Archive for the 'Survival' Category

News from Oregon.

Burleigh emphasized how leaving extra supplies behind, even a water bottle, made the situation even more challenging.

“It sounds funny, but it’s so true. You gotta take those kind of considerations when going out in Mother Nature,” he said. “And if you’re not prepared for it, she’ll hammer you.”

What was planned as an overnight fishing trip in the Twin Lakes area in early May turned into a 17-day search.

Burleigh began hiking into the Twin Lakes area before he lost the trail. What ensued was more than two weeks of pure survival as search and rescue teams from throughout the Pacific Northwest attempted to find the 69-year-old.

Burleigh was due to return from his fishing trip on May 6, a Thursday. Friday morning, Stacy Burleigh started to get concerned.

More than 100 volunteers assisted in the search for Burleigh in the Calf Creek area, ranging from trained mountain rescue and ground searchers, K-9s to eyes in the sky via both plane and helicopter. That search began on Mother’s Day, based at the lower Twin Lakes trailhead.

Here’s a little more detail.

Burleigh said he got lost and the next day it snowed. He tried to find his way out but realized things were serious.

“I tripped and fell and hit this first log, bounced to the next log, lost my fishing pole, crushed the reel against my hip and smacked my head pretty hard,” Burleigh said.

After a few days lost, Burleigh said he lost a sense of time and was feeling disoriented.

“It’s uncomfortable, it’s cold, you’re hungry. You have a sense of not thinking clearly,” Burleigh said.

Burleigh said he drank his own urine and ate bugs to stay alive.

But wait.  Does this paint a slightly different picture?

His 17-day disappearance and the search effort that followed consisting of about 100 volunteers began as an overnight fishing trip, but Burleigh said everything took a wrong turn when he started down a trail that was supposed to be a quick hike and lost his way.

This was going to be an over-nighter?  We’ve discussed this before.  For any trip into the bush – any trip, including day hikes – I carry the following: [1] Big bore handgun, [2] flashlight, [3] fire starter, [4] 550 cordage, [5] water and container, [6] energy bars and maybe other food, [7] knife, [8] heavy rubberized poncho or at least a rain parka for cover from rain and a tarp for the night.

And I should start religiously carry a med kit.

It’s a wonder this guy is alive.

The length of the video is rather long, but you get to see most everything they did.

It’s not only a good OP, but if you happen to know it’s a well trafficked deer trail or turkey roost area, it would be good for hunting as long as you encamped before sunrise.

Mike has a number of recommendations, and especially interesting is the links he provides at the bottom of the video.  I have my own preferences (e.g., for hatchets), and I notice no link for bush saws.  But there’s a lot of good recommendations for comms, med kit supplies, water filtration, and other needful things.

It never changes from year to year.  It’s always the same.  A Hiker goes out in the woods in California and is haunted by mountain lions for a long night.

A Man goes hiking in Tennessee hasn’t been heard from in a week.

Know your topography.  Carry a compass.  Have maps.  Carry a heavy rubberized poncho.  Carry a parka.  Use high quality hiking boots.  Carry cordage (I intend to purchase Amsteel cordage rather than 550 cord).  Carry a large bore handgun.  Carry plenty of water and a filter.  Carry energy bars.  Carry a knife, and carry a headlamp or tactical light.  Carry fully redundant, independent means of fire start.

Even if you’re going out for the afternoon.  One afternoon can turn into a week alone.

This is very long, but worth every second of it.  Ed talks about using things around you in innovative ways.  He has learned to improvise, adapt and overcome in the worst situations imaginable.

Only Red Bull could give you something like this.

I wonder what he does for fun?

Oh good.  Another protracted Paul Harrell story.  Get a cup of coffee and sit back.

I have a family member who lives in Austin, Texas.  This is a video he sent me (he didn’t take it, but is near where this video was taken).  This video is a couple of days old.  This line was about a mile long as guessed by the videographer.  There are no more lines like that because the grocery stores are out of food.

The trucks haven’t been able to run, so the shelves are bare.  Worse, the water system is torn apart by freezing temperatures, and water is off to most of the city.  There is no potable water, there is no more food.  There is now a run on gasoline, and the stations are quickly running out their tanks.

Power is off throughout vast portions of Austin and in fact throughout much of Texas.  It would be easy to write an essay about the power situation, but denials that the rush to natural gas and windmills is at least partially responsible are wrong.

The windmills are frozen, and the CTs (Combustion Turbines) sit above ground.  They are frozen solid and cannot operate.  Solar panels are covered with snow and ice, and besides, wouldn’t be capable of supplying the industrial base with enough power even if they could operate.

While there is a lot of research in next generation nuclear (like Molten Salt reactors) occurring at ORNL and ANL, and that’s nice, it wouldn’t have been necessary to wait on that.  PWR (Pressurized Water Reactor) and BWR (Boiling Water Reactor) technology is mature and safe.

The problem is that no CEO wants to invest money in nuclear power because the tax incentives are so significant for solar panels.  But the only source of cheap, clean, mature energy that can supply an industrial base with power is nuclear.  Unless, of course, they intend to move the industrial base to China (which is in fact investing huge sums of money in nuclear) and then beg for scraps that fall from the master’s table.

My family member is safe and sound with copious supplies for everything, and I told him that the only people who would have been prepared for something like this is preppers.  He responded that people do in fact listen to the government and that had a warning come out in time to concern yourself with potable water, run water into bathtubs, get freeze dried foods, visit the grocery stores, get batteries, get medical kits, stock up on ammunition, get charcoal and be prepared to grill, have enough water to flush toilets, and so on and so forth, the people would have responded.

I told him that he had misunderstood what I said.  I meant that the only people who worry about preparations like this without being told to by the government is preppers, and that he was prepared because we talked about this sort of thing before.

He agreed.  Most of America is 24-48 hours from starvation and dehydration.  If the water system and/or electric grid goes down, people must be prepared for that.  Preparation isn’t just for the Northwestern redoubt, with all due respect to the folks at the Survival Blog.  In fact, it may be more difficult in an urban area like Austin than it would be in Idaho, weather notwithstanding.

I’ve used cotton soaked in Vaseline before as a fire starter, but usually kept it in some sort of jar.  I like the idea they present.

Field & Stream.

Even seasoned outdoorsmen are not immune to woods shock-the fear that accompanies spatial disorientation. You have to control the urge to panic and maintain some sense of inner peace. People who are lost progress from confusion to denial. They bend their mental map of where they think they are until it conforms to visible landmarks or their compass needle, and then they carry forward until they finally wake up to what their senses are trying to tell them that they’re lost. This is when panic hits. If you can recognize the sequence, you and a better chance of resisting the impulse to take those next potentially fatal steps.

Stop walking and establish a home base. If daylight permits, you can make forays to try to find a vantage, but mark a trail for your return. If you can’t regain your bearings after short walks in several directions, return to your home base and make camp, preferably in a lee with an overhead canopy.

I think this is the most important advice.  The other parts (about waiting for rescue) are debatable.

In fact, I wouldn’t even begin forays from home base.  If you’re lost and you know it, stop.  Set up camp.

Build a debris hut, lean to, or some sort of survival shelter, and begin collecting deadfall for firewood.

Better yet, it may end up being a wet night and you may die from exposure.  I’ve always recommended at least the following (even on a day hike): rubberized poncho, 550 cordage, flashlight, fire starter, large knife (or hatchet), pistol, parka, energy bars and potable water.

Water and food keep you alive and give you energy.  The poncho and paracord give you shelter from the rain.  The parka keeps you warm, the knife or hatchet gives you the ability to cut wood, and the fire starter prevents you from having to make fire by primitive means (or fail to do that because of dampness).  The pistol is for predators.

With these simple preparations, your chances of survival go up exponentially.  If you really want to be prepared, a cup for boiling water would be the final step in your preparations.