Forty-four years behind the counter

Not everyone came back
for their deposit.

Fifty rules for surviving the Northwest woods, and the stories behind them.

Dale WhitakerWhitaker Outdoor Supply · Bend, Oregon · 1978–2022

66-page PDF · instant download · 7-day money back

The last man they talked to

For forty-four years, people stopped at my counter on their way into the Cascades and out to the high desert. Fuel canisters, maps, wool socks. We rented tents and stoves too, and every rental had a deposit, paid back when the gear came home.

Nearly everyone came back for it. They'd drop the tent on the counter, sunburned and happy, and tell me a story. Some were funny. Some were about a night that went a lot longer than planned. A handful were the kind a person tells looking at the counter instead of at you.

And a very few never came back for their deposit at all.

So I started asking. Where are you headed? Who knows it? What time do they call? Have you got a light, a whistle, a dry pair of socks? This book is those questions, written down: fifty rules, each one with the story that taught it to me.

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Every rule starts with a story

A story you'll remember, then the rule, why it works, and what to do and carry. Here is one of the fifty, the way it appears in the book.

13 Counter storyOnce you're truly lost, stay put

Two girls, nine and eleven, got separated from their family on a picnic up near Tumalo Falls. Their grandfather had told them, "If you ever get lost, hug a tree and stay there." They found a big pine and sat against it, holding hands, for six hours. The searchers walked straight to them in the evening, because the girls hadn't moved.

Why it works

Searchers find people who stay in one place. Every hour you walk, the area they have to search grows, and you may walk away from the people coming toward you.

What to do and carry

Pick a spot that can be seen from the air and heard from the trail. Put on your warm layers before you get cold. Set up your emergency shelter. Blow three on the whistle, and listen between.

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What is in it

Nine parts, from the kitchen table before you leave to the places folks around Bend don't talk about. Fifty rules, one to a page, in large type.

1–6Before you leave the houseThe written plan, the call-by time, and why "she knew I was hiking" isn't a plan.
7–11The bag that brings you homeTen things in a small daypack, the whistle, and the shelter you never plan to use.
12–18When you don't know where you areThe first hour after you're lost, why you shouldn't follow the creek, and how to be found.
19–24Cold and wetHypothermia at fifty degrees, the "umbles," and the set of clothes that never gets wet.
25–29When the weather turnsLightning, widowmakers, wildfire evacuation levels, and July snow in the high country.
30–35WaterCold water's one-ten-one, creek crossings, sneaker waves, and why my father never camped on the bank.
36–41Forest roads after darkHalf a tank, GPS shortcuts, log trucks, and what to do when you're stuck.
42–45What lives out thereBears, cougars, rattlesnakes, and the things people hear at night that they can't explain.
46–50Places with a reputationThe lava tubes, the high desert, Crater Lake's rim, D.B. Cooper's loafers, and the morning St. Helens blew.
BONUSThe before-you-go cardOne printable page. One copy stays home, one goes face down on the driver's seat.

What's story, and what's true

I'll be straight with you about this, because it matters.

The stories

Some are history, and there I've kept to what's documented. The rest are counter stories, passed along and polished with each telling. The names are made up, and every page says which kind it is.

The rules

Every rule is the plain, tested advice that search and rescue teams, park and forest services, and first-aid instructors give. The stories are there so you remember them.

The Whitaker Rules

50 Rules for Surviving the Northwest Woods

And the stories behind them.

66 pages, nine parts, fifty rules — one to a page, in large type.
The printable before-you-go card, with the call-by time on it.
Instant digital download (PDF). Read it on any device, or print it for the truck.

$19.99$9.99

One-time payment

GET THE WHITAKER RULES

Less than a headlamp. It's meant to bring you home.

If it is not useful, tell me

Money back within seven days, no questions and no forms, and you keep the files. Forty-four years I made sure nobody walked out of my store with the wrong thing. I'm not going to start now.

Questions I get asked

Is this a physical book?

No. It's a PDF you download the moment you pay. Read it on a phone, a tablet or a computer, or print the whole book on ordinary paper. Nothing arrives in the post.

Are the stories true?

Some are history, and there I've stuck to what's documented. The rest are the kind of stories told across a shop counter, with the names made up. Each page is marked so you know which is which. The rules are never made up.

I've been going into the woods for forty years. Is there anything in here for me?

Probably. Most of the people in these stories had been doing it for years too. It's the experienced ones who stop leaving a plan. Start with Part One and Part Seven.

Is it only for Oregon?

The stories are from Oregon and the Northwest, but the rules work anywhere there are woods, water, weather and forest roads. Where a rule is specific to Oregon, like the evacuation levels, it says so.

Does it replace a first-aid course?

No, and it says so on the first page. It tells you what to carry and what to do, and I'd still tell you to take a wilderness first-aid class. I took one at sixty-three and wished I'd done it at twenty-three.

The print is small in most things.

Not in this one. One rule to a page, in large type with plenty of space between the lines.

Stay found, folks.

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Not everyone came backfor their deposit.