Covid has been a real problem for us here at The Infographics Show. As you've probably noticed,
we haven't put many challenge episodes out in the last 9 or so months, and well,
that's because it's really hard to challenge our least important writer- and your favorite lab rat-
to do anything because he can't be around people. Then we got the idea- what if we
sent him somewhere with no people? So we sent him to go live three days out in the desert,
where the only things he could infect with covid were spiders, scorpions, and dangerous snakes!
-Alright challenge fans, gotta say, it's good to be back and doing challenges again.
Covid has made life unbearably boring, and let me tell you: nothing tests your love quite like
forced quarantine together. Luckily, the girlfriend and I are each other's best friends,
but when I got the challenge to go out into the desert for three days... well,
let's just say she was less concerned with my safety than she's been in the past.
So Infographics sent me out to the desert for three days,
and seeing as I'm writing this, I obviously survived. How did it go down? Well,
in some ways easier than expected, in others, much more difficult.
The premise was simple: I got dropped off at a spot somewhere out in the Nevada desert, just over
the border from California. My pickup location was exactly sixty miles from my drop off location,
and I had only a map and a compass to get to my pickup. I wasn't dropped off nearly naked
like I was when I did my forest survival, because the desert is much more lethal than the forest,
so I got a few essentials. I got exactly two canteens of water,
totaling four quarts of water. Seeing as doctors recommend you drink three quarts of water a day,
you can already see a problem with that math. The name of the game would be conservation.
I also got one single, and very thin, emergency blanket, along with a hunting
knife because the California and Nevada desert have coyotes- though me personally,
I'm far more worried about feral pigs. Any hunter in the world will tell you they're more scared of
wild hogs or feral pigs than they are even bears, because those things are absolutely
vicious. Lastly, I had a signaling mirror in case things get really, really bad.
Day one I got dropped off at my location at 6pm, and from that moment on I had 72 hours
to get to my pickup 60 miles away. Now, right off the bat let me make the same disclaimer I
made on my last survival video- do NOT try this if you don't have survival training.
I have years of experience in the world's deserts, because apparently America doesn't like to pick
fights with nice tropical nations anymore, and believe me, this is not for the unprepared.
I got dropped off near sunset because when you're in the desert you want to flip your
sleep schedule. People often make the mistake of thinking you have to conserve water in the desert,
but the truth is that it's far more efficient to conserve sweat. That means traveling at night,
and taking shelter during the hot day, and if you're out in the desert in winter
time you should still be prepared for some very high temperatures.
My small pack made traveling light, which was good, because I wanted to move fast enough to
make good time while identifying good shelter to use during the day. My plan was to move for eight
hours, and then spend two hours moving slower and finding shelter. I was supposed to be mirroring a
hiker or off-roader who wasn't planning for a long trip, so I wasn't allowed to bring extra
clothes or things like that. Instead, I wore jeans and a simple outdoors, white long sleeve shirt.
When you think desert, you think heat, and rightly so, but at night it can get extremely cold-
specially in Nevada where in winter the temperature can swing from as
high as nineties to below freezing in 24 hours. The first night did not disappoint,
and I started shivering pretty quickly so I wrapped myself in the survival blanket.
These blankets are very light and made out of reflective foil, but are made to reflect heat
and hold it in, much like the way you wrap a potato in foil before throwing it in the oven.
You might notice I wasn't given any food, and that was to reflect a real survival
situation. But also, food is a very low priority for you in desert survival,
in fact, it might get you killed. That's because digestion is actually very water intensive,
and can seriously eat up your water budget. In normal survival situations you may have
heard that it's better to do lots of small snacks throughout the day to keep your energy up,
over eating one big meal, and that's true to an extent. In the desert you gotta plan in advance,
and it's better to save up small snacks to have one, single big meal every few days than to
kickstart digestion many times throughout the day by ingesting individual snacks.
Water is everything in desert survival. And that brings me to sweat.
Most people think that humans are not very well adapted to surviving in the desert,
but the opposite is actually true. Humans do quite well in the desert- as long as they have
access to water. Our omnivore diet allows us to eat a variety of things found in a desert,
where a restrictive diet can spell disaster. And our ability to sweat
along with lack of body hair is an extremely efficient cooling system.
When water is limited though, sweat is your enemy.
There's two times you don't want to sweat: in low temperatures, and when water is sparse.
In Arctic survival, if you sweat, you die, because hypothermia can quickly set in.
In the desert, there's less- but still a very real risk of hypothermia at night-
but sweating means losing valuable water.
So as I hiked along I had to check myself to keep up only a moderate pace,
and take frequent rest breaks to avoid sweating. Every single drop of sweat is wasted water,
and a good survivalist will budget every last drop.
As I moved along I kept an eye on the stars for direction. Compasses are great,
but they are prone to magnetic interference in the environment. If you know how to navigate
using the stars though you'll find you can maintain extremely accurate bearings.
Simply pull out your compass every thirty minutes or so to double check yourself.
Speaking of stars, you can see every single one of them if you go far enough out into the desert.
It's honestly incredible, and well worth a day trip out for any of you
city slickers that have never seen the full majesty of the entire milky way on display.
As morning approached I started looking for shelter. Day time shelter is extremely
important in the desert, with the main goal being to keep yourself out of the sun as much
as possible. The only problem was that this part of the desert was almost completely flat,
which only really left me with one very bad option. I found a small wadi and started digging
into the soft soil at the bottom, breaking up the harder parts of the ground with my knife.
This was strenuous work given that I only had my hands and a knife,
and I was sweating, which was bad. If I don't get shelter though, it'd be even worse.
I dug down a solid foot and a half into the ground, right next to where the wadi started
to bank up sharply. Then, I took my survival blanket and turned it shiny silver side outwards,
and using rocks, set it up so it covered the hole, with one side on the ground next to
me on the hole, and the other side about two feet above me on the steep bank of the wadi.
Basically, I made a rough tent, with two large openings that I could slide into and
would work to keep air circulating. The silver reflective side would reflect the
suns' rays and keep me from overheating, but the real key with this type of shelter
is to keep the survival blanket off your body or else you're basically insulating
yourself. That's why digging into the side of a wadi or rise in the ground is critical.
Crawling into my hole I settled in for my first desert day sleep in about eight years. I took
a very long sip from my water- another desert survival myth is that you should do small sips at
a time. Don't, this just ends up being wasteful, take big, long drinks when you really need them.
Being my first day, I could feel light dehydration but nothing too serious- I still had one and a
half canteens left. I'd almost certainly run out of water before the end of the third day,
but if I budgeted right I shouldn't be running the risk of serious dehydration.
Sleeping during the day in the desert is... not easy, to say the least,
but I long ago learned to snooze most places. I stayed put in my hole the entire day,
with the temperature easily climbing into the high eighties. Good thing global warming is a myth,
huh? Also, two scorpions crawled into my sleeping hole, deciding that it was
a good place to hide from the sun. I crushed both of their heads, bit off the stingers,
and threw them in my pack. If I got enough scorpions or other bugs, they'd make a good
snack once I had a sizable enough meal that it was worth using up the water to eat it.
That's another thing about survival- you have to be an opportunist. You don't know what tomorrow
will bring, so if an opportunity for materials or food presents itself,
take it. Today I got two scorpions, I might not find anything else to eat the next two days.
Or my pickup might get into an accident and leave me stranded for days more than I'd planned.
Always be planning ahead, and always be opportunistic.
Another good reason to sleep as much as you can is because, well, laying in a hole
is boring A-F. That's another military survival tip for you: sleep as much as you can,
not just for energy but also to avoid mind-numbing boredom.
As the sun started to go down, I very happily crawled out of my hole. My stomach was rumbling,
but I wasn't about to waste water on digestion. You can easily survive while
hungry, most people just don't like the uncomfortable feeling of slow starvation.
By my estimate, I'd made around 22 miles the first night, which was really good progress.
The cool temperature helped me control my sweating, allowing me to push myself harder.
Also, I'm in good shape, traveling light, and the desert was really flat. I haven't pushed
myself this hard in a while though, and I'll admit: covid quarantine has made me kind of soft
around the belly, as the girlfriend is fond of pointing out as she pokes at me and makes the
pillsbury doughboy giggle. I could feel blisters forming on my feet, but I'd have to tough it out.
My second night was, well, pretty uneventful to be honest.
The desert is so sparsely populated that wildlife isn't much of a threat,
at least until you start looking for shelter- because that's basically what it too is doing.
The crystal clear night sky is something amazing, and you can see every single star in the sky...
and maybe I saw something more. Listen, I'm not one of those UFO types, and I think the
idea of aliens flying across the galaxy just to flash some lights in our sky is pretty stupid,
but I swear I saw a light for a while that seemed to be moving... well, unnaturally. Then it just
faded away. Weird, but I reminded myself that Area 51 is also in Nevada, so who knows what I saw.
Speaking of weirdness- here's a special announcement for all you
cryptid fans. This spring I will be officially undertaking a hunt for bigfoot,
and because you guys have been asking for it: yes, it will feature real camera footage and not just
animation. I'll be recording my trip and my findings all for your viewing pleasure.
We saw all the comments you guys made in my forest survival video about possibly hearing Bigfoot,
and the Infographics show was like, hey, why don't you go find one? So I said sure, and we
carefully researched a site in Oregon that's super remote and booming with reported bigfoot activity.
Will the girlfriend be making an appearance? Maybe, I still haven't convinced her yet.
She's not really the 'camping' type. But, even if I don't get bigfoot on camera,
I'll at least be able to put to rest all the rumors in the comments section that I'm not
a real person. Do you know how weird it is to have people say you don't exist?!
Anyways, stay tuned for that challenge episode dropping early this summer.
As long as Oregon's forests don't go up in flames like last summer.
Alright, so night two I made really good progress thanks to the desert
being so flat and featureless. The day had taken its toll on me though,
and by the time dawn came around I had only half a canteen of water left. I knew I'd inevitably
sweat during the day no matter how much I tried to stay out of the sun, so day three
I'd likely be running with zero water. Pushing myself as hard as I was, that wasn't good news-
you can go without water for three days before running risk of deadly dehydration, but that's
if you're not really doing much physical activity. I still had over twenty miles to go,
and I could definitely feel the effects of dehydration from my water rationing.
I got supremely lucky on dawn of day 3 and found a small cave. Well, it was more like a
rocky outcropping, with a huge slab of rock jutting out from the side of a large bluff.
It was deep enough that I'd be able to stay out of the sun, but the entire time I was worried about
the bluff coming down on top of me, because your mind really loves to act irrationally.
During the day I made it a point to take my shirt off and lick the inner armpit areas. Yes,
this sounds disgusting, but it was important that I get some salt back into my system, seeing
as all I had brought was water. I considered eating my two scorpions, but they were tiny,
maybe if I had five or six of them they'd make a decent meal. Despite my rumbling stomach,
it just wasn't worth it to burn water for two quick bites.
During the day I heard what's probably the most terrifying sound you can hear
in the American southwest- bees. Not just any bees though, these desert-dwelling bees were
almost certainly the dreaded Africanized honey bees, or killer bees. These bees
are incredibly ornery, and vicious about attacking anything that disturbs them.
Them flying around in a massive swarm during the winter could only mean one thing though:
something had messed up wherever they had made their hive. Meaning they'd be super
angry. Luckily for me, the bees went on their happy, murdery way, leaving me completely alone.
I got an early start on night three, walking before the sun was fully down and drinking the
very last of my water. Now survival was serious. If I missed my pickup for some reason, or if
the person picking me up got into an accident and couldn't come, I could be out here alone for days.
I am never really worried in a survival situation until I've run out of water.
That's when things get deadly serious.
You may have heard that you can cut open cacti and drink the water inside,
and this is wrong. Any moisture you find is going to be very alkaline,
and likely make you sick, leading to vomiting or diarrhea- both things that are extremely
costly in terms of water. You've probably heard you can drink your own pee in an emergency,
and I don't care what Bears Grylls tells you: don't. Seriously, there's a reason pee is a waste
product: because it's full of waste. Drinking your pee will just put all the junk your body
filtered out back inside you, necessitating even more water to get it back out again.
The best way to find water in the desert is to watch for large flocks of birds in the sky.
Individual birds are likely specialized for desert survival, but flocks means that it's a
bird species which is likely transiting the area. That means they'll be looking for water too. Even
better though is finding anything green. You might not find any surface water, but dig down a few
inches and you'll likely hit water. You can do the same in dried up riverbeds, though you may have to
dig a foot or more. Always remember that you're on a water budget though, and digging means sweating.
If you find nothing after few inches, maybe switch locations- or give it up and just focus on moving,
if your survival depends on you getting somewhere other than where you are. Most
times in a survival situation, it's best to just stay put and make yourself as visible as possible.
You've probably also heard about solar stills, and if you have the materials to build one,
it's not a terrible idea to throw one together. Don't expect much out of it though,
even under the best of conditions you'll get little more than a sip.
If you can catch large bugs, popping them open and sucking on the innards can get you
a bit of fluids. Just try not to actually eat them- you don't want to kickstart digestion.
If you are somehow lucky enough to nab a small animal, don't eat it. Instead, drink the blood-
a lot of desert animals survive with no water and instead live on the blood from their prey.
Sadly, my third night presented no opportunities for water, and to make matters worse, the blisters
on my feet were now fully formed. Your feet are incredibly important in a survival situation,
for obvious reasons. You want to always keep them dry and should air them out every time
you stop for a rest. Blisters can be dangerous, because they can lead to infection, so you should
try and keep them dry and clean. I had no way of cleaning them though, so I just had to soldier on.
I'd been keeping track of my progress on a topographical map, which is really great for
keeping your precise location as long as you know how to read these types of maps. However,
in a desert with few significant topographic features, it's a lot harder. I realized I
was significantly off course by the time the sun was rising, and my pickup was supposed to
be meeting me at 8 in the morning. I'd ended up too far north by a few miles.
I thought about double timing it to get to the pickup on time, but in a survival situation you
always have to be thinking tactically. If I got to the pickup and my ride wasn't there, I may have to
survive out here another day or two on my own. I couldn't risk exerting myself and losing even more
energy and water. I can't stress this enough: always, always think ahead in these situations.
I finally made it to my pickup just before noon, and the sun did not disappoint,
roasting me from above. Even with only moderate winter temperatures, the desert provides no
cover and the sun can be brutal. You might be inclined to take off clothing to cool off,
but this is the opposite of what you should do. Instead cover yourself up with light colors in
order to avoid making your sweating worse, and to keep from getting sunburnt. There's a reason
you always see middle east desert tribes covered from head to toe even in 120 degree temperature.
My desert survival was a nice break from covid quarantine, and I ended up losing eight pounds
over three days, so if you're looking for a quick weight loss technique, maybe try getting
lost in the desert and hiking sixty miles in three days. Just joking, seriously, don't.
I'm hopeful that covid will ease up and we can get back to doing challenges,
but I'm really looking forward to this spring and my bigfoot hunt. Hopefully, you guys are too!
Now go watch the original Challenge: Survive
72 hours in the forest alone! Or click this other video instead!