Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

(Sorry for the long review.) Now that I've grabbed your attention, let me first say that as a list, and only as a list, of the USA's various wilderness areas, Williams does a reasonably decent job. I have to assume that his descriptions of various wilderness areas are meant as token introductions: in no way could they be used as actual guides, Williams doesn't offer the reader more than a glimpse of each area and frequently fails to provide the reader with essential information. For example, in his description of areas located in the temperate zone, Williams doesn't explain what a "temperate" climate is really like. The old axiom is true: the temperate zone is anything but. In the summer, the heat and humidity can make you reel; in the winter you can try to guess the ambient temperature by whether your spit freezes while in the air or stays liquid until it touches the ground. An egregious omission. And that leads to why I think this book is downright dangerous. Roughly half of the book, including the appendixes, offers you specific advice on gear, food, shelter, and how to survive. And much of his information is just wrong. Here's a sampling of my doubts about Williams as a survive-guru. Williams tells us to buy a climbing pack, a fanny pack, and to wear a heavy belt adorned with a 2 foot-long machete, a .357 sidearm with speed loaders, and a 4" folding knife. Williams suggests you use a climbing pack - most climbing packs hold only around 2700-3000 cubic inches. He wants you to somehow fit a rifle or two, a few hundred rounds of ammunition, clothes, first aid supplies, a hammock, water bottles, food, a tarp, a full set of Gore-Tex rain-wear, and some other odds and ends into what is basically a weekend pack. I did a rough weight estimate using similar objects and, after I finally crammed it all into a pack, my load was 68lbs. Most hikers, even those in great physical shape, can't carry more than 25% of their ideal body weight without actually losing strength. Sadly, much of the 60 lbs Williams proposes you carry makes no sense. Why carry a space blanket? Yes, they reflect 80% of your body heat back to you, but if you're chilled enough to be reaching for a space blanket, you're not putting out much heat. Why canvass weight cotton? It weighs a ton, draws warmth from you when wet, doesn't breathe well, and has a long, ignoble association with mild-weather hypothermia. Why carry a hammock and a mesh bag and a casting net? Why carry overly salted foods like beef jerky? Why insist that to survive you have to know how to make and use a wood bow fire starter? It's much easier to learn to carry fire with you - one of the first skills humans learned after they tamed fire. Why not carry some better tasting freeze-dried food (in my opinion, MREs aren't food) and a 3oz alcohol stove to help you ease into your new life? Three days worth of food isn't enough to transform yourself from urbanite into survivalist. Lastly, some of Williams' suggestions may literally kill you. A few examples. No water is safe unless it is purified, not simply filtered. Iodine is good stuff, but for 25% of Americans, it will greatly increase their thyroid problems. His first aid kit is woefully lacking. Why no antibiotics? Why no SAM splint? Williams doesn't include any stuff for anything more than minor cuts. You will get cuts which require more than a band-aid. Williams' most dangerous idea is his belief that you can live off the land. That is, I don't accept his first premise: with minimal equipment and experience you can bug-out to the wild and live. It's a nifty fantasy. In real life, you have little chance of surviving in the wilderness for more than a month using the gear Williams recommends. I spent years as part of one of the busiest Search and Rescue units in the Eastern USA. I now live rurally. I couldn't survive if I relied on Williams' information. I suggest that, if you think you can successfully bug-out to nowhere, you need to reread the first part of this book. Not his account of Katrina, but his history of those who chose to bug-out. These people were skilled and pretty well-trained for living wild. None of them could survive solely on their own. As Williams himself recounts, one would buy a $100 worth of lighters, another wintered within reach of small towns. One was reduced to eating garbage out of a dumpster -- not exactly living in the wild in my mind. One is in jail. The others all died. No one who was stuck in the Superdome died. Please, before you bug-out, stop and do a reality check. Will you die if you stay? Probably not. Will you die if you bug-out? Probably, especially if you buy into Williams' fantasy.