For those of you who don't know, Ben East was an outdoorsman and long-time writer-editor for Outdoor Life Magazine in the '40s through the '70s. In the course of his work there, he covered and wrote about scores of instances of survival situations: lost hikers, backwoods injuries, bear attacks. Over the years, he published several books: "Danger!"; "Narrow Escapes"; "Bear Attack": "Wilderness Adventures and Survival." Most of these are still available on used book sites.

His coverage of lost hikers led him to offer the following advice to day-hikers everywhere: "Never step off a road or marked trail unless you are ready to spend the night in the woods!"

Why are you telling us this? Did he die or something?

If he's talking about this Ben East, he's been dead for 15 years or so. I'm guessing someone referred to Ben in a recent post or something.

Yeah, well he did die a while back, but the reason I brought up his name is because his books are so interesting from a survival standpoint.

A lot of the stories followed a similar pattern: A day-hiker would go off the trail for some reason, get disoriented - usually within a few yards of the trail - and end up lost for a week until he either walked out or was found. In most cases the victim made all the classic mistakes discussed in this forum. Nobody knew his schedule, inadequate equipment, etc.

In spite of this, many (but not all) managed to dig down and call upon something that got them through.

He was a really good writer, and if you can find any of his books, you would do well to buy and read them.

Sounds like good advice to me.

and here I thought he was referring to my current stint out east here in Baghdad.

Man it is getting hot here. Lost the AC the other day. Thank goodness for this wick dry nylon clothing from REI. It cost a fortune, but it sure beats cotton. We got 120 degrees in the shade the other day.