Desert Survival Tips

[Linda Adams]

I ran across this site with tips for surviving in the desert. Might be useful for a thriller where the characters are stranded in the desert.

http://www.scottsdaleaz.gov/trails/survival.asp

[Maryn]

I saw the subject line and thought, At last, something I know a little about, having grown up in the Phoenix metro area. Maybe I can make a contribution for once!

Instead, a potentially useful link--thanks, Linda!--from my hometown. It doesn't mention that the nearby mountains tend to be approximately four times as distant as they appear...

Maryn, marvelling at how loud the Small, Small World music gets sometimes

[Good Word]

I took wilderness survival training for a week some time ago. Although, I have to say, if you don't maintain your skills, you lose them.

I made a bow drill, and with it, fire! It took the me the whole week. I still have the dang thing around here somewhere...

Lisa, who now prefers feather boas to digging up burdock root for a stir-fry

[Maryn]

Lisa, when I'm lost in the wilderness, I hope I'm with you!

[Linda Adams]

When I was in Saudi Arabia, I actually almost got lost at night because it was all flat. It's very disorienting!

[JLayne]

This is something that I know something about, and I have to say after spending a certain amout of time in the deserts of the middle east, drink lots of water, and sleep in the day, move at night... this accomplished two things, no heat stroke, and no hypothermia.... water is available in the desert, but it takes a certain tenacity to find it and even more to drink it...

[Julie Worth]

What? No cell phone?

[Leva]

Cell phones generally only work if you're line of site with a cell tower. Satellite phones are better, but very spendy.

I spent a fair amount of time a few years back doing desert photography in some remote places in the desert southwest. I carried a CB radio in addition to a cel phone (once cel phones became affordable to mere mortals) -- CBs are also not all that reliable, but in some areas you're more likely to eventually raise someone with a CB than you are to place a call with a cel phone.

I didn't agree with everything in this article. Some key points:

1. It is possible to DIE of TOO MUCH WATER. More likely you'll just end up sick to your stomach, with muscle cramps, a bad headache, and a loss of judgement akin to several beers ... Drink either half strength gatorade or munch salty snacks. The problem with travelling in a very hot environment is that you sweat out electrolytes, which plain water doesn't replace adequately. You end up with an electrolyte imbalance if all you're drinking is pure water.

2. Most people wouldn't know what "check footing" means. It means don't try to drive your sports car through soft sand. Or drive any car through running water deeper than a few inches unless you KNOW what you're doing. 99% of people don't know what they're doing. If you get water into an engine it ruins the engine. Plus, you're stuck.

3. Very important -- know where you're going, roughly how long it takes to get there, and any hazards along the way. This means talking to people who've driven the road before if you're not already very experienced with the general area. Hazards aren't always obvious; things like "if it rains the north end of that road is flooded and the south end's slick as snot and you can't get out until the road dries" or "every time the wind blows dead trees fall on the road" aren't exactly obvious on a map. If you're WALKING it is absolutely critical that you know where the next water source is and any unusual features of the trail.

4. You need more than 1 gallon of water per day in summer. I've drank 2-3 gallons per day on moderately warm days. (This is why electrolyte replacement is so critical.) It is physically impossible to carry more than a day's worth of water in summer and this simple fact kills multiple hundreds of people in Arizona every year.

5. It is equally important that you pack something to disinfect water. Water in the desert in summer tends to be nasty at best. Green, scummy, often full of bees and small insects probably animal poop. You drink it anyway -- AFTER pumping it through a filter, treating it heavily with iodine, or boiling the heck out of it. Being squeamish about "nasty" water can and has killed people. Nasty yucky gross water is the other reason you bring gatorade. (Which, incidently, you add to the water AFTER you treat it with the sterilization method of your choice.)

6. Watch for hazards. Snakes and scorpions are low on my hazard list, though they are out there. Snakebite might kill you if you couldn't get to the hospital within a few days. Scorpion stings just make you wish you were dead but are not likely to be lethal. Hazards include holes that can break your ankle, drop offs that can break your neck, old mine shafts, mama cows, spikey plants, broken glass and sharp rocks -- we have "carnivorous limestone" in some areas of Arizona, people farming crops they don't want you to know about, and the human element.

7. Good shoes and proper clothes are essential. Shoes need to be broken in and if you're prone to blisters, pack along bandaids and duct tape. Bandaid over the blister, duct tape over the bandaid.

Clothing should include pants (jeans or synthetic depending on the time of year and likely weather), long sleeve shirt, short sleeve shirt, windbreaker. At a minimum. More in winter. Shorts are a bad idea due to plants with thorns of varying descriptions. Shirt needs to cover your shoulders if you're fair skinned. Also a hat to protect your face.

8. Sunscreen. I can tell you in graphic detail just how badly a second degree sunburn hurts. I will never hike without sunscreen again, even on a mild March morning ... oh, and bug spray's a good idea too.

9. Also, people tend to push too hard during the hot part of the day -- often they leave too late in the morning. My pattern when hiking is to leave early in the morning (often before dawn), hike until it gets hot, crash somewhere for a nap and lunch, wait until evening, hike a few more hours, and call it a day.

Leva

[Medievalist]

My best dessert survival tip is to skip dinner, and have dessert first. After all, life is uncertain, and you could end up in the desert, without having your just deserts.

Next, start small, say, with a nice sorbet, and then to finish small, with a liquor.

In the middle, there should be chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate, followed as the penultimate item, coffee.

Oh, you said desert . . . oh, well, then umm, have dessert before you go there, because, you know, life is uncertain.