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What is your Survivorman story?

sanjuro

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
The thread about Survivorman reminded me of my survivor story:

I did an unsupported off-road tour of the Kokopelli Trail. We cached water and supplies, but that was it.

Like most disaster stories, you can trace my predictament to one thing: I was working too hard and I did not prepare enough supplies. Looking back, I would have had more water containers.

But I did have a gallon container, but it was not armored, and I snagged a tree and it ripped open. I drank and saved as much as I could, but I was down to my camelbak and one bottle, with another day to go.

That night I ate one can of tunafish, drinking every drop left in the can. All the other food I brought required water, which I could not waste.

The next day, I avoided opening my mouth, and I did not speak for about 8 hours. I had to go on one bottle, and I parcelled it out despite 2 3000 foot climbs.

Luckily, I did this trip in October, whether the mountain temps were 70's. If I did this July, I would be dead.

I finally made it to the stream about 20 miles outside of Moab. I drank and drank and drank, and filled every bottle and container I could get.

The lesson I learned is to take time to prepare for a trip like this.
 
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
55,838
21,853
Sleazattle
Had some food ruined in the midlle of a 6 day backpacking trip. Decided to go without lunch for a few days figuring the energy from breakfast and the recovery from dinner was most important. Went slow as not to push myself into sugar burning efforts. Was tough but took more patience than effort.
 
macko

macko

Turbo Monkey
Jul 12, 2002
1,191
0
THE Palouse
Which story do I tell... I suppose we'll go with the most recent.

So in the summer of '05 I was working out in the field (I'm a wildlife biologist) and I was out hiking in central Arizona desert scrubland in the middle of effing nowhere. I'd been hiking for about 5 hours stopping occasionally at random GPS coordinates to run a veg transect. It's well over 100 degrees, I started out with 5 liters of water, and I'm several miles of rough terrain away from my truck. After finishing up with a site I picked my bag up noticing it to be significantly lighter and wetter. I laid the thing down on a prickly pear puncturing my camelbak bladder and losing a good 2 to 2.5 liters. Mistake #1

Well I stil have a good 3 hours of work ahead of me and not wanting to come back out for a second day I continue on my way. Mistake #2

A couple of hours go by and I'm now disoriented. My map was wrong and I was now lost. It's about 3 in the afternoon and I'm low on water. Time goes by, I'm overheating, I'm dehydrated, and I'm lost trying to find my way back. My GPS unit is working, sure, and I'm trying to make a straight path back to the truck but I keep running into impassable canyons.

I got to the point where I was not longer trusting my GPS. I had myself pegged at the wrong location on my map, and I'm in serious trouble mentally (and physically). At one point I decended into a canyon where I miraculously found a small creek I could drink out of.

I eventually found the truck again at about 7pm. I didn't necessarily have to do anything courages to get myself out ... but it's a bit of a survival story none-the-less.
 
BurlyShirley

BurlyShirley

Rex Grossman Will Rise Again
Jul 4, 2002
19,180
17
TN
I once sat through an ENTIRE Screamin' Cheeta Wheelies concert WITHOUT dying.

Beat that!
 
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