatures, all species are poisonous.

What would medieval-technology Rangers use? Would the water be cleaner? Would they have developed some sort of resistance to giardia, cryptosporidia, etc?

Make a Leeuwenhoek microscope to check out the "wee beasties" in your water:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Cardboa ... icroscope/

https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice ... risks.html

Thomas Welch wants backcountry travelers to come clean.

Dr. Welch is a professor of pediatrics at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, N.Y. He is also a licensed professional guide, a certifying instructor (and field course instructor) for the Wilderness Education Association and a member of the Wilderness Medical Society. He publishes research on wilderness medical topics and serves as an editorial reviewer for Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, a professional journal for physicians working in the field of wilderness medicine.

As a youthful outdoor explorer decades ago, Welch says water treatment was never a concern. "I drank countless gallons of water from every imaginable source with nothing in the way of a "filter" other than my teeth," he says. "I never got sick. After doing this for most of my then-young life, people started telling me how dangerous this practice was."

A report released in the 1970s, Welch says, did much to alter the public perception of wilderness water. After more than half the people in a group of college students became ill after hiking in Utah's Uinta Mountains, the report concluded their illness was considered water-generated giardiasis. Yet Welch, who reviewed the report years after its release, says no cysts were identified in the suspect water and the report's authors "discounted food or fecal-oral spread."

"This was a classic food/hand epidemic in all respects," Welch says. "The only problem was at the time no one understood that the disease could be spread like that."

https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice ... er-QA.html
Professor Derlet agrees.
Wilderness water in remote, less-traveled regions of the Sierra is usually free of waterborne pathogens (Giardia lamblia, Cryptosporidium parvum, et al.). Derlet says he routinely drinks untreated water in locations where his observations of the source and familiarity with the area indicate to him that the water is safe.

Here's a fact I recently uncovered: Giardia-infected cattle excrete nearly 100 million Giardia cysts per day, and pack animals excrete about 12 million per day. Twelve million! So be careful if you drink in those watersheds.

What would medieval-technology Rangers use? Would the water be cleaner? Would they have developed some sort of resistance to giardia, cryptosporidia, etc?

FWIW, reading accounts of the American frontier (which was probably cleaner water than in Europe at the time), people just got sick a lot.
And didn't typically make the connection to water unless it was noticeably foul.

I'd expect the water in the wild places was cleaner than either our water today, or even in Middle Earth's own history, and for the same reason - much sparser population.
But I expect Rangers didn't use filtration, had some resistance (perhaps more than most humankind, if the Numenorean blood granted resilience as well as longevity) - but still got sick from it now and again.

I agree that Rangers probably didn't regularly filter their water. However, I suspect that they were probably taught how to do it using the methods and media I posted under some other headings: Cloth, charcoal, sand and heat. I also suspect that they occasionally got sick as a result. But they had a healing tradition and I think that they may have been able to make the connection.

One of the reasons why wine and beer were so important in medieval societies was that their water was polluted--especially near urban centers. Roman cities (IMO, analogous to Arnor and Gondor) had excellent water supplies and sanitation.

In Victorian London, for example, there were frequent cholera and typhoid epidemics . Much of the people's drinking water came directly from the Thames--which was also the destination of their sewer effluent. Queen Victoria commissioned a water filter for the Royal Household. This was the genesis of the British Berkefeld (Big Berkey and Doulton) system. The same technology is still in use for gravity filters. These usually utilize charcoal, ceramics and/or silver.

Ground sources--like springs--are infinitely safely. Even today. Pollution, chemtrails and pharmaceuticals coming out in urine are all making their way into our waters. Especially groundwater.

Rangers would have a wood framed bow saw and it would probably be in a base camp scenario, but...

Douglas Fir and redwood, spruce, true fir and (mountain) hemlock have edible growing tips as well. I wouldn't eat yew needles, however.

Nice simple idea. I like the dog too!

This is a leave-no-trace type fire lay that is good for SERE and can minimize your footprint under normal circumstances. When extinguishing the fire, you might want to douse the roots with water if it is a dry area.

I like watching this guy's technique:

Here is another method for making a Swedish Torch (Viking Log):



And a mini:



I guess it is okay for a bushpot. I haven't used one of these. It looks like it gets your fire off the ground and leaves little trace.

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A nice field expedient. They work on the same principles as snow shoes. The branches distribute your weight over a larger area.

You should be able to find all the information you need on primitive skills & long term wilderness living on my channel, members of the Pathfinder School also follow my channel. If there is any information you would like to see & can't find it on my channel, please let me know.
Regards, Keith.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHEOMS ... _as=public

Thank you. That is very good of you.

I have seen--and enjoyed--some of the videos on your channel in the past.

I always thought that Colonial Era Rangers translate well to Tolkien's Rangers. While I can't prove it, I suspect that Rogers Rangers served as a source--at least in part--for the company strength operations conducted by the Rangers of Ithilien.