Surviving in the desert from a perspective of the Big Bend

Survival in the Big Bend


Marie French



How not to Survive in the Big Bend



Hike into the Desert Alone

Sit on a Cactus

Pick up the Bugs

Don’t tell anyone where you are going

Dive into the river

Play with the snakes

Go hiking without water

Drink from a water source you don’t know

Eat a berry you don’t know, and make a tea from a plant you think you know but don’t

Try a mushroom

Don’t wear a hat…..



Terlingua EMS thanks you for your support



This is the Terlingua Medics motto. Think about it. You laugh, but about 60% of the cases are from just this silly list. Let’s talk about hiking into the desert alone today.



Okay, let’s make a scenario here. It is a beautiful day in the Big Bend and you want to hike but everyone else in the party would rather go to the Ghost town and have a prickly pear margarita. You say the heck with you all and go off into the Big Bend National Park without telling anyone in your group where you will go or what hike you are thinking of taking. To heck with them you think. You go into the park with a gallon of water, a hat, sunscreen, and slacks and a tee. Okay seems that everything is in order but you forgot to tell the park ranger, or your friends where you were headed.



You decide to take the lost mine trail because it is up in the Chisos mountains and they are cooler and it is a pretty well traveled hike. Reasonable enough. But as you are hiking up the trail you site a black bear and you would love a picture of the black bear to show to your friends. You go off trail trying to find the elusive black bear. You have walked about a mile and a half into the scrub and you can’t remember which way the trail head is. You are lost now, no one knows where you are and you don’t either.



So what do you do?

According to the Australian survival instructor Bob Cooper you use the ABC of survival.

a. Accept the situation. Don’t waste time getting angry at yourself for your stupidity.

b. Brew some tea, or just sit down and drink some of your water. Without the water your brain will not function properly so drink up.

c. Consider your options while drinking your water or tea. 1. You can scream and yell-maybe you are not that far from the trail. 2. You can mark the trail as you try to find your way back, looking ahead and behind as the trail looks different coming from different angles. 3. Make a list in your mind of things you can do.

d. Decide a plan of action.

e. Execute your decision and stick to it, marking the trail in any way you can if you decide to leave the spot you are at. Rocks, twigs, any way to mark the trail that you will notice without harming the landscape.





This is just a start of what you might consider in a survival situation. You would need a lot more advice than this if you had to fend for yourself in the park for longer than a day. We will look at other survival techniques as we delve further into survival in the desert. This piece is just a reminder of WHY we tell people where we are hiking, and in the best case scenario hike with others. So remember tell someone where you are going…..so your don’t end up compost in the desert.