Reconnecting with Mother Nature is always soothing and soul-cleansing, however, when you are out in the wilderness, many things can go wrong if you’re not prepared. A camping trip or a hardcore hike through the mountains can turn into a nightmare if you don’t know some basic survival tips. A wrong step and you can find yourself without food or water, taking a wrong turn, or breaking an ankle.
To ensure you don’t spend a rough night in the wilderness, here are some tips that will let you overcome any obstacles that come your way.
Stay Calm
One of the most overlooked survival tips and skills is staying calm and keeping a positive attitude in dangerous or unusual situations. It’s understandable that we never prepare for such situations as we never face them in our daily lives. Panic and fear may lead you to wrong decisions as you let your emotions take over, and they make you feel you are in a hopeless situation. To fight off your panic or fear, take a deep breath and exhale it slowly, this will help you focus on the matter at hand and make better logical decisions. For example, if you encounter a bear during a hike in the forest, panicking will make you run and the bear will chase you, but if you stay calm, you may find other solutions like acting dead.
Starting a Fire
Starting a fire is an extremely essential skill that you must learn before going out in the wilderness. It would make a huge difference to practice your fire-starting skills before any planned trip. Fire is needed for many aspects of the trip, as you need it for warmth on cold nights, cooking food, boiling water to purify it, making a smoke signal, and keeping the wildlife away from your camp. Lighters, matches, magnesium fire starter, or flint and steel are the most common items used to start a fire that you can bring on your adventure. However, if you lose or don’t have any of those items with you, you should learn to start a fire using the things around you. Choose a safe spot and make a dry tinder bed, then stack kindling on top of the tinder and frame the fireplace, ignite the tinder, and you have a fire.
Building a Shelter
To protect yourself and others from the elements, a basic survival tip is knowing how to build a shelter. A reliable source of heat is your body heat, and you have to preserve it in any situation and in different weather conditions. The easiest way to build a shelter is to bring a tarp with you, and according to reviews at geardisciple.com/best-tarps-for-survival-shelter/, you will not only find the best tarps but also how to build one in different ways for different purposes. First of all, you have to make sure to insulate your shelter by adding leaves, pine needles, or any thick, dry material around the sides and also on the ground. In hot weather, make sure the shelter has air coming through to cool your body.
Find Water
A person can go for three days without water, however, it’s essential to have water to recharge energy, especially if you are hiking and are involved in several activities. Stocking water and carrying it around can be exhausting for the extra weight, that’s why you need to know how to find water in the environment around you. Drinking from a flowing stream is not particularly dangerous, yet you may never know if there are bacteria or parasites in the water. As a rule of thumb, never drink from stagnant water as it is usually contaminated. You can bring with you iodine tablets to filter water, or simply boil the water and let it cool before drinking it. If it’s raining, it’s the best time to collect water by hanging a pouch on a tree to collect rainwater.
Before leaving for your trip, it’s advisable to inform your friends or family of where you are going and for how long you will be gone, and if applicable, have them contact you on a regular basis. Informing someone of your whereabouts will increase the possibility of finding you if things go wrong, and add a layer of safety to your adventure. Finally, make sure that you have a first aid kit with you for any emergencies as a small scratch from a tree branch can lead to a serious infection if not treated immediately. Keep the survival tips mentioned here in mind and prepare well before heading out to the wilderness and enjoy Mother Nature.