Desert Survival Kit

Love, love, love this book! Although it is brief, it is packed with great information, tips, and observations. I've lived in Phoenix for over 30 years and spent a great deal of time hiking and hunting in the Sonoran Desert. Most of my excursions these days are 4x4 day trips, sometimes to some of my old stomping grounds in some remote areas. I've assembled a Vehicle/Base Camp Bag full of gear and survival items, but reading this book is inspiring me to still put together a more portable kit for emergencies - like hiking out in the event of a breakdown. Other items not mentioned to consider: 1. Khaki Fishing Guide Shirt - Several companies sell versions of these for tarpon fishing, but its light weight, ventilated back, and long sleeves with buttons that convert it to short sleeves make it ideal for hot desert conditions, and the khaki color keeps me cooler. 2. Full Sized Orange or Red Umbrella - This provides portable shade without adding much weight, and can either be lashed to your pack or double as a walking stick. I picked orange for its high visibility if I'm trying to be found. If I'm not trying to be found, it is easy to cover the orange with a desert camo mesh sniper veil and hold it in place with clothespins. 3. A pocket comb - If you ever brushed up against a cholla cactus with its barbed needles, you know what a nightmare it is to get it off of you. A comb comes in very handy for this purpose. 4. Powdered Drink Mix - I recently added this to my bag for replacement of electrolytes. They're cheap and weigh practically nothing. 5. Neck Cooling Bandana - Dip it in water and beads swell up retaining moisture. Great way to help cool your neck, although in a true emergency, you may not want to spare the water. 6. LUCI EMRG - I picked this up recently on Amazon, and it would be another low-cost, very low-weight addition to your kit. It is a blow up, solar powered LED lantern. For a solar lantern, it does pretty well, but as a survival tool, it could really be invaluable. One of the settings allows you to use the red LED to automatically signal SOS in Morse Code. During the day, deflate it and hang it off your pack in the sun, then at night, blow it up, turn it on, and you have a decent lantern that works for several hours. It's not high in brightness, but in a rescue situation it is a way to signal at night without using up the batteries in your flashlight or headlamp. I highly recommend this book to anyone who spends anytime in the desert! Looking forward to reading other Max Cooper books available on Amazon!

Good book great read! Like everything and anything in this world you have to be adaptive. This book will give you ideas but you have to be able to think and adapt on your own according to the present situation!

Desert Survival Kit by Max Cooper covers many of the essential elements of gear that must be considered with entering a desert environment. The author uses the Mountainsmith Lumbar-Recycled Series Day TLS R Backpack as his platform and after seeing how great this set up is I purchased this pack. Cooper really emphasizes the critical considerations regarding gear and the desert. As someone who lives in a desert environment and has hiked many miles over the years I would say that this book is very accurate especially relating to the importance of water. I also like how he discussed that the desert can be very cold in the winter especially at night. Too often people just assume that the desert is hot but it can get bitterly cold at night. Overall, this is an excellent book if you are looking to put together a desert survival kit. All the needed items of gear and information are contained in this book and will keep you alive in an emergency. Highly recommended.

This book is full of useful and very practical information on designing a desert survival kit. I got a lot of great ideas and tips out of this book. I really like the Mountainsmith pack that was talked about in the book. It seems to keep your back cooler and it not as warm as wearing a backpack. Great book if you are a desert dweller.

Excellent information on designing a desert survival kit. The information is very clear and well presented. The desert can be a dangerous place and the information in this book will properly prepare you for a desert hike especially if something should go wrong. I really enjoyed this book and liked the Mountainsmith platform that the author discussed. Highly recommended.

I am nearly 60 years old and have lived in the Southern Nevada desert most of my life an I have yet to find any book that actually tells how to survive in the desert for a long period of time. If anyone knows of any book that actually informs a person the survival skills like how to find water which is THE MOST IMPORTANT SKILL A PRRSON IN THE DESERT COULD KNOW such book would be the most useful book to anyone planning a trip even to visit the desert.

Anyone who has read any survival books would know all this information. Glad I didn’t pay for this book, all I lost was a little time.

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