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{\*\generator Msftedit 5.41.21.2510;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\sb100\sa100\qc\b\f0\fs40 Mother Nature\rquote s Dirty Little Secret\b0\par
\pard\sb100\sa100\fs24 Mother Nature is a self-confessed serial killer. But why would she want you dead? Isn\rquote t she supposed to represent all that is wonderful about the outdoors and wildlife and the beauty of our existence on Earth?\par
Well, that may have been the Divine plan a long time ago, before old Satan snaked into the Garden of Eden and messed it up enough for God to evict the humans who couldn\rquote t understand simple instructions. Then he let the garden become a wilderness, overgrown with monster foliage and rocks and pests and inclement weather, bad enough to forever remind the sinners of their terminal indiscretions.\par
When He put Mother Nature in charge, it wasn\rquote t necessarily to protect the humans from the elements of Nature; it was to protect Nature from the abuse by the wasteful obsessive compulsive consumption from out of control people.\par
As time evolved, the human species and the wilderness grew and spread, and people learned, for the most part, how to respect nature a little more and even exist in peaceful harmony and mutual beneficial integration to some extent.\par
But eventually the weak and selfish humans managed to persist in their apathetic narcissistic rituals to continuously defile the planet without any concern for self-sustaining philosophy and protection of the natural habitat. They continued to avariciously rape and pillage the land so Mother Nature is just defending herself.\par
Here are the main ways she\rquote ll do it, and how your complacency and ignorance will actually assist in your own \ldblquote suicide\rdblquote  by \ldblquote natural causes\lquote .\par
\pard\fi-360\li720\sb100\sa100\tx720\b Dangerous Terrain\b0\par
\pard\sb100\sa100 When the U.S. government was closing in on UBL in the \lquote badlands\rquote  of Afghanistan/Pakistan, it was deeply entrenched in mountainous terrain so rough and impassible that even highly trained special forces troops couldn\rquote t negotiate it to any useful approach.\par
There are similar and even more formidable wilderness areas in America\rquote s deep forest and mountain areas which to this day no modern humans have likely set foot due to sheer magnitude of the greatly inhospitable terrains.\par
It\rquote s not easy to describe intensely rugged back woods and mountains when comparing to more user friendly forests such as in the Midwest areas. You have to experience the difference, for several hours to appreciate what I mean when I say that what you don\rquote t know about very serious terrain will definitely kill you.\par
Don\rquote t think you can come right off your regular municipal Park Forest preserves jogging trail right into Appalachian back woods and act like there\rquote s no difference. Even the so-called user friendly established trails of foot hills are highly dangerous.\par
The term \ldblquote terrain\rdblquote  itself is deceiving. Your local Park Forest preserves is technically terrain. And the Washington State foothills and vast back woods wilderness is just euphemistically described as rugged or dense terrain. But they are far more than that. Areas like this stretch throughout the country from coast to coast, many only a stone\rquote s throw from modern municipalities.\par
So the first thing that can injure you and/or get you lost, is the severe, unfamiliar terrain. Which ranges from vast deserts of virtually nothing but endless sand and rocks as far as the eye can see to deep backwoods and hills, so dense and thick and confusing that you can walk for merely a hundred yards and immediately get turned around and lost, and drifting in circles until you drop, without practiced navigational skills land equipment.\par
All these areas are nothing less than traps waiting for the unsuspecting \ldblquote human flies\rdblquote  to be captured, tortured, and killed.\par
The second or third reason serious wilderness is so bad is because of how difficult is to move around, tripping and stumbling over never ending obstacles.\par
It\rquote s so hard to travel over if you get detoured off a road or foot trail, that it then becomes only a matter of a short time before you get lost, fall down in critical condition, exhausted and exposed to all sorts of bad things, then deceased and put on the menu for midnight scavenger dining, and never to be seen again.\par
\pard\fi-360\li720\sb100\sa100\tx720\b Dangerous Animals, Insects, and Poisonous Plants\b0\par
\pard\sb100\sa100 No need to go into extensive listing detail here. There are plenty of resources to search and read about some evening if you want to scare yourself awake until dawn. If you went down in a plane crash landing in the middle of the African, Asian, or South American jungles and survived it uninjured, you\rquote ll likely still die in a few hours of exposure of the third kind, even though it\rquote s a balmy 80 degrees temperature even at night.\par
If the {\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "http://www.survivopedia.com/snakes-in-american-wilderness/"}}{\fldrslt{\cf1\ul deadly slithering snakes}}}\cf0\ulnone\f0\fs24  and poisonous creepy crawlers don\rquote t kill you, and you managed to avoid other things you thought existed only in science fiction horror movies\b\'85\b0 the blowflies will eventually get you. Instead of biting you in the standard painful way, they are like mosquitoes.\par
You don\rquote t know you\rquote ve been bitten until you feel the itching and the little bump on your skin, only it won\rquote t be just a little bump. It will be the size of a golf ball because the larva is now growing under your skin and eating you alive.\par
As you scratch and bleed, releasing the chomping larva, which will then seek other orifices to crawl into while your blood scent will attract clouds of more blowflies, and you will soon be unrecognizable, even to the vultures and scavengers watching you patiently right before you die.\par
Even in the Southern U.S., especially the backwoods swamps and wetlands, there are insects, animal predators, and plants that are potentially a deadly threat within a 100 foot radius of virtually anywhere you walk. It\rquote s not by coincidence that a substantial amount of missing persons reports might include the notation that they like to go on long walks in the back woods areas.\par
The denizens of the wilderness have no mercy. And don\rquote t even get me started on Big Foots and Squatches.\par
\pard\fi-360\li720\sb100\sa100\tx720\b Deadly Weather Conditions\b0\par
\pard\sb100\sa100 Again, it\rquote s not necessary here to reiterate what you know almost every time you see one of the numerous news reports on rescuing victims. Invariably weather was a co-conspirator. And virtually everybody, despite seemingly being the No.1 topic around the water cooler, is \ldblquote clueless in Cleveland\rdblquote  when it comes to weather. Everybody always says \ldblquote\'85{\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "http://www.survivopedia.com/reading-natures-signs-to-predict-weather/"}}{\fldrslt{\cf1\ul it looks like a nice day}}}\cf0\ulnone\f0\fs24  for a day trip into the national park, I think I\rquote ll hop into the car with my mountain bike and go enjoy it on some wilderness trail!\rdblquote\par
They never seem to care that weather as little as 10 miles away can be completely different once they get there. It happens especially in hills near the base of mountain ranges on the coast, where even on real roads, flash floods, severe micro bursts, and mud and rock slides and avalanches and \lquote what not\rquote  will take you out in the blink of a blinded eye.\par
A week ago travelers along a road in the Utah/Arizona canyon country failed to even heed a direct warnings about the potential of heavy flash flood producing rains along their travel route, and at least 9 people including children were killed when their vehicles were washed away by rapidly overwhelming flood water. They chose to take a chance. After all, it started out being such a nice day. It was the last chance for some of them.\b  \b0\par
\pard\fi-360\li720\sb100\sa100\tx720\b Mother Nature Assisted Suicide\b0\par
\pard\sb100\sa100 It\rquote s bad enough to take a serious risk by venturing where you shouldn\rquote t be going unless you are a trained survivalist or rescue person, but to be totally ill prepared\endash like most victims are\endash is like tossing yourself naked on the wilderness sacrificial altar.\par
The primary danger of the elements of nature is its opposition to the personal comfort and health of your skin and bones. Finding yourself in a wilderness predicament where you are also exposed to everything the Old Girl can throw in the first place at you, is not conductive to survival.\par
Most preppers know that water is not the 1\super st\nosupersub  primary necessity in the immediate survival emergency situation as former mythology implied. You can have all the food and water you need, but if you are not secured from the elements and predators, it might not matter.\par
And you can go a couple days without water, longer without food, but NOT even a couple hours in open exposure to severe weather conditions without shelter/warmth.\par
Just as a sidebar rule reminder, it\rquote s safety/shelter first, then security (weapons/tools), then water, then food.\par
When they find the remains of missing campers or hikers the usual determination of death will include the word exposure. Whether it was heat stroke or hypothermia, or predator attack, the rudimentary precaution of creating a secure shelter a.s.a.p. was not a factor in their survival attempt and became their {\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "http://www.survivopedia.com/wilderness-deadly-mistakes/"}}{\fldrslt{\cf1\ul primary fatal mistake}}}\cf0\ulnone\f0\fs24 .\par
The irony here is compared to that famous old sailor saying \ldblquote water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink\rdblquote . The wilderness usually provides enough material for a basic viable trail adventure, IF you have {\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "http://www.survivopedia.com/real-life-survival-stories-to-learn-from/"}}{\fldrslt{\cf1\ul good survival training skills}}}\cf0\ulnone\f0\fs24  and know what you are doing. But besides that, there is absolutely no excuse for not ALWAYS having one or two of those small cheap weightless pocket reflective Mylar Space Blankets on you when going anywhere at all outside the immediate breast of civilization.\par
They can be used as a rain cover, a rain catcher, or a solar still. I also have a larger sleeping bag version and one man \ldblquote tube pup tent\rdblquote  made out of the same stuff that is folded no larger than a paperback book in my BOB.\par
In the wild, due to sometimes drastically fluctuating temperatures from daytime to night in many areas, it is imperative to immediately stay warm. And if it becomes cold and rainy at night, building a fire might not be that easy, especially if you are not skilled at it.\par
As you see, there are a lot of factors that you need to consider before taking on your next wilderness adventure. It\rquote s up to you if you want to be safe, have a good time and get back home just with the memories or you want a shot at \ldblquote fame\rdblquote  and have your name on the first page of the local newspaper in the \ldblquote Remembering\rdblquote  section.\par
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