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I'm lost. Those words are repeated over 9,000 times every single year in national parks and in national forests in just the United States alone. Out of those 9,000 individuals, roughly 4,000 of those are dayhikers who make up 42% of all missing hiker cases. In this episode, I'm going to be experiencing exactly what a lost dayhiker would experience. This is going to be from the perspective of a dayhiker who has no gear at all, which happens to be extremely common when it comes to lost dayhikers. Often times these individuals go out without planning ahead. Unfortunate things happen and they're lost out in the woods with no gear, no food, no water, nothing at all. And that folks is what this episode is all about.
I will spend the next 12 hours out in this forest with absolutely nothing except for the clothes that I have on my body. As you all can see here, I do have a backpack, but there's virtually nothing in it. No food, no water, no additional insulation layers, nothing like that. What I have with me is basically what I'm wearing, and that is it. Let's take a second here and let's go over everything inside of this backpack. I have camera batteries. I have a headlamp so you all can see me and also so I can move the tripod around. And I also have a lantern which we need to fire up right now. And folks, that is it. There is nothing else left inside of this backpack.
There's no food, no water, nothing like that. Before it gets dark, I better arrange a place to sit tonight because as soon as nightfall comes, we're not moving. While I have done many survival episodes here on this channel over the years, I've never done one quite like this. I've never taken on the role of an inexperienced hiker who was lost, who had absolutely nothing with them. This will be without a doubt very different. Currently, the temperature is around 62°. By morning tomorrow, it will be around 50°. That temperature range right there is hypothermia city. A lot of people will succumb to hypothermia in warm conditions like that. Most people would
think that hypothermia takes place when it's really cold, but more times than not, that's not the case. It happens when the temps are above 40° F. And that's because that's when most people are out hiking and backpacking and so on. Hypothermia takes place when your body temperature drops below 95°. And there's three stages. There's mild hypothermia, when your body temperature ranges between 90° and 95. And then there's moderate, that's 82° to 90°. And then there's severe, and that's when your body temperature drops below 82°. Again, everyone, by morning tomorrow, the temperature is going to drop down to roughly 50° F. Plus, we have very low humidity levels. Right now, around 15%. That means by morning it's going to feel far colder than 50°.
As it stands right now, we are very close to sundown. We have about 10 more minutes of light left and then it's going to be pitch black. I tell you folks, it's one thing to put yourself in a situation like this to show you all how to make it through the night and it's something else completely to be in this situation because you messed up, right? Being in the dark with no supplies, being all alone with every bump, every creek, every snap of a twig freaking you out. It's very, very different. That's why you do not want to be in this situation here. In fact, situations like this are more common than ever, not just in the United States, but worldwide. Because situations just like this are at an all-time high, I figured right now is
a good time to restart the survival series that I have here on YouTube. Already, I have four or five episodes that involve all sorts of situations and scenarios. At the same time, I have tested out some survival products, all of which have been pretty poor, if I have to be honest. And that brings me to a really good point. There are so many brand new survival products that are out on the market right now. Products that have not been thoroughly tested. With this episode here, this begins a new series where we are going to begin testing out a ton of survival products. First things first, we have to have a baseline. In other words, what is it like to be stuck out in the forest with
absolutely nothing? From there, we will test out products and see if they benefit us or not in such a situation. This is not a situation that you should find yourself in. And let me specify, I'm not just talking about being lost because getting lost can happen to anyone. Being so illprepared that you're out in the forest with absolutely nothing. You should never be in that situation, and hopefully you won't be. But again, people do find themselves in this situation all the time. Later on tonight, I will tell you all a story about two dayhikers who got lost not far from here. This story does a good job of showing just how often situations like this take place. They shouldn't take place, but they do.
A little bit of a breeze is beginning to pick up. That is definitely not a good thing. Cool temperatures, low humidity, plus a breeze. That could be quite dangerous with nothing more than a fleece. That is especially true. So, I will have to do what I need to do to stay warm tonight, which means a ton of squats, push-ups, and so on. The most important thing is that I stay warm. And the easiest way to do that is with movement. Now, if I was prepared, I could have a fire. But I'm taking on the role of an ill-prepared hiker. And I have no lighters, no materials, nothing like that. I know what you're thinking, Luke. Why don't you start a bushcraft fire? Well, the truth is the vast majority of hikers and
backpackers are not bushcraft experts. So, I'm not going to do that. With these survival scenarios, I like to keep them as realworld and realistic as possible because if I didn't do that, there would be no reason to even film this episode because it wouldn't be realistic and the benefits of this series would be meaningless. It's not all that cold yet, but it's definitely cooling down. By morning tomorrow, I suspect I will be quite cold. When it comes to lost day hikers, the reason for the vast majority of those individuals getting lost is the fact that they stepped off of the trail. Maybe they go to check on something, more often than not, they're going pee.
They go far enough away from the trail to have some privacy, and when they're looking for the trail again, they cannot find it. I've been in that situation one time and it was striking at how like the feeling of dread like hits you all of a sudden when you can't find the trail. I take that back. I've actually been in that situation twice. One time I found the trail again rather easily and rather quickly. The other time I was not able to find the trail at all and I had to use some basic navigation skills to make my way back out onto a road where I parked my vehicle. The feeling that hits you when you realize that you're lost is unlike anything you've ever felt before. It's a level of dread that's not like anything
else. All sorts of things will cross your mind all at one time. Your heart will begin to beat. adrenaline will be released and very easily you can make some really bad decisions. That's why it's really important to stop and think, stop and plan. You're going to think about your safety. You're going to think about your family. You're going to think about the potential cost. At the same time, you're going to think about the potential embarrassment. You're going to think about doing all sorts of things to get yourself out of that situation. But the most important thing is again, stop and think and plan. Do not go running off in the forest. Do not assume that you know the way out of there. The most
important thing that you have to do is stay put. Did you know that with the vast majority of hikers who get lost, they are found roughly 150 ft away from a trail? That's all. They could be that close to the trail and still be lost. And I can tell you all without a doubt, this is a very easy thing to happen. Again, I've experienced this firsthand, so I know exactly what I'm talking about. It's amazing how you can just step off the trail, not even go that far, and yet you can turn around and you can't even see the trail. You can't find it, even though in many cases the trail is right before your eyes.
By the way, everyone, if you do happen to find yourself in this sort of situation and you do have a light source, do not waste that light source. Do not waste the battery. You want to hold on to that and reserve that for emergency purposes only. If you hear something, you might want to turn it on and check. If you have to go do something, turn it on and use it. And most importantly, use it to signal for help. Don't waste it. It's too valuable of a resource. In this episode here, I need to film myself. Otherwise, you'll be staring at a black screen. If it wasn't for that purpose, I would have the light off.
It is time for an update, everyone. Currently, it's about 9:30, which means that I've been lost for about 2 and 1/2 hours. So far, so good. I decided to turn the light off and I'll just use this headlamp for a little bit. Conserve as much battery as possible. Just been sitting here listening, listening to the coyotes. There was a pack 2 hours south here just going crazy. Far enough away for me not to be concerned. But still, you have to keep in mind for someone to be in this situation where they're lost, no lights. To hear something like that, it would freak them out. There they go again, singing away. Anyways, everybody, it is beginning to cool down. I'm right at the point now where I'm beginning to get chilly. I'm not at the point to begin doing, you know,
squats and push-ups and running in place, but we're not too far away from that. There's two real big positives about tonight. And these are positives that other people may not experience depending on the weather conditions, the locations, the environments, and so on. But right now, it's not terribly cold. Also, it's not terribly windy. There's no rain, and there's no bugs. That is incredibly huge. Imagine being lost in the outdoors with no lights and having tons of mosquitoes eating you alive. You'd be trying to pull your jacket over your head and all of that stuff. Yeah, that's why everyone It's one of the reasons why you never want to find yourself in this situation because there's nothing fun about this. Even
though I'm filming this adventure here, right? I'm trying to show you all what it's like. There's certain aspects which I can't show. One is the fear and the worry and the concern because I put myself in this situation. When you're lost, the fear of the unknown is so powerful, so overwhelming. At the same time, it plays tricks on your mind. All of that I can't experience because I'm in this situation because I want to be. Even though I'm in this situation because I'm making this video, I can tell you all this is not comfortable. There's nothing about this that is fun.
I'm thirsty. I'm hungry. I'm a little bit chilly. I'm uncomfortable. But it could be worse. It could be much, much worse. Let me show you all exactly what I see. This is what it's like sitting in this forest. That is what I see, ladies and gentlemen. It is very, very dark inside of this forest. Currently, the moon is not up, so there's no light there. Something that's unfortunate is that a good breeze has developed that's coming through the forest. Now, I could move, but that wouldn't really be fair with this scenario. So, this individual does not have any sort of lights. So, realistically, you would not be moving around. That individual would not be moving around. If I did have a light source, I would move out of the way, get
behind a bush, something to protect me. But, as it is, this is where I picked and this is where I will stay. Even though there is a breeze coming through the forest, and it does not feel very good because of this breeze. I'm definitely chilling down. And I'm right at the point where I need to do some push-ups. I need to do something to warm up. 40 push-ups. That has warmed me up a bit. Even if I didn't have a light, I could still stand up and move. I should specify I could still stand up, move my body, and warm up.
There's a deer in the forest. It's back behind us. I can hear it snorting. It's letting me know that it's out there. I tell you all one thing. The night is going by so slow. It feels like I've been out here forever, but yet it's only like 1000 p.m. Already I'm quite a bit warmer than I was before. But with this breeze, I'm going to cool down rather quickly. Because of that, I'm going to make myself as small and tight, as baldled up as possible so that I can retain as much heat as possible. This everyone helps a lot.
By doing this, I am greatly reducing heat loss. The breeze is coming through the forest, hitting my back, and yes, that does cool me down. But by doing this, I'm holding in a lot of heat, and I'm staying quite warm. It is update time, everyone. It is almost 1:00 in the morning. It's getting cold. It's also getting really, really windy. The good news is that not much of the wind is making its way through the forest. So, I'm chilly, but I'm not freezing. I was able to sleep for maybe I don't know 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there, something like that.
I have to say this rock is super uncomfortable. I have a crick in my neck from just kind of like resting like that. But there's nothing else to do. This right here is just about the only way I can stay warm. I mentioned that I have a story to share, a search and rescue story. So, this took place relatively close to this location. So, there's these two guys. They go out for a day hike and they step off trail for some reason. The article didn't state why and immediately they were lost. It took 2 days to locate them. It cost $150,000 worth of manpower and aircraft, not even counting time.
Ultimately, they were found alive, separated, and close to death. all because they stepped off of the trail to go check something out to do who knows what. These two individuals were not properly prepared in the least. They had no headlamps, no food, no water, and somehow they ended up barefoot. For some reason, this is something that you will see happen over and over again. People will get lost and eventually they'll be found without any shoes on. They take them off or they get lost in weird ways. Very strange. This story here though, it's not strange. This is a story that has been told with different people all across the world over and over again. In fact, there's a story to the west.
It's almost the exact same thing, but far more bizarre. I'm actually going to do a news episode on it because the story itself is so crazy. Somehow those guys ended up barefoot. I don't know. That's weird. Everyone, I'm going to try to get some more sleep. That's one of the most important things that you can do if you get lost. Try your best to get some sleep. Because if you do not get enough sleep, your ability to make judgment calls, to make decisions is going to be greatly diminished. The less sleep that you get, this is true, the dumber you are going to become, plain and simple,
maybe not dumber, maybe that's not the right word, the weirder you will become. It is update time everyone. It is now roughly 200 a.m. and the night is going by. Still chilly. Still staying warm through movement. But we're doing this. We're making it through the night. Earlier I told you all that story about those two individuals. Not far from here, we have the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. For the month of March, they have had more than one rescue every single day for the entire month.
The vast majority of those search and rescue operations were for dayhikers. The reasoning for that is rather simple. Dayhikers tend to be the most illprepared, whereas backpackers, for example, tend to be very wellprepared. It makes sense. But having more than one rescue a day, every single day is pretty crazy. It's a lot. And the thing is, the vast majority of search and rescue operations are free of charge. Free to the individuals who need help, but not free to the local taxpayers. A lot of these communities are being stretched so thin. That is why charging for the search and rescue operations has become more popular, not only across the United States, but also across the world. As cases continue to
rise past record levels, you're going to see more states, more countries begin charging folks for search and rescue operations. At the same time, a lot of these states, a lot of these countries are charging people criminally. If you're going to go out and you're going to be reckless, there's a possibility that you're going to be charged criminally for it. And I think that's a good idea. an accident is an accident of course but being reckless that's something else completely anyways everyone I am going to sit here try to get some more sleep so far I have not been very successful at that a little bit of rest here and there and that's about it and that's about as good as I can hope or By the way, a little while ago,
something came into this area. Some sort of critter. I was concerned that it was going to try to like eat my backpack or drag it off or something, even though there's nothing in it. But in the past, you know, it may have some smells or crumbs or who knows what in it. So, yeah, I'm not entirely sure what that was. By the time I found the headlamp, it had scured off. So, I don't know. I don't want to know. I don't want to know what it was. I just want to It's not here now, so that's good. Heat.
Currently, it's about 3:00 in the morning and I'm tired, to be honest. I'm sore, too. Sore from doing push-ups. sitting on this rock. The wind has really picked up a lot. I'm feeling it quite a bit more now, too. You do not want to be in this situation. Before I was doing jumping jacks, running in place, doing push-ups, I don't know, every 40 minutes or so. Now, I'm having to get up and do something every 10 minutes, just because I'm cooling down so quickly. hour done, everyone. 4:00 in the morning.
Everything's still exactly the same. I'm a little bit cold, but we are making it through the night. Doing what we have to do to stay warm. Being in the forest with absolutely nothing is so stupid. In the very least, you need to have the 10 essentials. And always, always, always remember to leave your plan with someone else so if you do not return, they can spring into action. Now, of course, there are plenty of steps that one should take, including those, and I've talked about these before in previous episodes.
As you all could see, we have some light in the sky now. That's because morning is on the way. It is just about 6 o'clock in the morning. And I tell you everybody, I am so lucky that I get to walk out of here. I have a little bit of a hike and that's okay. I'm ready for it. To be in this situation is unimaginable to me. Never would I go out so illprepared and hopefully you would never do that either. Being at the mercy of nature 100% is not a good idea. Take the weather conditions that we have right now. Maybe they were forecasted, maybe they weren't. But if you were in this situation, right, you could be in serious trouble. I'm in the
forest here, fairly protected from the wind, but still there's a breeze. What if the individual who was in this position decided to set up outside of the forest? It's pitch black. They can't move. They can't go anywhere. They can't see anything. The wind is picking up. What if it started to rain? That loss of body heat from the wind alone is enough to doom you. It's not a situation that you want to be in. And maybe, just maybe, with these episodes, with these videos, we will decrease the number of people who find themselves in this situation by at least a little.
I'm not sure how miserable this comes across on video, but I can tell you all I'm extremely miserable. This is not fun at all. I'm starting to see some color in the sky. That means the sun is rising. And folks, that means this scenario is coming to an end. We have made it through the night doing exactly what people do when they get lost, when they get stuck out in the forest. When people get lost, they do exactly what you're seeing here because it's the only thing to do. There's no
secret bushcraft skills. There's no secret techniques that keep them alive. It's a number of factors that come together, including one's drive to stay warm, to stay protected, along with a great deal of luck. And folks, that is just simply how it is. If you are completely illprepared, everything that you're doing, everything that happens is all at the hands of nature. And truthfully, for yourself, you have very little say. So, for myself tonight in this situation, there wasn't much that I can do outside of moving my body to stay warm. And that's about it. There's no insulation in this forest. There's no leaves on the ground that I could stuff inside of my clothes for insulation or
anything like that. There was no building a shelter. There was no moving around. Again, there was no light source outside of what I was using to film with. That's it. Again, I had to keep this as fair and as realistic as possible. And now we have our baseline for when it comes to testing out survival products. It is going to be very interesting to see how well those products actually benefit us as we're trying to survive a night lost out in the woods. Already in the past, I've taken a look at quite a few survival shelters and products. Most of them are just about worthless. Even Myar products. If you know anything about Myar blankets, the technology behind it, in some situations that can be beneficial, but it's not the life-saving product that so many
people think that it is. In fact, when it comes to Myar blankets, most of the time people use them incorrectly to the point where they're basically ineffective. I've spoken a lot about the science concerning Myar blankets and how they work and how they don't work in previous episodes, so make sure to check those out. I will link all of the survival videos that I've done in the past in the description box for you all if you're interested in watching those. The most important thing that you need to keep in mind is this. Before you step out of the door for your adventure, you have to remember that your safety is your responsibility and it's no one else's. It's the exact same way
concerning your personal protection. Your personal protection is your responsibility. It is vital to keep these two points in mind. Recently in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with all of the rescues taking place there, the park had to put out a public statement stating that your safety is your responsibility and there's no guarantee that you will be rescued if you have a problem. With so many people having to be rescued, there's no guarantee that there's even going to be enough time or enough people, manpower, enough equipment, or even enough money to rescue you if you have an issue. Plus, you don't want to be in this situation. Plus, you don't want to be a burden. You don't want to be a statistic. And folks, that is it.
700 p.m. to 700 a.m. we are done. And I am ready to get out of here. This was a long and miserable night. My friends, I am happy to say that this adventure is done. You do not want to be in this situation and you don't have to be in this situation if you prepare just a little bit. Taking just a little bit of time to prepare can save your life. Make sure to stay tuned to this channel, The Outdoor Gear Review, for more survival episodes, which are coming up soon. I cannot wait to test out all of the new survival products that are out on the market today to see which ones are actually good. Unfortunately, the majority of them are probably garbage, but you never know. We shall see. If you
enjoyed this episode, please hit the thumbs up. I do appreciate it. Folks, I'm going home and I'm going to bed. Strength and honor to you all. Bye. Heat. N.
