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Most of my friends know I am a survival nut in one way or another. In my cars I always have the least of what I need to survive if I break down somewhere and if I ever drive more than hour out of town I will always bring my ‘GoBag’ (more about that later). Every vehicle has several MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat), my house has a few boxes as well as my trailer, just in case.

I’ve read hundreds of survival ‘guides’, books, cards, websites and so on and have always wondered what the most important tool/item would be for a survival situation, of ANY kind. Ingenuity. You can be without a knife, but you can make one out of bone, or stones, and sometimes wood (stabbing/spearing knives). You can be without shelter, but you can make one out of your surroundings. You can be without food, but you can find it or even discover it with the right testing process. You can even be without water but you can find it readily (in most cases). Even if you are without a map you can find your way.

Obviously that would be closer to an extreme situation and we all hope you don’t end up in one. But what if you do? What if for some magical reason you end up in the wilderness, all alone and with nothing? What do you do?

First thing to remember is to have some ingenuity. Ask yourself, What do I have? What do I need? What can I use to get/make it? And for today, remember this, and in this order: Shelter, Fire, Water, Food, Hope.

 There is a story about a lost hiker who was found dead, leaning against a tree with the butts of two packs of cigarettes strewn around him. He had been missing for ten hours. 10 hours! He didn’t die from smoking either. For some reason or another the man felt hopeless, completely hopeless. The autopsy found no poisons or obvious sign of death and the coroners came to the conclusion that he just died, from hopelessness. Far fetched? Possibly, but there are millions of stories about people who persevered in the face of adversity simply because they had hope. That is why it is in the list.

Shelter: Many survival situations can be easily survived if you protect yourself from the elements. If you are in the desert, staying out of the sun will help to minimize your water loss. If you are in the frozen tundra it can keep you from losing too much body heat. Many parts of the world have extreme temperature differences between day and night. Shelter will help you with this.

Fire: Fire warms the mind in addition to the body. You can use it to signal (white smoke in dark areas, black smoke in light areas, light signals at night, more later) It can be used to cook, purify water, keep you warm, keep insects and animals away and to light up your area.

Water: Depending on the environment and your exertion level, you can only go so long without water. First minimize water loss but drink water if you have it. Second find more water. Most water in the wild will need to be purified. Boil it for at least ten minutes if you can, filter it or use water purification tablets. Even running water can be rife with little critters ready to wreak havoc on your innards and cause you to lose even more water than you gained.

Food: You can go longer without food than water but you will need to find it. Even if you think you will be rescued soon, do not wait till the last minute to find food, you might not have the energy. Survival is an ongoing process, do it always. If you don’t know an edible plant from a poisonous one, do not worry there is a method to help you distinguish and discover. We will go over that in a future article.

 So what have you learned? Ask yourself “What do I have? What Do I need? What can I use to get/make it? You are human, humans have ingenuity, use it. As for the checklist, say it out loud with me “Shelter, Fire, Water, Food and Hope” Although you should always have hope first, I put it at the end to help tie it all together, and to remind you that at the end of the day it is the hope you have that will get you through the next.

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