Science of Survival: The Devil’s Highway, Part I

Outside Podcast

Sports, Wilderness

4.4 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 May 2016

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Thirst is an unpredictable threat. In its early stages, it’s much like mild hunger. For centuries, hydration was as much superstition as science. But historical events at Devil’s Highway—a notoriously deadly path in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona—are proof of dehydration’s deadly risk. It was 1905 when Pablo Valencia, a gold prospector in his 40s, came stumbling into a geology camp, desperate for water. Valencia had spent the past six days wandering a 110-degree desert, where water sources can be separated by 100 miles, alone. He shouldn’t have been alive, but he was. Geologist William John McGee helped nurse Valencia back to health, bearing witness to the excruciating reality of what happens to the body while dying of thirst. In this episode, we dive into the history of a desert that claimed thousands of lives, as well as the ways this particular tale has forever altered modern understanding of the limits of dehydration.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of the science of survival is brought to you by Bamba Sox,
0:04.0	and it happens to be about dehydration and thirst.
0:07.0	So, if you're listening and you find yourself getting thirsty,
0:10.0	and let's say you can't just go get a drink of water.
0:13.0	In fact, let's say you're in your own survival situation,
0:15.0	and the only water you can find is this nasty, undinkable mud.
0:20.0	Well, you can actually take your socks and fill them with mud and squeeze water out of them.
0:24.8	The socks will act like a filter and make muddy water drinkable,
0:28.0	though they won't get rid of any bacteria or parasites.
0:31.6	But I gotta say, since starting the podcast, I've been wearing
0:34.2	Bombay socks and lack of parasite removal from drinking water is pretty much my
0:38.8	only criticism. If you don't agree, however, Bombayus offers a customer happiness guarantee with no questions asked returns.
0:46.7	So you've got nothing to lose and a good pair of socks just might save your life.
0:51.4	Save 20% by visiting bombus.com slash outside and enter outside during
0:55.6	checkout. That's B-O-M-B-A-S-com slash outside. From Outside magazine and PRX, this is the science of survival.
1:15.0	There's a path in the desert.
1:25.0	It's a worn in route.
1:28.0	There's cactus, creosote, and wagon routes,
1:32.0	knifing through soft sand valleys.
1:37.0	The mountains on either side are elaborate of rocks,
1:40.4	then 130 miles of not much else.
1:45.0	We're in southern Arizona, near the border with Mexico,
	...

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