It is not clear how he, or the dog, got water.

mmhhmmm

Bigfoot, D.B. Cooper, and now mysterious water from nowhere!
The X files intro and opening theme

I've never lived in a country with snow, so I don't know if this is a realistic thing, but if he was intermittently using his car heater couldn't he have like... melted the snow? (I'm genuinely asking)

Oregon is sufficiently large as to require more than one car's worth of heat input to raise the temperature enough above freezing to melt a couple feet of snow.

Scoop snow in container, bring inside car, let melt, drink water. Cold, but doable. I keep a couple of liter water bottles in my car and even when it's freezing outside the car's insulation keeps things warm enough that they're not ice. Not warm enough to be comfortable, I had to spend a night in there once and I'd estimate maybe ten degrees above outside temperature and I'm really glad I had a jacket when I locked myself out of my apartment, but enough that ice will melt.

“Over the next few days after initially getting stuck, Taylor told authorities he stayed warm by "periodically starting his vehicle and used a few taco sauce packets he had as food," the sheriff's office said.”

I think any snow that might melt would probably turn to ice? Dunno, not from snowy area- but does get cold enough to freeze here

The car was outside. Cars, even when on more than periodically, don't put out enough heat to overcome the ambient temperature of the great outdoors, especially at the distance from the engine/exhaust system that the tires are at. And you need more that above freezing ambient temperature to melt thick snow in any reasonable surviving-on-taco-sauce time frame. Thick snow is self-insulating, that's how igloos work.

I feel you have missed that the idea was "melt snow to get water" not "melt snow to leave".

Haha yes this was my question. Although gotta say the above is also educational on other points.

1) Put snow in mouth.
2) Mouth warm, snow melt.
3) Swallow water, not die.

Bear in mind I'm NOT a trained survival expert.

Not sure about mouth melting, but I've heard that if you EAT snow, your body loses more water expending the energy necessary to melt and digest the snow than it gains from the snow itself, so you still end up dehydrating.

That sounds potentially plausible, I'd be interested to see that data. It might depend on the density and relative wetness of the snow you eat. The heavy snow that makes good snowmen might yield more moisture per unit of heat per mouthful than the dry powdery kind.

Sure, melted snow would eventually freeze back into ice, but if it was cold enough that it was refreezing faster than he could drink it, I think he'd be too busy dying of hypothermia to worry about dying of dehydration.

To be fair, I don’t do cold well.

my guess is they drank each other's urine...

So, what does how is a fire sauce snowcone? Sounds like it's be in the "bucket list of disappointment".

This is from my mom's neck of the woods (almost literally, it's the same woods she's just up near Bend). When you're in the middle of a series of snowstorms heavy enough that everyone's just sitting in their houses hoping the roof doesn't collapse, probably not the best time to go gas up the SUV.

Wait... he was found on NF-40? That's outside of Sun River in a direction leading to nowhere, well outside of any houses or gas stations. Was he out camping in this weather?

In a pinch your dog's innards make an excellent hand-warmer.

https://www.facebook.com/CentralOregonDaily/videos/329009691076458/

On the one hand, a boneheaded mistake for an area where even in good conditions you keep some water and emergency supplies in the car. On the other hand I can't help but feel sympathetic; I've been in those situations where you realize it was a mistake and just keep running into more issues trying to get out of it. And he understands it was a mistake, which is key.