As John Muir said: "Thousands of tired, nervous, agitated, over-civilized people are beginning to discover that being in the mountains is like staying at home; that desert is a necessity." Need to add more? While living in the midst of unspoiled nature will be simple, the steps needed to prepare for such an experience are not. But, with the right knowledge, with the mastery of certain skills and with the right equipment, you will be ready to face this transition in the best way.
Steps
Part 1 of 4: Preparing for a Life Outside the Box
Step 1. Find out which is the correct way to proceed depending on where you have decided to go
The skills needed to survive in freezing Alaska are different from those needed to live in Europe or the Sahara Desert. Start with the following points:
- What time of year will you find it less difficult to start your journey?
- How many supplies will you need in the beginning?
- Do you want to have access to civilized areas? When do you want them to be away? How could they affect your situation?
- Do you have the skills to survive in the climates / environments you are thinking of?
- Do you need time to prepare your body? In extremely cold temperatures, for example.
Step 2. Practice your "survival techniques" at home before you really need them
It all depends on where you decide to go, but chances are you need to get back into great shape (so start exercising right away) and start practicing some hiking techniques. Try to understand which skills you will need to acquire and which techniques could be useful, and don't forget the notions of first aid!
Consider practicing seemingly insane things, such as eating maggots and insects. If you ever find yourself in really difficult situations, they will be of great help to you
Step 3. Start making a list of the things you will need
This is not a picnic in the woods, what you want to do is live in the midst of unspoiled nature for a long period of time. Having a backpack with a few cereal bars and a sweatshirt inside will not be enough. Here is a basic list of things you may want to take with you:
- Tools (ropes, knives, nets, etc.).
- Shotgun or pistol (condensation in colder climates will require you to take good care of your guns).
- Lantern and torches (and, consequently, oil and batteries).
- Dry foods (oats, lentils, beans, rice, coffee).
- Sources of vitamin C (e.g. some drinks with added vitamins).
- Water filters.
- Compass.
- Sheets.
- Stones for starting fires, matches etc.
- Ax.
- Flares, mirrors, whistles, etc.
- Radio.
- Various tools and a sewing kit.
Step 4. Bring the right clothing
There are three rules: cotton kills, people don't let their friends wear cotton clothing, cotton sucks. You will need to wear clothing that retains heat even if they get wet. You need clothing that can withstand wear and tear. Cotton, while light and comfortable, is not the right choice. Pack your bags with clothing made for professional lumberjacks, farmers and fishermen. They will be heavy, but they will last a long time.
- Remember: you can always take something off if you get hot. After all, it's better to have too many clothes than not enough. If something happened to one of your garments, you'd still have another equally hot one.
- Bring a windproof jacket and everything you need to face the rain and snow. Most cases of hypothermia occur at temperatures above 4 ° C.
Step 5. Consider taking lessons before you leave
Surviving - and even more so to live - in the wilderness is no joke. You would do well to have some kind of preparation before embarking on a battle where it's just you and mother nature. Contact some local hiking groups or organizations that organize adventure trips to collect useful experiences. The more prepared you are for what you will face, the easier it will be to do it.
- Learn to recognize poison ivy, poison oaks, and poisonous scotch, as well as all other poisonous plants. As if that weren't enough, there are plants (like heracleum maximum) whose resin would make your skin extremely sensitive to light. If you come into contact with it, the sun will cause you some rather painful irritation. It is best to know as much as possible the environment in which you will have to live.
- Knowing what awaits you will allow you to stay calm, and this is essential. If you have seen a certain situation before, you will already know what to do and will be able to remain calm. If you were nervous and insecure you could make some very serious mistakes. Practicing before departure is one way to avoid mistakes in the future.
Step 6. Put everything you need in a backpack that contains everything but is easy to carry
Living immersed in the wilderness involves a lot of exploration and a lot of moments dedicated to the search for food. You will need supplies to drop off at your new home base, but you will also need to think about what you can always take with you. Get a durable, hiking-friendly backpack that you can take with you even during any time you step away from your base momentarily.
Prepare your backpack before leaving to see how much it can hold. Try to learn to fill it to the brim and still be able to wear it. Being able to make the most of the space offered by a backpack is a gift that will come in handy when living in the midst of unspoiled nature
Step 7. Prepare a way to ask for help if you need it
There is no "right" way, it all depends on the equipment you have available. However, there are some basic techniques that you would do well to know:
- Learn to start a signal fire.
- Learn to use a mirror or other reflective object to send light signals to the horizon.
- Learn to send an SOS signal.
- Equipped with an emergency signaling device, such as ACR or SPOT.
Part 2 of 4: Setting up a Base Camp
Step 1. Choose a safe place to stay
Try to be close to a water source but far enough away from areas where you may be at risk from animals (which tend to stay close to waterways) or from areas where you may be disturbed by the tides or by floods.
You should look for a flat point. Avoid steep spots, areas that are too rocky or areas that are too close to the water. These are all areas too exposed to the elements
Step 2. Start a fire
Warmth is the essence of comfort if you live in the midst of nature. Knowing how to light a fire is not enough; you will also need to know the how and when. Here are some guidelines:
- Set the fire away from your valuables and food supplies in case something goes wrong (including surprise visits from any animals).
- When cooking with fire, don't use open flame, rather light the fire and let it burn. You should light the fire long before eating. During the preparation of the fire, you will create a warm bed of embers that will create a living flame. This flame will allow you to brown the food well until you get a nice crust.
- Look for some birch bark to light the fire. Dry or wet birch bark is highly flammable, and is great for lighting fires in cold or very humid places.
- Burning hemlock twigs will keep flies and mosquitoes away.
Step 3. Build a shelter
A shelter built by leaning branches and leaves against a support structure will be easy to build, but it will not last forever. For the first week, try to at least build a basic structure that you can sleep in. Use the rest of your time to build something less temporary. The more you want your outdoor living room to extend, the more durable the shelter you build will have to be.
It is highly advisable to never sleep directly on the ground, so you should build a flooring for your shelter using something like twigs of hemlock, leaves or hay; you would freeze to sleep in direct contact with the ground
Step 4. Make water a top priority
Without food, you can survive for up to a month, but water is essential. Try to spot a water source you can rely on. If you can, get plenty of water so you don't have to go back and forth every day.
Plus, you can collect morning dew from grass and leaves by using a clean cloth and squeezing it into a container. It may not be the cleanest water in the world, but it will help keep you hydrated
Part 3 of 4: Meeting Basic Needs
Step 1. Learn to hunt, build traps, collect food
Of course, it all depends on where you are. Whatever way you are going to get food, you are going to have to learn how to do it. Consider all the resources that surround you: rivers full of fish, animals that live on earth or in the sky, plants. The greater your skills, the better you will be able to adapt when the climate changes or when certain resources run out.
- Don't eat anything unless you're sure it's edible. If you can, bring a book about the flora and fauna of the area with you.
- Also try to think of a good system to store what you find. Some animals in the area could pose a danger to your supplies.
Step 2. Make sure you purify your water
Drinking pure water is essential, as you can get a variety of diseases from drinking contaminated water. You never know if a stream is clean (for example, there may be a dead animal carcass along a stream), so purify your water.
- The simplest way is to boil it. This should take about 10 minutes.
- Another way is to use iodine tablets (not the liquid iodine you can find at the grocery store). Use the iodine tablets following the instructions on the package.
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A third way is to use a water filter. Pre-filter the water with a bandana or other materials. At that point it filters the water using the actual filter. The minimum filter size you will need will be 1 or 2 microns. This will allow 1 or 2 micron particles to pass through the filter. The smaller the size in microns, the greater the filtering power and the slower the water will pass through the filter.
Gravity filters are the most comfortable to use, if you can take one with you. You pour the water, you do something else, and an hour or two later you find clean water
Step 3. Keep the "clean" and "dirty" water in two separate containers
Make sure that not a single drop of dirty water ends up in the container with the clean water. One drop is enough to contract a fatal disease.
To re-sterilize the clean water container, boil it in water for 10 minutes. Make sure all parts of the container are covered in water as you let it boil
Step 4. Find a way to do your business
You will need a toilet (or something similar) that is away from your water source, shelter, and food supplies. This toilet could be a hole in the ground or something less temporary, like a latrine.
If you build a latrine or similar structure, be aware that during the winter you will freeze your butt by placing it directly on the wood. Put some Styrofoam on the seat to prevent this from happening
Step 5. Learn to walk in a straight line
Seriously: learning to explore the area wherever you are is absolutely essential to be able to live in the midst of nature. Surprisingly, even walking in a straight line is next to impossible (humans tend to walk in circles unwittingly). The simplest way to prevent this from happening is to leave references along the way, and to look over your shoulder as well (so that you can see if the previously placed reference is still directly behind you).
You can also use the trees, the moon and the sun as landmarks while exploring. If you are one of those people who seem to have a compass inside, exploring will be easy for you
Step 6. Take pemmican with you whenever you go on a hike
This is jerky and fat. Follow your favorite recipe and prepare large quantities when you are home, so that you have some ready for when you have to embark on a two-week excursion to the nearest town. You will be glad you did.
Pemmican should not be cooked (only left to dry) and, if you have added enough fat to the mix, it will give you support for longer than all other "survival foods". You can live on pemmican for months in any situation, even at home
Part 4 of 4: Enduring the Long Run
Step 1. Be your own doctor
Being alone in nature means that you will have to be your own doctor. You actually have to be your whatever. If you ever get even a cut, you will need to take care of it (it could be infected). Hopefully, you have some knowledge of first aid and can therefore take care of things ranging from sterilizing a wound to doing a splint.
In the event that you break your leg (or something equally serious happens), make sure you have a means of calling for help, be it a radio transmitter, telephone, or any other reliable signaling mechanism. Having the option to ask for help will help reduce stress in case something happens
Step 2. Consider creating a small vegetable garden
Since you will be alone for a while, why not create a vegetable garden? It will be your own little farm, and it will become a source of food from which you can stock up on almost effortlessly (if not in the beginning). It will also be great for morale, as you will feel resourceful and in full control of your survival.
Make sure you keep the garden away from wild animals. Build a fence, use objects to scare them away, and "mark your territory" if necessary
Step 3. Prepare some provisions for the winter
If you have decided to go to an area where the weather is predominantly winter, you will need to prepare provisions for when the freezing weather invades your world. Animals will be harder to find, walking will become more complicated, and just staying warm could become a challenge. When autumn comes, make sure you have all the supplies you need.
- Try to always have a few months of food always available, if possible.
- The same goes for the wood needed to light the fire. Move it indoors if possible.
- Water will freeze over the winter, so clean water should also be kept indoors.
Step 4. Reinforce your shelter
Under two meters of snow or during torrential rain, a base shelter built by leaning leaves and branches against a supporting structure will not last long. Use the summer and fall to build something like a wooden bungalow to keep animals and rainfall away. Plus, you'll feel like you have a real home.
Find a way to bring your latrine with you for the winter if possible. You can bring it closer to your shelter, although you shouldn't keep it inside (unless you want to put up with the smell)
Step 5. Find a source of vitamin C
One of the last things you want is to get scurvy. You're not a sailor living in the 1700s, so don't let your teeth get soft and your body deteriorate. If you don't have a source of vitamin C (such as powdered drink mix that contains vitamin C), rose berries will do the trick. They won't taste great, but they work.
Proper diet is essential for survival. The more balanced it is, the better. Try to eat foods from all major groups so that you can stay strong and healthy. If you don't, you risk compromising your immune system, thus becoming sensitive to even less aggressive viruses and bacteria
Step 6. Learn to predict weather conditions
Let's say you're running out of food and need to make your way to the nearest shop, about a week's walk away. If you can't predict weather conditions, you will venture into the venture as soon as you see good weather. But, if you were able, you might be able to understand that there is a storm coming and wait, or do it even faster.
Predicting weather conditions means noticing changes in atmospheric pressure, recognizing cloud systems, and even noting the smallest details, such as how smoke rises from the fire (swirling is not a good sign). Animals can also give you valuable insights
Step 7. Understand that returning to normal city life could be quite traumatic
Once you leave the society where money, status, 9am to 5pm jobs rule, going back to your old life may seem more difficult than when you left. If you plan on making the transition anyway, carefully consider the options you have.
You may want to take small steps. Moving to a farm or rural area, at least for the first time, may be preferable to trying to get back to city life. Try not to stress yourself out if you don't have to. Taking small steps will make everything easier
Advice
- Don't attract wild animals with your actions. Never leave traces of non-plant foods, socks or used undergarments near where you have settled, as wild animals will be able to trace the source of such smells very easily.
- Always carry some kind of weapon with you in case you get attacked.
- Make sure that the chosen location is close to a source of water, but not too close! There are people who have found themselves immersed under 30 cm of water with all their equipment upon awakening, so make sure you don't end up in the same way. Make sure your base point is well above the maximum water level of any nearby lakes or rivers. Never camp in a dry river bed.
- If you want to be found, start a signal fire. If possible, look for copper and throw it into the flames from time to time; it will give the flames a greenish color that will allow them to stand out from a normal forest fire. Adding wet twigs or wet leaves will generate a lot of smoke, which can help signal your location.
- Never sleep in direct contact with the ground. Rather, lay down on a bed of leaves. You will reduce the risk of losing body heat throughout the night.
- If you decide to venture into the wilderness, always let someone know where you are going. You never know what might happen and when you might need someone's first aid or help.
- Always carry something with you to light the fire: flint, matches, whatever works best. By doing this, when you are away from your shelter, you can hunt for food and eat it right where you are. Even sparks from an exhausted lighter will be enough to set a cotton ball on fire.
- Learn to live in a primitive way, like the American Indians. Learn to live thanks to the earth. They have been doing this for more than 10,000 years, in summer and winter. Learn to build arches from Osagi or Acacia wood. Learn to recognize trees and use the reeds that you can find near the banks of rivers to make arrows. Learn to make tips for your arrows using flint, obsidian, or broken bottle bottoms found on the side of the road. Make sure you use every part of the animals. Be an asset to yourself.
- Always carry some essential things with you. Make sure you always have a bottle of water, a knife, a matchbox and something to eat.
- When using the "toilet", make sure you are at least 100 meters away from any water source. You certainly don't want to drink water contaminated by yourself.
- Keep food high, out of reach of any bears. For added security, smoke any meat that comes through your hands, as doing so will keep it longer. In addition, many animals will stay away thanks to the smoke, only the largest predators will come close.
- Consider learning bushcraft, a survival technique, the art of thriving in nature, to better prepare yourself for living in the wilderness.
Warnings
- Do not eat mushrooms: on average, 80% are poisonous. Don't eat a mushroom unless you're sure you know it.
- Don't eat ferns - some types of these plants are poisonous. However, if you contract an intestinal parasite, the ferns themselves can be ingested in small quantities to get rid of them.
- Black bears (typical of the American continent) can often be frightened to the point of running away through loud noises. Brown and polar bears, on the other hand, are attracted to noise, the secret is knowing the type of bears you might be dealing with in the area you are in.
- Always stay calm, and always try to keep yourself busy. By hitting small goals you have set for yourself, or successfully completing chores, your self-confidence will grow, which is critical to survival.
- Don't sleep in the same clothes you were wearing when you cooked - the smell will stay on your clothes and body, attracting bears and other animals.
- Do not eat anything that has secretions that look like milk; an exception to this rule are dandelions and asclepias, both of which are edible when cooked properly.
- Never get close to cubs, especially bears, lynxes and cougars.
- When you venture into the woods, expect large swarms of painful insects wherever you go, and be prepared for an eventual encounter. Keep in mind that such swarms tend to form around sunrise and sunset.
- Do not touch anything that has shiny sheets and beware of plants with three leaves.
- Relying solely on iodine-purified water for more than 5 weeks may cause stomach discomfort. If you have enough tablets to purify water all that time, still try to alternate this method with boiling.
- Do not touch bushes with red stems.
