SPOKANE, Wash. — A local expert says wilderness survival skills could save your life this hiking season. Two young California sisters know this all too well.
Earlier this month, the five and eight-year-old girls were found alive after surviving nearly two days together in the wilderness. They said their wilderness training helped them survive more than 40 hours, lost and missing their family.
The girls' parents said they were playing unsupervised on their 80 acre property. Eventually they found themselves following an unfamiliar trail and got lost.
Two years of survival training kept them alive and the older sister said she used happy thoughts of her family to calm her little sister, who cried through the night.
Inland Northwest survival expert Travis Johnson, who founded Northwest Survival School, said staying positive is very important.
"If you have a very high will to live and you have the training that goes along with that, then you are pretty much unstoppable out in the wilderness because you have that knowledge in the back of your mind and you have the confidence to apply that knowledge and come out of the situation on top," Johnson said.
"Even though they are young like that, it's very beneficial to them too because that stuff really gets ingrained in them," he continued. "Just simple things of how to get water, how to start a fire, how to build a shelter. Those three things right there will help you."
Johnson teaches many classes through the Northwest Survival School, but he said the basic elements to survival are fire, water and shelter. He said you can last only three hours without shelter in adverse weather conditions and three days without water.
Human beings can, however, live up to three whole weeks without food.
Those interested in learn more about classes at the Northwest Survival School can visit their website.