Teach the inexperienced about outdoor survival
Dennis L. Clay
The camping season has arrived. Oh, I know the traditional camping season begins on Memorial Day weekend. However, the weather is forecast to be in the 70s and 80s for the next 10 days, so camping is fair game in my world.
Camping means traveling to familiar or unfamiliar areas of the world and staying at a campsite in a tent, travel trailer, fifth-wheel or full-fledged recreational vehicle. Of course staying in an established and unmovable cabin is also camping.
No matter the destination, be it in the Columbia Basin, the Cascade Mountains or places in between, teaching survival skills to the inexperienced is necessary. Inexperienced means the six-year-old and the 57-year-old, both who have spent little time in the outdoors.
Campers at Potholes State Park may not consider survival skills a high priority, but a survival discussion while seated around a Potholes campfire is appropriate.
People floating the Winchester Wasteway have become lost. It is also possible for a youngster to go over a sand dune or two at the north end of Potholes Reservoir and become disoriented.
In the mountains, with trees and brush, the opportunity to become lost is more likely, just because the territory is larger.
There are a few basic ideas to teach each person in your group about what to do if they become lost. The first and foremost is to stay put, don't wander around, just stay put.
A man who has been a part of search parties during a career lasting decades tells the story of a man becoming lost. He was found after two nights alone. The lost man established a camp and waited to be found. It was such a comfortable camp, a few of the rescuers helped the lost person to civilization and the rest stayed at the campsite.
When lost, it is the person's job to continue to work toward improving the campsite and staying in one spot. Imagine a person stopping during a hike and finding himself alone. He begins to question the direction back to the vehicle and finally makes up his mind he is lost and should stay put.
He finds a good spot to make a debris shelter and gathers wood for a fire. A debris shelter is made from available debris, such as sticks, limbs, pine boughs, leaves and any and all similar items.
So the first night the shelter is a bit sparse because there wasn't much time before dark. Imagine a couple of six-foot long pieces of limbs leaning against a tree at a shallow angle. The rest of the debris is pushed up against and over these limbs. The shelter should be small, just large enough for the person to crawl in feet first. This will help conserve body heat.
But the fire is going and there is enough firewood to keep it burning throughout the night.
The hiker gets up the next morning and collects more firewood. He continues to look for debris suitable for improving the shelter, such as more pine boughs to place on the outside of the shelter.
The hiker should build a signal, such as a large SOS, in a nearby open area.
If this hiker was smart, he would have brought a little food and water with him, as much as he thinks necessary. If a water filter is in the pack, clean drinking water can be obtained from a nearby lake or stream during the entire ordeal.
Of course, every hiker, hunters and anglers should strive to be proactive and not become lost in the first place. Study the area where you will be hiking, so you know what to expect even before you take one step into an unfamiliar area. Google Maps allows us to study the entire world with a birds-eye view, so every hiker should study the trail he plans to hike on a given outing.
Take a GPS, which should work in most areas of the country, except, perhaps, in deep canyons and heavily wooded terrain.
Make sure to take fire-starting equipment along, even on a short hike. Throw one more candy bar in the pack than you deem necessary. Then relish it when it is the only food available.
Give everyone in your hiking party a whistle. Stress the importance of using it only during an emergency.
Purchase a two-way radio for each person and teach them to use it. They are relatively inexpensive these days and invaluable when needed. Imagine a family of four on a hike around a lake. The 7 and 8-year-olds are about to head into brush at the end of a 100-yard-long clearing. Mom picks up the radio and tells them to stop until Mom and Dad catch up.
There is much, much more to survival in the Great Outdoors. Entire books have been written about he subject. Stay tuned for more survival information one column at a time.
Until then, if you take from this column just one item of interest, make it the need to stay put when first learning you are lost. Make sure your children know this as well. This little bit of information may save their life.
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