Wilderness Survival Backpacking Tips
By Steve Gillman, Fri Dec 9th
Why should you learn wilderness survival skills just forbackpacking? They may save your life someday, and for ultralightenthusiasts like myself, skills replace gear, and thereforeweight. The best reason, however, may be that it's just a goodfeeling to know you can deal with whatever comes up. It makesyou feel more at home.
To survive means to stay warm and dry, hydrated, uninjured, andto find your way out of the survival situation. Eating is nicetoo, but not crucial if the situation is for a few days. Beloware some more or less random survival tips, just to get youinterested.
Wilderness Survival Tips
1. Warmth: Sleep with your head slightly downhill to staywarmer. This may take some getting used to, but it works.
2. Food: In North America, there is no berry that looks like ablueberry, strawberry, or rasberry, that can hurt you from onetaste. Just spit it out if it doesn't taste right. If it looksand tastes like a blueberry - it is.
3. Fire starter: If you put dried moss or milkweed fuzz in yourpocket as you walk, you'll have dry tinder to start a fire, justin case it's raining later. Experiment with different materials.
4. Direction-finding: Mark the tip of the shadow of a stick,and mark it again
