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Hello and welcome to another episode of the

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Self-Initiative Project Podcast i’m your host Jim O’Brien hello and welcome

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to episode 31 today we’re going to be talking about safety while hiking and

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camping you know this is a topic i know it’s kind of off the beaten path and

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a bit of a stretch for personal safety and security, but it’s really not.

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And being outdoors, being out in the woods, being in the mountains,

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camping is something near and dear to my heart. I’ve done it off and on most

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of my entire life, going back to when I was a kid camping with my parents.

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We’d go to miscellaneous state parks and tent camp.

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And then there was a period of time where my dad and his brother bought a Coleman

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pop-up camper, and we did that type of glamping for a while,

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which was really cool to some degree.

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But my place is in a tent when I do go camping, and that’s what I enjoy.

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And like I said, I’ve been camping since I was a kid. So this notion of talking

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about safety and even security when we’re out in the woods or when we’re camping

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or on hikes is, I thought, would be a great topic for us to cover.

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And look, if you’re not an outdoor person, I highly encourage you to try it,

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get out there and roam about and enjoy it.

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For me, being in the woods, being in the mountains, especially is very cathartic.

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And dare I say, well, I say it all the time. It’s where I find my Zen.

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It’s where peace washes over me and I’m calmer and more at peace than any other time.

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So I recommend you get outdoors if you haven’t. But as I said,

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I’ve been camping since I was a kid and I’ve been all over the state of Georgia,

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you know, obviously from being here, the Southeast for that matter, I’ve camped in.

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Gosh, Georgia, obviously, North Carolina, Tennessee, Colorado,

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been out west, fortunate enough to go out west.

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But, you know, the nice thing about Georgia is, and it’s not the humidity,

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but the nice thing about Georgia is, is that within several hours drive,

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you can literally be from the North Georgia mountains to the coast of the Atlantic

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Ocean and everything in between.

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And so I’ve had the opportunity to camp, you know, near and around lakes in

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the mountains on the coast, actually camped off of Cumberland Island and Sapaloo

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Island once in my past life. So I’ve been all over.

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And, you know, I don’t I don’t really know what the what the reputation is today.

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I don’t follow it much anymore, but I admit it.

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I came up through the Scouts, through the Boy Scouts of America.

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And at the time and looking back on

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my experience I would say it was fantastic for

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me and you know I started in Cub

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Scouts and then came up through Weeblos and then wound up a Boy Scout and went

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all the way through to life and got life which was you know a pretty decent

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achievement in retrospect I kind of wish I’d gotten Eagle Scout but life was

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good you know about the time that I had my pathway to Eagle,

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I think I had like 11 more merit badges that I had to complete.

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And at that time, I had a lot of stuff going on in my life, mostly girls and

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motorcycles. I was getting into motorcycles back then.

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But as you may have seen on Instagram earlier, I still have my Boy Scout manual

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that was published in 1981.

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And I guess I had my scoutmaster or something. It looked like the last time

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he had signed off on something was 1984 something. Daped myself a little bit.

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But I wanted to get back on topic. I think it was a wonderful organization back then at least.

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And some of the skills, if not all of the skills that I took on at that time,

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I still use a lot of them to this day, especially when I’m out in the woods

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and camping or fire building even.

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But I thought today that we would talk about safety while we’re doing these things.

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So there’s a lot of topics I want to get through and they’re in no particular order.

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But just starting out at an obvious place is talking about first aid and trauma

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and how important it is to have those kits with you when you’re camping and

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hiking, even on a day hike.

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You can’t be too well prepared and

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so talking about first aid you know

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i’m not going to go through the contents of what you should have

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in your first aid most off the shelf standard first

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aid have most if not everything you would need for first aid i recommend that

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you replace some of the cheaper bandages with some good quality band-aid brand

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bandages something like that you might want to go through and personalize it some yourself.

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But just talking about a few additional things that you should consider where

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I would recommend carrying in your first aid kit is one is a good antihistamine,

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something like a Benadryl.

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Obviously, if you react poorly to Benadryl, you might want to find something else.

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I carry rubbing alcohol, has all kinds of purposes.

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Mole skin’s a good idea. In addition to having good sticky band-aids that don’t

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come off after five minutes of application.

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Moleskine can come in handy, you know, some, some of those new ill-fitting hiking

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boots or whatever, you know, moleskine,

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if I can talk, moleskine can help, you know, if you put that between your shoe

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and your hotspot, you can prevent or better prevent blisters from coming on.

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Keeping some anti-diarrheal medicine in there is always a good idea.

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And then, you know, aspirin or your or pain relief

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of your choice and so those are just a few things that if they’re not already

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in your first aid kit if you start taking you know hiking camping trips probably

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good idea to recommend and then you know every year so you want to check the

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expiration of some of those things to make sure they’re still good because they do go bad as we know,

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But additionally, and something near and dear to my heart, and we’ve talked

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about this over the course of a few podcasts that we’ve done,

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is the importance of having a basic trauma kit and learning how to stop severe bleeding.

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And I’ve said it a million times, I’ll say it more.

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Severe bleeding, hemorrhaging, is the number one cause of preventable death in trauma cases.

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So you have an obligation to yourself especially if

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you’re camping and hiking with your loved ones to have

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a trauma kit the basics you don’t have to be a doctor it’s all

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relatively easy to deal with severe bleeding

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but you need that trauma kit and of course you know in that trauma kit you’re

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going to want to have a tourniquet so just starting out right out of the gate

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talking about first aid and trauma some tips there for you to keep in mind and

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like i said you should be carrying those items with you,

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whether you’re going on a month-long camping trip or a day hike.

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It really can come in handy. And the chances of you needing it,

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who knows, probably pretty slim, right?

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But the key is to be prepared and know what to do and how to do it when and if an emergency rises.

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So next, I want to talk about tents and shelter in general.

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Like I said, I prefer camping in a tent. I’m not a big glamper.

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These six-figure RVs isn’t my idea of camping at all, but that’s just me.

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So, you know, when I was in the Boy Scouts, one of the things that I learned

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was you want to avoid those widow makers.

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And for those of you who came up through the Boy Scouts or, you know,

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camp a lot, you may have heard this before.

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What a widowmaker is in this context is when you’re pitching a tent,

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you want to make sure to be conscientious of the trees that are around where

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you want to pitch your tent, your tent site.

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And obviously, we don’t want to pitch near a dead tree or a dying tree.

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But just as important, you want to take a minute to scan up overhead because

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what you’re looking for are large dead branches.

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You know, in the spring and summer, it’s easy. They don’t have any leaves on

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them, right? Something doesn’t look right.

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And you want to avoid pitching underneath those because there have been cases,

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supposedly, where those branches break off while someone’s asleep in the tent

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and it kills them and makes their wife a widow. So there’s that.

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There’s basically a short story for you.

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So you want to be cautious of where you pitch your tent relative to overhanging branches.

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And obviously, you want to try to find level ground, level smooth ground.

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You know, you don’t want to pitch your tent where the roots and rocks are.

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And plus, you know, you want to sleep comfy and flat. So ideally,

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you’re looking for a flat place.

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And then, you know, when you’re looking for a place for your tent,

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you know, we don’t have a lot of it here in Georgia. But you want to look to avoid flood plains.

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And, you know, if there’s been a lot of water traveling through an area,

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you can generally tell where that water is cut through, right?

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The soil has been eroded or there’s been a little path, stream path.

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And then any place that’s known for having flash floods, you definitely don’t

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want to pitch your tent in there.

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So avoid those overhanging branches, look for flat, and avoid the floodplains.

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If you do have to pitch at an angle, you want to make sure your door is downhill.

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And then what you want to do, because you want to try to sleep as flat as you

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possibly can, if you don’t have a choice, then what you want to do is through

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using various gear, you know, clothing out of your pack, whatever,

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rolling up extra blankets, whatever.

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You want to try to create a flat surface for yourself inside that tent.

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And that way you don’t have to worry about all your blood rushing to your head

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in the middle of the night while you’re asleep, which is no bueno.

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Another topic near and dear to my heart, I’ve spent a lot of time with blades

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and axes and hatchets and saws and all of that stuff.

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And, you know, again, I think the first knife I ever had was my parents bought

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me a Boy Scout knife, and it was a canoe type.

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It had a couple of different size blades. It had an awl or punch on it. I think it had a.

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Can opener, and then it had, I think, a Phillips head screwdriver,

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which was maybe part of the can opener.

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I don’t remember exactly, but I think that was my very first knife I ever had.

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And I am more recently, I was curious because I was thinking,

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well, maybe I’ll have one for nostalgic purposes.

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And sure enough, you can get them at the Scout store still to this day for about $20.

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Of course, they’re made in China, as you might imagine, but it’s still cool

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that they make them today.

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But, you know, this is an area where you really there’s a lot of safety that

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you need to be conscientious of and be super cautious of how you’re handling

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your blades, whether it’s a axe, a hatchet, a saw or a knife.

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You know, probably the biggest tip that I can, or I guess the two biggest tips

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that I can give you is, whether it’s a hatchet, an axe, or a knife,

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fixed blade, folder, doesn’t matter, the safest blade that you can carry is a sharp blade.

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Ironically speaking, a dull blade is a lot more dangerous than a sharp blade

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because a good sharp blade is going to bite and it’s going to cut properly.

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A dull blade can have a tendency to slip, and you can still cut yourself and

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gouge yourself deeply and severely with a dull blade.

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But keeping your tools, and you should be keeping your tools up anyway.

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But keeping up with your blades means keeping them sharp.

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And the other thing that I want to say is the best thing you can do for safety

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is whether you’re walking with an axe, using a knife, you want to keep that blade away from you.

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And when you’re whittling or cutting rope, you want to always or try to as best as you can.

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When you have the opportunity, try to cut away from yourself and not towards

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yourself just to reduce the likelihood of having a bad situation go happen to

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you. So try to cut away from yourself.

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And I know, look, a lot of this stuff we’re talking about is going to be basic, right?

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But still, it’s good info to have if you don’t know or if you haven’t thought

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about this stuff before.

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So that’s why we’re talking about it. The other thing, you know,

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relative to knives and you don’t

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really give it a thought because you’d be like, duh, why would I do that?

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But, you know, sometimes when you’re whittling or carving on something,

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what you do as a kid, at least I did, is you want to be sure that you’re not,

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you know, holding the stick on your leg and carving down towards your thigh, right?

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That’s an accident waiting to happen. And I know that sounds common sense and obvious,

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but, you know, we might hold a stick there because it’s close and convenient,

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but you really do not want to carve down towards your thigh because it doesn’t

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take a whole lot for a blade to slip.

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And next thing you know, you’ve gashed, say, the top or the inside of your thigh, which is not good.

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So you want to keep your tools sharp at all times and you want to cut away from you.

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One of the other tools that’s a favorite when camping is you’re going to need that firewood.

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And I know a lot of state parks and stuff don’t let you chop up wood because

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a lot of idiots were falling live trees, green trees, instead of picking up stuff off the ground.

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But, you know, I’m just going to say you may still have a hatchet or axe.

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And so there’s a few points about hatchets and axe that I want to touch upon.

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And again, keeping them sharp still

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applies. One of the things when you’re chopping, especially with an axe,

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is one of the things that I learned, actually, again, in the Boy Scouts,

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is that you hold the axe by its head, and you outside.

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Extend your arm straight where the axe is just kind of an extension of your

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arm and you hold it straight out.

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And a better way to think of it is that you’re going to extend the axe straight

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out in front of you and then turn around in a circle. That’s really the easiest way to do it.

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Turn around a complete circle and then you’re going to raise that axe over your

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head, keeping your arm extended fully and kind of create an arch.

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And the idea is that you need at least that much room to swing an axe or even

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a hatchet for that matter safely without snagging surrounding branches or vines

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that might be hanging down.

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So it’s about making sure you’ve got enough clear space to operate.

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One of the things that I also learned was when you’re walking with an axe or

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hatchet is you walk with your hand choked up under the head underneath the blade

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on the handle and you face the blade away from your body.

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So I’m right-handed.

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So I would choke up on the ax all the way underneath or the hatchet all the

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way underneath the head, the blade.

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And I would aim the blade out to the right of my body.

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The idea is that, you know, our arms naturally swing a little bit when we walk.

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So we don’t want the blade potentially even scraping the side of our thigh, our leg, right?

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But the other idea, too, is if I trip and fall, which I could,

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walking in the woods, trip on a root while I’m looking for firewood,

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that blade facing away from me is going to just be that much better because

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when I start to trip and fall, I want to get in the habit of throwing that axe or hatchet away from me.

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And so I don’t have a chance of falling on said axe or hatchet,

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which would not be good either.

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So just to summarize again, you want to try to cut away from you and you want

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to keep your tools sharp.

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The sharper you can keep them, the better.

00:16:16.653 –> 00:16:21.673
So let’s talk about clothing. This is a big one and we don’t have to spend a

00:16:21.673 –> 00:16:23.413
lot of time because it’s pretty straightforward.

00:16:23.493 –> 00:16:27.393
But, you know, you need to know, you know, when you’re planning your trips,

00:16:27.513 –> 00:16:31.193
you need to know where you’re going and what the temperature and weather is going to be, right?

00:16:31.293 –> 00:16:35.053
And pack accordingly. In the cooler months, you’re not going to have to worry

00:16:35.053 –> 00:16:38.433
about layering and thick, heavy jackets and stuff like that.

00:16:38.533 –> 00:16:41.853
But in the wintertime, those are things you’ve got to take into consideration.

00:16:42.133 –> 00:16:46.613
You need to take into consideration rain gear, you know, keeping yourself dry,

00:16:46.913 –> 00:16:50.173
avoiding hypothermia, especially if it’s cool out.

00:16:50.433 –> 00:16:54.153
So clothing is really important. And, you know, there’s nothing more important

00:16:54.153 –> 00:16:59.193
than a good pair of hiking shoes or hiking boots and proper socks, right?

00:16:59.653 –> 00:17:03.853
And, you know, you might get them new and they might need to be broken in,

00:17:03.993 –> 00:17:09.353
but it’s really imperative that you try them on ahead of time and make sure

00:17:09.353 –> 00:17:12.173
they fit properly and they’re as comfortable as possible.

00:17:13.213 –> 00:17:18.193
You know, there’s a saying, and I must admit I didn’t learn it until more recently,

00:17:18.373 –> 00:17:20.293
but there’s a saying that says cotton kills.

00:17:20.813 –> 00:17:25.253
And it’s evidently pretty big in the camping community, hiking community,

00:17:25.473 –> 00:17:26.493
whatever, backpacking.

00:17:26.493 –> 00:17:34.453
And I get it because cotton as compared to wool and polyester retains moisture

00:17:34.453 –> 00:17:38.013
significantly longer than polyester and wool does.

00:17:38.213 –> 00:17:45.173
Matter of fact, that’s why wools like merino wool are fantastic for even in

00:17:45.173 –> 00:17:48.973
warmer weather because it wicks moisture away. It dries quickly.

00:17:48.973 –> 00:17:53.033
It has the ability to keep you comfortable and warm.

00:17:53.233 –> 00:17:57.333
And the same with polyester. Now, when I’ve done backpacking trips,

00:17:57.633 –> 00:18:01.693
like I’ve gone backpacking up on the northern end of the Chattooga River,

00:18:01.893 –> 00:18:07.713
if you’re familiar with Clayton, Georgia, you can get up there well north of

00:18:07.713 –> 00:18:12.753
where all the kayaking and canoeing and rafting goes on at the north end of

00:18:12.753 –> 00:18:14.333
the river where it’s literally,

00:18:14.333 –> 00:18:16.993
you know, 15, 20 feet wide maybe.

00:18:16.993 –> 00:18:19.753
And there’s some good camping back in

00:18:19.753 –> 00:18:22.793
there but at any rate one of the things that I usually

00:18:22.793 –> 00:18:25.753
do is I’m typically not backpacking in

00:18:25.753 –> 00:18:31.913
the wintertime it’s not really my bag but my gear consists of polyester shirts

00:18:31.913 –> 00:18:36.653
and polyester shorts because if it comes a quick rainstorm and I get caught

00:18:36.653 –> 00:18:41.973
without my rain gear on I’ll dry out quickly and if I’m sweating here in the

00:18:41.973 –> 00:18:44.513
Georgia humidity if nothing else it.

00:18:44.872 –> 00:18:50.412
Helps, it will dry out much faster. Now, I will tell you, at least for me personally,

00:18:50.692 –> 00:18:54.652
maybe this is too much information, but the drawback to polyester,

00:18:54.772 –> 00:18:57.672
at least for me, is, oh my God, it makes me stink.

00:18:58.132 –> 00:19:01.552
So, you know, these things have got pros and cons to them, right?

00:19:01.552 –> 00:19:06.812
If you can afford it, I recommend going the way of wool, especially like with

00:19:06.812 –> 00:19:14.572
shirts and long johns, long underwear, thermal underwear, and socks, most importantly.

00:19:14.872 –> 00:19:20.372
But then polyester for pretty much anything else, or if you can’t step up to

00:19:20.372 –> 00:19:23.292
the merino wool, because some of that stuff gets fairly expensive.

00:19:23.572 –> 00:19:26.952
But the point of this is to avoid cotton where possible.

00:19:27.172 –> 00:19:30.832
And look, if you’re going for a weekend car camping trip, this doesn’t mean

00:19:30.832 –> 00:19:35.392
you can’t wear your funny cotton camping t-shirts or anything like that.

00:19:35.392 –> 00:19:40.712
Just when it comes to getting the proper gear and preparing for day hikes or

00:19:40.712 –> 00:19:44.692
overnight trips, you know, backpacking excursions, whatever.

00:19:45.192 –> 00:19:49.032
Having the proper clothing is, is a godsend when you need them.

00:19:49.472 –> 00:19:53.732
So, you know, knowing what the weather and the temperatures are going to be,

00:19:53.912 –> 00:19:58.232
where you’re going and, you know, preparing for things like huge temp swings

00:19:58.232 –> 00:20:03.312
between day and night, you know, some places like the desert can be a hundred

00:20:03.312 –> 00:20:04.992
plus degrees during the day.

00:20:04.992 –> 00:20:07.872
And we know it can be freezing or below at night.

00:20:08.052 –> 00:20:12.992
So you got to take all of those things into consideration, but staying with

00:20:12.992 –> 00:20:18.212
polyester or wool, having proper fitting, comfortable hiking shoes or boots.

00:20:18.432 –> 00:20:25.932
And then the last thing that I want to say, and this is just more of a hygiene tip, but

00:20:26.345 –> 00:20:30.665
is if you’re going to be showering in the campsites and in public showers,

00:20:31.085 –> 00:20:34.145
be sure to pack your pair of shower flip-flops.

00:20:34.585 –> 00:20:39.785
I actually still have a pair of flip-flops that I got in, I think,

00:20:40.305 –> 00:20:46.525
1982 when I was camping up in North Carolina for showering, and I still use

00:20:46.525 –> 00:20:50.185
them for that reason, and that’s the only time I get those things out is so

00:20:50.185 –> 00:20:53.545
I have a pair of shower flip-flops, but I highly recommend that.

00:20:53.545 –> 00:20:57.665
You won’t regret it because you’ll keep the funk or have a better chance of

00:20:57.665 –> 00:20:59.425
keeping the funk off your feet if you do.

00:20:59.925 –> 00:21:03.825
So I want to talk about animals. This is something near and dear to my heart.

00:21:03.905 –> 00:21:07.425
I love all animals. I’m not a hunter. I have hunted.

00:21:07.725 –> 00:21:11.845
I’ve killed a lot of small game and stuff as a young boy growing up.

00:21:12.505 –> 00:21:20.805
Decided to give that up some time ago. But animals is an important topic because they’re beautiful.

00:21:21.105 –> 00:21:25.985
They all have spirits and souls. And, you know, one of the worst things that

00:21:25.985 –> 00:21:30.025
we can do, and I know it’s going to break a lot of people’s heart and run contrary

00:21:30.025 –> 00:21:31.185
to what they might think.

00:21:31.465 –> 00:21:35.185
But the one of the worst things that we can do when we’re in nature and in their

00:21:35.185 –> 00:21:38.945
home, because we have to remember we’re in their place, we’re in their home

00:21:38.945 –> 00:21:43.745
now, is the worst thing that we can do is try to interact with those animals,

00:21:44.145 –> 00:21:47.345
try to get too close, especially feeding them.

00:21:47.585 –> 00:21:52.005
You know, it’s one thing to go to a state park and buy some corn,

00:21:52.245 –> 00:21:55.965
dried corn at the park ranger station and go out and feed the ducks in the lake.

00:21:56.045 –> 00:21:57.405
That’s not what we’re talking about.

00:21:58.305 –> 00:22:04.105
Approaching deer, approaching elk. Whitetail deer is big here in the southeast Georgia.

00:22:04.925 –> 00:22:09.305
Elk is big, even up on the edge of the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee.

00:22:09.305 –> 00:22:11.905
You’ll see herds of elk running out there.

00:22:12.245 –> 00:22:16.645
I’ve been camping outside two, two and a half hours outside of Denver,

00:22:16.805 –> 00:22:22.325
Colorado, and had elk bugling over the overlook that we were camping down in

00:22:22.325 –> 00:22:24.025
the basin of, heard that.

00:22:25.580 –> 00:22:29.440
The worst thing that we can do is try to approach these animals.

00:22:29.700 –> 00:22:31.200
There’s a lot of people that do.

00:22:31.500 –> 00:22:35.480
You see it all the time. If you spend any time in state or national parks,

00:22:35.500 –> 00:22:40.780
if there’s a critter around, it seems there’s some idiot that always is trying to get close.

00:22:40.980 –> 00:22:44.900
And, you know, we’re always trying to be social media superstars this day and

00:22:44.900 –> 00:22:48.420
get that video or get that picture or feed them.

00:22:49.120 –> 00:22:55.220
The worst of the worst case. And why is this bad? Well, they’re wild animals.

00:22:55.580 –> 00:22:58.280
And by wild animals, we mean they’re

00:22:58.280 –> 00:23:03.180
potentially unpredictable or they are unpredictable because they’re wild.

00:23:03.580 –> 00:23:10.260
You got it. So we want to keep our distance away from them and we certainly don’t want to feed them.

00:23:10.260 –> 00:23:15.960
And, you know, in addition to being unpredictable, if something happens to a

00:23:15.960 –> 00:23:21.560
human because of an animal, the animal is who is what loses.

00:23:21.880 –> 00:23:27.520
And what I mean by that is when an animal attacks, when a wild animal attacks

00:23:27.520 –> 00:23:29.920
a human, the animal loses.

00:23:30.320 –> 00:23:35.500
Best case scenario, you know, they might be tranquilized, caged up and hauled

00:23:35.500 –> 00:23:38.120
off 50 miles away and released again. Um.

00:23:38.670 –> 00:23:43.330
If the attack was serious enough or whatever the circumstances are,

00:23:43.430 –> 00:23:48.250
and I’m not sure what makes the difference, but usually in a lot of cases,

00:23:48.250 –> 00:23:49.930
that animal is going to be put down.

00:23:50.090 –> 00:23:54.430
It’s going to be euthanized through no fault of its own. The animal is just being an animal.

00:23:54.630 –> 00:23:56.790
The animal is only doing what it knows to do.

00:23:57.130 –> 00:24:00.130
And so, you know, I was telling a buddy of mine the other night,

00:24:00.290 –> 00:24:02.190
it would be the same thing.

00:24:02.390 –> 00:24:06.550
You know, when we go outdoors into the wild, we’re in their home.

00:24:07.130 –> 00:24:09.850
We’re where they live where they raise their

00:24:09.850 –> 00:24:13.030
young and where they eat and sleep and so

00:24:13.030 –> 00:24:16.850
it would be you know if you could come up with something similar

00:24:16.850 –> 00:24:21.530
it would be the same as us all leaving the front and back door of our house

00:24:21.530 –> 00:24:27.590
open and having perfectly good strangers walk through unannounced and hanging

00:24:27.590 –> 00:24:32.330
out and trying to make us a sandwich you know that’s not going to go over it

00:24:32.330 –> 00:24:34.270
so well. At least it’s not for me, I know.

00:24:34.610 –> 00:24:38.710
But I know that’s a silly comparison, but the point of it is,

00:24:38.750 –> 00:24:42.450
is that we have to remember that we’re in their house when we’re out in the wild and outdoors.

00:24:43.110 –> 00:24:47.030
And so it’s important. And the reason why it’s important to keep our distance

00:24:47.030 –> 00:24:53.610
and not to feed them is that over time in doing so, sometimes quicker than others,

00:24:53.870 –> 00:24:57.890
depending on the animal, they get used to humans.

00:24:58.190 –> 00:25:02.570
And we don’t want them used to humans because wild animals that are used to humans.

00:25:03.130 –> 00:25:08.110
Now they’re approaching us and coming after us for food, expecting food.

00:25:08.250 –> 00:25:09.710
You know, they can be little beggars too.

00:25:09.930 –> 00:25:16.870
I’ll tell a story about some black bear that I ran into at Cates Cove up in

00:25:16.870 –> 00:25:18.090
Tennessee in the Smoky Mountains.

00:25:18.930 –> 00:25:22.330
And I’m going to try to find the picture and post it on Instagram.

00:25:22.330 –> 00:25:27.210
No promises that I can find it, but I swear this happened and I have witnesses to it.

00:25:27.530 –> 00:25:32.750
So my buddy, this is probably back in the early mid-90s, my buddy and I are up at.

00:25:33.503 –> 00:25:37.343
One of the churches or the church at Cates Cove, I forget how many churches are up there.

00:25:37.823 –> 00:25:42.543
And anyway, it was a white one. And we were in the church looking around and

00:25:42.543 –> 00:25:47.323
we hear all this commotion out in the parking lot just outside the front doors of the church.

00:25:47.463 –> 00:25:50.223
And we hear the screaming and we turned around, looked out the door and the

00:25:50.223 –> 00:25:55.923
people are jumping up on their cars and running away out from where the edge

00:25:55.923 –> 00:25:57.683
of the woods are there in front of the church.

00:25:57.683 –> 00:26:00.543
So my buddy and I you know probably not

00:26:00.543 –> 00:26:04.143
being the smartest we head into the we head

00:26:04.143 –> 00:26:07.763
into where the people are running out of and no we

00:26:07.763 –> 00:26:13.243
didn’t get close and no we did not approach her but can’t make this up truth

00:26:13.243 –> 00:26:18.443
is stranger than fiction down in the woods a bit probably I don’t know 30 40

00:26:18.443 –> 00:26:22.083
feet maybe there was a bear that

00:26:22.083 –> 00:26:27.483
was sitting on a picnic blanket holding a box of KFC not to name drop,

00:26:27.663 –> 00:26:31.723
but holding a box of KFC chicken, eating chicken out of the KFC box.

00:26:31.903 –> 00:26:36.263
I kid you not. And I’ve got a picture of it and I need to dig it out anyway.

00:26:36.783 –> 00:26:40.783
So I got that picture and we watched that for a moment and couldn’t believe our eyes.

00:26:40.883 –> 00:26:44.223
And then we continued on our visitation for the day.

00:26:44.323 –> 00:26:48.543
And we went hiking down the trail from the church and got along the path and

00:26:48.543 –> 00:26:53.703
happened to look up and two baby black bear cubs are up on a pine tree.

00:26:53.863 –> 00:26:56.403
One’s on one side of the pine tree and one’s on and the other,

00:26:56.583 –> 00:26:59.143
I also have that picture, and I’d say.

00:26:59.961 –> 00:27:06.461
Probably 15, 20 feet away, because by the time we saw them, because we heard

00:27:06.461 –> 00:27:10.041
them scampering up the tree, I guess maybe we spooked them coming down the trail.

00:27:10.761 –> 00:27:15.601
These two baby black bear cubs, they were so cute hanging off either side of that tree.

00:27:16.121 –> 00:27:20.381
And I got a picture of that. And then we realized that the bear on the picnic

00:27:20.381 –> 00:27:23.881
blanket, which was still on the other side of the parking lot where we came

00:27:23.881 –> 00:27:28.941
from, was more than likely these two cubs’ mom. And we were like,

00:27:28.981 –> 00:27:30.001
we’ve got to get out of here.

00:27:30.581 –> 00:27:34.841
So yeah, true stories. And so the point of that is we didn’t try to approach them.

00:27:34.981 –> 00:27:39.601
We didn’t certainly didn’t feed them, but somehow or another that I’m going

00:27:39.601 –> 00:27:44.701
to assume that mama black bear had no problem walking up to those people that

00:27:44.701 –> 00:27:48.761
were clearly having a picnic down in the woods, which you would think you’d be able to do.

00:27:49.201 –> 00:27:53.881
But up there, you know, animals and humans run into each other all the time.

00:27:54.441 –> 00:27:57.781
As a matter of fact, there was, if I remember the story, right,

00:27:58.241 –> 00:28:03.201
one of those big pastures as you’re coming out of Cherokee, heading into the

00:28:03.201 –> 00:28:06.181
park up there, the Smoky Mountain Park.

00:28:06.401 –> 00:28:08.441
There’s a couple of huge pastures.

00:28:08.701 –> 00:28:15.141
And if you time it outright, it’s not uncommon to see herds of elk in those pastures.

00:28:15.361 –> 00:28:20.681
And I guess the story is that I heard is that a woman was getting too close

00:28:20.681 –> 00:28:25.121
and approaching them, taking their pictures because getting that picture is so important.

00:28:25.461 –> 00:28:31.781
And I think the rangers wound up fining her for, you know, getting too close

00:28:31.781 –> 00:28:35.581
because there’s rules posted, right? We’re the humans. We’re supposed to be the smart ones.

00:28:35.821 –> 00:28:39.701
And when you break the rules, you suffer the consequences. And so,

00:28:39.941 –> 00:28:45.641
you know, she’s lucky that an elk had no intentions of messing with her,

00:28:45.821 –> 00:28:47.401
but she got fined heavily.

00:28:47.861 –> 00:28:50.181
A similar story I heard recently too.

00:28:52.161 –> 00:28:52.701
I

00:28:53.767 –> 00:29:01.587
Dumb on a couple of counts, but some woman, somebody was feeding black bear up there in the park,

00:29:01.987 –> 00:29:08.407
Smoky Mountain Park, and took pictures of themselves or whoever they were with,

00:29:08.647 –> 00:29:12.627
took pictures of them feeding said black bears.

00:29:12.907 –> 00:29:18.067
And then like idiots, they posted on Facebook. Well, somebody reported them

00:29:18.067 –> 00:29:23.067
through Facebook. They tracked them down and fined them because it’s illegal to feed the animals.

00:29:24.087 –> 00:29:26.707
So don’t feed them.

00:29:27.827 –> 00:29:32.027
And there’s a couple of times, a couple of points where you don’t ever want

00:29:32.027 –> 00:29:35.327
to mess with an animal. And that’s usually when they have their babies with them, right?

00:29:35.447 –> 00:29:39.607
If an animal’s got their babies with them, that’s the last time that you really

00:29:39.607 –> 00:29:41.987
want to try to mess with them.

00:29:42.227 –> 00:29:46.507
Bears have their young, black bears at least, have their young in January.

00:29:47.127 –> 00:29:51.967
And then mama usually has their babies for 12 to 18 months.

00:29:52.767 –> 00:29:55.507
So you know when you see her with her

00:29:55.507 –> 00:29:58.367
cubs she’s had them potentially for

00:29:58.367 –> 00:30:01.207
a little while and the last thing you want to do is

00:30:01.207 –> 00:30:04.707
you you’ve heard it probably you may not have seen them but you’ve

00:30:04.707 –> 00:30:08.167
heard it last thing you want to do is tangle with a mama bear right and the

00:30:08.167 –> 00:30:13.567
other thing that you have to be really super careful with and reason why you

00:30:13.567 –> 00:30:17.247
want to keep your distance is again I mentioned white-tailed deer are big here

00:30:17.247 –> 00:30:21.567
in the southeast and in Georgia and and we just talked about elk too.

00:30:21.767 –> 00:30:25.947
And so the thing that you have to be conscientious with, with those guys is

00:30:25.947 –> 00:30:28.487
their rut season, you know, it’s their mating season.

00:30:28.487 –> 00:30:36.147
And so for elk, that’s typically mid-September to mid-October-ish from what I understand.

00:30:36.147 –> 00:30:42.367
And for the whitetail deer, it’s like either the beginning or middle of October,

00:30:42.587 –> 00:30:45.767
all the way up through early December.

00:30:46.247 –> 00:30:51.167
And when a big buck, You know, that big 10-point buck is in rut.

00:30:51.367 –> 00:30:54.187
The last thing you want to do is try to get a selfie with him.

00:30:54.527 –> 00:30:58.127
It’s just not a good time. So just a couple of things there.

00:30:58.307 –> 00:31:02.467
And, you know, knowing the animals that are indigenous to the area that you’re

00:31:02.467 –> 00:31:06.807
visiting, you know, that’s good information to keep in mind so you know what

00:31:06.807 –> 00:31:11.267
to be more leery of and what to keep in mind as you go on these trips.

00:31:12.303 –> 00:31:15.703
You know, something else that you might see, I know I’ve seen it a couple of

00:31:15.703 –> 00:31:21.683
times, had a run-in with one once, is venomous snakes. Not all snakes are venomous.

00:31:22.163 –> 00:31:25.603
I love snakes. I think they’re great. I would never kill them.

00:31:25.783 –> 00:31:28.343
No reason to. They do more good than harm.

00:31:28.923 –> 00:31:32.503
Yeah, I guess if you’ve got small children and pets around your backyard,

00:31:32.783 –> 00:31:36.483
you might consider offing a venomous snake, certainly.

00:31:36.783 –> 00:31:39.463
But snakes in general are great, and that’s just my opinion.

00:31:39.723 –> 00:31:45.623
I’ll leave that right there. But you want to be cautious of snakes when you’re in the woods.

00:31:45.823 –> 00:31:53.843
And there’s only four types, four overall, if you will, arching umbrella types

00:31:53.843 –> 00:31:55.703
of venomous snakes here in the U.S.

00:31:56.363 –> 00:32:01.923
But we have a few here in Georgia. We have cottonmouths or water moccasins,

00:32:02.103 –> 00:32:06.883
and that’s a semi-aggressive snake. They live near water.

00:32:07.423 –> 00:32:11.203
So you have to be really careful when you’re near streams, small streams and

00:32:11.203 –> 00:32:16.243
rivers or lakes because they definitely like to stay in there and they are not

00:32:16.243 –> 00:32:19.903
the most aggressive snake but they are, let’s just say,

00:32:20.163 –> 00:32:23.223
can be curious and so they can come after you.

00:32:23.363 –> 00:32:29.263
We also have some rattlesnakes I think down in South Georgia in the warmer climates

00:32:29.263 –> 00:32:34.643
if I’m not mistaken and then another big venomous snake that we have here are the copperheads.

00:32:35.163 –> 00:32:37.983
And so, you know, you want to keep an eye out. And, you know,

00:32:38.083 –> 00:32:43.263
one of another lesson that I learned when I was in the scouts was when hiking along a trail,

00:32:43.443 –> 00:32:46.783
and you should stay on the trail and we’ll talk more about why here in a minute,

00:32:46.903 –> 00:32:51.043
but when you’re hiking along a trail and you come upon a log,

00:32:51.423 –> 00:32:55.543
you don’t just step over the log and not pay attention to what you’re doing. Keep on.

00:32:55.783 –> 00:32:58.823
You step up onto the log, you

00:32:58.823 –> 00:33:01.663
look down onto the other side and

00:33:01.663 –> 00:33:04.443
if you can kind of look underneath that log as

00:33:04.443 –> 00:33:07.343
best you can before you then step down

00:33:07.343 –> 00:33:12.183
and continue because the idea is there could be something coiled up you know

00:33:12.183 –> 00:33:17.283
hanging out underneath or on the back side of that log that unless you take

00:33:17.283 –> 00:33:22.783
a moment to look before you step over that log step up look and then step over

00:33:22.783 –> 00:33:26.703
you know you might be in for a surprise so that’s just a little tip there.

00:33:27.481 –> 00:33:30.321
And, you know, sometimes you’re not going to get close enough,

00:33:30.441 –> 00:33:32.381
and I get it. A lot of people don’t like snakes.

00:33:32.641 –> 00:33:36.581
But, you know, there are some telltale signs of venomous snakes.

00:33:36.921 –> 00:33:42.041
The biggest one is that typically non-venomous snakes have rounded heads.

00:33:43.121 –> 00:33:48.461
And venomous snakes, typically, the big difference between non-venomous and

00:33:48.461 –> 00:33:52.221
venomous is that venomous have triangular heads.

00:33:52.221 –> 00:33:56.681
Now there are some non-venomous round-headed

00:33:56.681 –> 00:33:59.961
snakes if you will that can try to flatten their

00:33:59.961 –> 00:34:05.281
heads it’s one of their defense mechanisms just like the speckled king snake

00:34:05.281 –> 00:34:11.661
can vibrate the very tip of his tail very rapidly where it looks it doesn’t

00:34:11.661 –> 00:34:16.481
look like a rattler but you could see it vibrating super fast and it sounds

00:34:16.481 –> 00:34:19.681
similar to like what a rattlesnake would do.

00:34:20.021 –> 00:34:22.641
You know, rattlesnakes have rattles on the end of their tail,

00:34:22.801 –> 00:34:24.181
and you hear them shaking.

00:34:24.621 –> 00:34:28.921
You’ve probably seen or heard a rattlesnake in a movie a time or two or on TV,

00:34:28.921 –> 00:34:34.041
but by that same token, not all rattlesnakes have a rattler.

00:34:34.741 –> 00:34:39.861
So, you know, snakes, like a lot of animals, have defense mechanisms that they use.

00:34:39.961 –> 00:34:43.741
But the general rule of thumb is non-venomous snakes have a round head,

00:34:43.881 –> 00:34:46.881
and a venomous snake has a triangular-shaped head.

00:34:47.041 –> 00:34:50.301
And then the other thing, which is kind of hard to do because you got to kind

00:34:50.301 –> 00:34:56.581
of get, you would be probably in danger zone, but a non-venomous snake has round

00:34:56.581 –> 00:35:00.401
eyes and a venomous snake has a slit like a cat.

00:35:00.821 –> 00:35:04.501
But again, you got to be careful because you’re getting pretty close if you’re

00:35:04.501 –> 00:35:07.341
able to tell that, but the head’s the big sign.

00:35:07.501 –> 00:35:10.921
And then, you know, there’s some other behavioral traits and color markings,

00:35:11.101 –> 00:35:13.821
things like that, but that’s just kind of the basics.

00:35:14.641 –> 00:35:20.081
And not that I want to make a big section and get into details of first aid.

00:35:20.261 –> 00:35:27.621
But if you are bitten by a snake, do not buy those snake bite kits that have

00:35:27.621 –> 00:35:31.841
the suction cups and the razor blades. Do not wash the wound.

00:35:32.041 –> 00:35:33.961
Do not cut the wound.

00:35:34.261 –> 00:35:39.661
Do not apply any suction. Don’t suck on your buddy’s leg. If he gets bitten

00:35:39.661 –> 00:35:43.721
in the calf, don’t use those suction cups and don’t apply a tourniquet.

00:35:43.881 –> 00:35:48.001
What you want to do is lay Lay the person down, ideally with the place where

00:35:48.001 –> 00:35:54.301
they got bitten, below their heart level, and you want to keep them calm and cool and relaxed.

00:35:54.561 –> 00:35:59.541
You might want to wrap the wound lightly with some clean gauze, but don’t use water.

00:35:59.861 –> 00:36:06.041
Don’t use suction. Don’t cut it and don’t ply a tourniquet. Keep them calm and call for help.

00:36:07.163 –> 00:36:09.823
And that’s really all the advice I want to give there. And the reason why I

00:36:09.823 –> 00:36:13.523
give that is because they still sell these stupid snake bite kits,

00:36:13.543 –> 00:36:16.803
even on Amazon with the little suction cups and the razors.

00:36:17.723 –> 00:36:22.123
That’s not proper first aid care for a snake. So that’s why I want to say that.

00:36:22.503 –> 00:36:26.823
So why do we want to stay on the trail? And, you know, this is,

00:36:27.083 –> 00:36:30.383
you know, I could have made a general topic about, you know,

00:36:30.463 –> 00:36:33.963
the merits of staying on the trail, but relative to animals.

00:36:33.963 –> 00:36:39.883
Well, if you don’t stay on the trail, you might be more likely to run into a wild animal, right?

00:36:40.243 –> 00:36:43.703
Potentially, because the idea is if you’re on an official trail,

00:36:43.943 –> 00:36:48.463
there’s probably people coming through there, at least with some frequency, some regularity.

00:36:48.623 –> 00:36:51.603
If you get off the trail, God knows where you are.

00:36:51.803 –> 00:36:55.243
Can you find your way back to the trail? So there’s all those reasons, too.

00:36:56.163 –> 00:36:58.983
And I can tell you firsthand a couple of

00:36:58.983 –> 00:37:01.723
times where I got off the trail as a kid and

00:37:01.723 –> 00:37:04.703
learned the hard way why you don’t want to do that

00:37:04.703 –> 00:37:10.003
and both times involved bees specifically our little friend the yellow jackets

00:37:10.003 –> 00:37:16.163
so the first time that I was I think it was the first time I was attacked the

00:37:16.163 –> 00:37:20.563
worst was I was actually camping while I was in the boy scouts and I think I

00:37:20.563 –> 00:37:24.183
was at I think I I was at Woodward Scout Reservation,

00:37:24.183 –> 00:37:26.023
if I remember that right.

00:37:26.283 –> 00:37:29.063
I think that’s where it was. If it wasn’t that, it was Burt Adams,

00:37:29.263 –> 00:37:30.323
but I think it was Woodward.

00:37:31.352 –> 00:37:35.852
And my buddy and I were hiking back, maybe from the gun range or something.

00:37:36.552 –> 00:37:40.012
And for whatever reason, I went off the trail.

00:37:40.152 –> 00:37:41.432
There was this little pity path.

00:37:41.532 –> 00:37:45.212
It wasn’t that long between our camp and wherever we were coming from.

00:37:45.652 –> 00:37:49.932
And I guess we were gathering firewood for the night to have for later that

00:37:49.932 –> 00:37:55.672
night. And I got off the trail and I picked up this log off the ground,

00:37:55.672 –> 00:37:59.012
not thinking twice about it. Right. I’m going to gather firewood.

00:37:59.492 –> 00:38:06.292
And I guess there was either in the ground or in that log, a hive of yellow jackets.

00:38:07.152 –> 00:38:11.732
And let me tell you, I had a cloud of yellow jackets around me.

00:38:11.852 –> 00:38:15.692
As a matter of fact, my buddy, and I can’t think of what his name was.

00:38:15.772 –> 00:38:16.652
I was trying to think the other day.

00:38:16.792 –> 00:38:19.832
It was either Danny or Dennis, I think.

00:38:20.092 –> 00:38:25.592
But anyway, he was behind me and I took off running down the trail because I’m getting lit up.

00:38:25.692 –> 00:38:28.532
And, you know, by now these things are inside my shirt and everything else.

00:38:29.012 –> 00:38:32.692
He was like, dude, he’s like, you had so many yellow jackets on you.

00:38:32.772 –> 00:38:34.772
He’s like, I couldn’t even see your skin anymore.

00:38:34.932 –> 00:38:39.052
He’s like, you’re literally, the back of you was literally coated in yellow jackets.

00:38:39.572 –> 00:38:44.052
Well, my scout master, I think wound up dabbing like antiseptic,

00:38:44.212 –> 00:38:51.612
you know, antihistamine swab stuff, whatever on my back. I think he hit like 50 stings I’d gotten.

00:38:51.792 –> 00:38:56.252
And of course, a yellow jacket, unlike a honeybee, they can keep stinging,

00:38:56.412 –> 00:38:59.492
you know, wasp and hornets and such. can keep stinging.

00:38:59.692 –> 00:39:04.372
A honeybee can only sting once because when it stings you, its stinger gets

00:39:04.372 –> 00:39:06.352
torn out of its body, which kills it.

00:39:06.532 –> 00:39:09.672
And that’s why you’ll see the stinger stuck in your skin, you know,

00:39:09.792 –> 00:39:10.692
in the bottom of your foot.

00:39:10.812 –> 00:39:16.232
And the little sack on the end is pulsing because it’s pumping the venom into you.

00:39:16.392 –> 00:39:21.372
But wasp, anyway, to make a long story short, yellow jackets do not lose their

00:39:21.372 –> 00:39:25.232
stingers, at least most of the time. So they’re capable of re-stinging.

00:39:26.131 –> 00:39:30.071
So I have no idea how many different yellow jackets stung me.

00:39:30.251 –> 00:39:36.031
All I know is a lot of yellow jackets. All I know is I had a lot of yellow jackets

00:39:36.031 –> 00:39:40.191
on me and I got stung a lot of times. And I think it was like 45 or 50.

00:39:40.371 –> 00:39:44.431
So luckily, I’m one of these people that don’t go into anaphylactic shock,

00:39:44.591 –> 00:39:47.611
which is a whole another thing that you need to be aware of.

00:39:47.691 –> 00:39:51.191
And hopefully before you take any serious trips into the woods and whatnot,

00:39:51.411 –> 00:39:56.391
you have some health history and understand how you react to things like bee stings.

00:39:56.551 –> 00:39:59.051
But if not, that’s just something to be aware of.

00:39:59.251 –> 00:40:07.391
So the other time I was at a state park in North Georgia with my family and my dad and I, once again,

00:40:07.691 –> 00:40:13.151
the firewood gathering stories, man, we were up on the backside of this mountain

00:40:13.151 –> 00:40:19.911
and we were gathering up piles of wood to bundle up with rope and drag back down to camp.

00:40:20.911 –> 00:40:26.511
And I went up on this lead up on this face of this mountain,

00:40:26.851 –> 00:40:30.831
you know, in Georgia, they, we say they’re mountains, but they’re really like big hills.

00:40:30.971 –> 00:40:34.011
But anyway, up, up on the side, on the face of this big hill.

00:40:34.451 –> 00:40:40.771
And again, I picked up the wrong, the wrong branch or the wrong log, whatever it was.

00:40:41.251 –> 00:40:45.791
And my dad said that I came down off that mountain, like I could have beat,

00:40:45.791 –> 00:40:48.671
you know, anybody in racing running.

00:40:49.171 –> 00:40:52.491
And again, I, I was completely covered in yellow jackets.

00:40:52.751 –> 00:40:58.391
So bees are not our friends. And for that, and for bees reasons alone.

00:40:59.931 –> 00:41:02.531
You know, you want to probably stay on the trail.

00:41:03.464 –> 00:41:07.344
And if you do get off the trail, you want to make sure you have some sense of

00:41:07.344 –> 00:41:12.964
direction and you’re not too far off course and you know how to get back up on the trail.

00:41:13.844 –> 00:41:19.504
So yeah, I’ve, you know, haven’t had a tremendous number of run-ins with wildlife.

00:41:19.704 –> 00:41:26.204
Luckily, I’ve had nothing severe happen. I haven’t come close to bear attack or anything, but yeah.

00:41:26.564 –> 00:41:29.784
And so let’s talk about bears because here in the Southeast,

00:41:29.984 –> 00:41:31.964
we actually have our infamous black bear,

00:41:32.504 –> 00:41:36.624
you know, out West and up in Canada, it’s more of the grizzly and brown and

00:41:36.624 –> 00:41:40.604
actually the grizzly and brown bear are the same bear. It’s just their diet

00:41:40.604 –> 00:41:41.744
that makes them different.

00:41:42.284 –> 00:41:45.724
But here in the Southeast and in Georgia, we have black bear and,

00:41:45.824 –> 00:41:49.824
you know, being up in the Smoky Mountains as many times as I have over the years,

00:41:49.844 –> 00:41:52.264
I’ve actually seen quite a few black bears.

00:41:52.444 –> 00:41:57.624
You know, they might even be hanging out on the side of the road and they’re not to be trifled with.

00:41:57.804 –> 00:42:02.504
True, they’re not the same as a grizzly, but a black bear can be extremely aggressive.

00:42:02.864 –> 00:42:08.904
And in fact, a black bear is a more ferocious fighter or can be a more ferocious

00:42:08.904 –> 00:42:14.724
fighter than even a grizzly because a black bear will fight you until they think

00:42:14.724 –> 00:42:16.444
you’re completely subdued.

00:42:16.784 –> 00:42:21.064
And so they’re not to be messed with. And again, certainly if they have cubs,

00:42:21.264 –> 00:42:23.504
do not try to approach them.

00:42:24.104 –> 00:42:29.924
Stay away from them and whatever you do, don’t think it’s cool to throw your

00:42:29.924 –> 00:42:31.984
food out there and feed them because it’s not.

00:42:32.224 –> 00:42:36.184
But just talking about bears for a minute. So, you know, there’s some things

00:42:36.184 –> 00:42:38.144
you need to follow when you come up on a bear.

00:42:38.284 –> 00:42:41.424
And we’ll talk a little bit about grizzlies and black bears because you have

00:42:41.424 –> 00:42:45.544
to treat them and handle them differently because of the way they go about their

00:42:45.544 –> 00:42:47.664
attacks when they are in attack mode.

00:42:48.284 –> 00:42:51.924
With a black bear, if you’re in black bear country, which, you know,

00:42:52.044 –> 00:42:55.264
you can be just about anywhere in North Georgia, for an example,

00:42:55.484 –> 00:42:59.664
you want to be sure to stay on that path. Again, a good reason to stay on the trail.

00:42:59.844 –> 00:43:04.264
You want to be making some amount of noise. Like if you’re by yourself,

00:43:04.504 –> 00:43:06.664
go ahead and hum or sing out loud.

00:43:07.524 –> 00:43:12.884
Stay, stay, don’t try to be sneaky and ninja-like through the woods, like stay noisy.

00:43:13.204 –> 00:43:18.344
And then if you do happen to see a black bear off in the distance or worse yet

00:43:18.344 –> 00:43:22.064
close, Don’t run. Whatever you do, don’t run.

00:43:23.504 –> 00:43:26.744
Stay facing the bear. Keep an eye on them.

00:43:27.761 –> 00:43:31.301
And you want to, if you have the opportunity, you want to back up slowly,

00:43:31.301 –> 00:43:35.061
but don’t turn your back on the bear because you need to be able to see what they’re doing.

00:43:35.341 –> 00:43:37.741
But whatever you do, don’t run.

00:43:38.281 –> 00:43:41.541
The other thing that you want to do is you want to, they say you want to try

00:43:41.541 –> 00:43:43.961
to make yourself as big as possible.

00:43:43.961 –> 00:43:47.841
So you’re going to lift your arms over your head and you’re going to shout and

00:43:47.841 –> 00:43:54.801
yell and, and hey bear, and all this to make yourself seem like you’re a formidable

00:43:54.801 –> 00:43:57.221
foe that they don’t want to mess with.

00:43:57.221 –> 00:44:02.381
But if they did get the drop on you, if you found yourself you weren’t paying

00:44:02.381 –> 00:44:06.721
attention, then oh my gosh, you wind up 20 feet away from a bear.

00:44:07.061 –> 00:44:09.541
You know, ideally you might have some bear spray.

00:44:09.921 –> 00:44:14.681
They say bear spray is effective in about 90% of the cases. At least that’s

00:44:14.681 –> 00:44:17.221
a stat that I saw right before I started doing this.

00:44:17.781 –> 00:44:21.641
But you want to have bear spray and be prepared to use that.

00:44:21.641 –> 00:44:25.321
This whole time you’re making noise, you should be getting your bear spray out,

00:44:25.521 –> 00:44:26.981
taking the safety cap off.

00:44:27.121 –> 00:44:30.061
So again, like mace, you might carry in your purse.

00:44:30.361 –> 00:44:35.041
You want to be practiced with the bear spray. So you want to know how to get

00:44:35.041 –> 00:44:37.601
that safety tab, safety cap off, whatever.

00:44:37.881 –> 00:44:40.981
And you want to know how to shoot that stuff. So you might want to get to and

00:44:40.981 –> 00:44:43.961
practice, right? We’ve talked about that before with regular mace.

00:44:44.161 –> 00:44:48.601
And then if a black bear does attack you, you need to be prepared to fight it.

00:44:48.741 –> 00:44:52.501
You need to be prepared to pick up a rock, a stick, take your knife out,

00:44:52.641 –> 00:44:57.601
whatever, and focus on his nose and eyes or any other thing you figure might be sensitive.

00:44:57.801 –> 00:45:01.141
Because again, a black bear is going to mess with you until he figures that

00:45:01.141 –> 00:45:05.841
you’re done for or that you’re in the point where you can’t fight back anymore.

00:45:06.301 –> 00:45:09.281
Black bear is not always black.

00:45:10.021 –> 00:45:14.121
They can be brown or cinnamon. And so, you know, sometimes, oh,

00:45:14.141 –> 00:45:17.821
that’s a grizzly or a brown bear. No, it’s still a black bear.

00:45:18.081 –> 00:45:21.121
So they’re called black bears, but they’re not always black.

00:45:21.121 –> 00:45:22.601
So you got to remember that too.

00:45:22.721 –> 00:45:25.581
And of course, you’re going to kind of know what kind of bear it is based on

00:45:25.581 –> 00:45:28.781
the part of the country that you’re in, right? And so here again,

00:45:28.781 –> 00:45:30.141
we’re going to be dealing with the black bear.

00:45:30.481 –> 00:45:34.701
If you happen to be out West or up in Canada, Alberta,

00:45:35.461 –> 00:45:42.301
British Columbia, you know, wherever up there or out West in the Rockies,

00:45:42.321 –> 00:45:47.061
you might have a chance of running into a grizzly or a brown bear.

00:45:47.201 –> 00:45:48.381
And again, they’re the same thing.

00:45:49.286 –> 00:45:54.966
They’re a little bit bigger than a black bear is, and they have a couple of

00:45:54.966 –> 00:45:58.426
differences that a black bear does not have.

00:45:58.586 –> 00:46:02.946
The first thing with a grizzly or brown bear is they typically have shorter

00:46:02.946 –> 00:46:06.146
ears than a black bear does, and they’re rounded.

00:46:06.306 –> 00:46:08.526
So smaller ears and rounded.

00:46:08.806 –> 00:46:13.086
And then, of course, they are generally brown or close, right?

00:46:13.306 –> 00:46:18.106
There’s really no such thing as a black grizzly or a black brown bear, right?

00:46:18.706 –> 00:46:21.626
Hence the name brown bear but their other

00:46:21.626 –> 00:46:25.006
telltale sign besides of their enormity is they

00:46:25.006 –> 00:46:28.346
have a hump and their shoulder level on

00:46:28.346 –> 00:46:32.646
their back they have a big hump a black bear does not have a hump like that

00:46:32.646 –> 00:46:40.946
so size ears and that hump larger size smaller ears and the hump are telltale

00:46:40.946 –> 00:46:46.046
signs of the grizzly brown bear and they’re a little bit different you still want to be making noises,

00:46:46.626 –> 00:46:48.126
You still want to stay on the trail.

00:46:48.446 –> 00:46:51.946
Ideally, you want to be in a group of people, but you still want to be singing

00:46:51.946 –> 00:46:55.726
out loud, talking, breaking sticks, whatever.

00:46:56.146 –> 00:46:59.966
You might even wear jingle bells. You might wear jingle bells on your backpack

00:46:59.966 –> 00:47:03.926
in either case, whether you’re in black bear country or grizzly country.

00:47:04.706 –> 00:47:11.186
The difference, though, is that if they’re at distance, you still never want to run.

00:47:11.186 –> 00:47:14.006
And with either type of bear you

00:47:14.006 –> 00:47:17.186
never want to try to climb a tree because hello

00:47:17.186 –> 00:47:20.206
bears climb trees too so that

00:47:20.206 –> 00:47:23.686
does you no good you don’t want to run away but unlike

00:47:23.686 –> 00:47:27.046
and you want to try to back away and get

00:47:27.046 –> 00:47:32.566
out of the area slowly but if you’re ever confronted with a grizzly slash brown

00:47:32.566 –> 00:47:37.426
bear then you never want to make eye contact you want to make yourself as small

00:47:37.426 –> 00:47:41.806
as possible so i would imagine like humping my curling my shoulders over and

00:47:41.806 –> 00:47:45.906
kind of taking up trying to take up less footprint less space.

00:47:46.775 –> 00:47:52.355
And not be obnoxious because they take the obnoxiousness that you would do to

00:47:52.355 –> 00:47:56.215
scare off a black bear, they take that obnoxiousness as a threat.

00:47:56.515 –> 00:47:59.255
So with a grizzly or brown, you don’t make eye contact.

00:47:59.635 –> 00:48:02.175
You make yourself as small as possible.

00:48:02.695 –> 00:48:07.215
And then if they do attack, you do not fight a grizzly bear back.

00:48:07.475 –> 00:48:13.995
You lay down and try to protect your head and stomach as best you can until they have gone off.

00:48:14.475 –> 00:48:18.695
And then you still want to kind of stay put for a good 20 plus minutes,

00:48:18.995 –> 00:48:23.075
20, 30 minutes after the bear has left the area, because you don’t know how

00:48:23.075 –> 00:48:24.855
far they’ve left the area, right?

00:48:25.215 –> 00:48:28.435
But you’re not going to fight a grizzly or brown bear. You’re going to lay down,

00:48:28.535 –> 00:48:30.575
you’re going to cover your head and you’re going to cover your stomach.

00:48:30.755 –> 00:48:32.855
And that’s really a big difference.

00:48:33.135 –> 00:48:37.155
So with the black bear, you’re going to make yourself big and rowdy and obnoxious,

00:48:37.155 –> 00:48:39.615
and you’re going to fight back if they attack you.

00:48:39.775 –> 00:48:43.475
A grizzly or brown bear, you’re going to be kind of the timid,

00:48:43.635 –> 00:48:46.155
quiet, whatever type of person.

00:48:46.395 –> 00:48:49.175
And then you’re going to lay down and protect your head and stomach.

00:48:49.355 –> 00:48:52.255
And that’s really the two differences between those two.

00:48:52.575 –> 00:48:57.555
So I wanted to talk about bees because of my experience. Snakes obviously is one.

00:48:58.035 –> 00:49:03.835
Bears, because I’ve seen plenty of black bears out in the woods and as well

00:49:03.835 –> 00:49:08.255
as elk and deer. So all these things are possible when you’re out and about in nature.

00:49:09.010 –> 00:49:12.930
And again, the most important lesson is don’t approach the animals,

00:49:12.930 –> 00:49:17.030
whether they’re in rut, whether they’ve got babies or not, it doesn’t matter.

00:49:17.290 –> 00:49:21.330
Keep your distance, obey the rules, and whatever you do, don’t feed them.

00:49:21.510 –> 00:49:26.370
Because again, it makes them used to humans. And once they become used to humans,

00:49:26.570 –> 00:49:28.970
now they are becoming dangerous to us.

00:49:29.110 –> 00:49:32.950
And it never ends well for that animal. They’re generally going to get put down.

00:49:33.150 –> 00:49:38.610
And so I’m going to leave that there. We could talk a lot about plants and poisonous

00:49:38.610 –> 00:49:42.390
plants, things you don’t want to eat, things you don’t want to put in your mouth.

00:49:42.750 –> 00:49:46.750
But I want to take a minute and talk specifically about poison ivy.

00:49:47.050 –> 00:49:51.870
Just because I’ve had so much personal experience with poison ivy,

00:49:51.910 –> 00:49:56.610
I can’t even begin to tell you. So it’s better now as an adult when I get it.

00:49:57.050 –> 00:50:00.390
Yeah, I might get some, you know, it’s going to be scratchy and yeah,

00:50:00.470 –> 00:50:05.170
I might get a few places on my body, but it’s not like it was for me when I was a kid.

00:50:05.230 –> 00:50:10.050
When I was a kid, I had no self-control. You know, you’re going to scratch that stuff.

00:50:10.190 –> 00:50:12.530
And when you scratch it, it spreads.

00:50:12.970 –> 00:50:16.710
So talking about poison ivy for a minute. So what is poison ivy?

00:50:16.790 –> 00:50:22.630
What does it look like? Well, it’s a plant that has oils in the leaves,

00:50:22.770 –> 00:50:24.470
in the roots, in the vines.

00:50:24.690 –> 00:50:33.510
And if you get that oil onto your skin, it causes this blisterous rash that’s incredibly itchy.

00:50:34.050 –> 00:50:37.630
And the problem is, as you itch it, it spreads.

00:50:37.850 –> 00:50:41.490
It spreads in the, like, let’s say you get a blister or two,

00:50:41.710 –> 00:50:45.690
a rash in an area, and you start scratching it. you’ll actually make streaks

00:50:45.690 –> 00:50:47.970
of where you scratched it with more blisters.

00:50:48.510 –> 00:50:51.870
But not only that, a lot of people don’t understand that the oil…

00:50:52.860 –> 00:50:58.200
Travels through your bloodstream. So you might get poison ivy on your knuckle

00:50:58.200 –> 00:51:00.540
or the back of your hand. Let’s say I’m making up stuff.

00:51:00.700 –> 00:51:05.420
And next thing you know, you’ve got rash and the blisters on your ankle.

00:51:05.680 –> 00:51:08.900
And it’s not because you scratched your hand and then touched your ankle,

00:51:09.060 –> 00:51:12.640
even though that can happen, but it’s also traveled through the bloodstream.

00:51:12.820 –> 00:51:16.980
So it’s very important when you come in contact with it, that you wash the area

00:51:16.980 –> 00:51:21.700
that you’ve come in contact with immediately and that you wash those clothes

00:51:21.700 –> 00:51:25.840
and get rid of those clothes if you think you’ve come into it because the oil does,

00:51:26.160 –> 00:51:29.820
you know, the oil can get on your pets, the oil can get on your clothes.

00:51:29.820 –> 00:51:31.920
And then if you get it on your skin, it’s over with.

00:51:32.240 –> 00:51:37.720
So what does poison ivy look like? So I would encourage you to go onto the interwebs

00:51:37.720 –> 00:51:42.960
and, and search it and look at the pictures, but just to kind of give you a description of it.

00:51:43.500 –> 00:51:50.340
It is a vine and its leaves grow in clusters of three.

00:51:50.580 –> 00:51:55.980
So for every leaf, you can bet it’s got two little brothers and sisters with it, right?

00:51:56.340 –> 00:52:03.060
And then most of the stuff that I see that I’ve been into at least is each leaf,

00:52:03.260 –> 00:52:05.620
they may not be super well pronounced.

00:52:05.620 –> 00:52:10.500
They’re not always going to be, well, they’re not going to stand out,

00:52:10.640 –> 00:52:14.460
but each leaf generally has five points on it.

00:52:14.620 –> 00:52:18.900
Not like sharp pointy, but you’ll see when you see the pictures of it,

00:52:19.000 –> 00:52:24.200
you go, oh yeah, leaves clusters of three, and then they’ll have five points.

00:52:24.340 –> 00:52:27.700
And sometimes those points are a little pointier than others.

00:52:27.860 –> 00:52:33.880
And sometimes they’re rounded to the point of almost just looking like a smooth leaf.

00:52:34.640 –> 00:52:38.820
The leaves are green in the summer. In the spring, when they’re first coming

00:52:38.820 –> 00:52:40.900
out, they can be orangish and red.

00:52:41.440 –> 00:52:47.520
And then in the fall, they can be this red and yellow speckled whatever.

00:52:47.940 –> 00:52:54.460
But here’s the bear about poison ivy, speaking of bears, is that in the wintertime,

00:52:54.600 –> 00:52:56.860
it may not have any leaves on it.

00:52:57.080 –> 00:53:02.520
And so your rule is if you see vines growing up a tree or across the ground

00:53:02.520 –> 00:53:06.820
and you don’t know for sure what it is, don’t just grab that vine,

00:53:06.820 –> 00:53:11.200
assuming it’s honeysuckle or, you know, katsu or something like that.

00:53:11.300 –> 00:53:15.380
It could likely be poison ivy. And look, there’s some vines,

00:53:15.460 –> 00:53:18.840
there’s a lot of vines out there and a couple of them may even kind of look

00:53:18.840 –> 00:53:21.000
suspiciously like poison ivy.

00:53:21.140 –> 00:53:25.960
They’re not. But my point is, is in the wintertime, if you get into the vines

00:53:25.960 –> 00:53:32.080
or the roots of the poison ivy, you can still get that oil on you and you’re in trouble.

00:53:32.260 –> 00:53:35.140
The other thing and on that topic.

00:53:36.117 –> 00:53:40.357
Another reason why you want to avoid anything with vines on it is because let’s

00:53:40.357 –> 00:53:44.537
say you find some branches or logs that look like perfectly good firewood,

00:53:44.657 –> 00:53:46.057
but they’ve got vines on them.

00:53:46.237 –> 00:53:49.097
Do you know for sure what that vine is? Because here’s the thing.

00:53:49.337 –> 00:53:53.337
The last thing that you want to do is burn poison ivy in your campfire.

00:53:53.897 –> 00:54:02.357
Poison ivy is poisonous and the smoke can get into your eyes and the smoke can get into your lungs.

00:54:02.577 –> 00:54:04.557
Now figure that one out.

00:54:05.017 –> 00:54:09.557
So you want to be super cautious, whether it’s green and obvious what it is

00:54:09.557 –> 00:54:13.317
or anything with vines, and it’s just better to avoid the vines,

00:54:13.477 –> 00:54:17.097
especially if it’s wintertime, just assume it’s poison ivy or something bad.

00:54:17.237 –> 00:54:20.577
And there’s plenty of other woods, plenty of other wood in the,

00:54:20.637 –> 00:54:22.417
in the forest to gather for fire.

00:54:22.557 –> 00:54:28.797
Oh, and if you do get poison ivy, the key is not to scratch it and to get it dried out.

00:54:28.957 –> 00:54:33.777
So even just dabbing isopropyl alcohol in it, eh, is it great for your skin?

00:54:33.937 –> 00:54:38.897
No, but I’m trying to dry up these blisters full of, you know,

00:54:39.217 –> 00:54:40.937
water and poison ivy oil.

00:54:41.137 –> 00:54:46.537
So I think I’ll, you know, I’ll deal with the dry skin because I’m trying to dry out this rash.

00:54:46.657 –> 00:54:50.557
But there’s some good products on the market too that I recommend.

00:54:50.877 –> 00:54:54.817
Calamine lotion can help with the itching, but it is not going to do a whole

00:54:54.817 –> 00:54:59.257
lot for drying up the rash per se. The biggest thing that you can do,

00:54:59.377 –> 00:55:02.657
biggest favor you can do yourself is just not itch it.

00:55:03.657 –> 00:55:08.637
So let’s talk about food and water because this is another big one. You know, you know.

00:55:09.668 –> 00:55:13.528
You got to plan ahead. And that’s just a theme in life.

00:55:13.668 –> 00:55:19.348
You got to, you just have to plan for these things and your food and water needs

00:55:19.348 –> 00:55:20.448
are no different, right?

00:55:20.708 –> 00:55:24.728
Whether you’re taking a day trip or camping for the weekend,

00:55:25.148 –> 00:55:28.368
car camping, or taking a backpacking trip into the middle of nowhere,

00:55:28.368 –> 00:55:33.648
you really need to know what your meal needs are. And most importantly, your water needs.

00:55:34.428 –> 00:55:37.428
And so just talking about food here real

00:55:37.428 –> 00:55:40.788
quick just rattling off some random random

00:55:40.788 –> 00:55:44.008
thoughts here i mean really you want to wash your hands before handling

00:55:44.008 –> 00:55:47.268
before and after handling food it’s easiest

00:55:47.268 –> 00:55:50.028
to deal with your food if you prep it

00:55:50.028 –> 00:55:55.168
ahead of time you want to prep that food if you do do if you do food prep at

00:55:55.168 –> 00:55:59.848
your campsite or whatever you want to prep it on clean surfaces and you don’t

00:55:59.848 –> 00:56:03.568
want to cross contaminate you know you don’t want to chop up your veggies right

00:56:03.568 –> 00:56:09.628
in the juices of the raw chicken that you just put on the kebabs or whatever it is.

00:56:10.328 –> 00:56:14.948
I’ve always said, this is just something that I live by, I don’t take pork or

00:56:14.948 –> 00:56:17.068
fish camping. I just don’t.

00:56:17.268 –> 00:56:21.568
Those two types of meats typically can go bad relatively quickly,

00:56:21.568 –> 00:56:25.468
and I’m not saying it’s gonna happen all the time, but just as a general safety

00:56:25.468 –> 00:56:28.448
precaution, I don’t take those two foods camping.

00:56:28.768 –> 00:56:33.128
But if you did, if you were really hankering for those pork chops or maybe that

00:56:33.128 –> 00:56:35.928
fish filet, you just got to do it.

00:56:36.148 –> 00:56:40.028
I would recommend you eating it the first night that you’re there so that it

00:56:40.028 –> 00:56:43.188
doesn’t stay in the cooler and run the risk of going bad on you.

00:56:43.348 –> 00:56:47.548
The importance of washing your dishes and utensils. It’s very important.

00:56:47.948 –> 00:56:52.708
Obviously, we wouldn’t be talking about it. It’s a safety issue, right?

00:56:52.868 –> 00:56:57.168
And so the idea is that you want to heat up water to it being hot.

00:56:57.608 –> 00:57:05.548
And when you wash your dishes, You know, you want to think in terms of having a sudsy bath pot,

00:57:05.748 –> 00:57:11.908
a rinse pot, and then if you’ve got the luck to have a third pot in the sanitization

00:57:11.908 –> 00:57:14.408
tabs, you want to have a third one for sanitization.

00:57:14.568 –> 00:57:16.688
So the first pot, obviously, you’re going to scrub.

00:57:17.752 –> 00:57:20.612
And the second one you’re going to rinse, and then you can put your stuff out

00:57:20.612 –> 00:57:24.732
to dry. If you’ve got the luxury, you know, and you have the capabilities of

00:57:24.732 –> 00:57:26.912
making a sanitation pot, you can do that.

00:57:27.092 –> 00:57:31.192
Otherwise, you just want to make sure that you use hot water,

00:57:31.332 –> 00:57:34.372
as hot as you can stand it, and then use soap.

00:57:34.492 –> 00:57:40.052
And then rinse well, because nobody wants to get dysentery from dirty dishes

00:57:40.052 –> 00:57:43.532
or soap residue on said dirty dishes.

00:57:43.712 –> 00:57:46.932
And that’s no bueno at all. and look

00:57:46.932 –> 00:57:50.652
don’t worry about the soap there’s plenty of biodegradable soaps

00:57:50.652 –> 00:57:53.772
out there that allow you to wash your

00:57:53.772 –> 00:57:56.432
hands and wash your dishes without it being such a

00:57:56.432 –> 00:57:59.432
huge threat to the environment so the other

00:57:59.432 –> 00:58:04.012
thing that i want to talk about is leaving food out leaving food out in your

00:58:04.012 –> 00:58:08.852
campsite don’t do it now if you’re in a backpacking trip okay well that’s easy

00:58:08.852 –> 00:58:12.812
you hoist it up in a tree you get some twine you get some rope whatever and

00:58:12.812 –> 00:58:16.652
you hoist that thing up in the tree plus the fact, if you’re in bear country,

00:58:16.852 –> 00:58:20.252
which you could be in bear country, any place you go into the woods here in

00:58:20.252 –> 00:58:24.712
Georgia, just about it seems you want to hoist that up in a tree and get it out of the way.

00:58:25.232 –> 00:58:29.252
If you’re car camping, as they call it, you know, like I was up at a state park

00:58:29.252 –> 00:58:32.372
back in June, I think this year, May or June.

00:58:32.692 –> 00:58:38.312
And I wheeled, we were doing walk-in camping, which meant I got to wheel or

00:58:38.312 –> 00:58:43.312
carry the cooler about 200 yards to and from the campsite each time.

00:58:43.312 –> 00:58:50.092
That was fun, but you don’t want to leave those coolers out in your campsite. Food attracts animals.

00:58:50.732 –> 00:58:56.712
Animals smelled better than you and me, and that cooler is not going to keep anything out.

00:58:56.812 –> 00:59:03.012
It sure isn’t going to keep a bear out, and it’s not even going to keep a raccoon out.

00:59:03.112 –> 00:59:06.832
And if you’ve ever had any interactions with a raccoon, you’ll understand why.

00:59:07.112 –> 00:59:10.972
They’ll get into that cooler. So put your food up, either string it up in a

00:59:10.972 –> 00:59:15.352
tree or take the time to wheel that cooler back to your car and lock it up in

00:59:15.352 –> 00:59:16.492
the trunk or the back seat.

00:59:17.195 –> 00:59:22.115
Don’t leave food out and around the campsite. You know, talking about not taking

00:59:22.115 –> 00:59:25.075
what not to take for food, funny story.

00:59:25.255 –> 00:59:29.735
So we were up back in the mid nineties, early nineties again,

00:59:29.755 –> 00:59:34.115
and some high school, we took a couple of high school buddies with us camping.

00:59:34.355 –> 00:59:39.255
And one guy that we went with, good friend at the time, he had never been camping

00:59:39.255 –> 00:59:42.335
before in his life. And we’re like, come on, man, it’s going to be the four

00:59:42.335 –> 00:59:43.755
of us. This is going to be awesome.

00:59:44.055 –> 00:59:48.915
Let’s go. But dude, Here are some things not to pack food-wise.

00:59:49.095 –> 00:59:55.075
And so, you know, no pork, no fish, no things that can spoil easily, you know.

00:59:55.395 –> 00:59:58.715
Don’t take shrimp, you know, whatever it is.

00:59:59.075 –> 01:00:02.435
And this guy, we called him Shed Spread.

01:00:02.595 –> 01:00:06.215
His last name was Shed, and we nicknamed him. I think I was the one that nicknamed

01:00:06.215 –> 01:00:07.795
him Shed Spread in high school.

01:00:07.955 –> 01:00:11.895
But anyway, Shed Spread brings a cooler. And first of all, we knew something

01:00:11.895 –> 01:00:16.195
was wrong because his cooler weighed an absolute freaking ton.

01:00:16.375 –> 01:00:18.535
And yeah, you know, you get some food in there and ice.

01:00:18.755 –> 01:00:24.015
Certainly coolers are heavy. No, no, there was something way off with this cooler.

01:00:24.235 –> 01:00:28.615
Well, come to find out that Shed Spread had bought, brought cans.

01:00:29.255 –> 01:00:37.615
Tins, whatever it comes in of goose liver pate and then genuine artificial crab legs in his cooler.

01:00:37.615 –> 01:00:41.635
Well, needless to say, by day three…

01:00:42.014 –> 01:00:47.714
The back of the truck where we were keeping our coolers and the moment that

01:00:47.714 –> 01:00:54.134
you flipped open the lid on his cooler, needless to say, it was not pleasant.

01:00:54.534 –> 01:00:57.854
So the point is, be smart with what you pack food-wise.

01:00:59.134 –> 01:01:00.774
Let’s talk about water.

01:01:02.194 –> 01:01:06.754
And it’s critical, right? Above all else, you need water.

01:01:06.914 –> 01:01:10.294
And even if you take a day hike, you need to make sure you have enough water.

01:01:10.294 –> 01:01:14.154
You know, there’s horror stories of people even walking, trying to walk into

01:01:14.154 –> 01:01:17.854
the basin of the Grand Canyon, and it’s just a couple hour day hike, right?

01:01:18.154 –> 01:01:22.934
And them having to be rescued and drug out because they either didn’t take any

01:01:22.934 –> 01:01:26.374
water because they thought it’d be a short, easy trip, or they didn’t take enough

01:01:26.374 –> 01:01:29.654
and they ran out and it was a big, big issue for them, right?

01:01:29.654 –> 01:01:39.194
So plan your trip accordingly, plan to have for any half day hike I would have

01:01:39.194 –> 01:01:41.794
in, this is just me, right? I’m spitballing here.

01:01:41.894 –> 01:01:46.694
I haven’t looked this up officially, but you know, you better plan to have a

01:01:46.694 –> 01:01:51.554
minimum of a quart of water in a backpack along with your first aid and trauma

01:01:51.554 –> 01:01:54.414
kit. if you plan on taking a day hike.

01:01:54.534 –> 01:01:59.394
And, you know, the last day hike I went on was wound up being about four hours

01:01:59.394 –> 01:02:00.974
by the time we did everything.

01:02:01.254 –> 01:02:04.914
And, you know, a quart wasn’t enough, right? I really needed two.

01:02:05.614 –> 01:02:09.774
So water is your friend and I can’t emphasize that enough.

01:02:09.934 –> 01:02:13.214
Well, when you’re backpacking, you know, you’re not going to be able to haul

01:02:13.214 –> 01:02:15.754
five gallons of water in your backpack, right?

01:02:15.874 –> 01:02:19.454
So you got to be a little smarter about it. And there’s ways to clean up water.

01:02:19.674 –> 01:02:24.554
You know, So you can use bleach, but that’s kind of a rough way of doing it.

01:02:24.714 –> 01:02:28.834
The more common ways you get some of those iodine pills, things like that.

01:02:30.032 –> 01:02:34.372
The two best ways I can recommend for getting clean water when you don’t have

01:02:34.372 –> 01:02:39.652
the ability to carry a lot with you is A, get a water filtration system and get a good one.

01:02:40.132 –> 01:02:45.292
Plan to be pumping some amount of water out of whatever water source you can find.

01:02:45.532 –> 01:02:50.972
On an emergency small-scale basis, you can even find these life straws that

01:02:50.972 –> 01:02:57.752
you can supposedly stick right down into nasty-ass water and drink from it, hence life straw.

01:02:58.452 –> 01:03:02.612
I’ve got, I forget the brand of it, but I actually have a water filtration system.

01:03:02.752 –> 01:03:06.472
And the worst part about it is it just takes forever to draw up any amount of

01:03:06.472 –> 01:03:09.552
water into whatever container I’m drawing it up into.

01:03:09.952 –> 01:03:17.312
Because the filter material is so many layers and so thick to be able to filter

01:03:17.312 –> 01:03:23.532
out down to X, Y, Z microns and take out this funk and that germ and this disease.

01:03:23.532 –> 01:03:28.712
So, you know, the water filtration is some work, some elbow grease,

01:03:28.912 –> 01:03:33.012
but it’s really the most effective because now you’re packing whatever minimum

01:03:33.012 –> 01:03:37.732
amount of water that you need to get through the hike to get you to your campsite.

01:03:38.112 –> 01:03:41.812
And then, you know, you’ll be able to do the water filtration thing.

01:03:41.952 –> 01:03:46.652
Now, with that being said, generally, you want to try to camp by a water source, right?

01:03:46.792 –> 01:03:51.292
You need to be smart and cognizant of where a water source is near you so you

01:03:51.292 –> 01:03:54.432
have something to filter. So that’s part of that planning part too.

01:03:54.832 –> 01:04:01.172
And then of course, the last or the main way that you can get water prepped to drink is to boil it.

01:04:01.252 –> 01:04:03.532
And I think it’s like you got to boil it for 20 minutes.

01:04:03.912 –> 01:04:08.832
And if you keep adding more water in there, you know, it’s like almost a reset.

01:04:09.272 –> 01:04:12.292
And then all you got to do is worry about filtering it.

01:04:12.412 –> 01:04:16.572
Right. And there’s any number of ways of doing that if it’s really dirty water

01:04:16.572 –> 01:04:19.592
in addition to killing all the funk, because that’s what you’re doing when you’re

01:04:19.592 –> 01:04:22.412
boiling it. You’re not removing dirt out of the water, obviously.

01:04:22.412 –> 01:04:25.212
You’re killing the potential funk that’s in the water.

01:04:25.312 –> 01:04:28.692
So I recommend either boiling or getting a filter.

01:04:28.932 –> 01:04:30.812
And like I said, there are the pills…

01:04:31.734 –> 01:04:34.654
And then there’s always the bleach, but I’d say that’s more in a,

01:04:34.714 –> 01:04:39.814
you got caught with your pants down emergency situation and you got to get something by.

01:04:39.994 –> 01:04:42.834
That was the only time I would personally do the bleach.

01:04:43.554 –> 01:04:48.034
So food and water, that’s where it’s at. Another thing that you want to be aware

01:04:48.034 –> 01:04:52.494
of is, you know, if you have something like a grease pit, you just want to not

01:04:52.494 –> 01:04:55.154
dig it right next to your tent and foodstuffs.

01:04:55.294 –> 01:04:59.974
You want to have it, you know, a good 30, 40 feet away from your camping area.

01:04:59.974 –> 01:05:05.254
And this is the place where you dump that dirty soap water again, biodegradable soap.

01:05:05.494 –> 01:05:10.174
You dump that, you take the grease from the morning bacon, you know, or whatever it is.

01:05:10.254 –> 01:05:14.394
And that’s where you dump that because, you know, even if you’re car camping,

01:05:14.674 –> 01:05:18.374
there’s not necessarily a good way to get rid of grease, right?

01:05:18.374 –> 01:05:21.774
If you’ve cooked for breakfast that morning, just as one example,

01:05:21.874 –> 01:05:23.474
you got to have a place to put that grease.

01:05:24.054 –> 01:05:28.934
So dig yourself a pit, just dig it a good 30, 40 feet away from the campsite.

01:05:28.934 –> 01:05:33.254
And then before you leave, cover it up again, because again, that’s part of that.

01:05:33.714 –> 01:05:38.294
Clean it up before you go. So again, I told you we’d be talking about things

01:05:38.294 –> 01:05:43.114
completely out of order here. And so I’m coming to one of the more important

01:05:43.114 –> 01:05:45.054
pieces that I wanted to talk to you about.

01:05:45.274 –> 01:05:50.534
And that’s people and where they have a place in your plan or where they don’t

01:05:50.534 –> 01:05:51.934
have a place in your plan.

01:05:52.534 –> 01:05:55.494
You know, if you’re planning a backpacking trip, a hiking trip,

01:05:55.654 –> 01:05:59.474
a camping trip, ideally you’re going with someone, but I get it.

01:05:59.594 –> 01:06:03.474
We all, myself included, I’ve been camping by myself before.

01:06:03.754 –> 01:06:08.554
Friend of mine, they’ve taken a number of hiking, camping trips,

01:06:08.914 –> 01:06:13.154
serious hiking, camping trips by themselves. And I get it, but people still

01:06:13.154 –> 01:06:16.014
have a place. People still have a place in your planning.

01:06:16.814 –> 01:06:21.774
And this is especially true if you’re not doing something like a car camping state park trip.

01:06:22.014 –> 01:06:26.294
Like if you’re planning on going out for a hike, you need to do planning.

01:06:26.414 –> 01:06:29.294
You need to know where you’re going. You need to have a map of that area.

01:06:29.474 –> 01:06:31.214
Hopefully you got some map compass

01:06:31.214 –> 01:06:36.094
orientation skill, orienteering skills about yourself just in case.

01:06:36.514 –> 01:06:40.934
You’re going to have your phone. If you got really fancy pants, hopefully you got a GPS.

01:06:41.394 –> 01:06:45.134
I can’t tell you how many stories there are of people going into the woods,

01:06:45.134 –> 01:06:48.374
maybe even just for a day hike or maybe extended trips.

01:06:48.634 –> 01:06:53.054
And they got off trail again, reason not to get off trail, but they got off

01:06:53.054 –> 01:06:56.694
trail and got lost and couldn’t get found couldn’t be found so.

01:06:57.499 –> 01:07:02.339
Knowing where you’re going, knowing what your routes are, having some sense

01:07:02.339 –> 01:07:06.339
of what’s in the area, where the water sources are, what the animals are known

01:07:06.339 –> 01:07:10.459
for being in that area, and getting all that done ahead of time.

01:07:10.619 –> 01:07:16.499
And part of that is sharing those plans with family and friends so that someone

01:07:16.499 –> 01:07:20.979
besides you knows where you are and knows what you’re doing.

01:07:20.979 –> 01:07:25.939
And most importantly, if something goes wrong or you don’t show up when you’re

01:07:25.939 –> 01:07:29.239
supposed to, they know roughly where you should be.

01:07:29.379 –> 01:07:34.519
I mean, if you’re on XYZ course, they’re going to know that you’re likely somewhere

01:07:34.519 –> 01:07:38.999
on that XYZ course or path, right? You’re not five miles off course because

01:07:38.999 –> 01:07:41.219
you went off off off the trail.

01:07:41.879 –> 01:07:47.959
Share those plans and share your timelines like you may not have to say,

01:07:48.079 –> 01:07:52.319
well, I’m going to be at point A this time this day and point B this time that

01:07:52.319 –> 01:07:54.599
day and I’ll call and check in with you.

01:07:54.599 –> 01:07:59.739
You don’t have to do that, but your people should know the day and time that you’re going in.

01:07:59.879 –> 01:08:03.559
They should know where you’re at and they should know when you’re planning or

01:08:03.559 –> 01:08:06.619
expecting to be out the other side or coming home again.

01:08:06.719 –> 01:08:08.759
And you should share that information.

01:08:09.699 –> 01:08:11.459
And like I said, that’s got to

01:08:11.459 –> 01:08:14.879
do with sharing your route and sharing your timeline and your schedules.

01:08:15.119 –> 01:08:19.479
And then, you know, having an emergency contact, like let’s say something happens

01:08:19.479 –> 01:08:25.359
to you and, you know, first responders get to you. Do you have an urgency contact information?

01:08:26.619 –> 01:08:30.119
So people are important in your planning.

01:08:30.279 –> 01:08:33.199
And like I said, ideally, you’re taking a trip with someone,

01:08:33.379 –> 01:08:35.719
right? The buddy system is best, in my opinion.

01:08:36.650 –> 01:08:40.310
So the other thing that I want to talk about relative to people is not just

01:08:40.310 –> 01:08:43.970
their importance in your planning, but also want to talk about what happens

01:08:43.970 –> 01:08:45.970
when you meet people on your trip. Right.

01:08:46.990 –> 01:08:51.210
I believe that most people are good and not ill intended.

01:08:51.350 –> 01:08:55.910
But when you’re out in the middle of nowhere and you’re hiking the Appalachian,

01:08:56.110 –> 01:09:00.030
let’s say, or you’re hiking the backwoods of Maine somewhere,

01:09:00.290 –> 01:09:05.230
wherever it is, or even, you know, North Georgia, where you’re not entirely sure where you’re at.

01:09:06.210 –> 01:09:09.530
You always want to exercise caution when

01:09:09.530 –> 01:09:12.530
you come up across this come across anyone on

01:09:12.530 –> 01:09:16.290
the trail or especially when you’re set up for camping and you’re you’re by

01:09:16.290 –> 01:09:21.670
yourself especially you want to exercise the same caution that you do any other

01:09:21.670 –> 01:09:26.050
time and you want to set back you want to have boundaries set for yourself ahead

01:09:26.050 –> 01:09:32.090
of time and then be willing and firm about making sure they understand your boundaries.

01:09:32.450 –> 01:09:36.990
You want to be situationally aware so someone just doesn’t sneak up on you.

01:09:37.050 –> 01:09:39.530
Now, you’re going to be all relaxed in the woods, and I get that.

01:09:39.710 –> 01:09:44.230
So, situational awareness, you don’t really think about when you’re camping

01:09:44.230 –> 01:09:47.810
and hiking, but it actually couldn’t be further from the truth.

01:09:47.930 –> 01:09:52.190
And so, on a sidebar note, situationally aware still has its place even when

01:09:52.190 –> 01:09:53.310
you’re out in Mother Nature.

01:09:53.510 –> 01:09:56.070
You need to be paying attention to what the weather’s doing.

01:09:56.130 –> 01:09:57.490
That’s situationally aware.

01:09:57.630 –> 01:10:01.470
You need to be on the lookout for any critters. You need to be on lookout for

01:10:01.470 –> 01:10:06.790
that 10-point buck that’s just right up the ridge there in its rut season.

01:10:06.870 –> 01:10:10.650
You need to be aware of that black bear that’s meandering up to your picnic

01:10:10.650 –> 01:10:15.490
table because he thinks you’ve got goodies, or the skunk that walks underneath

01:10:15.490 –> 01:10:18.250
your picnic table where you’re playing Go Fish.

01:10:18.790 –> 01:10:20.510
Funny story. So.

01:10:21.310 –> 01:10:25.730
Campsite up in the Great Smoky Mountains, my family and I spent a tremendous amount of time up there.

01:10:26.390 –> 01:10:31.530
My cousins and I and the family would stay up late playing go fish at the concrete.

01:10:31.930 –> 01:10:35.010
Well, I don’t remember if they were. No, they weren’t concrete picnic tables

01:10:35.010 –> 01:10:36.930
or wooden. Anyway, I digress.

01:10:37.250 –> 01:10:41.370
We’d be sitting there at the picnic tables playing go fish and we’d have skunks

01:10:41.370 –> 01:10:47.610
walk between our legs, between our feet underneath the picnic table while we were playing go fish.

01:10:47.610 –> 01:10:52.430
Well, if you just weren’t aware of the fuzzy critter walking around in between

01:10:52.430 –> 01:10:56.590
your feet like a cat, you would never know that they were there because they’re

01:10:56.590 –> 01:10:57.770
not there to do your harm.

01:10:57.890 –> 01:11:00.570
They’re not running up to you to bite you or anything like that.

01:11:00.950 –> 01:11:04.630
You just have to be aware of them and you have to be aware of them enough to

01:11:04.630 –> 01:11:10.550
know, hey, don’t make any sudden moves or noise because I don’t want to get sprayed by a skunk.

01:11:10.550 –> 01:11:14.770
But I can’t tell you, I’d say on two or three different separate occasions,

01:11:14.770 –> 01:11:19.550
I had skunks walking between my feet while I was playing cards at the table.

01:11:19.730 –> 01:11:23.190
But situational awareness still has a role in the woods.

01:11:23.310 –> 01:11:27.230
That’s my point. And so, you know, you’re going to come across people on occasion,

01:11:27.230 –> 01:11:31.910
even when you’re on that four day hiking trek where you think you’re going to

01:11:31.910 –> 01:11:34.930
God’s country or whatever, no one else will be around. Yeah,

01:11:35.310 –> 01:11:37.590
then inevitably someone will come mucking around.

01:11:37.830 –> 01:11:40.910
So you want to try not to be startled by that, right?

01:11:41.030 –> 01:11:44.410
Because if you’ve been paying attention, you’ve kind of heard them in the area

01:11:44.410 –> 01:11:48.070
or you see their bright jacket or whatever it is and notice.

01:11:49.199 –> 01:11:53.759
And last but not least, and I think this is, well, I know it’s critically important,

01:11:53.999 –> 01:12:00.079
men and women are alike, and especially when you’re alone camping or hiking, listen to your gut.

01:12:00.399 –> 01:12:05.199
Listen to that intuition. Look, if someone’s getting too fresh on the trail,

01:12:05.479 –> 01:12:08.539
don’t be afraid to be rude. Set those boundaries.

01:12:09.259 –> 01:12:12.579
Listen to your gut. So have situational awareness.

01:12:13.999 –> 01:12:16.759
Be be cautious but you can be

01:12:16.759 –> 01:12:19.739
friendly and be prepared to lay out

01:12:19.739 –> 01:12:23.559
those boundaries and then you know after that you know hopefully you’ve got

01:12:23.559 –> 01:12:28.819
some skills to where if something did happen you would at least have a better

01:12:28.819 –> 01:12:33.739
chance of uh fighting off someone if they had ill intent again this is worst

01:12:33.739 –> 01:12:39.039
case scenario right but it’s about having a plan thinking through scenarios ahead of time.

01:12:39.219 –> 01:12:42.679
So at least to have some sort of a plan in your head, the person that’s thought

01:12:42.679 –> 01:12:47.439
through scenarios and what they would do in this situation or that scenario

01:12:47.439 –> 01:12:53.499
is always going to be better prepared than the person that hasn’t given it the first thought.

01:12:53.939 –> 01:12:57.379
But yeah, I would say, I’d say

01:12:57.379 –> 01:13:02.459
have a plan ahead of time and then communicate that plan before you go.

01:13:02.879 –> 01:13:07.819
And then again, if you have the money and the luxury, you know, a GPS is nice.

01:13:07.999 –> 01:13:11.479
And then if you’re in extreme situations, like in the Rockies in the middle

01:13:11.479 –> 01:13:15.619
of nowhere, or you’re skiing or hiking in avalanche country,

01:13:15.759 –> 01:13:19.059
you know, having something like a beacon or a tracker is also something that

01:13:19.059 –> 01:13:21.479
you could do in the most extreme of situations.

01:13:22.019 –> 01:13:26.959
But for the average Joe Schmo, just having a plan ahead of time and communicating it.

01:13:27.059 –> 01:13:30.299
And then ideally being with a buddy as best you can do.

01:13:30.399 –> 01:13:35.639
And then exercise, caution, utilize situational awareness, and listen to your

01:13:35.639 –> 01:13:38.119
gut when it comes to running into people on the trail.

01:13:38.339 –> 01:13:42.279
Some other things that you want to do in your planning is, you know,

01:13:42.379 –> 01:13:46.439
hopefully you’ve got a map of the area. And if you don’t, you at least are somewhat

01:13:46.439 –> 01:13:47.839
familiar with where you’re at.

01:13:48.497 –> 01:13:51.657
And you want to be paying attention to the signs along the trails.

01:13:51.877 –> 01:13:57.297
Sometimes there’ll be signs with carved out trail names and mileage on them,

01:13:57.897 –> 01:14:01.677
arrows pointing different directions. You want to be cognizant of those.

01:14:01.777 –> 01:14:02.977
You want to be looking for those.

01:14:03.157 –> 01:14:06.917
They’re typically at intersections along the trail to kind of give you a sense

01:14:06.917 –> 01:14:09.897
of you’re at this point here, right?

01:14:10.557 –> 01:14:15.277
And then the other thing, which can be difficult depending on how good the service

01:14:15.277 –> 01:14:19.077
is done them is that you’ll look for markers on the trees,

01:14:19.357 –> 01:14:23.757
you know, for this color trail, that color trail, and it’ll literally be either

01:14:23.757 –> 01:14:28.377
tags nailed up on the tree or it’ll be spray paint, right?

01:14:28.537 –> 01:14:31.677
A lot of times you’ll see spray paint marking different trails.

01:14:31.857 –> 01:14:35.877
You know, this is the orange diamond trail, that’s the blue rectangle trail,

01:14:36.017 –> 01:14:37.557
whatever it is, kind of get your bearings.

01:14:37.757 –> 01:14:42.577
You want to be keeping an eye out for that because you get to an intersection, which way do you go?

01:14:42.697 –> 01:14:47.777
Now, Hopefully, if you’re walking and hiking by yourself, you’ve got some sense of direction.

01:14:48.457 –> 01:14:52.597
But if not, and in either case, you definitely want to be looking for those

01:14:52.597 –> 01:14:57.957
signs and you want to be looking for those markers on the trees or posts along the way.

01:14:58.637 –> 01:15:02.457
And look, it doesn’t hurt to know how to use a compass with a map,

01:15:02.617 –> 01:15:03.657
right? And that’s a skill.

01:15:04.017 –> 01:15:09.017
I’ve done it in my past. It’s been a long time. I actually need to go through and refresh my stuff.

01:15:09.017 –> 01:15:14.217
As a matter of fact, one of the many skills that can be found in the Boy Scout

01:15:14.217 –> 01:15:19.977
handbook, and I still have mine, again, I mentioned earlier from 1981 and beyond,

01:15:20.457 –> 01:15:24.237
there’s orientation skills in there, how to use a compass with map.

01:15:24.377 –> 01:15:28.837
And so, yeah, a little extra work. It’s not as hard as you might think it is.

01:15:28.937 –> 01:15:32.777
And it’s worth having the time, especially if you’re going into uncharted territory

01:15:32.777 –> 01:15:35.877
or territories, you’re just not that familiar with yourself.

01:15:36.957 –> 01:15:40.337
And look why why do you want to be responsible for

01:15:40.337 –> 01:15:43.397
yourself why do you want to go through all this care and planning

01:15:43.397 –> 01:15:46.837
and and plan communication it’s because

01:15:46.837 –> 01:15:49.877
when they have to come find you when your

01:15:49.877 –> 01:15:56.417
dumb ass got lost it cost a lot of money and a lot of manpower to search you

01:15:56.417 –> 01:16:01.817
out a story i heard about recently someone walked off the trail up in the smoky

01:16:01.817 –> 01:16:08.557
mountains and And they put 300 people into the woods to try and find this person.

01:16:08.557 –> 01:16:12.617
And I think they did, if I remember the story, but that’s not the point of this.

01:16:12.757 –> 01:16:18.057
The point is, it takes a lot of time and money and manpower to find your dumb

01:16:18.057 –> 01:16:20.717
ass when you do less than intelligence things.

01:16:20.797 –> 01:16:22.857
So that’s why this stuff becomes important.

01:16:23.966 –> 01:16:27.806
The last thing that I want to, the last topic that I want to talk to you about

01:16:27.806 –> 01:16:34.146
is fire and having those wonderful campfires, which we all know and love. At least I do.

01:16:35.466 –> 01:16:39.986
I’ve loved fire ever since I was a kid, you know, and I have to say with personal

01:16:39.986 –> 01:16:44.266
experience and, you know, joking around every other guy’s experience,

01:16:44.446 –> 01:16:48.426
I think there’s a little bit of pyro in every young boy and every guy.

01:16:48.986 –> 01:16:52.706
Not malicious or anything like that, but fire is a wonderful thing.

01:16:52.706 –> 01:16:59.206
A fire is mesmerizing and not only a source of warmth, but gives us the ability to cook.

01:16:59.386 –> 01:17:03.086
And like I said, there’s something mesmerizing with like one of the best things

01:17:03.086 –> 01:17:06.966
about car camping or any kind of camping is when it’s at night and there’s a

01:17:06.966 –> 01:17:10.266
little nip in the air and you’re gathered around the fire and you’re building

01:17:10.266 –> 01:17:16.426
up a nice big warm fire and just staring into the flames and watching the flames. I could do that.

01:17:16.726 –> 01:17:20.586
I mean, that’s like watching an aquarium of fish. Those are that’s one of those

01:17:20.586 –> 01:17:22.526
things that I could just watch endlessly.

01:17:22.826 –> 01:17:27.466
But anyway, talk about fire safety for a moment and some things that you need

01:17:27.466 –> 01:17:28.346
to take into consideration.

01:17:28.786 –> 01:17:31.886
And I’ve built all kinds of fires. But here we go.

01:17:32.046 –> 01:17:35.866
Just a list of some things. So when you’re you know, if you’re car camping in

01:17:35.866 –> 01:17:39.466
an estate park or national park, they generally have fire rings, right?

01:17:39.566 –> 01:17:44.326
They got the nice big round iron rings that make it idiot proof.

01:17:44.326 –> 01:17:48.006
And then a lot of them have stacked rocks around that to kind of hide the fact

01:17:48.006 –> 01:17:51.626
that there’s a ring there with a swivel, swing around grill or whatever.

01:17:52.046 –> 01:17:57.186
Okay, that’s fine. Kind of cheating, but makes it easy and cheap for people

01:17:57.186 –> 01:17:59.146
to deal with when they’re car camping, right?

01:17:59.546 –> 01:18:03.246
And then easy for the park service to take care of.

01:18:03.386 –> 01:18:08.426
And most importantly, contain that fire. That’s really, the fire ring allows

01:18:08.426 –> 01:18:14.666
them to contain the fire, have the fireplace in maybe an otherwise smaller area

01:18:14.666 –> 01:18:18.326
than they might if they were allowing people to build from scratch.

01:18:18.326 –> 01:18:22.026
And then because they have a designated fire pit with that fire ring,

01:18:22.186 –> 01:18:27.326
it keeps people from building fires any which place all over the place in the

01:18:27.326 –> 01:18:29.846
campsite, right? So there’s a lot of advantages to that.

01:18:29.946 –> 01:18:33.986
But let’s say you’re out camping, roughing it, and you’re not in a state park

01:18:33.986 –> 01:18:36.706
and you’re not car camping. you need to build a fire.

01:18:36.946 –> 01:18:38.386
The first thing is you want to

01:18:38.386 –> 01:18:43.506
clear out about a 10-foot clearance radius circle around your fire area.

01:18:43.586 –> 01:18:47.906
And this is just to remove things that would otherwise catch on fire, right?

01:18:48.266 –> 01:18:53.046
The other place where widow makers might come into play, but it really doesn’t

01:18:53.046 –> 01:18:57.366
matter if the branches, limbs are dead or alive, is you don’t want to build

01:18:57.366 –> 01:19:00.426
a fire where you got a bunch of low-hanging branches, right?

01:19:00.546 –> 01:19:04.266
Because those hot ambers can go up there and spark fires, right?

01:19:05.107 –> 01:19:10.327
We know with the forest fires, the wildfires out west, right,

01:19:10.427 –> 01:19:13.967
it doesn’t take much to spark, you know, a careless cigarette being thrown out

01:19:13.967 –> 01:19:18.087
on the side of the road, somebody playing with matches in the edge of the grass,

01:19:18.447 –> 01:19:21.427
someone leaving a fire that hasn’t been put out properly.

01:19:21.627 –> 01:19:23.667
You know, it doesn’t take a lot to have a catastrophe.

01:19:24.127 –> 01:19:29.687
So we want to make sure there’s not things around on the ground that can ignite and burn and spread.

01:19:29.907 –> 01:19:34.387
There’s not anything over the top of the head of us that can burn and spread.

01:19:35.067 –> 01:19:38.607
And by that standard, I don’t really want to build a fire on top of a bunch

01:19:38.607 –> 01:19:43.167
of roots because especially if the roots belong to a dead or dying tree,

01:19:43.387 –> 01:19:46.007
those roots can be dry and actually can burn.

01:19:46.187 –> 01:19:49.707
And here’s the thing about roots is that they can burn underground and that

01:19:49.707 –> 01:19:54.487
fire can pop up some distance away from where the source of the fire was is

01:19:54.487 –> 01:19:56.207
because the fire traveled underground.

01:19:56.627 –> 01:20:01.347
You may not know that, but it’s possible. So avoid overhanging branches,

01:20:01.647 –> 01:20:04.907
low hanging, or really a lot of any branches overhead.

01:20:05.247 –> 01:20:10.127
Don’t build on top of roots and then clear you out about a 10-foot radius around it.

01:20:10.487 –> 01:20:14.327
Keep fuels away from the fire. This seems to be a no-brainer, but…

01:20:15.243 –> 01:20:20.683
Store your, don’t put your kerosene or your propane tanks right next to where

01:20:20.683 –> 01:20:23.023
you’re going to be building a fire, keeping a fire.

01:20:23.163 –> 01:20:28.203
If you’re using lighter fluid, don’t prop it up on the stone right next to your

01:20:28.203 –> 01:20:30.983
fireplace, right? Keep fuels out of the area.

01:20:32.163 –> 01:20:33.703
Honestly, you’d be better off

01:20:33.703 –> 01:20:38.743
keeping them outside that 10 foot area altogether just to be extra safe.

01:20:39.543 –> 01:20:44.763
You’re going to want, you’re going to want to, since you don’t have the convenience

01:20:44.763 –> 01:20:50.863
of an iron fire ring, you’re going to want to use rocks to build a barrier for your fire.

01:20:51.103 –> 01:20:54.623
And the only thing I can tell you about rocks is don’t get rocks out of the

01:20:54.623 –> 01:20:58.503
rivers, lakes, or rocks that are near rivers or lakes.

01:20:58.923 –> 01:21:02.463
Rocks that are near rivers or lakes are like giant sponges.

01:21:02.643 –> 01:21:06.983
Yes, rocks are porous and they act like very hard sponges.

01:21:07.103 –> 01:21:10.863
But the fact of the matter is, is that they can hold a lot of water And what

01:21:10.863 –> 01:21:15.523
happens to a rock that’s got a lot of water in it, if it’s used as a fire pit

01:21:15.523 –> 01:21:17.803
rock, that rock is going to heat up.

01:21:17.843 –> 01:21:22.163
And in some cases, it’s going to heat up super hot, super hot.

01:21:22.323 –> 01:21:27.523
And when that water heats up faster than what it can be released from that rock,

01:21:27.663 –> 01:21:29.503
guess what? That rock’s going to explode.

01:21:30.123 –> 01:21:34.543
Sometimes those explosions just look like splits, the rock splitting.

01:21:34.923 –> 01:21:39.263
Maybe there’s a couple little slivers or chips to fall off. Other times,

01:21:39.503 –> 01:21:45.243
those rocks have been known to literally explode like a time bomb in the fire.

01:21:45.383 –> 01:21:50.743
So get rocks that are not near water sources, especially are out of the out

01:21:50.743 –> 01:21:56.883
of the streams and rivers, which is a tendency to have if there’s no other rocks around.

01:21:56.883 –> 01:22:01.683
But there’s some other things that you can do to make a makeshift ring.

01:22:01.683 –> 01:22:03.623
You can make in-ground fires.

01:22:03.763 –> 01:22:06.843
You can dig rings around your fire area.

01:22:07.083 –> 01:22:12.423
But whatever you want to do, you want to avoid rocks that have been in or near water.

01:22:13.452 –> 01:22:18.272
And the last thing that I’ll touch on relative to fire is when it comes to putting them out.

01:22:18.392 –> 01:22:23.012
Now, look, if you’re camping in a car camping scenario and you’re staying there all weekend,

01:22:23.612 –> 01:22:29.132
do you literally have to douse your fire pit out with water completely every

01:22:29.132 –> 01:22:34.712
single time the fire is done for the night or you get through cooking breakfast the next morning? No.

01:22:35.152 –> 01:22:39.392
But what you do want to do is you want to ensure that your fire is burned down

01:22:39.392 –> 01:22:43.712
enough that there’s no chance of it getting out and spreading, right?

01:22:43.832 –> 01:22:47.072
And this is all dependent on winds and whatever else.

01:22:47.292 –> 01:22:52.352
Like, the winds might be kicking so high before or after a storm or whatever

01:22:52.352 –> 01:22:55.052
that it doesn’t make good sense to make fire, right?

01:22:55.152 –> 01:22:57.752
A, because you’re not going to get it lit anyway, and B, you don’t want any

01:22:57.752 –> 01:23:01.212
ambers blowing off and starting a fire that you don’t know about.

01:23:02.592 –> 01:23:05.272
But when it comes to leaving when it

01:23:05.272 –> 01:23:08.772
comes to leaving to go home when it comes to packing up

01:23:08.772 –> 01:23:12.012
and moving on to your next campsite on your backpacking journey

01:23:12.012 –> 01:23:15.092
whatever it is you want to make sure that fires out

01:23:15.092 –> 01:23:19.292
you don’t want to just let the wood burn all the way down you want to take the

01:23:19.292 –> 01:23:25.212
extra steps to get water and put that fire completely out and make sure it’s

01:23:25.212 –> 01:23:29.172
cool and the way you do that is getting water which is another reason why it’s

01:23:29.172 –> 01:23:32.252
important to be by a water source, getting water.

01:23:32.472 –> 01:23:36.932
And the way I learned to do it again in the Boy Scouts, and this was just mostly

01:23:36.932 –> 01:23:41.512
to keep the soot and ashes and smoke and steam from blowing up in your face

01:23:41.512 –> 01:23:43.912
as you get your pot, your bucket of water or whatever,

01:23:44.112 –> 01:23:48.892
and you start splashing the water onto the fire instead of pouring it all on

01:23:48.892 –> 01:23:50.552
there in one fell swoop, you know.

01:23:50.732 –> 01:23:54.672
But however, you want to make sure that fire is completely out.

01:23:54.792 –> 01:23:59.712
And so you do that with adding water and getting a stick and stirring it up.

01:23:59.912 –> 01:24:03.992
And that way you’re sure to uncover any of those hot coals that are down in there.

01:24:04.928 –> 01:24:12.308
To copy the words of an infamous bear, spokesman bear, only you can prevent forest fires.

01:24:12.548 –> 01:24:17.568
And making sure those fires are out completely before you leave the scene is,

01:24:17.688 –> 01:24:20.448
aside from not playing with fire when you’re in the woods,

01:24:20.988 –> 01:24:25.628
making sure fires are put out all the way and properly is the best way to help

01:24:25.628 –> 01:24:29.808
ensure less chance of a forest fire caused by anything you’ve done.

01:24:30.388 –> 01:24:34.008
So that wraps up our chat about safety while hiking and camping.

01:24:34.008 –> 01:24:35.608
I hope you’ve learned something here today.

01:24:35.768 –> 01:24:38.808
I’m going to leave you with this. And it really has nothing to do with safety,

01:24:38.808 –> 01:24:42.028
but just my little bit of political, whatever you want to call it,

01:24:42.168 –> 01:24:46.488
my philosophy when it comes to camping and whatnot is, you know,

01:24:46.528 –> 01:24:50.508
there’s a saying in the community, leave no trace. And that means just that.

01:24:50.908 –> 01:24:55.928
I always, you know, and another one is pack out everything you’ve packed in.

01:24:56.088 –> 01:25:01.348
And I even take that when I’ve been backpacking and camping out in the middle of nowhere,

01:25:01.348 –> 01:25:04.228
I actually will pick up trash that I

01:25:04.228 –> 01:25:07.228
know is not mine right trash that was there before I

01:25:07.228 –> 01:25:10.148
got there trash that I find throughout the

01:25:10.148 –> 01:25:13.088
period that I’m at the campsite whatever I gather

01:25:13.088 –> 01:25:15.868
it all up because it’s important that we take care of nature

01:25:15.868 –> 01:25:18.928
and we take care of those animals and we don’t leave our filth

01:25:18.928 –> 01:25:21.728
out there for others to have to deal with and for nature to

01:25:21.728 –> 01:25:26.288
have to deal with so with that I’m going to wrap it up hope you guys can take

01:25:26.288 –> 01:25:30.668
away a few nuggets of information and look if you like this or other podcasts

01:25:30.668 –> 01:25:33.948
that we’ve done tell your friends and family we’d greatly appreciate it and

01:25:33.948 –> 01:25:37.908
if you have an opportunity to rate us we’d love to have a five-star review from

01:25:37.908 –> 01:25:40.648
you as well so take care and we’ll look forward to.

01:25:40.720 –> 01:26:02.174
Music.