IF you go into the wilds

Since in the late 1960s gas was only 17cents a gallon we could travel the state in a vw
bug and it cost about 10 dollars. However, it is true that the minimum wage was just over $1 an hour then when I was in college.

I decided to share some of the dangers "in the wilds" of California, Oregon, Washington, for those from out of the country or for people from states other than these states and for people within these states for which wilderness travel on foot or boat or bike or horse is a new experience.

It is very important to be aware of what can happen wherever you travel to. When you are in a city or suburb or even small town there are always people to help you if an emergency occurs but once you are alone in the wilds somewhere often as not there is no one there but animals and if you are lucky, trees.

Because I made it a point to spend as much time in the wilds as possible in my life, hiking and mountain climbing and riding off road motorcycles in the deserts and mountain roads, I know now a lot that I didn't then and sometimes I barely survived what I didn't know then.

I thought I would start by talking about California, Oregon and Washington. From Central California northward the 3 states share a lot in common. These things they share are mountains, rivers, trees and many animals.

I'll start with animals. I learned recently about a couple from europe who put their child on the back of a deer in Yosemite National Park and the deer promptly killed the child before its parents could react. People who live in the western states from west of the Mississippi River would all likely know that a deer might kill you in some circumstances. Where I live if I go out at night I have to be careful not to disturb a male or female deer that might be eating my grass or shrubs out of my front yard. Deer are the greatest threat to your dogs, especially if they have horns. I've seen what a buck can do to a dog and it isn't pretty. Basically, the buck simply scoops up the dog on its horns(which usually impales the dog to a greater or lessor degree and then throws the dog away. Dogs(unless in a pack of dogs) don't usually come back for more.
Female deer with baby deer are the scariest and will think nothing of killing themselves protecting their babies. Those hooves are knife sharp.

But generally speaking, if you leave most deer alone (except bucks in rutting season) they will leave you alone.

Elk are sort of like very big deer and have similar characteristics but because they are bigger they can be much worse to deal with.(My best friend hit an elk with his car when it ran in front of him and it took out his hood and windshield and killed the Elk). Luckily, outside of a faces full of broken front window glass and a dying or dead elk in their lap they were okay.

Moose aren't found in California but are very big(some stand 6 feet at the shoulder) so should be avoided because of their size and the fact that they also behave in some ways just like deer and Elk. A pissed off Elk or Moose is a scary thing to behold if you don't have a gun at the ready.The most moose and elk I've seen in the wild is in Yellowstone and Teton National Parks in Wyoming.(Yellowstone National Park is a little in Montana and Idaho too).

Buffalo are the most likely to just kill you. People visiting Yellowstone and Teton National Parks walk up to them thinking they are a cow. Nope. Get close enough and the Bull of the herd will simply knock you over and stomp you to death in about 2 seconds. Stay away from buffaloes unless you are in your car or truck. If you are 20 to 30 feet away they generally will leave you alone if there are no baby buffalo nearby.

So, to summarize the most likely animal to kill you that you wouldn't expect would be a buffalo. The second most animal likely to injure you or your dog would be a deer, an elk or a moose.

The most likely animal to harm your dog would be a porcupine. They aren't very smart because they don't have to be. One bite into them maims or kills most animals and it is a very slow and painful death as the barbs travel up from punctures inside the roof of their mouths and into their brains causing death. Also, often dogs get porcupine quills in the eyes making them blind in one eye.

The best way to handle it if your dog or a friend's dog gets quills inside the mouth, or on the face is to hog tie the dog if you think your dog won't bite you. Next, get a friend to stick a 1 inch diameter stick across the dogs open mouth so the dog can't bite you by reflex by accident(a smaller stick for a smaller dog). Then taking a pair of standard pliers pull each quill out quickly and cleanly. Each time you do this your dog will scream in pain or try to bite you so be ready for this. I have had to do this twice, once on a friends dog and once on my second wife's dog.

If this is too much for you then quickly take your dog to a vet and let the vet put the dog out unconscious while he or she pulls out all the quills. Remember, somebody has to get the quills out completely or they will just work deeper and deeper until your dog goes blind or dies when the brain cavity is punctured and infects.

Skunks are less lethal but can cause your dog to go blind if sprayed in the eyes. If you see this happen or suspect this has happened wash your dogs eyes out with water and consult a veterinarian if you can afford one. The spray can be most quickly gotten rid of off an animal or human with a Tomato juice bath. For some reason tomato juice is the antidote when the sprayed person or animal has been sprayed by a skunk. some people or animals have extreme lung problems or allergic reactions to skunk spray so watch people and animals carefully after they are sprayed for a few days. If near a hospital(for humans or animals) it is best to consult a physician.



You might think that a bear or mountain lion would be the worst. Nope. They usually keep to themselves and bears most of the time (if they are black bears) are as afraid of you as you are of them. Mountain lions you don't generally see at all(if they can help it). I can usually sense them(mountain lions) if they are tracking me and my dogs. For me, as a very instinctual intuitive person I the hairs on the back of my neck prickle and that is how I know I'm being stalked. I have never seen a mountain lion in the wilds in all these years but I have heard them scream which at night when it happened was an emotionally withering experience for me and my dogs. I made sure to walk away from that very slowly and macho to demonstrate I wasn't afraid of the cat so I wouldn't be attacked at night in the dark.

My experiences with bears have been many and always when I least expected it. My first experience alone with a bear was in Yosemite National Park walking down a trail near Yosemite falls. When the bear saw me and I saw the bear we both walked and then ran in opposite directions. Bears will usually leave you alone if they are black bears but since they are many times stronger than humans and have long claws and teeth it is better to give them the trail or the road. One time I was in my 1974 International harvester Scout II,(this was about 1983) a really amazingly capable 4 wheel drive, and my father when he was alive and my son now 34, was about 6. The bear walked onto the dirt road and was surprised by us. He raised up on his rear feet to threaten us so we stopped the 4 wheel drive and just watched the bear. I have never experienced any animal try to intimidate a vehicle. I felt strange being threatened in this way with my 6 year old son in the car even though I felt relatively safe because I knew I could put it in reverse even if the bear broke a window to get at us and get out of here. Finally, the bear wandered off and left us alone and amazed by the unique experience.

Another thing in regard to mountain lions. My son's now ex-wife was from Brazil. She was not used to being in the mountain wilds anywhere. We were up at slushy meadows on the side of San Gorgonio(about 11,000+ feet high), the tallest mountain in southern California at about I believe 8000 to 9000 feet in elevation. Since we didn't leave our car until about 3 pm I told my son and his wife we likely wouldn't get back to the car until after dark. My son said it was okay. I'm not sure he told his then wife about this. Since being in the wilds at night in the dark scared his wife as a very new and scary experience she started to make little howling noises. I said, "You can't make noises like that in the wild unless you want a mountain lion to eat you. That is the same noise a dying rabbit makes which is one of their favorite foods." This really upset her more but at least she stopped making the "dying rabbit" sound that would possibly draw a predator. She didn't want to be that far into the wilds at night any time soon.

In regard to plants to watch out for poison oak would top my list if you are below 3500 feet in elevation because it generally doesn't grow about 2500 to 3500 feet in elevation depending upon how far north you go.Some people are extremely allergic to poison oak and can die of exposed to it on their skin. Most people just get and itchy rash if they touch it that goes away within a few weeks if it isn't spread all over the body by touching and scratching it. So learn to recognize poison oak if you come to California or Oregon because it is everywhere below 3000 feet except in the desert. If you should get exposed don't spread it to your eyes or genitals because that can be problematic. Calamine lotion and several other products will help soothe the oozing areas until they begin to heal. If you know you were just exposed to poison oak get some denatured alcohol and rub the exposed areas with a paper towel soaked in denatured alcohol. After that wash it off with soap and water. This is what I do if my dogs run through it where I live and I have to touch the dogs. Also, when I see my dogs get into it I take a paper towel and put denatured alcohol on the paper towel and being careful not to get it near their eyes (denatured alcohol in the eyes or ingested can cause blindness in some circumstances for animals and humans). So be very careful how you use denatured alcohol even though it cuts poison oak oil off human skin or animal fur really great.

If you are in the desert stay away from cholla cactus. I used to live in the desert on Yucca Mesa above Yucca Valley, California and cholla caused me more problems than any other cactus. Most other cactus spines if you get into them by accident you can deal with much easier than cholla. But cholla are the worst if you are walking on a trail in the desert or high desert and are wearing sandals with thin soles. Old cholla cactus groups fall off the main plant when dead and so one often finds these scattered on trails but still dangerous. When you step on these with a sandal or beachwalker it goes right into your foot. However, the worst for me was a spine I got into my knee that hurt for years because I couldn't get it out. Finally it just dissolved over time. The spines are like a pocupine quill they only go in and there are tiny reverse barbs that prevent you from pulling them out without extreme distress. Usually when you try to pull one out it breaks off and becomes an even worse problem.

Generally, it isn't good to eat plants you find while hiking unless you are absolutely sure what it is. Generally safe to eat through most of California and all of Oregon and Washington are blackberries which are very unlikely to be mistaken for anything else because they have that berry look like raspberries only are dark purple instead of pinky red like raspberries. From the tip of northern California up north all the way into Canada also grow blueberries which are very good for brain function. However, there are other poisonous things that look something like blueberries. So if you pick something that looks like a blueberry and it is bitter then you know either the berry isn't ripe or you have something in the poisonous direction in your mouth so either way spit it out and wash your mouth out with water if available.

Wild strawberries grow in my meadows in mountain ranges from middle California up into Canada. Only wild strawberries are about the size of an adults tip of their little finger.(very small) But if you find them they are extremely sweet often as sweet as a 2 or 3 inch diameter strawberry grown commercially. So they are a rare treat. However, many poisonous things look a little like wild strawberries so if you taste one don't swallow it until you taste for wile strawberry. If it is bitter spit it out quick and rinse mouth with water.

I'm not an expert on mushrooms and many are poisonous or could make you temporary crazy or dead so you should consult books or online about that. However, my favorite that I found in extreme northern California forests is the morels, one of the tastiest food mushrooms I have ever tasted. Fried in butter there is nothing better to my pallet.

In regard to traveling in forested or remote areas be very sure of what you are doing and what your actual capabilities are because maiming and fatalities come from unexpected weather conditions, getting lost, and getting separated from the knowledgeable in your party of travelers. There are other things like losing ones glasses, squirrels stealing your leather shoelaces out of your boots and things like that but these are less likely than the first ones I've listed.

Also, remember GPS devices don't work if they get in the rain, melting snow, fall into a lake, river or stream. So depending completely on electrical GPS devices is very problematic. I don't like to go anywhere I can't get into and out of with just a water canteen, a blanket and a knife by myself if necessary but that's just me. I have had to rescue people in all sorts of strange situations and sometimes people are just too out of it from exposure from bad decisions to even communicate. So remember just how fast one loses the ability to think within about 1 hour of losing too much body heat to hypothermia. So if you feel cold and things just don't seem right to you, you might have hypothermia and then need to rely on the decisions of someone else who doesn't.

Another mistake is to go walking in the extremely thick Washington forests unless you take a guide or know each tree from long experience. They are so thick that navigation by landmarks becomes most of the time impossible. When dealing with these kinds of conditions look for rivers, mountain ridges without many trees etc. in order to save yourself when you can recognize no landmarks. Otherwise it is possible that no one will ever find you in those thick forests, especially if you aren't on a well used trail. When lost find a river or stream and head downstream toward the ocean away from mountains. You are more likely to find a town or city along this river usually by going downstream to save yourself. These kinds of problems only increase for hikers as we move up into British Columbia and on up into Alaska. Also, in British Columbia and Alaska one must be prepared to deal at any time in the wilderness with things like Grizzly bears, wolverines, moose, elks,deer, badgers,mountain goats and worst of all feral humans etc.