by Les Stroud
4. I suspect some fairly nasty chemicals are released when a common water bottle is heated this way, but I would rather take my chances with them than with the parasites.
Filtration without a high-quality, store-bought filter is not as ideal as purification because filtration likely won’t remove harmful microorganisms from the water. What filtration will do is remove larger matter such as dirt and sediment, sticks, leaves, and any bugs or critters living in the water.
The simplest way of filtering or clearing stagnant, foul-smelling water is to place it in a container and let it stand for 12 hours or so. There are several, more active methods of filtering; most involve letting the water flow through layers of different types of material such as pebbles, sand, cloth, and charcoal. You can layer these materials over a receptacle with openings at either end, such as a piece of bamboo or hollow log.
Construct your filter so that the water passes through successively less porous layers of filtering material over a receptacle. A typical filter might begin with pebbles or stones, followed by sand, cloth, and then crushed charcoal (not ash), which is by far the best filtering medium available. As with most filtering systems, the water will become progressively clearer the more you filter it.
Region-Specific Water Considerations
Arid Regions, Deserts, and Canyons
Searching for a primary source of water should be your main goal, but in the world’s drier places there’s less chance of finding one. For this reason, you’re likely limited to creating stills and ground wells to collect water.
A prevailing thought is that your best bet for finding water in arid regions is to look in valley basins or at the bases of sand dunes. But knowledge of your particular locale may tell you something different. When I was in the Kalahari Desert, I learned that the best place to find water was not at the bottom of the sand dunes but rather at the top. The hills there act like wicking agents and actually draw the water from the ground up. So it made more sense for me to look for plants (which had water in their roots) near the tops of the dunes rather than between dunes, where the only thing growing was brittle grass.
Given the sometimes radical temperature variations that can occur in these areas, you also might be lucky enough to find condensation on metal surfaces in the morning. Use a rag to absorb the water, then wring the water out into an appropriate receptacle.
Boreal and Other Temperate Forests
These areas have primary water sources in abundance. Follow game trails to valley bottoms or use topographic indicators to locate streams, rivers, or lakes. Watch out for stagnant and still water, or areas potentially contaminated with animal feces such as those close to beaver dams.
The Arctic and Polar Regions (cold weather season)
Winter is the toughest time to convince people to keep rehydrating. It’s cold—who feels like drinking cold water as well? Yet I have always found that I am in much more need of drinking on winter treks than in tropical locations.
There are a number of reasons for this. Often your exertion level is higher: walking in snowshoes or deep snow takes lots of energy. And when it’s cold, the very dry ambient air sucks the moisture out of you in much the same way that the desert wind does. I eat snow constantly while I work and travel outside in the winter. Clear and regular urination is the reward, indicating to me that I am properly hydrated. Dehydration in cold conditions also hastens chilling, substantially increasing your risk of hypothermia and frostbite.
Luckily, you are surrounded by all the water you need, thought it’s in an altered physical state. Melting it is your goal, but if that is not an option, eat snow and ice, particularly in the morning or while you’re working hard.
Slush is best for melting because it’s mostly water anyway, followed by ice, which is denser than snow, and then snow. If you’re melting snow, pack as much into your pot as possible. Always retain some water in the pot, as it will make your next melting session much easier.
If you’re not lucky enough to have a pot on hand, there are other (though slower) methods. You can improvise a sack from an item of clothing or other fabric. Fill the sack with slush, ice, or snow and suspend it near your fire. Place a receptacle under the sack to catch the drippings.
Another technique is to place ice or packed snow on a rock over a fire. Hold the ice in place with small stones or other heavy objects and tilt the rock slightly to let the melted water run off. Collect the drippings in a receptacle.
It is also possible to spread snow out on a dark sheet (such as a tarp or garbage bag), and let it melt in the sun and then drip into a container or a depression made in the sheet. This requires the right air temperature, however—not too far below freezing—and a spot protected from chilling winds. You can also use a piece of coiled birch bark and small hot stones to melt snow into liquid, or even warm it for drinking.
If you need to collect sea ice, it’s important to know the difference between new sea ice, which is essentially frozen, salty sea water, and old sea ice, which is a remnant of a glacier that has calved off and is therefore fresh water. New ice is milky or gray in color, does not break easily, has sharp edges, and tastes extremely salty. Old ice, on the other hand, is a distinctive blue or black, shatters easily, has rounded corners, and tastes relatively free of salt. You can lick the salty ice once a day, however, to satisfy your body’s need for that nutrient.
On the Sea or Open Water
Having spent a week surviving in a life raft in the Caribbean Ocean, I understand how difficult it can be to obtain fresh water. Yet for all that I experienced during my week adrift, it was nothing compared to the 38 days that Dougal Robertson, his wife, Linda, and their children endured in 1972 when their boat sank after being rammed by a pod of killer whales 200 miles (322 km) from the Galápagos Islands.
The Robertsons used their ingenuity and intense will to live to survive for five and a half weeks on the open sea. They caught rainwater in the canopy of their dinghy. When the water became dirty and contaminated from the paint peeling off their raft canopy, Linda resorted to administering water enemas to her family with a plastic bottle, which allowed them to absorb it without actually ingesting the contaminants.
Rainwater is an important source of water when you’re at sea. Maximize the area in which you’re catching it, and ensure that your catchment system is clean. Wipe off all encrusted salt with sea water just before it rains. Rainwater is relatively clean and safe to drink (though not completely free of pollutants), so it would be a shame to contaminate it by catching it in a dirty receptacle. You can also use rags to collect dew and condensation from your boat.
When you’re on the open sea, you can readily obtain drinking water from salt water by using a store-bought still or, provided you have the materials, to make an above-ground solar still. To do so, follow the instructions earlier in this chapter but use a large receptacle such as a bucket instead of a hole.
Jungles
Procuring water usually is not an issue in the jungle, as these tend to be extremely rainy places. Locating a primary water source should not be a problem, and harvesting rainwater is also an option.
In the Amazon rain forest, I found that the feeder streams to the rivers were better than the rivers themselves, which were subject to huge variations in height, volume, and turbidity. Rivers in these areas can rise by 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.5 m) not long after heavy rainfalls, and turn the color of chocolate milk with all the mud and dirt they’re carrying. Feeder streams are cleaner and less variable.
Plants, particularly water vines, and bamboo, banana, and plantain trees, can also be an excellent source of water.
Coastal Regions
If you’re stuck on a beach and have no primary water source available, you can get a good supply from the ground itself by digging a beach well. Walk well back from the ocean’s edge. When you reach the base of the back of the first dune, begin digging. The water you obtain here should be sufficiently filtered by the sand to desalinate it, especially the top few i
nches.
Should the water still be salty, you can desalinate it yourself, although the process takes a lot of energy. Build a fire and place rocks in it to heat them. Drop the hot rocks in the water still to create steam, and catch the steam in a cloth held over the hole. The desalinated water can then be wrung from the cloth.
Here’s an easier way to find fresh water on the coast: when the tide is out, look for small rivulets making their way to the sea. These may indicate a freshwater stream just above the low-tide line.
Swamps
Though most people find it hard to believe, I don’t have a problem drinking unpurified swamp water in North America. It’s not as clean and refreshing as water from a mountain stream, but it will keep you alive, and that, after all, is the goal. Clearly, filtering and purifying is recommended, but if you don’t have that capability, as I’ve said before, better to drink than dehydrate.
The obvious issue with swamps and bogs is that the water tends to be slow moving and full of muck. But this doesn’t necessarily mean it contains parasites. On the contrary, I’ve drunk water from a clear river that wreaked havoc on my gastrointestinal system and I’ve drunk water from swamps with no ill effects.
Obviously, you want to filter swamp water as best you can, to minimize the sediment and dirt you’re ingesting. At a minimum, you should let it sit for 12 hours, so that the heavier stuff settles.
If you follow a game trail to a swamp, it’s especially important that you collect your water a good distance away from where the animals congregate and do their business.
As I mentioned in the Coastal Regions section, you can also use the earth to filter swamp water by digging a pit about 50 feet (15 m) from the edge of the swamp. The water that fills your pit may still require filtration, but it should be cleaner than swamp water.
Mountains
Mountains are good sources of water, especially in temperate climates. Depending on the season, snow and ice may be available for melting or eating. Snow lingers long into the summer at higher altitudes, particularly on north-facing slopes and in hollows.
Water courses are fairly obvious on mountains, so it shouldn’t take more than a few moments of surveying the topography for you to determine places where there’s a regular flow. Look for deep fissures and valleys in mountainsides where water accumulates after precipitation. And if all else fails, follow the mountain down to the nearest valley where you’ll increase your chances of finding water.
On mountains, water often collects in deep fissures and valleys such as this one. Here, I’m drinking straight from the source.
Chapter Six
FIRE
I will never forget the first time I was surviving in a forest and made a fire using only what I could find. Before the trek, I had been practicing with the fire-bow method and some cedar in my basement, but when I needed cedar on the trip, I couldn’t find any. So considering the characteristics of cedar, I chose another semi-soft wood for the baseboard and spindle of my fire bow: poplar.
As the first gentle column of smoke wafted up from the wood, I felt euphoric. It was a pivotal moment for me, and I realized that no matter how bad a situation I might find myself in, I could always make it better because I could make fire without traditional fire-starting devices such as matches or lighters. Over the years, the impact of that day hasn’t diminished one bit. Once I learned how to make fire without matches, my confidence in my ability to survive in the wilderness jumped tenfold.
Fire does so much more than keep you warm. With fire you can signal for rescue, purify your water and cook your food, you can have light, make tools, and keep away the bogeyman. In short, the ability to make and maintain a fire is a huge advantage for your survival.
In some areas fire plays a bigger role as a psychological boost than as a physical one. In the jungle, you don’t need a fire for heat, and possibly not even for food preparation, because you can eat fruit. But a fire will keep away the jaguar more effectively than just about anything else, and that goes a long way toward making you safe. The Waorani of the Amazon jungle never let their fires die. And for good reason: try making a fire after it has rained for six straight hours (and that’s during the dry season!).
For me, fire is like a child that needs to be protected, respected, cared for, and ultimately, loved and appreciated. I can’t count all the nights I have huddled in the dead of winter over a little fire in a claustrophobic shelter surrounded by snow, warming just enough of my face and hands to keep the chill away.
Many matters of wilderness survival are controversial, however, and fire is no exception. For example, two different survival experts I had the privilege of studying with in Africa held opposing views on the use of fire in lion territories. One felt that fire attracted lions; the other felt it served as a repellent.
Here is the perspective of my friend and survival crony Douw Kruger:
During a survival course for air force pilots, I was leading three groups of eight people in the bush. They were instructed to build proper shelters to protect against lions and hyenas. During my inspection I found that the last group had put only small branches without thorns around their shelter. It was almost dark and too late to gather proper branches.
That night a group of young lions was walking on the road about 100 yards (90 m) away and must have seen the fire. They approached and found seven humans sleeping on the ground and one (the night watch) sleeping against a tree, all within a shelter designed at best to keep out housecats.
When the first lion pushed his head through the branches, the watch awoke and the excitement began! The pilots kept the lions at bay by hitting with sticks or throwing rocks. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Needless to say, the next night their shelter was so well constructed that not even an elephant could penetrate it!
Fire is a part of nature, so animals are used to it. Big wildfires might scare them, but a small, stationary fire will not. In fact, it may make them curious and draw them to investigate. The reason fire makes you feel safe is that you can see what is going on around you and you have some burning wood to use as a weapon if necessary. But the downside of a fire is that it makes you visible from a long distance.
In the end, I did opt for a fire in the middle of lion territory, primarily because too many years of using fire for comfort won out. For me, it seemed to be the right choice. I needed the psychological boost, and I wanted to cook the freshwater crab I had caught. However, I stayed up all night listening to growls in the distance. I would learn later that lions had made a kill about 500 yards (457 m) from my shelter that night. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss!
Fire is very, very important. I will put up with many deprivations in a survival situation, but please don’t ask me to go without fire.
Select Your Site Carefully
IN MY FAVORITE MOVIE OF ALL TIME, Jeremiah Johnson, the title character (played by Robert Redford) struggles to start a fire with a piece of flint, some charred cloth, and a steel striker. Huddled down in the snow with the wind whipping furiously, he finally gets his spark to take and then blows the ember into a small flame, only to have a big clump of snow fall from the branches above and put it out!
That’s why the first step in the fire-making journey is to choose an appropriate location. We can all anticipate the risks associated with having a fire inside our shelter (although, you can do it, provided you’re smart about it), but other risks are often ignored.
Your fire should be sheltered from the wind, rain, or snow. Make sure you have lots of firewood or flammable material close at hand (but not so close that it could lead to a forest fire or could fall on you and cause injury). Large boulders work well as protection against the elements: they not only act as a windbreak but also absorb the fire’s heat and reflect it back at you.
Make sure you don’t pick a low spot that will fill with water if it starts raining. Choose a place that seems dry relative to the surrounding area, since a fire draws moisture from the ground beneath it as it burns. If the ground is
really wet, your fire won’t even get going.
Always consider safety when it comes to fire, which can spread in ways you might not expect. A root can burn underground for many yards, allowing a fire to pop up elsewhere, developing into a full-blown forest fire, sometimes even a year later. Overhanging dry leaves can catch easily and start a forest fire.
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STROUD’S TIP
If the ground is wet and covered with snow, one of my fire-saving tricks is to build the fire on a platform of wood, even if it’s rotten. This protects my fire from the moisture below and provides additional fuel when the fire gets going.
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Consider the flow of oxygen as well. Oxygen is a critical component of fire, and if you build your fire too deep in the ground or shelter it too much, it may not get the oxygen it needs. You’ll waste a lot of time and energy if you have to keep it going by blowing on it.
What Type of Fire Should You Make?
THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF FIRE: the small one that protects you from the elements (and that you may even keep inside your shelter), and the big, conspicuous fire that also acts as a signal for possible rescue (provided you have enough fuel to keep it going). Keeping both alight simultaneously may be difficult, especially if you need to spend time seeing to other aspects of your survival.
In fact, keeping just one fire going at all times can be a challenge, and your ability to do so depends on the amount of firewood available. But if you have enough wood, then you should never let your fire die out. It’s what all forest-dwelling and primitive peoples did, and I figure they must’ve known a thing or two about survival.