Transcription
When it comes to the outdoors, there are myths that just won't die. They're handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth. They persist in television shows and movies, and they just keep popping up because everybody knows that moss grows on the north side of trees, right? We're going to talk about that one and several more in this video, so stick around.
Myth number one, you need to boil water for x number of minutes before it's safe to drink. Insert your figure. I've seen everything from 1 minute, 5 minutes on up to 20 minutes right here on page 49 of Tom Brown's Field Guide to Wilderness Survival, which otherwise I think is a very good book. There's a lot of great resources in here and I've consulted this book a lot. I think I've had one of these things since I was like 10 years old. That though is absolutely ridiculous.
So, what is the truth when it comes to how long you need to boil water to make it safe to drink? So, here's the facts. The CDC recommends that you bring clear water to a rolling boil for one minute at sea level. Anything over 6,500 feet of elevation, they recommend you boil it for 3 minutes. The reason for those two figures is that the boiling point of water decreases as your elevation increases. The World Health Organization notes that bacteria and other pathogens are rapidly killed at temperatures above 149° F, well below the 212° F that it takes to boil water at sea level or even on top of Mount Everest at 160° F. By the time water reaches a boil, it's been above that 150° mark for several minutes, which in clear water should kill any pathogens present. My rule of thumb has always been just to bring it up to a boil and you're done. One thing to note here is I did say clear water. If you're dealing with water with a lot of detritus or debris in it that could potentially insulate pathogens, you might want to boil it for a little bit longer. Better yet, run it through some sort of sieve or filter just to get those particulates out. If you don't have a sieve or a filter, another great option is just to put it in some sort of container overnight, let the particulate settle out, and then gather your water off the top and process however you want.
Myth number two, moss grows on the north side of trees. This one is actually true. Moss does grow on the north side of trees. Unfortunately, it also grows on the south, east, and west sides. There is however a root of truth in this myth because in the northern hemisphere the north side of any object whether it be a big rock, a stump, your house or a tree is shaded for most of the day and therefore remains cooler and moister, which could promote the growth of moss when moss doesn't exist anywhere else. And so in certain areas at certain times of the year, you can find moss only on the north side of trees because again that area is shaded and typically a little bit more moist. There are however far better and more reliable ways to find direction than looking at moss.
Myth number three, you can tell a buck track from a doe because the toes splay out or the declaws register in the track. Now, this is a persistent myth that regularly shows up in movies, in TV shows, because apparently they didn't have the budget to hire a consultant that actually knew what they were talking about. Whether a deer's toes splay apart has absolutely nothing to do with the sex of the animal, but everything to do with how they were moving and the substrate in which the track was registered. And the same goes with the declaws, which if you're not familiar with the anatomy of a deer's feet, they have their two main toes. And then a little bit farther up the leg, there's two smaller little pieces of hoof known as the declaws. Any deer's toes will splay if they're running or if they're stepping into soft ground. And the only time the declaws register is again if they're stepping in soft ground and they sink up to their declaws. The most reliable way that I know of to tell a mature buck from a doe is simply the size of the track. A mature buck track might be 50% larger than that of a doe from the same region.
Myth number four, the survival rule of threes. This states that a typical person can survive 3 minutes without oxygen, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food. The only bit of truth about this myth is their order relative to one another. The times of 3 minutes, 3 days, 3 weeks are completely arbitrary. I would say that your average person in good health could more than double the time for the first two, oxygen and water. For example, I've personally gone over 5 minutes on a single breath hold, and a trained free diver could far surpass that. I suspect that the average person, again in good health, could get to a three minute breath hold pretty easily with just a few days of practice. And if you did practice and got there, you'd still be a long way from dying of asphyxiation. Now, I don't personally have much experience going extended periods without water, but I have read one account of a man surviving 6 days without water in the desert. I do, however, know a little something about going without food. In my experience and in talking with others who have gone long periods either completely fasting or on very minimal diets, I would say the average person can expect to lose about a pound a day when fasting, at least initially. If you're a big guy with a lot of muscle mass, you might lose a pound and a half or even 2 lbs a day. Whereas, if you're a smaller frame person, you might only lose half a pound a day. Now, I said initially because that rate of loss will decrease significantly with loss of muscle mass and the decrease in your metabolism that goes along with it. Considering that nearly 75% of Americans are considered to be either overweight or obese, many of us could take that 3 weeks and stretch it to 3 months or more. In fact, the longest fast on record was over a year when a man by the name of Angus Barbieri fasted for an incredible 381 days and lost 276 lb. He started at 456 lbs and finally ended his fast when he reached his target weight of 180 lb. Talk about willpower. That guy had it.
Myth number five, food is a top priority. Skills like hunting, fishing, foraging get a lot of attention from survival experts because they're flashy, they're interesting, they make good video content. But as we just learned, food really should be about the last thing you worry about. Your top priority, of course, is going to depend on the conditions that you're facing. It may be shelter, it may be water, but it probably ain't going to be food.
Myth number six, if you see the animals eating it, it's safe for humans. This could not be further from the truth. Most animals have different digestive systems than us. Deer, for example, have four stage stomachs and their food is processed much differently than our own. Additionally, their gut biomes are very different than our own. And it's often that relationship with those microorganisms that allow animals to ingest plants and mushrooms that might be toxic to us. Here locally in the Pacific Northwest, the Shiras moose browse heavily on a species called Pacific Yew, which again is toxic to most other animals. It's the moose's digestive system and microbiome that allow it to do so. So, while we're talking about Yew, I'll give you a couple of fun facts. It creates a compound called taxol, which has historically been used to treat various types of cancer. Today, they make a synthetic version of it, and it also happens to be one of the best bow woods in the world.
Myth number seven, and anytime you've ever seen any movie or any television show where someone is supposed to be surviving in the wild, this one comes up, and that is that leaves make good toilet paper. With very few exceptions, leaves in general make very poor toilet paper. They're smooth and they're nonabsorbent. It'd kind of be like wiping your backside with Saran Wrap. Yes, ma'am. Sheep balls. That just doesn't seem like that would work very well. One of those exceptions, if you can find them, is mullen leaves. They're big, they're fuzzy, they actually work pretty good. A much better option is something like moss or fluffed up dried grass. Moss is soft, it's absorbent, and if it happens to be damp, or you dampen it yourself with maybe a little urine, it acts like a wet wipe, clean as a whistle.
Myth number eight has to do with venomous snake bites. Now, I'm sure if you've looked around in the safety section of your outdoor store, you've probably seen these little snake bite kits. And in there, they've got an antiseptic. They've got a little razor blade, and they've got these little suction cups. They still sell these things because of this persistent myth that you can cut an X and a snake bite and suck out the venom. But there is absolutely no evidence to support that this does anything except for create tissue damage and possible infection. What you should do is remove anything that when the area swells could potentially be constricting. Things like rings or other jewelry, watches, tight clothing, and things like that. And then seek medical attention. There's other recommendations that have to do with applying a tourniquet or some sort of compression bandage. But whether or not you want to do that depends on the type of snake that bit you and its particular type of venom, either hemotoxic or neurotoxic. Now, I don't feel qualified to give you those types of recommendations, so I'm just going to leave it at that and encourage you to do your own further research.
Myth number nine, flowing water is safe to drink. Now, this is something that I've heard ever since I was just a small kid, and it's still something that I get or that I see in the comment sections here on YouTube anytime I do a video that deals with water or water filters or water safety. Now, there's a lot of people that believe this, and I'll probably get some flak for trying to dispel it, but that's okay. It's pure myth that has no real basis in truth. What makes water safe is being free from pathogens and toxins that can do us harm. Whether or not that water is running or sitting still really doesn't have a lot of bearing on it. There's actually evidence showing that water collected from near the surface of alpine lakes can be safer than water collected from flowing streams. This is because heavier organisms like cryptosporidium settle out in still water. Also, water near the surface of these lakes is subjected to UV light which further increases its safety. A little while back, I did a whole series of videos on natural/primitive water filters and even included lab results if you're interested in checking them out.
Myth number 10, and this will be the most controversial thing that I'm going to talk about today, and that is that raw, unfiltered, unprocessed water straight from a stream or a lake is unsafe to drink. This is one of those things in our modern culture, modern society, has been demonized. Not unlike raw milk and real food that comes from the earth with maybe a little bit of dirt stuck to it. Squirrels. It seems like most people today believe that everything has to be processed or come wrapped in plastic or in a bottle that's sealed up to be safe. And it makes me wonder what our ancestors did for so long before we all became so healthy. Personally, I feel comfortable drinking straight from many sources of wild water and have done so thousands of times from hundreds of different sources. Backcountry. It's where clean water comes from. With that said, my immune system is probably better than most. But again, that's probably because I drink wild water and eat food that sometimes has dirt on it. But of course, the only way to be 100% safe is to drink bottled water. No, that's not actually safe. That's There's a lot of people got sick. Bring your water to a boil and let it go for 20 minutes. No, that's not right either. H. Bring your water to a boil and then cut it off. It's good. Now go out there, get your hands dirty, and don't wash them before you eat. And we'll see you on the next one. You I don't know if I believe in all that hocus pocus.