Customer Reviews

RICH JOHNSON'S GUIDE TO WILDERNESS SURVIVAL: How to Avoid Trouble and How to Live Through the Trouble You Can't Avoid

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a hard book to review. On one hand, it is easy to look through and well laid out yet the title is completely wrong for the contents. This book is about camping. Lots of information on the equipment with a scant few "survival skills" sprinkled in here and there. Most of the survival skills covered are done in such a way as to indicate the authors familiarity with the general concept, but lack of any real experience. In the chapter called "FOOD", subsection "Become A Hunter-Gatherer", Johnson covers very scantily, cattail, dandelion, thistle, nettle and rosehips. He mentions cattails have "...an edible root system" yet fails to mention anything about processing said roots. For hunting he recommends using a throwing stick to get birds and suggests finding their nests for eggs. Smoking out rodents from their burrows is also mentioned as is "...you can also capture frogs, crawdads, turtles and small fish." No mention on how to capture them or process them. Aside from a brief mention of insects, moths and muscles he offers no other information on getting food. And that is the whole section on hunting and gathering! More print is used in prepackaged camping foods and warning about Hantavirus and the like then about actually getting grub.
The book assumes you have water filters, tents, sleeping bags, tarps, a GPS and the like. Putting out a tarp to collect rain water is a no brainer and so is much of the information contained in this book.
Johnson tries to prop up his limited experience (yes I know he maintained a squatters camp in an old miners shack and a cave for a year) through lots of weak anecdotal stories and plenty of catalogue-esque pictures of himself modeling hats or water filters.
All-together disappointing as absolutely no new information was added to the survival world.

This is an excellent book for someone who is intersted in learning the skills of survival. The book is full of useful information, and makes a great companion to other books you might have read on the subject. I have yet to see a book that has everything that one needs to know, but this one comes close.

After reading this book I feel I am well prepared to adventure off the beaten path on my varied exploring adventures. Mr. Johnson has covered all facets of solutions to possible mishaps in clear understandable language even the most novice of would-be woodsmen can follow. Mr. Johnson writes with enough humor to keep the extremely serious subject interesting. It is a must read for those who plan to take up camping/hiking in the future, and helpful hints for those more experienced in this field. Lenny, (Leonora)Ames, Maryland

Ahah! Finally a book that keeps me from trouble before I get into it. I saw Johnson's name and picked up the book right away. He lives up to his Outdoor Life popularity. This will be the new guide for this ramblin' man. It's light enough to put in a backpact. Very up to date. A great find.

The emphasis in this book in on prevention, followed by the do's and don't's of staying alive if something does go wrong. Given the recent history of disasters in this country, the book is a must read. It's not a book about how to live in the woods. It's about prevention, staying alive and getting rescued. He does go into some recent events that could have had better results, if the victims had followed the rules of survival. There's lots of great photos, nice sketches and wonderful advice on staying safe until your searchers find you. Johnson isn't preachy or pedantic, he writes in a breezy style with a bit of humor. I'm really interested in that hot rock bed!

"Outdoor," the previous negative reviewer, is completely off-base. This is not a book about how to camp. It's a book that tells you what not to do in the wilderness should something go wrong and what you can do to survive. As such, it is a tremendous resource. Rich Johnson's writing style is also very engaging! (He reminds me of a character in a Rick Bass short story, esp. the tale of hot rock bed.) I now carry a small survival kit with me in my car when I travel, esp. in snowy conditions, and know what to do should I become lost or should my car break down miles from help. I'm not really an "outdoor" person, yet I found this book fascinating. RJ seems like quite a character, and he knows what he's talking about!

How nice to see Rich Johnson's book. I love to go awandering, as the song goes, and this little paperback is fine for a backpack. Loaded with good advice, and easy to read, too.

This well-traveled camper is happy to have a guide small enough to pack and take with me on all my trips. I read Rich's columns in Outdoor Life religiously and am glad to have most of it in one place. He dwells mostly on prevention, but then has a lot on how to get out of trouble, too. I've tried the hot rock bed, and it works great, even on the coldest nights.

I know he is also an avid sailor and am waiting patiently for a survival at sea sequel. His sailing book is one of my favorites and has saved me a lot of grief. Would like to read his take on urban survival. How about it, Rich?

Rich Johnson brings a lifetime of expertise on survival to this book and parlays it into a well-written book that offers great common sense advice on survival for anyone.

Gosh, it's good to see Rich Johnson's knowledge packaged so nicely and so easy to carry around. As a forever camper, I can really use it on every trip, whether it's a long trek by car or by foot into the woods. Makes a nice gift book too.