In life, disaster can strike, even while you’re out camping. You can end up getting lost in the woods, suffer an injury preventing you from hiking out, your canoe drifts away during the night while camping, you get my drift. More so than almost any other situation, you need to be ready with a camping survival kit for when disaster strikes in the wilderness.
Making a basic survival kit to take on your camping trips is absolutely essential, but it doesn’t require the same gear that a bug out bag or home survival kit requires. You’re already out camping, so you most likely have a tent, stove and other gear that would be considered survival gear in many situations. The goal of a camping survival kit is to make sure you have a basic set of gear and supplies that won’t only get you through your camping trip, but get you through an extra 5-7 days and a variety of extra circumstances.
TAKE CAMPING SURVIVAL SERIOUSLY
Each year in the US there are roughly 2,500 search and rescue missions conducted in our national parks with an average cost of 4-5 million per year.
The number 1 and 2 activities needing rescuing were day hiking and backpacking. Day hikers required nearly 1,400 SAR missions while backpackers required roughly 500.
While most are found within a 24 hour period, there are typically over 20 a year that take over a week to find the individuals (with many more SARs in between that time frame).
All of this is to illustrate that being prepared while out on a camping trip is essential and shouldn’t be taken lightly. We recommend always making sure to have at least basic camping survival gear on hand, even a simple day hike.
KNOW YOUR BODY
A lot of people who find themselves in a bad situation usually end up there by over estimating their abilities. It’s necessary to know your abilities and your limits as well as different members of your groups limits before going out on any serious camping, hiking or canoeing trip.
If you’re going somewhere secluded, make sure you can read a map, practice carrying a 40lb pack along with a canoe over your head for at least a mile (1/2 mile in the wilderness is far harder than 1 mile in the city!).
Did you know that the human body can last roughly 3 weeks without food but only 1 week without water? Both of these are going to be cut down drastically if you find yourself in a physically and mentally stressful environment though.
THE MAKEUP OF A CAMPING SURVIVAL KIT
Camping/hiking survival is a bit different than a lot of the bug out bags that you find online and read about all over the place. Most of these are for being prepared for earthquakes and other natural disasters. When packing for a wilderness survival situation, you don’t need half of the gear that many of these kits offer.
Survival kits are meant to help you when you’re in life and death situations and get you back to safety as quickly as possible. In these types of situations there are 8 categories that need to be covered:
- Water
- Food
- Warmth
- Shelter
- Light
- Communication
- First Aid
- Basic Tools
HAPPY TRAILS!
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