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S U RV I VO R ’S E D G E • JA N UA RY/ F E B R UA R Y 2020 T H E B E G I N N I N G • BY R YA N L E E P R I C E

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR EDITOR IN CHIEF DEPUTY EDITOR ART DIRECTOR COVER DESIGN PREMEDIA DIGITAL MANAGER EDITORIAL ASSISTANT EDITORIAL COORDINATOR CIRCULATION CONSULTANT COVER PHOTO EDITORIAL INQUIRIES

athlonoutdoors.com VP/GROUP PUBLISHER Nicholas S. Seifert & CONTENT DIRECTOR ADVERTISING SALES National Office 212-478-1910; sales@athlonoutdoors.com Independent Account Representatives NORTHEAST REGION Scott Buchmayr 978-462-6335 SOUTHEAST & UPPER MIDWEST Amos Crowley 216-378-9811 WESTERN REGION Scott J. Cherek 307-635-8899 MIDWEST/CENTRAL SOUTH Dan Flavin 248-515-8654 DIRECT RESPONSE SALES SENIOR DIRECTOR MARKETING & OPERATIONS DIGITAL SALES DEVELOPMENT & MARKETING DIRECTOR MARKETING COORDINATOR /ADMINISTRATOR

PREPARATION VS. IMPROVISATION

Nino Bosaz Ryan Lee Price* Linas Cernauskas James Walsh* Rory Slifkin Franco Nguyen Matthew Hogan Amelia Wilhelm* Richard Ortega Scott Hill/ProCirc Straight 8* editdesk@athlonoutdoors.com

realworldsurvivor.com • tactical-life.com ballisticmag.com • personaldefenseworld.com

“N

ecessity is the mother of invention” is a stalwart phrase that rings true to every ingenious and creative person who feels his aptitude for invention and discovery outweigh his need for careful planning and preparation. There’s no need to prepare for an emergency, says Mr.

“…WHY START OUT WITH

Jim Coen 212-478-1949 Carrie Roeder

NOTHING WHEN YOU CAN

Brock Norman

ALWAYS PLAN FOR A

Maureen Pichner

POSITIVE OUTCOME WHILE

ATHLON MEDIA GROUP Corporate Officers

PRESIDENT, CEO CFO/TREASURER CORPORATE ADDRESSES

Chuck Allen Mary Lee Vanderkooi New York: 60 E. 42nd St., Suite 820, NY, NY 10165; 212-478-1910 Nashville: 2451 Atrium Way, Suite 320 Nashville, TN 37214 800-284-5668 SUBSCRIPTIONS /SINGLE COPIES: 800-284-5668 subscriptions@athlonoutdoors.com ONLINE STORE: outdoorgroupstore.com * Consultant TO THE READERS: Be advised that there may be products represented in this magazine as to which the sale, possession or interstate transportation thereof may be restricted, prohibited or subject to special licensing requirements. Prospective purchasers should consult the local law enforcement authorities in their area. All of the information in this magazine is based upon the personal experience of individuals who may be using specific tools, products, equipment and components under particular conditions and circumstances, some or all of which may not be reported in the particular article and which this magazine has not otherwise verified. Nothing herein is intended to constitute a manual for the use of any product or the carrying out of any procedure or process. This magazine and its officers and employees accept no responsibility for any liability, injuries or damages arising out of any person’s attempt to rely upon any information contained herein. ATHLON SPORTS WHO’S WHO PRESENTS SURVIVOR’S EDGE® (ISSN 2375-3617) is published bimonthly by Athlon Sports Communications, Inc., 2451 Atrium Way, Suite 320, Nashville, TN 37214. Single copy price: $9.95 U.S. and $10.95 CAN. Subscriptions are six issues for $32.97 per year in the U.S. Application to mail at Periodicals Postage prices is pending at Nashville, TN, and at other additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send subscription requests to: Athlon Media Group, PO Box 292167, Kettering, OH 45429. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Survivor’s Edge, PO Box 292167, Kettering, OH 45429. Submissions of manuscripts, illustrations and/or photographs must be accompanied by a stamped, selfaddressed envelope. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material. Copyright © 2019 by Athlon Sports Communications, Inc. All rights reserved under international and Pan American Copyright Conventions. Reproduction in whole or in part, via electronic or any other means, without written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. Printed in the U.S.A.

PREPARING FOR A NEGATIVE SITUATION?” Improv, whose motto is “Fake it ’til you make it.” I’ll just wing it when I get there. Although it’s a very solid theory people hold that the forest will provide all that is needed—timber for shelter, game for food, water for thirst and a bevy of many of the basic needs of anyone in a woodland survival situation—why risk it? Improvisation is a great mindset to have, but it should be used when all the other resources you’ve prepared have been consumed or failed or you are beset with a situation you never thought possible and are wholly without the training to address it. Sure, you can build a fire by rubbing two sticks together or by any number of other means, but wouldn’t having a lighter handy be much easier? There are a couple of solid ways to find a clean source of water

in nature, but why not carry a bottle and a filter instead? Preparing to improvise—that is, acquiescing to the possibility that no matter how much you prepare for a given situation, you will likely run out of resources—is important. You must learn to do without the lighters and filters and sleeping bags. Knowing how to survive during a disaster or emergency with little to nothing is a very important skill to have so you can overcome the adverse circumstances. But why start out with nothing when you can always plan for a positive outcome while preparing for a negative situation? Abraham Lincoln once remarked, “Give me six hours to cut down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” As is so common with Lincoln’s quotes, this rings as true today as it did then. So, how are you going to spend your first four hours? Be Prepared.

ERRATA As we are all well aware, mistakes happen, and in a magazine that contains upwards of 40,000 words, we’re bound to mess up one or two from time to time. On Page 49 of the November/December 2019 issue, the quote should read: “Obviously, heat is the big issue here. It doesn’t matter what kinds of supplies you have at home if you freeze to death.” Also, six pages later in that issue, we forgot to provide credit to NOAA for the bottom chart. We apologize for any confusion it may have caused.

QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? SUGGESTIONS?

EMAIL ME AT RYANLEEPRICE@GMAIL.COM. ALSO VISIT US ONLINE AT REALWORLDSURVIVOR.COM; FACEBOOK.COM/REALWORLDSURVIVOR; TWITTER.COM/REALWORLDSURVIV; YOUTUBE.COM/C/REALWORLDSURVIVOR

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S U RV I VO R ’S E D G E JA N UA R Y/ F E B R UA RY 2 02 0

VO L U M E 7 I S S U E 1

Contents

43 18 64 Survival Spycraft Spy vs. Spy: When Rambo Meets Q By Jim Cobb 74 Trash to Survival Treasure Using Other People’s Discards to Stay Alive By Michael D’Angona 78 Jill of All Trades In-Depth Interview with Survivalist Laura Zerra By Michael D’Angona 98 What is Disease X? Is a Global Pandemic on the Horizon? By Jeff Williams WILDERNESS

18 Water, Water Everywhere Nature’s Highways in a Survival Situation By Dana Benner 32 Simplicity = Reliability Five EasyBuild Tarp Shelters By Cody Assmann 58 Customize Your Kit Select and Test the Gear Yourself By Steven Paul Barlow 84 Salt It Preserving Fish With an Ancient Technique By Michael Adams

FEATURES

12 The ARkStorm Cometh Is a Mega Atmospheric River Storm on Its Way? By Ryan Lee Price 43 Meltdowns and Mushroom Clouds How Close Are We to Nuclear Annihilation? By Bill Jeffers

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88 Make It Ultralight Learning from the Ultralight Backpacking Community By Kevin Estela 94 Look, Listen, and Learn Using All of Your Senses to Survive By Dana Benner

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VO L U M E 7 I S S U E 1

Contents 62 108 Somewear Out There Off-Grid Comms with a Satellite Hotspot By Laura Lancaster GEAR REVIEWS

38 The Human Backpack A Look into an Injured Personnel Carrier By Eugene Nielsen 62 Carry a Combar AClimb8’s Combar is a Full-Size Multi-Tool By Daniel Black 72 Delta Ditch Digger The New DMOS Delta Shovel By Sean McCarthy

24 54

DEPARTMENTS

1 In the Beginning 6 New Products 8 iSurvived 70 Book Review 102 Survival Knives 360 112 The End ON THE COVER

108

URBAN

24 Taste Testing Putting Emergency Food to the Test 30 Fixin’ Wax DIY Do-All Miracle Wax

By Frank Melloni By Cody Assmann

54 Rides: Project BOV Buildup Part I: Transportation and Storage By Robert K. Patterson

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In an homage to Grant Wood and his 1930 painting American Gothic, our illustrious cover photographer this month (and editor of sister publication Skillset), Jason Swarr, provided this faithful depiction of the pioneering spirit of survivors and preppers in the Atomic Age. Set against a backdrop of looming reactor cooling towers and juxtaposed by a peaceful field of poppies, our Ms. Graham and Dr. McKeeby are ready for nuclear winter. Are you? See Page 43 on how to survive a meltdown or a mushroom cloud.

S U RV I VO R ’S E D G E • JA N UA R Y/ F E B R UA R Y 202 0 GEAR ROUNDUP

NEW YEAR, NEW GEAR Here are 15 products that might just help you fulfill your resolutions for 2020 By Richard Ortega 1. DTLGEAR OUTDOORSMAN

First-Aid Kit This is not your everyday discount-store-quality first-aid kit. Designed by an EMT, the lightweight and compact kit is not only usable by one person on themselves but contains all of the essentials needed to help you get out of an inopportune emergency situation. Weighing 1 pound and 14 ounces, it’s extremely packable—perfect for hunting, fishing and shooting sports—and it’s available in four colors with three different options for tourniquet and gauze combinations. MSRP: $100. (dtlgear.com) 2. EOTECH

Model EXPS3 HWS Built for close-quarters engagements with fast-moving targets, the EXPS3 HWS is an operator-grade holographic weapon sight made for two-eyes-open shooting. The sight features night vision capabilities and an adjustable quick-detach locking lever for easy installation and removal. It weighs 11.2 ounces and is water resistant up to 33 feet. Comes in black or tan. MSRP: $700. (eotechgear.com) 3. EOTECH

Model G33 Magnifier Delivering a fast-transitioning larger field of view, the G33 Magnifier features an adjustable diopter for improved, precise focus-

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ing. Tool-free vertical and horizontal adjustments make this the perfect option for those who want to switch from a clear view to up to a 3X-magnified option seamlessly. MSRP: $609. (eotechgear.com) 4. EOTECH

Vudu Model 1-6X Precision Rifle Scope This is the scope that was made with serious hunters and avid 3-Gun competitors in mind. Its speedring reticle was designed for fast target engagement. While perfect for longer-range targets, this is the scope to use with your favorite AR platforms as well as your bolt-action rifles. Featuring a 24-millimeter objective lens and flat black, Type III anodized exterior finish, this scope uses push buttons for ease of illumination control. MSRP: $1,400. (eotechgear.com) 5. HME

Skeleton Fixed Blade Knife A stainless steel fixed blade complete with gut hook and modified droppoint makes this the perfect cutter for skinning and quartering jobs. Measuring 3.5 inches in length, the blade weighs less than half a pound. With a brightgreen handle finish that’s wrapped in paracord, this is a blade that’s both easy to use and especially easy to find in your EDC pack. MSRP: $40. (hmeproducts.om)

6. MAKERS4GOOD

Helio During the cold winter months, it gets darker faster, and you can’t just rely on your cell phone’s flashlight to illuminate your way. Instead, opt for the ultra-bright, 150-lumen Helio lantern/flashlight. This compact, portable light source is perfect for camping, hiking or whatever else your adventures consist of. It also doubles as a solar power bank that features two USB ports MSRP: $90. (makers-

4good.org) 7. M O B I L E WA R M I N G

Blizzard Glove Powered by a set of ultraslim, rechargeable 7.4-volt batteries, the Blizzard Glove was designed to keep your hands warm and comfortable for up to eight hours per charge. Made with a 100-percent goatskin leather outer shell, these gloves were designed with an anti-slip palm, padded knuckles and fingers and a wristcinch closure system. Featuring an integrated control button, you can quickly and easily adjust between the four temperature settings to ensure your comfort. MSRP: $270. (mobile-

warming.com) 8 . M O B I L E WA R M I N G

Dual Power Unisex Heated Pant Staying warm in frigid temperatures usually

involves layering multiple pieces of clothing. With Mobile Warming’s heated apparel, that’s a thing of the past. Featuring a waterresistant, windproof outer shell, these unisex heated pants contain the latest in 12-volt heated apparel technology, keeping you warm and dry during wet, cold or windy conditions. This pant features four heat settings and includes a 12volt lithium-ion battery that will last up to 11 hours for use when you’re not near a larger power source. But when you’re in the car or on your motorcycle, you can use the 12-volt power lead adaptor to tie into the vehicle’s electrical system. MSRP: $300. (mobilewarming.com) 9 . M O B I L E WA R M I N G

Rover Vest

Humans aren’t the only ones susceptible to the elements. Whether you’re out for a walk, a hike or a hunt, the Rover Vest makes sure your pooch stays warm during the cold winter months. The 100-percent polyester shell uses universal hookand-loop closures so it’s easy to dress your pup, and the vest features a neck collar slot as well. Best of all, the Rover Vest lets you change its heating temperature between the four different settings wirelessly via Bluetooth connection. MSRP: $120. (mobilewarming.com) 1 0 . M O B I L E WA R M I N G

Women’s Summit Jacket

Perfect for those who lead a more active lifestyle, the Women’s Summit Jacket features a 500-fill duckdown core and allows for free range of motion during even the most rigorous of outdoor activities. The

lightweight, 100-percent nylon outer shell pairs well with the anti-static, 100-percent polyester inner liner, and zippered, heated hand-warmer pockets complete the upper-body comfort. Its integrated Bluetooth-enabled touch control allows you to customize its large heat zones to give you the perfect level of warmth every time. MSRP: $250. (mobilewarming.com) 11. MORAKNIV

Companion Spark Designed to perform in any weather condition, the Companion Spark knife features a high-quality fire starter built right into its handle. This Swedish stainless steel blade measures 2.5mm thick and features a thermoplastic rubber, soft friction grip handle with a 90-degree ground spine. With exceptional edge retention, this go-to, reliable outdoor knife comes with a durable polymer sheath and is available in black, red or yellow. MSRP: $29. (morakniv.se) 1 2 . S U R V I V O R F I LT E R

Active Filtration Bottle Given its advanced filtration technology, all you have to do to enjoy some fresh water is fill up this bottle, squeeze and enjoy. With a 900-milliliter capacity and a 67-ounce-perminute flow rate, this bottle will provide you with clean, drinkable water that’s been filtered to remove 99.9 percent of bacteria, parasites and toxic chemicals. Perfect for any outdoor activity, from hiking, biking, and camping, this is a must have for the true outdoor enthusiast or someone who wants to be prepared. MSRP: $40. (survivorfilter.com)

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SURVIVED FOUR TRUE TALES OF SURVIVAL AGAINST THE ODDS COMPILED BY LAURA LANCASTER

Full Speed Ahead MAN SURVIVES HIGH-SPEED M O U N TA I N B I K I N G C R A S H !

ob Burdett didn’t want to be late for the rendezvous with his son, Gabe. The pair were planning to spend a glorious Sunday mountain biking around Riverside State Park near Spokane, Washington. But as he coasted to the bottom of Doomsday Hill, only a few miles from his home, Burdett realized that something was wrong. He was going fast—over 20 miles per hour—much too fast to take the turn

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safely. As he steered into the curve, his body flew the opposite direction, slamming into the ground at high velocity. Fortunately for Burdett, he was wearing a helmet. “A hit that hard could have killed me if I weren’t wearing it,” he said. For a few seconds, Burdett grappled with the extent of his injuries—blood in his eye, jostled ribs, severe road rash—before losing consciousness. Soon after, Gabe received a text from his

father: “Emergency SOS: Bob Burdett called emergency services from this approximate location after Apple Watch detected a hard fall.” With that information, Gabe raced in the direction of the coordinates in the text. But when he arrived at the scene, no one was there. Panicked, he started searching the base of the hill, looking for signs of his father. That’s when he got a second text, this one relaying his father’s most recent

location: Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center. His father’s watch had also called 911, and paramedics had arrived at his location within a single minute of receiving the alert. Bob was taken to the hospital, where he was treated for a severe cut above his eye and a concussion. Later, he had this to say about his accident: “If you own an Apple watch, set up your hard fall detection—it’s not just for when you fall off a roof or ladder.”

iStock

A high-impact fall can spell trouble for mountain bikers.

GRIT AND DETERMINATION COUNT FOR MORE THAN LUCK WHEN A DAY HIKE

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GOES AWRY.

Double Trouble H I K E R M A C G YV E R S S P L I N T T O C R AW L O U T OF THE BUSH ON TWO FRACTURED LIMBS!

eil Parker thought he would be home by lunch. The 54-year-old member of the Brisbane Bushwalking Club was climbing up a waterfall, one of the more strenuous parts of the three-hour hike along Cabbage Tree Creek. But as he climbed up the rocks along the side of the steep face, they gave way. As he fell roughly 18 feet, hitting the side of the rock wall and bouncing off a ledge, Parker broke both his leg and his wrist before landing in 3 feet of water. “My left foot just below my ankle clean snapped in half,” he remembered, but “the fact that I didn’t sustain a head injury, I think, is quite amazing.” But that was where his luck stopped; when he checked his phone, there was no service. Worse, he dropped it into the creek. “I had no way of contacting anyone to tell them where I was,” he said. Given his situation, Parker knew he only had one option. “Only way I’m going to get rescued is self-rescue.” Parker’s first step was to splint his leg using bandages that he had been carrying along with his hiking poles. Next, he started to crawl. “I had to carry my leg and legs are very heavy when they’re not connected to anything,” he said. “I’d get about a meter, a meter and a half each time before I had to stop and take a break.” As night fell, Parker switched into his thermal layers, rationing his nuts, protein bar and pain medication to last longer than the simple morning hike he had planned. “I was getting very emotional thinking this is not a nice way to die, just lying here, waiting, waiting,” he said. Over those two days, Parker crawled 3 kilometers—a distance it had only taken him 40 minutes to hike before his fall. On his second night, his luck finally turned. “I saw the police helicopter come over on Sunday night and I was right down on the creek bed,” he said, “If they came back tomorrow, I knew I had to crawl again.” The next day, he was able to attract the helicopter’s attention. Later, Parker credited his survival with what he learned from his bushwalking club. “Everything I had in my kit was used,” Parker said. “It made a difference between getting out in this condition and probably not.”

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S U RV I VO R ’S E D G E • JA N UA RY/ F E B R UA RY 202 0 I S U RV I V E D

Not Crying Wolf FA M I LY O F F O U R E N D U R E S C A N I N E A M B U S H I N THE DEAD OF NIGHT

he Rispoli family had just crawled into their sleeping bags in Canada’s Banff National Park when their tent started to shake. They’d heard from the rangers that grizzlies frequented the area, so they’d packed their food into their car and kept a bottle of bear spray nearby, just in case. The tent shook again. “It was like something out of a horror movie,” said Elisa. She screamed for her husband, Matt, who awoke and immediately jumped into action, yelling at whatever

was outside the tent. “I thought it was a bear, so I was trying to let it know that I’m a human,” he said. “A lot of them are afraid of human voices.” He saw a nose pressed against the tent, so he punched it—but the animal outside bit down on his hand in return, then yanked back suddenly, tearing off the rain fly. It was a wolf, and it wasted no time going back in for a second attack. Elisa threw herself on top of 7-year-old Holden and 5-year-old Reid. “We

were screaming for help as he was fighting it and trying to save us.” Matt, realizing what he was dealing with, had decided to change tactics. “We’ve learned in law enforcement that if you control the head of a dog, then you’re controlling the dangerous area,” he said. While Matt was wrestling with its head, the wolf started to pull back, dragging him from the tent. “I cannot and don’t think I’ll ever be able to properly describe the terror,” said Elisa. She thought her husband was a goner. But outside the tent, a fellow camper named Russ Fee had heard their screams and rushed over. After Russ kicked the wolf and dislodged it from Matt’s hand, he and Matt threw rocks at the animal until it retreated, the men yelling

at Elisa to get the kids to the safety of the car. But, unable to find the keys in the chaos of their destroyed tent, they ran to Fee’s minivan instead. The two men followed soon after, as the wolf continued to stalk them. They quickly drove to the hospital, where Matt’s injuries were treated, while park officials evacuated the campground. The doctors noted, based on the bite marks on Matt’s arms, that the wolf was old and nearing the end of its natural life. “I’m not going to complain that it was an old wolf,” he said. “If I have to be attacked by a wolf, I’d rather him gum me, if possible.” The next day, park officials killed a wolf, using DNA analysis to confirm that it was the aggressor from that fateful night in the campground.

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Desperate predators can become unusually aggressive—even attacking groups of people in campgrounds.

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Slam Dunk MAN OUTSWIMS BLACK BEAR AFTER D E A D LY WAT E R P O L O B O U T !

randon Lattie, 27, was enjoying a lakeside stroll with a friend when a black bear appeared. As the bear charged them, Lattie’s friend ran off in the opposite direction. Now the bear’s sole target, Lattie tried to run into the woods, but the bear was hot on his heels. With no chance of outpacing the bear, Lattie jumped into the lake. “It happened so fast I couldn’t even think, so

that seemed like the right thing to do,” he said. The bear swiped at Lattie’s back before jumping in after him. Though the bulky bear was slowed down by the water, Lattie’s shoes were stuck in the murky lake bottom. That was when the bear pushed him underwater. Already out of breath from running, Lattie knew that he had only seconds to act. Letting his feet find the bottom of the lake, he pushed up with all his

might. Back at the surface, he found himself looking directly at the bear, a mere 3 feet away. “You don’t have to do this,” Lattie pleaded with the bear. “You don’t want to do it.” That’s when he heard a dog. Moments earlier, Alana Bull had seen Lattie struggling in the water and run with her husky shepherd to the opposite side of the lake. Now a safe distance from the bear, her dog started

barking like mad. The bear, distracted, started swimming toward Bull, so Lattie started swimming back to the dock. Confused, the bear alternated directions, swimming toward Lattie, then Bull, then back again—giving Lattie time to swim to shore. “How do you thank someone for saving your son’s life?” Lattie’s mother asked later. “We’re planning on getting the dog lots of treats.”

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There are few places a that bear won’t go in pursuit of its prey— including into a lake.

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S U RV I VO R ’S E D G E • JA N UA R Y/ F E B R UA R Y 2 02 0 N AT U R A L D I SAST E R S

Flood by Eucalyp from the Noun Project

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13 IS AN ATMOSPHERIC RIVER OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS SET TO INUNDATE THE UNITED STATES?

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BY CINDY MAI

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S U RV I VO R ’S E D G E • JA N UA R Y/ F E B R UA R Y 2 02 0 N AT U R A L D I SAST E R S

IN THE NOT-TOO-DISTANT PAST—NOVEMBER OF 1861 TO JANUARY OF 1862—WHEN THE EAST COAST WAS EMBROILED IN THE EARLY STAGES OF THE CIVIL WAR, SNOW BEGAN TO FALL IN THE HIGH ELEVATIONS OF THE SIERRA NEVADAS, FOLLOWED BY AN UNPRECEDENTED AMOUNT OF RAIN. followed is described as the worst nual water in states where the summers to ever befall the West Coast, are usually very dry. “When we get a DURING THE SPAN OF 43 disaster and it was the latest ARkStorm to strike sequence of them, or we get too many the continent. In the near future, another and the soils are real moist and the ARkStorm is inevitable. rivers are high and the reservoirs are DAYS, 10 FEET OF RAIN full, then they can go from being largely we need water in FELL ON THE WESTERN THE PINEAPPLE EXPRESS beneficial—because the West—to hazardous,” Ralph says. Marty Ralph, the director of the Center Western Weather and Water ExPORTION OF THE UNITED fortremes WHAT IS AN ARKSTORM? at the University of California, San Like small tremblors can be compared to told a San Diego newspaper that STATES, WHICH CAUSED Diego, “The Big One,” so can Pineapple Express normal atmospheric rivers (ARs) occur events be compared to ARkStorms: They several times a year. Called a Pineapple happen very infrequently, but when they because it comes via Hawaii, it’s SEVERE FLOODING OVER Express do, they’re devastating. While the name a ribbon of water vapor that flows off the suggests something of a Biblical Pacific Ocean and combines with lowMUCH OF THE LOWLANDS. altitude winds. They stretch about 250 “ARk” reference, ARkStorm project manager Cox and chief scientist Lucile Jones to 375 miles across but can reach from IF THAT WASN’T ENOUGH, 1,000 to more than 2,000 miles in length. Dale at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) came up with the abbreviation “Atmo“It’s about the equivalent of 20 MissisRiver, 1,000.” The “k” stands for sippi Rivers’ worth of water, but it’s in the AN UNSEASONABLE HEAT- form of water vapor rather than liquid,” spheric 1,000, as it was erroneously believed storms of this heightened magnitude Ralph says. When the Pineapple Express WAVE MELTED THE NEWLY hits the mountains, the stream of warm, that only happen every 1,000 years; in fact, they’re much more frequent. When Cox wet air is forced upward, where it cools and Jones started work on the ARkStorm condenses into massive rain clouds FALLEN SNOW, ONLY ADD- and project, scientific understanding of containing a great deal of rain. rivers was still in its infancy. In a typical year, around nine atmoING TO THE DEVASTATION. spheric rivers shower the West Coast atmospheric “The science behind them was maybe 15 years old, because that’s when they put with rain and snow. They’re a critical THE DESTRUCTION THAT source of about a third to half of the an- up the satellites that could detect these REALWORLDSURVIVOR.COM

Chris Gallagher

Jeff Peters, USGS. Public domain

15 narrow bands carrying huge amounts of water,” reported Cox. The ARkStorm, similar to a Pineapple Express storm, draws heat and moisture from the tropical Pacific on a massive scale, forming a series of severe ARs that approach land with the same ferocity and force of a hurricane. Weeks of intense rain and snow are followed by catastrophic floods, landslides and property and infrastructure damage that would cripple the economies of several states (one of which—California—is the sixth largest in the world). The USGS report penned by Cox and Jones suggests that the resulting floods, landslides and coastal erosion and inundation from an ARkStorm would lead to the following consequences and conclusions. ARkStorms are California’s other “Big One.” A severe California winter storm could realistically flood thousands of square miles of urban and agricultural land and disrupt supply lines throughout the state for days or weeks. Because the flood depths in some areas could be 10 to 20 feet, without effective evacuation, there would be substantial loss of life. An ARkStorm would be a West Coast disaster. Extensive flooding is deemed realistic in the California Central Valley, San Francisco area, San Diego, Los Angeles and Orange County, many coastal communities and various inland communities up and down the coastline. Both because of the large geographic size of the West Coast and the states’ economic interdependencies, an ARkStorm would affect all counties and all economic sectors. These effects would trickle to all parts of the United States. An ARkStorm could produce an economic catastrophe. One quarter of all structures on the West Coast could experience some degree of flooding in a single severe storm. That degree of damage would threaten a long-term reduction in economic activity for months and even years afterwards. An ARkStorm is inevitable. Geological records have showed six such ARkStorms in the last 2,000 years, and there’s no reason to suggest that it won’t happen again. An ARkStorm is predictable. Unlike earthquakes, the USGS has the capability to predict key aspects of the geophysical phenomena that would create damages in the days and weeks

SACRAMENTO-SAN JOAQUIN DELTA ISLANDS*

PACIFIC OCEAN

This map provides information comparing the ARkStorm flood duration (in days) with the proportions of estimated agriculture losses in California where perennial crop losses dominate the losses. Source: USGS

before an ARkStorm strikes. The West Coast is not prepared for an ARkStorm. The states’ floodprotection plans are not designed for an ARkStorm-like event. The existing systems are designed to protect major urban areas from extreme flooding, but the level of protection for suburban and rural areas is lacking.

THE ARKSTORM SCENARIO

The Science Application for Risk Reduction division of the USGS uses haz-

ards science to improve communities’ resilience to natural disasters including earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires, landslides, floods and coastal erosion. The project engages emergency planners, businesses, universities, government agencies and others in preparing for major natural disasters. In this case, they’re developing a plan for a winter storm scenario they call an ARkStorm. The USGS conducted sediment research in the San Francisco Bay, Santa Barbara basin, Sacramento Valley and Klamath Mountains, and its findings have indicated that these ARkStorms have occurred approximately every 200 years,

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THE SCIENCE BEHIND ATMOSPHERIC RIVERS An atmospheric river (AR) is a flowing column of condensed water vapor in the atmosphere responsible for producing significant levels of rain and snow, especially in the Western United States. When ARs move inland and sweep over the mountains, the water vapor rises and cools to create heavy precipitation. Though many ARs are weak systems that simply provide beneficial rain or snow, some of the larger, more powerful ARs can create extreme rainfall and floods capable of disrupting travel and agriculture, inducing mudslides and causing catastrophic damage to life and property. Source: NOAA.

A strong AR transports an amount of water vapor roughly equivalent to 7.5-15 times the average flow of water at the mouth of the Mississippi River. ARs are a primary feature in the entire global water cycle and are tied closely to both water supply and ﬂood risks in the Western U.S.

On average, about 30-50% of annual precipitation on the West Coast occurs in just a few AR events and contributes to the water supply — and ﬂooding risk.

ARs are approximately 250-375 miles wide on average. ARs move with the weather and are present somewhere on Earth at any given time.

on average. AKrStorms devastated the coastline in 212, 440, 603, 1029, circa 1300, 1418, 1605, 1750, 1810 and in the winter of 1861 to 1862. As damaging and widespread as the 1861-62 ARkStorm was, the data suggests that the events in 440, 1418, 1605 and 1750 were worse. The largest ARkStorm was the one in 1605, which left behind a layer of silt 2 inches thick at the Santa Barbara basin; data indicates that this ARkStorm was at least 50 percent more

powerful than any of the others. According to the USGS models, an ARkStorm will create flooding that overwhelms the flood-protection system, which is typically designed to resist 100- to 200-year runoffs. The Central Valley of California could experience flooding 300 miles long and 20 or more miles wide. Serious flooding could occur in Orange County, Los Angeles County, San Diego, the San Francisco Bay area and other coastal communities. Wind

speeds in some places reach 125 miles per hour—hurricane-force winds. Across wider areas of the West, winds reach 60 miles per hour. Hundreds of landslides damage roads, highways and homes. Property damage exceeds $300 billion, most from flooding. Demand surge (an increase in labor rates and other repair costs after major natural disasters) could increase property losses by 20 percent. Agricultural losses and other costs to repair lifelines, drain flooded islands and repair damage from landslides brings the total direct property loss to nearly $400 billion, of which $20 to $30 billion would be recoverable through public and commercial insurance. Power, water, sewer and other lifelines experience damage that takes weeks or months to restore. Flooding evacuation could involve 1.5 million residents in the inland region and delta counties. Business interruption costs reach $325 billion in addition to the $400 billion property repair costs, meaning that an ARkStorm could cost on the order of $725 billion, which is

NOAA; Jonathan Ford

Scientists’ improved understanding of ARs has come from roughly a decade of scientiﬁc studies that use observations from satellites, radar and aircraft as well as the latest numerical weather models.

17 nearly three times the loss estimated for a severe southern-California earthquake, an event with roughly the same annual occurrence probability.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Flood by Gan Khoon Lay from the Noun Project; Wade Austin Ellis

Planning and preparing for an ARkStorm would be similar to preparing for an earthquake: storing redundancies in emergency food and water, shelter preparations, establishing a series of emergency communication methods and caching supplies that will help you in the event of a flood, such as sandbags and even an inflatable raft. The big problem with the predictive elements of the government’s response to an impending ARkStorm is that it will know one is inevitable with only a couple of weeks for preparation. That’s enough time to gather supplies but not enough time for the states’ construction crews to build adequate levees and dams. Visit FEMA.gov’s Flood Map Service to find out how at risk your area is to general flooding. The decision to bug in or bug out is made in most emergencies where the safety of the home is in question. If water repeatedly floods your home (or has flooded your city in the past), it may likely do so again, especially if the city’s engineers haven’t addressed the problem. If your home has survived stronger storms in the past, riding out a storm in the safety of your own space might be a better option than risking the dangers the weather may pose outside your home. The unpredictability of a flood situation may quickly push you and your family higher and higher up in your house. Seeking refuge on a second floor might not be enough.

STOCK YOUR SUPPLIES

If you planned ahead by putting together a very well-stocked emergency kit for a flood, you should be well suited to survive through an ARkStorm. When building such a collection of supplies, think about providing the essentials first—those things that will be especially needed during a flood—such as extra (dry) clothing, gallon jugs of water, comfort foods and easy-to-prepare meals, a radio that runs on alternate power and several sources of light (flashlights and lanterns). If you include any perishable

goods (which you should avoid doing), keep track of expiration dates and rotate out supplies when those dates draw near. Place this gear in a location that won’t like fall victim to a flood—somewhere on a second floor or in the attic if you live in a single-story home. Make sure to prepare for exposure to the cold and wet if you have to leave your home for any reason during a storm or flood or if the tides rise so high that you’re forced to your roof while awaiting rescue. In your flood kit, make sure to include tools to break out of your attic if need be, such as a hatchet/ axe, a pry bar and a hammer. Wool blankets, tarps, ponchos and water boots are essential gear, too.

PREPARE YOUR HOME

With the threat of a flood looming in the near future, some cities will issue sandbags to its residents, usually free of charge. Study your landscaping around the house and decide where best to divert the water if a flood were to occur. Even the smallest trickle of water can wreak havoc on your home. Prepare your house with a good sump pump to provide drainage, have a plan, and keep your vehicle ready to go at a moment’s notice. Have gear ready to move your family if flooding is imminent. Keep road maps handy of evacuation routes (and alternate routes) and make it a habit to always keep your vehicle filled with sufficient gas to escape the flood zone. Keep sheets of plywood on hand to board up any ground-floor windows to prevent breakage from floating debris. Have a generator handy and ready for additional power. It can be placed on an upstairs balcony or secured to the roof (never run a generator indoors). If your house is flooded and you’re stuck inside, never go into flooded areas like the basement or the ground floors, as you’ll risk electrocution. High water may reach electrical boxes, so listen for popping or hissing sounds and look for sparks. Killing your power at the junction box might be a good option if you can do so safely. In your gear, keep a light-colored bedsheet and a can of spray paint to create an emergency signal for your roof. The light color will contrast against your dark roof and alert rescuers of your presence. If you’re stuck, help will come. Be ready to signal them when they do.

AFTER THE FLOOD: DANGERS IN THE WATER As the water level is returning to normal after a ﬂood, a host of new dangers become evident. In your arsenal of equipment for when the water recedes, include rubber gloves, boots, thick and sturdy pants, protective eyewear, shovels, plastic bags, clotheslines and an alternate and trusted water source.

DAMAGE & DEBRIS If there was damage to buildings or displaced debris from the storm surge, it’ll more than likely be lurking just under the water’s surface. Nails, screws, shards of glass and metal and a host of other sharp objects are waiting to be stepped on. Also, watch for downed power lines, broken gas pipes, damaged buildings and polluted drinking water. What to do: In addition to wearing proper shoes or, better yet, boots, consider including tough denim or canvas pants in your post-disaster wardrobe. In your emergency pack should be gloves (both work and latex) to protect your hands when you’re walking in the water. Use a ﬂashlight and not an open ﬂame when it’s dark. Don’t touch electrical equipment, and don’t drink water that didn’t come from a sealed container.

DISEASE & DRAINAGE The first victim in the infrastructure of a town during a flood is the sewer system. Because it mostly works via gravity, it’s the first to become clogged and overflow. Toilets, sewers, septic tanks and waste-disposal sites will easily lose their contents, which will then mix with the floodwaters. Depending on the severity of the flood, additional hazardous or industrial chemicals and waste that will make for a very toxic soup. Also, beware of mold. What to do: Avoid exposing any part of your body to the water just after a flood, especially any cuts or open wounds you might have. Wear latex gloves when handling any carbon-based debris in the water. Don’t rub your eyes, mouth or ears, and wash all exposed skin with soap and warm water. Change clothes frequently. —Cindy Mai

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NATURE’S HIGHWAYS WILL BE OPEN IN A SURVIVAL SITUATION, SO PREPARE TO TRAVERSE THEM

By Dana Benner

For thousands of years, humans have traveled from Point A to Point B by water. Our waterways have always been nature’s “highways,” and nothing has really changed. The only thing that has changed is the way we look at things. In today’s world, why travel by water when you can just hop in the car or take a plane to get where you need to go? Long trips that took days or even weeks by water now take only a few hours with alternate modes of transportation. » REALWORLDSURVIVOR.COM

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kayaking by Luis Prado from the Noun Project

WILDERNESS

A solo canoe, like this one from Old Town, allows you to take advantage of the qualities of a kayak and the capacity of a canoe. Photo courtesy of Old Town.

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RECOMMENDED WATERCRAFT As the article suggests, there are a multitude of canoes and kayaks out there, but not all of them are suitable for our survival purposes. What follows are the ones I have used or would use. HOBIE MIRAGE COMPASS This single-person kayak is a sit-on. It measures 12 feet and has a width of 34 inches, which means that it’s very stable, and that’s something I want in my watercraft. Unlike some other similar kayaks out there, the Mirage Compass comes with foot-activated paddles, which leaves your hands free to do other things like ﬁshing, though you can always go back to the paddle when needed. Its open deck and carrying capacity of 400 pounds allows you to carry all sorts of gear and supplies. (hobie.com) OLD TOWN DISCOVERY 119 SOLO SPORTSMAN This canoe is the one I own. It’s the best of both worlds: half kayak and half

Running silent in the early morning past homes is one of the beneﬁts of using a kayak or canoe.

canoe. Light, fast and easy to paddle, it’s capable of carrying gear and supplies and is ideal for ﬁshing or bringing a deer back to camp. Unlike other canoes, this canoe is paddled with a two-bladed paddle, like a kayak, and it has a single seat. It measures almost 12 feet, can carry a max load of 354 pounds and weighs only 54 pounds. (oldtowncanoe.com) WENONAH MINNESOTA II I ﬁrst used this canoe while duck hunting in the St. Lawrence area of New York. This was the perfect canoe for getting across some sections of open water. Fully capable of holding two hunters and assorted gear, the Minnesota II tracked well and was easy to handle. It’s a long canoe, measuring 18.5 feet, and has a width of 35 inches, which gives it great stability. If I was traveling with another person or had gear and supplies to move, this would be a canoe I would turn to. (wenonah.com) —Dana Benner

The ability to move quickly and quietly are two beneﬁts of a kayak. Photo courtesy of Hobie

Let’s think long and hard on this. Our over-reliance upon motor vehicles may actually be putting our very survival in jeopardy. If something bad should happen, those same motor vehicles that make our lives easier may not be around, or at least the fuel to operate them may not be sufficient. Roads may become impassable, and if they are passable, traffic snarls may make getting anywhere nearly impossible. The rivers and lakes have been there for ages, and they will still be there in the future, so now is a good time to take a step back and look at water travel as a way to get us out of a bad situation.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? So, what distinguishes a canoe from a kayak? Simply put, not much. A canoe is defined as a watercraft that’s propelled by a paddle operated by a human. Using this definition, that makes a

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kayak a canoe. Going one step further and adding a little confusion to the equation, canoes are not kayaks. Canoes, as we define them today, are designed for the most part to carry loads, whether that load is human or cargo. Kayaks, which were originally used by the people of the Arctic regions, are usually designed to carry one person (sometimes two) and are built for speed and the ability to get into extremely shallow water. Despite their uses in the past, most canoes and kayaks are used mainly for recreational purposes today. Because of this, there’s a canoe or kayak designed for everything you can think of. There are craft designed for whitewater travel and craft designed for calm, flat water. There are both canoes and kayaks constructed solely for racing and some specifically intended for fishing. In fact, the crafts designed for fishing make up one of the largest markets. Knowing this, how do you

Kayak by Gan Khoon Lay from the Noun Project

S U RV I VO R ’S E D G E • JA N UA R Y/ F E B R UA RY 2020 W I L D E R N E S S : T R AV E L BY B OAT

Kevin Estela

Historically, waterways were the highways across our country. This river in Canada is a perfect example.

decide which one is best for you, especially in a survival/ work situation? To answer that question, you need to decide what your intent is. Obviously, if the craft is to be used in a survival situation or to transport goods and supplies to a remote cabin, then you would be staying away from racing canoes and kayaks. Personally, I look at the craft as a tool as opposed to a recreational vehicle. Yes, both canoes and kayaks are fun to use, but my intent is to use it to get out of Dodge or to transport supplies to my safe spot. I have no intention of paddling down whitewater unless I absolutely have to. This narrows down my choices—not by much, but by some. As I feed my family with what I harvest from the wild (through hunting, fishing and foraging), my craft needs to be able to get me in and out of areas not easily accessible by other means. The best hunting and fishing areas are those not easily

reached by foot or motor vehicle. Traversing the water is the best way to get into these areas and to do so quietly. If I’m just fishing, then a kayak is perfect as I can get it into areas that even a canoe could not enter. If I’m hunting or transporting supplies and gear to a remote camp, then a canoe is my best option. As with anything else in this game, there’s no such thing as a one-size-fitsall watercraft. Ideally, a craft that combines the best of both a canoe and a kayak would be perfect.

Kevin Estela in a solo canoe.

CANOES Many articles are written about “must-have” gear, but very few of them cover watercraft—the thought doesn’t even come to many people’s minds. When we talk about must-have gear, it is my opinion that every homestead should have a canoe. These craft can carry a great deal of gear (depending on size), are light (depending upon the material they’re made

“THE RIVERS AND LAKES HAVE BEEN THERE FOR AGES…SO NOW IS A GOOD TIME TO TAKE A STEP BACK AND LOOK AT WATER TRAVEL AS A WAY TO GET US OUT OF A BAD SITUATION.” REALWORLDSURVIVOR.COM

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“DESPITE THEIR USES IN THE PAST, MOST CANOES AND KAYAKS ARE USED MAINLY FOR RECREATIONAL PURPOSES TODAY…THERE’S A CANOE OR KAYAK DESIGNED FOR EVERYTHING YOU CAN THINK OF.” of), are stable (if weight is distributed properly) and can get you into places that other watercraft can’t. They’re also relatively silent. This last feature is especially important if you’re looking to make a hasty retreat from somewhere without being detected or trying to access a special hunting area. In the past, canoes were made from natural materials (and some are still being made this way today), but most of the canoes and kayaks you find today are made from aluminum, fiberglass, Kevlar and various plastic composites. The material that they’re made of and their overall size will often determine their weight and carrying capacity. Aluminum

is light and durable, but it’s noisy. Kevlar is strong and silent but tends to be very expensive. Fiberglass is one of the most common materials, but it’s heavy. Many manufacturers have switched over to polymer material—the same that’s used for most modern kayaks—as it’s durable and light. When deciding on a canoe, you have to take all of these factors into consideration. Remember, there will be times when you’ll need to portage your canoe. After a long day of paddling, even the “light” ones are heavy. Generally, the rule of thumb is that the longer the canoe, the more stuff it can carry, and the wider it is, the more stable it is. While lon-

ger canoes can carry more gear, they’re also tougher to get into tight places, and they do not turn on a dime, especially when fully loaded. That’s something to think about if you do any waterfowl hunting, where the need to get into backwater areas is a must. The good thing is that the longer canoes tend to track better in open water.

KAYAKS Let me say this right up front: I love kayaks. Though I’ve been canoeing my entire life, I just started kayaking about three years ago, and I wonder why I never used them before then. They’re fast, easy to handle, and due to their shallow draft, they

LEFT: Besides the other gear, a dry bag (the orange bag) should be used to keep valuables dry. RIGHT: A canoe can carry everything, even the family pet. Photo courtesy of Wenonah.

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can get into areas where traditional canoes can’t. I like using them to scout out potential campsites or places to set up hunting blinds. Their big drawback is their inability to carry large amounts of supplies. Though they can do it (carefully), they aren’t ideal for getting a deer carcass out of the boonies. As with canoes, there are tons of different kayaks out there, each one designed to do something different. There are sit-ons and sit-ins; solo and tandem kayaks; calm water, whitewater and ocean kayaks. My main purpose, as previously mentioned, is to scout new areas and to fish. As warmer water promotes weed growth, the kayak allows me to get into some of those choked areas. My preference is for sit-on models as opposed to sit-in, mainly for the ease of getting in and out. The drawback is that any gear being carried tends to get wet, as it is exposed to weather and wave action on a sit-on. Dry bags are a must for anything you’re carrying.

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Wenonah; Created by Sergey Demushkin from the Noun Project

OTHER GEAR Just because you have a canoe or kayak doesn’t mean that you’re all set to head out. The craft is only the first step, and it’s only as good as your means to propel it. Good paddles are a must. Don’t spend good money on the craft and then cheap out on the paddles. You’ve heard the phrase, “Up sh#t creek without a paddle,” right? Well, that’s where you’ll be if your paddles break or they’re not the right ones for the job. Generally, canoes are propelled with single-blade paddles where kayaks use double-blade paddles, though this rule isn’t etched in stone. When it comes to paddles, make sure you get ones that are rated for the waters you plan to travel on. Racing and whitewater paddles are different than calm water or touring paddles. You also want to get paddles that fit your body size. A paddle that’s too short won’t allow you to dig into the water, and one that’s too long will be very difficult to safely

maneuver. Then you have the other gear that I consider a must. No one gets into my watercraft without a PFD (personal floatation device) and it must be worn at all times; it does no good if it’s not worn. This is another area where you can’t cut corners. Your life could depend on it. I also have a good knife within arm’s reach at all times. With all the straps on a watercraft, a good knife could make all the difference in the world. While I’m not a big fan of stainless steel knives, this would be a good place for one due to the water exposure. Just make sure it’s a good one. A first-aid kit is another item I don’t go out without. Though I carry a first-aid kit in my bag, there’s no such thing as too prepared when it comes to first-aid supplies. I would rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it, so I keep an Orion Weekender kit in my canoe gear at all times. Last but not least is a dry bag. No matter how hard you try, things will get

wet. I keep all small items (money, maps, etc.) in resealable plastic bags (like you use for your toiletries when you travel by air). For larger items (clothing, ammo, cameras, etc.), I use a commercially available dry bag. These can be picked up relatively inexpensively anywhere that canoes and kayaks are sold, and they come in a variety of sizes. In a survival situation, when I need to move quickly and quietly and carry gear and supplies all at the same time, my choice will always be a canoe. If I have to pull my craft out in this situation, I don’t have time to mess around. I need to load up my gear and go. That being said, if a kayak is all you have, then obviously you make the best with what you own. If you happen to have both and at least two people in your party, then have one person take the kayak, loaded with as much gear as you can manage, and scout up ahead while the other person loads up the canoe with the rest of the supplies and brings up the rear.

TIE IT DOWN Unless you live next to a body of water, chances are that you’ll have to transport your canoe or kayak at some point. If you do, it’s very important that you properly secure it to your vehicle. Whether you’re putting it on top of your car or in the back of your truck, the load needs to be secure. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen improperly secured canoes and kayaks ﬂy onto the road. For very little money, there are straps available, and it’s money well spent. Don’t use bungee cords or twine. Make sure that you secure your load to racks or tie-down points, and don’t just drape the strap over the top of the craft—make sure to use the tie-down points on your craft. If you’re traveling any distance or over rough roads, stop often to make sure the straps haven’t loosened. —Dana Benner

A canoe is invaluable in a survival situation.

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U R B A N :

F R E E Z E - D R I E D

F A R E

HERE’S OUR RATING OF A VARIETY OF EMERGENCY MEALS MEANT FOR LONG-TERM STORAGE ARTICLE BY FRANK MELLONI PHOTOS BY FRANK MELLONI & MANUFACTURERS

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TASTE TESTING REALWORLDSURVIVOR.COM

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In a survival situation, we have three immediate needs that must be met: water, shelter and food. With the growing popularity of prepping, many folks have started companies that revolve around this premise, and I set out with a few friends to do what I do best—eat. REALWORLDSURVIVOR.COM

F A R E

Top: Mountain House Beef Stew had a very warm flavor similar to beef pot pie. The cubed ingredients made it very easy to eat with a spork. Above: The home-style ingredients make Trailtopia’s beef stew taste like mom’s.

The first step is to gather a few friends with distinctly different tastes, and then go to chow town. In our “process,” we rated our products on the following five criteria: TASTE: Was it palatable? Was it comparable to its freshly prepared counterpart? NUTRITION: Was it a balanced meal, or was it heavy in carbs or fat? EASE OF PREPARATION:

This is the sum of the steps and required tools for preparation. SHELF LIFE: How long does it last in its unopened, unprepared state when compared to other brands? PACKABILITY: How heavy or bulky was it? At the end of it all, each dish was rated on a scale of 1 to 5. Here are

Above: Wanna start a war? Just tell someone that chili is made wrong where they live. Alpine Aire and Backpacker’s Pantry have you covered no matter where you hail from.

the results. Bon appétit! T H E C H I L I C O O K- O F F X Nothing is more satisfying than a warm bowl of chili. This classic dish was meant to be enjoyed outdoors in any weather. We reached out to Alpine Aire and Backpacker’s Pantry for some of their chili offerings and were provided with two wildly different dishes. Yes, just like in its freshly prepared form, freeze-dried chili comes in every shape and size. Alpine Aire makes a dish called Black Bart Chili that resembles your classic Texas-style chili, although the former includes beans. Backpacker’s Pantry sent us their Cincinnatistyle chili that’s styled after the famous Midwest-

ern meal, complete with a cinnamon-laden spice blend and spoon-sized noodles. Both dishes only required the addition of boiled water and were ready to eat in less than 20 minutes. We noticed that a little more time than recommended was needed in both bags to get the beans to their ideal softness, but it wasn’t long enough for the food to get cold. We also noticed that in lieu of traditional ground beef, both companies opted for finely cubed beef. This is likely easier to freeze-dry. At dinnertime, nobody was able to pick a favorite. Those who hadn’t had Cincinnati chili before didn’t gravitate to that offering as a first choice, but nobody shied away from seconds once they tasted it. My wife, Barbara, grew up 25 miles from the city itself and said that it tasted just

Below: Ready Hour meals taste the least processed because they are the least processed. Unique packaging and ingredient selection allow for great meals with up to a 25-year shelf life.

Top: Although the Patriot Pantry scrambled-egg mix required cooking, it was ready in less than a minute. Above: The Bandito Scramble from Alpine Aire made perfect burrito filling. Below Right: Trailtopia’s egg scramble tasted like something straight out of a diner. Enjoy it for breakfast or have it for dinner.

like it came from the famous chain restaurant that’s on nearly every corner in that area. The Cincinnati chili had the distinct cinnamon taste that we were looking for as well as hints of cocoa. Both ingredients are listed, so this was done naturally, as it should be. It also contained freeze-dried cheddar cheese as you likely would not have access to that on a trail or anywhere else that was void of refrigeration. The Alpine Aire Black Bart Chili also hit its mark and delivered excellent flavor and consistency. We found it to be tangy but not overpoweringly spicy. This is always a hard box to check, as you want your chili to have some heat yet still not “damage” a sensitive palate. Notes of onion powder and garlic smacked you right in the face, and everything

was encapsulated in a very flavorful tomato base. ST U P I D - G O O D ST E WS X Our stews came from Ready Hour, Trailtopia and Mountain House. The Mountain House and Trailtopia stews were ready-cooked freeze-dried variants, while the Ready Hour Traveler’s Stew required actual cooking on a steady heat source. The Mountain House beef stew got the nod for easiest preparation, as all that was required was adding 2 cups of water. Although the Trailtopia product required the same prep process, it needed 2.5 cups of water. Two cups is a magic number when you’re on the trail, as it is exactly one standard-sized water bottle, eliminating the need for any measuring. The consensus was that

the Mountain House beef stew was a dead ringer for a beef pot pie. Whether intentional or not, it was delicious and there wasn’t a scrap left. Trailtopia’s beef stew had a bit of sweetness to it, likely from the use of green beans. The flavor was reminiscent of something that Mom would make, but most testers added a touch of salt to help balance it out and bring out the flavors of the more savory ingredients. The Ready Hour Traveler’s Stew was the thinnest of the bunch and didn’t contain any chunks of meat. However, this stew tasted the least “processed,” and that came from the use of ingredients that have a naturally long shelf life, like rice and lentils. Although better suited for camping or survival, it was very tasty without being salty. The

heavy doses of carbohydrates would go a long way to fuel the next day’s work, and I can’t think of a better dish to fill up on to ensure a speedy food coma. B R E A K B E FO R E B R E A K FAST X With full stomachs, the gang had to reconnect later in the week for our second day of testing. For breakfast, we chose egg-based dishes from all five brands and got crackin’. Okay, so there wasn’t anything to crack per se, but we really saw the preparation playing field level out this time around. All offerings required actual cooking in a pan or skillet, with the exception of the Mountain House Breakfast Skillet. Although Mountain House had the sharpest flavor, the

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Mountain House’s Mexican-style chicken and rice had a tangy flavor profile, perfect for a summer night.

Alpine Aire’s sweet-potato chicken and rice reminded us of a hearty fall dinner.

Even if you weren’t born on the bayou, you’ll appreciate this Creole-inspired dish. Scrounge up a few mudbugs and you got yourself the real deal.

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F A R E texture was slightly off from a natural egg product. Being able to eat it straight from the bag was a huge plus, especially if you’re looking to get right on the trail. Although it was wet, I wouldn’t describe it as runny, and it certainly wasn’t too wet to make a burrito out of, as most of us did as a little side treat. The Bandito Scramble from Alpine Aire had the driest consistency, so it made the best breakfast burritos of the bunch. While it was heavy on the potatoes, it still had adequate protein to get you through the beginning of your day. We also sampled the classic dish Huevos Rancheros from Backpacker’s Pantry and found it full of flavor but a touch gritty. Naturally, this option made a great burrito filling as well. For a more continentalstyle breakfast, Patriot Pantry (by the same folks who make Ready Hour) offers a standard egg mix for you to customize. Patriot Pantry also allows you to open a bag and eat out of it for well over a week, as it stays fresh in its open but unprepared state. A simple one-to-one ratio of powder to water is all that’s needed to mix up a batch of the raw egg mix. Our twoserving test drive cooked in under a minute on our Crux Weekend HE Cook System. The consistency was spoton, and the eggs had a creamy texture, as the mix contained powdered milk. Our last breakfast item was the Trailtopia Egg Scramble. This dish had the most natural egg flavor and was very similar to a Western-style omelet. While it was very egg heavy, Trailtopia made great choices by incorporating breakfast sausage, bell pepper and onion, as these

ingredients add tons of flavor in a small package. CHICKEN & RICE P L AY N I C E X Combining chicken and rice is almost cheating when it comes to creating a balanced meal that’s low in fat. This staple is eaten across the world and is available in various forms to meet every person’s unique taste. That being said, we were able to find at least one variety from each of our manufacturers. As the water boiled on our camp stove, we evaluated each company’s take on this simple dish. Mountain House provided their Mexican-style chicken and rice. The dish was easily prepared by just adding boiling water. We found it to be spicy but not overbearing. The olives were an interesting touch; I particularly love them, but they aren’t for everybody. Overall, nobody found the dish to be objectionable, and we all considered it a great end to a long day or even light enough for a lunch meal. Alpine Aire has created a perfect dish for an autumn day with the addition of sweet potatoes to their chicken-and-rice entree. Rosemary is very prominent in this meal, as it hits your nose the second you bring the spoon to your face. The sweet potato helped balance out the flavor quite nicely without making it taste like a dessert dish. We also all appreciated the use of wild rice, as it added to the overall dimension of this fall favorite. Ready Hour’s creamy chicken and rice is similar in consistency to its Traveler’s Stew in that it packs a lot of flavor without contain-

THE BREAKDOWN: SURVIVAL/CAMPING FOODS BY THE NUMBERS EASE OF MSRP VALUE PACK-ABILITY TASTE NUTRITION PREPARATION (USD) CALORIES PER BAG

MEAL PATRIOT PANTRY SCRAMBLED EGG MIX MOUNTAIN HOUSE BREAKFAST SKILLET BACKER'S PANTRY HUEVOS RANCHEROS ALPINE AIRE BANDITO SCRAMBLE TRAILTOPIA EGG SCRAMBLE READY HOUR TRAVELER'S STEW MOUNTAIN HOUSE BEEF STEW BACKER'S PANTRY CINCINNATI CHILI ALPINE AIRE BLACK BART CHILI TRAILTOPIA BEEF STEW READY HOUR CREAMY CHICKEN FLAVORED RICE MOUNTAIN HOUSE MEXICAN STYLE CHICKEN AND RICE BACKPACKER'S PANTRY CHICKEN WITH RICE ALPINE AIRE SWEET POTATO CHICKEN AND RICE TRAILTOPIA CAJAN SMACK CHICKEN AND RICE

ing chunks of meat. It was prepared just like any other rice dish you would find at a grocery store. Although it did take longer to get on the table, the flavor and texture were excellent. It had a distinctly cheesy flavor without being salty, and it satiates to the point of near unconsciousness. Trailtopia brought things down South with their Cajun Smack chicken and rice. It was prepared in the bag and also did a good job of pulling in all the water without leaving us with a soupy rice mixture. That first bite had me checking the label to see if there was crawfish meat in it, as Trailtopia did that good a job of nailing down the spice combinations for an authentic Creole dish. The blend of

COST PER CALORIE (US CENTS)

13.33

1440

0.926

9.99

800

1.249

7.00

440

1.591

8.95

560

1.598

9.99

620

1.611

2.25

800

0.281

9.99

475

2.103

9.00

540

1.666

8.95

580

1.543

10.99

540

2.035

4.17

1960

0.212

8.99

630

1.427

8.00

540

1.481

8.95

480

1.865

8.50

540

1.574

peppers was exactly what you would expect in this dish; however, the broccoli was a bit out of place. Either way, this was certainly something different from the rest of the selections, and it was delicious. The Backpacker’s Pantry chicken and rice was designed to be consumed almost like a stew. During its preparation, we found a little packet of extra-virgin olive oil in the bag, which was a first for us. It was a nice touch as it added a subtle Mediterranean flavor to the dish. At first glance, the final product wasn’t much to look at. Looking down at stark white rice, chicken and a pale liquid led us to believe that we were in for a bland meal. However, after our first bites, we found that it

delivered more of a comfortfood flavor profile. With this knowledge, the colors were quickly justified by the flavor. T H E F I N A L S C O R ES At the end of the day, we tallied up our thoughts and came up with a few blanket statements for each of the brands. We consider Ready Hour the perfect food for those looking to stock up in case disaster hits, but it’s not ideal for those looking for easy and quick meals to prepare on the go, so stock the cabin with them, not the camp. Mountain House seemed to be the go-to for the most common dishes found on American kitchen tables and will satisfy nearly everybody around the

campfire. Trailtopia is simply the brand to turn to when you want backpacking to feel less like “roughing it,” as I consider their offerings to be gourmet in the world of freeze-dried foods. Backpacker’s Pantry hit the middle ground of gourmet versus crowd appeal, but it’s definitely going to be the brand you want when space and weight are a concern. Lastly, we considered Alpine Aire to check all the boxes, as they have a big list of available entrees, snacks and desserts. So, my final analysis is simple, and it is this: I recommend getting a sample of each to see which one best suits your needs and preferences, because one thing is for sure: Ya gotta eat!

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T R A D E

FIXIN’ WAX

S E C R E T S a few ways that people have used fixin’ wax over the years. FIREARMS: One way that I’ve seen

fixin’ wax used by blackpowder shooters is as a traditional lubricant for shooting patches. It can also be used as a protectant for the barrel and lock on your gun. As many people know, battling rust on a blackpowder rifle can be a hassle, so a thin coat of fixin’ wax on the exterior can create a barrier between it and the elements. It also serves the same purpose on your stock. Coat the wood with a thin sheen of wax and you can go a long way toward extending the life of your gun.

THE DO-IT-ALL MIRACLE WAX THAT YOU CAN EASILY MAKE YOURSELF

METAL PROTECTANT: Perhaps the most popular use of fixin’ wax is as a metal protectant. Lots of people put a thin coat on their knives and axe-heads to help prevent rusting. Simply rub a thin layer over the metal surface as often as necessary to keep it protected. This can be especially beneficial to fleshing knives that see a lot of hard use in the fur shed.

BY CODY ASSMANN

WOOD CONDITIONER: Once in a while, it doesn’t hurt to condition your wooden handles as well. Fixin’ wax can be rubbed on wooden knife and axe handles to moisturize and condition them. At first, you may notice a sticky buildup on the handle, but as you use it, the texture wears off as the wax penetrates the wood.

infomercials had been running in the American frontier, you can bet that fixin’ wax would have seen plenty of airtime. I can imagine a huge, bearded guy wearing too big of a smile announcing, “Introducing the incredible, edible fixin’ wax—the do-it-all only thing you’ll ever need on the homestead. Got rusty knives? Try fixin’ wax! Dry leather? Fixin’ wax! Dry hands? Fixin’ wax!” You get the picture. In reality, fixin’ wax truly does serve a multitude of purposes for the outdoorsman. From firearm care to skin care, fixin’ wax has been used for perhaps thousands of years. While researching the history of the stuff, I came across several folks who claimed that Egyptians were some of the first people to use it. Although I never could authenticate that claim, it does suggest very old origins. While wherever it came from may be unclear, what’s clear as a bell is the utility of this simple wax. Here are just

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LEATHER CONDITIONER: The same prop-

erties that make fixin’ wax an excellent metal and wood conditioner make it a good product to apply to leather as well. Boots, scabbards, moccasins and gun cases can all benefit from having a little fixin’ wax applied. If you read the winter 2019 issue of American Frontiersman, you might remember how a similar mixture was heated and actually impregnated into brain tan to help repel water. Fixin’ wax can also extend the life of your leather and brain-tanned products. CAMP USE: In addition to the specific uses already mentioned, people em-

Blackpowder riﬂes are susceptible to rust, and a thin coat of wax to the exterior can create a barrier to help extend the life of your gun.

Bowstrings need to be waxed, and ﬁxin’ wax can do the chore just ﬁne.

ploy fixin’ wax for a number of general camp chores. Waxing zippers, treating canvas, applying to bowstrings and making candles are all uses that outdoorspeople have for fixin’ wax. HUMAN USES: Finally, there are several human uses for fixin’ wax. If you have dry hands, small cuts or chapped lips, a little fixin’ wax can be applied as a salve to treat them. Also, in an emergency, it can be consumed for the calories it contains. As you could probably guess, this would only be in extreme survival-type situations.

CLOCKWISE: Before heating the beeswax, cut it into smaller pieces to speed up the process. Although there are many recipes for ﬁxin’ wax, the simplest is to use just two all-natural ingredients. Make sure that your ingredients are liqueﬁed before taking them off the boiler. Pour your heated wax and tallow combination into your tins. Consider using Altoid tins lined with wax paper. This two-ingredient wax can be used for just about anything you can imagine.

M A K E YO U R OW N X Due to the multitude of uses for fixin’ wax, it’s helpful to have some lying around. You can easily make your own with just a few basic ingredients. While there are many recipes online, this twoingredient recipe works just fine. Start by obtaining equal weights in animal tallow and beeswax. Both of these can be purchased online for just a few dollars. If you choose to render your own tallow, make sure it’s filtered and 100-percentpure tallow. Any other ingredients can cause the mixture to go rancid. Once you have your ingredients, heat them up in order to liquefy them. I suggest using a double-boiler method to make sure that your wax doesn’t catch fire. After the mixture liquifies, stir it around and then pour it into a lined container of some kind. I use a muffin tin lined with muffin sheets. Once poured, give the mixture adequate time to cool and harden. Once it does, you’ll have a fixin’ wax that should last for years to come.

“FROM FIREARM CARE TO S K I N C A R E , F I X I N ’ WA X H A S BEEN USED FOR PERHAPS THOUSANDS OF YEARS.” Fixin’ wax can be applied to the heads and handles of hatches, tomahawks and axes.

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WILDERNESS

HIGH WIND: After propping up the center with a single stick, the opening will close after you enter. This makes this shelter ideal for all kinds of bad weather.

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SIMPLICITY = RELIABILITY

FIVE TARP SHELTER DESIGNS FOR ANY SITUATION

By Cody Assmann

When studying different groups of people who spend significant amounts of time living off the land, one thing that stands out is their commitment to simplicity. They just can’t afford to get too fancy. When complicated things break (and they do), they are much harder to replace. When simple things break (if they do), they are generally easy to fix or rebuild. Such is the case with tarp shelters. Although the popularity of tarp shelters has really caught fire over the last few years, in actuality, the idea has been in practice for centuries. For example, when looking at primary sources from the Rocky Mountain fur trade era, you can see multiple examples of simple canvas structures being used. Longhunters are also credited with using canvas shelters. Thankfully, we don’t need to lug around heavy canvas today, but we can still have the reliability » REALWORLDSURVIVOR.COM

ALL IN ONE: The great thing about using a tarp shelter is that all of the equipment ﬁts into a snug bundle and probably weighs around a pound.

BLUNTED STICK: Whenever you use a stick with your tarp, be sure to blunt the edge and/or cover the tip to avoid damaging your tarp.

of a tarp. In fact, our modern synthetic tarps hold a few advantages over their canvas ancestors. First, synthetic materials are much lighter than canvas. If you are in a situation where you’re carrying things

“… OUR MODERN SYNTHETIC TARPS HOLD A FEW ADVANTAGES OVER THEIR CANVAS ANCESTORS.” REALWORLDSURVIVOR.COM

PLOW POINT 1: Here, the back corner of the plow point has been staked, and the front corner has been tied off. 2: Now, the ﬁnal two corners have been staked. 3: With a pole in the center, the plow point is better at deﬂecting both wind and rain. 4: A plow point offers a good place to spend a night or some time playing with your dog.

on your back, this is invaluable. Secondly, synthetic tarps are generally 100-percent rainproof as long as they aren’t damaged. Thirdly, synthetic tarps are an extremely cost-effective way to build a comfortable shelter. If you’re trying to learn more about primitive camping and want to start using tarp shelters, here are five designs for almost any situation.

THE BASICS Before starting, it’s important to cover some of the basics when it comes to tarps. When choosing a tarp, you’ll need to decide on the dimensions you want. Some designs work

better for square tarps, and some work better for rectangular. As for myself, I have a rectangular tarp that measures 10 feet by 8 feet. Essentially, a tarp is all you need, but there are a few other simple components that make using your tarp shelter easier. Metal tent stakes make staking an easy job, and it’s also handy to keep some cordage with your tarp kit. For the kit featured in this article, I’ve got four pieces of 6-foot paracord, one length of 50foot paracord, six metal tent stakes and a few .50-caliber lead balls. My kit is still very light, and it contains everything to easily construct all of the designs you’ll see. Finally, before camping with a tarp shelter, it helps to have a working knowledge of several different

kinds of knots. Half hitches, trucker’s hitches, bowline knots, cow hitches and prusiks are all knots featured in this article. If you’re unfamiliar with those knots, it would certainly be beneficial to get familiar with a few of them. This article also references how to make your own tie-outs on a canvas or synthetic tarp shelter. I used a .50-caliber lead ball, but you could use a marble or rock just the same.

DESIGN 1: THE PLOW POINT One of the simplest tarp shelters to make is a plowpoint shelter. While on their primitive treks, historical reenactors often use these sorts of shelters. A plow point is a good shelter that

S U RV I VO R ’S E D G E • JA N UA R Y/ F E B R UA RY 2020 WILDERNESS: OUT OF THE WIND

HIGH WIND 1: Stake out the back two corners. 2: Bring the front corners to the center and stake together.

CAVE 1: Come in one grommet from the corner. 2: Bring your front corners towards the center—about 30 inches—and then stake. 3: Find a stick that fits your shelter’s height. 4: This shelter provides room and protection and served as an adequate shelter on top of the Continental Divide.

has the benefit of being easy to set up while creating lots of sheltered space. An ideal place for a plow point is near a stout tree with a clearing around it. After you’ve found your tree, spread your tarp out as a diamond in the clearing. Using your metal tent stake, stake down the corner opposite of the tree. Then go to the front corner and raise it off the ground to the height you want. Once the corner is at the desired height, tie it off to the tree. Create tension by using a trucker’s hitch. Next, stake down the two remaining corners so that the overall shelter is snug. Finally, find a stick and use it to elevate the center of the tarp. Be sure to round the edges of your stick or place an object (a piece of bark or some

extra clothing) between it and the tarp. Remember to keep the back of the shelter toward the wind.

DESIGN 2: THE HIGH-WIND TIPI If it becomes too windy, the plow point may not be a good option. You might prefer to use a high-wind tipi shelter instead. These shelters are fully enclosed, do a great job in the wind and will stay totally dry. That being said, they are a bit stuffy. Start the building by laying your tarp flat on the ground with the rear facing the wind. Begin by staking the back two corners down solidly. Then move to the

front of your tarp. Fold both front corners under the tarp and bring them together in the middle. Stake both corners to the same spot using only one stake. Now all you have to do is cut a stick three to four feet long and prop it up inside your shelter. To enter and exit the shelter, simply crawl through the hole left at the front. If you’re anticipating a violent storm, you can stake down the remaining portions of the tarp. This shelter offers more protection than the plow point but doesn’t have as much room.

DESIGN 3: THE HOBBIT CAVE If you would like to have a combination of room and protection, you might use

what we’ll call the hobbit cave. This shelter is roomy and offers good protection but isn’t great at either one. That being said, it’s maybe the most tent-like shelter on this list. Start by laying your tarp flat on the ground. This time, rather than staking down the back corners, stake down the first grommet on both sides from the corner. If you don’t have grommets, you can make tie-outs about 18 inches in. When you’re done with each corner, you should have four stakes driven and should be able to fold the corner under. Now, you need to move to the front of the tarp. Bring in each of the outside corners toward the center. Bring them just inside of the next grommet, or about 30 inches in, and stake them.

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“PERHAPS THE GREATEST BENEFIT TO USING A TARP SHELTER IS ITS VERSATILITY. EACH NIGHT, YOU CAN SET UP THE TARP HOWEVER YOU NEED TO FOR MAXIMUM COMFORT FOR THAT SPECIFIC NIGHT.” Then find a pole that will stretch the tarp roof up. Like with the plow point, make sure to round the edge or place something between the stick and the tarp. You can reinforce this shelter by staking down the edges and running a guy line from the front grommet to the ground in front of the shelter. Guy lines can be made using a half hitch at the grommet

and a bowline knot at the staking end.

DESIGN 4: THE STEALTH SHELTER I recently discovered this next shelter, which people are calling the “stealth shelter.” This interesting

configuration provides a low profile that’s great against high winds and rain. It also provides something that none of the other shelters feature: a ground cloth. Start constructing this shelter by running a length of cordage between two trees about 30 inches off the ground. Use a trucker hitch to make the line tight. Once your line is strung,

lay your tarp down with the front under the line. Attach the first grommets in from each corner to the line using a prusik. Prusiks are great friction knots and make this shelter possible. After tying your prusiks, move to the center of the tarp. Find the center point of your tarp and make at least three tie-outs. Now, fold the excess material back under the tarp to be your ground cloth. Stake the back of the tarp down using the ties outs you made. Finally, move back to the front and stake down each front corner of the shelter. It will take some readjusting of your prusiks and stakes to get the shelter tight. This stealth shelter will provide a nice place to lie down out of the rain for a few hours.

STEALTH 1: Start the stealth shelter by running a cordage line between two trees. 2: Create some tie-outs in the center of your tarp that are opposite of your two grommets. 3: Here is a good image of the back side of the stealth shelter. Notice that the front two corners have been staked down as well. 4: If you’re anticipating rain, the stealth shelter is a great place to lie down. One bonus is the ground cloth this shelter provides.

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DESIGN 5: THE NO-STAKE On a recent trip to the Rocky Mountains, my friend and I were camping with a tarp shelter. One afternoon, we got to a location where we wanted to camp but found that there were no adequate spots that would allow stakes to be driven. The problem was that on all the level spots there was nothing but solid rock under the surface. Rather than spend the night without a shelter, we decided to set up a no-stake shelter. Although it wasn’t the prettiest shelter I’ve ever slept in, it certainly served its purpose. The no-stake shelter we built was on level ground and eventually became a

All of these shelters can be made using four 6-foot lengths of paracord, one 50foot length of paracord, six tent stakes, a few lead balls or marbles and a synthetic tarp.

lean-to. We elevated the front corners using two forked sticks about 36 inches in height. Using a cow hitch at the grommet, we then ran our front corners through the forked sticks and tied them onto a rock and a tree. For the back corners, rather than tie them down, we laid large rocks on them to keep them from coming up in a gust of wind. Although the shelter was unorthodox, it did keep any moisture off of us and held up adequately in the wind we experienced. In some situations, you just have to

do the best you can. While there are hundreds of tarp shelter designs out there, these five shelters should offer enough variety to meet your needs for almost any situation. Perhaps the greatest benefit to using a tarp shelter is its versatility.

Each night, you can set up the tarp however you need to for maximum comfort for that specific night. If you’d like to develop a skill set that allows you to live in the woods for long periods of time, the simple tarp would make a great addition to your kit.

KNOT BOWLINE: A bowline knot is helpful when staking out a corner. KNOT COW HITCH: A cow hitch comes in handy whenever you’re raising an edge over a forked stick. KNOT HALF HITCH: This universal knot is great to know for tying off your cordage. KNOT PRUSIK: Prusiks are used widely when working with tarp shelters. These are friction knots that will allow you to tie off to another rope or line and keep tension. KNOT TIE OUT: If you don’t have grommets, or if they’re broken, you can quickly create a tie-out by looping some cordage over a lead ball or marble on the inside of your tarp. KNOT TRUCKER HITCH: A trucker’s hitch is excellent for tightening down a line.

NO STAKE 1: Using a cow hitch in one corner, you can use a large rock or tree stump to tie off to. 2: Using rocks and trees as anchor points, my friend and I spent a great night camped in a location that we otherwise would have had to bypass.

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 â&#x20AC;¢ REALWORLDSURVIVOR.COM

Piggyback by Gan Khoon Lay from the Noun Project

THE HUMAN BACKPACK

Now in use by elite units worldwide, the IPC gives you a hands-free way to comfortably carry an injured person to safety.

happens all the time. Someone is injured and unable to walk, and the only person with them is left with one of two choices: stay with the injured person and hope that someone finds them both or leave the injured person alone and go seek help. Neither are good options. Now there’s a better option—the Agilite Injured Personnel Carrier (IPC). The IPC is a brilliant yet simple solution to a very real problem—how to get a casualty to safety. Although the IPC was developed for the military, it could be a real lifesaver for anyone who finds himself having to transport an injured, disabled or elderly person in an emergency. The IPC was created to replace the fireman’s carry and allow military personnel to carry an injured individual in the most efficient way: backpack style. It allows the wearer to evacuate a casualty over a long distance while keeping both hands completely free to operate a weapon, navigate difficult terrain or negotiate obstacles. Agilite is a leading manufacturer of tactical gear. Headquartered in Israel, the company is a joint venture between several Israeli and U.S. Army Special Forces veterans. Agilite produces a wide range of cutting-edge tactical gear designed in Israel and made in both the U.S. and Israel.

THE INJURED PERSONNEL CARRIER IS AGILITE’S NEWEST TOOL FOR EASY CASUALTY EXTRACTION BY EUGENE NIELSEN

HIGH-PROFILE USE

The IPC was designed in conjunction with the Israeli army’s special forces. Currently, the IPC is being used by top-tier military and law enforcement units in over 20 countries as well as search and rescue teams in the U.S., Canada and Asia. U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC) and 1st Reconnaissance Battalion were among the first to procure the IPC in

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REAL-WORLD CIVILIAN APPLICATIONS

Lots of orders have been placed by civilians, many of whom are using the IPC for applications that Agilite never imagined. For example, the IPC is giving newfound mobility to the disabled. Isaacson says, “When our IPC was being bought by individuals across the world, we weren’t entirely sure why. We put out an email to our customers asking why they’d bought it and we were astounded by the results. From quadriplegics to a Danish teenager using it to carry his epileptic friend when he suffers an attack, we realized that in many cases it was civilian caregivers buying it to make disabled people’s lives easier.” The IPC is also being used assist disabled people in enjoying greater levels of activity in the outdoors. It’s being used to take disabled children hiking for the first time. It also allows people the ability to be taken up and down stairs and into swimming pools more easily. Isaacson recounts that he received an email from Dieter Marzinger, a C4-5 quadriplegic from South Africa, who described the experience of being safely underwater in a pool again as a feeling of “zero gravity.” “We designed it to save lives in life-or-death situations but were delighted to find out that it can improve disabled peoples’ quality of life, too,”

adds Isaacson. The IPC also provides the capability of evacuating senior citizens from a fire in a nursing home or hospital when elevators are not in use. Although the primary focus of Agilite is the military, law enforcement and rescue markets, the company “would be honored and delighted to custom-adapt or custom-design mobility equipment specifically for disabled people,” says Isaacson. U.S. Navy SEAL Greg Holihan took the IPC down to his local high school with a friend to test its effectiveness. They took turns carrying each other for 440-yard stints totaling one mile. According to Holihan, “Not only did the device work perfectly for carrying an injured person, but it also makes an excellent piece of exercise equipment.” Holihan thinks that Agilite should consider marketing the IPC for CrossFit as well. ORIGINS & DEVELOPMENT

The IPC has its roots in an improvised field-carry technique used by the Israel Defense Forces in which four rifle slings were connected to allow soldiers to carry injured com-

The compact nylon IPC Pouch with belt loop is available for carrying the IPC on your belt or backpack.

rades like they would a backpack. It’s similar to the pistolbelt-carry technique taught to U.S. military recruits, which employs a sling made by joining two fully extended pistol belts (or any material that won’t break or cut the casualty, such as rifle slings, litter straps or muslin bandages tied together) into a single large loop. Both techniques are designed to allow a soldier to carry a casualty over longer distances while keeping both hands free. These are more comfortable and effective means of carry than the traditional fireman’s carry, in which the casualty is essentially draped across the shoulders of the carrier. The Israeli Army wanted a better, purpose-built, hands-free method of evacuating a wounded soldier to replace the fireman’s carry and allow soldiers to keep both hands on their weapons. According to Lt. Col. Dr. Eric Setton, former Head of Medevac for 669, the Israeli Air Force’s elite search and rescue, “Anyone who’s ever carried or been carried in a fireman’s carry knows it’s incredibly uncomfortable and inefficient.” Agilite took the basic sling-carry concept and improved upon it, add-

Marines evacuate a simulated casualty using the fireman’s carry during training. The fireman’s carry is an extremely uncomfortable and inefficient method of carry.

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U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Dengrier M. Baez/ Released. ; Agilite

the U.S. The Marines heard about the product from several U.S. Air Force pararescuemen, and it’s also used by the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division, as well as the British Special Air Service. It’s been adopted by the Australian Defense Forces as well as Israeli Army and Navy commando units. The IPC is also employed by many SWAT teams including the YAMAM, an elite counterterrorism unit within the Israel Border Police. These are tough customers and they don’t go for gimmicks. According to Elie Isaacson, an Israeli special forces veteran who serves as Director of Strategic Development at Agilite, it was actually a meeting with a SWAT team in San Antonio that led Agilite to complete production of the IPC. When the team saw the IPC, they asked what it was. When the concept was explained, the team absolutely loved it, so Agilite brought forward its launch.

ing padding and other features, including the ability to adjust the length, a sternum strap for added stability and a fluorescent indicator for orientation. The result was the IPC. D I S T I N C T A D VA N TA G E S

The IPC a huge improvement over the rifle-sling or pistol-belt techniques—it allows you to carry much more easily, more securely and for longer distances. It’s so simple that you might wonder why no one had thought of it before. The IPC is the most comfortable means of one-man carry for both the carrier and the casualty that’s available on the market today. Lt. Col. Setton says that “the IPC gives you full maneuverability, keeping the injured person securely on your back, and gives you full use of both your arms and legs.” It’s the only method that allows you to keep both hands free, a critical feature in any rescue scenario. This one-man-carry device is exceptionally well made. It’s constructed of Type 8B, 2-inch-wide, high-tensile-strength mil-spec nylon webbing with mil-spec ITW Nexus polymer hardware, and it has a tensile strength of up to 2,050 pounds. The IPC is sewn together in Delaware by the same company that makes the harnesses for the Boeing V-22 Os-

prey and Lockheed C-5 Galaxy aircraft. The standard available colors are black, coyote brown and OD green. Custom colors are available on special order. The IPC is lightweight and compact, too, so it’s easy to pack with you. It weighs 0.76 pounds and folds down accordion-style to just 10 inches. Unfolded, it measures 12.5 feet in length. HOW TO DEPLOY THE IPC

The IPC is very easy to deploy: Place the casualty in a supine position with the knees raised. Place the IPC under the knees perpendicular to the body with the fluorescent indicator next to the groin. Close both leg straps around the casualty’s legs and slide the IPC under the casualty’s back. Pull each side of the harness around the body to create shoulder straps. Take a seat between the casualty’s legs, put your arms through the shoulder straps and adjust them until they’re snug like backpack straps, then buckle the sternum strap. Grab the casualty’s arm or wrist on the injured side and roll over toward the casualty’s uninjured side

until you’re on all fours. Slowly transfer your weight to your legs and stand up. One-man and two-man manual carries are employed to move a casualty when it isn’t possible to make a litter or you don’t have any others to assist you in moving the casualty. A casualty shouldn’t generally be moved prior to emergency care unless it’s necessary to extricate the casualty and yourself from a dangerous situation. While two-man manual carry is preferred, it often isn’t possible. The IPC is outstanding in this regard. Overall, the IPC is a great product that solves a very real problem. It’s a must-have not only for military, law enforcement and rescue personnel but also for caregivers of disabled persons and for hunters, hikers, campers and anyone who enjoys the great outdoors. And with a retail price of $95, it’s also very affordable. The optional lightweight IPC Pouch that’s designed to hold the IPC and features a belt loop for easy attachment to a belt or backpack has an MSRP of $14. All Agilite products are covered by a lifetime warranty. For more information, visit agilitegear.com.

U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Kyle N. Runnels /Released; U.S. National Park Service; Agilite.

The IPC is an outstanding product for anyone who enjoys the great outdoors. It could be a lifesaver.

A simulated casualty is dragged to cover for immediate ﬁrst aid during training. A casualty drag is the quickest way to remove a casualty from the line of ﬁre to a position of cover.

The IPC was developed for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to allow carrying of a casualty while keeping both hands free.

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Nuclear by Adrien Coquet from the Noun Project

HOW CLOSE ARE WE TO NUCLEAR ANNIHILATION? BY B I L L J E F F E R S

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Nuclear reactor sites like this one dot America. And although they are fiercely protected, they are vulnerable to accidents.

In the 1980s, at the zenith of the saber-rattling between Russia and the United States, average citizens on both sides were pitched into a spiral of fear that the entire world would be reduced to a smoldering ball of scorched earth without warning. In 1983, Carl Sagan and four other scientists published their conclusions that an all-out nuclear war would easily doom humankind, and in doing so, they coined the phrase “Nuclear Winter.” What would follow, Sagan suggested, would be a winter so severe that the living might well envy the dead. “A global nuclear war could have a major impact on climate—manifested by significant surface darkening over many weeks, subfreezing land temperatures persisting for up to several months, large perturbations in global circulation patterns and dramatic changes in local weather and precipitation rates—a harsh ‘nuclear winter’ in any season.”

Nuclear war, nuclear winter, dirty bombs and terrorists aside, many American citizens are living within the potential danger zone of a nuclear reactor. These facilities and the nuclear waste they create could pose a life-threatening problem if an accident were to occur. For example, the accident at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,

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NUCLEAR REACTOR ACCIDENTS

iStock; Nuclear by ahmad from the Noun Project

45 in 1979 was a Level 5 incident, implying high probability of significant public exposure to radioactive material. Since then, there have been two Level 7 events (the highest level on the International Nuclear Event Scale). The first was at Chernobyl in 1986, which released enormous amounts of radiation directly contaminating 77,000 square miles of land. In a short period of time—just days—the radiation was distributed into the atmosphere over the entire Northern Hemisphere. Twenty-five years later, the Chernobyl reactor site continues to leak radiation into the environment, and this forced the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to spend over $2 billion dollars to build a permanent concrete structure over Unit 4 in 2017. The March 2011 incident in Fukushima rapidly evolved to Level 7 when three severely damaged reactors failed to cool in the wake of an extremely destructive earthquake and resulting tsunami, and the situation remained far from under control up to six weeks later. Both the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents have led to massive evacuations that have implications for emergency preparedness in the United States. The Chernobyl accident was the result of major design deficiencies in the RBMK type of reactor, the violation of operating procedures and the absence of safety mandates from the personnel. One peculiar feature of the RBMK design was that it lacked secondary safety provisions. In contrast to engineering in the United States, the Chernobyl reactor did not have a containment structure like those used in the West or in post-1980 Soviet designs. The accident destroyed the reactor, and its burning contents dispersed radionuclides far and wide. This tragically meant that the results were severe, with 56 people killed, 28 of whom died within weeks from radiation exposure. It also caused radiation sickness in a further 200 to 300 staff and firefighters and contaminated large areas of Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and beyond. It is estimated that at least 5 percent of the total radioactive material in the Chernobyl 4 reactor core was released from the plant due to the lack of any containment structure. Most of this was deposited as dust close by. Some was carried by wind over a wide area. About 130,000 people received significant radiation doses (i.e. above internation-

CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN

How do you safeguard the nerve center of the operations charged with defending the United States in the event of a nuclear attack? You drill a mile-long tunnel into the granite heart of a mountain in the Colorado Rockies, making sure that the tunnel will deﬂect most of the blast in the event of a detonation of up to 30 megatons within one nautical mile of the center. Inside the mountain, you construct a steel complex (behind 25-ton blast doors) inside a shell of granite 2,000 feet thick, built from 3/8-inch thick continuously-welded low-carbon steel plates supported by steel structural frames. The metal walls act as a Faraday cage to absorb electromagnetic-pulse weapons. You mount this structure on more than 1,300 steel springs, each weighing half a ton, which allow the complex to move 12 inches in any direction. And how big is this structure? The main excavation includes three chambers, each one 45 feet wide, 60 feet high and 588 feet long, intersected by four chambers 32 feet wide, 56 feet high and 335 feet long. Inside these interior chambers are 15 freestanding buildings, 12 of which are three stories tall. That’s the layout of the Cheyenne Mountain Combat Operations Center, usually referred to simply as Cheyenne Mountain. Construction began on May 18, 1961, and the center was completed on May 1, 1964, delayed due to the discovery of a geological fault in one of the intersections. The fault was reinforced with a concrete dome, costing an additional $2.7 million. On February 6, 1966, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Combat Operations Center became operational, and on April 20 of that year, operations were transferred from the original site of NORAD, Ent Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. Upgraded and enhanced over the years, the operations center continued to provide ballistic missile warnings during Operation Desert Storm in the 1990s. Defense Support Program satellites tracked the heat signatures from missile plumes and provided warning to civilians and military personnel in Israel and Saudi Arabia. In 2006, NORAD moved the majority of Cheyenne Mountain’s operations to Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado—for which the address is Ent Avenue, named for Major General Uzal Girard Ent, for whom the initial site of the Air Defense Command, NORAD’s progenitor, was named. —Scott Fischer

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WAR GAMES—FOR KEEPS

In the late 1970s, several events occurred that made it clear why the advanced computer systems used by NORAD still required human intervention. On November 9, 1979, a test simulation of a missile attack on North America was accidentally transferred to the operational side of the 427M, the warning and response computer inside Cheyenne Mountain, which directed nuclear retaliation. The simulated data was mistakenly interpreted as an actual attack, and the simulation’s missiles showed up on warning consoles in the command post and on the computer screens of command centers nationwide. The false attack data were visible for roughly eight minutes, before NORAD officers finally verified that it was in fact a simulation that had somehow crossed to the operational system. Intense interest both among the general public and members of Congress caused NORAD to initiate corrective actions. In spite of these corrective actions, on June 3 and then again on June 6, 1980, a malfunctioning computer chip inside a line multiplexer (a Nova 840 computer, responsible for conveying information between computer systems) in the NORAD Control System sent false missile warning data to the Strategic Air Command, the National Command Center and the National Alternate Command Center. A further round of technical and procedural changes followed. If any of this sounds familiar, it should be: It served as the basis for the (fictional) 1983 movie, War Games, in which a young computer-gaming enthusiast, played by Matthew Broderick, discovers a secret, not-too-secure “back door” into a military computer and nearly starts World War III. —Scott Fischer

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ally accepted limits) and continue to be monitored to this day. According to a United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) report in 2018, about 20,000 cases of thyroid cancer were diagnosed between 1991 and 2015 in patients who were 18 and under at the time of the accident. The report states that a quarter of the cases between 2001 and 2008 were due to high doses of radiation. The World Health Organization is closely monitoring most of those affected. The Chernobyl accident was a unique event and the only time in the history of commercial nuclear power that radiation-related fatalities occurred. The main positive outcome of this accident for the industry was the formation of the World Association of Nuclear Operators.

CHALLENGES OF ACCIDENT EVACUATION Many years after the Chernobyl accident, there’s still a 30-kilometer exclusion zone surrounding the reactor, and areas up to 400 kilometers away are still uninhabitable. In the immediate wake of the Fukushima incident, the Japanese government rapidly increased the emergency evacuation zone from 3 to 10 kilometers, and then to 20 kilometers with a stay-indoors warning from 20 to 30 kilometers. For reference, the current official U.S. emergency evacuation zone for nuclear reactor accidents is 10 miles (16.1 kilometers). Five days after the Fukushima incident began, based on software simulations, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission recommended a 50-mile (80.5 kilometers) evacuation zone for U.S. citizens who might be near Fukushima. Considering the Fukushima and Chernobyl experiences, the official 10mile zone in the U.S. is probably not adequate. Physicians for Social Responsibility ran simulations of a loss-of-coolant accident for the Braidwood reactor near Chicago. The study predicted that 20,000 people would receive lethal doses of radiation and 200,000 would suffer from radiation sickness. In a similar simulation conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists for the Indian Point nuclear power plant near New York City, approximately 44,000 would die within the first year with an

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U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commision; U.S. Department of Health and Human Service

47 additional 518,000 deaths from cancer over time. Millions of citizens would have to be permanently relocated, and economic losses could reach $2 trillion. When one considers all the nuclear plants in the U.S. and on the border of Canada, over 111 million people live within 50 miles of a nuclear reactor. When a 50-mile evacuation zone is drawn around the Indian Point nuclear reactor in Buchanan, New York, for example, over 17 million people fall within the circle. There’s no conceivable way that these people could be evacuated in the case of a serious accident at the plant. The Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant located 50 miles outside Washington, D.C., would require 3.1 million people to be evacuated. Emergency evacuation of this many people would be challenging if not nearly impossible in a short amount of time. It’s clear that the authorities and healthcare system would not be able to properly protect the health of the vulnerable populations that would need to be moved in the case of such an accident, let alone the massive number of injured, potentially injured and symptomatic victims. It’s also clear that threats to your survival don’t have to be visible to be real. They can surround you silently, chipping away at your body on a molecular level. Radiation is an all-too-real danger that you’re constantly bombarded with daily. It’s odorless, tasteless, invisible and, in the right amounts, can kill you almost instantly. It’s around us all the time and exists in different forms: naturally occurring, cosmic, terrestrial and man-made. It’s an energy that travels through space that’s capable of penetrating even the hardest compounds. But what is it? How can we avoid it, and how can we protect ourselves from it?

EMERGENCY PLANNING ZONES

NOTE: A 2-MILE (3.2-KILOMETER) RING AROUND THE PLANT IS IDENTIFIED FOR EVACUATION, ALONG WITH A 5-MILE (8-KILOMETER) ZONE DOWNWIND OF THE PROJECTED RELEASE PATH.

WHERE TO GO IN A RADIATION EMERGENCY

WHAT IS RADIATION? Radiation is energy that’s given off by unstable atoms, but where exactly does it come from? Atoms are the basic building blocks of matter that make up everyday objects. This magazine you’re reading, the chair you’re sitting on and even the air you’re breathing are all made up of atoms. Atoms are comprised of three components: protons, neutrons and electrons. The number of protons in the nucleus

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SOURCES OF RADIATION EXPOSURE

RADON & THORON 228 mrem 2.28 mSv

COMPUTED TOMGRAPHY 147 mrem 1.47 mSv

NUCLEAR MEDICINE 77 mrem 0.77 mSv

INTERVENTIONAL FLUOROSCOPY 43 mrem 0.43 mSv

SPACE 33 mrem 0.33 mSv

CONVENTIONAL RADIOGRAPHY/ FLUOROSCOPY 228 mrem 2.28 mSv

U.S. OPERATION COMMERCIAL NUCLEAR POWER REACTORS

INTERNAL 228 mrem 2.28 mSv

TERRESTRIAL 228 mrem 2.28 mSv

CONSUMER 228 mrem 2.28 mSv

OCCUPATIONAL 228 mrem 2.28 mSv

INDUSTRIAL 228 mrem 2.28 mSv

LICENSED AND OPERATION INDEPENDENT SPENT FUEL STORAGE INSTALLATIONS BY STATE

* FACILITY LICENSED ONLY, NEVER BUILT OR OPERATED. ALASKA AND HAWAII ARE NOT PICTURED AND HAVE NO SITES. DATA ARE CURRENT AS OF JUNE 2019. NRC-ABBRAVIATED SITE NAMES LISTED. FOR THE MOST RECENT INFORMATION, GO TO THE DATASET INDEX WEB PAGE AT http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/ doc-collections/datasets/.

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National Council on Radiation Protection & Measurements, Report No. 160; U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commision;

AVERAGE ANNUAL RADIATION DOSE

49 of the atom determines the type of element it is. This is sometimes referred to as an atomic number. The protons have a positive charge, the electrons have a negative charge, and the neutrons have no electrical charge. If the number of protons and neutrons are equal, then the atom is considered stable. Elements such as hydrogen, helium and nitrogen are very stable and non-radioactive. An atom with too many or too few neutrons contains excess energy and is unstable. When an atom has an imbalance in the number of protons and electrons, then it has an overall negative or positive charge, respectively, and it’s called an ion. The unstable atom will try to become stable by giving off excess energy in the form of particles or waves (radiation). It’s constantly removing or “kicking out” electrons, which is called ionization. Ionization is the process of removing electrons from atoms or molecules. Radioactivity is the process of unstable (radioactive) atoms trying to become stable by emitting ionizing energy.

iStock; Radiation by Anil from the Noun Project

TYPES OF IONIZING RADIATION Alpha, beta, gamma, X-ray and neutron radiation are types of ionizing radiation, which can be harmful but can also be used to heal. When an unstable atom transforms, it often ejects particles from its nucleus. The cells in your body can be damaged by this ionizing radiation. These types of radiation destroy the cells in your body, but due to the cells’ resilience, they are constantly replicating. The amount of radiation you come in contact with will determine if the cells can replicate and you can recover or if the cells are obliterated, leaving no chance of recovery. Alpha particles that are ejected from unstable atoms have a range of 1 to 2 inches from the source. Alpha particles pose a biological hazard but no external hazard; they can be shielded with paper, cloth and even a dead layer of skin. Alpha particles pose the greatest damage if they’re ingested, as they can reach live cells and inevitably cause death. The detection device needed for these particles—a pancake probe attached to a radiation detector—must be held at least an inch away from the contaminated area and moved very slowly, making detection extremely difficult.

FIVE NUCLEAR MYTHS BUSTED MYTH 1: Fallout from a nuclear war would stay around for years and kill everyone.

TRUTH: Fortunately for all living things, the danger of fallout from radioactive particles lessens with time. The amount of radiation received from these particles follows what is known as the 7:10 Rule of Thumb. According to FEMA, “the 7:10 rule states that for every sevenfold increase in time after detonation, there is a tenfold decrease in the exposure rate. In other words, when the amount of time is multiplied by seven, the exposure rate is divided by 10. For example, two hours after detonation, the exposure rate is 400 roentgen per hour. After 14 hours, the exposure rate will be one-tenth as much, or 40 roentgen per hour. MYTH 2: All of the food in a fallout area will be poisoned and uneatable. TRUTH: Food and water in dust-tight containers will be completely free of radiation particles. Peeling fruits and vegetables and removing the top several inches of stored grain will eliminate most of the radiated material. Tiny doses may still prevail. MYTH 3: The world will be a frozen wasteland after a nuclear war.

TRUTH: Though there will be a signiﬁcant effect on the environment from a nuclear war, causing an event known as nuclear winter, propaganda on the U.S. and Soviet sides has increased this myth to larger proportions because of misinformation and fear tactics. MYTH 4: Most unborn children will be genetically damaged from parents exposed to radiation. TRUTH: Published in 1977, “A ThirtyYear Study of the Survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki” concluded that incidences of genetic abnormalities were no higher among children born from exposed parents than it was among children born from unexposed parents. MYTH 5: A full-scale nuclear attack by the world’s superpowers will completely destroy mankind and all of civilization. TRUTH: Though many military facilities are within cities and surrounded by populations, there is much of the world populated by people who have no military value whatsoever and are not on the list of targets from either side. Life will go on, just maybe not in your city. —Bill Jeffers

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Where can alpha radiation be found? Sources include uranium (nuclear power plant fuel and nuclear weapons), plutonium (nuclear weapons), americium (smoke detectors), thorium (hightemperature metals) and radon gas. When beta particles are ejected from unstable atoms, they have a range of up to 30 feet. Thick clothing, a quarter inch of aluminum or a quarter inch of plastic is effective at shielding this type of radiation. Like alpha particles, beta particles are a biological hazard; beta radiation is particularly hazardous to skin and eyes. It becomes an internal hazard if ingested or inhaled. Beta radiation can cause skin burns much like a sunburn if handled improperly. Some sources of beta radiation include used nuclear reactor fuel, nuclear weapons fallout (strontium), some industrial radioactive sources such as cesium, radioactive nickel found in chemical-agent detectors and radioactive tritium such as the type found in glow-in-the-dark “exit” signs, watch dials and night sights on firearms.

Gamma radiation and X-rays can travel hundreds of feet. The thickness of shielding that can be used will depend on the strength of the source, but typically 1 inch of lead, 3 inches of steel, 6 inches of concrete or 1 foot of dirt will be sufficient. Gamma radiation is also a biological hazard. It and X-rays easily penetrate body tissue—outside or inside the body—and is considered a whole-body hazard. Gamma radiation and X-rays are found in such sources as uranium, plutonium, radioactive cobalt and cesium, as well as industrial radiation sources, medical sources and cancer-treatment machines. Many beta-emitters also emit gamma radiation. In very large amounts of soil, truckloads of bananas, potassium chloride (a salt substitute) and large quantities of marijuana, radation exists but in very small, harmless amounts. Neutron radiation isn’t what we’d refer to as one of the common types of ionizing radiation to most people, but it’s certainly common to people working in a nuclear reactor. Neutron radiation has a range of hundreds of feet and is a

whole-body hazard. Neutrons penetrate body tissues and cause damage whether the material is inside or outside the body. Sources include nuclear reactions inside a nuclear reactor while it’s operating, bursts of radiation from an exploding nuclear weapon, plutonium and some industrial sources such as moisture-density gauges with californium or a mixture of americium and beryllium, more commonly know as an AmBi source. Shielding used consists of 10 inches of plastic, 1 foot of concrete, 3 feet of dirt or 3 feet of water. In some cases, neutrons can penetrate 10 to 25 feet of concrete, but these are in extreme circumstances.

MEASURING DOSE Radiation dose is the radiation energy absorbed by the human body. Dose is like the odometer in your car—it measures the total number of miles traveled. The more miles traveled, the more miles

SURVIVAL ACTIONS NO SHELTER REQUIRED UP TO 2 DAYS SHELTER OCCUPANCY 2 DAYS TO 1 WEEK SHELTER OCCUPANCY 1 WEEK TO 2 WEEKS SHELTER OCCUPANCY FOLLOWED BY DECONTAMINATIONS IN EXCEPTIONAL AREAS

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U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commision

PROJECTED NUCLEAR FALLOUT ZONES

U.S. Department of Health and Human Service

DECONTAMINTION FOR YOURSELF AND OTHERS

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recorded. The same is true with radiation. The greater amount of time spent around a radioactive source, the more dose you receive. The more energy deposited into the body, the higher the dose. Dose is measured in units of rem or roentgen (pronounced rent`g n), named after the German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen, who discovered X-rays. It’s a measure of the ionization produced in the air by X-rays or gamma radiation, and it’s used because air ionization can be measured directly. Radiation dose rate is radiation energy received over a period of time. Dose rate is like the speedometer in your car—it measures the rate of travel in a given time, for example, 60 miles per hour. Radiation dose rate is the dose received over time. For example, mrem per hour = mrem/h. It’s the “strength” of radiation at a specific location. Small doses are expressed in microrem, which equals 1/1,000,000 rem, mrem or millirem, which equals 1/1,000 rem, and R, which equals 1. Rad and R (roentgens) are similar units that are often equated to the rem.

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THE EFFECT OF NUCLEAR RADIATION Radiation will begin to destroy the cells in the body that divide rapidly, including blood, gastro-intestinal, reproductive and hair cells, and harms the DNA and RNA of surviving cells. For starters, you can expect to lose your hair quickly and in clumps with radiation exposure at 200 rem or higher. Since brain cells do not reproduce, they won’t be damaged directly unless the exposure is 5,000 rem or greater. Like with the brain, radiation kills nerve cells and small blood vessels around the heart, which can cause seizures and immediate death. Certain body parts are more specifically affected by exposure to different types of radiation sources. The thyroid gland is susceptible to radioactive iodine. In sufficient amounts, radioactive iodine can destroy all or part of the thyroid. By taking potassium iodide, one can reduce the effects of exposure; however, having this with you at all times might be a little presumptuous. When a person is exposed to

around 100 rem, the blood’s lymphocyte cell count will be reduced, leaving the victim more susceptible to infection. This is often referred to as mild radiation sickness. Early symptoms of radiation sickness mimic those of flu and may go unnoticed unless a blood count is done. According to data from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, symptoms may persist for up to 10 years and may also have an increased long-term risk for leukemia and lymphoma. Intense exposure to radioactive material at 1,000 to 5,000 rem would do immediate damage to small blood vessels and most certainly cause heart failure and immediate death. You can expect to feel nauseated, have diarrhea and begin to vomit blood; radiation damage to the intestinal lining will cause these violent effects. This occurs when you’re exposed to 200 rem or more. Because reproductive cells divide rapidly, these areas of the body can be damaged at rem levels as low as 200. Long term, some victims of radiation sickness may become sterile. If you’re lucky enough to dodge the radiation effects because you’re at least

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To make sure you are not entering a contaminated area, a Gieger counter will provide you with the best readings.

53 7 miles away, don’t count your lucky stars just yet. The thermal blast still has enough energy to cause third-degree burns, which extend throughout the layers of skin and are often painless because they destroy the pain receptors. They will cause scarring or disability and can require amputation. Without immediate medical attention, death can occur due to shock, rapid blood loss and susceptibility to infection. Radiation is assumed to increase one’s risk of cancer. The “normal” chance of dying of cancer is about 23 percent. Each rem is assumed to increase that risk by 0.05 percent. There’s a caveat: Radiation affects everyone differently. Depending on your health and biological makeup, radiation exposure may affect you differently than it does your neighbor. It’s been known to affect the young and old more so than healthy, middle-aged people. When the bombs were dropped in Hiroshima, there were many survivors. Survivability depended largely on where they were during the blast but also depended on their health status. Many people survived with major injuries and yet some perished with minor ones.

AVOIDING RADIATION In the field of radiation-related careers, time, distance and shielding are the ba-

sic fundamentals of “avoiding” exposure to potentially harmful radiation. The idea is to minimize the time spent around the source, create distance between you and the source and put something (water, plastic, aluminum, steel, lead or concrete) in between you and the source so that you avoid maximum exposure. Another good example of this time, distance and shielding fundamental is how it works with regard to you and the sun, a potentially hazardous source of energy. If you’re at the beach on a bright summer day, you might be wearing an oversized hat and dark sunglasses to protect your face and eyes from the bright, hot sun. Hopefully, you didn’t skip the step where you squeeze white, gooey paste from a tube and rub it all over your body (we’ll refer to this as shielding). The sun’s warmth feels good on your body, especially after a long winter indoors. But it only feels good for a short amount of time before becoming unbearable. After being in the sun long enough for you to feel uncomfortable or for your skin to become red and painful to the touch, you decide to duck into a local pub and grab a seat furthest away from windows or doors to “cool off” (we’ll call this distance). If you’ve managed to get a little sunburn, cells closest to the surface of your skin have become damaged. The sooner you escape the sun, the sooner those cells start to replicate and the healing process begins. If you remain in the sun for an extended

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THE INTERNATIONAL NUCLEAR AND RADIOLOGICAL EVENT SCALE

period of time without any shielding, your body may become so badly burned that you suffer serious injuries from the exposure to the sun’s harmful rays. Keep in mind that, in this scenario, you can see and feel this potentially harmful source. Remember, you can’t see, smell, touch, feel or taste radiation. So how can we avoid something if we have no idea where it’s coming from? The only way to know if you’re around potentially harmful radiation is to have a radiation detection device such as a personal radiation detector. These small, handheld devices will notify you of the presence of small amounts of radiation and, with the proper settings, will sound an alarm in the presence of potentially hazardous amounts of radiation.

HOW CAN YOU PROTECT YOURSELF? Get trained. Know first aid and what to do before a radiological event affects your people and facilities. Have an emergency kit and plan. Teach your friends, family and coworkers about radiation and the relative risk factors. Don’t panic and do something more dangerous than the radiation you’re running from. Keep personal protective equipment like gloves, respirators (surgical masks) and eyewear to prevent contamination and inhalation damage. Having a few things on hand can aid you in ensuring you and your family stay safe in a radiation area. Knowing the right steps to take in a radiation emergency can save lives and protect health. Get inside a building and take shelter for a period of time instead of evacuating. The walls of your home can block much of the harmful radiation. Because radioactive materials become weaker over time, staying inside for at least 24 hours after the radiation event is over can protect you and your family until it’s safe to leave the area. Once you get into a building, there are things you can do to stay safe inside. Decontaminating yourself will lower your exposure to harmful radioactive material. Even just removing your outer layer of clothing can remove up to 90 percent of radioactive material. It will be important to stay tuned for updated instructions from emergency response officials. Be informed, be prepared, and be safe.

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PROJECT BOV BUILDUP 54

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PART 1: CONSIDERING PRACTICAL TRANSPORTATION AND STORAGE SOLUTIONS BY R O B E RT K. PAT T E R S O N

Though a truck has many storage advantages, one with a shell and roof rack has more.

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A shell and the tailgate of the truck provide easy access to gear stored in the back.

Make sure you get a shell that has a landing pads to accomodate roof racks.

Yakima offers a variety of basket-style roof racks like this MegaWarrior with an extension.

n an emergency situation, you are beset on all sides with decisions that need to be made. Some are immediate: Is this earthquake big enough for me to duck and cover? Do I hear an active shooter approaching and should I take action? And some can be prioritized at a lower level to be handled later: Should I purify more water before nightfall? What’s the most effective way to signal for help? But there’s one decision that should always be on your mind in any emergency or disaster situation: Should I stay or should I go? Is the widespread looting and social unrest going to force me from my home? Will the flood levels from this ARkStorm inundate my house? Are the forest fires rampaging in this direction? Should we bug out? B E I N G P R E P A R E D T O L E AV E

Though every circumstance is different, perhaps you’ll be forced to leave at only a moment’s notice, and you’ll feel fortunate for the clothes on your back, the boots on your feet and the bug-out bag containing the 10 essentials slung over your shoulder. In that case, you’ll

An option for the ATC truck cap is this locking and sliding CapPack by Loadmaster.

need to make do with what you have. Just with this setup, you’ll be far better off than most everyone around you in the same situation; however, the itching feeling that you could always do better will gnaw at you as you trudge down the street toward some unknown fate. In an ideal situation, you’ll want to be better prepared, able to carry more gear and do so more quickly. Though walking has its advantages, the largest drawback is the limits on the gear you can carry. For a well-planned bug-out, you’ll want to involve a bug-out vehicle (BOV) of some kind. But what kind? THE BOV MINDSET

The answer to the questions “What is the best knife?” and “What is the best bug-out vehicle?” is the same: The best one is the one you have in hand. In an emergency, whatever car is in the driveway is your bug-out vehicle of choice—a Camry or a Civic or a whatever has four wheels and a working engine. However, if you’re allowed to be choosy, your bug-out vehicle should be determined by how many people you’ll be transporting, how much equipment and how many

supplies you plan to carry, your hopeful destination and how far away it is. Of course, it goes without saying that you’ll need a four-wheel-drive and something with decent ground clearance, like that of a Jeep or a half-ton pickup truck. A moderately powered 4x4 will get you through the vast majority of what you’ll encounter, but don’t overdo it. A monster truck is impractical in an off-road environment because it’s topheavy, and just imagine trying to find a replacement tire after a blowout. The larger the tire, the harder it is to find on the road. Also consider the following: A bug-out vehicle should meet your real needs. Your dream car may be a muscle car or a giant dually, but as you consider your options, address the things you know you need to accomplish and make your bug-out truck match those needs. Always use the most reliable vehicle in your stable of cars. The best-outfitted bug-out rig is useless if you’re on foot because the vehicle turns out to be undependable or plagued with chronic mechanical issues. Consider safety and discretion. Every-

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A roof rack is an important when transporting fuel and other hazardous materials.

Yakima offers a wide variety of accessory fixtures to hold all kinds of gear, such as a jack, fuel cans, and spare tires.

call for desperate measures, you’ll discover that someone you considered a friend yesterday will gladly steal your supplies today. Because of this, design your BOV to be as understated as possible. Don’t display that you’re well supplied and have gear at the ready, as that makes you a tasty target for looters and/or the unprepared. Even though we chose a bright red truck with big tires as our example (for the express purpose of getting betterquality photographs), the idea with any bug-out vehicle is to blend in with the masses as they escape the city, too. You want to get away with as little attention as possible, so if you have to store gear in the open, make sure it’s boxed up or covered somehow so people can’t easily see it. Most basic four- and all-wheel-drive vehicles will get to the same places as the mud-bogging monsters, and the capability difference under extreme conditions isn’t worth the expense and the exposure. INCREASE YOUR CARRYING CAPACITY

one yields to the temptation to daydream about an escape truck fully outfitted for any and every situation, but if this is your daily driver, how inconvenient will it be to drive it every day? Plus, you really don’t want a vehicle that screams, “Steal me in the event of emergency!” The speed of the car isn’t going to make much of a difference during a bug-out situation. Unless you’re fleeing a volcanic eruption, steady progress is what you need. A traffic jam is a more likely threat to your escape than a tornado on your tail. Don’t neglect vehicle care and maintenance. How are your belts and hoses? Is the check-engine light on? Do you have enough fuel in storage to fill up your car at a moment’s notice, plus fill a can for the roof or truck bed? Have you checked your spare tire recently? Making sure your bug-out vehicle is running smoothly could mean the difference between life and death. S T E A LT H & S T O R A G E

You played it smart and were prepared for the difficult times ahead. Most people won’t be. Since desperate times

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There is no doubt that a truck is the best choice when considering the benefits of various BOVs. I’d recommend going with a 4x4 configuration, as the engine is usually powerful and the cargo area can carry a great deal. For example, even the 6.5-foot short bed on the Super Duty Fords can carry 52.1 cubic feet of gear, which, to put it into perspective, is the equivalent of 389.75 gallons of water. The downside is the open bed where, unless you get a tonneau cover, everything is exposed to the elements and/or thieves. If you want to more than double that carrying capacity, add a truck cap/shell. Not only do they vastly increase what you can carry (and the size of things), but a shell can also offer a secure place to sleep if you need it along your journey. With usually dark tinted windows (or no windows at all) and a deck lid lock, shells are safe to secure whatever you’re bugging out with. Shown here is the LEX model truck cap from ATC Truck Covers. It features a reinforced roof with rails to add a roof rack (roof limit is 500 pounds), LED interior lighting, carpeted interior and

dark tinted glass. It follows the roofline of the truck and can be painted any factory color desired. The sliding front window (next to the cab) tilts down, while the side rear windows flare out to add ventilation. The single, one-handed rear latch is connected to the truck’s remote, so there’s no extra key needed. One option for use with an ATC truck cover that comes highly recommended is the CapPack by Loadmaster, which is a roof-mounted drawer that slides out and tilts down for easy access. With dual locks, it can hold firearms and ammunition securely and safely. Made from steel, the CapPack is rated to carry up to 100 pounds. CARGO UP TOP

Sometimes, there are things you might not want to toss into the back of a carpeted and covered truck bed, or perhaps you need more space than what a truck shell can provide. If you optioned for a reinforced roof on your shell, you can easily add a roof rack or basket. Yakima is a mainstay in the automotive cargo arena, as they offer cargo options for nearly every conceivable situation. We started with an industry standard: the cargo basket. In this case, we installed the MegaWarrior with the optional extension, which adds 40 percent more cargo space over the MegaWarrior’s 52-inch-long frame. At 48 inches wide, it spans the width of the shell and provides a great deal of protection for your equipment. The basket sits atop the SkyLine Tower attachments that incorporate themselves into the ATC shell’s track landing pads. The crossbars are adjustable both side to side and pitch for whatever shape of roof you might be working with. Next was Yakima’s new line of heavy-duty roof rack platforms. Called LockNLoad, the flat platform comes in various sizes; shown here is Platform B (60 by 54 by 4 inches) that tips the scales at 65 pounds, but this platform comes in six different sizes. It mounts directly to Yakima’s Towers with adapters and/or crossbar clamps. Made from aluminum with a powder-coated finish, the slats act like multiple crossbars to which most anything can be mounted.

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WILDERNESS

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CUSTOMIZE YOUR KIT S U RV I VO R ’S E D G E JA N UA R Y/ F E B R UA RY 2020

YO U R L I F E M AY D E PE N D O N W H AT ’S I N YO U R PAC K, S O S E L ECT A N D T EST T H E G E A R YO U R S E L F

By Steven Paul Barlow

Even small items carried in your pocket can be a big help in many bad situations. Always keep a pocket kit on hand together with other everyday-carry items.

Backpack by Graphic Enginer from the Noun Project

This Voodoo Tactical Discreet Raven Pack (left) has enough room to carry everything you need to spend an unexpected night in the woods or to get safely out of the city.

Fire is important enough that you should have several ways to make it that are carried in your pocket, pack and bug-out bag.

If I’m going to depend on any survival kit, I want each item in it to be gear that I’ve tested and know to be worth carrying. So, whatever I spend—a lot or a little—I want to assemble the contents of my survival kits myself. Naturally, I customize my kits according to the situations I’m likely to face. If I’m on or around water, for instance, my kit might contain a flotation device, an inflatable raft and perhaps more substantial fishing gear. If I’m in the desert, I nix the raft but bring the water. Still, there are some items that I always want in any kit, including several ways to make fire, more than one way to navigate and a multi-tool or Swiss Army knife. Any piece of gear can fail, so I always try to build in some duplication whenever possible. » REALWORLDSURVIVOR.COM

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compass, a cell phone with a GPS app and a concealedcarry handgun with me. Still, I like to have a pocket kit handy that’s small enough that I have no excuse not to have it whenever I step off the pavement. In mine, among other items, I always have a couple of ways to make a fire, tinder tabs, a small compass for navigation, a small flashlight (usually a Streamlight Microstream USB), some You can often ﬁnd your way with basic compass skills. Navigation adhesive bandages and apps for smartphones and dedicated GPS units are also good as antiseptic ointment, insect long as your batteries last, and these apps should supplement repellant and a knife for your compass, not replace it. improvising other things I might need. I keep them in a sealable plastic bag that can double as a small water container. My favorite compass for this pocket kit is the Silva Mini that includes a folding sighting mirror that can also be used for signaling and a safety pin for attaching it to A small handgun, such as the The good multi-tool, such as clothing. NAA Black Widow (top) and this Leatherman Wave (left), For my fire-making endeavRanger II, both in .22 Magnum, and Victorinox Swiss Army ors, besides the Zippo, I usucan ﬁt easily in your kit and knives, such as the Ranger ally have a small, disposable can be valuable for backup Grip 178 (center) or Hiker defense, hunting small game (right), can provide the solution butane lighter and an Exotac and signaling rescuers. for many survival problems. nanoSPARK. I’ve found the American-made fire-starting products from Exotac to be among the best. The nanothat’s keeping you alive. SPARK is very small but proMountain lions and other duces a strong spark with a predators are also a conflick of its wheel across the cern in some areas. And a replaceable flint. You can firearm allows you a way to One piece of critical gear use it one-handed. A great shoot game to extend your that is often omitted from feature is the waterproof food provisions and can be ready-made survival kits is compartment that stores a used to signal rescuers from some sort of cooking vessel. quickLIGHT tinder tab for a great distance. A cook pot can be used to use when other tinder is I like to have three types purify water through boiling, hard to find. of survival kits within reach: to prepare warm fluids to For a knife, I usuala pocket kit, a keep hypothermia at bay and ly opt for a Victorinox daypack kit and a to provide a way to cook any Swiss Army knife. larger bug-out kit. edibles you might gather The Hiker and larger Here are a few suggesalong the way. Ranger Grip 178 tions for some of the Another item often omitmodels are among specifics for each. ted from lists of gear for my favorites. survival kits is a firearm. Both have lots Emergencies bring out the of useful tools: best in some people and the knife blade, can worst in others. There are Any time I step The author fashioned this opener, screwlots of scenarios wherein out of the house, stove, fueled by twigs, from drivers and, most you might not just be trying I usually have a a fruit can, tuna can lid and to survive the elements but Zippo lighter, a four tent pegs. The Stanley important for woods travel in your fellow man as well. You tactical knife, a cook set he uses with it my mind, a saw might have to defend your wristwatch with stores inside it once the blade. That saw life and protect the gear an electronic tent pegs are removed.

OFTEN OVERLOOKED

POCKET KIT

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enables me to take down saplings for making a shelter or travois—chores that would ordinarily require larger tools. It also eases the job of making dovetail notches to join two pieces of wood without cordage. Even if I’m carrying a daypack, I like to keep the small kit in my pocket. That way, if I get separated from my pack, I still have some capabilities. Often when traveling light, I’ll carry what I call my Pocket Kit Plus. It consists of the items I’ve already mentioned plus a 1-quart Nalgene water bottle that nests inside an Ozark Trail 18-ounce stainless steel cup with folding handles. The cup can serve as my cook pot and is available at Walmart for $5. The bottle and cup fit in a small pouch that I carry on my belt.

DAYPACK KIT A daypack enables me to carry enough gear that a survival situation can seem more like a camping trip. For the pack itself, I usually choose a Voodoo Tactical Discreet Raven Pack that doesn’t scream “tactical.” If I need something larger, I use the company’s Tobago Cargo Pack. Inside, I usually have a more elaborate firemaking kit, water-purification tablets, a LifeStraw water filter, a whistle, a Leatherman Wave multi-tool, two 50-foot lengths of paracord, more bandages along with antiseptic ointment, a headlamp, another compass, a cable saw, fishhooks, sinkers and lures in an old prescription bottle wrapped with fishing line, another knife and a small handgun for game-getting or last-ditch defense. Other items that fit in the daypack include a metal spork (metal, not plastic, so it can double as a digging tool), an emergency blanket, a battery pack for charging my cell phone, an Outdoor Edge folding Flip N’ Saw with a 7-inch blade, snack

Backpack by b farias from the Noun Project

bars, a water bottle, insect repellant and a poncho that can be used as a raincoat, ground cloth or improvised into a shelter. Also stuffed in there is a lightweight jacket. The fire kit in my daypack contains an Exotac nanoSTRIKER XL, which is a ferrocerium rod protected in a metal tube, and an Exotac titanLIGHT, which is a lighter on steroids with a screw-on lid and gasket that doesn’t let the lighter fluid evaporate. I also include extra quickLIGHT tinder tabs and a couple of Exotac’s reusable candle tins. When you’re struggling to keep a small flame burning, you can keep a candle lit under it until your damp wood catches fire. Small items I store in an MSR Alpine Stowaway stainless steel pot with a lid and a handle that folds over to latch the lid in place. For a handgun, my choice is usually one of the small revolvers from North American Arms in .22 Magnum. Remember, this is in addition to the defensive handgun I already have on my hip. The North American Arms revolvers are small enough to stow in the kit, and you can carry lots of .22 Magnum ammo for the weight. I prefer the ones with the 2.5-inch barrel length to provide a bit more sight radius and velocity. The Black Widow model is excellent for this purpose, and so is the Ranger II. Sometimes you aren’t able to carry a handgun. Whether I do or not, I always include slingshots in my kits. A good slingshot can be deadly on small game. They’re quiet, portable and inexpensive. SimpleShot’s powerful Hammer XT model is modular; easy-toswap heads make it simple to switch from shooting ball ammo to arrows. For small kits, SimpleShot makes several pocket slingshots, including the Torque, which can be easily fitted with looped-tube bands or flat

bands. inside of it. If for some My daypack kit reason I have to abanincludes either a don the large bug-out homemade alcobag, I can grab hol stove made the daypack and of a potted meat still have most From left, the Coast or tuna can or a of what I need. headlamp, Streamlight twig stove made In addition, the Siege X USB lantern and from a larger bug-out bag has Streamlight Microstream fruit can. Since room for a small USB ﬂashlight are all they’re light and tent or tarp, a rechargeable. don’t take up takedown long much space, they can be gun (such as a Ruger PC useful if I can’t or don’t want Carbine 9mm or Savage to make a campfire. For the 42—and I prefer .22 Mag alcohol stove, I usually carry over .410), a hatchet, a a small bottle of denatured large fixed-blade knife, a alcohol—enough for two folding shovel, a GPS unit, meals—but I can resupply extra clothing, extra ammo, easily with Heet gas-line a more elaborate cook kit, a antifreeze, which contains first-aid/trauma kit, prescripmethyl alcohol. The twig tion meds, a takedown stove can cook a meal with Wyoming saw with an extra just a handful of twigs. If blade from Wyoming Knife, I carry this stove, I usually a collapsible water jug, an leave the MSR cook pot MSR PocketRocket Stove behind and opt instead for and a Streamlight Siege X the Stanley Adventure Camp USB Rechargeable Outdoor Cook Set, which includes Lantern. a cook pot with a lid that There’s room for more stores inside my homemade food, too, such as freezestove. dried meals, a plastic jar of peanut butter and a plastic bag containing tea bags, cocoa mix, sugar, oatmeal, bouillon cubes, salt, and I have a plastic bin that more snack bars. Also contains gear I usually take included in the bag are on camping trips, but I keep more fire-starting materia separate bug-out bag as als—tucked in a side pocket well that stays undisturbed are a couple more disposexcept for periodic inspecable butane lighters, a Zippo tions. In an emergency, if Mag Strike ferro rod, a Zippo I have to grab and go, I Emergency Fire Kit (sparker don’t want to worry that I with tinder compartment) might have borrowed from and a Zippo match safe with the bag to go on a hike or Typhoon matches, more camping trip and forgot to candles and a Ziploc bag put things back that I’m gowith cotton lint from my dryer ing to need. for tinder. My bug-out bag is my largest survival kit, and I see it mostly for vehicle use. I prefer the large Voodoo Tactical Mojo Load-out Bag. Did I miss something? I’m It has tremendous capacity sure you can think of more in the main compartment items you want in your kits, and lots of smaller pockets and certainly your circumto keep gear organized. It stances might dictate other comes with carry handles, a pieces of gear. The main shoulder strap and, tucked idea is to have gear in at into a compartment in the least three levels—pocket, bottom, a set of shoulder pack and bug-out bag—with straps. repetition, and all ready to I can place my daypack kit go at a moment’s notice.

BUG-OUT KIT

ADD TO IT

ARE YOU READY TO F.I.N.D. M.E. F.A.S.T.? Whenever I’m putting together a survival kit, travel pack or bug-out bag, I try to make sure I’m covering all the bases by adhering to the acronym F.I.N.D. M.E. F.A.S.T. FIRE: A kit should always include several ways to make fire. Include tinder and extenders such as candles to use until a fire is going strong. IMPROVISE: You want to maintain or repair what items you have. What you don’t have, you want to be able to make. This category includes tools such as knives, hatchets, saws, pliers, rope or other cordage, etc. NAVIGATE: You’ll want maps, compasses, GPS units, and pad and pencil to leave messages and to note landmarks in case you have to backtrack. DRINK: You need water and a way to contain it and carry it with you. MEDICAL: This category can range from a few bandages and antiseptic ointment to a full first-aid/trauma kit. Don’t forget the insect repellant and your prescription meds. EAT: You’ll burn lots of calories in an emergency, so you’ll need food within a few days to keep going strong. Besides food itself, this category includes a means to get it, including hunting and trapping implements and fishing gear. FIGHT: You need to protect your life, those you love and the survival gear that’s keeping you alive, so include guns, knives and impact weapons. ALERT: Communication methods—phones, radios, whistles and other ways to signal potential rescuers and alert them to your location— are invaluable tools. SHELTER: If you don’t have room for a tent, maybe you can pack a nylon tarp or a large poncho that can be rigged as a shelter. Tenacity: Most of all, you need determination—the mindset to survive, to never quit, to fight for your life. —Steven Paul Barlow

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CARRY A

The Combar is a hefty multi-tool that’s ready for a series of jobs that could save you in an emergency.

ACLIM8’S COMBAR IS A MULTI-TOOL FOR ALL SITUATIONS AND EMERGENCIES BY DANIEL BLACK

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 • REALWORLDSURVIVOR.COM

axes by Alone forever from the Noun Project

robably in your cache of go-gear is an axe, a shovel, a saw and an all-purpose knife of some sort. They’re handy to have in an emergency and you’d be foolish to stray far from your house without them nearby. However, they take up a lot of room and, overall, they’re heavy to carry and bulky to store. Instead, consider combining them all into one with Aclim8’s Combar: a hammer, entrenching tool, saw, axe and knife. Made from heavyduty materials (aluminum, titanium and stainless steel), the Combar is as rugged as they come. The tools are compact to keep the overall design small, and the locking mechanism is secure enough to hold the exposed tool in place under vigorous use. Admittedly, the release apparatus is a little fiddly, especially when wet. The total weight of the tool—3.2 pounds—prevents it from

hanging off of your belt (though Aclim8 does offer a holster for it), but it feels solid when the axe blade or hammer find their targets. The nylon handle is firm, ergonomically comfortable and ribbed for a better grip, even when wet. The drop-point knife (constructed of 420 stainless steel) and the folding saw (which uses a standard reciprocating saw blade) that come with the Combar Pro package (or can be purchased separately) are stored inside the hollow handle and can be deployed quickly. Also, the Combar Pro comes with a sold-separately magazine insert that fits inside the handle that can be filled with whatever you think you might need on your journey in place of the knife. Options are the molded-nylon case ($95) and the plastic holster ($45). MSRP: Combar ($425); Combar Pro ($600). (aclim8.com)

The head of the tool rotates in various ways to expose the three main tools: axe, hammer and shovel/pick. Each tool swivels and locks into place.

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WHEN Q MEETS RAMBO, YOUR PREPPING BECOMES THAT MUCH BY J I M C O B B MORE INTRIGUING REALWORLDSURVIVOR.COM

spy by Andrew Doane from the Noun Project

iStock; spy by art shop from the Noun Project

JA N UA R Y/ F E B R UA R Y 2 0 2 0 • S U RV I VO R ’S E D G E C O N C E A L A B L E G A D G E TS

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AT FIRST BLUSH, IT MIGHT SEEM LIKE THERE WOULDN’T BE MUCH IN COMMON BETWEEN PREPPING AND ESPIONAGE. AFTER ALL, WHEN ONE THINKS OF SURVIVALISM, THE IMAGE THAT PROBABLY COMES TO MIND IS SOMEONE WHO IS HUNKERED DOWN AT HOME, PEEKING OUT FROM BEHIND CLOSED BLINDS TO MAKE SURE NOBODY IS SNEAKING UP TO STEAL THEIR CAREFULLY CURATED SUPPLY OF MRES. A SPY, ON THE OTHER HAND, IS USUALLY IMAGINED AS BEING WELL DRESSED, SOPHISTICATED AND PERHAPS MORE DARING THAN WISE. REALWORLDSURVIVOR.COM

This shows the kit assembled for carrying. With two saws and a handcuff key, the Escape Stick is a great option for the survivalist who’s concerned about unlawful detention.

The Micro Escape Kit contains everything you need to get free of any virtually any type of bonds. Its container works great as a zipper pull, keeping it accessible yet not at all obvious.

The reality is that the two have far more in common than different. Both are concerned with planning and preparing for their safety and well-being. They both engage in regular training and practice exercises to keep their skills sharp, and they each invest in a range of gear designed to be used in a crisis. Remember, preparedness isn’t always about the end of the world. Human trafficking is becoming alarmingly common in the United States, and with it comes the risk of abduction. It would be wise to be prepared for such an eventuality, which would bring with it a need for escape tools. There are three areas where preparedness and spycraft seem to intersect: escape and evasion, infiltration and defense weapons. Let’s take a look at each of them and the types of equipment that would prove useful in each area.

E S C A P E & E VA S I O N

If things go south, the survivalist might find himself on the run. Perhaps he got caught by an opposing force and ended up in non-lawful custody. Or a human trafficking operation has targeted him, and he’s now on his way to places unknown. He’ll need to make a break for it, quickly and quietly, and get out of Dodge. One very valuable asset is a handcuff key. Contrary to what some may think, they are readily available to anyone online, and they come in a huge array of shapes, styles and colors. However, almost all of them look exactly like what they are and thus will be confiscated by any captors with enough brains to tie their shoes. There are, however, some models that are exceptionally tiny and are easily hidden on the body—clipped to the inside of a belt loop at the back

Survival Resources

of your pants, for example. This puts the key exactly where you’ll need it if you’re cuffed behind your back. Survival Resources sells a handcuff key that’s designed to clip onto the end of a boot or shoelace. In that location, you should be able to access it whether you’re cuffed in front or in back, though the latter might require a little stretching. Amateur abductors aren’t likely to search your laces for such things. Using a handcuff key successfully while you’re wearing cuffs takes a fair amount of practice. This isn’t something you should just assume that you’ll be able to pull off because you’ve run it through mentally. It requires a certain degree of dexterity, especially if you’re not able to see what you’re doing. Taking it a step further, the Escape Stick from Survival Resources provides all you’ll need to get free from just about any sort of bonds, including handcuffs, rope and duct tape. It consists of two multi-functional tools. The first is a thin, bladed saw. In addition to a cutting implement, it can be used as a shim to open handcuffs or zip ties. The other component is a rod saw that works well to cut metal, fibrous materials and plastic. At one end of this rod is a small handcuff key. Both of these tools are stored in a rubber sheathing which shields them from view. These items are all small, with the tube being just a few inches long and less than half an inch in diameter—easy to stash in a sock or somewhere else where it won’t be easily detected. One more step up is Survival Resources’ Micro Escape Kit. This adds a ceramic razor as well as a length of Kevlar line to the mix. These items, along with the two saws and handcuff key, are stored in a black plastic housing that can be carried innocuously as a zipper pull on a jacket or hidden elsewhere on your person. If you find yourself trapped in a vehicle, you might find it difficult to break a window to get free. This is especially true if you’re somewhat confined and thus cannot get your legs up to kick the glass. A glass-breaker bracelet is a deceptively simple device and one that is likely to avoid detection. It consists of an elasticized cord bracelet with a single striker bead made of tungsten carbide. Take the bracelet off and loop it around your first finger and thumb,

Having the ability to escape from handcuffs or rope bindings may just save your life.

stretching the hand out to keep the bracelet tight. Hold it so the bead is resting on the glass. Keep that hand in place as you pull the bead back as far as you can, then turn your head away and let go. The bead will shatter the tempered glass, allowing you a fast escape. Consider adding a couple of small ChemLights to the loadout, too. These are quite handy if you’re trapped somewhere dark, such as the trunk of a car. There are no batteries that might leak or lose charge, and ChemLights come as small as just a couple of inches in length, so they’re easily concealable. Simply snap and shake them to activate. I N F I LT R AT I O N

It may well come to pass that the survivalist will need to gain access to

a secure location. It could be that he’s hoping to liberate supplies that have been abandoned but that cannot be readily removed. Or maybe he’s seeking shelter for the night as he makes his way across the city and needs to get inside someplace safe until morning, ideally without smashing his way in. Innumerable lock-pick sets are available online, so acquiring one is the easy part. It takes time, dedication and patience to learn how to use these tools properly and efficiently. A good start is to buy a basic set of picks along with a training lock, which is a padlock with a clear plastic housing. This allows you to see how the picks operate inside the lock. However, this is just one kind of lock, and while there are similarities, the locks used on doors and such do work differently. But practice makes perfect. If you find yourself regularly sitting through long and exceptionally boring

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conference calls, playing with different locks is a great way to keep your hands occupied. In a pinch, a small pry bar can be used to open windows and doors. Pocket-sized models are decidedly popular as of late, so there are numerous models to choose from. A lever is one of the simplest machines known to man, and that’s all a pry bar is when you get right down to it. However, there comes a point when the bar is simply too short to be effective. The longer a

lever is, the more power it can exert. While a full-sized crowbar isn’t exactly discreet, there isn’t much you’ll be able to accomplish with a 2-inch pry bar. Shoot for something that’s long enough to be useful while still easily carried. DEFENSE WEAPONRY: BLADES

While you probably can’t swing the price on a modified Rolex that shoots tiny darts coated with a substance that inexplicably causes instantaneous pa-

ralysis or unconsciousness, that doesn’t mean you’re out of luck when it comes to defending yourself. Keeping in mind that there may be times when the survivalist will need to dispatch an enemy quietly, we’ll forgo the weapons that go bang and concentrate on the ones that don’t make as much noise. Every survivalist needs a knife. Not only will this tool be used to defend against attackers, but it will cut cordage and assist in processing firewood and harvested game if you’re stuck out in

The Phrike from Spartan Blades is slim yet sturdy and very capable.

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The CQB Tool is an efficient implement for getting someone’s attention.

Spartan Blades USA; Jim Cobb

These mala beads from Guillermo del Sin are hefty and make a great flexible impact weapon.

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iStock; focus by ProSymbols from the Noun Project; Jim Cobb

the field for days or weeks. In this case, we’re going for discreet—something that’s easy to conceal rather than being large or flashy. One great candidate is the Phrike by Spartan Blades. At its widest point, it’s less than 0.38 inches thick. It’s slim enough to slip almost anywhere, though anything other than belt carry will require an aftermarket sheath. Being a solid piece of 1095 high-carbon steel, the knife is strong enough for battle without being a boat anchor. Another solid option is the Rapid Strike by TOPS Knives. Its Kydex sheath will keep the knife secure in any position while still being easy to access. The contoured handle will prevent your hand from sliding up to the knife edge while you use it, while the textured scales provide a positive grip even in wet conditions. One more bladed suggestion is the CQB Tool by Spartan Blades. This ring-handled dagger is designed to be deployed quickly and used efficiently to get someone off of you or enable you to transition to a different weapon. It’s slim and can be carried on the belt or perhaps worn around the neck. Of course, no spy loadout is complete without a spike. Small enough to be concealed just about anywhere on your person, long enough to reach vital organs when deployed and strong enough not to snap under pressure, the Devil Dart from Crawford Knives will do the job nicely. It’s patterned after the famous Office of Strategic Services sleeve dagger used in WWII. This model comes with a Kydex sheath that has numerous attachment points, including a J hook to be used to secure the sheath inside the waistband. DEFENSE WEAPONRY: MISCELLANEOUS

Sometimes, the best place to hide a weapon is in plain sight. Most security checkpoints will require you to relinquish anything more deadly than a pencil. However, who will question a string of beads looped around your wrist? Maker Guillermo del Sin sells sets of mala beads, which are primarily used in meditation practice. His sets, though, are crafted of solid metal beads strung on high-tensile cordage. Called Mori Mala and weighing around 10 ounces, they not only add some oomph

LEGALITIES The Buffalo Nickel Bracelet from Kopis Designs looks neat on the wrist and would be a very effective garrote.

to a hand strike, but looping one end around the fist and striking with the other is also guaranteed to do some serious damage. When it comes to silencing a sentry, the garrote is a traditional tool. However, if you’re searched and TSA finds a length of piano wire, they’re going to ask questions. They may just miss a simple bracelet, though—one that consists of nothing more than a little cordage and a couple of nickels. The Buffalo Nickel Bracelet by Kopis Designs is constructed using a strand of 900-pound-rated Technora cord strung between two buffalo-head nickels. When worn on the wrist, it has an interesting, low-key look, but when necessary, it can be quickly unwrapped. Grab an end with each hand, loop it around your target’s neck, and pull. As a bonus, the cordage is strong enough to use as a cable saw to cut through zip ties. One more relatively discreet weapon is the single knuck. Imagine a set of traditional brass knuckles but cut down to a single knuckle. There’s a wide range of these on the market, made of everything from wood to metal to plastic. This tool is small enough to fit into a pocket quite easily, yet it can concentrate the force of a punch to a narrow area, significantly increasing the damage inflicted. It might seem far-fetched to imagine needing to use spycraft in a survival situation. But the reality is that it’s no less likely than many of the scenarios we often discuss, such as widespread grid failure, pandemics or even civil war. Much of what we can learn from the espionage world, and certainly the gear inspired by it, can be quite useful even if the end of the world isn’t right around the corner.

It’s important to remember that while we might prepare for a world without the rule of law, we’re not quite there yet. Do your homework and ensure that the items you wish to carry on your person are legal in your area. The last thing you want to happen is to end up facing fines and other negative consequences because you didn’t know it was against the law for you to be in possession of a set of lock picks, for example. It’s also advisable that you only employ the gear and skills discussed here when it won’t be in violation of the law. For example, if you’re taken into custody by a law enforcement officer and you decide to use your carefully hidden handcuff key to get free and make a run for it, you might find yourself in a world of hurt, both figuratively and literally. Use your head and make smart choices. —Jim Cobb

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PREPPER PAPERBACKS WILDERNESS

K N O W L E D G E W I L L A LWAY S B E P O W E R , S O H E R E A R E S O M E V I TA L B O O K S F O R THE TIMES TO COME By Peter Suciu

BUSHCRAFT 101: A FIELD GUIDE TO THE ART OF WILDERNESS SURVIVAL

BY DAVE CANTERBURY This book offers concise information that can be easily digested. It’s built around the 5Cs of survival: cutting, covering, combustion devices, containers and cordages. As such, Bushcraft 101 provides simple tips on basic tasks, from sharpening a knife to splitting wood. A quote from Horace Kephart: “The man, who goes afoot, prepared to camp anywhere and in any weather, is the most independent fellow on earth.”

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THE SURVIVAL MEDICINE HANDBOOK: A GUIDE FOR WHEN MEDICAL HELP IS NOT ON THE WAY

BY JOSEPH ALTON Unless you went to medical school, you’re going to need some reference guide, and this might just be the best book for those times. It offers insight on how to sterilize medical equipment, provides tips on natural remedies and offers insight to prevent hygiene-related patienttransport issues. It can help you prevent infections and treat minor injuries.

SURVIVE! ESSENTIAL SKILLS AND TACTICS TO GET YOU OUT OF ANYWHERE—ALIVE BY LES STROUD Author Les Stroud has earned a reputation as Survivorman—he’s the guy who’s traveled the world and returned to tell us all about it. Stroud knows how to build a survival shelter and how to locate and trap small animals. What makes Stroud’s book even more impressive is that, in addition to offering tips about what’s possible, he offers a no-BS view on the impossible, such as tracking large game to survive.

WILDWOOD WISDOM

BY ELLSWORTH JAEGER What is immediately notable about this book is that the author’s last name literally translates to “hunter” in German, and Jaeger lives up to that moniker. First published in 1945, this book has long offered insight into solid survival skills such as making a ﬁre, building a shelter without tools and using axes and knives. There are more “modern” publications available, but what worked almost 75 years ago certainly still works today!

Dark Ages following the fall of the Western Roman Empire were in fact so dark, there were many innovations that were lost, and literacy rates fell across much of Europe. A future breakdown of society, one where the internet can’t be accessed and all those e-readers become just fancy paperweights, could be far more catastrophic. Our reliance on digital information rather than paper-based data means that so much of our knowledge could be inaccessible, if not outright lost. That should be enough of a reason that the most important knowledge should be kept in what the tech world has dubbed a hard copy, but what we’ll simply describe as books. While it might not be possible to compile

THE 48 LAWS OF POWER AND THE 33 STRATEGIES OF WAR

BY ROBERT GREENE 48 Laws draws on the writings of Niccolò Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, Haile Selassie I, Carl von Clausewitz, Queen Elizabeth I, Henry Kissinger, and P.T. Barnum, while 33 Strategies distills the military wisdom of Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte and Margaret Thatcher. Greene uses his talents to draw praise from the rich and powerful, so imagine what his words could do in a world where knowledge is again the true power.

Books by Mr Balind from the Noun Project

verything is on the internet today— from the classic works of Homer to the quotations of Homer Simpson, from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War to Donald Trump’s The Art of the Deal and from tips on survival to tips for picking up chicks. Of course, not everything is equal when it comes to important information or, more precisely, knowledge. Throughout history, knowledge has been power. Having the tools to build civilization, the weapons to defend it and even the words that keep conflicts from happening are all thanks to the use of knowledge. But what happens when knowledge is lost? It can result in a “dark age”—at least a temporary one. While today’s scholars don’t believe that the

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a literal great library, which wouldn’t even be practical should you have to suddenly relocate, there are certain books that all preppers should’ve at least read and still have available for quick reference.

YOUR BASIC LIBRARY: BOOKS FOR SURVIVING As former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld so candidly said, “We don’t know what we don’t know,” and that’s true of everything in life. This is why having the right books on things that are safe to eat, basic medicine and guides to carpentry can be important to have around. The same is true of equipment

Book by Mateo Zlatar from the Noun Project

THE ART OF WAR

BY SUN TZU This is truly an oldie but goodie and dates to the 5th century B.C., before Rome was much more than a small citystate. It’s been studied by Chinese emperors and military thinkers ever since, and in its 13 chapters, it offers tips on laying plans, waging war, variations of tactics and understanding intelligence. In modern times, it has inspired the likes of Mao Zedong, Vo Nguyen Giap and Norman Schwarzkopf Jr.

manuals; you need a reference to both fix and maintain almost everything mechanical, which is why the United States military has published manuals on firearms and equipment since its founding. In other words, unless you know from experience how to repair a broken motor or engine, field strip a firearm or fix a crucial piece of equipment, it’s best to have that manual handy—at least for anything beyond the basics. When things do go badly, you’ll want a reference guide for everything else, and since you probably can’t count on the internet, having a small library could ensure your survival. Here are a few suggested books for the survival reading list.

THE BIG CON: THE STORY OF THE CONFIDENCE MAN BY DAVID MAURER It has always been said that you can’t con an honest man, and in a world without laws, it might not be those stronger than you that pose the greatest threat. In today’s world, the conﬁdence man is the aristocrat of grafters, which is how Maurer sums it up after studying the “work” of hundreds of full-time swindlers. In our modern world, a con man is a threat to your money, and you want to make sure you’re not conned out of so much more.

ADVANCED READING: BOOKS FOR THRIVING In a post-crisis world without television or the internet, the printed word could become even more important. While life might become more difficult, as you won’t have modern conveniences, it could also provide lots more time for reading, so having some extra books around for continued study would be a very wise idea. However, just as stockpiling food, water, ammunition and other supplies is crucial to prepare for what may be coming, so too should time be spent studying and researching now. Doctors study for what they

THE BOOK OF FIVE RINGS: A CLASSIC TEXT ON THE JAPANESE WAY OF THE SWORD

BY MIYAMOTO MUSASHI This book is a straightforward text on kenjutsu (Japanese swordsmanship) and martial arts. Each subsequent chapter builds on the previous one, beginning with how training is akin to building a house, when it is then crucial to hone techniques and fundamental principles, to stay calm in the heat of battle and use timing to one’s advantage. This book could help you stay alive and get ahead in a world without order.

might face in terms of illnesses and injuries, while professionals in all walks of life continue to study and research within their own fields. Scientists practically spend half their lives just reading about each other’s work! To that end, you should study now to be prepared for tomorrow. Many of the books listed here are on the must-read lists of business leaders, military thinkers and politicians. While many of the authors (not to mention those business leaders and politicians) couldn’t survive beyond a weekend in Central Park, the books offer insight on military strategy, cunning and planning. These books could make the difference between surviving and thriving in the world to come.

ROOTS OF STRATEGY

ED: THOMAS R. PHILLIPS If you can get through the ﬁrst two books on the list, consider this to be an even more advanced study on military strategy and planning. It contains vignettes from The Art of War as well as writings from Vegetius, Marshal Maurice de Saxe, Frederick the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte. It’s a book favored by business leaders and war gamers for helping understand how to destroy the competition. If you’d rather be a leader than a follower, this is the book to read.

THE LOSS OF THE GREAT LIBRARY The Great Library of Alexandria was one of the largest and most significant centers of knowledge in the ancient world. So important was the Great Library that Alexandria was known as the capital of knowledge and learning. More than 100 scholars were housed within the library to translate writings by Greek authors as well as works from Egypt, Assyria, Persia and even Buddhist texts and Hebrew scriptures. The library contained the works of Homer, Plato and Socrates as well as names lost to world when it was destroyed in a fire some 2,000 years ago. Julius Caesar is among the key culprits in its early destruction, as he set fire to the Egyptian fleet, which spread throughout the city, damaging the library and its contents. Some 300 years later, the Byzantine emperor Theodosius I ordered the destruction of the building that housed the library in order to build a church but also to wipe out paganism. Finally, in 642 A.D., the Muslim army of ‘Amr ibn al-‘Ās captured the city and ordered the final destruction of any remaining texts. According to the 13th-century scholar Bar Hebraeus, the Muslim caliph Omar ordered, “If those books are in agreement with the Quran, we have no need of them; and if these are opposed to the Quran, destroy them.” While the destruction of the Great Library didn’t cause the Dark Ages, it did result in a great loss of knowledge from the ancient world. It wasn’t the only library in our history to be destroyed. The Imperial Library of Constantinople fell into decline for centuries until the Crusaders sacked the city in 1204 A.D., while Baghdad’s House of Wisdom preserved manuscripts on astronomy, science and medicines for more than 250 years until the city fell to the Mongols in 1258 A.D. —Peter Suciu

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DELTA DITCH DIGGER THE DELTA SHOVEL FROM DMOS IS THE TOOL YOU NEED WHETHER YOU’RE HOME OR ON THE GO

BY SEAN MCCARTHY

TOP: The T-grip handle is robust and wide, perfect for a gloved hand. Above: The handle telescopes from 24 inches to 51 inches via a series of these button clips, which causes a rattling noise as the nesting handles clang against each other.

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Shovel by Andrejs Kirma from the Noun Project

hen DMOS decided that it wanted to reinvent the shovel, its engineers really had to think outside the box. Its first product, the Stealth Shovel—a compact, collapsible snow shovel—was widely praised, so the bar was set high for the introduction of its next shovel incarnation: the Delta Shovel. The best thing about this tool is that it’s doubletelescoping handle and folding head offer the option to contort the shovel’s body into a small space only 24 inches tall, meaning it can be used in virtually any position. The blade is made from 3-millimeter-thick 6061 aluminum riveted to a 12-gauge cold-rolled steel brace that houses the receiver for the aluminum handle. The detent

retention pin offers three options: folded closed, shovel mode and a halffolded hoe mode. The T-grip handle at the top is molded Zytel and is wide enough to use especially while wearing gloves. Although the shovel is sturdy, strong, easy to manipulate into its various configurations and feels solid in your hand, it rattles at the telescoping joints and the detent pin. Each strike into the earth makes a clattering that you think indicates you’re one step closer to breaking it. But it doesn’t seem like it’ll fail anytime soon, as the rattles are just the grumbles of the beast. Invariably, the leading edge of the shovel head will be introduced to a rock, and in the short time we had with this shovel, we dinged up the blade pretty well and exposed

TOP LEFT: This detent clip that adjusts the head into various conﬁgurations adds to the noise of this shovel during use. ABOVE: After meeting a few rocks, the head got dinged up.

some of the bare metal. That said, as with any quality tool, there is some care needed to maintain its effectiveness. For best results, keep this shovel handy for when you’ve got to dig yourself out of what-

ever trouble you’ve gotten yourself into. Weighing only 3 pounds and 8 ounces, it comes in three colors: black, red and blue. Also available are mounts for your vehicle. MSRP: $199. (dmoscollective.com)

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HERE’S HOW TO UTILIZE OTHER PEOPLE’S DISCARDS TO KEEP YOURSELF ALIVE BY MICHAEL D’ANGONA

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Recycle by Maxim Basinski from the Noun Project

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BECAUSE YOU’RE READING THIS PARTICULAR MAGAZINE RIGHT NOW, YOU’RE PROBABLY A VERY PREPARED PERSON, READY TO SURVIVE NO MATTER WHAT MAN OR MOTHER NATURE MAY THROW AT YOU. YOU MOST LIKELY ALSO HAVE A VAST ARRAY OF GEAR, EQUIPMENT, TOOLS, WEAPONS AND BASIC SUPPLIES SUCH AS FOOD, WATER, SHELTER- AND FIREMAKING ITEMS STORED AWAY AND READY TO BE UTILIZED IF NEEDED. BUT WHAT IF YOU DIDN’T HAVE THESE ITEMS WITH YOU FOR ONE REASON OR ANOTHER, BUT STILL HAD TO SURVIVE OUT IN A HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT? COULD IT BE DONE? THE ANSWER LIES NOT IN WHAT YOU DON’T HAVE, BUT RATHER IN WHAT YOU CAN FIND SCATTERED ACROSS YOUR IMMEDIATE AREA, AND IT’S ALL THANKS TO THE CARELESSNESS OR RECKLESSNESS OF OTHERS. WHETHER YOU CALL IT TRASH, RUBBISH, JUNK OR GARBAGE, MAN HAS FOR COUNTLESS AGES DISCARDED WHAT HE DOESN’T WANT OR USE ANYMORE. THESE ITEMS HAVE FOUND A FINAL RESTING PLACE AS CLOSE AS YOUR OWN BACKYARD AND AS FAR AS THE MOST REMOTE LOCATIONS ON THE PLANET.

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DISMANTLING THE DERELICT Like an oasis in the middle of a vast desert, an abandoned automobile can be your saving grace when you have no gear and are facing Mother Nature’s wrath. One obvious use of a found vehicle would be for instant shelter, but your protection from the elements would depend upon the amount of time the vehicle has sat abandoned. The longer the time outside, the more holes from rusting would occur, creating more openings for rain, snow or sun to come through. Remember, though, any amount of shelter is better than no shelter. When it’s time to move on, you need to butcher the vehicle. The internal wiring can be used as cordage for future shelter-building endeavors, small-animal snares and securing just about anything. The seats, if still intact, can be stripped of their covers and padding, both useful for ground insulation and a cushiony spot to sit when the hard ground is your only alternative. Any mirrors and reflective headlight casings can be utilized as both signaling devices and possibly fire starters, depending upon the quality found. The tires, too, if removable, can be burned to produce plumes of black smoke, which also aid in signaling for help. If the vehicle is newly abandoned, its battery may still be able to be used to create a spark for fire-creating purposes. These primary items that you can scavenge from an abandoned vehicle are by no means the only items available. With some ingenuity, you can repurpose just about any piece of scrap and use it to survive and thrive when things get bad. —Michael D’Angona

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An old bottle cap may appear to be garbage, but it makes a great signal whistle in a pinch.

Hold the bottle cap with both hands, wedging it between your index finger and thumb. Press your thumb knuckles together until a V-shaped opening is formed. Place your lips to your thumbs and blow into the cap. After some trial and error, you’ll produce a high-pitched blast.

Using these items—sometimes how they were intended, but most likely repurposed into new and innovative tools—you can fulfill your basic survival needs. The key, however, is figuring out just how to turn someone else’s trash into your own life-saving treasures.

TRASH IS EVERYWHERE

The planet Earth is huge. At this size, you would think that trash would be just a speck on an almost endless landscape, but you would be wrong. Trash, in various forms, can be found nearly everywhere across the planet. From the coastline of New England to the tip of South America, from the dense forests of the Pacific Northwest to the thousands of tiny islands that dot the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, rubbish is ubiquitous across the globe. But how does it end up in both your backyard and some of the remotest locations on Earth? The answer is simple: human intervention. Man has for ages discarded trash with the mentality that if it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind. This is a huge problem for scientists today, as Earth’s population continues to grow at an alarming rate. This dark cloud does have a silver lining, however, when it comes to an individual’s personal survival. Components of all that

trash that litters the coastlines, forests, jungles and urban areas throughout the world can become lifesavers with a bit of knowledge and a little practice. As with any survival situation, the Core Four necessities (water, fire, food and shelter) should be the top priority, and when you have very little to no resources, it’s time to look to the trash around you.

URBAN SCAVENGING

The city, naturally, will have innumerable discarded resources to exploit. You could find such invaluable items as sheets of contractor’s plastic, useful for shelter; jars, cans and glass bottles to assist in collecting and purifying water; and discarded, empty lighters that still have a use to create fire. In trash cans, landfills and just along the streets themselves, you’ll find what you need with a little “digging.” For shelter, plastic garbage bags can be positioned above you to keep rain off during a storm and provide you a respite during your normally stressful journey. When traveling, just cut out arm and head holes for a makeshift raincoat. Tying bags around your footwear will also allow your feet to stay dry and avoid trench foot, a condition that causes tissue damage from prolonged exposure to wet conditions.

iStock; Junkyard by Luis Prado from the Noun Project; Michael D’Angona

iStock; Recycling by Alice Design from the Noun Project; Garbage trash by Vinzence Studio from the Noun Project; Paper Stack by Sam Garner from the Noun Project; Water Bottle by ProSymbols from the Noun Project

77 When you need to keep warm, an empty lighter found on the street may do the trick. Although the butane may be gone, the striker is usually found intact and can thus create a spark. With a small pile of fluffed cotton (from scraping your socks or from cotton balls if you’re lucky enough to find a discarded Q-tip or makeup puff), you can produce a flame. Paper, usually blowing about throughout the city, should be gathered and kept in a dry place for future fire-starting needs. Once the flame has grown, wood from pallets found outside businesses make great kindling to make your fire larger and useful for cooking and warmth. Water can be secured using discarded glass jars (clear glass only) or empty water bottles (on average, 1,500 plastic bottles are used in the United States every second). Water, if you’re not sure it’s safe to drink, can be stored in the bottles and left out in the sun for hours (a minimum of six is needed for it to work, but the more sunlight the better) to purify using ultraviolet light, specifically UV-A. Food in the city, I hate to say, can always be found thrown out in most people’s trash. The question that arises is this: Is it safe to eat? That all depends upon the item. Generally speaking, food past its expiration date isn’t always harmful to eat. In fact, there is great mystery surrounding the terms “sell-by date,” “packed-on date,” “best-by date” and of course, “expiration date.” The truth is that dating on food products is not regulated by the FDA but rather by the food industry itself, and it has little to do with food safety. Any canned items, energy bars, crackers, cookies and even dairy products are usually safe to eat past their expiration dates. But most people don’t know this information and throw these items out, and that’s a big plus for you if hunger strikes when under survival or emergency conditions.

REMOTE LOCATIONS

The countryside, coastline or forest, although far less populated than the city or even the suburbs, can still reveal items useful for basic survival needs. Cordage, useful for constructing shelters, catching fish, securing a splint and a plethora of other uses, can usually be found on the shoreline in one form or another. It could come from a tattered fish net, fishing line or lost rope from passing ships and boats. Styrofoam coolers or even just broken pieces of

TA L K I N G TRASH

This shoreline is a treasure trove of survival goodies, from plastic bottles in which you can purify water to large jugs for carrying and storing it afterwards.

Styrofoam can help keep items afloat when in marine environments. Junk and rubbish found along trails in the woods is also fairly plentiful. You can create a signal whistle with a bottle cap by placing your thumbs over the concave portion and blowing, while a discarded tin can would make a great mini stove with small twigs and branches used as fuel. Discarded empty lighters, as mentioned above, can also be found throughout forest trails, carelessly discarded by campers and hikers. Broken glass from bottles can be used as spear tips, makeshift knives or magnifiers to increase your chances of creating a fire from the sun’s rays. In addition, the concave bottom surface of a soda can may also be used to reflect the sun’s energy to create fire. Just be sure to clean the metal surface of dirt and debris and, if possible, shine the surface with any oil-based substance you can find. For signaling purposes, tires of all sizes, in addition to other rubber- and plastic-based products, can be tossed onto your fire to produce black smoke. This can attract overhead planes and helicopters or even rescuers on the ground nearby.

DON’T PASS IT UP—PICK IT UP

One important lesson that should be learned during a survival situation or any emergency is to take advantage of an opportunity when it arises, no matter if it’s useful at that time or not. You may not get a second chance to pick up a lighter, gather some cordage or secure dry tinder material, and that could prove highly disastrous for you in the future. Your objective is to think of the nearly limitless “trashy” resources that others before you left behind as your personal cache of gear—gear that can get you through the day, the week and possibly even months and beyond.

Do you think that there’s no harm in tossing a piece of trash on the ground or throwing an empty bottle or potatochip wrapper out the window of your car? If so, think again! Being just a single person, it’s very difﬁcult for someone to see the full extent of the trash discarded throughout the world. Perhaps these staggering numbers will put your simple act of littering into perspective.

2.12

BILLION tons of waste are trashed every year. This is enough to ﬁll trucks that would circle the globe nearly 24 times. Americans throw away an incredible BILLION

PERCENT of the products people buy become trash within six months. In the United States, people waste

4.5

MILLION tons of ofﬁce paper within one year.

pounds of food a year. Plastic bags are the second most common type of garbage found on beaches, with Americans using on average 500 PLASTIC BAGS per person per year.

Americans consume and toss away 60 MILLION bottles of water daily.

THINK RECYCLING IS THE ANSWER? NOT WITH THESE STATS.

10%

ONLY of solid waste in the United States actually gets recycled. Aluminum cans are recyclable, but if tossed in a landﬁll, they can remain in can form for over 500 YEARS.

Clothing, shoes and textiles, amounting to nearly 11 MILLION TONS, are recyclable, but instead end up IN LANDFILLS.

80%

of items buried in landﬁlls are recyclable.

In America, the most-thrown-away products include diapers, pens, tires and aluminum, and the sad part is that they can all be recycled into other products. —Michael D’Angona

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S U RV I VO R ’S E D G E • JA N UA RY/ F E B R UA R Y 202 0 S U RV I VO R G I R L

NAKED AND AFRAID ’S LAURA ZERRA FINDS HER BLISS IN THE GLOBETROTTING, ADVENTURING LIFE

BY MICHAEL D’ANGONA

REALWORLDSURVIVOR.COM

Courtesy of Laura Zerra

Campfire by Linseed Studio from the Noun Project

aura Zerra doesn’t know the meaning of taking it easy. This contestant from the Discovery television show Naked and Afraid keeps her usually barefoot pedal to the metal as she crisscrosses the globe in search of action, adventure and the opportunity to forge her very own knife creations. From a very early age, Laura didn’t follow the traditional path of a young girl. She spent her playtime exploring her surrounding outdoor environment, stalking wildlife through the woods and absorbing everything Mother Nature had to offer. Through high school and later during her college years, Laura dug deeper into the many facets of the natural world. From ethnobiology to bow-building to obtaining skins and hides from highway roadkill, this young and talented outdoorswoman gathered her skills through real-life “hands-on” experiences. After that, her career as an adventurer skyrocketed as she obtained an internship with the Buffalo Field Campaign. Soon after, she found herself in Vermont learning about tanning and meat processing, in Mexico to study jungle survival and in Oregon as a mushroom hunter, as well as a variety of other unique jobs across the nation. In 2013, Laura tested her survival skills in Bocas del Toro, Panama, for the 21-day challenge on Naked and Afraid. She followed that up with an all-star 21-day challenge in the Peruvian Amazon and finally a 40-day “XL”

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All knives start as a raw piece of metal until transformed into a polished, sharp knife.

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Courtesy of Laura Zerra

S U RV I VO R ’S E D G E • JA N UA RY/ F E B R UA R Y 202 0 S U RV I VO R G I R L

survival challenge in the Colombian savanna—and she “killed it” every time! Today, Laura doesn’t stop. From hunting to skinning to survival to creating knives and even authoring a book, this relentless absorber of nearly everything outdoors continues with an all-out thirst to try new things and tackle whatever stands in her way. Luckily for us, she slowed down just enough to give us the scoop on many of her adventures in the past and those in the foreseeable future. SURVIVOR’S EDGE (SE): You appear quite at home in the wild outdoors. Was this love of nature in you from a young age or was it something you pursued on your own as you grew up?

LAURA ZERRA: I’ve been drawn to wild places for as long as I can remember. I’ve always felt more at home in the wilderness than anywhere else, and it’s always been a much greater challenge for me to feel comfortable in an urban environment than a wild one. SE: Adventuring throughout the country and even the world takes a lot of time and preparation. Do you ever feel that you’re missing out on the more conventional way of living that most people pursue?

Courtesy of Laura Zerra

LZ: Adventure is my way of life and not just a hobby. For sure, I’m having a very different life experience than most people. It’s easy to romanticize the nomadic lifestyle, but it isn’t for everyone. There are sacrifices I have to make for it, but for me, it’s all worth it.

“I GOT A PHONE CALL LATE ONE NIGHT, AND A FEW SHORT MONTHS LATER, I WAS NAKED ON A DESERTED ISLAND WITH A STRANGER.”

WHO YOU GONNA CALL? SE: How did you first hear about the Discovery television show Naked and Afraid, and why did you decide to try and earn a spot as one of its survivalists?

LZ: I was first contacted for Naked and Afraid when the show was just a concept. The casting producer was calling around to different survival schools, and my name came up a few times. I got a phone call late one night, and a few short months later, I was naked on a deserted island with a stranger. SE: During any of your Naked and Afraid challenges, did you ever think to yourself, “Why am I here? Should I tap out?”

LZ: I’ve never had that thought. I think I’m too stubborn (or maybe too stupid!) to have any “quit” in me. When I commit to something mentally, I’m in 100 percent. I’d die before I tapped willingly. It sounds cliché, but I really mean it; I’ve come close a few times on adventures now. SE: You’re seen as a tough-as-nails woman and you seldom back down. Is there something that just freaks you out that you try to avoid as best you can?

LAURA ZERRA!

Books are good and internet videos are helpful, but a one-on-one session with Laura Zerra answering your survival and outdoor questions is downright incredible. This service, provided by Laura herself, gives the average Joe access to the amazing information and life experiences that she’s acquired throughout her lifetime. From survival to hunting to skinning, knifemaking and much more, all facets of her nomadic lifestyle are open to your curiosity, so ask away! There are times when you may need the real scoop on a subject that other sources of information just can’t provide. Laura will give you the full truth on the topic, and the information you receive may become invaluable when a survival scenario or outdoor emergency hits you head-on. Use your own phone or Skype for real-time interaction with one of the most intense outdoor adventurers alive today. Head to laurazerra.com for more details or follow her on Instagram: @ LauraZerra. —Michael D’Angona

Laura has no problem securing dinner in nearly any environment.

LZ: I don’t have any “normal” fears; spiders and snakes are two of my all-time favorite creatures, I love tiny spaces and public speaking and heights don’t bother me. But I’m absolutely terrified of vomit. It’s like all my fear is hyperfocused on this one odd thing. I haven’t puked since I was 5 years old, and I hate being around it. Weird, but I’ve never been in the “normal” range, so I just go with it. SE: What would your fans and followers find incredibly surprising about you?

LZ: I think most of my followers have come to learn that nothing about me should surprise them! It’s always about the new and different and extreme; I like to be unpredictable—to myself as well as anyone else. That’s what keeps it fun! SE: How did your interest in metalworking come about?

LZ: I really want to learn and do everything—work with all kinds of materials: wood, bone, stone and metal. From being a farrier, learning blacksmithing and knifemaking was a natural progression.

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S U RV I VO R ’S E D G E • JA N UA RY/ F E B R UA R Y 202 0 S U RV I VO R G I R L

SE: Did your love of knives bring you into the blacksmithing world, or vice versa?

LZ: I first started blacksmithing while working as a farrier. I wanted to learn how to take care of horses’ feet so I could pack horses while hunting in remote areas. Banging around with metal all day and loving knives, making sharp, pointy objects was a pretty natural progression from there. SE: Within the realm of blacksmithing, who do you consider, through either working with them or word of mouth, are the masters of their field?

LZ: Mark Hopper from GoatnHammer forge is a legend. His mastery and passion for the craft, as well as his ability to communicate and teach, really sets him apart in my eyes, because being able to do both is unique. I absolutely love visiting the shop and learning from him and Jessica Collins; I have a lot to learn. SE: When forging a knife, what characteristics do you feel must be present in every creation?

LZ: I’m personally a big fan of wellbalanced, full-tang knives, and I’m a sucker for a small, comfortable handle. But honestly, I try to stay away from absolutes. I love trying new things in my life, and knifemaking is no exception. I’m always into trying something different, because even if it doesn’t work out, I always learn something from it. SE: Do you have a favorite carry-everywhere knife either because of sentimental reasons or because it’s just damn cool and highly effective?

LZ: Right now, I have a Southern Grind Bad Monkey in my pocket, but it’s always changing. Dressing up? I’m going to have a pretty little Damascus number in my pocket. Going for a long drive with the potential to process roadkill? I’ll have Ken Onion’s Homefront rocking. I’ll never have enough knives, and I like excuses to carry them all at different points.

Laura is all smiles while on a deserted island during her first challenge on Naked and Afraid.

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LZ: I try to keep my knife for cutting, splitting, batoning—knife things. You wouldn’t see me strapping my knife to a stick to try to make a spear or anything crazy; as my most valuable survival tool, I’m protective of it out there, and you won’t find me doing anything risky

Courtesy of Discovery Channel

SE: Besides cutting, the major function of a knife, what other uses do you find for this versatile tool when out in the field?

“CAN I SURVIVE WITHOUT STEEL? SURE. BUT IT’S A H E L L OF A LOT EASIER WHEN YOU HAVE IT!” where it would get damaged or lost. SE: How important is it for a knife to be one of the two items that a team could bring on a Naked and Afraid challenge?

LZ: It’s essential. Steel changes everything. Finding the right materials to make effective stone tools is a challenge, and then you must use them in different ways than you would steel. Steel changed the course of human history because of how effective, durable and versatile it makes tools, and there’s no better way to appreciate that fact than to try to survive without it. Can I survive without steel? Sure. But it’s a hell of a lot easier when you have it! SE: Do you have any plans to massproduce a “Laura Zerra Original” knife or even just to make some limited editions for sale?

SE: Do you ever see yourself slowing down from being a globetrotting adventurer and living a more conventional life?

No. I can’t imagine slowing down, ever. I have too much to see, to do and to learn and no matter how long I live, life will be much too short. SE: Your book, A Modern Guide to Knifemaking: Step-by-Step Instruction for Forging Your Own Knife from Expert Bladesmiths, Including Making Your Own Handle, Sheath and Sharpening, was just released last year. How did that opportunity come about?

I was first contacted by Jonathan Simcosky, acquiring editor for Quarry Books, after I did an NPR interview. He asked me if I’d ever thought about writing a book, which has always been one of my dreams. We tossed around a few ideas and finally landed on knifemaking. I didn’t grow up blacksmithing or metalworking in any way, and I’m still fresh enough in the knifemaking world that I understand what it’s like to be an absolute beginner. I wanted to write the book I wish I’d had when I first started and give someone with no experience at all in the shop a place to start. It’s been an amazing experience, from figuring out how to break things down and write the book to now finally getting to see pictures from people who have made their first knife after reading my book. It’s been very humbling.

SIMPLY THE BEST Ballistic “Best Of The Year” Awards Issue

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LZ: I’d love to. I’ve learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t from all my time in the field, and even though what works best for each person is a personal thing, I’d love to share my version of a great field knife and make it available to people if they’re interested. I just need to slow down long enough to make it happen; that seems to be the hardest part of my life these days!

›››› Order your print

Courtesy of Laura Zerra

SE: Let’s say we’re able to see 10 to 15 years into the future. Where would we find Laura Zerra, and what would she be up to?

The bar always gets higher, so the adventures have to get crazier and more extreme. You’d never be able to predict it—I sure can’t predict it, and that’s the fun part.

Laura always finds herself in some of the most unique and interesting workshops across the country.

or digital copy of Ballistic Best (Dec. 19/Jan. 20 issue) at OutdoorGroupStore.com

SALT IT

S U RV I VO R ’S E D G E JA N UA R Y/ F E B R UA R Y 2 02 0

USE THIS ANCIENT PRESERVATION TECHNIQUE TO KEEP YOUR FISH FROM SPOILING

It’s one of those dog days of summer. Sweat drips from my brow as I thread a final trout onto my fish stringer. It’s been a limit out day. The other fish had been gutted, tied to the base of some aquatic vegetation and submerged in the stream to keep cool. But in the short hike back to my truck, flies swarm their flesh. One of the greatest banes of fish meat is that it can spoil quickly, so I hurry out of the water and fling open my truck door. A blast of insulated heat rushes from the cab, and I notice that the ice in my water bottle had melted. There’s no overpriced cooler with state-of-the-art insulation in my back seat, but I do have four boxes of salt. I dump some salt in a bucket, lay the gutted trout in one by one, fill their gut cavities with it and, once they’re packed in tight, throw more salt on top. It doesn’t matter how hot it gets now, because when coolers fail and ice melts, you can keep fish fresh through the ancient technique of salt preservation. » REALWORLDSURVIVOR.COM

iStock

By Michael Adams; Photos by Morgan Catherine

Fish by Laymik from the Noun Project

WILDERNESS

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S U RV I VO R ’S E D G E • JA N UA RY/ F E B R UA R Y 20 20 WILDERNESS: FOOD PREP

A properly salted ﬁsh will end up stiff and ﬁrm. This is a result of moisture being drawn from the fish and into the salt, the same process that prevents it from spoiling.

Rinsing the fish helps remove any excess salt on the fish. Make sure to rinse all surfaces including the gut cavity.

HISTORIC PRACTICE Salt curing is one of the most-utilized methods of ancient food preservation, in the ranks alongside smoking and canning. Ancient Egyptians depended on salt

“SALTING FISH FOR A COUPLE BUCKS BEATS SPENDING A COUPLE HUNDRED ON AN OVERPRICED COOLER.” REALWORLDSURVIVOR.COM

from the Nile to preserve red meat, vegetables and fish. In later times, American pioneers employed the tactic on their voyages west. Mountain men would meet and trade (and party and fight) at annual gatherings known as rendezvous. Before they left, they made sure to purchase heaps of salt to cure hides and preserve meats. Even Lewis and Clark employed “saltmakers” to dry hides and cure wild game meat. Their mutual dependence on salt was no coincidence. Freezing food was impossible in warm climates, and modern refrigeration didn’t become commonplace until the early 20th century. And while both refrigeration and freezing delay bacterial growth on meat, salt inhibits it. If left alone, bacteria will multiply and begin consuming the meat, which leads to rot and spoil. Salt, however, draws water from both the

meat and the bacteria living on it, killing the bacteria and preserving the food. In cool, dry conditions, small salted fish can hold up to a year.

HOW TO SALT FISH Fish guts contain an enzyme that begins breaking down the body immediately after death. As the body decays, it creates an ideal habitat for bacterial growth. After catching your fish, dispatch it, remove the guts, and rinse off any blood. You can use short-term salting as a substitution for refrigeration. Blanket the bottom of a cooler or bucket with an inch-thick layer of medium-grain salt. If you have fillets, lay them in side by side without touching. The same goes for whole gutted fish—just be sure to fill their abdominal cavities with salt as well. Cover the

fish in another layer of salt. Make sure to coat all surfaces. Lay in more fish if you have them, and continue this process until all of your fish are neatly stacked in intermittent layers of salt. Before you cook the fish, give the meat a freshwater bath for up to eight hours. Fresh water draws some of the impregnated salt from the meat, making it more palatable. After that, dry the meat, and it’s ready for cooking. Alternatively, you can salt cure the fish so that it holds up to a year. This can be done in place of freezing. Perform the same steps as above. After some time, especially with a lot of fish, a brine will form at the bottom of your container. It will smell like the sea, and you want the fish submerged in that brine. Place weights on the top layer of your salted fish to hold them down. Add more salt as needed to

Submerging the ﬁsh in water will have the opposite osmotic effect as placing it in salt. Instead of pulling liquid from the ﬁsh, you’re rehydrating it. In the process, you make it taste less salty and more palatable.

Smoking, another form of ancient food preservation, is a great way to prepare salted ﬁsh for the table.

keep the brine as saturated as possible. Without the maximum concentration of salt in the brine, you run the risk of spoil. Keep the container uncovered and let the meat sit for two to three weeks. When it turns translucent and firm, remove it from the salt and give it a bath in fresh water overnight. Place the meat on a grate over a container to catch excess liquids. Keep this in the refrigerator for two days. If you live in a dry climate, you can skip the fridge and let the fish dry outside on a rack. Whether for short-term preservation or long-term curing, there should never be any foul odors coming from your salting container. If done right, the vat should maintain a briny smell, and anything off indicates decomposition. Check for that often. In the case of the latter, you didn’t add enough salt. I remove my trout after

Salted, smoked trout makes for a great meal. These trout ended up as part of a smoked, salted trout ﬁsh dip.

three days, and they’re dry to the touch, only slightly pliable and crusted in a fine coating of salt. I give them a quick rinse and an eighthour bath in fresh water, dry them out and throw them in the smoker. Not only do they taste better than if they were frozen and thawed, but they also carry the added flavor of self-reliance. Salting fish for a couple bucks beats spending a couple hundred on an overpriced cooler. And when you engage in a survival tactic that helped shape the course of human history, it makes the fish that much tastier.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mike Adams is a hunter, angler and conservationist hailing from southern New Jersey.

“SALT…DRAWS WATER FROM BOTH THE MEAT AND THE BACTERIA LIVING ON IT, KILLING THE BACTERIA AND PRESERVING THE FOOD.” REALWORLDSURVIVOR.COM

MAKE IT ULTRALIGHT

S U RV I VO R ’S E D G E JA N UA R Y/ F E B R UA R Y 2 02 0

WHAT THE SURVIVALIST CAN LEARN FROM THE ULTRALIGHT BACKPACKING COMMUNITY

By Kevin Estela

If given the capability to hike farther faster and with less fatigue on the trails, I’m going to venture to say that nine out of 10 readers would readily accept. This improvement can be earned through dedicated training, or it can be quickly had by selecting less burdensome equipment. The concept of ultralight gear is one often associated with granola-eating, Birkenstock-wearing, progressive-Seattle-type hikers, but in reality, it’s a decision-making process applicable to all backgrounds and outdoor pursuits. I recently applied the ultralight philosophy to a threeday pack commonly associated with bugging out and emergency prep, and here’s what I found. » REALWORLDSURVIVOR.COM

backpacker by Gan Khoon Lay from the Noun Project

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S U RV I VO R ’S E D G E • JA N UA RY/ F E B R UA R Y 20 20 W I L D E R N E S S : G E A R TO G O

DO-IT-ALL POSSIBLES POUCH CONTAINER: Kifaru XL Pullout pouch with 5-inch-by4-inch aLoksak pouches FIRE: BIC lighter, ferro rod, small candle tin, tinder tabs Water: Aquamira 2-part drop treatment with Platypus 32-ounce container FLASHLIGHT: Streamlight Protac 1L-1AA, spare battery Shelter: AMK heatsheet, disposable poncho CORDAGE: 25 feet of paracord, Atwood micro cord, artificial sinew thread, Kevlar cord KNIVES: R&N Blades Helium, Swiss Army Classic Repair/Utility: Sewing needles, glue stick, small cable ties SIGNALING: Acme Tornado whistle, surveyor’s tape, mirror NAVIGATION: Suunto M-3 compass, field notes pad, pencil FIRST-AID: Assorted bandages, triple antibiotic ointment, miscellaneous pills TRAPPING/FISHING/ SNARING: Micro fishing kit, snare wire MORALE: Tweezers, comb, ear plugs, coffee, reminder photos of worth

The author hiking Mt. Lafayette with an ultralight backpack.

MESS KIT At some point, the human body needs to refuel. The average person eats three square meals a day and needs fluids to wash it all down. On the trail, the ultralight food of choice is dehydrated or freeze-dried meals with little moisture content. The more moisture, the more weight. To reconstitute these foods and to treat suspect water, a stove is necessary. Since stoves run off of various fuel sources including canisters and alcohol, the optimal stove would have the lightest-weight fuel possible. This is where the Bushbuddy stove comes into play. Rather than carrying fuel, you can harvest it from dead and downed wood. This stove fits nicely inside the Toaks 1,100-milliliter pot that features a bail handle.

Instead of carrying a large cooking pot better suited for a group, this pot and stove combination works well for one or two people. Many ultralight hikers explain the weight of their kit excluding water. Since a gallon weighs 8 pounds, give or take a few ounces, water can quickly weigh you down. Your water is heavy, but your bottles don’t have to be. An ultralight option for carrying water into the backcountry are quality disposable bottles purchased at convenience stores. This also saves the traveler space in their bag as a good container can be sourced locally. A word of caution: Disposable bottles are not as durable as stainless steel, titanium or Lexan bottles. In terms of food, dried or freeze-dried options are the most logical choices for ultralight packing. Both have excess moisture removed from

backpacker by Turkkub from the Noun Project

A possibles pouch has traditionally contained the gear needed to address backcountry issues. The contents of a possibles pouch can address fire making, cordage, water purification and other common needs the backpacker may have. So, I wanted to create a lightweight possibles pouch that could be carried easily and used frequently to replace larger items that occupy more space and add more weight. Additionally, I wanted the contents to be easily identified and waterproofed should I decide to toss the possibles pouch into a canoe or kayak or in case it gets drenched in the rain. Here’s what I came up with. Starting with an extralarge Kifaru Pullout pouch as the main container, I filled it with aLoksak pouches, which are the most durable transparent waterproof bags I’ve found. Individual pouches of assorted sizes were used to separate gear into categories. Here’s how it breaks down. —Kevin Estela

The R&N Blades Helium and Swiss Army Knife Classic are two featherweight knives for the ultralight hiker.

Silnylon tarps can be used instead of tents, and your hiking pole can double as the support for your shelter instead of carrying additional poles.

The Swiss Army Knife saw is small but mighty. It’s an excellent ultralight blade for your personal knife needs. Until you can see in the dark, carry a ﬂashlight like the Sureﬁre Titan AAA, Streamlight Protac USB or the Petzl e+LITE.

A standard BIC lighter provides 1,000 one-second ﬁres. As a backup, the author carries an Army-model ﬁresteel.

them to reduce the weight. These options will require water to reconstitute them, but the tradeoff is worth it. If boiling water isn’t an option, fat-dense foods like nuts, nut butters, oily proteins and stable cheeses make sense for packing the most calories into each snack or meal.

SHELTER/ SLEEPING SETUP Browse photos of ultralight camping and you will find minimalist setups lacking the comfort of a traditional tent or hammock. Ultralight shelter gear should never sacrifice safety for weight. The reality of ultralight camping is seasonal and situational. It’s far easier to go light in warmer and fairer weather than in frigid or rainy weather. You should always exercise good judgement and set your ultralight goals

to the side if carrying more equipment will give you the margin of safety you need. When conditions are right and when ultralight gear is the best choice to support the mission, your shelter and sleep setup can afford you a fair amount of comfort in the backcountry. Starting with protection from moisture on the ground, a simple sheet of Tyvek house wrapping is lightweight, durable and water resistant. It makes an excellent base to lay your sleeping pad upon, but make sure to weigh down the corners with rocks to prevent it from flapping in the night. Tyvek will protect you from the moisture on the ground, but it won’t insulate you. This is where a standard closed-cell foam pad comes into play. Additional warmth comes from a backpacking quilt that saves weight and space over a traditional sleeping bag. The insulation

found on the underside of a sleeping bag is crushed when it’s slept on, offering little to no warmth to the user. Quilts drape over the body and warm the top and sides, leaving the bottom warmth to the sleeping pad. Protection from the elements comes in the form of an ultralight silnylon tarp. Used in conjunction with a trekking pole, the tarp can be configured in a variety of ways to counter the elements. A simple lean-to design can fit a couple hikers easily, and an emergency blanket used with some binder clips can help close off the shelter and reflect the heat back to the occupants.

TOOLS While many backpackers who embrace the ultralight method are content to carry a diminutive Swiss Army Knife Classic, I believe that

you cannot compromise on the knife you carry. Instead of the key-chain-sized knife, carry the Farmer with a thicker blade, saw, can opener and awl. Ideally, you’ll also be able to carry a lightweight skeletonized knife with a fixed blade and full tang. That knife can perform medium-duty tasks that are not appropriate for a folding blade. A quality flashlight is an item you should never leave home without. If given the option of choosing a handheld or a headlamp, I’d take the headlamp. Some flashlights have clips that allow the user to attach the light to the brim of a baseball cap. This will save the user the bulk of a strap and will still provide the convenience of a handheld light. Keep your flashlight choice consistent with the ultralight philosophy and select one that uses AAA batteries or

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S U RV I VO R ’S E D G E • JA N UA RY/ F E B R UA R Y 20 20 W I L D E R N E S S : G E A R TO G O

THE MORALE POUCH You’ve likely seen morale patches decorating packs or hats. These Velcro accessories carry everything from American-ﬂag symbolism to catchy phrases to company logos. Morale is something often missing in emergency and survival situations when everything is stacked against you. For this reason, the morale pouch was developed by Estela Wilderness Education. Similar to the medicine bag carried by indigenous people of the Americas, the morale pouch contains items that one would consider sacred or important to a person’s sense of being. A positive mental attitude can be helped along by some creature comforts. If life is all about the little things, a few positive little things can help the survivor a great deal. These items are lightweight and yet have a heavy impact on a bad situation. Each is proven from experience and worth considering for your kit. These are some suggestions for building your own morale pouch, and there’s room to spare.

FOAM EARPLUGS: Usually worn in hunting camp around snoring buddies or used as emergency ﬁshing ﬂoats, these can also be given to someone who can’t sleep. COMB: Combing your hair (or what you have left of it) can help you feel more human after washing it in a creek. Cleanliness goes a long way. COFFEE: A cup of coffee can give you a much-needed break from your situation. Caffeine can also give you a boost of energy. SALT/PEPPER: Wildcaught protein is delicious, but something not easily replicated is seasoning. Salt and pepper go a long way, and simple packets can be tucked into empty spaces. SOAP: Clean has a smell, and scent is closely tied to memory. Being able to wash up and wash off will affect your mindset. PHOTOS FROM HOME: These will help you remember your worth. Don’t forget who you are and who is waiting for you. Remember what’s at stake. —Kevin Estela

rechargeable USB power. The final lighting choice, ultimately, will be yours. Other items that are commonly categorized as the ubiquitous “10 essentials” will fall into place. Fire starters can include a BIC lighter capable of 1,000 one-second fires along with a backup ferro rod and tinder du jour. Cordage can be selected based on space and weight as well. Kevlar cord, tarred decoy line, jute twine and micro cord all take up less space than traditionally carried 550 paracord. To meet your specific needs, you must ask, “How strong does cordage really need to be?” Additionally, signaling equipment can be pared down to smaller sizes and

weights. In fact, the sighting mirror of a good baseplate compass can be utilized instead of a dedicated mirror, and a compact/pealess whistle can be attached to the lanyard.

SAFETY/HEALTH/ HYGIENE There’s no secret that the term “roughing it” has been used to describe time spent in the great outdoors. Certainly, there’s a different expectation of “clean” when you’re far from running water. You would think that the ultralight outdoorspeople would have to sacrifice some of their comfort for lighter weight, but with some very marginal addi-

The Heavy Cover titanium canteen and a disposable bottle of water make excellent ultralight hydration options.

Storage bags by Becris from the Noun Project

tions to the pack, significant levels of comfort can be added. Everyone has a different standard for creature comforts and luxury. For some, an ultralight plastic comb, a pair of quality tweezers and a toothbrush with toothpaste dots (drops of toothpaste dried between wax paper) or baking soda is all they need to feel human after humping a pack for miles. Others will want foot powder to dry off their sweaty feet, a pack of Wet Ones to get the funk out of places where it gathers on a human or just a small bar of soap and a section of pack towel to allow for a “bird bath.” I believe that this section of kit is often overlooked, yet it does an incredible job at

boosting morale. Earplugs weigh next to nothing and can help you get a good night’s sleep when your backcountry companion is a snorer. The earplugs can be used for emergency fishing floats, too. Even though you’re pursuing an ultralight experience, you shouldn’t leave your tourniquet and trauma gear at home. A combat application tourniquet weighs only a few ounces, and hemostatic gauze and pressure bandages are equally light. The same goes for your basic boo-boo kit. Band-Aids are featherweight, and single-use packets of triple antibiotic ointment, medication, moleskin, tweezers and gauze won’t weigh you down and should be packed, too.

CLOTHING One of the more costly investments in going ultralight is clothing. Despite the sticker shock you may experience, clothing choices will have a profound effect on your morale and wellbeing. High-tech synthetic insulative layers, ultralight water-resistant shells and merino-wool base layers are worth their weight in gold. Having a spare fleece hat to change into at night or when your primary hat gets sweaty will help you maintain your core temperature. Quality boots are essential, and their weight can be overlooked when you’re trying them on in a store. Think of boots like ankle weights—the heavier they are, the harder

they’ll be to move as the miles tack on. Keep in mind that you need not bring an entire change of clothes in your kit and that “dirty” is a relative term used to describe worn clothes. Are your clothes dirty after an hour? A day? A week? Ultralight planning and packing is a constant work in progress. Each time you venture outdoors, take note of what you used, what you could go without and what has a lightweight alternative. As you socialize in ultralight circles, you’ll hear from others about their solutions to cutting pounds and ounces. Just keep a realistic expectation of safety and security when making decisions on what gear can stay and what can go.

The Suunto M-3 compass is an excellent option for navigation. Larger mirrored compasses serve double duty for emergency signaling purposes.

Leave your fuel at home. The Bushbuddy stove uses twigs as its source of fuel. It nests easily inside of a 1,100-milliliter Toaks bail-handled pot.

Paracord weight adds up. Instead of packing extra bulk, look into micro cord, braided Kevlar kite string and artiﬁcial sinew thread.

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LOOK, LISTEN & LEARN

KEEPING YOUR EYES, EARS AND MIND OPEN WILL ENHANCE Y O U R S U R V I VA L A B I L I T Y

A Native elder once told me that “Nobody knows everything, but everybody knows something.” This statement is one that I’ll keep with me always. Over the years, I have learned the lesson of keeping my ears and eyes open and my mouth shut. Sometimes our own worst enemy is our tendency to run our mouths and shut off all of our other senses. There are many things that we can’t learn from books and articles. These resources are great places to start, but there’s nothing that replaces ﬁrsthand experience. That experience » REALWORLDSURVIVOR.COM

Christopher Nyerges

By Dana Benner

S U RV I VO R â&#x20AC;&#x2122;S E D G E JA N UA R Y/ F E B R UA RY 2020

Making fire with sticks by Gan Khoon Lay from the Noun Project

WILDERNESS

Christopher Nyerges teaching his numerous skills.

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Applying the lessons learned, I found this trout hot spot in Vermont.

Follow the birds and you will ﬁnd food—in this case, on a saguaro cactus.

The late Jack Hanley who taught me more than he’ll ever know.

includes your own and the experiences of those who have “been there, done that.” As I feed my family with what I harvest from the wild (by hunting, fishing and foraging), it pays to listen to the sage advice of others. We all make mistakes, but that’s part of learning. If you listen to the old-timers, often you can avoid the same old mistakes; other lessons you may need to learn the hard way. The thing about listen-

Christopher Nyerges with a student. Smart people ﬁnd those who know more than they do and learn.

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ing is that it doesn’t work if you’re talking.

PEOPLE & THEIR SURROUNDINGS Many of the skills and much of the knowledge I have today I’ve learned from others. From this special hole that holds the largest trout to that age-old deer yard, someone has been there before and holds that valuable information. Plenty of people out there know a great deal more than I do, and there are those who have different opinions than I do regarding certain issues. By listening to those opinions, whether I initially agree with them or not, I’ve learned that in some cases my way of doing things isn’t the most effective method. Listening and keeping your mind open to other ideas may just make your job, whatever it is, a great deal easier. Sometimes, it’s not just people that you need to listen to—sometimes it’s the environment you find yourself in that will tell you all you need to know. The

environment will convey a great deal of information if you’re wise enough to look and listen. Over the years, I’ve found myself trekking in territory ranging from the tundra of Alaska to the desert Southwest, and from coastal Maine to tropical Florida. Every place taught me something new; every environment is different, even if the species living there are the same as in other areas. There’s different food and different behavior displayed by the animals.

LESSONS FROM THE NORTH While in Alaska, I found myself traveling along the Alaska Highway from Anchorage to Fairbanks. As the endless miles passed by, I noticed some Native women gathering berries out on the flat expanses. I stopped and made my way to the women with the hopes of them explaining to me what they were doing. Knowing that Native people don’t often trust outsiders, I was fully expecting to be asked to

leave. As I approached, one woman pointed me towards the location of an elder. The woman whose skin was aged by the conditions of the Arctic but whose eyes held years of wisdom turned to me. With all due respect, I asked her to teach me about what they were doing. What I got was a lesson that you will never find in a book. Not only did she teach me about the berries they were picking, but she also taught me about the caribou and the fox, the moose and the bear. When it came to bears, she explained to me how to watch for them and what to do if I should encounter one. None of the women wore “bear bells” or carried bear spray; those were handed out by the Department of Fish and Game and were for the tourists. What she taught me in our short lesson were the skills and knowledge that had been passed down by the elders for thousands of years. Above all, she taught me about living with the world around me, not against it. Understanding and learning from the environment will

Christopher Nyerges; Kevin Estela

Kevin Estela teaching how to make a net, an important skill to have.

S U RV I VO R ’S E D G E • JA N UA R Y/ F E B R UA RY 2020 W I L D E R N E S S : N AT I V E K N OW L E D G E

Kevin Estela teaching primitive ﬁre-making skills, a valuable lesson we all should learn.

BUT IF YOU DO WANT TO READ… While nothing beats personal experience, there are some books written that really will help you along the path of learning. —Dana Benner

101 SKILLS YOU NEED TO SURVIVE IN THE WOODS

allow you to survive. If you fight against it, you’ll likely die much sooner.

books by ani from the Noun Project; Kevin Estela

THE WISDOM OF NATURE While spending time in the Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona, I let the environment show me where water was located. I watched the animals and I paid attention to the plants, neither of which would survive long without water. Even in the desert “wasteland,” you can find water if you keep your head and learn to read the environment. Moving to the high desert region of northern Arizona, I did the same thing, taking those lessons learned and finding water. In the high desert, you must pay attention to the vegetation. Willows and cottonwoods are both water-loving plants. If you find them, then you’ll find water. And where you find water, you will find food. I knew all of this not because I’m some sort of expert but because I paid attention and listened to the lessons that Nature was

willing to teach me. How about medicinal and poisonous plants? Sometimes they’re the same thing. While my mother was a healer, natural healing, like modern medicine, in nothing to mess with. It’s just as easy to overdose on natural medicine as it is with pharmaceuticals. My mother taught me a great deal, but this is not the place to share that knowledge. That being said, I will pass on one extremely valuable piece of advice: The remedy for most poisonous plants is another plant that’s growing nearby. Books and articles spend a great deal of time telling us what will kill us, but they give us very little information about what will heal us. Pay attention to the world around you and the people who are willing to teach you the lessons you need to stay alive. Listening is the key. Living as we do in the 21st century takes great personal effort to constantly learn new skills and gather knowledge, whether it’s identifying plants that could possibly kill you or those that could save your life,

finding water in a desert wasteland or food in a tropical swamp. Learning how to live—not just survive—means keeping your eyes and ears open. It means being an active part of the world you find yourself in, keeping an open mind and realizing that there’s more than just one way of doing things, and paying attention to the lessons that are presented to you by both human and natural teachers.

BY KEVIN ESTELA This book, written by my friend and fellow writer Kevin Estela, is a must-have in any library. As the subtitle, The Most Effective Wilderness Know-How on Fire-Making, Knife Work, Navigation, Shelter, Food and More, suggests, everything from harvesting food to tying knots is covered.

FORAGING WILD EDIBLE PLANTS OF NORTH AMERICA BY CHRISTOPHER NYERGES Once again, I turn to a friend, Christopher Nyerges, whom I consider to be one of the best in the survival game. It’s important to know what you can eat and what you should stay away from, and that’s covered here. While this is not an exhaustive reference, it’s a great place to start.

MEDICINAL AND OTHER USES OF NORTH AMERICAN PLANTS

“LISTENING AND KEEPING YOUR MIND OPEN TO OTHER IDEAS MAY JUST MAKE YOUR JOB, WHATEVER IT IS, A GREAT DEAL EASIER.”

BY CHARLOTTE ERICHSEN-BROWN Charlotte Erichsen-Brown has put together a book on the medicinal uses of the plants found in North American. Taking her information from both the written and oral histories of the Native American people, this book is used a great deal in my household.

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S U RV I VO R ’S E D G E • JA N UA RY/ F E B R UA R Y 202 0 D I S E AS E C O N T R O L

CODENAME:

LLIAMS BY JEFF WI

. O R E Z T N E I T THERE IS A PA

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IS H W O N K R E V E N ILL W E G R A L T A D L R LY N THE WO O L ’L E W . E T A F TS OR U O B A E R E H W , S E E C N NAM E U Q E S N O C THE D N A T S R E D N U O T HAT COME T N O I T A T S A V E D THE Y B E C N E T S I X E A S ’S E H OF HI E B Y A M . E AK FOLLOWS IN HIS W OF A N I A R T S D E T A T U G N I K R VICTIM OF A M U L A Z N E U L NF LESSER-KNOWN I N A C I R F A E T O M E R OF A S R E T A W K C A B E A N I R IN TH Y T R A M A ’S E HE B Y A M R O , E G A L L VI N A N I P U D E L O H L G N I T I TERRORIST CEL A W E U G A R P ALLEY SHANTY IN D E Z I S E H T N Y S Y L AD N. O I T TO UNLEASH A DE A L U P O P G N I NOW K N U N A N O E S A E DIS

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Biohazard by Zach Bogart from the Noun Project

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Many will fall ill. Hospitals will flood with the diseased. Caregivers will shirk their duties in fear of contracting it. Economies will collapse. Society will suffer. Many will die. It has all happened before and, if you believe Microsoft founder Bill Gates, it is all about to happen again. Bill Gates knows a thing or two about viruses. Since 1986 and the introduction of the Brain virus by Basit and Amjad Farooq Alvi in Pakistan, Gate’s company (and an entire industry) has waged war against threats like ExeBug, Invol, Starship, WinVer and other computer viruses designed for theft, manipulation and destruction on a digital scale. And now, 33 years later, Gates has focused his attentions on another kind of virus that might have the potential to kill untold millions of people. Its codename is Disease X.

Following the discovery of the tobacco mosaic virus in 1892 and the virus responsible for foot-and-mouth disease in 1898, the first “filterable agent” to be discovered in humans was the yellow fever virus in 1901. There are 219 virus species that are known to be able to infect humans, and three to four new species are still being discovered every year. However, through research and extrapolation, scientists have estimated that there are potentially 750,000 unknown viruses that have ability to infect humans, which means that medical science knows nothing about 99.9 percent of the potential pandemic threats to the planet.

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Disease X is the chilling name given to the very serious threat that these unknown viruses pose to humans. Disease X is just one pathogen on a short list of pathogens deemed a top priority for potential outbreak by the World Health Organization (WHO). Alongside known killers like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERSCoV), Lassa fever and Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), Disease X represents, according to the WHO, “the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease.” Each year, with guidance from experts in all fields of scientific study, the WHO updates the list of which pathogens pose the most threat of causing the next global pandemic. What is most terrifying about Disease X is that scientists and researchers have no idea what Disease X can do, because they don’t know what Disease X is.

Enter Bill Gates, computer mogul turned philanthropist and founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a philanthropic organization designed to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty around the world. The billionaire warned that the U.S. government is falling short in preparing the nation and the world for the “significant probability of a large and lethal modern-day pan-

demic occurring in our lifetimes.” While speaking at the Massachusetts Medical Society and the New England Journal of Medicine a couple of years ago, Gates began sounding the alarm bells about a potential new virus that could wipe out millions in a matter of only six months. Gates claims that the world (and the United States in particular) is falling behind in pandemic preparedness. The Institute for Disease Modeling showed how deadly a new virus could prove to be when introduced to an unprepared populace, but that’s far from the only source warning of such a possibility. Oxford’s Global Priorities Project released a report in 2016 showing that a natural pandemic, along with nuclear war, are the highest risks facing civilization right now. Since the release of these reports and models, Gates has repeatedly warned that a pandemic is the greatest immediate threat to humanity. Experts say that the risk is high because new pathogens are constantly emerging and because the world is so interconnected.

Many experts agree that the United States remains underprepared for a pandemic or a bioterrorism threat. The government’s sprawling bureaucracy, they say, is not nimble enough to deal with mutations that suddenly turn an influenza virus into a particularly virulent strain, as was the case when the 1918 influenza killed between 50 and 100 million people worldwide. Even an especially harsh seasonal flu was enough to overwhelm some hospitals, forcing them to pitch tents outside emergency rooms to cope with the onslaught of sick patients. As seen in recent epidemics such as the Ebola virus outbreak in 2014, the Zika virus outbreak in 2007 and the monkeypox outbreak in 2003, the world isn’t ready to fully prevent or contain a pandemic. “We’ve invested a huge amount in nuclear deterrents,” Gates added. “But we’ve actually invested very little in a system to stop an epidemic. We’re not ready for the next epidemic.” Although scientific and technological advances in the development of vaccines, drugs and diagnostics could revolutionize preparation for and treatment of infectious diseases, those actions aren’t given high priority by governments around the globe. Founded in 2016, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations was founded to create new vaccines for emerging infectious

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101 diseases, and marking the 100th anniversary of the Great Influenza, the Gates Foundation (along with Google’s Larry Page) formed the Grand Challenge to encourage research and development of a universal influenza vaccine. “So, we need to invest in other approaches,” Gates said in a recent speech, “like antiviral drugs and antibody therapies that can be stockpiled or rapidly manufactured to stop the spread of pandemic diseases or treat people who have been exposed.” No other country in the world, however, has the depth of scientific or technical expertise that the United States possesses, drawing on the resources of institutions such as the National Institute of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, as well as the Defense Department’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. But even the best tools in the world won’t be sufficient in the face of a pandemic if the United States doesn’t have a strategy to harness and coordinate resources at home and help to lead an effective global preparedness and response system.

Frankly, nothing. Since nobody has any idea what Disease X is likely to be, how deadly it will become or how it will affect the population as a whole, preparing for something of this magnitude is an overwhelming proposition. That doesn’t mean you can’t keep yourself safe from any number of known diseases that Disease X will likely mimic. There are important ways for individuals to prepare for a pandemic. According to the Emergency Preparedness Center, an online resource focused on practical solutions post-disaster, the best way to survive a pandemic is to avoid getting sick—which means avoiding sick people. This may sound obvious, but preparation for “avoiding people and society” requires forethought, and it’s important to develop a comprehensive plan—focusing on both skills and gear—that’s appropriate for you and your family. Here are some tools to get started.

If the pandemic is prolonged, which is a strong possibility (remember the 1918 flu), it’s a good idea to plan for societal shutdown. Sick people aren’t going to

be at work, and those who aren’t sick may be at home caring for ill family members. Many businesses may close. It’s important that you and your family are able to live comfortably in your home so that you can implement your own form of social distancing. Recommendations include the following: IDEALLY, choose to live in a less populated or rural area. INSTALL alternative power sources in your home, such as solar panels and shingles. STORE several battery-operated lanterns. CONSIDER having a propane heater (and tank) on site. STORE a radio with extra batteries in order to listen to news updates. DON’T FORGET entertainment. If you’re stuck inside your home for a long time, you’ll want things to do. Collect books, games, craft projects and other activities you and your family enjoy. Especially with children, it’ll be important to make sure there’s plenty to do.

includes basic supplies for cuts, bruises and minor injuries.

Since a flu pandemic is one of the greatest threats, take steps to avoid illness. Build up a supply of over-thecounter medications like ibuprofen, acetaminophen and cough suppressants. Stock up on energy drinks for rehydration and replacing lost electrolytes. Keep a supply of rubbing alcohol, disposable tissues and a thermometer. If you’re planning to travel (especially abroad), first track flu trends at CDC. gov/flu/weekly/index.htm.

If grocery stores shut down, or if the water supply becomes contaminated, you’ll want to make sure you have sustenance. Approach food stockpiling little by little until you have about a month’s worth of food stored. Each time you go to the grocery store, buy a few extra items—preferably things you are already used to eating. Store these items in your pantry. If you have children, engage them as you choose what to buy. Plant a garden. Even small plots produce a significant amount of food. If you live in a place that doesn’t have a year-round growing season, learn how to can fruits and vegetables and then add them to your stockpile for the winter. Store water in your pantry, fridge and freezer. Also, make sure you have a reliable method for sterilizing tap water if this becomes necessary.

In the case of a pandemic, hospitals will be overloaded, and you’ll want to steer clear of them in order to avoid exposure. Plan in advance for what you might need. Make sure you have a current medical history on each family member. Keep extra medications on hand for family members who suffer from chronic conditions. Don’t forget important toiletries like contact lens solution, toilet paper and paper towels. Make sure you have a first-aid kit that

Diseases can be scary and taking a look at them up close can make it worse. How can microscopic viruses and bacteria cause such destruction of human life? This is a small sample of what’s lurking out there.

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SURVIVE WITH YOUR

K E E P I N G B O T H Y O U R B L A D E S A N D Y O U R S K I L L S S H A R P W I L L E N S U R E B E T T E R S U C C E S S I N T H E F I E L D B YJ O S H U A S WA N A G O N

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PROPER PLANNING PREVENTS PISS POOR PERFORMANCE. WE HEAR THAT ALL THE TIME, ESPECIALLY WHEN IT COMES TO FIREARMS USE. BUT WHAT ABOUT KNIFE USE? MANY OF US CARRY KNIVES EVERY DAY, EVERYWHERE WE GO, AND WE USE THEM REGULARLY. KNIFE USE IS JUST LIKE ANY OTHER SKILL: IT REQUIRES PRACTICE AND CONSISTENCY. IF YOU TAKE AN UNSKILLED CAMPER, GIVE THEM A BACKPACK FULL OF THE BEST GEAR AND SEND THEM INTO THE WOODS ALONE, THE ODDS OF THEM BEING SUCCESSFUL ARE SLIM. HOWEVER, IF YOU TAKE A SKILLED WILDERNESS SURVIVALIST AND SEND THEM INTO THOSE SAME WOODS WITH VERY MINIMAL GEAR, THEY WILL MOST LIKELY BE ABLE TO THRIVE.

The Mic S was able to make a serviceable feather stick but would not be my first choice.

The same is true with knife skills. You can have the best knife in the world, but if you don’t know how to use it, it won’t serve you very well. There are things that practice will help you to understand better about your knife, such as the capabilities of the steel type and the edge geometry and how that affects everything you do with your knife. Here are some ideas for you to practice, anytime and anywhere, to help hone your skills and keep them sharp, as well as some routines to build so your knife itself maintains its strength and integrity. TRY STICK

Conceived by Mors Kochanski, the try stick is a stick—roughly an inch to an inch and a half in diameter (but you can use whatever diameter you’d like) and typically a couple feet long (but again, you can make it however long you’d like)—intended for practicing various bushcraft knife skills. Down the length of the try stick, practice carving different variations of hooks, thinning pockets, notches, latches, planes, splits, holes, bark strippers, etc. When you get really good, you can even carve a whistle. I recommend Mors’ book Bushcraft: Outdoor Skills and Wilderness Survival for more on the try stick and other great bushcraft techniques. The Mic S really excelled at smaller whittling chores and is perfect for the detailed work around camp.

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FEATHER STICK

A feather stick is a stick roughly an inch in diameter that’s split in half with fine curls of wood carved at the edges of the split side. Feather sticks make good tinder—when you get the curls thin enough—and can even be lit with just a ferro rod or other spark-throwing device, even when the wood is freshly harvested from a living tree. Another great thing about feather sticks is that they help teach you about your edge geometry and give you a good platform to practice keeping your knife at proper angles while getting the most out of your knife’s edge. BATONING

Although it’s a hotly debated topic, batoning has its place in bushcrafting, and knowing how to do it properly, as well as practicing it, is important. Batoning is simply placing your knife edge-down onto the end of a piece of wood and holding it with one hand while the other hand uses another piece of wood to strike the tip of the knife and force it down into the wood, causing it to split. This is useful for creating kindling for fire or thin, flat pieces of wood for different projects around camp, like seats, tables and so forth. Proper batoning is not only good for splitting wood, but it’s also useful in carving when you need to cut crossgrain notches. The principle is exactly the same.

105 WHITTLING

Whittling is an important skill when it comes to knife use because it often requires a bit of finesse. I think it’s important to note that many people think of whittling as sitting around carving small sculptures, and this can tend to cause trepidation in some, because maybe they don’t have the artistic flare to create a masterpiece. But don’t worry; there are many different things that you can whittle that will provide the same level of practice while also being useful. Some things to start out with include a small hook, a frog gig with barbs, tent stakes (I never carry tent stakes when backpacking) or a spoon and bowl. The possibilities are limitless. Just think about some of the items you tend to use a lot when camping and ask yourself if it’s something that could be made from nature. If you carry a knife on a regular basis, it’s important that you practice your skills and become very comfortable with it. But more than that, the practice itself can be a lot of fun. There was a time when people would sit out on their porches and whittle the day away, and there’s no reason that isn’t still a great use of a lazy day. KEEP YOUR KNIFE HEALTHY

The knife is one of the most important tools mankind has developed over the course of our existence. But, like anything, these tools are not built to last forever—no matter how well made they are—and they require maintenance and care to keep them working for the long haul. Most knife companies have customer service departments that are designed with the explicit purpose of helping you care for your knife. Whether it needs re-sharpening, is no longer functioning properly (in the case of a folder) or just needs a bit of a tune-up, check the manufacturer’s policies and see if the company offers maintenance services. Many companies, such as Spyderco, have no charge for repairs, and your only cost is shipping the knife to the headquarters. However, some companies do have a small fee for maintenance, but this can sometimes be worth spending. During a recent visit to Spyderco, I had the opportunity to see some of the knives that came in for repair or warranty work, and I was surprised at the condition some of them were in. Not all

DOUBLE DUTY If you’ve been around knives at all, you’ve heard of the Tracker, designed by Tom Brown Jr. and made famous in the movie The Hunted. The Tracker design was first introduced as an all-purpose survival knife over 20 years ago and has perhaps one of the most distinct profiles in modern knife history. The many curves and nightmare grinds on the Tracker were all designed with intent, each serving a different function in the field. There have been some really great iterations of the Tracker design over the years, and the recent offering by Wenger Blades easily hobnobs with the best of them. Having had the pleasure of testing a couple different knives by Dave Wenger of Wenger Blades, the Tracker is just as impressive as any of his other offerings.

SOLID DESIGN The Tracker design combines multiple blade styles and a few little additional touches to provide many uses in one knife. Weighing in at 1 pound and 1.6 ounces, the 12.38-inch Tracker is no lightweight. But that weight combined with the deep forward belly converts to excellent chopping power. The 7.25-inch blade begins with a flat drawstyle blade for the first 2.5 inches before moving to a small hook for finer draw-type work and finishes with a deep belly for skinning and hacking/chopping. The Nitro-V stainless steel combined with Wenger’s excellent heat treat was incredibly durable and held an amazing edge through the hardest tests. The nightmare grinds present on the Tracker are very clean and provide both a hollow grind (at the drawknife portion of the blade) for finer slicing chores and a convex grind (at the belly) for robust chopping tasks. The Tracker is available with a few different handle styles, but the version I received for testing has the jute-epoxy overwrap on black Micarta scales, which I found to provide excellent grip and retention. One difference between the original Tracker and the Wenger version is the lack of saw teeth on the spine. I personally prefer this because I’ve never been a big fan of saws on the spine of a blade. In place of the saw teeth is a very nicely rounded spine, which not only makes it more aesthetically pleasing but also offers a more comfortable grip while drawing the blade. The leather sheath from Sagewood Gear is as tough and well-made as the Tracker itself and allows for the belt loop to be removed and replaced with another carry method if so desired.

limbing it (the process of using quick chops to remove limbs from a fallen tree). The Tracker sliced very cleanly through everything up to 2 inches in diameter with no issue. So, I moved on to test its chopping power by hacking off the 4-inch diameter end of the tree. All cuts were very clean, and the excellent balance of the Tracker gave me great control and precision for such a large, heavy chopper. Next, to continue testing its chopping power, I started hacking apart a heavy-duty pallet. However, before I began chopping, I noticed some very substantial staples in the pallet and used the tip to pry out each staple, all of which were embedded approximately an inch into the dense wood. Once the staples were out, I got to work and converted the pallet to firewood. To test the draw-knife section of the Tracker, I took a small limb, split it and got to work on a feather stick. I can say that I have made better feather sticks, but for a knife of this size, weight and geometry, it did just fine, and I was able to produce a workable feather stick. Finally, to check the heat treat, I took several hard strikes at the corner of an ammo can. Other than some slight dulling (which will be easy to hone right up), one very small deformation to the edge (almost undetectable without studying the edge) and some marring to the finish, the edge held up very well and is still serviceable.

A N E D G E T H AT WO N ’ T Q U I T As with any review of a knife like the Tracker, the question always burns, “Is it the one knife to rule them all?” I’m never one to make a claim that any knife can replace all of your knives, so I guess the short answer is no. However, I do ﬁnd it to be a capable knife that can achieve a lot of different types of tasks and do them well. But I do still believe that any time you’re carrying a knife this size, you should also carry a smaller companion blade. The question that I can answer with an unequivocal “Yes” is this: “Did Wenger Blades get this knife right?” From the subtle changes of the design to the amazing heat treat, Dave Wenger did the Tracker a great service. If you’re in the market for a large chopper that won’t let you down when you need it most, the Tracker just might be for you. With many different uses and an edge that just won’t quit, you can’t go wrong with the Wenger Blades Tracker. MSRP: $750. (wengerblades.com) —Joshua Swanagon

SOLID PERFORMANCE A design like the Tracker just begs to be tested—and tested hard. My ﬁrst point of order was to do a little ﬁeld work, so I found a downed tree and began

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knives will be repairable, but you won’t know if you don’t try. Some companies will replace the knife if it’s unrepairable, but this is typically only if it’s a malfunction of the knife itself. However, if you prefer to do your own maintenance, there are a lot of great solutions. Just be aware that taking your knife apart could—and most likely will—void your warranty. So, be sure that you know what you’re doing before disassembling your knife. HOME SHARPENING

I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but it bears repeating: A dull knife is a dangerous knife. Although it may seem like a sharp knife would be more dangerous because it can cut deeper, a dull knife tends to require more pressure during use and can slip, risking any body part that’s in its way. In contrast, a sharp knife (with proper control) will easily cut its intended item with little pressure and far less risk of slipping or over-cutting. There are many great sharpening products out there, from desktop stones and small portable stones to full-sharpening solutions. Do some research to find what’s best for you. Work Sharp has many different levels of sharpening solutions, from pull-through sharpeners and manual sharpening systems to electric sharpeners. Over the years, Work Sharp has collaborated with one of the top knifemakers and designers in the world, Ken Onion, to develop some of the best sharpening systems on the market. An excellent sharpening system to consider is the Work Sharp Ken Onion Edition electric Knife and Tool Sharpener with the blade-grinding attachment. Although it takes some practice to become proficient with it, this system offers you a high level of control over your angles and gives your edge a nice convex grind (due to the belt system).

While limbing this fallen tree, I was able to get some very clean cuts.

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There are a lot of different items you can make around camp that will help you practice your knife skills.

107 THE POWER OF THREE FINGERS Sharpening systems come in many forms, from manual to electric.

Once you get the hang of it, it will serve you well for years to come and is what I used to re-sharpen the Wenger Blades Tracker after all of my testing. One note of caution: With any kind of electric sharpening system like this, make sure that you do not let the knife get hot or it can harm the heat treat. KEEP IT TIGHT, CLEAN & OILED

In the case of pocketknives especially, things can tend to start getting loose, and they spend a lot of time in the pocket picking up lint and dirt. It’s important that you check your knife every once in a while to ensure that all screws are tight and that it’s clean, because you don’t want lint and dirt getting into the opening mechanism and seizing it up or even slowing it down. When it comes to keeping everything tight, there are different pocket-sized tools that you can purchase with varying bit sizes that would fit screws that are typical in knife construction. Both Work Sharp and CRKT have great tools that are designed specifically for this. Occasionally, just take your tool and give each screw on your knife (this includes fixed-blade handle scales) a little turn to make sure that they’re still tight. If you have a screw that continuously loosens, take it out and apply some Loctite Threadlocker and screw it back in. For cleaning, I recommend the gas duster cans used for cleaning computer components. It’s just a condensed blast of air that can get into small spaces. If your knife is a high-carbon steel, it runs a much greater risk of rusting, so it’s recommended that you keep the edge and any other exposed steel oiled properly to prevent rusting. A clean, sharp and well-maintained knife can serve you for many years to come and will also give you confidence in your blade no matter the use.

The wait is over. Although Victorinox has offered a line of kitchen cutlery for some time, the Outdoor Master series is the company’s first foray into the fixed sports/outdoors knife market. With the same great quality and design we’ve all come to love about the Victorinox Swiss Army knife, the Outdoor Master Mic series brings the power of its solid reputation to a new market. I’m a proponent of carrying a smaller companion blade any time you carry a large knife—like the Wenger Tracker—into the field. When Victorinox introduced its new line of fixed blades and I saw the Outdoor Master Mic S, I knew it was the right knife to accompany the Wenger Tracker for this issue of Survivor’s Edge.

S M A L L K N I F E , B I G P OW E R The Outdoor Master Mic S is a three-finger knife (meaning that the handle is only long enough to be gripped by three fingers), which puts it into the small camp chores category, right where it shines. The 2.9-inch 1.4116 stainless steel blade features a drop point with a beautiful Scandi grind. Because it’s a true Scandi grind, the Mic S is not intended for hard use due to the very fine and often brittle edge. However, the Mic S does have a slight secondary bevel, although it’s still too fine for any serious hard use. The 6.1-inch overall length features a 3.25-inch handle with black and blue Micarta handle scales and red liners that really pop, exemplifying the Swiss Army knife look. At the butt of the handle is a small lanyard hole just big enough for a single strand of 550 paracord lanyard. With its smaller size, a lanyard would be useful in drawing the knife and for helping to secure the grip in the hand. The grip is contoured beautifully to the hand and remained very comfortable during use. The slight drop of the handle at the ricasso creates enough of a guard to help prevent the hand from sliding down the knife during stabbing or drilling tasks. The subtle swedge at the tip helps with the penetration by knocking down the shoulder of the Scandi grind at the spine, slightly reducing the amount of drag on entry. The Mic S comes with a heavy-duty pancake-style Kydex sheath with a small lanyard for affixing the knife to your gear

or to a belt loop for pocket carry. However, replacing the short lanyard with a longer piece would give you the option to carry the Mic S as a neck knife.

A T R U E C O M PA N I O N Because it’s a companion knife, I didn’t do anything crazy with the Mic S, but I did perform tests that I felt a companion knife should be able to perform. Starting out with a feather stick, I batoned a 2-inch round of maple, splitting it to prepare the edges necessary to create a good feather stick. I then gripped the knife as firmly as I could with a three-finger knife and started my curls. I found that with the smaller handle I had a hard time getting the kind of grip I needed to control the knife well enough for this type of task. Since it didn’t fill my palm, the knife wanted to move around a bit, so I found myself placing my thumb on the spine to lock the knife in place. Although it’s not ideal to place your thumb on the spine when creating feather sticks for control reasons, I was able to get a serviceable feather stick this way, but it wouldn’t be my go-to. Next, to test the control during some fine whittling, I whittled out a small hook with a notch for the line. This was the type of task that made the Mic S really stand out. I was able to get some really great control when getting into some of the smaller areas and was able to prevent any kind of overcuts that could’ve ruined the project and required me to start over. To test the control during medium-sized bushcrafting projects, as well as the comfort during extended use, I moved on to a try stick. Because the Mic S is a small knife intended for smaller, quicker projects, I made a smaller try stick but used a larger round of maple. I was able to round one end cleanly and create a wedge on the other end easily. I followed this by finishing with a notch, hook and narrowing channel. The Mic S was very comfortable and handled the try stick with no issues. Finally, I used the little knife to slice up some summer sausage and smoked cheese for a light snack, and it cut everything very cleanly and effortlessly.

S U BT L E L I T T L E S O L D I E R With the introduction of the Outdoor Masters Mic series, including the Mic S and the Mic L (S’s big brother), Victorinox’s ﬁrst foray into ﬁxed sports/outdoors blades is a win. From beautiful ergonomics and design cues to solid construction, I think the Mic series will be the kind of win that just might convince Victorinox to release more entries. Sometimes companion blades are often overlooked for the big, eye-catching choppers, but never underestimate these subtle little soldiers or their importance in your kit. MSRP: $119. (victorinox.com) —Joshua Swanagon

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W I L D E R N E S S :

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SOMEWEAR OUT THERE THE GRID IS AT YOUR FINGERTIPS WITH THIS SATELLITE HOTSPOT BY LAURA LANCASTER

t’s possible that my first satellite messenger was nothing more than 4 extra ounces weighing down my pack. I was out hiking the Pacific Crest Trail at the time, where you’re more likely to see a bear than a bar of cell phone reception, so it seemed prudent to have some way of alerting the wider world if I got into a sticky spot. And my mom liked the idea of getting daily assurances that I was, in fact, OK. The key function of satellite messengers and their lower-tech companions, personal locator beacons (PLBs), is the SOS button. Hitting this emergency button sets a chain of events in motion. First, a ping is sent up to GPS satellites (the same ones that your smartphone uses) to pinpoint your location on the ground. Then, this information, plus your distress signal, is sent to messaging satellites—no cell towers required—where your coordinates continue to ping around to other satellites and towers until the information makes its way to the nearest search-andrescue organization. At least, that’s the idea— it’s not usually possible to test the effectiveness of the SOS feature out in the field without risking evacuation by helicopter. But the messenger I was using at that time could also send a prerecorded message, along with my GPS signal, to friends and family. A changing pattern of flashing lights on its interface indicated that it was looking for satellites, that it had found them and then, finally, that my message had been successfully uploaded to the satellite network. Or so I thought. Despite

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W I L D E R N E S S : hitting the “I’m OK” button dutifully every day before bed, there were a couple of days when my messages didn’t go out, despite the correct pattern of flashing lights appearing each time. Then, after an entire week

B A C K C O U N T R Y of being out of cell phone range, I made it to a working payphone to find my mom close to panic. But it also got me thinking. Just how reliable was our satellite messenger? If something actually went wrong At just 4 ounces, the Somewear hotspot is a lightweight addition to your outdoor kit.

Contact local emergency services directly from the Somewear hotspot via its SOS button.

Outlets are rare in the backcountry. Carry a portable solar-panel charger or battery pack to ensure that your electronics are fully powered.

Somewear’s global hotspot connects you to loved ones no matter how deep in the backcountry you go.

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Hyperlocal weather reports can help users make smarter decisions about whether it’s safe to keep hiking or better to set up camp now.

C O M M S

in the backcountry, could we trust the SOS signal to save our lives? E VO LU T I O N OF THE GRID X Part of the problem was the terrain. The winding trail we were following down and around steep mountainsides and dense forests didn’t offer many unobstructed views of the sky above. That meant that whenever I activated my satellite messenger, the odds of it being in sight of a satellite it was compatible with were far from perfect. But the networks themselves were also limited, and for good reason. It’s expensive to send satellites up into orbit. The U.S. government currently has the most (over 800)—three times that of China and over five times that of Russia. So, it’s no surprise here that the most trusted emergency satellite network is CospasSarsat, a nonprofit collective of over 40 countries, composed of five low-Earthorbiting (LEO) satellites, seven geostationary orbiting (GEO) satellites and 35 medium-altitude-Earth-orbiting (MEO) satellites. Part of why CospasSarsat is considered the most reliable network is that it’s simply been tested more than any other. But there is a downside: Because it’s a nonprofit cooperative, Cospas-Sarsat only supports emergency communications. So, there’s no way to arrange a pickup, confirm a rendezvous or even just ping loved ones to let them know you’re okay. To fill that gap, a number of privately owned networks have sprung up to sup-

port two-way messaging through their own system of satellites. Of these, the two that have emerged as the leaders in backcountry communication are Globalstar (which has 24 satellites) and Iridium. Long known for its twoway messaging through the Garmin inReach, among other devices, the Iridium satellite network recently underwent a massive $3 billion constellation update, called Iridium NEXT. Seventy-five new satellites carrying a new transceiver, the Iridium Certus 9770, were launched into orbit in conjunction with SpaceX. These new satellites and transceivers improved coverage (making it more likely that your device will find a satellite when it sends out a message) by expanding the total active satellite count to 66—enough to cover the entire planet at speeds up to 35 times faster than before. N EX T- G E N BAC KC O U N T RY COMMS X Now, how do we access these networks? The satellite hotspot manufacturer called Somewear has it figured out. I had just pulled out my phone to snap a photo of a potential campsite when I noticed my last message was red instead of blue. Translation: It hadn’t gone through. I hit the refresh button and kept hiking. There was a bit less tree cover now than when I had originally tapped “Send”—maybe that would do it. Ten minutes later, I had an answer back from my husband. Even at the bottom of the river canyon and surrounded

Courtesy Somewear Labs, Inc.; Adam Tycaster

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by the dense foliage of Olympic National Park, my phone, connected to the Somewear hotspot via Bluetooth, had little trouble finding a satellite, sending a message and then receiving a response. Knowing how counterintuitive the user interfaces for satellite messengers and GPS units can be, I had set aside an entire evening the day the Somewear hotspot arrived by mail to download the app and get set up online. This turned out to be overkill: I was ready to start messaging a mere 10 minutes after I had opened the box. The companion app on my smartphone (unlike other satellite messengers, Somewear does not include a user interface on the hotspot itself) had pulled in all my contacts automatically, so I hit “Connect Hotspot” on my smartphone and sent an experimental message. I got her response five minutes later. Driving out to my backcountry route the next day, I wondered if the Somewear hotspot might be a little too easy to use. Was it going to intrude on my backcountry experience? I think a lot of us are rightly concerned that the natural world is one of the last zones where we can unplug and disconnect from the demands of modern life. Was this the beginning of the end of all that? Not quite. Admittedly, it was a little odd at first to be chatting back and forth with my husband from deep in the woods. But even with its modern, streamlined interface, the Somewear hotspot is still operating off of a satellite network, so you can expect it to take the better part of an hour

WHAT’S NEXT FOR SOMEWEAR? The Iridium network update hasn’t just increased the odds that your satellite messenger will ﬁnd a hotspot; it also has the potential to support a wide array of services that could revolutionize how we communicate in the outdoors: high-quality voice calling, emails, pictures—even internet access. Somewear, in response to user feedback, has already begun

to update its interface to better support backcountry communications, including adding the ability to customize tracking down to 1-minute intervals.

CHARGE UP When the only thing your PLB had to do was send a single SOS signal, you could go years without ever worrying about recharging. But more modern devices

can tear through battery life at an alarming rate if you aren’t paying attention. Hint: Make good use of airplane mode. It’s essential for outdoorsmen and women to pack a lightweight solarpanel setup on longer trips to supplement any devices that need charging, whether it’s a satellite hotspot, smartphone, GPS unit, UV water ﬁlter or headlamp. —Laura Lancaster

NETWORK

MESSAGING CAPABILITY

UP-FRONT COST

MINIMUM ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION COST

SPOT GEN3

Globalstar

One-way

$150

$200

GARMIN INREACH

Iridium

Two-way

$400

$150

ACR RESQLINK

Cospas-Sarsat

SOS only

$300

N/A

SOMEWEAR

Iridium

Two-way

$350

$100

to have the same kind of conversation that you’d type out in five minutes in the frontcountry. When I wasn’t actively using the hotspot, I mostly forgot it was there. This was fortunate, as continuous use of the Somewear network could’ve easily plowed through the battery of both my phone and the hotspot itself. If you want the battery to last through a long weekend, it’s better to send only a message or two per day. Many users will also find that the data plan they select limits the amount of messaging they’re able to do. The ultralight plan, for instance, limits users to 10 texts a month ($100 a year), while the most expensive plan ($50 a month) allows for unlimited texting. All plans include 24/7 SOS monitoring.

MORE THAN M ES SAG ES X Besides two-way messaging, the Somewear hotspot offers two other useful features: weather forecasts and tracking. The weather forecasts are pulled directly from Dark Sky, a startup weather application that provides hyperlocal forecasts using GPS, which is helpful when the nearest town is many miles away. The tracking application provides rudimentary topographic maps that are more advanced than what you’d find on Google Maps but far less advanced than United States Geological Survey topographic maps. I also found that having the tracking turned on depleted the hotspot’s battery faster than when it was off. For now, I’ll stick with the Gaia GPS app on my

smartphone, which provides similar tracking functionality and slightly more sophisticated mapping. And, of course, there’s the SOS button. Besides serving as our interface with the Somewear device, most of us use our phones these days as our cameras, maps and occasionally our flashlights. All of those functions can chew through a battery pretty fast, so the Somewear device’s SOS feature is integrated directly into the hotspot. Once it’s been activated, the app also allows for two-way communication, assuming your phone battery still has a percent or two left in it. This is especially nice if, as I’ve experienced, previous satellite messengers have left you wondering if your signal will get there at all.

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MOSQUITOES, MALARIA & MORTALITY It’s the biggest tiny killer in the history of the world orget what you’ve heard about bear attacks, the ragged jaws of sharks and being ripped to shreds by a pack of ravenous wolves. The biggest danger to people around the world is the lowly mosquito, as it is responsible for killing more people than all the world’s wars throughout history combined. Even today, with advanced medicine, clean sources of water and global awareness of malaria, mosquitoes are accountable for killing 1 to 3 million people and infecting 200 million more each year. According to the World Health Organization, a child dies from malaria every 2 minutes. Living in the United States provides some protection from this global menace, but not complete protection. Our risk level for contracting malaria is low thanks to a 1950’s program called National Malaria Eradication that used DDT pesticide to control the mosquito population. Today, fewer than 2,000 cases are diagnosed in the U.S. each year. However, mosquitoes capable of carrying and transmitting malaria still inhabit most parts of this country. And an influx of malaria-infected persons has produced localized malaria outbreaks in some areas. More importantly, the threat of developing encephalitis from mosquitoes is far greater than the threat of malaria. Various strands of encephalitis, meningitis and other diseases (West Nile virus, dengue fever, Zika virus,

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yellow fever) can develop from the bites of carrier mosquitoes.

THE LOWLY MOSQUITO THERE ARE MORE than 2,500 species of mosquito, and they’re found in every region of the world except Antarctica. Mosquitoes are very good at adapting to new environments and to any mitigation used against them. For example, Aedes aegypti, which transmits yellow fever, Zika and dengue, has adapted well to urban environments: It feeds only on humans and can lay eggs in a wide range of locations. Many mosquito species, including anoph-

eles, which is very common in the U.S., have evolved a resistance against a variety of widely used insecticides and have changed their feeding habits to better align themselves with human activity.

MALARIA DEATHS WORLDWIDE THE MAJORITY OF malaria deaths occur in parts of South America and in Africa, south of the Sahara desert, where malaria is very common. Anyone can contract malaria, but the people most likely to become fatally ill are those with little or no immunity: young children, pregnant women and the elderly. In addition, poor people with little access to health

ILLUSTRATION BY TRIS MAST

care and clean water sources are equally at risk.

OTHER MOSQUITO-BORNE DISEASES IN ADDITION TO malaria, mosquitoes carry the West Nile virus and dengue fever. West Nile is a disease that the insects get from the blood of infected birds. It damages the nervous system of humans and, like malaria, can be very serious in people with weaker immune systems. This virus first came to the United States around 1999 and spread quickly. Mosquitoes also carry dengue fever, which causes a rash and extreme muscle and joint pain. It can be fatal if not treated properly.

PREVENTING MOSQUITO BITES THE BEST STRATEGY to prevent mosquito bites is to avoid mosquitoes. Keep your house secured during the warmer months. Remove all standing water from the vicinity. If you’re particularly susceptible, avoid slow streams, marches and lakes where mosquitoes congregate. Repellents, however, are your first line of defense. Many products on the market provide some degree of protection against bites, but DEET has been the standard by which products are measured. Repellents containing 20 to 30 percent DEET provide protection against mosquitoes that can last several hours. Other active ingredients found in modern repellants, such as picaridin and oil of lemon eucalyptus, provide protection similar to DEET but without the odor and stickiness.

Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a sitting duck

in a gun-free zone Public safety is a critical part of the education campaigns of the Second Amendment Foundation, and with good reason. Without a self-defense option, we are all at greater risk. The facts support our concerns about gun-free zones. The Crime Prevention Research Center &35& UHFHQWO\ Â¿QLVKHG XSGDWLQJ D OLVW RI PDVV SXEOLF VKRRWLQJV ZRUOGZLGH FACT: 2YHU WKH FRXUVH RI \HDUV WR WKH &35& IRXQG DWWDFNV DQG DW OHDVW VKRRWHUV RXWVLGH WKH 8 6 DQG DWWDFNV DQG VKRRWHUV ZLWKLQ WKLV FRXQWU\ 7KH VWXG\ IRXQG WKH 8 6 PDNHV XS SHUFHQW RI WKH PXUGHUV ZRUOGZLGH SHUFHQW RI WKH DWWDFNV DQG OHVV WKDQ percent of the mass public shooters. FACT: 0RVW JXQPHQ DUH VPDUW HQRXJK WR NQRZ WKDW WKH\ FDQ NLOO PRUH SHRSOH LI WKH\ DWWDFN SODFHV ZKHUH YLFWLPV FDQÂ¶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Â¶V WLPH WR JHW ULG RI JXQ IUHH ]RQHV 7KH 8 6 KDV WULHG WKHP IRU PRUH WKDQ \HDUV DQG HYLGHQFH VKRZV WKDW JXQ IUHH ]RQHV DFWXDOO\ LQFUHDVH WKH GDQJHU 1RERG\ ZDQWV WR EH D VLWWLQJ GXFN LQ D PDQLDFÂ¶V VKRRWLQJ JDOOHU\

The Second Amendment Foundation 12500 NE Tenth Place â&#x20AC;¢ Bellevue, WA 98005 â&#x20AC;¢ 425-454-7012 www.saf.org