We arrived at the terrific 600-foot drop of Dunn’s River Falls and were led down to the bottom by our guide. Donning bathing attire and special water shoes, we stood on the beach and stared at the daunting ascent. We began the climb holding hands in a chain, which wasn’t easy, and at times the chain broke as we used our hands to scramble up huge boulders against the rushing waters. As we struggled, at times waist deep in water, we broke into peals of laughter – whether of hysteria or merriment I cannot now be sure, but the experience was great.

More sensible souls walked up the path at the side of the falls, pausing at the viewing platforms to watch others struggle up the waterfall and taking photographs. Kids loved it, but the drenching was not for everyone! It is certainly a challenging climb in places and took an hour do the whole ascent, although there were opt-out points. Once the top was scaled we had an enormous feeling of achievement as we dripped off to get changed. A happy half-hour was spent recovering as we browsed the local craft market, buying some delicious smelling Blue Mountain coffee beans to take home as a memento of this crazy day.

Definitely a beautiful location and a memorable experience, but next time I will stick to the footpath and be the one taking the photographs!

By Gillian Birch

Before noon and on level terrain, put a stick of around 3ft into the ground. Look for it’s shadow. (If it’s cloudy enough that you don’t have any shadow at all…well, this won’t work and you’ll have to just wish you had a compass or for some sun.)

Compass in the sand - Photo by treehouse1977

Mark the end of this shadow. You can use a stone, stick or whatever is handy.

Use the tip of this shadow for your radius and draw an arc around your stick in the ground. The shadow will get shorter as noon approaches. After noon, it will get longer again. Mark the arc again where the new afternoon shadow touches your arc.

You now have two marked spots. Draw a straight line between the two marks. This makes an East-West line in the dirt. The first mark is in the west and the second is towards the east.

Make a cross. Draw a line that forms right angles across your first line. This is your North-South line.

Compass in the snow - Photo by Uigers

Have you done this before? How did it work in your situation?

By Adam Longfellow

credit: jalalspages

Timing

Remember that the sun is the strongest during the middle four hours of the day, 10am-2pm. That is when protection is most needed.

Elevation

The sun is also stronger the higher you are up in altitude. I used to live in Florida at sea level and now I live at 7,000 feet. The impact of the sun was probably the most surprising difference for me. It feels hotter on the skin even when in cooler air. You burn faster.

Clothes

You can buy clothing with an SPF factor. It costs quite a bit more and it is available at the usual outdoor stores. They breath and keep out the sun at the same time. They may also have more ventilation or options to zip a section off or roll it up. But it’s easy to just deal with what you already may have. Hats should have a wide brim or a neck flap for best protection. Where lighter color clothing. White reflects the sun more than black which absorbs the heat and makes you feel like you are overheating faster. I just shake my head at the goth kids all dressed in black walking around desert towns in 100 plus degree heat. The clothing should be tightly woven as well. Wearing something loosely knitted with holes just lets the sun through. And remember that umbrellas are good for sun as well as rain.

Surface

Reflections can burn. Sand, snow, water all can cause burns from below. Use sunscreen on your neck, chin and areas that you think are covered by your hat.

Stay cool. Stay safe. Get out there.

Spicing up breakfast:
My staple breakfast is oats, raw cooked and any way in between, but I like variety so here’s how I spice it up.

• Dried fruit such as apricots, cranberries, or raisins added to raw oats add a delicious sweet flavor.
• Cinnamon. Excellent as an antioxidant, cinnamon is also delicious in just about any breakfast cereal. Add it to raw or cooked oats with a dash of lemon juice and sugar and breakfast tastes just like grandma’s pancakes.
• Honey. It’s a little heavier to carry, but a just a small portion is delicious in tea, added to cereal oats or muesli for breakfast.

Lunch time snacks:
As a diversion from tuna and dry biscuits, I like to throw some fresh ingredients into the mix. Here are a few options that are both tasty and travel well.

• Mini rosa tomatoes. They do not need to be refrigerated, and can be added to biscuits, tuna or nibbled on their own. They provide a great source of vitamin c and are a nice juicy treat.
• Mini cucumbers. They too do not need to be refrigerated, don’t get easily squashed, and are a great addition to sandwiches or as a side salad.
• Seed mix.  A filling and tasty snack is a combination of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and raisins. A healthier alternative to peanuts as it provides you with an excellent source of omega oils.

Dinner diversions:
After day three, two minute noodles can be a bit bland. Here are a few of my secrets for making dinner a little more tasty and convenient:

• Rice noodles. They cook in 2 minutes by just adding boiling water and letting them soak. So you save on fuel and do not need to watch a boiling pot.
• Sun dried tomatoes. A delicious addition to add flavor to any meal. Slice them up and let them hydrate in some boiling water for a few minutes. Or simply add them to your pasta or rice and let it cook.
• Curry powder.  Add it to two minute noodles, rice noodles or rice together with some rehydrated vegetables. It makes a delicious vegetarian curry that is filling and tasty.
• Herb mix. My favorite herb mix that I have had is one of rosemary, roasted garlic and sea salt. Add that to just about any meal and it make it more palatable.
• Dried chili. Just a small sprinkling of chili flakes brings out the flavor in meals much like salt. Combine it with your herb mix or the sun dried tomatoes and you have a winner.
• Dehydrated sweet potato. A delicious diversion from smash, much tastier in my opinion. Simply let it hydrate in boiling water for a few minutes and then cook up as part of your meal.

Sweet treats:
To avoid melted chocolate and gooey jelly babies here are some alternate ideas:

• Chocolate eclair sweets or toffees. Small individually wrapped toffees with a chocolate centre.  Yummy as a treat on the trail or as dessert in the evenings.
• Jelly beans. I’m personally not a fan of them but if you like them, use them. Same flavor just less sticky and squishy. You could add them to a seed mix, it may change the healthy aspect of it but who’s checking anyway.
• Hot chocolate. I mix a few spoons of milk powder to the chocolate before adding boiling water to make it nice and creamy.  Delicious after dinner.

How about you? What are some treats, tricks and tips that you use out on the trail?

Zabriskie's Point in Death Valley - Photo by Lorissa Longfellow

In the summer, Death Valley National Park temperatures routinely go over 120 degrees. The average is about 113 degrees. Even people who bring water and are somewhat prepared can die within hours.

What can we learn

Although a boy died, we can try to look objectively at the story. What are the positives and negatives and what can we learn from it so someone else survives down the line? They weren’t reported missing until Wednesday and that is huge. They didn’t leave a specific enough plan for someone to know when they were in trouble in such a dangerous place. They did bring a case of water (24 16-ounce bottles), some snacks and sandwiches with them. It wasn’t enough for all of them but it’s more prepared than many people are that go into dangerous National Parks thinking it’s Disney World and that facilities are all over the place. Being rather naive in nature can get you rather dead. Living in the desert, I always carried two or three 5 gallon tanks of water ($4-$7 at Kmart) in my vehicle. In addition to drinking water, ice and a Coleman Extreme cooler, these extra tanks provided extra water in emergencies or for the vehicle.

Another positive is that they  stayed with the vehicle which allowed the ranger to find them by following the tracks down the remote road. It is also much easier to spot a vehicle from the air than a lone person. The mother could have wandered off, trying to take a short cut over some hills and would have almost certainly gotten into more trouble. I have seen many people die in Arizona buy walking away from their vehicle. The car is found first. The body is found later. I recall a few cases in recent years where one person is found alive at the vehicle and the person who went for help is found dead.

My personal reflections on tragedy in Death Valley National Park

Myself on the Sand Dunes in Death Valley

I have wandered onto roads in Death Valley that in hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have been on even with the truck that I had. A family member that was with me was or near crying much of the time until we got through a particular stretch. It is not a good thing when your truck is sliding backwards as you are driving forward on the edge of a drop off. But I also did it between November and March when the weather wasn’t going to kill me within a couple days. I’d have to do something stupid to do myself in. It wouldn’t be the extreme heat. It is one of my most favorite places in the world and everyone should go there at least once in a lifetime. There are no signs of Star Wars filming here long ago but it may as well be another world.

Summer is not the time for overnight camping in Death Valley. I wouldn’t even drive through it if for some reason I had to go from California to Pahrump, Nevada. You have to go up and down thousands of feet to get across it. Go north or south and take the interstates in that case. You just have another unfortunate kind of risk on those. Death Valley roads can stress vehicles to their breaking point. People try to drive through the park, passing me, with their AC at full blast while towing a boat or trailer, and then try to speed their vehicle over the thousands of feet in elevation changes. It’s too much, they wind up broken down on the side of the road and then I’m passing them. (Actually you see this scenario all over the southwest, it’s just more dangerous here. You can’t drive into Las Vegas in the summer without seeing at least a half dozen vehicles on the side of the highways.)

Lowest point in Death Valley: 280 feet below sea level at Badwater

Badwater in Death Valley National Park - Photo by Adam Longfellow

Highest point in Death Valley: 11,049 at Telescope Peak

View of Badwater from Dantes Peak, not Telescope Peak - Photo by Lorissa Longfellow

The survivor said she was following GPS directions. This is an example of GPS devices at their most dangerous. Some of them just have the highways and main roads but many of the devices have all kinds of roads on them, including 4×4 roads that are rarely driven. My own GPS units have told me to turn off cliffs and take roads that barely exist when you see them in person. I suspect she was taking a road that she shouldn’t have followed to get where she was going.

Someone lost a life. Someone lost a son. Death Valley simmers on in silence. This is another reminder that more of us need once in a while before heading out. Enjoy the harsh beauty but respect the fragile life.

By Adam Longfellow

This is a sad reminder that nature is both wonderful and beautiful yet real and dangerous at all times. From a bear in your campground to a slip of the foot on a trail, from a sparking campfire to a falling tree eaten by bark beetles, nature is real and we need to stay alert and cautious at all times.

I observe people almost on a daily basis while out in the wild that appear to think they are in a theme park. They seem to think that there is no danger and that someone will help them up at any moment. They have a truck, a SUV or 4WD and feel invincible so they speed on blind curve mountainous roads putting others at risk. I’ve noticed in recent years that every vehicle I see off a road, stuck in bad weather or in a ditch is one of those aforementioned invincible ones. People pose for pictures in precarious spots. They let their kids and house pets run around by themselves like there is a large fence keeping out nature’s predators. They start a hike in the summer like they expect a water fountain and bathrooms along the trails. They’ll complain about paying a tax while sitting at home but then feel safe in nature at all times because they are just a helicopter rescue away from their couch and the Discovery Channel.

If this man from Yosemite could tell you something now, he might tell you it’s just not so…

Have you ever gotten sick from drinking water? Really sick? It’s not nearly as much fun as sitting around a campfire…or a million other things. I’ve been lucky enough to only get mildly ill while out and about but I’m also very cautious. I haven’t been in the situation where I had to choose between dehydration and drinking unknown water but I know it can easily happen, especially in the southwest where I’ve lived for years. Whether you are rving, camping or hiking, you should keep your water levels in mind. Clean water is getting harder to find as an increasing population leaves it’s footprint on every last bit of earth.

Do you have one of those fancy water filter systems you bought at REI or wherever? That is great and it helps out a lot but you still shouldn’t rely on it completely. It may not cover every bug you encounter in the wild. And even if it does, it may not work to one hundred percent effectiveness. So don’t go taking a filter system into nasty green colored, beaver feces filled water and think you’ll be fine.

Here are some tips to at minimize your risk while in the great outdoors, whether you have a filter system or not.

Go upstream

Go to the source of the water if you can. Follow streams upward for better water. Then go up the tributaries that flow into that stream if you can. The closer to the source the better.

Go deep

If you are at a large lake, try to go 200 hundred feet away from the shoreline. The more the better. Weigh your container down and sink it in the lake with a rope. You want more deep water than surface water. Use motion on your rope to try exchanging the water out and get more water from down below.

Note that this is the opposite in small sunlit pools. Then you want the water near the surface in the sunlight. The nasty microbes like to swim below the surface of calm water and out of the sunlight.

Go clear

Clearer is great but it doesn’t always mean the water is fine. Just like you can have tan water and it be perfectly fine. Tan water is better than green. Tan is more natural where as green indicates algae and an increased likelihood of tiny stomach churning organisms.

Go fast

Find fast moving waters if you can. Avoid stagnant waters where things are more likely to breed, as well as defecate.

Go towards clear air

Avoid getting your water near any industrial locations. In more remote areas, this can include paper mills, lumber and mining facilities. They put all kinds of nasty things into the ground and in turn, the water. You don’t want to drink that stuff.

Go away from animal homes

They didn’t invite you to their home but they may still serve you something you don’t want to drink. Look for obvious animal habitats near the water, which are most likely to be beavers. There is going to be more waste in the water around them and in turn you are more likely to be welcoming Giardia into your body. This is a nasty little protozoan that enters the water through feces. This common water bug causes severe discomfort and may stick with you more months or even years. Most people become a carrier rather than a full blown victim. Symptoms include cramps, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting. If you get this out in the wild, it makes it hard if not nearly impossible to do the things you need to do to get out of the bad spot you are already in.

Do you have any more water tips I’ve neglected to mention? Have you ever gotten sick out in the wild? Let me know.