Resource Book Excerpt

Survivor Kid: A Practical Guide to Wilerness Survival by Denise Long

About thisbook: Anyone can get lost while camping or on a hike and Survivor Kid teaches young adventurers the survival skills they need if they ever find themselves lost or in a dangerous situation in the wild. Written by a search and rescue professional and lifelong camper, it’s filled with safe and practical advice on building shelters and fires, signaling for help, finding water and food, dealing with dangerous animals, learning how to navigate, and avoiding injuries in the wilderness. Ten projects include building a simple brush shelter, using a reflective surface to start a fire, testing your navigation skills with a treasure hunt, and casting animal tracks to improve your observation skills. (Amazon)

Here is an excerpt from the book:

WHAT TO DO IF YOU GET LOST

Realizing you are lost is a really scary feeling, and most people make it worse by becoming angry, frightened, sad, or ashamed instead of taking control of the situation. Your biggest survival tool is your brain. So stop blaming your- self or others and don’t waste valuable time. Stay calm. You will be found—probably soon. You are going to survive, and you need to get to work to make your situation better. Remember, your main job now is to stay healthy and protected until you are located. If you find yourself panicking or running in circles, just take a deep breath and say to yourself, “STOP”:

• S is for stop. If there are many hours left before sunset and you can clearly see your tracks, just follow them back to safety.

But if you don’t have enough time to get back before sunset or if you have no idea how to get back, stop moving. The more you move around, the longer it will take others to find you. Also, stop panicking. It is normal to be scared and upset, but you are the only one who can make things better, so stay calm. Remember that you know how to make a shelter and take care of yourself. Tell yourself that you will be OK until you really believe it, even if you have to say it a hundred times. You will make it. You are a survivor!

• T is for Think. After you take a couple of deep breaths, start thinking. Who knows where you are? What’s around you that can make your situation better? Is there something in your pack or pockets that will help? How many hours are left until dark? Are you in a good spot to set up a shelter? What is the weather like? What kind of shelter can you build?
• O is for Observe. Look around you. Is there a meadow with high grass nearby? Meadow grass makes soft bedding. Is there a lot of snow? Maybe you can dig into a snowbank to make a snow cave. Listen and look for water; you will need it to survive. Also look for a wide-open spot that you can use to signal for help.

• P is for Plan. Decide what to do, and in what order.
What do you need to do first?

Are you in a safe spot? If there is a thunderstorm and you’re high up on a mountain or hill, you need to get to lower ground as soon as you can. Be sure to stay away from big boulders and tall trees that are standing by themselves—lightning is most likely to strike there.

Do you need to build a shelter to help protect yourself from bad weather? Do you need to make a fire to stay warm? If so, these tasks should be at or near the top of your “to do” list. Plan where you will look for shelter-building materials and firewood. (You always need more firewood than you expect, so plan to collect more than you think you will need.)

Do you have water? Finding a supply is also important, if you have forgotten to bring extra and the weather is hot. However, do not wander around looking for water, especially if you know someone will be coming to find you.

What can you do to help people find you? Is there an open space where you can signal an airplane or helicopter? Can you build a signal fire safely, or are you surrounded by flammable grass? Are there rocks that you can use to make an X in the snow or in a field?

HELP IS ON THE WAY

If you go missing, the first thing your parents or guardians will probably do is notify the police or a park ranger. These officials will call in a SAR, or search and rescue, team. These dedicated searchers help to find kids and adults who may be lost, injured, or caught in bad weather. Oftentimes they are trained in wilderness survival skills such as first aid, navigation, and knot-tying.

Search and rescue teams may include park rangers, deputy
sheriffs, and volunteers who live in the area. Some team members work as “ground pounders,” who travel on foot to find lost people, while others serve as ATV (all-terrain vehicle) drivers, searching back roads and trails. Mounted searchers ride horses that have been specially trained to work with search dogs and to not be spooked by things like ATVs, chainsaws, tents, sirens, helicopters, or blowing flagging tape. And search and rescue pilots may fly helicopters and airplanes in order to search from
the sky.

Essential to search and rescue are K-9 teams made up of search dogs and their handlers. The dogs can smell people from far away, and they can follow the scent trails people leave behind as they walk. Search dogs are trained to ride in helicopters and ATVs, to be obedient, and to follow instructions well. In addition, they are usually excellent swimmers. A search dog may be any breed, but all search dogs have two things in common: they are eager to work and they love to find people.

There are two kinds of search dogs. Area search dogs run free and look for any human who’s nearby. If they find someone, they run back to their handlers and tell them by barking or jumping up on their human partners. Then they bring them to the lost person. Trailing dogs work on long leashes that are held by their handlers. Usually the handlers allow the trailing dogs to smell something that has the lost person’s scent on it, such as a sweater or other piece of clothing. (Every person on the planet has a different smell. Even twins smell different to a search dog.) Then, ignoring hundreds of other smells, the trailing dogs follow that unique scent into the wilderness until they reach the source of the smell—the lost person.

Most dogs that work in search and rescue wear orange vests, called shabracks, that identify them as working dogs. Also, most of these dogs wear bells on their harness. The bells help the handlers keep track of the dogs, and they help lost people to know that help is nearby. If you are lost and you hear bells, start yelling or blowing your whistle to help the search teams
find you.

If they are called in to help find you, search and rescue people will grab their search packs, load up their horses, dogs, and ATVs, and report to the search headquarters, which is called the command post. Your parent or guardian will be asked many questions, such as what you look like, how old you are, what you are wearing, and whether or not you have any survival training. They may be asked for a piece of clothing or some other item that has your scent on it so that the dogs on the search and rescue team can learn your smell. Pilots might fly planes or helicopters over the area where you went missing. That location is called PLS, “place last seen” (or “point last seen”). If there are dangerous weather conditions and it is dark, the searchers may not be allowed to search until daybreak or until conditions improve. That is why it is important for you to be able to take care of yourself for a few hours or a day until they find you. Remember, people are coming to find you, as soon as they can.

What if you’re not lost, but someone that you are with, like a little brother or sister, wanders away from you and goes missing as you are exploring the wilderness together? What do you do? You can be a big help to search and rescue by marking the spot where you last saw that person. Perhaps you could make a big X on the trail with sticks. Then go get help from an adult. Lots of kids who are lost do something that could prevent them from being rescued: they hide from the people who are searching for them, either because their parents told them not to speak to strangers or because they think that people will be angry with them for getting lost. There have been cases where, for several days, searchers were just a few feet away from the lost kids they were looking for, but the cold and hungry children stayed hidden in the bushes because they were afraid of what would happen to them when they were found. This kind of behavior is dangerous and it isn’t very smart. Search and rescue people not only risk their own lives to find lost kids, but they often put their horses and dogs in danger, too. Don’t be one of those kids who hide from the people who are trying to save them. Your parents want you to be found. Just ask them.

Survivor Kid: A Practical Guide for Wilderness Survival

This excerpt was reprinted by permission fo the publisher.

Reading level: Ages 9-12
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Chicago Review Press (May 1, 2011)
List Price: $12.95
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