Wilderness Survival For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Introduction
About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
Icons Used in This Book
Beyond the Book
Where to Go From Here
Part 1 Stayin’ Alive: Basic Wilderness Survival Principles
Chapter 1 Staying Safe in the Great Outdoors
Being Prepared and Proactive
Keeping the Right Attitude
Applying Survival Basics
Regulating body temperature
Your first line of defense: Clothing
Warming up to the fire
Taking shelter
Regulating your temperature in the water
Signaling for rescue
Avoiding dehydration
Staying nourished
Navigating in the Wild
Relying on tools to navigate
Looking to the heavens
Surviving Injury
Avoiding Common Causes of Survival Situations
Making errors in judgment
Losing it: Behaviors that help you get lost
Chapter 2 Preparing Yourself for a Survival Situation
Being Weather Aware
Using weather forecasts
Watching for weather signs from wind and clouds
Considering the winds
Consulting the clouds
Carrying Survival Equipment
Keeping five essential items on hand
A reliable light source
Fire maker and tinder
Penknife, pocketknife, or multitool
Water container
Instruments, electronics, and power sources
Building the basic survival kit
A waterproof container
A complete fire-making kit
Items for clean water, shelter, and sun protection
Tools for making other things
Navigation tools
Signaling tools
Constructing the complete kit
Chapter 3 The Psychology of Survival: Gaining the Upper Hand
Developing a Survivor’s Mindset
Mastering disbelief
Using SeCR or “Secure” to gain control of your situation
Security
Comfort
Reassurance
Planning and taking action
Understanding discipline
Being Aware of Your Emotions
Fear
Stress and fear, a powerful combo
Panic
Irrationality
Anger and blame
Frustration
Misery and fatigue
Improving Morale
Chapter 4 Survival Style: Keeping Warm or Cool
Regulating Body Temperature
The cold continuum: What happens as your body cools
The heat continuum: What happens as your body heats
Relying on Layering for Warmth
Avoiding a cold sweat
Choosing your layers
Improvising Cold-Weather Clothing
Extreme sewing: Using needle and thread to save your life
Fighting hypothermia with improvised layers
Putting together animal skins
Having the right headwear, handwear, and footwear
Using Other Ways to Keep Warm
Staying active
Staying warm when you’re staying still
Cool Threads: Clothing for Staying Cool
Wearing a hat and eye protection
Considering other clothing concepts to keep cool
Chapter 5 Making Fire in the Wilderness
Fire Building 101
Get ready, get set: Upping your odds for a sustainable flame
Gathering fuels for your fire
Arranging your campfire structure
Getting lit: Building a general-purpose teepee fire
Using other fire structures
The first spark: Igniting and oxygenating your fire
Got a Light? Exploring Methods for Starting a Fire
Best-case scenario: Using matches or a lighter
Matches
Lighters
When the going gets tough: Fire starting alternatives
Starting a fire with common, everyday items
When all else fails: Using the bow fire method
Battling the Elements: Making Fire in Wet Conditions
Safely Extinguishing a Fire
Chapter 6 Home, Sweet Hut: Simple Survival Shelters
Grasping the Importance of Shelter
Before Making Camp: What to Do
Understanding priorities
Selecting a good campsite
Using Natural Shelters
Trees
Caves and rock overhangs
Checking for current residents
Putting a Roof over Your Head: Building Simple Shelters
Making a tarp shelter
Building a downed-tree or other A-frame shelter
Constructing an insulated shelter
Chapter 7 Liquid Capital: Finding Drinking Water
Taking Steps to Conserve Water
Determining your water needs
Stretching your water supply
Rationing water in more severe situations
Avoiding Certain Liquids
Finding Bodies of Water
Locating water in drainages
Looking for other signs of water
Catching Rain
Collecting Condensation
Gathering dew
Making a transpiration bag
Setting up a solar still
Extracting Water from Plants
Filtering and Purifying Water
Boiling water
Purifying water with chemicals
Distilling salt water and urine
Using commercial water filters
Improvising filters
Digging a seepage basin
Chapter 8 Gathering and Hunting to Stay Alive in the Wilderness
Managing Food and Energy in the Wild
Calories = energy
Plan ahead: Estimating how many calories you need
Rationing and preserving
Diversifying your diet
Prioritizing Plants in Your Wilderness Diet
Perusing the salad bar: Where to find a variety of plants
Understanding a plant’s edible parts
Fruits
Leaves
Flowers
Mosses and lichens
Nuts and seeds
Roots and tubers
Identifying some common edible plants
Is it safe? Deciding whether to eat an unknown plant food
Knowing which plants to avoid
Taking the Universal Plant Edibility Test
Hunting and Trapping Food
Looking for tracks and critter highways
Snaring small animals
Setting up your snares
Checking snares and collecting your catch
Using a throwing stick
Making and using a spear
Making and using a bola
Using a throwing net
Going in for the kill with a club
Butchering your next meal
Skinning a larger animal
Skinning a smaller animal
Getting Your Hands on Freshwater Fish
Finding fish
Fishing with a hook and line
Making and using fishing spears
Fishing with a net
Preparing fish to eat
The Wilderness Café: Preparing Food Outdoors
Cooking food you can eat now
Plant foods
Mammal foods
Insects and invertebrates
Fish
Drying and smoking food for later
Part 2 Exploring Advanced Survival Techniques
Chapter 9 Finding Your Way with Basic Navigation Tools
Getting Your Bearings with Navigation Basics
Setting a route with waypoints
Using deliberate offset
Maps Made Easy
Picking an appropriate map
Deciphering common map colors
Measuring distance on a map
Using contour lines to identify the shape of the land
Establishing your coordinates
Using latitude and longitude
Using the UTM grid
Navigating with a Map
Orienting your map
Keeping track of distance traveled
Getting Acquainted with Your Compass
Learning the parts of an orienteering compass
Being aware of potential errors
Understanding declination (or variation)
Interference: Understanding local deviation
Navigating with a Map and Compass
Understanding common compass usage
Establishing a field bearing
Using your compass to orient the map
Setting your course from a map bearing
Navigating with Electronics and Cellphones
What to expect from GPS
Setting up your GPS system
Datum
Position format
Unit format
Using GPS in the wild
Using cellphones in the wild
Chapter 10 Looking Up to the Sky: Celestial Navigation
Determining Direction with the Sun
Locating east and west at sunrise and sunset
Finding north and south around midday
Drawing a compass with the stick and shadow method
Discerning direction with your wristwatch and the sun
Finding Direction with the Stars
Finding north with the North Star
Finding due south with the Southern Cross
Finding West and East by Moonlight
Chapter 11 Trekking over Land
Understanding Trail Travel
Knowing where you are
Knowing where you’ve been
Getting Back on Course When You’re Disoriented
Reviewing your calculations
Using your senses to help you find your way
Stop and observe
Listen
Taking action when you’re disoriented
What to Do When You’re Lost
Staying put so people can find you
Deciding to travel
Preparing to move
Detecting signs of civilization
Following water to civilization
Blazing Your Own Trail
Managing meandering
Traveling in a straight line
Marking your trail
Crossing Rivers and Streams
Wading
Building a raft
Chapter 12 Signaling for Rescue
Signaling Basics
Picking a good location
Making your signal stand out
Bigger
Brighter
Different
Being persistent
Learning the Language of Signaling
Using three of anything to signal distress
SOS and Mayday: Calling for urgent help
Sending SOS
Calling Mayday
Sea stuff: Saying Pan-Pan when you’re not in immediate danger
Using ground-to-air emergency code
Using your body to signal
Signaling with Signaling Tools
Noisemakers and horns
Mirrors and other reflectors
Fire
Smoke
Shadows
Dye markers and flagging
Aerial flares
Electric lights
Upside-down flags and other things out of place
Signaling with Electronics
Radioing for help
Tuning your radio into a distress frequency
Getting a clear signal
Sending a distress call over the radio
Using cellphones
Signaling with a charged cellphone that has reception
Signaling with a charged cellphone that doesn’t have reception
Signaling with a noncharged (or ‘dead’) cellphone
Using satellite phones
Using radio beacons: EPIRBs, ELTs, and PLBs
Getting a Lift: What to Do When the Helicopter Comes
Preparing a landing zone
Practicing helicopter safety
Chapter 13 Administering First Aid
Prioritizing First Aid Basics
Responding to serious trauma, an overview
Checking circulation, airway, and breathing
Circulation
Airway
Breathing
Using the recovery position
Giving CPR
Controlling Bleeding
Treating common capillary and venous bleeding
Handling dangerous arterial bleeding
Deciding to use a tourniquet
Applying a tourniquet
Treating Shock
Handling Breaks and Sprains
Treating fractures
Closed fractures
Open fractures
Treating sprains
Cleaning and Covering Wounds
Cleaning wounds to reduce infection
Dressing the wound
Bandaging the wound
Closing open wounds
Bandaging a sucking chest wound
Treating infected wounds
Treating Burns
Handling minor burns
Dealing with more-severe burns
Treating Hypothermia
Treating Bites, Stings, and Poisonings
Mammal bites
Snakebites
Spider bites and insect stings
Poisoning
Chapter 14 Survive or Thrive? Advanced Methods and Tools
Keeping It Together: Ropes and Knots
Understanding rope strength
Tying some essential knots
Square knot
Sheet bend
Sheet bend double (Beckett bend)
Anchor bend
Bowline knot
Clove hitch
Two half hitches
Lashing down a load
That’s a wrap: Making a tripod
Making a square lashing
Crafting Your Own Tools
Making cordage in the wild
Making stone tools
Splitting a stone to assess its type
Shaping the stone into a tool
Carving bone and antler tools
Making Natural Remedies
Using salicin, nature’s aspirin
Preparing medicines for wounds, burns, and bowels
Tannin
Plantains
Common cattail
Part 3 Surviving in Extreme Land Environments
Chapter 15 Special Considerations for Forests and Jungles
Identifying Hazardous Wildlife in Dry Forests
Preventing bear attacks
Avoiding mountain lions
Steering clear of woodland snakes
Evading spiders and ticks
Laws of the Jungle: Surviving in the Tropics
Preventing jungle diseases
Diseases from contaminated water or food
Diseases from insect and animal bites
Obtaining safe water
The jungle cover-up: Dressing for the tropics
Avoiding mud flats, sand traps, and other dangerous terrain
Using a machete
Choosing and using the right blade
Cutting bamboo
Making camp and shelters
Identifying dangerous animals
Insects and other buggy creatures
Jungle snakes
Gators, crocs, and caimans
Leeches
Piranhas
Chapter 16 The Big Chill: Enduring in Snowy Places
Staying Warm in Extreme Cold
Cold Comfort: Making Your Shelter in a Snowy Environment
Snow shelter basics
Making a simple snow-cave
Creating shelters from natural snow drifts
Making your own snow-heap shelter
Lighting a Fire in Cold, Snowy Environments
Finding fuel in snowy places
Protecting a fire from the snow
Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow: Safe-to-Drink Snow and Ice
Choosing and treating frozen water sources
Melting snow and ice
Steering Clear of Cold-Environment Terrain Hazards
Avoiding avalanche terrain
Staying off thin ice
Avoiding cornices
Glacial cracks: Avoiding crevasses
Dealing with snow slopes
Making Wearable Tools for Cold-Weather Survival
Creating footwear
Making your own snow boots
Making a pair of snowshoes
Boot wraps: Making and wearing gaiters
Insulating your clothing
Protecting your face and eyes
Making a balaclava
Carving snow-glare goggles
Chapter 17 Staying Alive under the Desert Sun
Dangers Posed by Sun and Heat
Going skin deep with sunburn
Overheating: Heat exhaustion and heat stroke
Recognizing the symptoms of hyperthermia
Cooling off
Wearing Sun Shields
Cool clothes for hot times: Dressing for desert survival
Slathering on the sunblock
Securing Shelter in the Desert
Building a sunshade
Looking for shady places
Warming shelters overnight
Finding Water in the Desert
Discovering standing water
Locating water underground
Squeezing water from mud or sand
Accessing water from cracks and shallow pools
Making a desert solar still
Collecting water from a cactus
Foraging for Food in Dry Places
Insects
Cacti and other plants
Poultry and eggs
Desert mammals
Lizards and snakes
Avoiding Dangerous Desert Animals
Gila monsters and slithering snakes
Stinging scorpions, centipedes, and spiders
Scorpions and centipedes
Spiders
Wind and Water: Watching Out for Desert Weather
Staying high and dry during flash floods
Taking shelter from sandstorms
Finding Your Way in the Desert
Traveling at night
Seeing in the dark
Using a staff to probe ahead in darkness
Confronting drop-offs
Traveling in daylight
Crossing Desert Terrain
Part 4 Surviving on the Seas, Oceans, and Great Lakes
Chapter 18 Staying Afloat and Warm
Recognizing When Your Vessel Is in Trouble
Overloading
Poor trim or listing
Bad weather and big waves
Collisions
Understanding collision courses with other vessels
Watching out for underwater obstacles
Fire
Hatch failure and ship damage
Knowing What to Do If Your Vessel Starts to Sink
Radioing for help
Putting on a life jacket
Preparing to abandon ship
Abandoning ship: The how-to
Shark!
Staying Warm as You Float with a Life Jacket
What to do in the water
Staying warm in groups
Floating without a Life Jacket
Inflating your clothes
Long-term floating
Chapter 19 The Great Drift: Aboard Life Rafts and Disabled Vessels
Getting from Ship to Life Raft
Locating the life raft
Knowing when to abandon ship
Launching a life raft
Entering a life raft
Adjusting to Life Afloat
The first ten minutes in a life raft
Inside the raft: Giving order to the chaos
Organizing operations
Increasing your safety and comfort
The flip-out: Righting a raft
Controlling Drifting Vessels
Taking action with depowered boats
Traveling with current and sail
Restarting outboard motors
Chapter 20 Finding Food and Drink at Sea
On the (Drinking) Water Front: Surviving On the Salty Sea
Understanding your body’s dehydration limits
The first line of defense: Conserving your body’s water
Rationing your water
Avoiding salt water
Making Fresh Water on the Ocean
Working with rainwater
Collecting condensation
Using water makers
Setting up a still at sea
Removing salt with desalination kits
Drinking sea turtle blood
Fishing at Sea
Sea hunting basics
Tackling hooks and lines
Using a spear
Using nets to catch baitfish
Advanced fishing for the hungry
Catching small sharks by hand
Bringing in Your Catch
Preparing and Eating Fish at Sea
Setting up the sushi bar
Knowing which fish aren’t on the menu
Identifying Other Safe Things to Eat while at Sea
Turtles
Birds
Barnacles
Seaweed
Chapter 21 Emergency Travel and Navigation at Sea
Swimming Back to Land
Measuring distance to shore
Figuring out where the current is taking you
Debunking some myths about ocean currents
Determining the direction and speed of a current
Moving in the water: Float or swim
Letting yourself float
Swimming slowly
Swimming out of a rip current
Improvised Open-Sea Navigation for Life Rafts
Getting your bearings
Finding direction with compasses and charts
Determining direction with waves
Estimating current at sea
Understanding signs of land
Signs of civilization
Taking hints from the birds
Other land signs from the water, wind, and air
Coming Ashore: A Dangerous Ordeal
Basic landing principles
Procedures for landing
Chapter 22 First Aid on the Water
Responding to Water Casualties
Getting someone out of the water
Grasping the gradual nature of hypothermia
Treating cold shock response
Handling near drowning
Reviving near-drowning subjects
Monitoring someone after near drowning
Treating Common Ailments while Afloat
Seasickness
Sunburn and heat maladies
Saltwater chafe
Treating Bites and Stings at Sea
Jellyfish
Sea snakes
Stinging fish and stingrays
Cone shells and terebra shells
Part 5 The Part of Tens
Chapter 23 Ten Ways to Practice Wilderness Survival Skills
Start a Fire with Two Matches
Light a Fire with a Magnifying Glass or Eyeglasses
Fire Up the Flames with a Bow
Turn Your Pants into a Flotation Device
Find North with Help from the Sky
Build a Tripod
Download and Experiment with a Plant Identification App
Use a Transpiration Bag to Collect Water
Use a Reflective Surface to Practice Signaling
Practice CPR
Chapter 24 Ten Quick Escapes
Getting Out of a Sinking Car
Escaping a Small Plane Upside Down in Water
Surviving a Small Boat or Canoe Capsize
Escaping a Forest Fire
Evading a Bee Swarm
Surviving a Bear Encounter
Encountering a Mountain Lion
Surviving an Avalanche
Waiting Out a Whiteout
Getting Out of Quicksand
Index
EULA