Not Today, Satan

**Amy Zindler and Tray Heinke attempt to endure 21 days in the punishing desert, the hellscape of Baja Mexico's Devil's Canyon.  It's a notorious hellish landscape where no survivalist has made it past one week.  It threatens to take out two more survivalists in this location redemption challenge.**

## Not Today, Satan

### Length

43

***Narrator comments: "In this region of extremes, from bone-chilling, windy, 40-degree nights to scorching triple-digit midday heat, and record-setting surface temperature that clear 170ºF degrees, two more survivalists will attempt to succeed where no one else has."***

### Personal Items

Tray brings a hunting knife. Amy brings duct tape. They are provided a fire starter.

**Narrator | *"In this region of extremes, from bone-chilling, windy, 40-degree nights to scorching triple-digit midday heat, and record-setting surface temperature that clear 170ºF degrees, two more survivalists will attempt to succeed where no one else has."***

### Day 1

**98ºF. Ground temp 119ºF.** Amy stops and wraps her feet in duct tape to protect them from the heat. Tray does the same.
After 4 hours of hiking, the ***temperature rises to 109ºF with a ground temperature of 121ºF***. They see a palm tree marked on the map and realize this is the perfect place to camp. There's a clear waterfall suitable for drinking without boiling and a cave. They could use the cave for shelter, but they notice a lot of snake scat around the area.
***Narrator, " In arid regions, wind and sand erosion create rock shelters. These cave-like formations protect twilight hunters like mountain lions, coyotes, and rattlesnakes from the extreme daytime heat. "***
It's two hours before sunset, and Tray and Amy start a fire for heat and to keep the snakes away. Amy creates a bowl out of duct tape, and Tray uses duct tape to hold the magnesium in place since the cave is very windy. Amy gets some water when Tray notices an odor. He can identify when a snake is nearby by the smell of it and spots a California king snake. It soon becomes their dinner.

### Night 1

The temperature is quickly cooling off; at 7:48 PM, it has dropped to **58ªF. By 9:38 PM**, the **temp is at 55ºF with a wind chill of 46ºF.**  Amy and Tray realize the cave is more of a wind tunnel than a shelter.

### Day 2

**7:47 AM | 76ºF.** Tray and Amy have barely slept due to the coldness, wind, and uncomfortable rocks. The plan for the day is to gather palm fronds and make a solid windbreak "curtain" out of palm fronds for the cave. In addition, they are gathering grass to make bedding. Amy moves the fire into a crevice to create a natural reflective wall. Temperatures reach into the 90s by late morning.

### Night 2

**5:04 PM |73ºF. Winds are at 21 mph** and increasing.

**Narrator: *"In the evening, as temperatures plummet, powerful winds develop in the desert, which create a vortex blowing through the canyon. The cold, dry air and windchill combine to increase the body's risk of dehydration*."**

The **wind increases to 30 mph** at night, and the **wind chill falls to 39ºF.**  Tray and Amy are almost out of wood, and Tray tells Amy he's going out to chop wood. She tells him not to, but he does anyway. Tray feels lightheaded but continues gathering more wood and grass in the pitch dark.

**12:34 AM | 50ºF.**  Tray falls and scrapes and bruises himself.

### Day 3

**8:03 AM | 82ºF**. Due to the low humidity, the firewood is burning quickly. Amy and Tray spend the morning gathering wood but must go further away from camp to find it. They spend over five hours returning the wood to camp and are exhausted.

**3:30 PM | 109ºF.**  Both are feeling nauseous, and Amy's feet are in pain. Using duct tape on their feet is too slippery to use on the rocks. They shore up the wind curtain with fresh palm fronds instead of the dry ones they used initially. Weaving and tying the fronds together will hopefully make them withstand the wind.

### Night 3

**10:17 PM/58F/Windchill 45ºF | Wind Speed 26 mph.**They've moved the fire to the center of the cave. Tray says he's burning on one side and freezing on the other.

**3:50 AM |51ºF |Windchill 39ºF.** Amy and Tray are miserable and freezing!

***Amy: "I really think I'm close to tapping because I cannot do this. I cannot torture myself to the point of burns and thorns everywhere. I don't know that this place is possible for 21 days! I don't even think that seasoned people that have made it 40 days can make it out here. I'm done!"***

### Day 4

Amy wakes and tells Tray she's tapping out. She doesn't think this torture is worth risking her body and never being able to play with her grandkids again. Tray asks if he can do anything to convince her to stay, and Amy says she can't do it. He gets it. Amy leaves the competition in tears.

Tray is emotional and mentally; he's having a difficult time. He doesn't know if he can do it on his own.  **He said, "Don't tap. Die first."**

**Note:** There has been no mention of hunger and food since day 1 when they caught the snake.

Tray can't spend another night in the cave and leaves to scout a new location and find another shelter.  He wants to be down towards the canyon's lower end, where he believes all the vegetation and wildlife are.  He comes upon a small cave that faces the opposite direction of the wind at night.  Although it's much smaller than the previous cave, Tray thinks it will be easier to heat.

**3:17 PM | Temp 101ºF.**  Tray is building a lean-to and weaving palm fronds for a wind-break and to keep out critters.  He's also made a duct tape mattress to lay on.

**9:00 PM | 61ºF | Wind chill 60ºF**.  Tray wishes he would have thought about a smaller cave from day one.  He lays down to sleep.

**9:35 PM | 59ºF.**  Suddenly, the frogs stop croaking, and Tray hears a low growl.  Knife in hand, he starts growling and yelling to scare whatever it is away.  The tree frogs start chirping again, and Tray beefs up the fire.  He spends the rest of the night with "one eye open" and tending to the fire.

### Day 5

**9:35 AM | 94ºF.** Tray says he has to "up his fire game", or else he's a sitting duck. He gathers as much wood as he can because the wood burns so quickly at night. Tray needs to keep the predators at bay by keeping the fire going.

### Day 8

Gathering wood. Tray said each day is getting more difficult, especially since he's alone. He says he needs a substantial meal.

### Day 9

**Sunrise**. Tray says if he makes it through today, he will be "officially the first one to make it this far in this location." During the day, Tray found some prickly pear cactus to eat, taking only a small amount to see if his stomach can tolerate it.

### Day 10

**9:26 AM |83ºF.** Tray has extreme stomach pain and cramps and calls for the medic!

**10:01 AM | 89F.** The medic arrives and assesses Tray. Appendicitis has been ruled out, and the medic said something is trying to pass through his intestines, so he needs to drink as much water as possible.

Tray said, "I'll be god\*amned if a little constipation's going to take me out!"

### Day 11

6:21 AM | 74ºF. Tray wakes up and grabs the wrong end of a burning stick. His hand is burnt, and his stomach is still in pain. He spends the morning soaking his hand in water and drinking as much as possible. Tray is upset with himself and feels the burden of being alone with no one to take up the slack for him.

### Day 12

**8:35 AM | 79ºF.** Due to his abdominal pain and his burned hand, Tray could not gather as much firewood as he needed. He's physically and mentally exhausted.

**9:30 AM | 83ºF**. Tray naps.

**12:15 PM | 114ºF**. Tray wakes up. He realizes he just can't go on any longer. He taps out. Tray is so weak he needs some help getting up and walking. He has the record for the longest time in this location.

### Weight Loss

**Tray - 12 lbs**

**Amy - unknown**

### Primitive Survival Rating

**Tray - 7.0 to 6.0**

**Amy - 6.3 to 4.7**