Li Younan was quite lucky. His starting point was at a relatively flat location, and not far away was the famous Chilco Lake in Canada.
This place is not within the Arctic Circle, so it’s a bit of a pity that the spectacular aurora can’t be seen.
But to be fair, the places chosen by the show crew are all extremely beautiful natural landscapes.
Chilco Lake is Canada’s largest natural high-altitude freshwater lake, with volcanic rock veins and alpine glaciers, offering a strong visual impact.
After the crew left, Li Younan eagerly opened his action camera and said, "Alright, guys, next we’ll officially start our journey. I’m currently located pretty close to the lake, so let’s go check out the situation at the lakeside first. The next step is to build my own shelter, and I need to choose a place that’s convenient for water and has reasonable terrain."
Then, Li Younan shouldered his backpack and headed towards the lake.
He passed through a small grove, finding a meadow in front of him, filled with colorful wildflowers.
It’s summer at the edge of Chilco Lake, and many flowers are blooming.
And wildflowers also mean there might be fruits.
Li Younan already recognized many berries that would only mature in about two months.
Then, he leisurely took out his camera and shot a set of video footage.
Of course, when he was filming, he wasn’t shaking the camera randomly. He paid attention to light, color, and composition, steadily panning across with multiple angles.
For other contestants, just having landed is when their strength is the most abundant, so they should seize every second to do serious work. Carrying a backpack is very unwise as it consumes too much energy.
But Li Younan wasn’t in a hurry at all. With the advantage of mountaineering skills, his heavy backpack felt like nothing to him—all the weight should be reduced by 50 kilograms to match his actual burden experience.
And the show crew is quite stingy, as all the equipment combined isn’t even 50 kilograms.
As Li Younan walked towards the lake, he looked around with interest.
He naturally didn’t forget to take out the bow and arrow.
The crew provided an American hunting bow, which, compared to his 70-pound carbon fiber hunting bow, was lacking in both poundage and material, with only 50 pounds. But for Li Younan, it was enough.
The crew gave a total of 9 arrows, with specially made tips, capable of hunting bears without a problem.
However, for most ordinary contestants, bears are still very frightening.
Black bears frequently appear here and are aggressive. Li Younan remembers seeing an episode where a female contestant was scared to tears by a distant bear.
However, he would rather have a bear appear in his view... That way, he could idly lie down at the beginning and handle serious business.
Indeed, Li Younan never considered survival to be the serious business of this program.
The crew didn’t place everyone too far from the lake, so it wasn’t long before Li Younan reached the lakeside.
He observed briefly and was slightly delighted—at this moment, he stood on a cliff with many landslides and steep slopes downward, and getting into the lake from the shallow beach required a detour of about a few hundred meters.
In fact, if you want to fish during this season, it’s better to fish on a steep slope, especially for rainbow trout. These large fish often don’t stay in shallow waters, and the waters beneath such steep slopes are their ideal habitat.
Li Younan began thinking about biological information. As a practical zoologist, with a little thought, the fish guide of Chilco Lake unfolded before his eyes: rainbow trout, bull trout, Dolly Varden, whitefish, largescale kokanee... how the texture of these fish meat tastes and what nuances are there in fishing methods... all this information lingered in his mind.
Walking forward and having been active in this area for a while, Li Younan decided to return to the little grove he found earlier.
This will be his important place for protein acquisition, and although he has no one to boast to about enjoying the fun of fishing here, he can certainly boast to the camera.
But he didn’t return the same way. Instead, he stood on the chosen fishing spot on the steep slope, gazing inland and suddenly noticed a hillside.
The hillside had a relatively flat terrain, and further up was the mountain rock wall.
The rock wall here had been formed by the glacier erosion over hundreds of millions of years, making it exceptionally hard.
Since ancient times, China has emphasized choosing locations for building houses that are near mountains and water, with gentle terrain. Li Younan carefully observed that hillside—it faces south and gets sunlight, indeed an ideal location for shelter construction.
He took out the action camera and said to the lens, "Guys, see what I found! Do you see over there? I think it’s a very suitable base for building a shelter. From that location, we can have a clear view of the lakeshore. Alright, let’s go up there and check it out now."
At about a kilometer from the lakeshore, Li Younan arrived quickly.
Before he even climbed up, a booming sound of water was heard. Upon closer inspection, there was a waterfall flowing down from a higher mountain within the woods.
The waterfall was a bit of a distance from the slope he saw earlier. Li Younan was calculating in his mind; now he also had a place to source water.
Continuing forward required passing through a small forest. Li Younan carefully observed the tree species here, growing more delighted as he did—it’s no wonder, with his lumberjack skills, he was well-acquainted with various types of wood.
The dominant tree species here was the black pine, and black pines lined the path.
The trunks of these trees were straight, the wood relatively light and very tough, and they had a certain degree of resistance to corrosion, making them ideal for building house frameworks.
However, their better use was as fuel, as black pine wood contained natural oils, making it easier to ignite and particularly burn well.
Aside from these, Li Younan also saw Baiyun Mountain, Douglas fir, and yellow pine in this forest. It must be said that the tree species here naturally seemed to have durability, corrosion resistance, and stability.
Enthusiastically holding the camera, Li Younan narrated, "Guys, the trees here are truly a delight for an old woodworker. Give me some time, and I can create many interesting things with them."
He soon reached the position of the slope he had seen from below, further confirming that the mountain’s rock face was an eroded syncline slope.
Anyone who has studied geography knows that anticlines form valleys and synclines form mountains. The layers of a syncline are more tightly pressed. After confirming there was no risk of a collapse here, Li Younan set his sights on the spot near the rock face. If he built a shelter here, he would have an area of about dozens of square meters of flat ground for activities, and from the slope’s edge, he could enjoy a full view of the beautiful Chilco Lake.
In excitement, Li Younan even took out his video camera and, with top-notch photography skills, shot several sets of movie-grade footage. He then said to the camera with satisfaction, "I’ve decided, this will be the location of my shelter."
If other contestants saw him wandering several kilometers with his gear after reaching the starting point to find a shelter, they’d definitely laugh at him—for the majority of contestants, when their energy is high on the first day, they would first settle their shelter before focusing on food.
Such behavior from Li Younan could be considered extremely extravagant, but by this time, he had already planned everything confidently.
He then surveyed the surroundings, searching along the rock face, and sure enough, he found a small crevice in the rocks near his predetermined shelter site.
Such small rocky crevices are common near rock faces. While difficult for a person to sleep in, they’re more than adequate for storing food and equipment.
He placed his gear into the crevice, wedging rocks around the edge to prevent bears or other small animals, then took his camera gear, bow and arrows, and that sharp hunting knife, saying to the camera, "Next, I’ll spend about three hours searching for food, aiming to have lunch by noon."
Although he brought his bow and arrows and a hunting knife, he did not plan to have meat for his first meal—a strategy was needed here.
Having just arrived at the survival location, his body was not lacking in protein and fat; what he lacked at this time was carbohydrates.
Many people have misconceptions about wilderness survival shows, thinking some contestants, even with whole prey, could still have health issues. This happens because they haven’t systematically studied nutrition. All actions of the human body require energy, and converting protein and fat to energy is inefficient. The most direct and effective way to acquire energy is by supplementing carbohydrates.
Without a carbohydrate supplement, the body, when converting energy, will prioritize extracting it from body tissues like muscle rather than ingested protein. This explains why some contestants, despite having a whole prey, continually lose weight.
When he came over earlier, Li Younan had already noticed plenty of wild berries deep in the forest.
However, before that, he had another task to do.
He approached some low vegetation with the camera: "This tree is called the dwarf birch."
Saying this, he cut off a young twig with his knife, "In the tundra and subarctic areas, the young branches of dwarf birch are slender and flexible. Once dried, their hardness is moderate and they’re very suitable for weaving small baskets."
As he cut the young branches, he provided explanation: "In high-cold areas, there are many plants that are cold-resistant, with pliable branches or developed fibers suitable for weaving. Of course, one must learn the theoretical knowledge well before doing so, as some are toxic."
He set up the camera and began weaving with the gathered young branches.
This weaving skill was something he learned from a local grandmother while studying intangible cultural heritage last time; he didn’t expect it to come in handy so soon.
With many skill buffs he received, his hands were very nimble, and even though it was his first time using such materials to weave in the wild, he was exceptionally adept, crafting a small basket that could fit a basketball in less than half an hour.
To save time, the basket wasn’t woven too intricately, without even a handle.
He found sturdy young branches, softened by hitting with a stone, and wove them at the basket’s mouth to form a simple carry handle.
With the basket in hand, Li Younan quickly began searching through the forest. "Honestly, it’s hard for me to imagine how anyone could fail to survive in such a resourceful place."
He squatted and picked a bunch of blackberries from the bushes, "The blackberry flowers have just passed their blooming period, so they should just be ripening now. These berries can last until September, and with patience, you can find them to eat before September. Aside from blackberries, there should also be blueberries, cloudberries, and carbohydrate sources like wild rice here... but they’re not matured yet." He noted the locations of the unripe, edible plants he saw as he spoke.
To his delight while searching for berries, Li Younan found two pieces of wild ginger.
He cut them open with his knife and tossed them into the basket: "This is known as Canada wild ginger, its flavor similar to regular ginger but with a rich woody, earthy aroma. It can be used for tea or seasoning."
Next, he came across a handful of sorrel and several starchy rhizomes.
He shook the sizable basketful of carbohydrates, "This should provide at least three days’ worth of carbohydrates."

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