Let’s say you’ve decided to spend a week or two out in the wild, far away from the city, pollution, and mundane life. While doing something like this will surely reinvigorate your body and spirit, you need proper prepping before adventuring into the unknown.
With that in mind, we would love to share with you some essential items you’ll need for a trip through the wilderness. Of course, there are a lot more things you should take with you to make your life as comfortable as possible. However, you shouldn’t plan your trip until you get your hands on the following items:
Survival Knife
If you plan on going for a full wilderness experience, you should definitely pack a survival knife with you. You’ll probably need to do a lot of cutting for all sorts of tasks, from starting a campfire to building an improvised shelter if you’ve strayed too far from the campsite, and much more.
There are loads of options currently available on the market, with some gritty survival knives going for more than $200. Fortunately, there are also cheaper options that are easy to carry and won’t take up much space in your inventory. For this particular reason, we recommend looking for the best pocket knife this year.
Map and Compass
You might think that we’re cheating by placing two items into a single category, but we’re not. These two things go hand in hand like peanut butter and jelly.
The reason why we recommend a map and compass instead of a smartphone with GPS is that in the wilderness you won’t always have a GPS signal. So, naturally, you’ll need to rely on the old methods if you want to find your way back to camp.
First Aid Kit
Accidents happen and it’s best to be prepared for them as well. A first aid kit is a critical item that should be accessible at all times. Having a dedicated first aid kit for your vehicles is also a good idea.
While regular medical kits do a good job, we recommend ones that contain pressure dressing to stop bleeding since you don’t know what you might encounter in the wild. In case of an animal bite, for example, a regular first aid kit might not suffice.
Flashlight
When things get dark, you won’t have streetlights to illuminate the way for you. If you’re deep in the woods, the stars won’t shine bright enough either for you to see what’s on the ground.
Your phone’s flashlight will probably not be sufficient either, so it’s best to take a full-fledged flashlight with you. Get one with powerful LEDs that’s resistant to damage in case you drop it or accidentally submerge it in water.
Water Filter Bottle
In case you run out of potable water, it’s a good idea to have a method to filter water from rivers and other sources when out in nature.
This type of bottles allows you to drink from basically anywhere. In a survival situation, water is quintessential because you can barely survive three days without it. So choose a model that suits your budget and get one before going out in the woods.
The Bottom Line
There are many more items you should be taking with you, but these five are by far the most essential. They cover the most basic aspects of survival in the wilderness, especially if you’re traveling alone or with a person who’s never done this before.