Next to the ability to reason clearly, water is the single most important factor in desert survival. Humans can live an average of 90 days without food, but in extreme temperatures can only survive two days without water. The ideal situation would be to carry the amount of water one might need into the desert. Since water weighs about 10 pounds per gallon, most people do not avail themselves of this option.
Being able to locate water in the desert is a useful survival skill, but water is difficult to find in the desert in the best of times. After all, it is a desert because of lack of available water.
In order to conserve body water (sweat), one should sit quietly in the shade and avoid any exercise. Walking through the desert to search for water may not be the most advisable course of action. Exercising in the sun can reduce survival time from a matter of days to a matter of hours.
Making the decision to search
As with the decision to walk out of a survival situation, there are several factors which should be considered before making the decision to look for water:
The availability of water in the desert varies according to the season. Desert areas as a rule do not store much water. Lack of plants for a watershed allows rainwater to run off rapidly, and the ground is usually too hard to allow much water to soak in. Water is plentiful during and directly following a storm, but it can disappear soon afterwards.
The location of the desert in which you are stranded is as important as is the season. Each of the four deserts in North America has different rain patterns.
The Great Basin Desert reaches from eastern Washington, central and southeastern Oregon, southern Idaho, Nevada and Utah, part of western Colorado and part of northern Arizona. The Great Basin receives most of it's moisture (four to eleven inches a year) during the colder months, mostly in the early spring. Winter is extremely cold in the Great Basin.
The Mohave Desert is small, mostly in California but includes parts of Nevada and Arizona. The Mohave is an extremely dry desert. Most precipitation occurs during the winter months, with some summer thunderstorms in the east. Rainfall varies from two to five inches per year. Some locations do not receive rain for several years.
The Sonoran Desert is located in Arizona and northern Mexico. As one moves westward across this desert, the yearly precipitation increases from 1.2 inches to 14 inches a year. The Sonoran Desert has two rainy seasons, with most of the rain occurring during the winter and the remainder in summer. Summer rains consist of violent thunderstorms which can drench one area briefly while leaving the area a scant mile away completely dry.
The Chihuahuan Desert has its rainy season in the summer, when it receives between 70 and 80 percent of its three to twenty inches of precipitation. Summer temperatures will average 10 to 20 degrees lower than those in the Sonoran Desert. Most of this desert is located in Mexico, with a small portion extending north into Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
Hard exercise causes the body to sweat more, and the body's precious store of water is wasted. Unless there are several water indicators visible in the immediate area, a search for water is not advisable. One can easily sweat away several quarts of water in a fruitless search for a spring or running stream. Even if water indicators can be seen close by, unless it is a wet season in the desert, or it is immediately following a storm, chances are excellent that the water indicators mark underground water which could only be reached by drilling.
One should also consider clothing and footgear. Obviously it would be more difficult and dangerous to walk cross country in the desert wearing sandals and a swimsuit than wearing sturdy walking shoes and protective clothing.
In summary, one should only consider looking for water if it the rainy season, if clothing and footgear are adequate, and if there are many water indicators easily seen close by. Even if all these things are true, think again. Sitting in the shade and conserving sweat can more than double survival time in the desert.
How to locate water
Once the decision to search for water has been made, there are several things in the desert to look for which can lead to water. Remember that none of these are sure indicators of water.
¥ Plants may help one find water.
Most desert plants are adapted to arid conditions. Trees and shrubs such as the Palo Verde can live for years between rainstorms. Thus one cannot assume that every lush stand of plants is growing next to water.
However, there are plants called "water indicator plants". These plants only grow where there is a permanent water source. Most of them have a deep tap root, and the water can be tens of feet underground. They may indicate water on or near the surface during the wet seasons of the year, and then again they may not. Almost all of these plants grow in and around streambeds.
The moisture one gets from a barrel cactus is bitter and acrid and often causes nausea and vomiting. It is a powerful purging agent which dehydrates the body. From a natural selection point of view, it makes no sense that any cactus should have potable water stored within. Desert animals would have learned this long ago, and the plant would be extinct. A barrel, with its moist interior, protects itself with a bad taste and toxic chemicals.
Remember that cactus are protected by law. Under no circumstances should any cactus be cut open just to see how much moisture is inside.
¥ Rocks can lead to water.
Solar stills are holes dug in the ground and lined with plastic. Some moisture condenses on the bottom side of the plastic and is allowed to drip into a container. Just as it is "common knowledge" that barrel cactus contain water, it is "common knowledge" that a solar still can provide water. So it can -- about a pint a day. There are some problems with a solar still.
The still requires a large hole, at least three feet wide and a foot and a half deep. Since most people stranded in the desert don't carry a shovel, this hole would have to be dug with a rock, a stick, a plank, or a hubcap off the car-- a tedious and exhausting process. Desert soil is difficult to dig with the proper tools, much less with makeshift tools.
One would sweat off more water digging the hole and setting up the still than would be gained from the still.
Once the still is built, it takes most of a day and night to obtain a pint of water. This means that the person using the still must stay in that area, or if looking other places for water, must return to the still again. A solar still is probably not a reliable source of water unless one has the proper tools and enough time and water to dig several of them.
If one has a small plastic bag, the bag can be wrapped tightly around the tip of a tree branch with green leaves (and no, not all trees in the desert have green leaves all year round). When the sun hits the foliage, some water will condense within the bag. One will not get much water with this method, but it requires little effort, and thereby little loss of sweat.
A word should be said about water purity and poison water. If possible all water found in the desert should be purified. This is done by boiling for one minute or by use of commercial iodine or chlorine tablets. However if purification is not available, it is better to suffer a case of the "runs" than to die of thirst.
Desert soils contain heavy minerals such as selenium and poisonous compounds such as cyanide, and it is possible for these to collect in a water source. Distrust any water which is devoid of plant and insect life, which has animals bones nearby, or which has an encrustation of minerals around the edge. Just because water is in a spring does not mean it is safe or pure.
In the best of times water is difficult to find in the desert. One should only consider looking for water during a wet season, if footwear and clothes are adequate, and if several water indicators can be seen close by. Water indicators do not always mark easily available sources of water. They may indicate water at the surface, but more often they indicate water flowing far underground. Once you find a good source of water, it is almost always the best course of action to sit and wait to be found.
Chapter Eight Please
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