Hiker Hell.

Ever wonder what can happen to the average hiker? Wander over to Hiker Hell a blog given to the mistakes and mis-adventures of hikers around the world. See what can happen when Mother Nature does walk up and go "Tag, you're it!" Some are tragic in their ending others border on the comic like two hikers who had to buy cell phone minutes to finish their rescue call.

Closer to home I do find an outrageous number of people doing the foolish. June 1986: Temperatures are normally between 106F and 111F. One Saturday 3 (one in the car) people drove five miles down an more or less improved dirt road through the Wind Electric Generating facility where I was Director of Operations and out into the desert to be found by Security Chief Robert (white shirt) where they were wandering around half naked, drinking beer and buried in the sand. We assumed they were looking for the settling ponds belonging to the local water agency and drove in the wrong way, a common mistake. The ponds were a popular place to swim, windsurf, sail and play and as a result a lot of other rescues took place in the same general area due to people trying to get to the ponds through various wrong way entrances. Per SOP Robert called me on the radio interrupting my Saturday and I responded with a pick-up truck suitable for the task of yanking them out. During the rescue operation an unusually contrite group of people quietly stood by while the Porsche was pulled free and set back on the road. It was at that point Robert walked up gave me three business cards. These people were the CEO, VP and GM of the wind park, my employers. They had never been out to visit their investment and had decided on a whim to drive out from Thousand Oaks, CA (150+ miles) for a visit unannounced. The moral to this story? Even smart people do stupid things.

Somethng Stupid

Found New Years Eve 2005 with a broken front end.

I do things even I say don't do, like going into the desert alone. Last week it was a drive out to the Eagle Mining district to look for a few geocaches. My side trip was at the last second, in fact I didn't even know I was going until I turned off the main road onto a dirt track. Out of two-way radio and cell phone range and about 6 miles out into the basin to play. Click for map then zoom in to explore.

I drove as far as a wash I couldn't cross and sat there thinking. What if something went wrong and my car broke down or dug in. Nobody knew where I was and that meant walking out in 104F temps. Doing a six mile easy to moderate hike in the day (the road back) is not too bad, if you are accustomed to it. I've done much harder hikes in higher temps as a both a guide and a tribal ranger. Properly dressed with a couple of liters of water the smooth track to the main road would have taken about a 2 hours to walk. However when you consider the time of day better to wait until 5pm or so to avoid the heat of the day and direct exposure to the sun.

The question is how prepared was I? Despite the fact I had 6 liters of water, a fully equipped 5-day pack along with a jacket and hat, not well enough. Driving into the basin I was wearing a T-shirt, sandals and shorts. A walk out would call for protection, changing into long pants, heavy safari shirt and hiking boots. At least I had the boots. Fortunately Lexus makes a reliable little SUV even if it is 10 years old and the trip was made in air conditioned comfort. [He lies, the windows were open] :)

Yet I did something stupid. Why? I don't know it was just a whim and even though nothing went wrong it could have. The Lexus RX300 isn't my Jeep. It doesn't have any self rescue tools, no shovels, ropes or hi-lift jacks. It is an All-Wheel Drive street SUV with no lo-range gears. So driving into trouble doesn't necessarily mean you can drive out like the Jeep can with it's monstrous power and wall climbing drive train. Proper equipment also means a proper vehicle.

My point is we all tend to do dumb things. You just have to realize you are doing them and hope that you are prepared for them when things really do go wrong and even more that you are prepared for the consequences.

In the above photo this touron was found deep in a canyon 50 miles from rescue with a broken front end. We already had a Ford Bronco in tow and informed him we would call the park rangers when we could. That call was made 3 hours later. I eventually found out his rescue took another 6 hours after that call. Note that your rental car insurance does not cover this kind of tomfoolery. Off road tow charges in Calif are $125.00 per hour plus a drop fee.

I made some who watch Spike TV and Ultimate Fighting very angry over the death of their hero Evan Tanner (see my last post) . I was at the local pub with a friend for a pint and the discussion turned to Evan Tanner's demise in the Palo Verde Mountain area. I was accused of being cold and heartless with my views towards Mr. Tanners untimely demise in the desert where he could have been easily rescued. Very well, since you demand an apology you shall have it.

I apologize if I upset your attitudes towards fear and death. I apologize if the thought of Evan Tanner answering a challenge and dying for his efforts is more than you can cope with. I am saddened by every death in the desert whether it was done by accident, incident or stupidity. Yet it is the latter, stupidity, that seems to be the cause of most fatalities followed by a lack of common sense and thought. So instead of reviling me for his death take a lesson from it. Be a part of what happens here and never challenge the desert.

Look for the adventure, not the challenge.

The Darwin Award goes to Evan Tanner

In his blog Utimate Fighting Champion Evan Tanner wrote "I'm hoping that very soon I'll be sitting out in the quiet of the desert beneath a deep blue midnight sky, listening to the calm desert breeze. The idea going into the desert came to me soon after I moved to Oceanside. It was motivated by my friend Sara's talk of treasure hunting and lost gold, and my own insatiable appetite for adventure and exploration. I began to imagine what might be found in the deep reaches of the untracked desert. It became an obsession of sorts".

What he found was death. His obsession became suicide by stupidity. Fox News Article The Imperial County sheriff says his death was by exposure which in their language means dehydration and heat stress. His body was found about 2 miles from his camp where his motorcycle was found with no gas in it. What happened? He probably ran out of water and tried to walk out in 115F temps. After hearing about this I found his blogs learned something about Evan Tanner. A sporting champion he had everything going for him with one exception, at least when it came to the desert; attitude. You can't challenge the desert, nor can you be obsessive. Passionate, yes. Obsessive certainly not. You could say his new found obsession drove him to his death.

It takes me an hour to prepare for a trip into the deep desert, out of cell phone and two-way radio range. Tanner took a month and a half to prepare for the desert by "reading books, studying the land, and researching gear", then presumed he would be all right. He was also in cell phone range. You cannot presume anything in the desert. What went wrong? I'm not going to try to answer that, Tanner fans would only get pissed off and while it's a shame that he died at 37 it's more of a shame that he did it to himself and in that I hope this points out how easy it is for things to go horribly wrong for you. After all Darwin does not reward stupidity and foolishness.

http://www.spike.com/profile/Evan_Tanner

Life is when you make plans.

Survival is when those plans change unexpectedly.

I wonder if a Desert Bandanna would have helped him?

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Riley Coyote says Leave no trace behind and never feed, touch or disturb wildlife.

It always starts with a challenge.

After a day of playing in the desert and ensconced over a brew at the now defunct Beatnik Cafe in Joshua Tree, a City-zen who had joined us for the morning asked, "Can you do what the guys on TV can?" "Like what?", I ask. The response; "Eat a raw dead zebra, make water...; and now I know this guys has been watching too much TV. So let's expose Man vs Wild and Survivorman as it has to do with us. Which is??? Nothing; meaning while everything they do is true, eating lizards and bugs, collect water and making shelter it's not a big deal. It is nothing more than proper training from military survival schools, various classes offered for the outdoors or even natural to someone who grew up hunting and fishing. Add to that there are number of excellent books on the subject including one of which was written by yours truly.

Now trying to explain to my new friend that what is manufactured entertainment for TV is not what I'm trying to teach. Start with Man vs Wild out on the African veldt. With a recently (presumably predator) killed zebra our host cuts off a piece, takes a bite then makes a comment while asking whether you would do this or not. Hell no! I'm not going to eat a piece of raw dead zebra or any other type of kill, predator or road. The main reason is there are not going to be a lot of fresh reasonable kills left behind in the desert. Desert predators and scavengers make sure of that in very short order. Another thing, he's got a knife to cut a piece of zebra off. Both of us have knives and are skilled in the outdoors. Shouldn't he be able to make a nice fire to cook that piece of zebra. Why eat raw meat unless you like sushi or steak tartar? That''s my preference BBQ'd snake, lizard or whatever.

Survivorman was even more rigged. He found (placed) himself in the desert where he easily found water and food. It wasn't until the second commercial that I realized he placed himself in the Mojave Desert near the western mountains in winter so he could find food and water. Let's move him to the Black Rock Desert in NV, or put him on top of Black Mesa in AZ during the summer and see how he fares. My point is don't expect to find food, water or shelter most desert environments. You are better being prepared with the proper gear in your car or day pack rather than trying to use a bunch of survival tricks meant for experts.

Myths Exposed: Solar Stills. I've always loved the theory of the solar still. Easy to build and they do work. Dig a pit about 2-3ft across and the same deep keeping the sides as verticle as possible. Fill the bottom 1/3-1/2 of the pit with fresh crushed green brush placing a catch container into the center of the brush. Broad leafed plants are best for this; not something you find in a desert. Cover the pit with a sheet of plastic and put a rock in the center so it is over the cup. As moisture evaporates from the plants it gathers on the plastic then drips down into the cup. Yield: ~4-8oz (120-240Ml) in ~8 hours. Energy expended to get that cup of water? Over a liter and getting heat stressed. The best place to conserve water is in your body. The best place to find water is in your car.

See ya.

Updated the website today to improve the flow and look of things. The only thing left is to work out the pay pal integration. For those of you who have never messed with web programming let me say that WYSIWYG web page editors aren't and the best way is still to write in old fashion HTML. Wanna see what it looks like. Just right click on most web pages and select View Source.

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But this blog is supposed to be about the desert and what happens here. Being in a drought for pretty much the last ten years has brought more and more animals, particularly predators, down from the mountains. Lately in the news there's been lot of talk about "A coyote just came up and ate my Fifi" or "That creature attacked my child" There are two reasons for those attacks. First brother coyote's hungry and has little ones to feed. Fifi being about the size of a large rat makes a nice meal for a critter that usually lives on rodents and anything else he can get. As for attacking your child, most coyote attacks on people come from either a little one wanting to feed the cute doggie a biscuit or people leaving food out where it can be found. Even the raccoons now found in our area are smart enough to come in a dog door and have done so. Never heard of a coyote doing that but raccoons habituate to people easier than "cute doggies do" Nonetheless keeping an eye pets and food inside along with teaching your children not to feed the animals is a key point in preventing animal attacks.

Did you know that owls eat cats? Since owls can't digest fur and bones the spit up what are known as owl pellets. A number of years ago I found more than a few in my backyard where a great horned owl perched from time to time. Breaking one of them open revealed the remains of a cat.

"Never try to kill a snake. It's a tough to do and all you do is piss 'em off". - The Desert Bandanna