Wilderness Survival, Back Country Camping and Offgrid Living
After shelter water is the most important thing to acquire when surviving in the wilderness. It used to be that there was plenty of fresh water safe to drink, but due to pollution and other man-made trouble very little water out there is safe to drink straight from the stream without being purified or filtered.... Continue Reading →
A few years back, in the dark days before the Internet, I decided to take the canoe out and do some camping on a lake. It was one of those fall days where the air is crisp and cool, the wind was still and the surface of the lake looked like a piece of glass... Continue Reading →
Preppers love to post about how to make a lean-to with their poncho, but here's a little piece of knowledge not communicated too often: the lean-to isn't that great a shelter. It's open to the wind and if you set it up wrong the rain can blow right into your shelter making for a long... Continue Reading →
Bad things happen to people who get lost in the wilderness. People write hundreds of blog posts every year about what to do in case you get lost in the wilderness. In this post I'm going to show you how NOT to get lost in the forest. Pride and hubris are dangerous things in the... Continue Reading →
In the last post we talked about the first 5 C's of Survival developed by Dave Canterbury, which is criteria for gear you should always have in your pack. In this article I'm going to discuss the next 5 C's. In brief here are the 10 C's of Survival: Cutting tool Combustion Cover Container Cordage... Continue Reading →
If you're a minimalist day-hiker there's a few pieces of gear you should take with you that will help assure your survival if you get lost. These items are something you should carry with you all the time whether you're four-wheeling, snowmobiling (I keep mine in my saddlebag on my snowmobile), or just out for... Continue Reading →
People often try to make up for a lack of knowledge with survival gear. Which is better? In a perfect world both are desirable, but there are a few things that happen as you spend more time in the wilderness practicing your bushcraft. The first thing you'll notice is that you are no longer afraid... Continue Reading →
It’s always cool when some smart guy combines a great piece of equipment with something that makes total sense. Take for instance the fire steel with a fatwood handle. Yep, you heard that right. A fella named Jon Bressler did just that and sent me one for review. As soon as it arrived I grabbed... Continue Reading →
One of the most important survival concepts out there that can help guide you through a survival situation is the Survival Rule of Three's. These aren't actual rules mind you - think of them as survival guidelines or how you should direct your activities when lost in the wilderness. The Rules look like this: You... Continue Reading →
People get lost in the woods all the time. Most times they survive by pure dumb luck, but sometimes they don't. In 2013 a woman name Geraldine Largay stepped off the Appalachian Trail here in Maine to use the bathroom and got lost. Her body was found two years later in a small camp she'd set... Continue Reading →
Jarhead Survival 