 |
| The Canadian bush, near the shore of Lake Louisa, Algonquin Provincial Park, photograph by the author. |
You
are “misplaced”1 in the woods and the Sun is going down! According to your finger clock, you have
about four-fingers or an hour, till full dark (for more information on “Estimating
The Time Till Sunset”, click HERE). You are alone and the night-time sounds of
the forest scare you. You are tired, but
you are afraid to sleep because your fire might go out or maybe you will freeze
to death while you sleep? Maybe you are
afraid of the dark?
No
one likes to be scared; however, fear is a normal emotional response to an
unexpected and stressful situation. It
can and will happen to you, if you ever become “misplaced”. It even happens to experienced guides and
survival writers, like me, from time to time.
There is no sin in being afraid, however giving into to your fears and
panicking is dangerous! If you panic in
the woods, or in any situation really, the situation will only get worse. Panicking in the woods means that instead of
being simply “misplaced”, you are now “lost” and on the path to death!
Should
you become “misplaced” or worse yet “lost” your greatest enemy will be your
fears, and once fear has set in, it is swiftly followed by the rest of the
“Seven Enemies of Survival”2: cold, thirst, hunger, boredom, loneliness,
pain and fatigue; all of which can make your fears worse and lead to
panic. These enemies of survival may
attack in groups, and in which case they have a cumulative effect, or
singly. Since they are familiar to us, we
sometimes overlook them, until it is too late.
These psychological enemies of survival are real and your mental
reactions to them, if not firmly controlled can increase your fears and lead to
panic: not to be too melodramatic, your reaction to them will determine if you
live or die.
Name
Them to Tame Them...
The
best thing to do if you are scared is to name your fears and talk about them
aloud to yourself. Simply by verbalizing
and naming your fears you can start to control them. Things are never as scary as you imagine them
to be.
 |
An excerpt from “Psychological
Aspects and Seven Enemies of Survival”, by Flight Officer E. M. Beldam, page 31
So
just what are we afraid of? Below are
some of the common fears that plague people, both adults and children, when
they are “misplaced” in the wilderness.
Scary
Night-time Sounds...
“Shhh...What’s
that?! I think I heard something!” Have you ever had a conversation like that
while sitting around a campfire late at night?
Imagine that you are alone, without a fire and you are “misplaced”. Now imagine that you are injured or a
child. Wow, that just got scary very,
very fast, didn’t it? So, what do you do
in a situation like that?
 |
Information on the International
Whistle Code from the back of a Fox 40 Whistle package, picture by the author.
Simple,
if you hear a noise in the woods, a good rule is to “answer a noise with a noise”. Pull out your whistle and blast three,
three-second long whistle blasts at it, wait a minute and do it again, and keep
doing it until you feel better. Usually you
don’t have to worry about wild animals, since they don’t like to be near
people. If it was an animal that made
the noise, then it will run away, if it was a rescuer that made the noise, then
you are found.
“What
if I don’t have a whistle?” If you
don’t have a whistle, and you should always have one if you go into the
wilderness, sing your favorite song, bang a stick on a log or a rock, or as a last
resort, shout.
 |
| An excerpt from “Scouts and Outposts”, The Climbers’ Club Journal, page 178 |
“Why
is it important to always have a whistle”, you ask? I often ask students of my survival classes,
“how long can you yell for help, before you become hoarse?” Another question that I always ask, “How
far do think your shouts for help will carry?” The answers to these questions are, unfortunately,
not very long and not as far as you would like.
Shouts for help can only be heard for about 100 meters or yards,
depending upon the atmospheric conditions and whether there are leaves on the
trees or not, which in the grand scheme of the wilderness isn’t very far. A whistle on the other hand can be heard for
much greater distances, between 200 to 400 meters or yards, depending on what
type of whistle that it is3. This
is why whistles are important survival tools and you should never leave home
without one.
If
I Fall Asleep...
Have
you ever been “misplaced” in the wilderness and thought, “If I fall asleep,
I might freeze to death!” What about
“If I fall asleep, my fire might go out!”
 |
| An excerpt from “Survival In The Open”, by John T Flynn, M.D., page 62 |
I
have slept outside, rough4 a number of times and I have been pretty
cold, and sometimes I had a fire and sometimes I didn’t. What I noticed was, whenever the fire burned
down or I was too cold to sleep, I shivered myself awake. Sometimes if your fire burns low, you will
have do more than just throw wood on it, you might have to blow it back to life
from the hot embers! This is why you
should always keep plenty of tinder on hand.
If you are sleeping without a fire and you wake up because you are cold,
it is time to do some exercises; jumping jacks, deep knee bends, walking around
and around a large tree trunk, whatever it takes to warm you up and get the
blood flowing again.
In
the Dark of the Night!
 |
| A campfire on Lake Louisa, Algonquin Provincial Park, photo by the author. |
Have
you ever been all alone in the woods at night without a fire? It is really dark and kinda scary. It’s hard not to be afraid when you can’t see
your hand in front of your face. Don’t
forget that there is nothing wrong with being scared of the dark, a lot of
people are. Also, remember that nothing
changes just because the sun goes down and it gets dark. You can overcome your fear of dark by
memorizing your surroundings, while it is light, so that you can see with your
memory when it gets dark.
No
matter what you are scared of, remember to keep busy and to keep calm by
singing, whistling, making plans for what you will do later to help yourself
survive, or even by telling yourself jokes or stories. Talk to yourself out
loud; go ahead, no one but you can hear you anyways. Use your imagination to pretend you are
somewhere else that you really enjoy, imagine doing something fun or eating a
big meal. Do whatever it takes to make
yourself feel better and to keep your fears from turning to panic. Remember, it okay to be scared and “misplaced”
things are found, but if you panic you are “lost” and sometimes “lost” things
are just never found.
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE.
Don’t forget to follow me on both The
Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE,
and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free
to leave a comment on either site. I
announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions,
and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.
That
is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!
Notes
1 For
years I have taught that, you are never “lost”, only “misplaced”, because
misplaced things are found, lost things are not and that is scary. The reason that this distinction is
important, is that in the woods, panic kills, and sometimes word-games make all
the difference in your ability to deal with “wood shock” and overcome panic. For more information read “You Are Never
Lost, Only Misplaced…©”, HERE.
2
The “Seven Enemies of Survival”, or as they are sometimes called “The Seven
Deadly Enemies of Survival”; are pain, cold, thirst, hunger, fatigue, boredom
and loneliness. Your psychological
reaction to these enemies of survival largely determine if you will or won’t
survive an unexpected situation in the wilderness. The “Seven Enemies of Survival” as a concept
was first developed by Ellis Paul Torrance, in 1953.
3
Scott Free, the author of “Whistle Test: Bigger, Better, New & Improved”, stressed
in his article that the greater the distance over which your whistle could be
heard, the greater the lung power required to blow it. If you are injured, exhausted, elderly or a
child the more powerful whistles might be impossible for you to use.
4 “Sleep
rough”, this is a British phrase, which means “to sleep outside because
you do not have anywhere to live”, which if you are “misplaced” in the
wilderness is true. Macmillan Dictionary, https://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/sleep-rough
Sources
Andrews,
Arthur Westlake; “Scouts and Outposts”, The Climbers’ Club Journal, Vol.
VII, No. 28, [George Philip & Son, London, 1905], p 178 https://books.google.com/books?id=sU5NAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA180&dq=scout+how+far+shout&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&ppis=_e&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiRrYTP7v_nAhVOmuAKHTiGBxAQ6AEwBnoECAQQAg#v=onepage&q=scout%20how%20far%20shout&f=false,
accessed March 3, 2020
Beldam,
Flight Officer E. M.; “Psychological Aspects and Seven Enemies of Survival”, Medical
New Letter, Vol. 31, No. 12, [United States Navy, Bethesda, Maryland, June
30, 1958] page 31, https://books.google.com/books?id=0ONHAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA12-PA31&dq=seven+enemies+of+survival&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjL3Pi55_7nAhXsm-AKHRqTDQIQ6AEwAXoECAUQAg#v=onepage&q=seven%20enemies%20of%20survival&f=false,
accessed March 3, 2020
Free,
Scott; “Whistle Test: Bigger, Better, New & Improved”, October 25, 2011, https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/whistle-test-bigger-better-new-improved.894108/
Department
of the Air Force, Survival Training Edition, AF Manual 64-3, [US
Government Printing Office, Washington DC August 15, 1969] p 1.13 - 1.15
Flynn, John T, M.D., “Survival In The Open”, Flying,
January 1961, Volume 68, Number 1, [Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, New York,
NY], p. 62, 80-82, https://books.google.com/books?id=1ZUDOCzJUrcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Flying+Magazine+Jan+1961&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiu0OuB3eznAhWIlHIEHcs4D8AQ6AEwB3oECAUQAg#v=onepage&q=Flying%20Magazine%20Jan%201961&f=false, accessed 2/25/20
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