Covid has been a real problem for us here at The
Infographics Show. As you've probably noticed, we haven't put many challenge episodes
out in the last 9 or so months, and well, that's because it's really hard to challenge our
least important writer- and your favorite lab rat- to do anything because he can't be around
people. Then we got the idea- what if we sent him somewhere with no people? So we sent
him to go live three days out in the desert, where the only things he could infect with covid
were spiders, scorpions, and dangerous snakes! -Alright challenge fans, gotta say, it's
good to be back and doing challenges again. Covid has made life unbearably boring, and let
me tell you: nothing tests your love quite like forced quarantine together. Luckily, the
girlfriend and I are each other's best friends, but when I got the challenge to go out
into the desert for three days... well, let's just say she was less concerned with
my safety than she's been in the past. So Infographics sent me out
to the desert for three days, and seeing as I'm writing this, I obviously
survived. How did it go down? Well, in some ways easier than expected,
in others, much more difficult. The premise was simple: I got dropped off at a
spot somewhere out in the Nevada desert, just over the border from California. My pickup location
was exactly sixty miles from my drop off location, and I had only a map and a compass to get to
my pickup. I wasn't dropped off nearly naked like I was when I did my forest survival, because
the desert is much more lethal than the forest, so I got a few essentials. I got
exactly two canteens of water, totaling four quarts of water. Seeing as doctors
recommend you drink three quarts of water a day, you can already see a problem with that math.
The name of the game would be conservation. I also got one single, and very thin,
emergency blanket, along with a hunting knife because the California and Nevada
desert have coyotes- though me personally, I'm far more worried about feral pigs. Any hunter
in the world will tell you they're more scared of wild hogs or feral pigs than they are even
bears, because those things are absolutely vicious. Lastly, I had a signaling mirror
in case things get really, really bad. Day one I got dropped off at my location at
6pm, and from that moment on I had 72 hours to get to my pickup 60 miles away. Now, right
off the bat let me make the same disclaimer I made on my last survival video- do NOT try
this if you don't have survival training. I have years of experience in the world's deserts,
because apparently America doesn't like to pick fights with nice tropical nations anymore, and
believe me, this is not for the unprepared. I got dropped off near sunset because when
you're in the desert you want to flip your sleep schedule. People often make the mistake of
thinking you have to conserve water in the desert, but the truth is that it's far more efficient to
conserve sweat. That means traveling at night, and taking shelter during the hot day,
and if you're out in the desert in winter time you should still be prepared
for some very high temperatures. My small pack made traveling light, which was
good, because I wanted to move fast enough to make good time while identifying good shelter to
use during the day. My plan was to move for eight hours, and then spend two hours moving slower and
finding shelter. I was supposed to be mirroring a hiker or off-roader who wasn't planning for a
long trip, so I wasn't allowed to bring extra clothes or things like that. Instead, I wore jeans
and a simple outdoors, white long sleeve shirt. When you think desert, you think heat, and rightly
so, but at night it can get extremely cold- specially in Nevada where in winter
the temperature can swing from as high as nineties to below freezing in 24
hours. The first night did not disappoint, and I started shivering pretty quickly so
I wrapped myself in the survival blanket. These blankets are very light and made out of
reflective foil, but are made to reflect heat and hold it in, much like the way you wrap a
potato in foil before throwing it in the oven. You might notice I wasn't given any food,
and that was to reflect a real survival situation. But also, food is a very low
priority for you in desert survival, in fact, it might get you killed. That's because
digestion is actually very water intensive, and can seriously eat up your water budget.
In normal survival situations you may have heard that it's better to do lots of small
snacks throughout the day to keep your energy up, over eating one big meal, and that's true to an
extent. In the desert you gotta plan in advance, and it's better to save up small snacks to have
one, single big meal every few days than to kickstart digestion many times throughout
the day by ingesting individual snacks. Water is everything in desert
survival. And that brings me to sweat. Most people think that humans are not very
well adapted to surviving in the desert, but the opposite is actually true. Humans do
quite well in the desert- as long as they have access to water. Our omnivore diet allows us
to eat a variety of things found in a desert, where a restrictive diet can spell
disaster. And our ability to sweat along with lack of body hair is an
extremely efficient cooling system. When water is limited though, sweat is your enemy. There's two times you don't want to sweat: in
low temperatures, and when water is sparse. In Arctic survival, if you sweat, you die,
because hypothermia can quickly set in. In the desert, there's less- but still a
very real risk of hypothermia at night- but sweating means losing valuable water. So as I hiked along I had to check
myself to keep up only a moderate pace, and take frequent rest breaks to avoid sweating.
Every single drop of sweat is wasted water, and a good survivalist will
budget every last drop. As I moved along I kept an eye on the
stars for direction. Compasses are great, but they are prone to magnetic interference in
the environment. If you know how to navigate using the stars though you'll find you
can maintain extremely accurate bearings. Simply pull out your compass every thirty
minutes or so to double check yourself. Speaking of stars, you can see every single one
of them if you go far enough out into the desert. It's honestly incredible, and well
worth a day trip out for any of you city slickers that have never seen the full
majesty of the entire milky way on display. As morning approached I started looking
for shelter. Day time shelter is extremely important in the desert, with the main goal
being to keep yourself out of the sun as much as possible. The only problem was that this
part of the desert was almost completely flat, which only really left me with one very bad
option. I found a small wadi and started digging into the soft soil at the bottom, breaking up
the harder parts of the ground with my knife. This was strenuous work given that
I only had my hands and a knife, and I was sweating, which was bad. If I
don't get shelter though, it'd be even worse. I dug down a solid foot and a half into the
ground, right next to where the wadi started to bank up sharply. Then, I took my survival
blanket and turned it shiny silver side outwards, and using rocks, set it up so it covered the
hole, with one side on the ground next to me on the hole, and the other side about two
feet above me on the steep bank of the wadi. Basically, I made a rough tent, with two
large openings that I could slide into and would work to keep air circulating. The
silver reflective side would reflect the suns' rays and keep me from overheating,
but the real key with this type of shelter is to keep the survival blanket off your
body or else you're basically insulating yourself. That's why digging into the side
of a wadi or rise in the ground is critical. Crawling into my hole I settled in for my first
desert day sleep in about eight years. I took a very long sip from my water- another desert
survival myth is that you should do small sips at a time. Don't, this just ends up being wasteful,
take big, long drinks when you really need them. Being my first day, I could feel light dehydration
but nothing too serious- I still had one and a half canteens left. I'd almost certainly run
out of water before the end of the third day, but if I budgeted right I shouldn't be
running the risk of serious dehydration. Sleeping during the day in the desert
is... not easy, to say the least, but I long ago learned to snooze most places.
I stayed put in my hole the entire day, with the temperature easily climbing into the high
eighties. Good thing global warming is a myth, huh? Also, two scorpions crawled into
my sleeping hole, deciding that it was a good place to hide from the sun. I crushed
both of their heads, bit off the stingers, and threw them in my pack. If I got enough
scorpions or other bugs, they'd make a good snack once I had a sizable enough meal that
it was worth using up the water to eat it. That's another thing about survival- you have to
be an opportunist. You don't know what tomorrow will bring, so if an opportunity for
materials or food presents itself, take it. Today I got two scorpions, I might not
find anything else to eat the next two days. Or my pickup might get into an accident and
leave me stranded for days more than I'd planned. Always be planning ahead,
and always be opportunistic. Another good reason to sleep as much as
you can is because, well, laying in a hole is boring A-F. That's another military
survival tip for you: sleep as much as you can, not just for energy but also
to avoid mind-numbing boredom. As the sun started to go down, I very happily
crawled out of my hole. My stomach was rumbling, but I wasn't about to waste water on
digestion. You can easily survive while hungry, most people just don't like the
uncomfortable feeling of slow starvation. By my estimate, I'd made around 22 miles the
first night, which was really good progress. The cool temperature helped me control my
sweating, allowing me to push myself harder. Also, I'm in good shape, traveling light, and
the desert was really flat. I haven't pushed myself this hard in a while though, and I'll
admit: covid quarantine has made me kind of soft around the belly, as the girlfriend is fond of
pointing out as she pokes at me and makes the pillsbury doughboy giggle. I could feel blisters
forming on my feet, but I'd have to tough it out. My second night was, well,
pretty uneventful to be honest. The desert is so sparsely populated
that wildlife isn't much of a threat, at least until you start looking for shelter-
because that's basically what it too is doing. The crystal clear night sky is something amazing,
and you can see every single star in the sky... and maybe I saw something more. Listen, I'm
not one of those UFO types, and I think the idea of aliens flying across the galaxy just to
flash some lights in our sky is pretty stupid, but I swear I saw a light for a while that seemed
to be moving... well, unnaturally. Then it just faded away. Weird, but I reminded myself that Area
51 is also in Nevada, so who knows what I saw. Speaking of weirdness- here's a
special announcement for all you cryptid fans. This spring I will be
officially undertaking a hunt for bigfoot, and because you guys have been asking for it: yes,
it will feature real camera footage and not just animation. I'll be recording my trip and
my findings all for your viewing pleasure. We saw all the comments you guys made in my forest
survival video about possibly hearing Bigfoot, and the Infographics show was like, hey, why
don't you go find one? So I said sure, and we carefully researched a site in Oregon that's super
remote and booming with reported bigfoot activity. Will the girlfriend be making an appearance?
Maybe, I still haven't convinced her yet. She's not really the 'camping' type. But,
even if I don't get bigfoot on camera, I'll at least be able to put to rest all the
rumors in the comments section that I'm not a real person. Do you know how weird it
is to have people say you don't exist?! Anyways, stay tuned for that challenge
episode dropping early this summer. As long as Oregon's forests don't
go up in flames like last summer. Alright, so night two I made really
good progress thanks to the desert being so flat and featureless. The
day had taken its toll on me though, and by the time dawn came around I had only half
a canteen of water left. I knew I'd inevitably sweat during the day no matter how much I
tried to stay out of the sun, so day three I'd likely be running with zero water. Pushing
myself as hard as I was, that wasn't good news- you can go without water for three days before
running risk of deadly dehydration, but that's if you're not really doing much physical
activity. I still had over twenty miles to go, and I could definitely feel the effects
of dehydration from my water rationing. I got supremely lucky on dawn of day 3 and
found a small cave. Well, it was more like a rocky outcropping, with a huge slab of rock
jutting out from the side of a large bluff. It was deep enough that I'd be able to stay out of
the sun, but the entire time I was worried about the bluff coming down on top of me, because
your mind really loves to act irrationally. During the day I made it a point to take my
shirt off and lick the inner armpit areas. Yes, this sounds disgusting, but it was important
that I get some salt back into my system, seeing as all I had brought was water. I considered
eating my two scorpions, but they were tiny, maybe if I had five or six of them they'd make
a decent meal. Despite my rumbling stomach, it just wasn't worth it to
burn water for two quick bites. During the day I heard what's probably
the most terrifying sound you can hear in the American southwest- bees. Not just any
bees though, these desert-dwelling bees were almost certainly the dreaded Africanized
honey bees, or killer bees. These bees are incredibly ornery, and vicious about
attacking anything that disturbs them. Them flying around in a massive swarm during
the winter could only mean one thing though: something had messed up wherever they had
made their hive. Meaning they'd be super angry. Luckily for me, the bees went on their
happy, murdery way, leaving me completely alone. I got an early start on night three, walking
before the sun was fully down and drinking the very last of my water. Now survival was serious.
If I missed my pickup for some reason, or if the person picking me up got into an accident and
couldn't come, I could be out here alone for days. I am never really worried in a survival
situation until I've run out of water. That's when things get deadly serious. You may have heard that you can cut
open cacti and drink the water inside, and this is wrong. Any moisture you
find is going to be very alkaline, and likely make you sick, leading to vomiting
or diarrhea- both things that are extremely costly in terms of water. You've probably heard
you can drink your own pee in an emergency, and I don't care what Bears Grylls tells you:
don't. Seriously, there's a reason pee is a waste product: because it's full of waste. Drinking
your pee will just put all the junk your body filtered out back inside you, necessitating
even more water to get it back out again. The best way to find water in the desert is
to watch for large flocks of birds in the sky. Individual birds are likely specialized for
desert survival, but flocks means that it's a bird species which is likely transiting the area.
That means they'll be looking for water too. Even better though is finding anything green. You might
not find any surface water, but dig down a few inches and you'll likely hit water. You can do the
same in dried up riverbeds, though you may have to dig a foot or more. Always remember that you're on
a water budget though, and digging means sweating. If you find nothing after few inches, maybe switch
locations- or give it up and just focus on moving, if your survival depends on you getting
somewhere other than where you are. Most times in a survival situation, it's best to just
stay put and make yourself as visible as possible. You've probably also heard about solar stills,
and if you have the materials to build one, it's not a terrible idea to throw one
together. Don't expect much out of it though, even under the best of conditions
you'll get little more than a sip. If you can catch large bugs, popping them
open and sucking on the innards can get you a bit of fluids. Just try not to actually eat
them- you don't want to kickstart digestion. If you are somehow lucky enough to nab a small
animal, don't eat it. Instead, drink the blood- a lot of desert animals survive with no water
and instead live on the blood from their prey. Sadly, my third night presented no opportunities
for water, and to make matters worse, the blisters on my feet were now fully formed. Your feet are
incredibly important in a survival situation, for obvious reasons. You want to always keep
them dry and should air them out every time you stop for a rest. Blisters can be dangerous,
because they can lead to infection, so you should try and keep them dry and clean. I had no way of
cleaning them though, so I just had to soldier on. I'd been keeping track of my progress on a
topographical map, which is really great for keeping your precise location as long as you
know how to read these types of maps. However, in a desert with few significant topographic
features, it's a lot harder. I realized I was significantly off course by the time the
sun was rising, and my pickup was supposed to be meeting me at 8 in the morning. I'd
ended up too far north by a few miles. I thought about double timing it to get to the
pickup on time, but in a survival situation you always have to be thinking tactically. If I got to
the pickup and my ride wasn't there, I may have to survive out here another day or two on my own. I
couldn't risk exerting myself and losing even more energy and water. I can't stress this enough:
always, always think ahead in these situations. I finally made it to my pickup just before
noon, and the sun did not disappoint, roasting me from above. Even with only moderate
winter temperatures, the desert provides no cover and the sun can be brutal. You might
be inclined to take off clothing to cool off, but this is the opposite of what you should do.
Instead cover yourself up with light colors in order to avoid making your sweating worse, and
to keep from getting sunburnt. There's a reason you always see middle east desert tribes covered
from head to toe even in 120 degree temperature. My desert survival was a nice break from covid
quarantine, and I ended up losing eight pounds over three days, so if you're looking for a
quick weight loss technique, maybe try getting lost in the desert and hiking sixty miles in
three days. Just joking, seriously, don't. I'm hopeful that covid will ease up and
we can get back to doing challenges, but I'm really looking forward to this spring
and my bigfoot hunt. Hopefully, you guys are too! Now go watch the original Challenge: Survive 72 hours in the forest alone! Or
click this other video instead!
