Ep. 42: Giant Thorns, Eating Succulents, Being Bushy, and Essential Survival Skills for Hunters
45:05 Share

Check engine light on? Take the guesswork out of your check engine light with O'Reilly Veriscan. It's free and provides a report with solutions based on over 650 million vehicle scans verified by ASE certified master technicians. And if you need help, we can recommend a shop for you. Ask for O'Reilly Veriscan today. O, O, O'Reilly Auto Parts.

You ever get that feeling, the walls closing in, the concrete jungle suffocating you? You crave some wide open spaces, the chance to connect with nature, maybe in a spot all your own. Well, head over to land.com. They've got ranches, forests, mountains, streams, you name it. Search by acreage. You can search by location. You can search by the kind of hunting and fishing you're dreaming of. Land.com. It is where the adventure begins.

Market House has the cleanest, leanest, juiciest meat and seafood shipped to your home overnight. Expect the service of a local butcher and the convenience of a large supplier. Unlike many online butchers, you can grab just one meal's worth or lock in for a subscription box. Choose from grass-fed and grass-finished beef, American Wagyu, free-range poultry, grass-fed lamb, wild-caught king crab, seafood, and more.

and more. For 15% off your first order, use code COUNTRY at checkout. Just visit markethouse.com. That's M-A-R-K-E-T-H-O-U-S-E dot com. And use the code COUNTRY.

As a guide and hunter, I've spent thousands of days in the field. This show is about translating my hard-won experiences into tips and tactics that'll get you closer to your ultimate goal, success in the field. I'm Remy Warren. This is Cutting the Distance. Welcome back and congratulations. If you're listening to this podcast right now, that means that you've survived another week of pandemic.

Two thumbs up, which is great because this week we're talking all things survival. So what are we going to cover? Biting the head off rattlesnakes, drinking your own urine? Not necessarily, but you should know how to survive or at least have the skills and confidence to get out of a hairy situation or at the very least wait the night out if need be.

Honestly, hunting can take you to some remote country a long way from roads and civilization, but that's why we love it. However, there are some inherent dangers involved in the pursuit. Doing this for a living, I've found that most people are underprepared in the bush skills department. Not just for survival, but also comfort and peace of mind.

I have a philosophy that there's no such thing as an unprepared night out. With the right skills and know-how, you can be prepared for anything. So this week's podcast is going to help give you the information needed to feel the same way. But first, I want to share the story of a trip alone in the African bush. It's a story of giant thorns eating succulents and pursuing wild meat.

I personally really believe that hunting and just general outdoor skills go hand in hand. I think one of the best compliments I ever got from someone was just, we were out and about on a hunting trip and the guy said to me, he'd actually been on a lot of trips with a lot of people and he said, you know, there's just something about you. He said,

One thing that strikes me is you're very, I don't know how to say it, bushy. Just having, and I knew exactly what he meant. He meant that I have a lot of just general outdoor skills where no matter the situation, no matter what we got in, he felt safe. And I feel a lot of that comes from

the way that I interact with the outdoors, but also just kind of pushing my skills and testing my abilities all the time. This particular story takes place in South Africa. I was over there for a few months doing some work and visiting some friends, doing some filming and just hunting around. And while one of my friends had some guiding work, I decided I was going to go out on this big piece of property that he owned and just kind of do my own thing, do some solo hunting and

But what I really wanted to do is just kind of live off the land in a place that I'm not familiar with. I didn't really have a cell phone. I just kind of wanted to go out. I had my tent and my basic camping hunting gear, but nothing real crazy and just kind

Just kind of live off the land. So before I went out, I met up with some local guys, some indigenous people of the area and kind of just helped me understand some of the plants and survival tactics of the area, things that I could survive on and use while I was out there.

I really wanted to be self-sufficient. I wanted to hunt for my food, forage for my food, and then, you know, just enjoy the African savanna or chaparral, I guess it would be. I'm kind of a mix between desert and forest, very similar terrain to something you might find on Lake

the inland areas of California or something like that. Very similar to that. But I thought, okay, so I went out, I learned a few different plants that some of the natives use to survive on a lot of succulents. One you actually see in stores a lot, they call it elephant brush or, um,

you know, just so many different kinds of, of plants and other things. So I got set up, I picked this good spot and, you know, my buddy just went off to work. I think, I can't remember if he had a 10 day hunt that he was guiding. And so I kind of had the run of the place walking around for as long as I needed. I actually had a four wheeler there if I wanted to rip around or get out of there, but it broke down the first day anyways. So I was just pretty much on foot from there, which suited me just fine. Um,

So the whole plan of the hunt was there was some kudu in the area. There was what I was really interested in maybe kind of figuring out some warthogs or some bush pigs at night. Just whatever I really found. Bush bucks are pretty fun to chase. Some plains game. But really I just kind of was like camping, hanging out, living off the land, eating whatever I could find and

interested in some of the plant life, some of the animal life, doing some hunting as well. And I was actually filming for Solo Hunter as well. So I figured, okay, I'm going to self-film this. It doesn't have to be a full-on survival, whatever, naked and afraid style, but that's not the point. It's just to go out to enjoy myself and kind of test whatever skills I have. So one of the days I was actually out and I had my bow and my rifle with me

How did it go? I was actually looking for this. Kudu came out in this little opening way across the valley. And if you don't know, Kudu is like an elk-sized animal, big spiral horns.

Really cool animals. And for me, I was just kind of thought, oh, cool. I'm just kind of sneaking around the African bush with my bow and, you know, get over there and end up not really making anything happen. But as it panned out, I thought, okay, well, I'm going to work my way back toward camp and try to get to camp right around dark, still familiarizing myself with the area. I didn't really have any GPS or anything like that, but I, you know, there's enough landmarks and everything. I could easily find my way back.

So I get back, it's kind of toward camp and I decide, oh man, I come across this, this downed, I guess it was probably like an acacia type tree, real thorny tree. And it had a, it was down and dead. And I thought, oh, perfect. I'm going to need to build a fire tonight. There wasn't a lot of good wood where I was at. And so this, this dead tree is going to be perfect. So I'm breaking branches down from this tree.

And I grabbed this one big branch, just like the tree to fall in. And this branch is up a little bit higher. And so I grabbed this branch and I'm pulling on it to snap it. Cause I'm just going to get a big old arm full of firewood. And as it breaks, the force of it swung that stick is like a pretty good size stick, baseball bat style swing straight into my leg. Well, if you know about these Acacia trees, they've got massive, I would say like three, four inch type thorns on them. And they,

Of course, that thing hit my leg and just buried that thorn right into my leg. And I'm like, oh crap, I'm out here by myself. I've got no phone. You know, it's dark now. And I just like, it was a stinger for sure. So I'm thinking, all right, cool. Maybe you saw this solo episode. It's an older episode, but I grabbed my Gerber multi-tool. I'm just like, sweet, I'll just pull this thorn out of my leg.

So I go to start pulling it out and like, it is not budging. And that thing hits so hard, it buried itself into the bone. And then with the way that it buried, it kind of created this suction. So I'm pulling as hard as I can. Now this thing is not coming out. Finally, I got it kind of worked it out of the bone, but I was afraid of breaking it off. I get it pulled out, actually filming the thing. I'm like underwear shot, pliers, dark.

alone in Africa style, pull this thorn out. I'm like, all right, sweet. Now I got a little ways back to camp, carry whatever firewood I have, get my fire started. And I luckily I had my first aid kit. I put some antiseptic stuff on it. It's pretty sore and tender for a while. So I took a few like Advil or whatever have you, and then went to bed. I'm not sure if it was the thorn in my leg or the who knows what, maybe too much

I took some kind of, it was actually, it was an Advil. It was something that I bought there, but I remember just having like a strange hallucination night about some strange, I don't even know what it was just. And then I finally fell asleep hearing the baboons screaming outside the tent going after each other. I think there was a bean pod tree that I happened to be camped right underneath that night, which I didn't realize the monkeys were coming in and eating these like bean pods and

And I didn't even notice it when I set up my tent. And sure enough, it's like that's where they wanted to be. And I kind of realized there wasn't many other trees similar to this tree. And I just happened to have my tent right underneath it. So middle of the night, I mean, I wake up and it's just like chaos out there.

baboons making crazy noises, little vervet monkeys making crazy noises, all kind of congregating at these trees, fighting over these little bean pods that are all around my tent. I'm trying to scare everything away. I've got my gun right there. Like what's going on, man? I don't want one of these baboons ripping through my tent, which I actually ended up moving a little bit later on, finding a little bit more suitable camping spot. So after that happened,

I was like, all right, you know, just take it easy. You know, you're out here for a while. Don't do anything too stupid.

But at this point, I just really haven't had any meat yet. So I'm eating these succulents, different little bushes, plants. Also, I watched the monkeys actually eat those bean pods. And I thought, yeah, dude, that might be okay. So I tried one. It's pretty bitter. But I figured it's probably safe if the primates can eat it. But I decided to actually just boil them. And those were not bad. They're fairly good. I also found some...

like prickly pears. I didn't even realize that there were prickly pears there. I cut into a couple of prickly pears and it had like this white sap, which I thought, nah, white sap and cactuses generally kind of stay away. The prickly pear that we have in the Southwest that we eat has clear sap, but there was another prickly pear there that looked a little bit different. And I cut into that one and it had like the clear sap is very familiar to what I'd seen in

southwest US, Arizona and everything like that. So I cut some of that up, would cook some of that. It's pretty good. It's kind of like a bell pepper type flavor. Stalking along this little road then, you know, I'm like, all right, I'm living off these plants, which is fine. I was doing pretty good, but I thought, man, it'd be great to have some steak. And then sure enough, this little duiker comes out and it's just this tiny little antelope. I'd say it's like the size of like a super large jackrabbit and

This one was pretty small. You know, at this point, it's getting starting to get dark. It's pretty close. I draw my bow back and he caught the movement and turned toward me.

I'm like, all right, this is kind of, it's not necessarily survival mode. I had food that I was eating just wild plants. Oh yeah, that's called speck boom or elephant plant. It's just like this. It's a succulent that you'd see at a store. I actually had one in my house after this trip that I kind of kept there just as a reminder of eating so much speck boom, but it's got the sour apple taste. You could probably find it at like a succulent shop or whatever, but

but it's got this sour apple taste, like pretty good texture. It's not bad. But when I saw that diker, I thought, oh, fresh meat, that's what I want. So I draw back, thing turns kind of toward me. I released the arrow and they're so fast that it actually spun around and I hit it perfect quartering away, ran into the bush, but I didn't,

It kind of looked like maybe I hit it back just the way that I saw the arrow and I started to look and couldn't find it. So I pulled out of there, went to camp, thought, oh man, what are the odds that it's, you know, not going to get eaten by something else? Luckily enough, when I went back the next morning, I found it right there, not very far from where I left, but there's just no moon. My light battery was kind of pretty dim and going out. And I just thought, well, I'll just go back in the morning. And sure enough, it turned out it was a cold night. It was winter time. Cooked up the meat and

And there's just like nothing better on those days where you've just been eating random plants you find to have some fresh camp meat.

And that's, to me, just kind of getting back to the basics. It's not looking for the biggest animal. It's not anything other than just kind of honing and testing my outdoor skills, finding some plants I can feed on, being comfortable in the wild, doing something alone in a new and unfamiliar area, you know, getting into a little bit of danger with the breaking the branch and a small kind of injury that could have been a lot worse, especially if it hit somewhere different.

It's not necessarily a survival story, but it's just a story of building outdoor skills that if needed, or I was in another spot, would come in very useful in a different scenario. A little bit of history on...

I would say my survival skills or abilities. I think that just like anything, there's a lot of things that need to practice. Now, I've been a part of search and rescue missions that have been successful. I actually found my wife in a search and rescue scenario. I ended up saving her life. And I probably should have told that story, but I've told that story on a couple other podcasts. You can find it and

And I just didn't really, it's one of those stories that takes a lot of, it's very emotional. It takes a lot of, a lot of telling, and I just didn't have the energy, honestly, to tell it right now. But I also didn't want to tell a search and rescue story because I wanted to tell a story of those times where I go out and hone my skills for the instances when you might need them the most.

And I've done that throughout my life, whether it's making shelters, practicing different types of bushcraft skills. Things that I liked to do in the summer growing up as a kid was create different hunting tools, create different cooking methods like starting fire, honing skills that I might need one day. Because the last thing you want in an actual survival or emergency is it to be the first time you're doing something.

It's probably not going to go as well as you think. You can think about it in your head all the time. And I'm not saying you have to go out and starve yourself or whatever, but it's a good idea to go out and test your skills a little bit, to learn some skills, to practice these things. And that's just where I'm coming from. So that's why I wanted to tell a story about...

just being out in the wild with the bare minimums, living off the land and honing my skills. Now you may not have to go that extreme, but I'm going to give you some survival tips. We're going to talk about survival and I'm going to talk about the things that I think you need to know and the things that I think you need to do or practice with and even have fun with.

So when I think about survival, growing up, I actually learned about desert survival at a fairly young age. We had taken classes on desert survival and even through actually our elementary school where I grew up, we

We had to do a desert survival course. And I think that that is probably one of, I don't know if they still do that in schools. Probably not. It's probably something that was lost in everything that goes on now. But it's something that is extremely beneficial to understand and know and get some like guidance and practice to start out. So I'm going to be that guide for you today.

But when I think about survival, there's this adage in... I mean, there's so much stuff you can look up now on the subject. When I was growing up, this was just... There was one book...

It was like an encyclopedia on survival. And I had that thing and I would flip through that book and literally try everything in it. And I think over the course of my life, I have done everything in that book at least once, probably multiple times. But if we're just talking about survival, we're going to talk about the rule of three. So it's something where they say the things you can't live without with. So they go three minutes without air.

Three hours without shelter. That could be in like harsh conditions. Three days without water. And then three weeks without food.

So if you think about, okay, the basic tenets of survival, the thing as hunters, especially we think about is like, oh, I'm going to go get some food because it seems to me like hunger is that thing that kind of drives you that you're always thinking about daily. You drink water, but you don't really think about, yeah, I'm hungry or I'm thirsty. It seems like hunger is like one of the main things, but you can actually survive the longest without it.

Water is extremely important, but then you come down to, depending on the elements, shelter, protecting your body. So staying warm or cool, depending on the temperature that's out there. Now, I would add on one thing to that rule of threes. And in my opinion, it would be probably the most important would be like three seconds. You can't survive three seconds with bad judgment because sometimes decisions just come down to,

thought or a decision that you can make that could actually put you in a worse position. So when I think about survival or the idea of survival, it really comes down to slowing down, calming down, thinking it out. That's your first step in any situation. And if you look at search and rescue things that I've been involved with personally, as well as stories that I've read, most people have what they need to survive on them or with them.

But they just either panic, they don't really analyze and know their gear and the many uses of it, or they do something extremely what you would call stupid. And so by understanding your gear, understanding a few and knowing having a few skills, you're going to probably survive any situation that comes your way.

you know, as a guide or whatever. I think a lot of people that I interact with don't have the skills that I think like I would deem necessary or, you know,

Things that I think are pretty basic, a lot of people may not know. And I really believe that it's because a lot of people put their faith in technology now. And so many of these skills are lost. I'm sure generations before even me, when we didn't have phones or GPSs to rely on, we had paper maps and a compass or we had...

I mean, when I first started hunting alone, I would say, yeah, I'm going out. How long are you going for? Oh, two weeks. Okay, good luck. Have fun. If something happened in those two weeks, everything was on me to get back to civilization, to get back to where I was going, to be safe. You know, I would tell people where I go. We'd set up this kind of thing. But if something happened on day one, you know, two weeks is a long time before someone comes and looks for you. Yeah.

And now with GPSs, cell phones, satellite messengers, I think a lot of people just put all their faith in that basket. And I necessarily don't think that that's a good idea because I think first, if we're going to talk about survival, we got to say, well, what is survival? And most people think, well, it's getting lost and then surviving. Well, it's not always that. Survival is just a lack of things you need. So

As we talked, the rule of threes, you need shelter or a proper protection from the elements. You need water. You need food. It might not be getting lost. It might just be a lack of those things. It could be too hot out. If you're out hiking and it's 100 degrees and you're in the sun and then you're exerting yourself and you get heat stroke...

That could be a survival situation. If you're out and you're crossing a stream and it gets deeper and you get plunged in the water and come out and it's below zero and get too cold, that's a survival situation. You could just be hiking up, day hiking up a canyon

Or you drop your pack, you go after an elk up the ridge, and now you're out of water. These are all survival situations. So what we need to talk about is having the skills and knowledge to probably avoid those situations. But if you get into those situations, what you can do and what you have on you and knowing how to use and do those things to get out of whatever situation.

O'Reilly auto parts are in the business of keeping your car on the road. I love O'Reilly. In fact, the other day, I'm not kidding you. The other day I went into an O'Reilly auto parts looking for a part. I needed a different thing that wasn't really in there. You know, only like tangentially related to what they carry.

They did not have it, and the dude told me specifically where I would go down the road to find it is how nice they are. They offer friendly, helpful service and the parts knowledge you need for all your maintenance and repairs. Thousands of parts and accessories in stock, in-store, or online, so you never have to worry if you're in a jam.

They'll test your battery for free. If you need your windshield wipers replaced, a brake light fixed, or quick service, they'll help you find the right part or point you to a local repair shop for help. Whether you're a car aficionado or an auto novice, you'll find the employees at O'Reilly Auto Parts are knowledgeable, helpful, best of all, friendly. These guys are your one-stop shop for all things auto, do-it-yourself,

You can find what you need in-store or online. Stop by O'Reilly Auto Parts today or visit them at OReillyAuto.com slash MeatEater. That's OReillyAuto.com slash MeatEater. We've all seen plenty of gadgets and fads come and go, but here's one product that stood the test of time. Seafoam Motor Treatment. Lots of hunters and anglers know that seafoam helps engines run better and last longer.

It's really simple. When you pour it in your gas tank, sea foam cleans harmful fuel deposits that cause engine problems. I'm talking common stuff like hard starts, rough engine performance, or lost fuel economy. Sea foam is an easy way to prevent or overcome these problems. Just pour a can in your gas tank and let it clean your fuel system. You probably know someone who has used a can of sea foam to get their truck or boat going again. People everywhere rely on sea foam to keep their trucks, boats, and small engines running the way that they should the entire season.

Help your engine run better and last longer. Pick up a can of Seafoam today at your local auto parts store or visit seafoamworks.com to learn more. Fishing Booker is the number one platform for booking fishing charges worldwide. Search and compare over 36,000 fishing trips at your fingertips when you download the Fishing Booker app today.

from the Google Play or App Store. Fishing Booker works with about 8,000 charter operators and guides worldwide, so there are always plenty of options to choose from no matter where you are. They check thousands of charter rates every day to make sure you pay the lowest price online when you book with them. In other words, if you find the exact same trip with the same captain for cheaper elsewhere online...

Fishing Booker will match that price by refunding you the difference. If you're a captain and want to create a listing, Fishing Booker will advertise your business on the world's largest online service for fishing trips absolutely free.

They'll write an SEO-friendly description, make sure your photos look as good as possible, and promote your business to their customers all over the world. They'll also advertise your listings on Google, Bing, Instagram, Facebook, and other online platforms to help maximize your exposure and to get you bookings. And they provide 24-7 captain support.

Go to fishingbooker.com today. That's fishingbooker.com. So if you ask me, hey, Remy, have you been in a survival situation? Yes, I've been in many what I would consider survival situations. There's times where I've been severely dehydrated and not had the proper water or been able to find water. There's times where I, one time in particular, I was crossing a river in New Zealand. I got swept down the river, freezing cold, freezing.

got out, had to go find shelter, make a fire, dry out, storm came in. And that's a survival situation. Now, was I scared or, oh, this is, it wasn't like being lost or anything like that. It was just saying, here's a potential threat. And I just have the skills to get through it. So it was just for me, I just considered it another day. Like I said, there's no such thing as an unprepared night. You

You know, you hear a lot of guys like that. You go out, you plan on coming back, but you lose your way on the way back to the truck. That's what we would refer to as an unprepared night out. You weren't preparing or planning on spending the night out, but yet you're

you're lost temporarily or whatever, and you got to spend the night out with the right skills. It doesn't feel like an unprepared night. If you know what you're doing, you can just say, there's so many times where I'm hunting and I, the style that I hunt would be like bivouacking where I'm just going out. I might just sleep that night, get up and continue on. That's just part of what I might be doing. So it wouldn't necessarily be an unprepared night.

So we're going to talk about, let's break down the things that you need to know to survive these situations that you're probably going to encounter at some point, big or small.

I would say the first is going to be in that rule of threes, one of the most important. I mean, air, we can just check off the list because if you're underwater, swim to the surface, you know, we all, we all realize we can't, can't breathe. They can't live, but thinking about that staying warm or staying cool and having that shelter. So number one would be building a shelter and building a fire, fire in combination with shelter. Most of the time hunters are,

We're hunting in the fall through early winter. That's probably one of the things that you're going to encounter at some point being cold. You could get caught in a rainstorm and then the temperatures could drop. You could be hiking through a lot of deadfall. Your clothes get soaked. It gets dark. Now it's cold. What do you do? Knowing how to make and having a fire. It's probably one of the most important outdoor skills that everybody needs to know.

I'm always surprised at how many people have trouble starting fires in inclement weather, wet weather. It's a skill that I think a lot of people take for granted. It's because they think, oh, well, when you're at home, if you've got a fireplace, you start a fire, but you have all the things there. So

I think the key to knowing and understanding how to build a fire is to first understand the materials that burn well in the areas that you're at. And then starting small to big and having all in gathering all the materials and fuel ahead of time.

Some of the biggest mistakes when starting a fire would be, you know, starting with the wrong stuff, trying to light the wrong thing, wasting energy, getting it going and then not having enough stuff to feed it or just trying to start too big and not being able to get it going because you have nothing to build on. When I go to a new area, I'm

I take my lighter. I find different materials that are similar to things that I have where I'm at. So if I'm hunting in the pine forest, some of the best fire starter would be pine pitch, stuff that burns for a long time, real hot to start, get it going. Pine needles, they burn hot and fast, burns like kerosene. But then there's other ways and places that you can find dry materials. Some of the mosses burn really well, just stuff to start the fire. Now, if I go into a new area, say,

uh the pacific northwest where it's really wet and you know like different types of trees and plants well i'll kind of try different things while i'm out there before i have to make a fire to see okay what burns well well okay the inside of this bark burns really good

I'll remember that. Oh, this moss on this particular type of tree grows really well. Oh, these dead leaves on this tree. Maybe I'm in an oak type forest. You know, maybe there's certain hardwoods that the leaves burn really well and long. So what I like to do is I just kind of find the materials ahead of time when I don't need to build a fire. Just...

what's around my scenarios when I'm in a new area and the places that you hunt a lot, you should know the materials that burn fires really well. Like what's the best fuel to build a quick fire and then know how to keep that and look out for it on late season hunts. When I'm elk hunting, I'm building fires like every freaking time I sit down, to be honest, you know, if I'm going to sit down in glass for a few minutes, I'm just going to build a quick fire. And by doing that, I've got, you know, there's probably snow on the ground and it's not a lot of fire danger of it spreading, but,

build a small fire glass warm my hands up put it out walk on and I've done that so many times that you get good at building fires and building those skills and knowing what to look for so like I said these are just little skills that you need to practice along the way so if you come into some kind of quote-unquote air quotes survival situation you already have the skills needed to do what you need to do now the second part of that would be building a shelter and

A shelter is just anything that can kind of protect you from the elements. It could be something that keeps you dry, keeps you warm, keeps the wind off of you, allows you to maybe sleep or even just weather out a storm. There's been times where I've been bivouac hunting, storms rolling in. I found a little rock overhang that I crawled up underneath and made my camp in there. I didn't have a waterproof anything, but you know, the storm comes through. I'm in my little bivvy underneath the rock and,

and then continue hunting or doing whatever. But also just knowing, okay, what do I have on me in my pack that I can use to build a shelter or just maybe we'll call a shelter something that helps you keep you warm. So what clothes do you have with you? You know, your clothes can help be a shelter from the elements. What maybe do you have that's waterproof? Do you have like a garbage bag

in your pack. What happens if you put your rain gear on and then like used your pack as some form of shelter? Maybe you lean some sticks up against a rock and then cover that with pine boughs and bark.

that's another extreme form of a shelter, like building an almost tent-style shelter. There's so many different things like that, that while you're out there, summertime, like now's a great time. You're going to go out camping. Maybe you've got kids. Maybe you don't. You're never too old to go build a shelter while you're out camping or just hanging out in the outdoors. Doing these kind of things of saying, okay, in this area, what am I looking for? I've been out in the Nevada desert and built some just real cool things

almost like tent style structures out of different kinds of pine boughs, sagebrush piled it up, rocks, whatever. You know, when I'm out hunting, if I'm getting into an area that's a long ways away or it's starting to get dark, I'm going, man, this is new. I don't have, say, I don't have a GPS. These are skills that I've just kind of done over the years. I've thought, okay, what do I have in my bag? And while it's daylight looking around saying, okay,

Oh, hey, there's some rock rims over there. I bet you there's a probably a pretty good spot to shelter in because the winds coming this way. Like as I'm hiking and walking through, I'm always making mental notes of places that would make good shelters, places would be quick and easy over out where I'm at. If worst case scenario, I can't get back to where I need to go. I need to stop and spend the night.

Most people get themselves in trouble because they go too far, they wander, they get lost when they really could just hang tight, wait a little bit and easily find their way back in daylight. So I would say probably most of those unprepared nights are just people going, okay, maybe they went too far. They don't have their flashlight dies, their whatever. They're walking around, they're going, I thought the truck was here. We should be back at the truck and they're in the back of the truck.

You've lost your way of navigating. You've lost your visual waypoints. Okay, maybe now is just the time to sit down, wait it out, and find or create some form of shelter, spend the night, and continue on in the morning. The thing about spending a night outside, it's probably going to be miserable, but it's just a night. Hopefully, it's just a night. Hopefully, you don't wander so far off that you get too far out of track and it becomes multiple nights.

One thing is it's uncomfortable to sleep with. If you're napping in the daytime, it's super easy. At night, the ground's hard, the ground's cold. So shelter might even be including making something to sleep on to insulate your body and just protecting yourself against the elements, staying warm, moving around. It might be something where you get up, you're cold, you've got a fire going, you keep that fire going, stay warm, walking around, building the fire.

Who knows, even just keep walking around, get your blood flowing, just so you don't get too chilled on those cold nights.

Let's jump into the next thing. I would say it'd be finding water. A few podcasts back, I guess it was probably two months now, we talked about purification, filtration, et cetera. One thing you got to think about in a quote unquote survival situation, that might just be a situation where you're out hunting, you brought one bottle of water, you've gone 15 ridges now, and you're plumb out of water. What do you do? Well, you can find water, but

But is that water going to be safe and potable? I like to carry some things with me like iodine or potable aqua, or maybe even just, you know, not every hunt you have water filtration with you. You know, if you're backpack hunting, backcountry hunting, maybe you left it at camp, maybe, you know, on a day hunt, why would you bring your water filter? You just carry the water that you're going to use for the day, but you got in over your head and now you're out of water.

Lately, I've actually been carrying my SteriPen kind of thing, but I always have a little bit of iodine in my first aid kit.

or some potable aqua tablets just for that, just in case. Now, if you do run out of that and you find some water that you aren't necessarily certain that is going to be clean, there's ways that you can look for water and clean water. What I like to do is like little seeps. I think about it like this. If like water runs through about three inches of some kind of soil, it's pretty much like some form of filtration, maybe not purification.

So if you find like a seep where the water is running out of the ground, where the water is running under the ground and then back out, that's probably a fairly safe source of water. If it's something where you can dig down a little bit, that water fills up. You probably aren't going to have giardia and other things in that like you would in a stagnant pond in maybe a big stream that has beavers.

stuff like that. There's a lot of water sources that I've drank out of over the years with no ill effects. Now, I'm not saying, yeah, go for it, and then you get sick and you blame me. You got to use your judgment. But there's ways to find water that may not necessarily need filtered, and I drink those a lot. But if I'm worried about it, then I'll always go the filtration route or purification route, iodine or some kind of drops works good. If you don't have that, maybe

Maybe you're, who knows, like something went wrong. You're in the back country. You got a water source. You need to filter your water. I've made filters before many times. Charcoal filter is a good one. Like most of your pump filters actually filter water through charcoal. So what I would do is

Take like, you need two bottles, like a water bottle and another bottle or whatever. And sometimes just like a disposable, like, you know, plastic water bottle works good for this. Sometimes I'll throw one of those in my pack is like an emergency water. So I got my main water. That one's like hidden somewhere in case I need it, but it's also good to mix drink mixes and uses a filter. So you'll use some kind of cloth and then start out pouring water over the filter into your cup and,

With like cloth with say like rocks or stones in it, something that's clean, not dirt, like gravel, something that'd be like the first step. The second step would be breaking it down a little bit more like some sand. You know, the dirt's kind of been taken out of it, but washed out sand, pouring that over. So it drips through, say like a t-shirt or something into the other water bottle.

And then the last step, you'd take that out and then just using like from your fire, the charcoal pieces, like breaking up the charcoal into a lot of pieces and compacting it into your shirt.

and then pouring water over that and let it drip through into your other water container. Now, the first couple times you do it, it'll actually be like pretty sooty, pretty dark, but you can keep doing it a couple times, clear off a little bit of that, get some of the ash off the charcoal, and it will filter it at least and be better to drink than just stagnant or untreated water, worst case scenario.

But also knowing like the type of environment you're in and ways to find water in emergency situations is great. In the desert here, I've done things where we've put like bags over leaves and stuff at night, you know, with high and low temperatures, high desert. You kind of get some condensation in that and it can build up some water. Honestly, it's not a lot. Water over plants like

trapping condensation kind of sucks. That's like a worst case scenario. I mean, if you're hiking and hunting, it's probably not going to be your best option, but if you're out of water and you've got no other options, it's something to think about and at least understanding those tactics. A key skill to have to get yourself out of a situation. Maybe it is one of those situations where you went in somewhere, your, who knows your GPS, your phone dies, you got turned around, you know, how do you find your way out?

Well, knowing your directions to safety before you go somewhere is a huge thing to keep in the back of your mind. So before I go into a new area, what I like to do is say, okay, which direction am I going in? Like look at a big overview map and understand the way that the mountains go and where am I going? Then also know, okay, well, the waterways that are in this area, are they flowing to a main waterway that's flowing to a way out? What happens if I go over the ridge? Where's that waterway flowing? And understand,

and understanding that at least you have in your mind, okay, all the waterways go to this main waterway. So

Following water is a great way to get out of places. It's not necessarily always the best way. Like if you are in an area where you go up over a ridge and now it's kind of more of a divide where everything on the other side flows to some other waterway that's way away from where you're at. But does that get you out? Just knowing that going in of like, hey, worst case scenario, I can follow the water to safety or knowing, okay, the way the mountains are, the way the canyons run, the

If I get over on the other side, like just understanding the big picture of where you're going. My dad, it's a story he tells a lot, but it's before I was born, got into a situation where he pretty much got lost. Not pretty much got lost. He got lost. And the only way he found his way out was just following the water out. Finally led him to a road and

on that road. He actually, his dad, who was an outfitter, my grandpa, who was an outfitter at the time, was just running up and down the roads at night, like pretty much all day, just looking for him and happened to be, my dad sees this light, waves it down and it's my grandpa. So, you know, following water can be a way to get you out. It can also be a way to get you into a worse situation. But if you have that knowledge of the area you're going into, the

the big picture of it, what happens, have those worst case scenarios. Like if you get lost, like you can't find your way back to the truck, how can you find your way back to somewhere where you can find your way back? And knowing that is a great thing before you even get into the area.

Survival, I feel like has been overused the term a lot. There's so many shows about it. There's so many quote unquote experts about it. Like people barking at other people. That's not how you do that. This is how you do that. I mean, it's just, here's what you should do. You should have some kind of bush skills. So you're confident that if something happened, you can get out of whatever situation you're in and that's what you need to know. And that's what you need to have. And those skills, honestly, the best way to get them is to just watch

While you're out doing activities, while you're out hunting, whatever, use those skills in times when you don't absolutely need it. I mean, it can be really fun. There's a lot of things that I like to do. I mean, I'll build shelters. I love making like clay bank ovens where I can smoke actually.

Like one time in Alaska, man, I made this awesome oven out of the tundra and smoked a bunch of ptarmigan that I got with my bow while out there and even some sheep meat. So it's like, there's a lot of things you can do while you're out and maybe after the hunt that's fun. It's like kind of builds to the experience.

There's been times where I've just gone out in the summer and caught fish with no tools, just my shoelaces, taking the paracord apart, using that, making a stick hook and catching some bait and catching a fish, building fires. And then I'd say, I just go build a fire, build a fire, build a fire. Like practice makes perfect.

So just practicing those little skills and have fun with it. It can be something that's extremely fun to do. I've made caught animals with bolos. I've hunted with homemade bows and spears and other things. Now that's just something because I'm like into it. But I think that everybody in some way should just practice some of these basic skills in case they get themselves into some bad situations. With the right knowledge and a few of the right items...

You can pretty much get through whatever situation you need to. So I'm going to close this podcast out with the top 10 items that I always have. So I think I get asked all the time, like, do I need to take a, should I take a survival kit? What do you take in case of an emergency? I mean, you need to take what you need to feel comfortable and confident and

I personally don't carry a survival kit. I have in the past, but it just becomes one of those things that just ends up in your pack and it's bulky and heavy and not a lot of stuff that you use that often. But think about the things that you would use and maybe those are something that have multiple uses and you can have those in your pack. So I'm going to run through top 10 items that should probably always be in your pack list.

fire making. So it's going to be some kind of fire starter, a lighter, and maybe even a secondary source if you want as well. Or I like to keep a lighter in my pocket and I have one in my pack or I always keep one in my first aid kit.

Well, actually it's a first aid kit. Number two, I always have my first aid kit and there's a couple other things that I put in there. I know the contents that are in it. And a lot of them have other purposes. I've got medical taper. I've got iodine in there. I will throw, I actually sometimes have like a little small compass and I just do a first, like a, they make these like lightweight backpacking first aid kits. And then I add some of my other stuff in there.

a little bit of other medicines that I might need, that small compass, like a little baggie of potable aqua and a lighter.

having those items in there is just, it's like, cool. If something happens, I could pull that kit out and I know that I've got things in there. There's a little bit of thread and a needle. I mean, I can even use that needle to make a fishing hook and other things. So that little first aid kit has some of the things that I like now out of that first aid kit. Some of the, I guess, number three would be those potable aqua or water purification tablets. Number

Number four, a knife or multi-tool. You need it for hunting, but man, that thing has so many uses for survival or just comfort situations. It's a must to have. Number five, cordage or like P-cord or mule tape, something like that. You can use it for so many different uses. I mean, it's not just for survival type uses. I mean, I use it to hang quarters. I use it to

to hold down my tents. I use it just like when you're packing out to tighten things, whatever. Number six, garbage bags. Now I use like big thick contractor bags. It's probably the most underrated piece of gear in your equipment.

I use it to line my pack when I'm packing out. But honestly, I mean, I've used them to cross rivers as waders. I've stuffed them with pine boughs and used it as like a sleeping pad when mine broke to keep me warm. I've used them just to even like throw my pack in when it's raining outside so I have more room in my tent.

There's just like, or just, you know, if you're really cold, I've had these like hunts where the temperature drops and the wind just feels like it's ripping through your sleeping bag. Early, you know, maybe it's an early season hunt and temperature drops. Stuffing your sleeping bag in that garbage sack just like helps block the wind. You know, you're sleeping in this big black garbage bag inside your sleeping bag, blocks the wind, warms your body up. It's awesome. Duct tape. Here's another one.

I mean, what I do is I wrap my duct tape around the next item on the list, a water bottle. Yeah, you're probably always going to have a water bottle. Some people use bladders. I prefer the bottles. I use it for other things while I'm out hunting, but I wrap my duct tape around that water bottle. And it's nice to have a bottle that I can, you know, if I needed to pour water from or filter, whatever, you can do it with bladders as well.

One thing that I do like to take, I guess this would be like number nine, late season or back country. I like a metal camp cup if possible. If I'm going back country, I'll make my camp cup like a little metal one because I can boil water in it. Worst case scenario, I can also melt snow with it. And then I have like another thing if I need to transport water or whatever. It's just good to have. And then I would say the last thing is I always keep like a reserve of food.

So it might just be like an energy bar that I put in a strange pocket. That's like, all right, that's only if I really need it. I never actually like if I'm going out even on a day hunt, like I'll never eat all the food that I have. I always leave like a good portion of high calorie, like a high calorie bar. Maybe it's a cliff bar or whatever. I'll leave that for those. It's taken me all night to get out kind of scenarios. It's like, oh man, I might need some extra energy to get out. Like having that reserve is always good.

And then this, this bonus item, something that I used to take a lot was like a, a small, it was like a tarp that had a reflective site on it. Not the survival, like the chintzy survival tarps, but like an actual utility tarp, but like a small one, like a six foot by five foot size. I'd use that for actually like skinning out animals, putting meat on if there's nowhere to hang it, like if I'm in a real flat area and don't want it to get in the dirt.

Now I carry game bags and everything, but that was something that I used back in the day a lot. But it also gave me great peace of mind for having something for signaling as well as wrapping around me or building a shelter. So anything that you think you might need to be comfortable, go ahead and take. But understand what's in your pack, what you've got, and how to use those things.

Then do some practicing and put what you have into practical applications. And that way you'll never have a night, whether you planned on it or not, that is unprepared.

I hope that helps you guys. Maybe gives you something to do this summer or while you're in quarantine, go do a little bit of fun survival thing. If you do something, tag me in it. I'd love to see it. It'd be cool to share some of that stuff with everyone else. So appreciate all the interaction I get with everyone. That's I look forward to seeing what everybody comes up with. It'd be kind of cool to check that kind of stuff out. I think next week, maybe let's talk about some essential gear gears. Like honestly, the number one thing I get asked about. So, uh,

I was thinking about doing a, like a day hunt pack dump, like, and then maybe like a multi-day five day kind of pack dump and comparing the two, what I've got, the essentials that I have. So yeah, I think that that'd be good. Yeah. If you guys, if you think about it and you don't subscribe, you know, I've said it a couple of times before, but it helps us out. So do it. That'd be sweet. I don't like telling people what to do. Don't do it if you don't want to do it, but if you want to, that's cool too. So until next week,

Everybody, stay safe and survive. Catch you later. Hey, we're going to take a little break here and talk about interstate batteries. Now, if you're like me, enjoying the great outdoors, you need gear that is as reliable as it gets. That's why I power my adventures with interstate batteries. I use interstate batteries in my boats. I use interstate batteries in my camper. Great for your truck, too. From Alaska to Montana, they're outrageously dependable.

Battery is essential. With over 150,000 dealer locations, finding one is easy. For all your vehicles, land or sea, choose Interstate. Head to InterstateBatteries.com and find your power today. You ever get that feeling, the walls closing in, the concrete jungle suffocating you? You crave some wide open spaces, the chance to connect with nature, maybe in a spot all your own. Well, head over to Land.com.

They've got ranches, forests, mountains, streams, you name it. Search by acreage. You can search by location. You can search by the kind of hunting and fishing you're dreaming of. Land.com. It is where the adventure begins.