Camping Skills 101: 5 Basics
DEVELOP THESE 5 BASIC SURVIVAL SKILLS TO FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE IN THE WOODS.
I don’t think I’m alone in saying that I feel most alive in the outdoors. Nothing seems to settle my inner troubles and worries like a day riding, hiking, or just tramping around with my family. I don’t know if it’s the fresh air, the exercise, or the wholesome experience, but being in nature really scratches my itch. There have been very few occasions I’ve felt worse after spending a day outdoors. Tired, sure. Achy, of course. But worse? Rarely.
As much as we love enjoying the outdoors, there is a flip side to nature that is important to keep in mind. As beautiful as Mother Nature can be, the brutal side is just as real. Scattered about are things that can bite, sting, maim, or poison you. Gorgeous purple clouds that signal a spring thunderstorm will eject flashing streaks of deadly lightning. Mild temperatures on a winter day can reverse in a matter of a few hours. Even apparently docile animals like moose and deer can lash out if they feel threatened. You may think I’m being overly dramatic, but I don’t see it that way. More than anything, I’m just acknowledging the reality of the outdoors. It can be a rough place.
Just because there are some dangers in the outdoors doesn’t mean we have to hunker down inside our whole lives. On the contrary, knowing the dangers and how to avoid them actually provides us with more freedom to enjoy ourselves. Once you can identify the dangers, you’re free to travel and enjoy the beauty that we enjoy. There is plenty of beauty and freedom out there, we just have to accept the responsibility of taking care of ourselves.
In this article, we’ll take a look at 5 basic survival skills that can help you feel more comfortable when you go camping. More than anything, these are foundational skills and can help you on any trip into the wilderness. Knowing how to take care of yourself is essential and a little basic knowledge can go a long way.
Before getting started, it might be worth talking about survival in general. These days, we may think about survival as the media portrays it. That is, spending two weeks, two months, or 100 days, being naked and afraid in the wilderness. You’re welcome to think of it that way. However, for this article “survival” simply means taking care of yourself until you can get back to the truck. The goal is not to last as long as you can, the goal is probably more like lasting as long as you need to. Most people don’t want to spend as much time as they can trying to stay alive. Most people want to do the exact opposite. Something unexpected has happened, and they want to spend the least amount of time in the woods. This may not be as heroic, but it certainly seems more practical. Personally, I do enjoy learning how to live in the woods, but I also believe there is a big difference between that and taking care of yourself when a trip goes bad.
That being said, here are 5 basic survival skills that can help get you through an unexpected night in the woods.
MINDSET
Probably the most important of the 5 basic survival skills you can have is a solid mindset. As real as the dangers of the outdoors are, we do seem to be our own worst enemies. In fact, if you look at the leading causes of death at National Parks, you can see the top three are drowning, vehicle accidents, and falls. This statistic seems to indicate that we may be the biggest threat to ourselves in the wild. Be careful. Keep yourself out of bad situations. Personally, the closest I’ve ever come to dying in the outdoors was a close call with drowning. Since then, I’ve got respect for deep water and now realize how quickly things can change.
One of the best books on wilderness survival is Tom Brown’s Field Guide to Wilderness Survival. Tom Brown is a widely recognized authority on the subject of survival and operates his own survival training school. Brown opens his book with a chapter on the mental side of survival. The most important survival tool you have is resting between your ears. Think, observe, analyze, and keep yourself out of bad situations. The old saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure certainly rings true in this department.
Part of developing a solid mindset is having the experience to give you confidence. A Navy SEAL motto says, “Under pressure, you don’t rise to the occasion, you sink to the level of your training.” If you really want to be prepared for the unprepared, you have to practice the things below. Actually going out into the woods doing, seeing, and experiencing things is better than reading 100 of these blog posts. Build your confidence a little at a time, and eventually, you’ll feel capable enough to handle the unexpected.
SHELTER
When people discuss survival skills, it seems like the conversation instantly goes to food. People wonder what they’ll eat or how they’ll hunt. I’m not sure why this is, but it has been my observation for a number of years. Despite the romance of hunting and gathering, food really is not your biggest priority in a survival situation. When you rank the dangers of the outdoors, starving to death probably doesn’t even make the list. Most people can go for at least a few weeks without eating. Depending on the situation, you can even go for a few days without drinking. However, in bad conditions, you may only be able to last a few hours without shelter. Understanding the basics of shelter is probably the most important skill you can have.
In my opinion, the topic of shelter actually begins with a discussion about clothing. Although these days many people tend to see clothing as a fashion statement, clothes are actually your body’s first layer of protection. It’s important to wear the right clothes that will protect you in the environment you are camping in. Clothing is often categorized into three layers; base layer, mid layer, and outer layer. Wear clothes that protect your body from the heat or cold you are anticipating.
After clothing, the subject of shelters is probably the most important talking point. Shelters come in a wide variety. They can be primitive or store-bought, stationary or portable, and come in a variety of materials Despite their differences, they all serve the purpose of shielding you from elements like sun, wind, rain, or cold. Personally, I’ve made and slept in primitive shelters in all different seasons. These experiences have taught me that you don’t necessarily need a high-dollar shelter to protect yourself. In fact, despite having camped in primitive shelters, probably the worst night I’ve ever had was spent in a tent. Don’t fool yourself in thinking that just because a shelter is primitive it can’t be comfortable. If you build them correctly, they can in fact be very cozy.
Probably the most popular survival shelter is the debris shelter. Essentially, the debris shelter is nothing more than a collection of natural materials that will insulate you from the outside world. Think of them as a mouse nest. By surrounding yourself with insulating materials like leaves or grass, you create a protective barrier that makes it easier to stay warm or cool. The more grass or leaves you can pile around yourself, the more insulation you will provide. There are a thousand ways to build a debris shelter, but all of them operate on this same principle. Personally, I’ve slept in these shelters in temperatures as low as the teens, and I’ve found them to be extremely functional. I’ve also read accounts of people creating a debris shell over four feet deep and sleeping out in temperatures of -40˚F with no problems. I understand most people will never want to spend the night in one of these, but if you happen to need to, it’s not a bad thing to know. Basically, whether it’s leaves, grass, pine boughs, or anything else, use whatever you have access to and build a protective nest you can stay in.
WATER
Next on our list of 5 basic survival skills is getting good water. As stated, most people can only go about three days without water. Not only that, but drinking bad water will do nothing but make you sick and dehydrated. When it comes to water, there are a few things to remember.
First, drink natural sources of water at your own risk. Admittedly, I’ve drank enough untreated water out of natural sources to float a boat. However, I’ve always been very cautious about the sources I’ve drank from. Almost always, the water came from small bodies of clear-running water close to the source. If you are ever forced to drink right from the creek, these precautions can help you guard against ingesting bad bacteria.
Historically, bad water has been a prolific killer. Pioneers on the Oregon Trail died by the thousands from drinking water contaminated with cholera. This is certainly not an isolated event either. However, unless you are drinking from extremely polluted sources of water, you are most likely to drink water contaminated with giardia. In most cases, this bacteria will give you a serious gut ache, nausea, and diarrhea. However, it’s not generally considered to be a fatal disease. This information may help you do a risk assessment if you find yourself in a situation where bad water is your only option.
Most people know that you can kill bacteria in water simply by boiling it. Keep in mind you’ll have to boil it for around 10 minutes to make sure it is uncontaminated. Also, the length you need to boil is also influenced by elevation. The higher you go, the lower the temperature water will boil at. As a result, you’ll need to boil for longer time periods the higher you go.
If you don’t mind taking along some extra gear, a lightweight and inexpensive LifeStraw might be a little insurance you can throw in your day pack.
Finally, keep in mind that boiling water and filters only remove living organisms. Streams and rivers polluted with chemicals and industrial and agricultural waste need to be filtered with a high-quality filter. Boiling will not remove those pollutants, and as a result, the water should not be ingested.
FIRE
Another one of the 5 basic survival skills worth developing is fire making. In many ways, fire is fundamental to survival in the outdoors and actually reinforces all of the skills we’ve already discussed. First, it can keep you warm when it is cold. As we’ve already mentioned, staying warm can help defend you against one of the larger threats nature actually poses. Secondly, fire is useful for so many other applications. People who enjoy bushcrafting (living in the woods with limited equipment) use fire in some way for countless other tasks. From straightening arrows, to making glue, to making charcoal; fire is at the heart of it all. Fire is also obviously important to the boiling of water as well.
It’s easy to see how a fire will improve your shelter and water tasks, but what about mindset? How could fire play a role in helping that? Personally, I’d believe it does, and in big ways.
One of the best stories about how fire impacts our psychology comes from the Australian Outback. Although Aboriginal people were as diverse as the tribes of North America, many of the tribes had a sort of reverence for fire. I remember hearing a story once about how some of these nomadic tribes would stop and build a fire if they planned on staying in one place for a few hours or more. This wasn’t necessarily for survival purposes. Rather, in the constantly changing world of the nomadic hunter, a campfire provided a sense of home. Wherever they were, a fire was the same. In a way, you could say it provided psychological support more than anything.
Once, while on an elk hunt, some other hunters and I got caught in an unexpected snowstorm. Remember how earlier I wrote the weather could change in a few minutes? Well, I’ve been there when it does. Worse of all, it was heavy and wet snow, and of course, it had been so nice we hadn’t thought to bring our coats. As the snow fell, the temperature dropped, and we were pretty well-soaked by the time we all regrouped after the hunt. With snow falling all around, we started a large fire right in the middle of the woods. Although we weren’t in serious danger of hypothermia, the crackling heat of the impromptu fire helped to dry us out, warm us up, and boost our spirits for the hike back to camp. At times, this might be the benefit of fire you appreciate the most.
FOOD
In reality, the people who develop their competency in the previous 5 basic survival skills can probably last a long time in the wilderness. As a result, food is probably not even on the radar. Viewers of the TV show Alone realize how little the contestants eat and still stay active. Most of the contestants lose a tremendous amount of weight but continue to build, hunt, and perform other camp tasks. In a way, the show demonstrates how an average person can probably go weeks without eating and suffer no life-threatening circumstances. As much as we may imagine living off the land, the reality is that in most circumstances searching for food is probably not practical. In fact, we may be better off spending our energy trying to get out of our survival situation rather than doing any food gathering.
Perhaps the only time when gathering food would cross your mind is if you get lost. If you become lost, probably the best thing you can do is just stop and think. Getting worked up, wandering, and panicking will only burn unnecessary energy. In the lower 48 states, if you followed the nearest water source downhill, you’d likely find a road or home by the time you were seriously faced with starvation. You may not realize that the most remote place in the contiguous states is only 22 miles from a road. I’ve been to some big wilderness areas and doubt if I’ve ever been more than 100 miles from a town. This means no matter where you are, you’re at most three hard days travel from a town.
Since this is the case, it may mean that if you can’t make it to safety somewhere, you probably are either A) hurt, or B)trapped by the weather. In either case, getting food is going to be difficult at best. Rather than spend energy trying to get food, you may be best off stopping, building a shelter, starting a fire, and finding a water source. If you can do those things, you’ll put yourself in the best position to outlast the storm or wait until someone comes along and finds you. It might be worth restating that this approach may fall apart in huge wildernesses like those found in Canada, Alaska, or other places around the world. However, in the lower 48 states of America, it probably is the best advice. It may not be as interesting as hunting and gathering, but it does seem more practical. In some ways, the best food skill you can develop is understanding how to use the calories you do have to the best of your advantage.
In the end, these 5 basic survival skills are things that will never hurt you to know. Keep in control of your mind, shelter yourself, know how to get water, build a fire, and be aware of how you’re spending your energy. If these are the only 5 things you can do, you may not be the ultimate mountain man, but you should live to try again another day. In the end, that’s what “survival” is all about.