Going out in a wilderness and getting lost or getting caught in a bad storm is a lot easier than you think, so it’s always good to be prepared before you do that.
Some things you might consider bringing with you are something to get out of the weather like, for instance,
a poncho of some sort and possibly some cordage like what we know as 550 cord or parachute cord; right?
And that is to be able to tie your shelter down.
You need some type of a canteen. That can be any kind of a water bottle that you could possibly secure or something surplus like this.
This is a one-quart canteen with an eight-ounce canteen cup attached to it.
When you’re thinking about getting the water, okay, you’re going to have to consider purification techniques.
And when we do purification techniques, one technique would be the use of iodine tablets.
Usually it takes up to 30 minutes for iodine tablets to work. On a real cold day it might take up to an hour.
So there’s another item that you might consider that would be a little bit better if you’re really thirsty and have to have a drink and that’s some type of a water filter.
Something like this will allow you to be able to drink water from its source without having to purify because the device itself will purify the water that you’re drinking.
Depending on what type of area that you’re in, you might consider a snakebite kit.
This will help you be able to ride out that snakebite a little bit better than not doing it at all.
While you’re out there, you’re going to need some type of warmth. Okay? So you’ll need some type of fire-starting kit. All right?
And my personal preference would be a magnesium stick and flint. Okay?
This is factory-made flint. All right? And the other part is magnesium. This is a tinder source for the flint stick.
If you carry matches, you need to ensure your matches are carried in a watertight container.
Let’s say, for instance, something happens and they get wet. You can always resort back to the magnesium stick and flint.
Something else I believe is important is some type of kindling. You can make kindling out of this right here.
These are called fire sticks. They’re saturated in wax. You can shave these and get some shavings off and spark these up.
One of these will burn for approximately seven minutes. All right? So it’s helpful to have something like this.
And to help get you out of your situation sooner would be some type of signaling devices.
This is a battery-powered strobe light.
This will work at nighttime and allow the people that are looking for you to be able to pinpoint your location to rescue you quicker.
A signal mirror can be used in the daytime. One of these held up into the sun and turned a little bit will flash – will make a real bright flash that can be seen for many miles.
And then at nighttime or even in the daytime, let’s say you’re in some deep wilderness and you’re hurt pretty bad and you can’t get around, a signal whistle is very helpful to have.
You know, your voice will eventually give out but one of these all it requires is a blast of air from your lungs and you can be heard from a long ways away.
Something that’s very essential to being out in a wilderness is a first aid kit – something portable with just the basics in there that you need.
And then, of course, when it gets dark it’s always good to have a flashlight. Okay?
I prefer a flashlight like this. It’s very robust, it’s waterproof, but a flashlight is also good to have.
Last but not least is some kind of a knife. I prefer a heavy-bladed survival knife because it acts more like a hatchet and it will chop things but you must be very careful.
As you can probably guess, you can hurt yourself pretty bad with a knife but this is a good heavy-bladed knife.
It does a lot of work in a short period of time and that’s why I like a knife of this size.
These are the things that I consider carrying out into the wilderness when I go on a hike or go camping.
I think any of these items here carried all together would be very helpful to any person that likes to go and explore in the outdoors.