How to Survive in the Wild

7 Tips That Will Save Your Life

Depending on your situation you may need to perform up to seven steps in order to survive in the wild. Whether it’s getting lost hiking, skiing off a trail, suffering through a natural disaster, or enduring an accident, how you respond can save your life. And while your best hope for rescue is often staying in the same place, the elements dictate what needs to be done first. The human body can survive three weeks without food and three days without water, but only thirty minutes in water that is near freezing temperature. If you are stuck for an extended period, you will need to find shelter, food, and water, be able to make a fire, construct a weapon or tools, and tell direction, as well as most importantly don’t panic.

Shelter

An emergency shelter will protect you from bad weather, extreme heat or cold, and allow you to conserve valuable energy and body heat. If you are stuck in the desert, caught in a blizzard, trapped by a flood, or any other disaster, shelter will be your number one priority. If you are in immediate danger, you should leave the area. You may have to get to the roof of a house or climb a tree in a flood. However, if the danger is minimal and people generally know where you were going like a hike up a mountain, your best even if you are lost, is to remain in place. Staying in one place, and nearest the location you started from, allows a rescue party to search a small radius and increases the likelihood you will be found sooner. Once you’ve found a safe location, the environment surrounding you will dictate how to build your shelter. If you are caught in the desert or a blizzard, you will need to build a shelter from sand or snow, with the aim to get out of the sun’s heat or the snow’s cold and your only option will be to dig. If caught in a rainy forest, you’ll want to use downed branches, leaves, and moss to make a lean-to shelter. Caves are a great place to find shelter, as well, but remember the bears know that too.

Food

You can survive for three weeks without food but like with water, you’ll be hurting within a day or so. Your environment like with shelter will dictate what resources you have. Several common trees and weeds are edible like cattails, dandelions, and pine bark. And while they may look tempting, avoid mushrooms–it takes an expert to know the difference between what you can put on a salad and what will kill you. Avoid three leaf green and reddish plants–that might be poison ivy–but consider your most readily available source of protein, insects and worms. Many beetles for example have as much protein per ounce as steak. And if it helps, remember many insects are herbivores. Try to think of them like mini-cows.

Water

You need to find water within three days but if you are lost, you’ll want to do it sooner. Water flows downhill and the best place to find it, short of a stream, lake, or river, is to look for it on plants in the morning and in depressions under rocks. Water, however, contains many parasites that can quickly make you sick. While boiling water will kill those parasites, it’s important to know it will not remove poisons or metals that are toxic. If you are a hiker, always keep purification tablets or filter straw in your pack. If you have neither, a solar still can be built using a piece of plastic, a hole in the ground, a cup, and rocks. Dig a hole at a low point in the sun and line it with stones. At the center place a rock and cup on top of it. Fill the hole with dirty water. Place the plastic on top over the hole. Hold it down with a rock on each corner and a lighter rock at the center to create a downward facing point over the cup. During the day, the water will evaporate and condense on the plastic. The droplets will flow toward the lowest point on the tarp and drip into the cup. As long as the plastic tarp is clean, the water will be purified and free on toxins. If you are lucky enough to be near a stream, look up to make sure animals are not using it to bath or pee.

Fire

If you are planning on traveling in the wild your pack should have several different ways to start a fire. As part of an emergency kit, your car should aid as well. At minimum you should have lighter, water-proof matches, and a flint and striker. If you don’t have any those, you can spark a fire using cables and car battery or a magnifying glass (or even your own glasses) and the sun. A fire plough can be made using string, two sticks, a log, and fine twigs, wood shavings, leaves, or needles. If you have a knife, you’re in luck, if not use a sharp stone to cut a groove a flat piece of wood. At the center make a little notch. Line the groove with needles, shavings, or leaves so that when a spark is created, they will ignite. Hold a flat stick between your palms with one end on the notch in fire board. Rub your hands back and forth to create sawdust and friction in the notch. As the notch and groove heat up, the kindling will spark. If your palms get tired, and you have a string, make bow and wrap the string around the kindling stick. Moving the bow back and forth will have the same effect as rubbing your palm together. Start your fire early in the morning and keep it lit. You’ll be tired a night and likely cold. If you have an aluminum can, cut off the top and polish the inside of the bottom with cloth (or even chocolate). Put the can in the sun with a tiny bit of needles or shavings. The aluminum can get hot enough to cause a spark.

Weapons/Tools

The most readily available weapon is a rock or a stick, but don’t expect to be fast enough to catch a fish or spear a squirrel. Traps are your best bet to capture food. A simple trap can be made using snare, box, or spring lid. A snare can be as simple as looped rope that you pull when an animal steps into the loop. It will require bait (some of your food), patience, and the ability to remain silent. A bucket or a box or a log can be propped up with a stick. The kill zone needs to be baited and rope is required to close the trap. Tie the rope to the prop stick, and like with the snare, wait for prey to approach. The more silent you are and the better your bait the more successful you will be. Once you catch a small animal, the best way to not lose it is by shaking the box, bucket, or snare to stun the animal. At some point, you’ll find yourself wishing you had spent more time researching squirrel recipes than spending time on social media.

Direction

There are many ways to find north. If you must move from your camp, you can use the sun, stars, or moon. If you plan on returning to your camp, mark your path using brightly colored strips of cloth by timing them to branches. In the northern hemisphere, moss grows on trees on the north side of the trucks, and the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. At midday, if you are unsure of which way the sun is traveling, you can make an east west stick. Stick a long stick in the ground facing straight up and take note of its shadow. Use a short stick to mark the direction of the shadow two feet from the original stick by inserting it into the ground at the shadow’s point. Wait fifteen minutes for the shadow to move. Take a second short stick and pound it into the ground at the shadow’s tip. Draw a line connect the two short sticks. The line between the sticks is east to west and north and south will be perpendicular to your line.

Preparation Is the Key to Remaining Calm

Preparation is your best defense for surviving in the wild. If you are hiking, for example, your pack should not only have food and water, but also the tools to find and prepare them. Placing a lighter and a fishhook with line in your pack, won’t add much weight and they may save your life. A phone size solar charger is also a must have tool for keeping your phone charged. Your environment and the weather will dictate what you need to do first to survive, but If you are stuck for an extended period, you will need to find shelter, food, and water, as well as be able to make a fire, construct a weapon or tools, and tell direction. Consider downloading one of the many excellent apps onto your phone or adding a light-weight survival guide to your pack, glove box, boat, or off-road vehicle.

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About the author: Chris Ledoux is the author of The Burnt Sunset series, a dystopian apocalyptic fantasy sci-fi experience featuring flash fiction, lyrics, and artwork available on Amazon. Visit theburntsunset.com or Pinterest at theburntsunsetnovel to learn about Solstice Dayton, a fourteen-year-old epileptic, surviving and thriving at the end of the world.

Copyright © 2021 Chris Ledoux

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