What it takes to Survive

I just read a story of survival about a 64 year old man who was lost in a canyon in the Los Angeles area for six days. Essentially, he got lost and could not find his car during a hike. Ultimately, he was not found until day six, he was suffering from dehydration and the possibility of his kidneys failing.

What I found interesting about this story was his mental state and the fact that he recovered from down times in his mental state. Everything that I have ever read about survival puts your mental state at the top of the keys to survival. For example, having a camp fire even when it is not cold at night is important because it reassures the wayward hiker or hunter and keeps their spirits up. Essentially, survival is all about your mental state.

This story is a perfect example of what the body can take. This man obviously had no food, which in a long term survival situation is not necessarily that big of a deal. However, the lack of water is. This survivor stated that he was able to get some droplets of water into his mouth during a slight sprinkle. To slow his own dehydration he followed the shade all day long and stayed out of the sun. So, his body was able to withstand days of no water and food.

During this man's ordeal he underwent what appears to be a couple of ups and downs mentally. For example, he wrote out notes to his wife, daughter and brother on his hat in preparation for his own death. He also wrote out instructions, detailed instructions, for his own funeral. Most of us have created a will, but mine certainly does not go to the extent of detailing my funeral.

At one point the survivor became discouraged and gave up. He stated that he began reciting a Jewish verse to help him prepare for death. However, he woke up the next day with a better attitude and began taking steps to survive like flagging search and rescue helicopters with an emergency blanket and making signal fires with flares.

A couple things about this story stand out to me. First, your will to survive begins before you take the trip. For example, he obviously had some survival equipment with him such as the emergency blanket and the flares. Therefore, he went into the situation with the intent to survive, and he did not have an attitude of denial that he could ever get lost or stranded.

The survivor continued to think while going through this ordeal. He thought enough to stay out of the sun. Also, he changed the purpose of the survival blanket and started using it as a mirror to signal helicopters. This never worked. However, he decided to survive and he took control of his own survival. This was the key.

My profession has a certain amount of life threatening risks associated with it. That has to be accepted with the job. Some of the people that I work with take constant steps to prepare to survive. Others become complacent or live in denial that the day could come to them. Personally, I do things that my coworkers question. However, I do them just to maintain a "survival mindset."

If you are like me, you will venture into the outback by yourself at times. The more you go in, the farther you want to go. I want to go to an area referred to as "Three Corners" even though there are only two corners there. It is the spot where Idaho, Nevada and Oregon all meet. This area is in one of the most remote spots of the lower 48 states.

I have an atv, so I can drive my pickup most of the way and then finish the trip on my atv. The problem is that I do not have endless funds. So, I purchased my atv used and it is not exactly state of the art. I don't even know what a state of the art atv offers. So, there is a decent chance I could make it all the way to the border and get stranded for mechanical reasons.

I tried to avoid this by keeping up with maintenance on the atv, etc. However, you just never know. So, in my pack is everything I need to survive until I can get out or someone comes to get me. I have an emergency tent, candle, water, matches, etc. Pretty much standard supplies in any survival kit that you can purchase off of the Internet.

I also take my cell phone. There is absolutely no coverage in this area. However, my plan is that if I get stranded I will turn my phone on and enable the gps. The hope being that the emergency responders can find me that way. I leave instructions with my wife to make sure to tell the first responders that my phone will be turned on with gps enabled.

A better way to do this is to purchase a subscription to the "Spot" device. I have seen deals through Cabelas in which you can get the unit for free with a two year subscription. This can get you rescued quickly, and you do not have to try to walk out, possibly worsening the situation. I have a friend who floated the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in the Fall while hunting elk. He did this by himself. He knew the risks beforehand, so for this particular trip he rented a satellite telephone. He was able to check in with his wife daily, update his location and keep himself in a situation where rescue would happen much faster because his wife was waiting for him to check in and would call if he failed to do so.

Whatever your adventure may be, do not let denial be the cause of your demise. Don't let others make you believe you are paranoid because you prepare. Remember that your mental state is going to be the biggest survival asset that you have if the situation should arise. The best way to maintain this mindset is to prepare as though it might happen, accept that you are taking a risk and make up your mind to survive.

Technology and the Outdoors

As technology continues to advance the outdoor lover has to ask themselves if they will embrace or reject the new advances they can take into the outback with them.

I am presently overlooking a beautiful drainage, watching the sun dip behind the Boise Mountains and typing up this blog entry; all while waiting for an elk to walk out of the trees and fill my freezer for the winter.

I checked the distance to my home from here on my Garmin GPS, and thanks to Blackberry and Verizon I checked my emails too.

I am definitely in the camp that says embrace technology. If you keep your perspective right this improves your life. For example, I needed to approve a Power Point presentation for a seminar I am conducting tomorrow night. Rather than make a guilty decision to put it off and go hunting, I was able to check it from up on the mountain.

Am I a workaholic? Absolutely not, but I do have to work. This technology is not giving me more work, it is giving me more time in the woods. Consequently, when I get home to my family tonight I will not have to take time from them to complete work I should have been doing while I was out hunting.

Speaking of technology my Nikon Monarch binoculars have coated lenses and prisms for better low light visibility......that reminds me, the sun just dipped below the Boise Mountains. I better get busy glassing....the photos attached are the before and after sunset photos of this little drainage....

Just as an add on……no elk last night.

Opening Day of Elk Season

Yesterday was the opener for elk season in Idaho's Unit 39, if you had a controlled hunt tag that is. I decided to open the season on the Boise Ridge. This area is just above the interface of the high desert and the mountainous region of Idaho. It provides great views because everything to the south and west is desert and you can literally see for hundreds of miles.

Yesterday morning the weather was by far more interesting than the hunting. I got absolutely drenched in a big rain storm that blew in from the east. I could see it coming, and I could tell it was going to be wet. This allowed me to get my rain clothes on in time. However, after it stopped I decided to do some bushwhacking through some tall chaparral. I might as well have gone swimming as all of this was soaked.

Once I got back to the pickup I was able to look off of the ridge, down towards my home. At one point I saw that fog was forming along the Boise River in the valley, starting to shroud the hill above my home. About ten minutes later the fog had developed so quickly that much of Boise was hidden.

Later in the morning I drove down from the approximate 6000 feet. I was one of the coolest things ever when I entered the fog. I was driving through an area called Rocky Canyon which has twists and turns and steep canyon walls. As I came around one curve I could see that the fog was making its way up the road and coming around the next curve. I would not see any fog above the walls, but it was below the walls, following the road. It was very cool.

When I got down to Boise I realized that it was not foggy. There was a low stratus cloud that had formed over the city, but there was fine visibility at the approximately 2700 feet elevation. So, there was a significant ceiling of alto-stratus and a thick layer of wet stratus below it, just over the river area. The only way to see these was to be up the mountain like I was. I have attached pictures.

Change in the Weather in Idaho

Finally some great weather in Boise today. We had only .01" of rain in August, so this was welcome. We had lots of low lying, dark clouds set in this morning. I took a few photos of them and then compared them to the pictures in my National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Weather. It turns out that they were Nimbostratus Opacus. They did not provide a lot of rain, but it was an enjoyable break from the 90's we had been experiencing. I actually ran my air conditioner while watching football in October....this is not acceptable.

The weather in the desert can be like this. Rain shadow effects here are significant. With the Owyhee Mountains to our west, we frequently get robbed of big weather in Boise. However, this system was coming directly from the south to the north. However, getting over all the mountains in Nevada with the Ruby's and Jarbidge being the final obstacles, a lot of energy was lost by the time it reached us. So, it make for a pretty day with a lot of nice formations on the ridge line of the Boise Mountains.

So, Nimbostratus Opacus was my best bet for the clouds that I was viewing. However, my field guide states that these clouds provide steady and constant rain. I know that this is not always true, but we did not get any rain out of these today. If you have a better I.D. on these clouds, let me know.