Fall is Here – Protect yourself from the Cold

By pdpeacock On October 10, 2010 · Add Comment

“In priority order, after shelter and the need to Defend your Body Temperature (italics added), preventing dehydration is the survivor’s next most important necessity” –Peter Kummerfeldt

I read incessantly it seems, and while reading some of Peter’s experienced advice, I came across the above statement. Something about it just fires me up. I think there was a song from long ago while I was still just a pup, that had a line that went, “it’s only words, and words are all I have…” the rest of the song doesn’t fit our subject today, but sometimes words just seem like so much blah, blah, blah, and then there are words that really hit us hard, words that demand action.

I italicized “defend your body temperature” for a reason, I just love that phrase. I imagine a battle or a fight to keep my body warm enough, it’s like, “I’m not gonna take this sitting down.” It’s such an action statement, I can’t get it out of my head. So here I am writing this little blog, not so I can quit thinking about it, but to put the thoughts down that are swirling around in that big cavity that rides on my shoulders.

So often we talk about hypothermia and its deadly effects, we talk of hydration and its contribution to inviting hypothermia. And we talk of shelter and clothing, and staying dry, then there is always fire building in inclement weather. This is all fine and good, but what does it actually do? I attended a sales meeting recently and one of the questions that was asked went something like this. “There are 10 Seagulls on the beach, 8 of them decide to fly away, how many Seagulls are there on the beach now?” The answer is NOT 2. The point being there is a difference between deciding to do something and actually doing it. It was never stated that 8 Seagulls flew away.

OK so now what does all this have to do with Peter’s statement, “the need to defend your body temperature?” I italicized the word defend this time for a reason, to me it implies taking an active stance in staying warm in the cold, and cool in the heat. To me it means that I will fight off excessive cold, by stopping if need be to shelter up, or build a fire. Many times we find ourselves pressing on, thinking if we just keep going we’ll get out of our situation. In so doing often we don’t drink water like we should, which becomes an open invitation to fatigue and hypothermia.

How many times have you been out and you are still a good way off from safety, you feel yourself getting colder and you know you can’t let that keep happening, but you push yourself harder, thinking you will soon be to safety and warmth. That may well happen, but all too often, fatigue begins to set in and the pace slows, decision making gets cloudy, perhaps a stumble or a fall takes place because of all the stress. If injured you are now not only cold, but tired, dehydrated, and disoriented, so what are your chances like now?

So often it’s better to stop and rest, get warm, then if there is time, go on a while longer. If it’s too late in the day, make preparations to bivy for the night, and take a fresh start in the morning, after a good rest, and getting plenty of water in you. It’s easy to see that in this scenerio a stop, or breather would be the best bet. Stay safe don’t try to push yourself beyond your limits, when you do you only move yourself into the danger zone.

Remember, “Defend your body temperature.” Think of it in that way so nothing else takes the priority.

For Wilderness Innovation, Perry Peacock –“Simplifying Survival”

The Doan Magnesium Fire Starter-Now my One and Only

By pdpeacock On September 26, 2010 · 2 Comments

OK, so sure this is controversial, it’s a big decision, you know eliminating all the other fire starters as backups and options. But hey, I need to slim things down a bit, so I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, and I’ve decided to make the leap. Actually it’s not such a big deal really, but it is a change.

The Doan Magnesium Fire Starting Tool has been my weapon of choice since about 1982 when it comes to fire starting. But it’s not like I haven’t used anything else either, I don’t think there is much out there that I do not presently own or have owned in the past. I love to try new things anyway, so I’ve wound up with a cupboard full of devices. I just have always carried the Doan Mag Stick, for years in fact it was part of my EDC (Every Day Carry). I had found a leather knife sheath just the right size for the Mag Bar, so I had it on me whenever I had clothes on.

I was talking the other day to a friend about my impending change to Mag Stick only, and started listing what I had in my small pack. Let’s see, a fire piston, 2 lighters, matches, Blastmatch, Doan Magnesium fire starter, steel wool, flint and steel… Perhaps that’s overdoing it a bit, well, yeah it is, for sure. Over time the stuff just winds up in there, and I don’t take it out. Mostly the other items are in my pack just for some variety in fire starting, it’s fun to try other tools.

What I’m going to do is take all the other devices out of my pack. I think I’ll just use our ORSK Bag to put them all in, then when I want to bring alternate fire starters with me, I can just grab that bag and I’ll have quite a selection, but I won’t be cumbering up my pack with them. By the way the pack I’m talking about goes with me everywhere. It’s a small day pack, equipped to keep me for about a week.

So what’s the risk involved in using only one type of fire starter? With some of the other devices there is a chance of breakage, or needing something different because of conditions. The Doan Mag is virtually unbreakable, water doesn’t hurt it, if you need more ‘umph to start a fire, just scrape an extra amount of shavings, they burn at 5400 ° F – vs- a hot coal at about 800°F.

Most people don’t use a Mag Stick properly and so don’t see how great they are. When just a few shavings are used, although the Mag is still better I contend, it’s little more than lots of the other sticks and rods that just shower hot sparks into your tinder, which is fine unless conditions are tough. If however you take a moment and scrape a quarter size pile of magnesium, which is easy to do with the soft Doan Mag, then send sparks into it, an interesting thing happens, the whole pile becomes a large glowing ember, white hot not just red hot, that can be placed in tinder and easily blown into flame. That large super hot ember makes all the difference, you just don’t get that with anything else.

So anyway that’s it, I’ve made the change, no risk. Now the Doan Magnesium Fire Starting Tool is “my one and only.” Now you ask, what about back-up, so what this Doan Mag stick doesn’t break, what if you lose it? Ah ha, I already thought of that. Since I already have one in my Off-Road Survival Kit, I just throw a second in the bottom of my pack…bing, problem solved!

Oh, one more thing, if you already have a Mag Stick that is not Doan, check out our investigation video, and a previous blog, some brands do not work at all, some others poorly.

Till next time, Perry Peacock, “Simplifying Survival”

Berries – One of the Finest Fall Survival Foods

By pdpeacock On September 16, 2010 · Add Comment

Berries, a survival “FOOD,” are you kidding me?

Wild Cherry (Chokecherry)

Not at all, you see our society, nowadays so civilized, has evolved greatly in the last 150 years. It is common now to think of berries almost like a confection, like candy. We put 1 1/2 cups of sugar in a cup berries for jam, jelly or syrup. I suppose it is candy these days. Pretty good stuff though still, I mean even nutritious.

In the wilds of Canada I have eaten, Saskatoons, Chokecherry or wild cherry, Blueberry, elsewhere I have eaten, Oregon Grape, Wild Grape, Wild Strawberries, Wild Raspberries, Blackberries, Elderberry, Serviceberry (same as Saskatoons outside Canada), Gooseberry, Huckleberry, Currents, and more, well you get it. There is a huge variety of berries available. Some come on only in the fall, others in late spring.

So now what about that claim that berries are food?

Prior to the modern era, berries were often used as a major part of meals. Native Indians gathered berries and dried them for storage. Berries were added to grain flours used for porrage, they were added to stews or mixed with meat and dried as pemmican. The thing about berries, and fruits is that when they are in season, they may be available in mass quantities. They are easily dried for storage. The natives used them as food, should we? Why not?

There are many varieties of berries as noted above, so nutritional values vary between them, but it is safe to list some general nutrients. Most of the berries have some quantity of Vitamin C, some have Vitamin K, and B. Many are high in Iron, Potassium, Calcium. Many of the darker berries are high in various Anti-Oxidants. They are a good source of carbs, and generally some protein, and many trace minerals. For the most part they are pleasant to eat, and when added to a coarse wilderness meal, can really brighten ones spirits.

When berries are in season, be sure to harvest some, eat them now or preserve them for later.

Until next time: Simplifying Survival – Perry Peacock

Serviceberry (Saskatoon)

Using Scenarios to Practice Survival Skills

By pdpeacock On September 3, 2010 · Add Comment

Testing our shelter building skills

There is nothing like real world scenarios to practice and hone survival skills. While it’s great to learn and do in controlled situations around camp or in a survival school atmosphere, at some point it is ideal to run some drills when things are not so pleasant. It’s a lot different starting a fire when everything is good, warm dry weather, little wind, etc; than building a fire when it has already been raining a while and is still raining, or when it’s cold and hands and fingers get stiff.

Some guys in front of Shelter built for rain

Such was the case with our 2010 Wilderness Innovation Summer Rendezvous. Since learning is best after skills that are learned in a comfortable surrounding, are then tested under real conditions, adverse conditions. We thus planned our Rendezvous with a likely scenario in mind. Our goal was shelter building out of native materials, so to enforce this, the idea was that a group of hikers had been up all day on the trail and were starting to return when a sudden mountain storm forced them to seek shelter. Since the group was on a hike, no tents, little food or sleeping gear was carried with them. The only recourse was to build shelter large enough for all to get out of the storm and gain some warmth.

I was both participating in and observing people during our “emergency sheltering situation.” Being all voluntary I was concerned that some may give out and quit, and as the storm developed conditions were not at all pleasant. Persistence was all we had to go on, if some gave up it would mean more difficulty on those remaining, since the task of building shelter had to be completed, in order to have any chance of a safe comfortable night. I observed that everyone kept slogging on, carrying wood, portaging pine boughs, keeping the fire going in the rain, and working on assembling the structure itself.

What was learned?

I am pleased to report that this group of guys would do well in most conditions, they had the drive to keep going even though it was tough at times. Now with this realistic test successfully completed, all can be confident that they could erect a safe suitable shelter, even starting in the rain, and get dry during the night. We learned also that although we can prepare a shelter from natural materials, the cost in energy, time and safety are not worth it when it would be so easy to carry a tarp, even on a hike. We demonstrated our large Personal Survival Tarp, putting it up securely in about 3 minutes. This is versus the shelter we built, taking all personnel available many hours to build, while also getting worn out, wet and cold. It should be noted that a WI FireStarter Kit is nice to have in the pack saving time and energy in fire building. Without our Sven saw we could never have got as much done as we did, in fact we would not have accomplished building the shelter without it. Also learned was the nearly rain proof version of the Pyramid fire that keeps water shedding away from the fire, and keeps the core hot. We also did cord making from bark fibers, gathering edibles and berries. Discussed was mental attitude and the need to have that paradigm shift from “victim” to “survivor.”

Was it fun also?

Getting situated for sleeping, note fire burning all night

All in all we had a great time, and practiced necessary skills, in a real world scenario. After the effort of getting shelter was done we all could relax around the fire, have a little dinner, and joke around a bit. My music teacher used to say “Practice makes perfect, only with perfect practice.” Nature did provide us the climatic conditions for perfect practice, and we are grateful for that.

Watch our video of the event here: Hikers forced to build shelter

Simplifying Survival – until next time Perry Peacock

Personal Survival Tarp

By Beau On August 25, 2010 · Add Comment

In any survival situation one of the key elements to survival is always shelter. There are many options for shelter whether it be a lean-to, debris hut, snow cave, or any natural dwelling that you may come upon in the wilderness, survival depends on shelter. Wilderness Innovation has tested many shelters, including all of the above listed options, and has designed the “Personal Survival Tarp” to sit at the top of the list of options available.

For permanent shelter, you will not be able to beat that of a debris hut or lean-to in which you can continue to build stronger and bigger, however in any mobile survival situation these options are not the most efficient. When you find yourself with limited resources for food and water, the last thing that you want to be doing is burning calories by building a lean-to each night in your search for rescue. For this purpose the Wilderness Innovation Personal Survival Tarp is your best option.

What is the personal survival tarp?

The tarp is made of coated military spec rip-stop which will hold up in the harshest of conditions. The tarp can be pitched in a variety of ways depending on what you are needing in that specific situation. The Personal Survival tarp comes in a bag with MOLLE connections that can strapped to any compatible pack on the market.

It comes with 6 stakes, 100 feet of 550 paracord, shock cord with cord locks, and a stake bag that can be used for many setup options. The complete kit comes with everything that you need to setup in any survival situation, and the shocking part is, it only weighs 2.5 pounds.

Our solution is one that makes it hard to not take with you even for an afternoon hike, because if you found yourself in a situation where you needed shelter, and had to stick out the night, the Personal Survival Tarp would keep you out of the elements that are going to get you in trouble in a hurry.

The Personal Survival Tarp has been tested in all elements, and is a great solution to keep you dry when you need it the most.

To see more on the Wilderness Innovation Personal Survival Tarp Click here

What is the personal survival Tarp?

The Personal Survival Tarp has been tested in all elements, and is a great solution to keep you dry when you need it the most.

Magnesium Fire Starters: Caution some don’t work

By pdpeacock On August 19, 2010 · 1 Comment

Some Magnesium Fire Starters don’t work

I have lit most of my fires over the last 28 years with a magnesium fire starter bar, the same one, never a problem. Hot, cold, damp, dry, calm or storm, always reliable. So naturally a couple years ago as I was outfitting my kids with survival kits, I put a magnesium bar in them. I didn’t give it too much thought, I did not see the same brand as I had been using, but figured no problem, magnesium shavings will catch fire with a spark, what could go wrong? Well I found out. As my kids started messing around with the kits and the Magnesium Fire Starters, I got calls about how they couldn’t get them to work very well. They knew how easily I had always started a fire with mine over the years, and felt maybe there was something they were doing wrong. So I “coached” them, still something was wrong. I was at my son’s place one day and tried with his Magnesium Fire Starter, I was having trouble, it was then that I discovered something was wrong. These Magnesium bars were not the same as I was used to. To say the least I was embarrassed to have given these to my kids for “survival” and they were practically worthless.

I did some testing and some research

My Magnesium Fire Starter that I had used for over 28 years without any problem was made by Doan Manufacturing, made in USA, and was used for decades by the US military. The ones I sent my kids were some generic name, made in China. So I starting checking around, and have bought every brand I can find that is similar in design to the Doan. The Doan became my standard of reference, since I was so familiar with it and it worked so well.

The first thing I did was to use all of them and note the pros and cons of each. There are two issues that seem to be of concern, I mean all there is to this thing is a Magnesium Bar and glued on one edge of that, a Striker Rod, so not a lot of things to go wrong. Problem 1: It became obvious that all magnesium bars are not even made out of the same material. When you think Magnesium Bar you naturally think of a bar of Magnesium, logical right? I’m not sure at this time the content of the bars, as I have not secured someone to analyze them metallurgically, but I can and have analyzed them “real world” and can tell you what works and what doesn’t. Most of the no name and Chinese bars must have filler metals in them along with magnesium, so they can be called magnesium fire starters. Well maybe the the magnesium part, the fire starter part is not true on many of the imports. Problem 2: Many of the import mag bars loose their spark rods and also I saw some problems with the Coghlan’s in this way as well. In looking at them it appears there is not sufficient glue to hold it all together.

5400 degrees as a white flash from the magnesium shavings

I made a jig a device to hold the mag bars and a scraper sled with a carbide blade, a large metal disk that rides on the back of the sled to assure the same pressure when scraping shavings from each mag bar. All of the name brand bars did pretty well in this test, while the generic Chinese bars produced hardly any shavings.

The next test was testing the ability to light up and flame. All the mag bars except the generic Chinese lit up pretty easily, the Doan Mfg bar seemed to glow brighter longer. The Chinese bars would not light at all, I even showered sparks for 15 to 20 seconds with no lighting of the shavings. On a final test I used a butane lighter to try to light the shavings and no luck with the Chinese, while the others lit right up within a second or two.

I tested quite a few Chinese mag bars, mostly generic, no real name, also Coleman, Coghlans, and Doan. If a person owned any but the generic Chinese, they would be safe. I say generic Chinese because Coleman has their mag bars made in China and they work fine. I like to stick to the Doan because that’s who they are, that’s what they make. Theirs have always been the same always worked and been reliable. Some of the name brands have changed manufacturers over the years, so even though a Coleman might be OK now, they may change down the road.

Lesson to learn

You should always test everything in your survival gear, to make sure it works the way you want it to. It would be tragic to get off somewhere in the winter and have to try to start a fire with a mag stick that doesn’t work. I have changed my kits many times over the years due to what I have learned from testing. I spent a lot of hours doing testing on magnesium fire starters and had to pare all of it down to a little over 8 minutes of video, you can watch it here: Magnesium Fire Starter Fraud video

Our FireStarter Kits that we sell on our website use the Doan magnesium bar exclusively.

Until next time Simplifying Survival with Perry Peacock

Shelter: It can Quickly Become a Matter of Life or Death

By pdpeacock On August 4, 2010 · Add Comment

Without Shelter it is easily possible to be on the brink of death in just a few hours.

I have had a career in electronic security during much of my life. At times we have been required to do work in huge commercial freezers. Some of these freezers, particularly in food processing facilities, have an area called “Quick Freeze.” This is where food is frozen very fast. It is cold, but just as important, fans create a lot of airflow which takes the heat out of the foods quickly.

Hypothermia – is the greatest contributor to cause of death in the outdoors in temperate and cold climates

If you have studied survival and emergency situations as I have for most of my life, you know how dangerous hypothermia can be. It reduces our ability to work, clouds our senses, inhibits clear thinking, and is often a precursor to death. Hypothermia is simply a lowering of the body’s core temperature, below the normal 98.6° F. The body does not have much of a temperature range in which it can perform its vital functions, so it must heat, by metabolism, or cool by sweating to stay in that range. Our bodies can typically manage to stay warm enough down to about 60°F or cool enough up to 110°F, although there are personal variations to that. Beyond that range we step into a danger zone, particularly on the cold side. People have died of exposure, which is the journalistic word for hypothermia generally, at temperatures in the 50’s.

Shelter is not just for cold weather In a desert environment shade may be just as essential as any

Personal Survival Tarp on Desert pitched using Walking Stick

protection needed in the cold. We can be in serious trouble if the body is not able to cool itself. Many times just getting out of the direct sun may be all that is needed. Less effort is needed to cool the body, and a considerable savings in water loss due to sweating. Another factor is preventing body injury and deterioration due to sunburn, and hot sandy wind.

A couple of the key dangers in the cool are, wind and rain or snow. Just like in the Quick Freeze, wind will take body heat from you incredibly fast, even in temperatures that may not be all that cold. I have found that even in temperatures below zero, when I can get to a place of perfectly still air, I can enjoy a bit of comfort as a mini warmer environment surrounds my body, but any breeze takes that instantly away. Getting wet is even more dangerous since water conducts heat away from the body 25 times more effectively than air! Getting wet can cut your survival window from days or hours, literally to minutes.

What is the best thing to have for shelter?

Well the best thing you can do for yourself is to be properly clothed, that alone can save you. If you can become like the animals in the wild, and able to simply exist in the elements, that would be the best option. You would not only have safety, but mobility. For most of us our problem comes about when we are not dressed as we should be. It’s too easy many times to dress for current conditions and not allow margin for a change in conditions, that’s how we get caught.

The next best thing to have is a tarp or tent. For survival purposes I like the idea of a tarp. One reason is that it is very flexible in how it can be deployed, it can be flat, a fly, an “A” frame, a Forester, a lean to, a door, a wrap, or a poncho. A tent can only be a tent really. By using a tarp I can easily adapt it to whatever situation I am in, and whatever my environment.

Our Solution

We developed what we call the “Personal Survival Tarp.” From years of experience with tents, natural shelters, tarps, sheets and combinations of these, as well as reading many books featuring both modern methods and old designs, we have designed what we believe is the best solution. It is both light and sturdy, can be pitched in dozens of configurations, comes with plenty of cord, stakes, shock cording, and is very quick to pitch. As noted in the title description, this is a tarp of personal size. We chose 7′ x 7′, which will work very well for most people.

Check out this video to see it in action and many of the dozens of set up styles then check the webpage. Watch this blog as we will also post additional more detailed information, hints, tips, and tricks.

At Wilderness Innovation we are focused on “Simplifying Survival”

Until next time – Perry Peacock

Roping up, is it Safe?

By pdpeacock On July 31, 2010 · Add Comment

I am just concluding my reading of a book that primarily talks about and analyzes why accidents happen to people in the outdoors. So many times we create our own survival situations by the actions we choose to take, the tragedy is that most of the time, we realize the danger we put ourselves into, and go ahead anyway.

One of the stories that is detailed in the book is about a bunch of climbers, mostly well experienced, who make an ascent of Mt Hood in Northern Oregon. The route is not difficult and not particularly dangerous, it is very common and well used. The group makes it to the top and is on the way down. They are all roped together, for safety, with the most experienced climber at the high point on the rope, bringing up the rear and belaying the others, before starting down himself.

As they descend an icefield the top guy pulls his ice ax that was fixing the rope at the top, and starts going down, he slips and falls. Quickly he picks up speed and is unable to self arrest.

Mt Hood Oregon

Now the theory to roping up is if one guy falls, the others can save him; or if one guy slips into a crevasse the others can stop his fall and bring him back. Sounds like a good idea and a great safety measure.

In this instance several people lose their lives and others are injured, some severely. How could this happen? There is a rule, the top guy belays the others, he should be fixed, if he is not, then the second part of the rule, “the top guy cannot fall.”

As Jim fell he began accelerating rapidly on the ice, he was 40 feet apart from the next guy, that means he will fall 8 stories or 80 feet before the next guy can stop him. By this time due to his weight and speed, there was a tremendous amount of energy to deal with. Well the next guy had no chance of stopping him and was injured trying, now 2 guys are careening down the icy slope. In the end no one could stop this group of climbers who were roped together, all sliding quickly down the mountainside, “clotheslining” all other climbing parties below. They all went into a crevasse and were slammed at high speed into its icy wall and each other, breaking bones and tearing ligaments, and worse, killing some.

One experienced climber and rescuer made this statement about people roped together, “A rope without fixed protection is a suicide pact.”

Really the point of this blog, is that we need to think, just because we are doing one thing safely does not mean that there are not other dangers. We must train ourselves to be aware, don’t underestimate threats and danger. When dealing with nature don’t discount the forces of energy, how powerful they can be, and how destructive. This whole accident, the death and injuries was only about 5 seconds, start to end.

The reason I bring this up was the news I got yesterday of the same scenario taking place with experienced climbers on Mt Rainier. Lee Adams a very experienced climber was swept to his death.

Sometimes familiarity breeds accidents as we let our guard down. Experienced climbers are said to be those who have repeatedly cheated death.

Use caution and common sense to avoid creating for ourselves deadly situations.

Until next time – Simplifying Survival, this is Perry Peacock

What’s more important than Survival and 72 hour kits?

By pdpeacock On July 17, 2010 · Add Comment

T – F “A survival kit or bug out bag is arguably the most important piece of your emergency preparation”

OK, so I would like to argue about that statement. In my efforts to stay on top of things and gleen all the new and different ideas I can, I keep Google busy searching for me 24/7, with automated searching. I’m scanning the internet all the time looking for things. The statement at the beginning of this blog came from Ellen B’s blog, which is actually pretty good overall. Her statement more than anything just triggered my mind and I would like to give my thoughts.

I’m all for physical preparation, BOB’s, 72 hours kits, and all the like, but to me your “head” has to be right to really be prepared. You have to have a

Several days of rain - no problem

certain calm about you, a confidence, it’s a MUST. This mental state is what drives you on in the face of changing conditions. As weather worsens for example, rather than giving up or going into hiding, you calmly adjust. Let me illustrate this with a story of a recent campout

We had planned a tent campout with several family members, (tenting is the most civilized thing I do camping). In the days before it was becoming likely that weather would be cool, rainy and windy. Some of the family had questioned cancelling, I urged, “no way” and saying, “this is the ONLY way you learn to deal with this weather.”

Within hours of the camp, the weather really took a turn for the worst, but I urged to stay the coarse. As is often the case the weather moderated somewhat and we were able to get camp set up albeit in the rain.

We had no desire to spend our camp out in tents, so we gathered up whatever tarps we had and configured them to provide space for meals and seating about the fire. I did get a fire going with somewhat green wood, since that was all that was at hand, I spent some time splitting a bunch of it down small so I could get it going good. Before attempting the fire starting I got PLENTY of tinder, kindling, and bulk fire wood together.

After the fire was going well, I went with my folding saw in search of a good supply of wood from standing dead timber if possible. I found large long branch of dead maple, cut it down and into small enough pieces to drag back to camp.

We got dinner started which was mostly cooked on the fire. Before we could get busy eating, the weather changed, heavier rain and some wind driving it at us. I adjusted the tarps to a different angle to shield us and all was well again.

In all we had a great dinner, a really nice sleep, and a very enjoyable several days. It rained pretty much the whole time, but because we made adjustments we were able to keep ourselves comfortable, when it was all over no one had any complaints.

Our Priorities were ordered as follows

Shelter – Tents as usual, and extra tarps and tent preps for the rain
Fire – Got it going before too late, spent extra time preparing-no hurry. Gathered extra wood to be prepared
Food – Once the fire was going we started cooking, while others gathered more wood
Modify Shelter – When conditions changed we altered our shelter

We could have easily cancelled, or packed it in when it got worse, but we would have missed the nice peaceful time we had together. We had the gear we needed, but without the mental state we had, the camp would have disbanded or we would have miserably spent the time holed up in our individual tents.

Experience and a “can do” attitude are more important than gear, since gear can’t do anything on its own, it just sits there. It takes thinking to use it, and to reconfigure it as needed due to changing conditions.

Till next time this is Perry Peacock – Simplifying Survival

Can You Drink Too Much Water?

By pdpeacock On July 14, 2010 · Add Comment

Bottled water has made us water lovers

A Stone to Keep Mouth Moist

Our modern society has seemed to become more obsessed with drinking water all the time. We can’t go anywhere without our bottle of water, even for 30 minutes. Now it’s probably good that we drink water more than we used to. Hopefully we are replacing most of our soft drink intake with good ole water.

Can you drink too much water? Certainly, it’s not so easy to do however. When there is excess water in the system the body starts to flush it right through. It is possible to upset our electrolytes, diluting the solution, this can cause problems for us. Here is what happens if you drink too much water, the kidneys try to remove it, they can remove about 800-1000 ml or about a quart per hour. So that’s a pretty fair amount. If the kidneys are not removing enough water, the blood becomes waterlogged, and as it courses through the body the water enters cells which have higher concentrations of salts, this causes the cells to swell like a balloon. The primary danger in this regard is if the swelling happens in the brain which is encased in the skull and has no room to expand. At the very least too much water can reduce bodily efficiency, cause headaches, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, frequent urination, disorientation, etc. While it is not likely you would die from drinking too much water, temporary impairment is possible.

My grandfather told me of a man out on the desert who after being out in the heat all day, came and gorged himself on cool water, the result, he died. Grandpa always urged moderation, take it easy, go slow.

Here’s the real kicker, it’s called vasopression, an anti-diuretic hormone. When the body is under stress, say as an athlete, marathon runner, or someone in harsh conditions trying to survive, the Hypothalamus produces vasopression, which is secreted into the bloodstream. The effect of vasopression is to cause the kidneys to conserve water. It is a danger reaction in the body of self preservation. It could cause the kidneys to filter out as little as 100 ml of water in a hour, 10% of normal. As a result a person could become overloaded with water, without drinking all that much extra.

The answer is as grandpa said, moderation, don’t guzzle. Drink a little at a time as you feel the need. We just did a video on keeping your mouth moist or hydrated. The reason for this is, if a persons mouth becomes parched and dry, the tendency is to drink water. If the air is dry and hot, in a few minutes the mouth will be dry again and so the desire to drink more water will return quickly. Your body may not really need more water so you could overdo it.

Placing a small pea sized smooth stone or some pleasant leaves in your mouth naturally causes saliva to flow, which keeps the mouth moist, reducing the desire to drink water too often. Watch the video here.

The other issue is that if you happen to be in a survival type situation, obtaining enough water may be difficult, you don’t want to aggravate the problem by drinking too much and urinating it all out, wasting precious water.

Until next time this is Perry Peacock – Simplifying Survival

Fall is Here – Protect yourself from the Cold

The Doan Magnesium Fire Starter-Now my One and Only

Berries – One of the Finest Fall Survival Foods

Using Scenarios to Practice Survival Skills

Personal Survival Tarp

Magnesium Fire Starters: Caution some don’t work

Some Magnesium Fire Starters don’t work

I did some testing and some research

Shelter: It can Quickly Become a Matter of Life or Death

Roping up, is it Safe?

What’s more important than Survival and 72 hour kits?

Can You Drink Too Much Water?

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