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

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 weight a 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 under prepared 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 complements I ever got from someone was just we're out 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, uh 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. 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. Um, I just kind of wanted to go out. I had my tent in my basic camping hunting gear, but nothing real crazy and 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 savannah 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 like the inland areas of California or something like that, very similar to that. But I I thought, okay, so I went out. I learned a few different plants. Some of the natives used to survive on a lot of succulents. When you actually see in stores a lot they call it elephant brush or um. You know, just

so many different kinds 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. He had a ten 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. So the whole plan of the hunt was there was some kudo in the area. There was What I was really interested is maybe kind of figuring out some mort hogs or some bush pigs. At night, just whatever I really found. Bush bucks were pretty fun to chase some planes game, but really I just kind of was like camping, hanging out, living off the land, eating whatever I could find, and you know, 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, myself filmed this. You know, it doesn't have to be a full on survival whatever, naked and fraid style, but that's not the point. It's just to go out to enjoy myself and kind of test to 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? I was actually looking for this kudoo came out in this little opening way across the valley and if you don't know, kudos like an elk sized animal, big spiral horns, really cool animals, and for me, I was just kind of thought, cool, cool, I'm just kind of sneaking around the African bush with my bow and um, you know, get over there and

end up not really making anything happen. But as it panned out, I was thought, okay, well, I'm gonna work my way back toward camp and try to get to camp right around Dart, still familiarizing myself with the area. I didn't really have any GPS or anything like that, but you know, there's enough landmarks and everything I could easily find my way back. So I get back kind of toward camp, and I decided, oh, man, I come

across the this is down. I guess it was probably like an acacia type tree, real thorny tree, and had it was down and dead, and I thought, oh, perfect, I'm gonna 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 fallen, and this branch is up a little bit higher, and so I grabbed this branch and I'm pulling on it to snap it because I'm just gonna get a big old armful of firewood. And as it breaks, the force of it swung that stick. It's like a pretty good sized 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 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, uh maybe you saw this solo episode it's the older episode. But grabbed my gerber multitool just like, sweet, I'll just

pull this thorn out of my leg. So I got 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 and 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 and 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 fire would I have get my fire started and I had Luckily I had my first aid kid. I put some antiseptic stuff on it. It's pretty sore and ten her for a while, so I took a few like advill 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 was an advil.

It was something that I bought there. But I remember just having like a strange hallucination and 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 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 it was I kind of realized there wasn't many other trees similar to this tree, and I just happened at my tent right underneath it. So middle of the night. I mean, I wake up and it's just like chaos

out there, like baboons making crazy noises. Little vervet monkey, he's 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 this, uh, the succulents, different little bushes, plants and that. Also I watched the monkeys actually eat those bean pods and I thought, yeah, dude,

those that might be okay. So I tried one. It's pretty bitter, but I figured out 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 also found some like prickly pears. I didn't even realize that there were prickly pears there. I cut into ap bull prickly pairs and it had like this white sap, which I thought non white sap and cactus

is generally kind of stay away. The prickly pair that we have in the Southwest that we eat has clear sap. But there was another prickly pair there that looked a little bit different, and I cut into that one, and I had, like, the clear sap is very familiar to what I had seen around 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 would be great to have some steak. And then sure enough, this little dyker comes out and it's just this tiny little antelope. I'd say it's like the size of like a super large jack rabbit. Um, 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 towards 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. Uh oh yeah, it's called spec 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 spec boom. But it's got the sour apple taste. You could probably find it like a succulent

shop or whatever. But it's got this sour apple taste, like a 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 towards 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 I saw the arrow, and I started to look and couldn't find it, so I pulled out of there. I went to camp, thought, man, what are the odds that it's, you know, not gonna get eaten by something else. Luckily enough, when I went back the next morning, I found it. They're 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, let's just go back in the morning, and sure enough it turned out it was a cold night as wintertime cooked up the meat. 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

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 in a small kind of injury that could have been a lot worse, especially if

it hits 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 of 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 um, 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 gonna give you some

survival tips. We're gonna talk about survival, and I'm gonna talk about the things that I think you need to know and the things that I 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've taken classes on desert survival and even through actually our elementary school where I grew up, we had to do a desert survival course, and I think that that is probably one

of they. I don't know if they still do that in school's 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 gonna 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, look 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 tenants of survival. The thing as hunters especially we think of. I was like, Oh, I'm gonna 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 know, 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 is

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 to be like three seconds. You can't survive three seconds with bad judgment, because sometimes decisions just come down to a 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 gonna 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 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. You know. I'm sure generations before even me, when we didn't have phones or GPS is 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? 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 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. And now with gps is, 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 gonna talk about survival, we gotta say, well, 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 I mean, as we talk the rule of threes, well you need shelter or you know, a proper protection from the elements. You need water, you need food. So it could just be it might not be getting lost, it might just be a lack of

those things. That could be too hot out. If you're out hiking and it's a hundred 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 into 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. 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've one time, in particulars crossing a river in New Zealand, got swept down the river, freezing cold, 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 know, you hear a lot of guys like that. You go out and plan on coming back, but you lose your way on the way back to the truck. That's what we

refer to as an unprepared night out. You weren't preparing or planning on spending the night out, but yet you're lost temporarily or whatever, and you've 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 could just say there's so many times where I'm hunting, and the style that I hunt would be like big whacking, 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 gonna talk about let's break down the things that you need to know to survive the situation sations 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 three is one of the most important. I mean, are 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, you 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, 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 cooled. You could get caught in 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 that 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, 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 too big, and having all and gathering all the materials and fuel ahead of time.

Some of the biggest mistakes when starting a fire would be, you know, starting it with the wrong stuff, trying to light the wrong thing, wasting energy getting it going and they're 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 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 fires started 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 in places that you can find dry materials. Some of the mosses burn really well. Um, just stuff

to to start the fire. Now, if I go into a new area, say the Pacific Northwest, where it's really wet and you know, like different types of trees and plants, well, 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. If 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 the fire. Just examining 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 fire is 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 gonna sit down and glass for a few minutes, I'm just gonna build a quick fire. And by doing that, I've got you know, there's probably snow on the ground and there's not a lot of fire danger of its spreading. 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. 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 big wack hunting storms rolling in I found a little rock overhang that I crawled up underneath and made my camp in there. Um I didn't have a waterproof anything, but you know, the storm comes through, I mean my little baby underneath the

rock 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 this waterproof do you have like a garbage bag in your pack? What happens if you put your rein gear on and then like used your pack as some form of shelter.

Maybe you lean some sticks up against the 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 at that while you're out there summertime, like now is a great time you're gonna 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, 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 to say I don't have a GPS. These are skills that I've just kind of done over the years. I thought, okay, what do I have in my bag? And while it's daylight, looking around, saying, 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 wind's coming this way. Like, as I'm hiking and walking through I'm always making mental notes of places that would make good shelters. Play to

be quick and easy over oute 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 their flashlight

dies there. Whatever, they're walking around, they're going, I thought the truck was here, We should be back at the truck, and they're back of the truck. You've lost your way of navigating, You've lost your visual way points. Okay, maybe now is just the time sit down, waited 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 gonna be miserable, but it's

just a night. Hopefully it's just a night, you know, Hopefully you don't unders so far off that you get too far out of track it it becomes multiple nights. One thing is is it's uncomfortable to sleep with if you're napping in the daytime, it's super easy at night. The grounds hard, the grounds cold, so shelter might even be including making something to sleep on to insulate your body, and you know, just protecting yourself against the almost staying warm,

moving around. It might be something where you get up your 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's probably two months now, we talked about purification, filtration, etcetera.

One thing you've 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 fifteen ridges now and your plum out of water. What do you do? Well, you can find water, but is that water going to be safe and potible. I like to carry some things with me, like iodine or potible 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 left at it can't Maybe you know, on a day hunt, why would you bring your water filter? You just carry the water you're gonna 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 sterry pen kind of thing, but I always have a little bit of iodine in my first aid kit or some pottible 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 there's ways that you can look for water and clean water. What I like to do is like little seeps um. I think about it like this. If like water runs through about three inches of some kind of soil, it's it's pretty much like some form of filtration, maybe not purification,

you know. 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 gardia and other things in that like you would in a stagnant pond and 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 you're who knows like something went wrong, you're in the back country, you've 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 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 the main water. That one's like hidden somewhere in case they 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 with like cloth was say, like rocks or stones, and it's something that's clean, not dirt like gravel. Something that would be like the first step. The second step would be being 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 take that out and then just using like from your fire the charcoal pieces chot, 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 of times you do it will actually be like pretty sooty, pretty dark, but you can keep doing it a couple of 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 high king and hunting, it's probably not going to be your your best option.

But if you're out of water and you've got no other options, it's 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, no, 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 understanding that at least you have in your mind, okay,

all the waterways go to this main waterway. So, um, 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 if I get over on the other side, like just understanding the big picture of

where you're going. My dad, it's the story he tells a lot, but is before I was born, got into a situation where if he pretty much got lost, um, 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. It was an outfit for my grandpa, who was an outfit 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's. You know, following water can be a way to get you out, 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 big picture of it, what happens. You 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 it's 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 there just 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 go I'll build shelters. I love making like clay bank ovens where I can you know, smoke um. Actually, like one time in Alaska, man I made this awesome oven out of the tundra and smoked a bunch of arm again 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 para cord apart using that making a stick hook and catching some bait and catching a fish, building fires, and then I'd say I skill 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 bulos, 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 ten items that I always have. So I think I get 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. I

personally don't carry a survival kit. I have in the past, but they 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 ten items that should probably always be

in your pack list fire making. So it's gonna be some kind of firestarter, a lighter, and maybe even a secondary source if you want as well. Or I like to keep up 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 of 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, um, I've got i a dyne in there I will throw um. I actually sometimes have like a little small compass and I just do a first like 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 baggy of potible aqua and a lighter. Having those items in there is just

it's like cool. If something happens, I could pull that kid out and I know that I've got things in. There is a little bit of thread and 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 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 that must have Number five cordage or like pecord or mule tape something like that. You can use it for so many different uses. I mean it's not just for survival type, because I mean I use it to hang corders. I use it 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 waiters I've stuffed them with pine boughs and used it as like a sleeping pad when my broke to keep me warm. M I've used them just even like throw my pack in when it's raining outside so I have more room in my tent, And they're 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 hunting temperature drops. Stuffing your sleeping bag in that garbage sack just like helps block the wind. You know, 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 wrapped my duct tape around the next item on the list, a water bottle. Yeah, you're probably always always gonna 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 wrapped 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 now mind 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 whereast 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, and 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's 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 ft 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 I've been in a real flat area and don't want it to get in the dirt. Now I use 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

you know, 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. 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. Be kind of cool to 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 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 would 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. Get you later. Und