Thursday, January 18, 2018

Good book but needs a different title

Just about every outdoorsperson will find this book a good read. In fact I can envision people reading passages of it aloud while at the cabin and a lively debate ensuing night after night.
The book is chock full of facts about dangers that we all face when outdoors.
Here's a snippet: what is the most dangerous creature in the world? Bears? Wolves? Rattlesnakes?
You're not even close. It is the mosquito which kills about a million people annually, mostly in sub Saharan Africa, from malaria.
"Oh, that's cheating!" you might say. "I thought you meant in the United States and Canada."
OK, let's make it the U.S. and Canada then. Again, bears, wolves, rattlesnakes? How about scorpions or spiders?
Nope, it is the good old whitetail deer which kills 130 people and injures another 30,000 each year in the United States alone from auto accidents. Would you believe there are 1.5 million deer-auto accidents each year, resulting in $1 billion in insurance claims?
Incidentally, scorpions have only killed four people in the U.S. since 2005 but kill 1,000 annually in Mexico! Wow!
Animals and other creatures aren't the only hazard out there, of course. The weather also poses risks, both summer and winter.
Readers of this blog and anyone who also followed my previous Bow Narrows Camp blog should pay attention to author Timothy Sprinkle's facts about drowning and lightning.
Ten people drown each day in the U.S., however only 300 a year drown in boating accidents. I have long preached about making wearing a PFD (personal floatation device) a habit any time you are in a small vessel like a fishing boat or canoe.
Guess who are the most likely sportsmen to be hit by lightning. Golfers, right? Wrong; four times more fishermen are hit each year. I once gave my own advice to fishermen on this subject in What to Do When there is Thunder and Lightning in the old blog and the book backs this up.
Sprinkle also gives you the facts on frostbite, altitude sickness, carbon monoxide poisoning and dehydration/heat stroke as well as starvation, dysentery and hypothermia. Then there are risks posed by terrain like rockslides and avalanches.
I won't give the whole book away here but just recommend you get a copy.
One criticism I have is about the book's title Lost and Stranded. There are only a couple of mentions about people who are lost or stranded.
And while there is advice from experts about the various pitfalls out there, the subtitle Expert Advice on How to Survive Being Alone in the Wilderness isn't exactly accurate either since such advice pertains to everybody whether they are alone or in a group.
Lost and Stranded is published by Skyhorse Publishing Inc.

2 comments:

Doug Billings said...

Makes sense about the mosquitoes. They are pretty tough and obnoxious creatures for sure. They can get pretty bad here in Tennessee, but not nearly as bad as they are in Canada during the short warm weather season.

I remember one year, I got bit by the same guy four times. When he was done with me, he flew by my ear and belched! Ha!

Dan Baughman said...

Yep. I've seen that happen too but the worst was the time when two mosquitoes grabbed a fishermen by the shoulders and started carrying him away. One mosquito said, "Should we eat him here or take him home?" The other mosquito replied, "We'd better eat him here. If we take him home the big mosquitoes might take him away from us."

Where the heck have I been?

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