Clean the Water before Drinking It
Water is essential for survival. In fact, there’s nothing more important than getting clean water, as water is essential for the brain and other organs of the body to function properly. Lack of water can lead to dehydration and have a huge impact on your health, reducing your strength and ability to survive in the wild.
Though water is important, it does not mean you can drink dirty or unfiltered water. Such water can make you sick. Also, remember that any kind of stagnant water is not usually suitable to drink, even if you can boil it.
Grab a Meal
Just like water, food is also essential for survival. You can go without food for a day or two, but after that you need to start searching for food.
There are many edible things that you can easily find in the wilderness, such as acorns from oak trees, the nuts and inner bark of pine trees, the base stalk of cattails that is similar to celery, wild onions and sweet potatoes that you can roast, fish from a river or lake that you can roast, dandelion leaves, watercress, and edible berries that grow plentiful in the wild.
eat berries
If you do not know much about edible plants, follow the animals around and eat what they eat.
You can also test if a plant is edible by placing a small piece of it against your lip for a few minutes. If the plant is edible, you will have no reaction to it.
At the same time, steer clear of plants that have a milky or discolored sap, fine hairs or thorns, a bitter or soapy taste, or a three-leaved growth pattern.
Create Fire from a Mirror or Stones
Creating a fire is another one of the biggest challenges when stranded in the wilderness. You’ll need a fire to boil water, cook food, keep you warm during the night and deter wild animals.
Another reason that you may want to build a fire is so that rescuers can find you.
create a fire
If you have a lighter or matches, creating a fire is easy. You simply need to grab some dry leaves and small tree branches to start the fire.
But without a lighter or matches, you can start a fire with anything highly reflective, such as a magnifying glass, eyeglasses, a camera lens, a mirror or the back of a CD.
Simply angle the glass or mirror in a way that sunlight reflects onto the tinder bundle. Eventually it will smoke and turn into flames.
Make a Shelter
A shelter in the wild is very important. It can protect you from the sun, insects, wind, rain, snow, hot or cold temperatures, and undesirable observation from others.
In fact, a proper shelter is one of the basic needs that will keep you alive if you’re stuck in the woods trying to survive.
natural shelter for wilderness
Making a shelter if you have a tarp or plastic garbage bags and some ropes with you is easy. But even if you do not have these things, you can make a shelter with materials found in nature.
Start with 2 or 3 strong branches and a dry location where there are low-lying trees.
Place the branches, with one end on the ground and the other resting on a sturdy tree branch. You can also lash it to a tree.
Gather some thick branches to line the length of the branches to create the ribbed frame.
Next, place smaller sticks crosswise for a lattice effect.
Put soft debris like pine needles and leaves over the smaller sticks.
Cover the interior floor with soft leaves and block the entrance with more debris.