I’ve only been to the Sonoran Desert a few times. However since I started my survival journey in the Mojave Desert I tend to think of deserts as teeming with life. I was excited to see this video series on Sonoran desert survival by Tom Mcelroy. I picked up a few pearls.
Tom is a former instructor at the tracker school who has opened his own school. I am excited to see the results of his training. I remember the tracker school classes very fondly. I was especially interested in his manufacture of a pottery canteen and sandals. I haven’t tried any sizable projects with native clay; he made it look very possible. I’ll have to hunt out clay deposits in the neighborhood.
I’ve been thinking about making sandals from sagebrush bark in the Oregon high desert. I don’t think that his treking barefoot is something I will ever willingly emulate; too much can go, too wrong, too fast. That said he is seems quite knowledgeable and practiced. I fully understand his observation that going barefoot causes him to slow down and watch where he places his feet. I will try to slow down and watch my step while wearing comfortable shoes.
He produced another couple videos about living off the land in the eastern hardwood forest:
Great tips on using Basswood bark as cordage for a bow drill. Note also his use of a fish trap. I used several of these on my extended survival trek into the Marble Mountains of northern California. I used a short spear to stab the fish instead of trying to herd them, but that does take time. Thinking back I would probably make a small net to scoop them out; as there is less chance of damaging the gut track. But I was much less adept at finding and making cordage then. I love the cordage making as meditation thought. I feel the same way. I’ve used cordage making and twining as methods to sit still and watch the natural world; that’s really why I’m out there.
I am especially enamored of his week-long trip format. That seems like just the right amount of time to accomplish a significant project – like the pottery canteen – without overstaying the site. I did three trips this past year but by choice my efforts were restricted to fire starting and foraging. However on each of them they yielded many more calories than I needed – I returned home with a quart of huckleberries on the last trip. Note in Tom’s videos, he hunts for starch first, choosing the fruits of the barrel cactus as his staple in the desert and the fiddleheads of the ostrich and cinnamon ferns in the woodland. I think that plant use is one of the best ways to judge a survival course. Shelter, water, fire, starch, and cordage, all the rest is gravy.
Here at home I’ll dig wapato, burdock, and at times camas. In the high desert I’ll look for cattail, biscuitroot, or bitterroot. Let there be no mistake, hunting and gathering is hard; that’s why agriculture was invented. The one constant – that the people on the Paleo diet don’t embrace – is starvation. Fasting is the one feature common to the diets of all Paleolithic peoples. I’ll cover how you can harness the power of fasting in a future post.
I can’t wait to get out into the high desert again! I need another bow stave.