A few nights ago, my brother called me and asked for some advice as he was planning to take his young boys out for a little survival camping expedition. Here are some lessons I’ve learned from camping and hiking in the Olympic and Cascade Mountains of Washington. We’d love to hear your ideas as well!
1. Don’t use an axe. Sure, it will put hair on your chest and make you feel like Jeremiah Johnson. But it will also put you in the hospital when it’s raining, your hands are slippery, and your mind is clouded by hunger, cold, fatigue and frustration. Hatchets are fine though for splitting kindling and sharpening the stakes for your lean-to and hot-dog/marshmallow spits. If you want to cut some medium sized limbs, use a hand-powered survival chain saw. It’s far safer and weighs less.
2. Take 3x as much water as you think you’ll need.
3. Practice finding and purifying water before you go out into the wilderness! When you run out of water and are dying of thirst is not the time to figure out if your filter straw and iodine drops will work.
4. Take more beef jerky and trail mix. You may be too tired to feel like cooking. Also, MREs quickly become tiresome and start to taste the same, no matter the menu item. Mountain House meals, on the other hand, are no more expensive than MREs and taste wonderful! They only require boiling water, and you can eat them out of the bag, so there are no dirty dishes
5. Take 2x the 550-cord you think you’ll need. Between staking out guy-lines, setting up your tarp, and hanging your bear-bag, 100 feet goes quickly. Realize that wrapping around a sturdy tree can easily use up 10 feet cord.
6. Don’t forget your knife. Put an extra knife in the bottom of your backpack in case you lose the one in your pocket.
7. Be sure your phone is fully charged when you set out from your vehicle or base camp. Take an extra cell-phone battery (charged) if you can. Don’t rely on it. Phones get wet, lost, stepped on/sat on, and reception in remote areas is a gamble. Realize that if you plan on using your phone as a GPS the battery can go from 100% to 0% in just a few hours.
8. Take duct tape and hand sanitizer. Duct tape can patch tears in tents and hold together broken tent poles. Hand sanitizer prevents illness. Together they make a field-expedient first aid kit for small cuts and abrasions. Marines use hand-sanitizer and duct tape for anything that doesn’t require stitches.
9. Take a first aid kit with a minimum of gauze, alcohol wipes, neosporin, medical tape, tweezers and some band-aids.
10. If you are carrying firearms or ignore our axe advice, take quik-clot and a tourniquet. They have saved the lives of thousands of troops in our recent wars. If you have a traumatic injury, they could keep you alive long enough for help to arrive. They’re small, lightweight and their cost is minuscule if you value your life at all.
11. Take camo tarps. They’re lightweight, cheap, easy to set up and are useful as ground cloths, table cloths, and heavy-duty rain-flies when the forecast goes wrong on you.
12. Chemlights are magical. Let the kids tie them on the end of a length of 550-cord and have a campfire rave as they spin them around. This is also called the “buzz-saw” technique and is used by the military to signal medevac helicopters into the LZ. At about $1/ea. glowsticks/chemlights are the best light source for your money. Hang one on the front of your tent and on any guylines to help you find your way and keep from tripping in the dark.
13. When you choose flashlights, pick LED ones with lithium batteries. They’ll last for a month. Incandescents (traditional bulbs) with standard cells last for about an hour (or so it seems).
14. Waterproof matches aren’t. Take them anyway. They’re better than plain matches and work great when it’s dry.
15. Cotton balls soaked in vaseline = best tinder in the galaxy. They’re waterproof and burn for a good 30 seconds. If you’re lazy, Tinder-Quick is basically the same thing, but pre-made in tidy little packages.
16. Always cut away from yourself with a knife. Always. No exceptions. Watch your fingers!
17. Take hand sanitizer. (Did we say this already? We meant it!)
18. And toilet paper/baby wipes. You’ve heard you can use leaves, right? Sure. Of course you can. But why would you if you didn’t have to?
19. And a little metal folding trowel. If you bury your waste, the little microorganisms in the dirt will break it down rather quickly. If you don’t, you risk spreading disease and basically just filthying up the backcountry for wildlife and other outdoorsmen.
20. Pee where you like. Urine is sterile, but try to keep it at least 25 yards away from your campsite. After a few days’ accumulation your campsite can start to smell, especially in warmer weather.
21. Poop at least 100 yards from the campsite and any water source.
22. Always take care of “business” downstream from your camp site.
23. Wool socks are best, even in summer. (Get the thinner ones, though. The heavy ones make your feet sweat, which = cold).
24. Merino wool T-shirts don’t stink, even after 3-4 days of sweating.
25. Wool retains its insulating properties even when wet. It’s naturally anti-microbial (resists odor), and it’s nearly fireproof. (Most fire blankets are at least 50% wool). Wool Military Blankets are heavy, but worth their weight.
26. Cotton kills. It’s flammable, harbors bacteria and never dries on its own.
27. REI wool hiking/trekking socks are made in the USA. Smartwool also makes an identical item, some of which are made domestically. I wear them everyday. I have 3 pairs. 2 pairs that I rotate throughout the week (wear one, wash one) and a 3rd I keep in my backpack as a spare.
28. If you have to, you can wear them for 5 days in heavy boots before they stink. They cost a little over $10/pair. If you wash them in a bucket (or in a nearby stream) and turn them inside out, if there’s a decent breeze they’re usually dry by the next morning.
29. I have just one pair of heavy wool mountaineering socks. They’re too warm for all but the coldest times during the day. But they’re great to put on in the tent when the nights get chilly in the mountains.
30. Pitch your tent on high-ground, not in a sheltered valley. Waking up to 3″ of standing water about to crest over your tent’s “bathtub bottom” is more excitement than you want.
31. Take flip-flops. They cost $1 at the dollar store and will save you all kinds of grief when you need to take a whiz at 2 a.m.
32. Did I mention to take more water? Your level of exertion in the outdoors will exceed even your best estimates. If you are relying on water filtration or purifying techniques, be sure you know how to use them before you go. Some treatments take a while to work. When you’re thirsty, you don’t want to wait 30 minutes for a drink.
33. A hand-crank cell-phone charger will get you about 2 min of talk-time for 15 minutes of cranking.
34. 15 minutes of cranking equates to 4 hours of throwing hay bales or picking rocks out of a farmer’s field.
35. If you want to keep a fire going all evening, it will take about 3 of those bundles you buy outside a convenience store. That’s too much to carry in. Give yourself at least an hour to cut that much wood. And then you’ll be too tired to cook.
36. Take some mechanics gloves. Little splinters or cuts become big deals when you’re relying on your hands, and everything is dirty. On a recent outing, I managed to cut both of my thumbs. Everything else for the rest of the trip was slightly painful.
37. 90% of post-camping diarrhea is NOT due to giardia , but to under-cooked food and poor sanitation. Take soap. More water. And more hand sanitizer. Use hand sanitizer after touching anything. Sticks, leaves, rocks, firewood, etc. If you bite your nails or pick your nose, now is a good time to stop.
38. You will probably never take your compass out of your backpack/pocket. But if you happen to need one and don’t have one (or have one, but don’t know how to use it), you can pretty much go ahead and plan your funeral. Be sure you also take a map of the area. (You can usually download free USGS topo maps for free online).
39. Even if it’s just a little mist, put your rain gear on and build your fire under a tarp. A little mist can become a downpour in about 10 seconds. Once your clothes are wet, you’re screwed. Even if it’s warm out, you’ll be miserable. Move the tarp back once you get a 2-3″ diameter log lit. Unless it’s a downpour. Then wait until you have a 12-18″ flame going strong. Then you can move the tarp back.
40. Pack a fine cigar and a flask of good scotch. After the kids are in bed, nothing makes the fire prettier.
After getting back from our trip, I’ve been reflecting on it and want to respond to your wise advice.
First, a couple of qualifiers: my boys are 11 and 9, and the only camping we’ve ever done was at places w/ electricity and running water, where all your gear can be easily unloaded from your car. We knew the weather would be hot, and I wanted the first experience of this type of camping to be a positive one. Thus, we only camped for one night, and the hike in and out was only a quarter mile (albeit very rough Ozark terrain). So my feedback is going to be in reference to a short trip, doing it with younger kids, when it’s hot, on a very limited budget (we couldn’t afford “ultralight” gear of any kind).
So here goes.
1. I took a hatchet and had practiced beforehand, and I was unhappy with any saws for sale at Chinamart. The axe came in handy for cutting up some heartier deadwood that was able to produce a lot of heat, and I hammered the tent stakes with it. But in woodsy areas, especially when the fire is just for cooking, the hatchet added too much weight to my gear which could have been conserved for…
2. Water, water, water. We took roughly 2 gallons. Also discovered our creek was such murky, muddy water, we didn’t even feel comfortable washing dishes in it. The next morning, we desperately hiked back to the truck, drove into town, refilled our bottles, and then trekked all the way back to our campsite. Next time: a camelback and two canteens per kid, two camelbacks and four canteens for me, and we’ll just leave some of our other gear at home.
3. Any suggestions for filtering extremely murky water would be good.
4. Keep in mind salty meats can make you thirsty. For short trips, fresh fruit is good (we took oranges).
5. In addition to paracord, take some cheap string. We had some little projects that made me wince as we used up expensive paracord when cheap twine would have done the trick.
6. The K-Bar could have done the job of the axe and shovel put together: trimming limbs, digging poopholes, and hammering stakes…and it would have saved us a few pounds (so we could carry more water!).
7. We put our cell phone in a Ziploc bag, and I informed my wife I would turn it on every 2-3 hours just to check messages. We also gave out phone numbers and made sure the appropriate people knew where we would be.
8. Coleman makes biowipes that can be buried and decompose very quickly. Duct tape was very handy, as is electrical tape.
9. Add to first aid kit Benadryl and itch cream.
10. We were informed ahead of time that a cougar had actually attacked someone near the area we were camping. I took the smallest, lightest handgun…just in case. Plus, we all remember Deliverance
11. We took an emergency blanket to use as a tarp, in case of rain. Seemed to make sense since they’re waterproof.
12. The kids loved the glowsticks. Thanks for the idea.
13. We packed a large flashlight/lantern combo with extra batteries. Being summer and the sun not going down until 9:00, it was unnecessary and extra weight. Our little maglights would have been sufficient for this short, summertime trip.
14. I still have to work on my fire starting skills. Tried flint, magnesium, the matches, and finally gave up and resorted to the butane lighter. Once it was going, it kept blowing out. My son suggested I build the fire behind the pile of sticks. He was right.
15. Cotton balls soaked in vaseline do work very well to keep a flame going, as long as you’re protecting it from the wind.
16. Both boys got some little cuts that will remind them to handle a knife the right way in the future. Good lessons!
17. After so many sanitizer squirts and handiwipes, your hands will feel very grimy. A bit of soap and a conservative rinse of water makes a world of difference.
18. Those fuzzy little “lamb’s ear” leaves are nature’s toilet paper if you run out. We didn’t see any, but thankfully brought plenty of our own.
19. The K-Bar could have dug holes big enough for waste and saved us the weight of the shovel.
20-22. Of course.
23. Depends on length of trip. You got me some wonderful thin wool socks, but they still feel too hot. Cotton came through in this instance, where we could change socks frequently.
24. I love lightweight cotton flannel shirts for sun protection and an extra pocket or two. Farmers working outside all day have figured this out.
25. For bedding, the self-inflating pad was a chore to deflate and sleeping bags were unnecessary with the heat as well as taking up too much space. We all wished we’d had pillows of some kind. Next time (for summer camping) we will each bring a closed-foam pad, a blanket, and an inflatable pillow.
26-29. See my #23.
30. Our tent was an “Ozark Trail” backpacking tent for four. It was very light and seemed pretty sturdy with an actual tarp floor. But it didn’t rain, so that will be another report for the future.
31. Disagree on flip-flops. They’re extra weight and you can squirm for an extra minute while slipping on untied boots.
32. Amen and amen.
33-34. Or you can leave the cell phone off except for emergencies. Or take an extra battery.
35. Unkempt wooded areas will provide more than enough wood for your fire, without even cutting it up.
36. Pigskin gloves are thin and light, and were invaluable. They kept my hands clean during the tasks of setting up/tearing down camp and gathering firewood, and they worked as hot pads when cooking.
37. Just keep hands away from face altogether. Working with my boys on this one.
38. Do you have any recommendations for a compass that is reliable and won’t break the bank? Each of our compasses had needles that “wandered” around within 180 degrees of north.
39. We packed a little folding camp stove, so that in the case we couldn’t have a full-fledged fire, we could keep a few twigs dry enough to cook lunch.
40. Smoked a fine cigar. But hate the effects of alcohol when energy and hydration must be conserved.
Thanks again for the great advice. I welcome more advice/feedback on my responses.
Wow, Dan! Thanks for the comprehensive comment. I’ll try to answer the questions you posed, soon.
Live Free!
-SB