Could You Survive? There is 30 Minutes of Daylight Remaining ©

 

 

So, you have wandered off the trail, while looking at wildflowers, and you have just realized that you have only 30 minutes, before the Sun goes down behind the mountains.  You don’t know where the path back is.  You are carrying a backpack with matches, a light jacket, a first aid kit, a snack, and a canteen.  So now what do you do?!

 

When Does the Sun Go Down?

 

Estimating the time till local sunset, graphic by the Author. 

Do you know how to tell how much daylight there is left before the Sun drops down behind the trees and mountains?  It is important to be able to estimate how many minutes of daylight are remaining, before the Sun goes down behind the local or apparent horizon, because the amount of remaining daylight you have depends on the terrain that you are in, wooded, hilly or flat and the time of year, as the time of sunset varies throughout the year. 

 

To calculate the amount of daylight remaining until sunset, hold your hands at arm’s length away from your body, and count how many fingers fit between the bottom of the Sun and the edge of the local horizon, be it a hill, ridge, or the top edge of a forest¹.  Most survival experts calculate approximately 15 minutes per finger. 

 

This is a well-known hack and is a must know for anyone who spends any time in the woods, and I have used it often over the years. 

 

An Excerpt from Spokane Daily Chronicle, May 2, 1978, “Could You Survive”

So, you have only about two fingers, or 30 minutes of daylight left, that isn’t much time!  So, what would you do?  Would you choose A, B, C or D?  And which one is the correct answer? 

 

When caught in the woods by sundown, S.T.O.P.!  Photograph by the Author.

Master Sergeant John Dzedzy, a United States Air Force survival expert, and the author of this “Could You Survive” article, chose B, build a camp and a fire, and get comfortable for the night. 

 

Don’t travel after dark and find yourself in a Dead End!  Photograph by the Author.

Thirty minutes, or about two fingers of daylight, isn’t much time and as Master Sergeant Dzedzy explained, choice A, keep looking for the trail, choice C, walk uphill to try to find landmarks, or choice D, walk downhill to find a stream and follow it to civilization, all imply nighttime travel, which is inherently dangerous. 

 

It is very easy to trip in the dark and twist your ankle, poke yourself in the eye with an unseen branch, get more hopelessly lost, blunder into a swamp getting wet and chilling yourself, or even falling down a cliff or steep hillside, injuring or possibly, even killing yourself.  Also, as things go from bad to worse, you run the risk of panicking, and then you are truly lost!  If you insist on traveling after dark, through an area that you are unfamiliar with, you just might find yourself in a dead end!

 

So, instead of keeping moving and trying to walk out, spend the remaining 30 minutes of daylight, finding or building a windbreak and gathering plenty of firewood.  Ideally, and here is a pro-tip, you should always try to setup camp when there are still at least two hours, or eight fingers of daylight, remaining in the day.²  So, with only 30 minutes of daylight remaining you are going to have to work fast!

 

An excerpt from Handbook For Boys, by the Boy Scouts of America, June 1953, page 157.

You lose body heat to the wind, so always try to find a windbreak, and get out of the wind.  This will reduce the effects of wind chill and at the same time protects you from any wind-blown rain, sleet, and snow.  The lee side of the windbreak, the side downwind, or behind the windbreak, will offer you protection from the wind.  Oh, and remember you must sit between the fire and the windbreak³. 

 

An excerpt and illustrations from “But If You Do Get Lost”, Outdoors USA: 1967, by Kenneth M. Cole, page 90 to 91.

 

You can either find windbreaks, like large rocks, fallen trees, or thickets and groves of trees, or you can build them yourself from the materials at hand in the wilderness.  There are two types of windbreaks, solid ones like rocks, walls and logs, and permeable ones like groves of trees and thickets, which are also called shelterbelts.

 

The biggest difference between tinder, kindling and fuel wood is size and how much you need.  An excerpt of “How To Build A Campfire”, from Scoutmastercg.com, HERE.

Remember wood always burns faster than you think it will, so to keep your fire going all through the night and into the morning, you are going to need a lot!  Craig White, a Canadian survival expert, teaches that you will burn through a generous armload of wrist sized sticks each hour.  And the colder it is out, the more you will need to burn to stay warm.

 

An Excerpt from Spokane Daily Chronicle, May 2, 1978, “Could You Survive”

Hopefully, Master Sergeant Dzedzy’s advice will help you if you ever find yourself caught out in the woods by nightfall.  Remember to S.T.O.P and don’t panic!

 

S.T.O.P., photograph by the Author.

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “The Navigator’s Triangle ©”, where we will talk about another way to use the stars to find your directions in the wilderness.

 

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 more information on the science behind this read “Estimating The Time Till Sunset©”, HERE, or become a Patreon sponsor and read “Could You Survive?  There is 30 Minutes of Daylight Remaining – Out Take©

 

² You should always set up or start back to camp, or if you are misplaced, start building a shelter and a fire, before what woodsmen call the “big dark”, when there are eight fingers, or about two hours, of daylight remaining.  This is like Emerson Hough’s First Strict Camp Rule for hunters (from Out Of Doors, 1915) who were out hunting during the late fall or winter, which states, “…start home at half past two or three in the afternoon”, which is a couple of hours before the Sun goes down in the late fall and winter.  By returning to, or building you camp, while you still have two hours of daylight remaining, you will reduce your chance of having an accidental overnight adventure or injuring yourself as you make an overnight trek through the wilderness.

 

³ For more information on windbreaks read “...Seeking Shelter Against the Wind©” HERE and “But If You Do Get Lost”, Outdoors USA: 1967©”, HERE.

 

Sources

 

Boy Scouts of America, Handbook For Boys, [Boy Scouts of America, New York, New York, June 1953], page 157

 

“Calculating Sunset Time With Your Fingers”, http://awesci.com/calculating-sunset-time-with-your-fingers/, (accessed 11/27/18)

 

Green, Clarke; “How to Build a Campfire”, November 7, 2012, [Dynamik-Gen, 2019] https://scoutmastercg.com/how-to-build-a-campfire/

 

Hough, Emerson; Out Of Doors, (D. Appleton and Company, New York, New York [1915]) p. 269 - 282, reprinted in https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5QadnZNQ1xrsbkS3T4VJlC_uZQ8t4yj2UNH5POGbNio-1SDyFM8TAqUfl7ciDY5CuNZxvnnE0Pcxf1j6Thu_zOs5kz8rgR9MOtsbTxVgRVa3bwaKo0-D5YX2T4JaBO_z6G8vgwFNgLiJ9XCfBVnn9K4qR7ZFa0faNe3zmvfWDfmEo049sqXQlw697XIHDWNblRJj9niiabZoBB7aQHl82tf4y03cpU2hMdLVADF-7P2pvJKsZbLDnJN8ncLZ9IftMudapmn8E, (accessed 11/8/18)

 

Newquist, Susan; “Let Your Fingers Tell Time”, July 31, 2000, https://www.backpacker.com/skills/let-your-fingers-tell-time, (accessed 11/27/18)

 

Oelslager, Dr. Robert W.; Bushcraft, Scouting & Woodlore: Notes, Vol. I, [Privately Published]

  

Spokane Daily Chronicle, May 2, 1978, “Could You Survive”, Master Sergeant John Dzedzy, page 19, https://books.google.com/books?id=KPtLAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA10&dq=%22spokane+daily+chronicle%22+%22could+you+survive%22&article_id=6794,367919&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwioruKYj9v4AhVhD1kFHUluDXMQ6AF6BAgKEAI#v=onepage&q=%22spokane%20daily%20chronicle%22%20%22could%20you%20survive%22&f=false, accessed July 2, 2022

United States Department of Agriculture, Outdoors USA: 1967 Yearbook of Agriculture, [United States Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1967], p 87-89, https://archive.org/details/yoa1967/page/n3, accessed November 2, 2019