That is a very interesting and informative website, I've been checking it out.
When my daughter was in girl scouts as a pre-teen, she participated in an event they called Mojave, where they went out into the Mojave dessert (not in summer) and camped using just a little gear and food. Very primative, they tug trenches and did repeling, etc.
She found that to be a very formative experience and refers to it fairly frequently. She is a very good camper........
I want to try collecting the dogbane fibers this summer as there are a lot of them growing on the farm next door. Poisonous, so I haven't picked them for the goats. But it might make an interesting lashed basket with all the grapevines and maybe even the bittersweet that grows all over the place here. Cool.