It is amazing the situation that we
find ourselves in and the steps we do to remove ourselves from these situation. Looking back on our lives gives us a great
opportunity to learn and become a better person. Whether it is the best or worse situation in
our lives, we can always learn something.
We would be fools not to. The situation
that I found myself yesterday night and this morning has taught me a few great
survival lessons on what to do and what not to do.
Living
in Idaho I have a great many opportunities to be on streams, rivers and
lakes. Last year I went down the Banks
run on the Payette River at midnight with no lights or moon… and it was amazing. Growing up in Boy Scouts I was costumed to
expanding my comfort zone in the wild and going above and beyond what I would normally
do. With this ever expanding adventure
attitude I have prepared myself or so I thought, to survive in the wild if
needs be.
On
August 6, 2013 our family friends, their friends from out of town and my family
decided to go tubing the Main Payette River in Emmett Idaho. The estimate time to tube the Main Payette
River is anywhere between one and half to three hours. Sunset for that day was 9:00 pm; we launched
our tubes and raft around 7:30 giving us only exactly an hour and half for
tubing the river. This would work perfectly
if there were no incidents, accidents or lollygagging around but a strait shot
down the river. Although I am not afraid
of being on a river after dark it is not the best idea because of water hazards.
Experience
is a great, but when your experience of tubing is going about one or two miles
per hour down a river with what would be consider a class zero rapid, you don’t
have much compare too. Add the elements
of dark night, a river you’re not familiar with, rapids that you consider
dangerous and you have a perfect equation for fear. Fear stops people from acting and puts them
at danger. We encountered fear on our
rafting trip and this lead us to spending four hours on a beach, stranded and
waiting for relief.
9:00pm.
“We’re done.” This statement stopped
three adults and a child from finishing our tubing trip. After wading up to the beach through a rough
current I informed the other two that our common friend would be back to get
us. Instantaneously I had thoughts cascading
through my brain on survival such as: how long would that be? How much would the temperature drop that
night? Are there any poisonous snakes,
bugs or plants on this beach? How are we
to get protection? Can I build a fire?
Are there any animals that can harm us out here? Are the other children ok? Did everyone else make it out ok? Can I walk back to civilization?
Despite
my fear of being laughed at I started trying to make a fire by the Bow Drill and
Fire Plow methods, neither worked despite my constant struggle and prayers. Realizing that was getting colder and the
mother and child would only be in their swimming suits for who knows how long;
we tore a hole in a floatation tube and dried it by rubbing dirt, sand and
grass all over until it became dry and warm.
Placing the mother and child parallel to each other for warmth and
against a dirt wall for reflecting body heat, we placed the deflated tube on
top of them and started breaking off branches with leaves to place on top of the
tube, mother, child and wall to create a natural enclosure. Once they were covered to their shoulders we
packed dirt, sand and grass underneath the tube to fill in the gaps. This natural enclosure helped capture their body
heat and trap it. We also eventually
took the remaining inflatable tubes and build a “wall” between them and the
river stopping the cold breeze from the rapids hitting them. The child eventually said that he was warm
and had stopped shivering.
After I
started shivering I rubbed dirt onto by body to help trap in body heat. We saw flash lights (same ones in the My
Survival in a Bottle) shortly afterwards across the river looking around and
trying to see across to the other side. The
flash lights were bright enough that we were able to see the light a couple
hundred yards away. We got up and
started waving and yelling to get their attention. We knew they had seen us because they pointed
their lights at us and flashed them multiple times.
Staying next to the rapids the
entire time while we waited was a good and bad decision. The good part was that is where we got out of
the river and didn't move. Allowing our friend
to know where we were to entire time.
The bad part about staying by the rapids was that it is loud and we
couldn't hear very well.
An hour later a rescue party came
up behind us following our friend’s flashlights from across the river. They had followed our friend’s flashlight
from the across the valley where they started to get to us. Using signals flashlights signals our friend
and rescue party were able to communicate to where we were.
After walking through a couple fields,
bogs and ditches we were sore footed, blistered, scratched and poked from
trees, barbwire, goat heads, thicker plants and rocks. We arrived at a dirt road that led us through
a thicket of tree, over another part of the river and up a hill. If we had walked without the rescue party we
would never have made it. Between the
plants, bogs and rocks there were also water wells, sticks, barbwire along the
ground, cow manure, logs, pipes and other obstacle that could have caused us to
fall and injure ourselves.
2:30am. “Are you ready?” The statement said between my wife and I that
stated I was done with our tubing, camping and hiking trip with the other
family and ready to get home after we had arrived at the cars the rescue party
had brought.
The total time out in the elements
was seven hours. This may not seem like
a lot of time and it really isn’t if you are used to Idaho and all that comes
with this beautiful state. Having been
studying wilderness survival, boy scouts and starting My Survival prepared me immensely
for this trip in the way of knowledge and know how. Although we were only a couple miles from
civilization on a river that is well traveled we were not prepared and not
safe. The worse issues that could have
happened would have been hypothermia, poisonous plants and animals, broken body
parts, slept all night on a beach, and dehydration. Do you know how to combat these?
I would like to consider the negative things we did to lead
us to this situation:
·
Not enough daylight if anything happened along
the way
·
Did not stay together as a group
·
No plan on “what if”
·
Expectations for what was ahead not clearly
stated
·
People did not stay calm
·
Ego got in the way of safety with being warm
·
Improper gear for traveling over ground
·
No survival kit
I would like to touch upon the things done correctly:
·
Knew how to create a shelter to trap body heat
& barrier against cold front
·
Rescuers had flashlight codes for signaling
·
Rescuers had a rescue plan
How My Survival in a Bottle would have help:
·
Build a fire quickly with matches and fire
starters
·
Build a shelter out of blanket and trash bag
·
Been able to use a flashlight to signal and/or
walk to civilization
·
Use a whistle to sound location
·
Use water powder to make water drinkable
·
There are more ideas but there were the most important
things My Survival in a Bottle could have helped accomplish
I will never leave home, go on a trip or do anything again without
My Survival in a Bottle.
