How Not to Die in Yosemite (or Anywhere Else You Hike)

From Yosemite run-ins with the highway patrol to six-foot flames caused by DIY fire starters, this episode covers the real-life risks of venturing into nature and how to prep like a pro... even if you’re just going for “a quick hike.” 

Jimmy and Megan talk trail safety, packing tips, camping fails, and how to purify water with everything from iodine tablets to French-press-style filters. 

Whether you’re heading into the backcountry or just camping with the kids, we’ve got you covered with gear, guidance, and cautionary tales to help you stay safe outdoors. 

Bonus: the bleach-to-water ratio for emergency purification (yep, Megan did the math). 

Life Safety Associates specializes in emergency response training for corporate ERT Teams. We help businesses create competent and confident first responders who are ready to handle unexpected emergencies. For more information you find us @lifesafetyassoc or email@lifesafety.com.

Chapters

• 0:46 Introduction to Outdoor Adventures
• 2:54 Hiking Safety Essentials
• 9:01 Camping and Campfire Safety
• 11:56 Food and Water Safety
• 13:37 Communication in the Wilderness

Transcript

Jimmy : 0:23

What's happening? It's Jimmy with your girl Megs.

Megan: 0:27

Hello.

Jimmy : 0:28

With another life and safety podcast. Today we're talking about the great outdoors, one of my favorite subjects. I don't get to go out there much anymore, pretty much because I'm just lazy. I guess I definitely enjoy the outdoors. What about you, megs? Do you like going outside?

Megan: 0:47

I do. I do like going outside as same as you. I don't do it as often anymore, but I enjoy it. I'm actually going out to Yosemite soon.

Jimmy : 0:57

Nice.

Megan: 0:57

I'm excited.

Jimmy : 0:59

Yosemite's awesome. When I was younger they used to have a volunteer program there in Pinnacles. When I was a young whippersnapper seasonal guy, I would go work there one day a month and I would just basically get a rope bag and it's literally just a bag with rope and like some medical stuff in it and a radio and at both parks and I would just go hike a trail and they'd give me hours as volunteer time, which I needed for firefighting stuff. Mm-hmm, to get a. Yeah, it was really cool. It was really cool. I haven't been to Yosemite, though, in a little while. Last time we were there, it was COVID time and we they weren't going to let us in, unless because we had a reservation. I don't remember what I said or how I said it, but I was able to talk us in.

Megan: 1:57

Nice.

Jimmy : 1:59

Because the kids had never been Jenny had never been so I was able to talk us into it, talk our way in Nice. We got to, you know, drive through down into the valley and you know, see all of the great canyon and beautiful stuff there, yeah. And then we were trying to get to the snow because the kids wanted a sled and the highway patrol were closing this road outside of Yosemite. And I know a lot of the road codes and stuff like that just from fighting fire and those kind of things like road closures. And I was like, well, what is it? Is it this code, or is it this Because the road's closed and I don't need chains because I have four-wheel drive, especially if it's this rating? And they were like, if you go up there, we're going to arrest you. Then I was like, oh, challenge accepted, why would you arrest me? My kids want to go sledding and that's where the snow is. So the outdoors are always fun and it's always an adventure.

Megan: 3:07

The important question is did you get arrested?

Jimmy : 3:09

No, no, no. Jenny and the kids were like it's not that boring, let's just get out of here, Because we were already not really supposed to be in the Yosemite Valley as it was. So we found another spot and the kids had a great time sledding and stuff like that.

Megan: 3:25

But yeah.

Jimmy : 3:31

So great outdoor safety stuff let's talk about. You know, um things that actually I don't like to do, but I definitely get people love to do it. It's hiking.

Megan: 3:41

I don't like to hike oh, and yet you spent your free volunteer time hiking.

Jimmy : 3:48

Yes, understood, and that's why I don't like to hike now. Okay, I would hike for exercise in the fire department right at Cal Fire. That's what we do. A lot is hike Hiking in mountains for fires. Just it took the fun out of it. Fair, I definitely like seeing things and if I have to walk up a little, bit to see.

Megan: 4:07

Took the fun out of it. Ah, fair.

Jimmy : 4:08

You know, I definitely like seeing things and if I have to walk up a little bit to see something, I'll do it. But if somebody calls me and says, hey, let's go for a five-mile hike tomorrow morning and watch the sunrise, no, nah, I'm cool, I'm good.

Megan: 4:26

Yeah.

Jimmy : 4:26

Take a picture, send it to me, I'll pretend I was there with you. Yeah, but some hiking things that when I worked in Yosemite and Pinnacles, that people you know it always kind of not do very well as planned for it. What I mean by that is the weather. You know the pinnacles are super hot, a little bit windy in certain spots, but mostly it was just hot or really cold depending on when you went. And Yosemite is definitely both yeah, definitely both right. So and weather changes so quickly in both spots and just in general outside. So you have to be prepared and if you're not prepared, you're not paying attention, you can really get yourself into trouble. So even if you're going on a short hike an hour or less is what I would consider a short hike you know you trip and fall. That hour is an hour and a half. You stop and talk to somebody, you stop and take a picture of the waterfalls or insert whatever activity you're doing in that track, in that trek not a track, you're going to be longer.

Megan: 5:45

Yeah.

Jimmy : 5:45

So always carry at least a day pack, you know regular small backpack. I suggest at least one flashlight, a bottle of water or two, depending what your hiking and what your fitness thing is A light jacket. A light jacket is going to be better than no jacket every time and I always tell people to carry a be jacket.

Jimmy : 6:07

A light jacket's going to be better than no jacket every time and I always tell people to carry a beanie, a wool knit hat, because if you're going to get cold you lose a lot of your heat through your head. Especially me, it's a solar panel man Keeps me charged. Those are some basic things. If you're going on a longer hike and it doesn't matter what hike I probably should have said this first.

Jimmy : 6:42

Always tell people where you're going to park and where you're going to go, if you can tell the people what trail you're going to be on specifically, and at least that way somebody has a good idea of where to look for you. Parking's huge because if I tell you I'm going to park at lot A of this section or campground, and then at least I have an idea of where you're going to go, because there's going to be so many trailheads.

Megan: 7:07

Mm-hmm.

Jimmy : 7:09

Right, if you park, you're like, I'm just going to park on the street next to this mile marker, Okay. Well, that really makes it hard to set up a search pattern for you. It sets up, you know, a grid when are you going, where are you not going? Yeah, so parking lots are a good idea. Let people know when to expect you back, all right. And you don't have to give an exact time, give a window. Hey, if I'm not back by 3 o'clock, call me, text me. So if I'm there at 2.30, I'm good. If I'm there at 3.15, I'm at the car. You text me, I'm going to call you back. A lot of people say I don't like to do that because I don't want people to worry. Well, I'm going to worry more if I don't see you for four hours, five hours, unless I heard you were going to go out to hike X trail. Now I know if you're freaking barefoot or not, right? So let people know.

Megan: 8:24

Let people know.

Jimmy : 8:28

So those are just a couple of things, a couple things to kind of keep in mind If you do go out and you go camping I know our family likes to do camp we camp at least once a year. I think if in a perfect world we'd probably camp more than once a year, but at least once a year we go camping. So basic campfire safety right always make sure they're ringed, make sure it goes it's out before you leave, um, make sure you watch things. Whatever you're doing, you're cooking, um. So our daughter is a girl and we were making fire starters because they were going camping. So a cool fire starter is using an egg carton.

Megan: 9:16

Yes.

Jimmy : 9:18

And what do you think put in there?

Megan: 9:19

And lint from the dryer.

Jimmy : 9:21

Yes, and then?

Jimmy : 9:22

potentially candle wax to make it all stick and you make it stick with a candle wax or a birthday candle or something like that. You melt a candle in there. We were using paraffin wax and you know it's just a big block and we made it so we could just make a bunch of them at a time. And something happened. W e got distracted and we walked away and the paraffin wax actually bubbled up and actually started shooting flame that's crazy Into the and the paraffin wax actually bubbled up and actually started shooting flame into the sky and it was like legit six-foot flame links into the sky. It was awesome. I'm sure Not the business in the middle of the forest, but looking back I was like whoa, that's rad. And then we ruined the wax and we couldn't make the stupid Fire starters. So pay attention to what you're cooking and warming up right, you're kicking over an open flame.

Jimmy : 10:15

You can't adjust the flame as easy as you do it on the range, so you may want to make sure right. So while you're cooking, make sure Wash your hands. Food safety.

Megan: 10:27

Yeah.

Jimmy : 10:28

Right Wear gloves or just the cross-contamination of things. Just you know, be aware of that stuff you're camping things of that nature.

Jimmy : 10:36

It's hard, um, wash bins are pretty inexpensive. You can take them. Uh, you go to the dollar tree and just buy a little, you know, 12 inch by 12 inch, 12 tubs, or whatever they are, and, um, they might be smaller than that, but you can buy little tubs and take those and use one for like I don't know, like your red meats, things like that. Use one for fish, one for chicken, um, or whatever you want to do. However, you want to do it, but that's just a suggestion. Um, hot water, hot wash, warm, you know, disinfectant wash and then a rinse. You know that always works good too. And if you have little people you're out camping with, don't be afraid to let them wash, but make sure they understand you know the dirty to clean process.

Megan: 11:29

It's huge.

Jimmy : 11:31

It's huge. And then drinking water. There's lots and lots of things. It's a safety thing and it's just a good idea to have good, clean water. And you know there's lots of things you can do. You can do the life straw works great. There's a couple different um water compression systems that look like French press coffee machines. Oh, mm-hmm. You put them in there, then you push them down and they clean the water out and then you have a nice, basically cantina water or a hydroflask or something like that. What else am I thinking? They have iodine tabs. Obviously, in disaster situations you can always or boil water.

Jimmy : 12:16

You know you can boil water. I believe it's a tablespoon of bleach. Double clean it, you know, and then you can always bleach and that's, I think that's for storage. I think that seems too much, though Tablespoon seems a lot.

Megan: 12:39

If you have one gallon of water, eight drops of 6% bleach or six drops of 8.25% bleach. So four gallons, a third teaspoon of 6% and then a quarter teaspoon of 8.25%.

Jimmy : 12:56

All right. Well, at least I had the teaspoon right. Definitely too much, though, but I mean that'll keep things clean, right, especially for storage. But still boil, Still boil Communication. As far as radios go, they have made great. Cell phones almost work everywhere. Now it's super hard not to find spots now for your phones. I still know in our county there's still parks out there that you don't have cell service right. That's great, especially if you're trying to hike and get away from things and just enjoy your nature.

Jimmy : 13:39

Then there's other ways to do that. There's lots of handheld family radios that are super inexpensive. You can buy those. Those have great range. I think I saw a box of one I haven't tested them, I don't even remember what brand they were but they said they were like five miles direct, which is pretty crazy, and three miles indirect. So indirect and direct means like if you can see the person like line of sight. I was like, wow, it's pretty good range.

Jimmy : 14:09

That might be pretty cool to buy for, you know, camping or disaster stuff, because to me they're synonymous. You can use your disaster stuff for camping and you can use your camping stuff for disaster. Um, the garmin mini reach. It's a cool little uh satellite based texting system. But the problem with that you have to buy a subscription. You know service for that. I know people that only pay for the subscription during the summer when they hike, and vice versa for people that ski in the backcountry and stuff like that. But yeah, so that's just a couple of outdoor things. You know we're getting to the summer weather, or summer months, warmer weather, and we're all going to be outside doing things.

Megan: 14:54

Hopefully.

Jimmy : 14:55

Hopefully.

Megan: 14:56

Get that vitamin D.

Jimmy : 14:57

Yeah, if that's your thing. Leave some comments below on some outdoor safety things that you might want to share with us and peace.