Bushcraft Basics, page 3
4. If you live in the city, you may have to go to your closet and regulate the light with the door and different-sized lights. (Don’t do this without explaining the concept to the other residents!)
5. As you sit, listen and use your senses. Remember, the only difference between daylight and darkness is that you have lost your sense of sight. You can still listen, smell, and feel the wind or weather on your skin. Make this a sensory experience and concentrate on using all your senses.
6. Take up astronomy if that is feasible, and go look at the stars. Learn how to tell directions by the constellations, and learn some of the history of celestial navigation. An activity that requires darkness is a good way to take your mind off your fears.
7. I’m not afraid of the dark, but I don’t like stumbling around in it, so there are always backup LED keyring lights in my pocket or attached to my coat zipper fob. Get a light that has an on-off switch, and preferably one that doesn’t work when it is squeezed. Otherwise, it may inadvertently turn on when you don’t want it to. This is bad news if the light is activated in your pocket and runs down the battery. The right keyring light can also provide about eight hours of illumination and may be enough to get you safely through the situation.
Overcoming a fear of the dark is nothing more than understanding why darkness makes you edgy, and then taking steps to become prepared. And everything done to increase preparedness for an unexpected emergency is a good thing!
Make a Plan to Survive
Flashback: “Why are we walking down the middle of the street?” my girlfriend asked. I didn’t answer, being busy scanning the situation. I didn’t let her hold my hand or take my arm. Up ahead, alongside the alley on the dimly lit, deserted street, a dark figure lounged. He was half-concealed in a door frame. Up ahead of him was another figure. This did not look good at all.
An urban survival situation can develop from an apparently harmless, routine activity. In this case, I took a date to a play and we were late leaving afterward. The performance had been at an obscure theater in a seedy, rundown section of Washington D.C. Leaving after the show, we took the wrong exit into the dead-end alley behind. The side door locked behind us before we could go back in. The scene before us was scary. The high-crime area was dimly lit by a street light, and there were all sorts of shadows and dark places on both sides of the street to conceal assailants. We started walking rapidly and my years of Taekwondo training kicked in.
I already had a self-defense plan, thanks to Dr. James Brockway, one of my Taekwondo instructors at Iowa State University. In class, we practiced multiple-attacker defense, and my intention was to maneuver any assailants into a one-on-one situation. Staying in the middle of the street eliminated any chance of a surprise attack.
As we drew even with the nearest person, I paused momentarily and he got the “Martial Arts Stare”—the one we practiced in sparring and for tournaments. It’s a kind of dead-pan look that betrays no emotion, but is designed to project a confident, “Don’t mess with me” attitude. After a moment, we resumed walking. The other figure looked away as we got near him.
Nothing developed from the situation, except a shaking in my knees!
Given a choice between traveling through a remote wilderness with wild animals, or a bad part of any big city, I’ll take wilderness every time. But most of us live in urban areas, and nowhere is a survival mindset more important. Urban and wilderness emergency situations have many commonalities. A plan can help you survive either. And you are most likely to have to use your bushcraft skills in a big city or town.
During an emergency, plan on traffic being stopped on the highways. The infrastructure may be damaged, and the streets will be jammed with people fleeing the city.
So here’s a possible scenario: An earthquake hits while you’re at work. The office walls start to shake and the pictures begin to fall. Alarms go off. Heads pop up above the cubicles, as your co-workers, with no idea of what to do, look around. Some will sit back down and get back to work.
Now what? Stay? Go? Logout, then leave? Ignore the situation?
Knowledge is key to survival, and you are prepared. You never thought: “This can’t happen to me.” You paid attention at the mandatory safety meeting about building evacuation. You read earthquake survival information from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Because of this preparation, you already have a survival mindset, a survival kit and a plan. You know where the stairs are, and the quickest way to get out of the building.
So, get out immediately. Ignore any jokes or jibes from the eighty percenters who don’t have a clue of what to do next. Don’t pay attention to the members of the ten percent who want to do something stupid. You are intent on survival, and that means getting out of the danger zone.
As I type this, I have a butane lighter in my pocket, a whistle, knife, fingernail clippers, LED flashlight, small knife, and magnesium stick on a belt clip, and a Swiss Army knife in my belt pouch. My wallet has firestarter, charcloth, and a signal mirror in it. This gear goes with me everywhere it’s legal, even though the eighty percenters tend to roll their eyes if they notice my stuff. I have carried this collection in the pocket of a suit coat, or in my briefcase or daypack, but it’s always with me.
Women can carry complete urban survival kits in their purses, and no one will ever be the wiser. After all, the earthquake could happen when you’re in a meeting or away from your desk.
If the earthquake happens right now, and I have to sprint for the door and can’t grab anything else, I have the minimum tools on me to make a fire and stay warm and signal for help.
In our office earthquake scenario, you may have to start using your survival tools immediately.
Here’s how the evacuation situation could hopefully work out:
1. Your survival mindset clicks in and you leave your desk as soon as possible and head for the nearest exit. If necessary, push past the people who are starting to congregate and mill around. Grab the first-aid kit from the break room on your way past.
2. If the lights go out, then your flashlight makes you the leader. In the darkness, people will look toward the bright light and wonder what to do next. There will be people with cellphone lights, but these tend to be feeble and don’t emit much light.
3. Blow your whistle loudly (this immediately makes you the perceived authority figure), and in a loud, matter-of-fact voice order everyone to remain calm and follow you quietly. (The eighty percenters still don’t have a clue. They’ll do whatever an authority figure tells them to.)
4. Your actions to organize an orderly evacuation may later win you a performance award and plaque from your company. But the immediate purpose of this organization is to make sure you make it to the exit, and that’s why you become the leader. If people panic, crowd around, or pile up around the door, nobody gets out.
5. Lead everyone in a quiet and orderly fashion down the stairs and out of the building. Don’t let anyone or anything distract you. Your immediate goal is to get out of the building before it collapses.
6. Once outside, gather everyone at the rally point mentioned in the safety briefing, and then assess the situation. Order everyone to stay out of the building, and if someone insists on going back, order them to stay put.
Everyone is now responsible for their own safety, and you have accomplished your major goal: getting out of the danger zone.
If it is safe to do so, and there is no smell of gas or chemicals, building a campfire in a safe open area might be the next order of business. The fire will serve as a focal point, and a gathering place, as you wait for emergency personnel to arrive. Also, gathering firewood from pallets, dumpsters, etc. will give people a focus while they wait for rescue. Depending on the severity of the earthquake, what happens next is hard to determine. For now, you’ll use the rest of your survival kit and training to make it through the emergency. This might mean you start walking home, or stay put and make a shelter to get people out of the elements. Someone may need medical attention. Find out who has taken a first-aid class and use the kit from the break room.
Now, you will need to use the rest of your bushcraft training and follow your “get home plan.”
Why “Heading for the Hills” Won’t Work
At virtually any bushcraft or preparedness event I go to, someone proclaims stockpiling food is a waste of money, and that when everything goes down, and society collapses, they will head out for the wilderness.
Their idea is that when a disaster strikes, everyone will have to fend for themselves. But these bushcrafters or survivalists will head for the wilderness and live off the land, apart from everyone else until the situation resolves itself.
That’s what they think.
Here’s the reality check: “heading for the hills” is impractical and foolhardy.
Here’s five reasons why you shouldn’t head for the wilderness:
1. Where will you go?
Wilderness is in short supply in the United States. Both coasts are densely-populated, and there just aren’t enough wilderness areas to go to during an emergency. Other wilderness or sparsely-populated areas, such as deserts and swamps, are uninhabited for a reason. Living conditions in some of these places would be too harsh for the average person to last long.
That leaves private land, and good luck getting access to that. Farmers and ranchers will probably be unwilling to let hordes of city refugees squat on their land, and these rural folks are traditionally well-armed.
2. How will you get there?
If you live near any major metropolitan area, it may be a several-hour drive under ideal circumstances just to get out of the city. (My record high commute home in Washington D.C. was six hours to go eight miles. And that was because of just one accident that jammed up the Beltway. In another instance, I got stuck on the New Jersey Turnpike for six hours because a crane had toppled over, blocking everything. It took another crane to remove it.)
If the survival situation develops from a natural disaster like an earthquake, hurricane, tornado, or flood, the bridges may fail and roads may be covered with debris and thus be impassable. Your carefully-packed vehicle may not even be able to get out of the garage.
Wilderness areas are remote, hard to get to, and not that commonplace. Chances are, the roads to these areas may be blocked or impassable.
If you can’t drive on the roads, that leaves walking or some other alternative transportation. You will join hordes of unprepared people going somewhere. These crowds will be easy pickings for robbers or gangs.
And what about your gear? More than two-thirds of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, according to the Food Action and Research Center, and most Americans couldn’t carry a loaded backpack anywhere. Can you realistically haul enough of your gear to effectively survive?
3. You think you’re going to be the only one out there?
Flashback: It was the opening of elk season in the Idaho backcountry, several years ago, and there was almost a traffic jam at the trailhead. My hunting party was about twenty-five miles from the nearest town of Yellow Pine, Idaho, and there was one entry point into the Salmon Challis National Forest and millions of acres of wilderness.
Outfitters and hunters waited to unload and then park their vehicles. The situation seemed unreal; here we were, nearly fifty miles from the nearest highway, in the middle of one of the most isolated wilderness areas in the lower forty-eight, and parking was at a premium! My brother Mike counted fifty horse trailers.
As mentioned, the entry points of wilderness areas are crowded during opening days of hunting and fishing seasons. What will happen when thousands of refugees or unprepared people hit the roads and try to flee following some disaster?
There will undoubtedly be groups of unprepared people at these backcountry bottlenecks who will be depending on whatever they can beg or take from you.
4. Going camping is fun; survival living isn’t.
Unless you’re a hermit, an introvert who hates people, or just plain anti-social, the isolation of a faraway wilderness will soon become oppressive. People are social animals, which is why it’s no coincidence that solitary confinement is used as a punishment in overcrowded prisons, or that loneliness is such an awful feeling.
After a few days or weeks of isolation, you’ll probably be looking for other people just to have someone to talk to.
5. Living off the land?
Wild animals aren’t stupid. Hunting pressure will either force them to leave the area, or they will be killed off to the point where they can’t reproduce and replenish their population.
Responsible and regulated sport hunting and fishing guarantees that the wildlife populations can be sustained, and their habitat preserved. Unregulated killing will soon decimate or destroy some species of wild fish and animals.
There are reasons why we have hunting laws. During a catastrophic event, there will be scumbags who see their chance to slaughter game animals, or dynamite schools of fish. I don’t foresee the game animals lasting long.
Besides, trying to maintain your body’s needed caloric intake from fish or wild game meat is really, really hard. Just about any weight-loss diet has fish in it because it is a low calorie food. The same with foraged plants, tubers, and fruits. The big problem with foraging would be to avoid burning more calories than you harvest!
There are other reasons why this head-for-the-hills mentality isn’t viable for most people. These are just the most obvious. Don’t base your emergency survival plans on something that might not work. Do your homework now to come up with a practical disaster plan.
Ten Survival Items Apartment Preppers Need
Suppose you live in an apartment with limited storage space—what are some of the first things you need to be prepared for an urban emergency?
One reason I love the wild, open spaces of the West is because I was once an apartment dweller in downtown Washington D.C. After that experience of dense populations, jam-packed highways, and dependency on urban infrastructure, I can better appreciate clean air and wide open spaces. But I believe urban apartment dwellers should prepare for storms, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc. too.
Even as a 1980s city dweller, I always had a backpack filled with camping gear, and it was ready to go on a moment’s notice. We didn’t call them “bug out bags” back then, and some people thought it was weird to have one!
But after several years in my first apartment, I realized an apartment-sized kit was needed. It had to be easily accessible for urban blackouts. So, I gathered supplies and packed them in a five-gallon, plastic bucket with a lid.
Suppose you live in an apartment in an area with the potential for natural disasters. (Which is everywhere!) Storage room is at a premium, but you can start collecting a few supplies for you to get by for a couple of days when the power goes out. Or if you have to evacuate from a tropical storm, hurricane, or flood warning, you’ll quickly have what you need to throw in the car.
Here are some items that can make life a lot easier after a disaster:
1. Five-gallon plastic bucket with lid: This will serve as a storage container, a water bucket, or even an emergency toilet. In the case where the toilet still flushes, the bucket can be used to haul water to fill the tank. Many survival tools can be stored in the bucket until they are needed. Bottom line: every apartment needs a good bucket, but most don’t have one.
2. Spare batteries, extra toilet paper, and paper towels: No brainer. You can compress paper towels and toilet paper for almost no weight with a big return. Remember, you may have to evacuate and people rarely remember toilet paper in the rush to get out.
3. Backpacking stove: A lightweight backpacking stove will give you a burner to cook food and boil water. Any stove that relies on a flame will produce carbon monoxide, so make sure the cooking area is adequately ventilated, next to an open window. Also, make sure there is a fuel supply easily available. For example, propane canisters may be hard to come by, whereas denatured alcohol may be easily found. Check out your local hardware, home improvement, and backpacking stores for potential fuel sources and stock up.
4. Dehydrated food: Include a three-day supply for each person. The shelf life on some of these foods is ten-to-fifteen years, so you don’t need to worry about spoilage. Get the kind of dried foods that only need to have water added, and that don’t have long simmering times. They make some pretty good meals these days. Look for ones that have no preservatives or additives.
5. Crank cell phone charger: I bought a simple crank charger for about fifteen dollars. It will recharge my cell phone and laptop, so communications can continue. Remember those scenes on TV when Hurricane Sandy wiped out the Jersey shore and folks were paying big bucks to charge their cell phones at a local store? Don’t be one of those people.
There are also some very efficient solar chargers and batteries on the market that can power anything from a phone to a television. I have several of these and as long as the sun is out, I can charge batteries.
As long as the sun shines, this solar panel can convert sunlight into energy, and can charge a phone, laptop, light, or any number of electric things.
6. Crank or solar-charged flashlight: Batteries wear out, so get a source of light that can be recharged. You’ll have plenty of time when the electricity is out to keep the flashlight cranked up! Solar charged lighting tools or generators might be an option in some areas. There’s a lot of solar technology these days that can power many of your needs for a few days.
7. Candles and lamps: Interior lighting might be a major problem, especially during the winter months when it starts to get dark at about five thirty in the evening. Hit the thrift stores and buy whatever candles they have. I keep packs of white, short candles and glass hurricane lamps to project the light. Kerosene or oil lamps are another option. Check out hardware stores for the small oil candles that burn for days. These lighting sources are incredibly reliable and won’t break. If you need to loan a light to a neighbor during a power outage—and you will—some candles or a lamp will be greatly appreciated.
