How long will I survive?

golok

golok

Joined
Oct 20, 2000
Messages
4,453
Picture this: I am stuck in the Mojave Desert. I am a city slicker. I know nothing about surviving in the desert.

I don't have anything usable with me, except the clothes I am wearing. I am middle-aged.

I am afraid. It is getting dark. I don't know where I am going. In one word: LOST!

Now, how much time do I have before I lose consciousness? In other words, will I check out of this world in 24 hours due to severe dehydration, or worse, poisonous snake bite?

Any tips of increasing my chances of surviving the next 72 hours without succumbing to extreme fear and horribly harsh conditions?

Remember, I am just a city slicker, absolutely zero experience with the outdoors.

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Make Love your strongest weapon. Compassion your shield and forgiveness your armour.
 
My experience in the desert is limited to a three day hike in the Grand Canyon. I was not as prepared as I should have been and only credit the people I was with and God for getting out alive. I got heat exhaustion on the first day. If I had been alone I would have been a goner. The desert is no place to fool around about, only go with someone experienced with desert travel.
 
To get into the desert there must have been a vehicle. Stay with the vehicle/plane.

Don't exert yourself by fretting and wandering about.
Conserve any water from any source, radiator, water cans.
Stay warm at knight; keep out of the sun during the day.
Light a illuminouse fire during the night, petrol/gas and seating material. Black smokey one by day, spare tire.
Use a mirror to flash passing aircraft, even airline jets.
There is more but that is a start.

No nothing, then you can only try to walk out by night and hold up during the day. Choose a bright star, check it doesn't move, and walk trying not to go in a circle.

Pray.
 
Based on the "rule of 3s" you have three days until dehydration finishes you off. For 'city slickers' it usually takes less
smile.gif
. In the described situ (LOST with ZERO knowledge/experience) there is not much you can do but pray for the rescue to arrive in time. The good news is that you have time to reflect.
BTW, does anyone know when the vultures start circling? Pre- or post-mortem? That might give some hint to the search party. Just an idea...

Heck, am I sarcastic or what!? Sorry, I can't help my sorrow over not seeing tonight's survival episode on Travel Channel.

HM back to work..

 
The cold nights will get you first unless you manage to run off a cliff in a fit of panic. In that case it would be the realization that you just did something that (dumb).
 
There are an awful lot of people in southern California so I would concentrate on being conspicous over covering a lot of distance. If you build big fires there is a significant chance that someone will come to put it out or complain.

Unless it is midwinter your first concern for shelter will be to find or make shade. Don't cook yourself sitting in a car on a hot day. Remove material from the car and make a shade. Floor mats are good for this.

The poisonous snakes in southern California are rattlesnakes. With reasonable care you shouldn't get bit. They will make warning sounds, back up slowly. Don't go climbing around rocks. Carry a long stick. Make noise as you travel, don't surprise a snake. Do be careful in the morning of what might slither under your vehicle. If you take your shoes off, shake them out in the morning. The southern California scorpions are small, but unpleasant. Tarantulas are mostly amusing, but should not be played with.

If you're stuck in a nasty hot place with nothing to burn you might want to get out the way you got in. Most likely you got there by car. Note what your tread pattern looks like. Follow your own tracks back to a paved road. Don't strike out cross-country if you don't see structures or water.

 
I'd consider radiator fluid to be a poor choice for drinking water. Antifreeze is very toxic, except for the propylene glycol versions. Since you won't be sure what was used last winter I'd save the radiator for last and then use a solar still for distilation.

Take care,

Mike
 
don't worry, if you loose that Super Bowl bet and can't pay your bookie/loan shark, you won't be dumped in the Mojave alive, unless he REALLY likes you.

it gets cold quickly at night in the desert, you will need some way to keep warm.

in the summer, it gets really damn hot in the desert durring the day, trying to do anything outside between 10 am and about 8 pm durring july or august is really nasty and if you exert yourself then, you can become very dehydrated in much less than 3 days.

there are plenty of things in the average car to burn, gas, oil, upholstery, floor mats, tires. make enough smoke during the day and someone will probably come check it out.

radiator water is probably a bad idea, most antifreeze will destroy your kidneys.

in some areas there are Tinajas or "tanks". basicly just a depression in the rock, in a shady area where water can be found, sometimes even during the height of summer.

some cacti have enough water in them to drink, but you will need some kind of knife-like tool to get to it, bashing it open with a rock might work, but you might loose a bunch of water.

solar "stills" where you dig a hole and cover it with some plastic don't work very well, you will probably loose more water sweating to dig it that you will ever get out of it, unless there has been a recent storm.

vegetation "transpiration stills" can be a little more productive with much less effort, for this you need a large plastic bag, prefrably clear, to enclose some kind of green, leafy plant and catch the moisture that it gives off.
 
Wow, I didn't know there were so many desert warriors out there.

Thanks for the valuable info. About snakes, well, they better not get near me. I may just eat them, and drink their blood.

Over in the East, there is a bunch of guys who like to drink the bile of Cobras. They have this funny notion that the cobra's bile makes them more virile.

Stuffed tarantulas make nice trophies but not so cute when they are dancing on your feet.

The part about cactus is a good tip. I shall keep in mind the other commonsense stuff about not wandering off unless one can see some structures in the distance. Hope those buildings in the distance are not mirages, or my own hallucination.



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Make Love your strongest weapon. Compassion your shield and forgiveness your armour.
 
Propylene glycol is toxic, also.

All stars appear to move, from east to west,
like the sun, except when almost directly north and low on the horizon, when you're in the northern hemisphere, like Polaris, the North Star, or directly south, when you're down under. If you look for a prominent star overhead and watch it a while, you'll know approximate direction.
If you can recognize Polaris and associated stars, Big and Little Dippers, Cassiopaea,
you'll always be able to recognize north at night ( in northern hemi.; in southern, know about the Southern Cross).
All you need is a clear sky and no mountains in the way.
This link, if it works, will give you some star charts. Remember, a star chart is for a specific place at a specific time. It's constantly changing.

http://www.tecepe.com.br/cgi-win/cgiasvis.exe

Put the cursor on the star, and it will be identified.

Walter

[This message has been edited by wa (edited 01-26-2001).]
 
Just for emphasis: DON'T DRINK RADIATOR WATER AT ALL ! !

Not only is antifreeze toxic (it only takes about a spoonful to kill you). I is also a horribly painful way to die (sharp crystals form in your kidneys and cut them up causing you to bleed internally).

You could use radiator fluid to cool things, but be careful not to ingest.

Trivia point: A few years ago they captured the last remaining wild California condors so that they could run a captive breeding program. When they released the first condors from their breeding program they lost one (or two?) poisoned from drinking radiator fluid someone drained at a mountain turn-out.



[This message has been edited by Jeff Clark (edited 01-26-2001).]
 
You've managed to set up a situation that you most probably WON'T survive, but things to do to increase your chances are...

Even cactus that are not exactly water bearing are a source of moisture.
The interior of the red bulb on prickly pear cactus (dependant on time of year) is edible and palatable. (Not my favorite taste, but not so bad that you want to spit it out.)

Move at night, seek cover from the sun in daylight, look for moving lights at night.
Light is visible for a long way at night in the desert and the glow of headlights should be visible for many miles.
IF you kill a snake, immobilize and remove the head before you do ANYTHING else. "Dead" snakes can still bite you. Be very careful while eviscerating the snake, as you will not have water to wash out offal and you don't need to add eating contaminated meat to your problems.
Rattlesnake is VERY bony meat, chew VERY well. Remember that even though you're adding fluids to your body when you consume the snake, the salts will make you FEEL thirsty.
If you find water, check for animal tracks at the water's edge. If they're not drinking it, give it a pass. If it tastes "funny" don't drink it.
As the sun sets and it starts to turn cold, look for large rock formations. They can hold the heat of the day many hours into the night.
DO NOT lay on the sand or try to bury yourself for warmth. It will act as a heat sink and draw heat from your body faster than the air around you.

I'm reminded of the young Marine who died out in the Mojave several years ago.
His unit was leaving 29 Palms to return to Camp Pendleton CA.
He was assigned duty as a road guard and ground guide at a cross roads out in the desert.
Through a GROSS oversight on the part of his Commanding Officer, no one was assigned to pick him up.
When the unit returned to Camp Pendleton, they immediately began a 72 hour pass and 5 days had passed before it was discovered he was missing.
He had remained at his post, hoping that someone would return for him rather thay trying to walk out. (He did the right thing, it was far too far to walk out.)

He had, in his final moments, neatly folded his field jacket and placed his helmet atop his boots, then he laid down and died.
He survived for four days without food or water. It just wasn't long enough.
Semper Fi Marine.

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Tráceme no sin la razón, envoltura mi no sin honor
 
Ken,

Your story about the marine jolted my memory about a similar story that took place about 15 years ago or thereabouts.

A Japanese soldier was finally persuaded to leave the Philippine jungle about 36 years after the Second World War had ended.

Apparently, he didn't want to believe that the Allies had won and he definitely didn't want to surrender. So he made the jungle his home for more than three decades.

The amazing thing is he managed to survive alone for so many years in a "hostile" environment. That should say something about one man's survival instincts.

Naturally, he eventually returned to Japan to be welcomed as a hero.

I don't know if that ex-soldier ever did write a book about his jungle experiences. If he did, there would be a lot of interesting lessons to learn from him about survival.

 
There was indeed a book and there was quite a bit on jungle survival. Alas I don't remember the title. I last saw it in Crown Books.

He seemed a man of good humor and sense, not at all what I'd imagined someone in his position.
 
Hi Tallwingedgoat,

If you can recall the title of that book later on, be sure to email me, pronto.

Thanks.



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Make Love your strongest weapon. Compassion your shield and forgiveness your armour.
 
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by golok:
A Japanese soldier was finally persuaded to leave the Philippine jungle about 36 years after the Second World War had ended.

The amazing thing is he managed to survive alone for so many years in a "hostile" environment.</font>
Click to expand...

He wasn't exactly on an uninhabited island (unlike som others who were and also managed a long time), was he? So in his case it was both a matter of him being able to use some of the local population's resources, and aviod getting captured, but he was seen and apparently communicated with people, since in the end he did surrender when his old commander was brought there to tell him the war was over.
Here, that wouldn't have worked either, as the rules clearly said that "any message which says the resistance is to cease is false".
 
The Japanese soldier's name was Hiroo Onoda. I searched on "Japanese soldier Phillippines" and found his name. Here's the info on his book, copied from amazon.com:

No Surrender : My Thirty-Year War (Bluejacket Books)
by Hiroo Onoda, Charles S. Terry(Translator) (Paperback - October 1999)

I remember a couple of programs about him, probably on the History Channel. I believe he scavenged materials from trash dumps and improvised all sorts of things- tools, utensils, etc. I think he also raided gardens of the rural folks, but I'm not sure about that. The Phillippines is heavily populated, after all.

I also remember hearing about the the young Marine who was left behind and died. Very tragic.

Hope this helps.

Bill
 
I have a question regarding the above tips about relying on cacti for moisture. I read somewhere, much to my surprise, that saguaro cactus is toxic. In the event I got the name wrong, or someone does not know what they are, I mean the tall ones that are often depicted with their branches thrust towards the sky. Does someone know whether this is definitely true or not true???

The marine story is tragic! The first mistake was posting someone there without the appropriate, independent, means to leave. If that could not be provided, he should have not been left in the first place. [See my presumption below.] Since I do not know the situation, it is possible this was provided and just failed.

I usually presume that mistakes are easy to make and try to provide accordingly. For instance, when I leave somewhere, I always try to look back. It is all too easy to forget and leave something behind. Of course, this is also one of Ron’s tips, to avoid getting lost.
 
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