by Kevin Estela June 12, 2019
When you grow up in the Northeastern United States, you experience the full range of seasons with hot summers and frigid winters. In New England, you can find nasty swamps to navigate and an ocean to explore. One environment not found in New England is the desert and if there is ever a weak point for me to train, the desert has my attention. Since my experience with the desert is limited, I wanted to reach out to someone who is no stranger to it. Tony Nester, Owner and Chief Instructor of Ancient Pathways is my go-to desert survival expert. Recently, while visiting Arizona, I had the opportunity to pick his brain about the state, the terrain, and the history of the area. We discussed survival and the great outdoors over breakfast and Tony answered some questions for us.
Fiddleback Forge Blog (FFB): Tony, perhaps the most intimidating aspect of the desert is the dry climate. Water is no doubt a priority. What rules exist to carefully manage water and improve survivability of the desert traveler?
Tony Nester: “In every desert region throughout the world, humans have developed adaptive strategies to cope with the heat and aridity. In the American Southwest, the Hopi, Apache, and the modern cowboys know that you have to keep your body covered to prevent evaporative sweat loss and provide protection from the sun. This seems like common sense but there are hundreds of desert hikers in places like the Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, and Big Bend who succumb to heat-related injuries each month during the hotter parts of the year. Research from Death Valley indicates that a person who remains clothed and out of the wind & sun will last 25% longer than someone who strips off their garments. Without the primary shelter of clothing, you will become jerky in a few hours in triple-digit heat!
So, the first lesson is to think like a cowboy...you never see them riding their horse wearing a tank-top, shorts, and flip-flops! When I’m out on the trail guiding a trip, I wear a long-sleeved shirt, a brimmed hat, 5.11 pants, and a reliable pair of hiking boots like SWAT Original or Danner. Sunglasses and sunscreen accompany me as well and I always bring a shemagh which I soak in water and drape around my neck to help with cooling.
Secondly, adapt your schedule and activity level to your surroundings. There’s a reason that the cultures to the south invented the siesta and why you don’t see a coyote or deer running around at 3 O’Clock in the afternoon! When I’m out during the summer months in the Sonoran Desert where the temps can easily reach 117 by mid-afternoon, I hole up under my tarp-shelter or in the shade of a north-facing boulder from 11-4. Hiking occurs during the cooler hours on either end of this. And I always adhere to a 50/10 Rule: for every 50 minutes of trekking, I will take a mandatory 10 minute break in the shade even if it’s 8 in the morning and the temps haven’t crested triple-digit so I can minimize heat gain.
Third, I pre-hydrate before hitting the trail. Most hikers in the Grand Canyon succumb to heat-exhaustion during the first few hours of their trek because they aren’t familiar with the intense heat of the desert and are unaware of their body’s reaction. Ironically, it’s often the super-fit such as marathon runners, who top the list because they have big engines but a little radiator and aren’t adapted to triple-digit heat (it takes 7-10 days of living in the desert heat before your body adapts). When I arrive at the parking lot of the trailhead, I consume a quart of water so my inner-canteen is topped off rather than waiting until I’m feeling thirsty a few hours into the hike. I also douse my shirt and shemagh with water to begin the evaporative cooling process. I then follow the 50/10 rule, consuming some salty snacks or electrolytes along the way. If I’m taking any allergy meds or had coffee that morning then I know I’ll have to consume a little more water because of the diuretic effects of those.
And if I should befall Murphy on the trail in a remote region, then I will take shelter in the shade, sitting on my pack and not on the hot ground which can be as high as 180 degrees in the afternoon. I will remain clothed and out of the wind. Unless there is an obvious source of water nearby then I’ll stay put and conserve my precious sweat. People have survived up to 48 hours during the summer heat of the Arizona desert because they were smart with their sweat compared to the hikers who have perished from heat-stroke within 4 hours while desperately searching for water in the middle of the day.
In essence, dress properly, pace yourself, pre-hydrate, and take plenty of shade breaks to allow your body to cool itself.”
FFB: In your book, The Modern Hunter Gatherer: A Practical Guide to Living Off the Land you describe the importance of seeking out forms of protein some would consider off-putting. I'm talking about rodents and small mammals. What is the reality of finding large quantities of meat in the desert and how it can be acquired?
Tony Nester: “I’ve spent a lot of time over the years delving into food procurement in the desert both through researching the archeological record, talking to friends at Hopi, and a lot of field application of different traps and tools and I have to say that it’s going to be far easier to fill your belly using small game than large game here. Conservation laws, of course, also play a huge role on what we, as modern hunter-gatherers can accomplish since the days of having deer drives over cliffs are over! The desert requires you to work much harder than other, wetter environments and the prey-base is significantly smaller so you have to cover more ground when setting deadfalls. It’s not uncommon for a person to have 40-50 deadfalls set up in a half-mile radius around camp. And deadfalls rule in the desert as your prey is situated in the boulder piles and canyon ledges. We’ve lived off rock squirrels, packrats, and other small rodents for weeks at a time on desert survival treks and rely on either the time-tested Paiute deadfall or a widget deadfall which is a modified figure-four. There is very little evidence amongst native cultures of snares being used except around prairie dog holes where the Hopi would anchor a stout yucca-cordage snare around the entrance. Now, one snare that is highly effective and can translate to other environments is the Hopi bird snare. In some cases, these snare bundles have been found by archeologists in cave sites here, numbering in the hundreds and they are still used at Hopi today.
Regarding packrats and rodents on the menu...I’ve found that food biases disappear after two days of hunger! Packrat isn’t like an L.A. sewer rat and they taste very much like squirrel as the critters are often eating the same diet. Bubonic plague is an issue in the Southwest with any mammal so when we prepare packrats or rock squirrels, we toss them on the coals of the campfire for 30 seconds (and not any longer or you’ll have quite a mammalian grenade erupting on your crowd!). Afterwards, we skin the animal and cook the rest on a sandstone slab or a willow skewer.”
FFB: The desert is an environment of extremes. The temperatures can swing wildly from highs in the day to freezing temps at night. What suggestions do you have for dealing with these?
Tony Nester: “A land of extremes for sure. Yuma, AZ holds the record where it once went from 120 F during the day to 34 F at night in June! Given that there is very little cloud cover here most of the time, the rock that heats up to triple-digit temps during the day then releases all of that heat to the sky at night so it can plunge very quickly. I just assume on every trip, regardless of the season, that we will be pounding in water during the day and then potentially cloaked in a down jacket around the campfire in the evening. I always pack along a fist-sized down jacket in my pack for this very reason. Most people who venture to the Southwest do so to escape the cold climates back East but you have to be prepared for both heat-exhaustion type situations AND hypothermia here so dress properly, carry your firestarters and your electrolytes.”
FFB: One of your most interesting courses is your "Knife Only" course. You go out and make your whole kit from the land with just a knife. Assuming people don't have the time or know how to make their desert kit, what gear do you recommend, at a minimum for hikers? In other words, what is the "must-have" gear?
Tony Nester: “I stress looking your survival priorities rather than solely a list as your needs will determine what you will then carry. We know humans have to take care of the “Big 5” priorities in any survival situation. This refers to physical priorities only and not the mental attributes as we’re talking about gears so let’s look at those: Shelter, Water, Fire, Signaling, and First-Aid. In essence, staying warm, dry, hydrated, and tending to medical issues.
Here’s what I recommend for starters:
Shelter Items
AMK Heatsheet
Gloves
Water Items
Potable Aqua Iodine Tablets
Water: 2-6 quarts depending on the time of year
Firemaking Items
Spark Rod
Bic Lighter
Cotton balls with Vaseline
Signaling Items
Signal Mirror
Acme Whistle
Cellphone
First-Aid Items
AMK First-Aid Kit
Miscellaneous Items
Mora Knife
Spare Prescription Glasses
I carry some of this gear in my pockets (fire starters, knife, whistle, Heatsheet, and signal mirror) and the rest in a fanny pack. For longer trips, I will bring an ACR Personal Location Beacon as well.
Desert-specific gear includes: sunglasses, Leatherman for removing cactus spines (for my dogs), mini-binoculars for locating water or scouting canyon routes, shemagh, NUUN electrolyte tablets, and, of course, the clothing I mentioned earlier which is your primary shelter. And I don’t carry a snakebite kit which research by toxicologists has shown to be useless against rattlesnake bites and actually does more damage to the surrounding tissue.”
FFB: You place a great deal of emphasis on the ancient ways and you draw from the technology from the past. What do you feel the greatest take-a-way is for people who travel to the desert? What can the modern world learn from the past?
Tony Nester: “Embracing and adapting to the land here and not looking at the desert as a hostile, barren land but one that can sustain you if you know how and where to look for the resources. People have dwelled in the deserts here for thousands of years using a set of daily skills and an awareness to their surroundings. One of my Navajo friends once told me that his culture doesn’t have a word for the term “Survival” as they haven’t’ been surviving here but rather living. Survival is what occurs for the modern person when they break down on the highway north of Phoenix in July but to the indigenous cultures and cowboys the desert is home....a place that can sustain you and provide for everything you need as long as you are willing to accept the challenges that this unique landscape demands. First time visitors here usually love it or hate. For myself, I can’t get enough and need ten more lifetimes at least to explore it’s nuances.”
For more information about Tony Nester, please visit his website https://www.apathways.com/
June 13, 2019
Great interview and article, full of great information and insights from a man who has been there and done that. Well done Kevin, and I always appreciate your thoughts Tony.
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by Kevin Estela October 20, 2024
Hunting is much more than pressing the trigger; it is an entire process you should enjoy year round. From preseason scouting to year round consumption of harvested wild-game meat, hunting can become more of your lifestyle than hobby. Some people think hunting is just as simple as pressing the trigger but to the true hunter, the experience extends long after you leave the field. You hear a lot of people say “I want to know where my food comes from” but so many of the same are quick to hand off their kill to a butcher. No disrespect to the great butchers out there but there are some hacks (no pun intended) in your industry with less respect for the game brought in to be processed. The only way to follow your game from field to table is to take it from field to table by yourself. In this month’s blog, I want to share some of the tips and tricks I’ve learned for butchering wild game. I believe in processing my own animals and staying hands on as much as possible through the process.
by Kevin Estela July 25, 2024
by Kevin Estela April 11, 2024 2 Comments
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Kevin Estela
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As a Survival Instructor, Kevin Estela founded Estela Wilderness Education. He formerly worked for Fieldcraft Survival teaching classes on various survival, preparedness, and firearms related courses. Kevin has been a frequent contributing writer for publications such as RECOIL, Athlon Outdoors, Beckett Media, and of course, here on Fiddleback Forge's site. He is a Sayoc Kali Associate Instructor Level 5, as well as a BJJ Purple Belt.