Going camping is a fun and rewarding activity thousands of people love to experience yearly. No matter where you go, it’s an opportunity to get closer to nature and experience a simpler way of living while enjoying the beauty of the outdoors.
While it can be a fun and even relaxing experience, it’s also important to be prepared. Not only will you need supplies to help you survive, but you need to be prepared for a survival situation should things go wrong.
In this overview, we will be going over some of the essentials you should include in your survival camping checklist. These will cover items that will make your camping trip more fun, along with others that will make survival easier in a tough situation.
Contents
Key Takeaways
- It’s important to be prepared on any camping trip, as getting supplies won’t be so simple when you’re away from civilization and may find yourself in a tricky situation.
- When making your camping survival checklist, you need to take some things into consideration such as how many people will be on the trip, the kind of location you’ll be in, and how long you will be on the trip.
- We will cover various items you should have in your survival kit such as medical supplies, water purification, and cooking tools.
- Maintaining and updating your survival kit is an important part of the process so that you never find yourself missing important tools you may need.
- Storing your camping kit properly will help keep the items usable for as long as possible and can ensure your kit will be in good condition for years to come.
The Importance Of Survival Preparedness When Camping
The main draw of camping is to get away from it all and enjoy some quiet time in the great outdoors. But camping by its very nature ensures we will be far away from modern conveniences like stores and hospitals.
Therefore, you need to make sure you’re as prepared as possible for a wide variety of circumstances and emergency situations. We will cover some of the supplies that can help you to be more prepared as we move through this article.
As we have seen in this article on family disaster plans, these supplies can also be helpful during natural disasters and other emergency scenarios.
Considerations When Making Your Camping Survival Kit Checklist
You can never prepare for everything when going on a camping trip, but the more eventualities you prepare for the better. Choosing the supplies is just a part of it, though. Certain factors unique to your situation would potentially impact the supplies you would need.
Here are some questions you should keep in mind when planning out your camping survival kit. You can also find more information on considerations you should keep in mind in this article we have created previously.
How Many People Will The Kit Be For?
This question is one of the first you should ask yourself when planning which items you need to survive in the wilderness. Taking this into consideration will prevent you from not having enough supplies or having too many. For example, if you will have 3 people on the trip then you would be wasting space packing 5 flashlights.
On the other hand, you would need to make sure you have a medical kit with enough supplies for 3 people instead of one for a single person.
What Is The Expected Climate And Conditions Of Your Destination?
Some items that would be vital on some trips would just be a waste of space on others. For example, let’s say you’re planning on camping near Fall in an Alaskan forest. You would definitely need to pack some very warm clothing and supplies to deal with the cold.
Those supplies would be a waste of space if you’re camping in the Mojave desert in Summer, for example. For that reason, try to anticipate what you will need depending on the terrain of your destination.
How Experienced Are You With The Outdoors?
You might fancy yourself a survival expert after watching tons of documentaries on the subject, but the reality is that it can be very different when you’re actually experiencing it for yourself. That’s why you need to be honest with yourself and determine what level of expertise you have on the subject of outdoor survival.
If you have little to no experience with it, then you should avoid embarking on perilous journeys that require a lot of survival expertise. You may also need to do a bit more research to prepare for your journey.
What Is The Maximum Distance You Will Be From Your Access Point?
This is another factor to keep in mind, as you will need to make your survival tools accessible. For example, you may drive to a parking lot and then hike for a day before setting up your camping spot. If this is the case, then you should make sure to not leave any essential supplies or tools in your car, as you may need them in an emergency.
If your camping spot is a 5-minute walk from your car, cabin, or other access points then you could definitely get away with leaving some tools there.
9 Essential Camping Survival Kit Items To Get You Started
In this next section, we will look at 9 different types of items that every survival kit should contain in order for you to be prepared as possible.
1: First Aid Kit
Injuries and medical situations are best avoided in our everyday lives, but it’s especially true when out camping. A first aid kit that covers most of the common injury types is pretty essential, as you will likely not have access to medical personnel or hospitals when out camping.
A good first aid kit will help you to deal with minor to moderate medical emergencies to buy you time to get to a hospital or doctor. We go over some of the essentials any first aid kit should contain in this helpful article on the subject.
2: Water Purification Methods
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Water is one of the most vital resources we need every day. Humans can survive around 3 days without water, meaning time is of the essence if you find yourself without potable water. That’s why you will need some kind of water purification method, as you may not be able to drink water you find in the wilderness as it is.
This could include special tablets or devices that will filter and purify water.
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3: Fire Starting Tools
You may think starting a fire is as simple as rubbing two sticks together, but it can be much more difficult than you think. Fire-starting tools such as flints, lighters, or fuel can be essential for creating fires that will give you light, warmth, and a cooking method.
4: Shelter (Tent, Tarp, Emergency Blanket, or Bivvy)
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Having a portable shelter method is always a good idea, even if you intend to stay in a cabin in the woods or a similar shelter. Common shelter forms would include a collapsible tent or tarp. You could also have supplies to help you create a more improvised shelter like a bivouac (or bivvy.)
An emergency blanket could also be very helpful to help you survive a cold night if no other shelter is available.
5: Knife, Axe Or Multi-tool
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When you need to survive, improvisation can be incredibly important as you make do with what you have. That’s why you want to have a versatile tool that can help you to make use of the resources around you.
Having lots of trees or branches around you is great if you need firewood, but obtaining that wood with your bare hands could result in injury or fatigue. That’s why we recommend having a tool like a survival knife, axe, or multitool that can be used for as many different tasks as possible.
6: Light Sources (Flashlight, Headlamp, Lantern)
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It can get surprisingly dark out in the wild, and you can easily get caught off guard. It’s not a matter of whether you’re scared of the dark or not, but rather that any survival situation will be made exponentially more difficult if you can’t see what’s happening around you.
That’s why you should have at least one form of a light source on hand, such as a flashlight, headlamp, or lantern. Choosing a light source with a self-sustaining power source such as a solar panel is especially recommended.
7: Food And Snacks
While you can survive a bit longer without food than you can without water, it’s still something that humans need daily. Without food, your energy levels will be low and you may develop some health issues. If you’re left without it long enough, you could even die from starvation, so you should definitely have enough food and snack supplies to keep you healthy and energized.
We have a comprehensive article compiling some of the best-tasting survival food that would make great additions to your camping kit.
8: Solar Power Bank
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Earlier, we briefly touched on how you should consider having a solar power panel for your light source. While mobile phones and digital devices may be considered a luxury, they can also help you to survive in an emergency situation.
Having a solar power bank will ensure that your various digital devices will be charged and ready to go, and they will also help keep your light sources lit for a longer time than batteries or charging would.
For more information on solar power banks, we cover some great products to consider in this article on some of the best power banks you can buy.
9: Emergency Communication (Satellite Phone, Solar Weather Radio, Flares, Whistle)
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In a worst-case scenario when something goes wrong and you need help, you’ll want to have some kind of communication device that you can use to get assistance. A satellite phone will help you to call for help even when far from civilization, for example.
A weather radio will help you to anticipate and prepare for various potentially treacherous weather conditions, and flares and whistles can help you to signal for help if you’re too weak to call out or trek to other people.
In this article on surviving extreme weather conditions, we also go over why it’s so important to be up-to-date on weather conditions.
How To Maintain Your Camping Survival Kit
You may have the ultimate survival kit ready to go after reading through this and other guides, but it won’t mean much if you don’t maintain it properly. Before heading out on a trip, you should inspect every item in your kit to make sure none of it is damaged or expired.
Doing this will allow you to replace any damaged or expired goods so that you won’t be caught off guard when on your trip.
How To Store And Carry Your Kit
In the same way that maintaining your kit is important, you should also store it correctly as well. For example, you should store any food supplies in a cool, dry place to make sure it stays as fresh as possible.
You should also choose the container of your survival kit properly. Ideally, it should be contained in a bag or case that will keep the contents safe from bumps or drops. It should also be a case that has handles or straps that will make carrying the supplies much easier for longer trips.
A backpack designed for camping is the ideal choice for this kind of container, as it will keep your supplies safe while also proving to be easy to carry on your back.
Final Thoughts
As we mentioned at the start of this overview, it’s impossible to anticipate every single scenario and situation you may find yourself in when out camping. If you follow the steps of this guide, we feel confident that you will be prepared for as wide a range of scenarios as possible.
Camping survival is a subject that you can never learn too much about, so we definitely recommend reading up on the subject, watching documentaries and tutorials, and researching as much as you can before embarking on any trip.
We hope that this overview will get you started on the right foot and help you be prepared for anything!
Items We Recommend
We have been fairly vague in this overview, but to get you started we have a few more specific products that can help you begin the process of creating your camping survival kit.
Multitool
The Zombinator Survival Hatchet is an excellent multi-tool device that has many useful components such as a hatchet, pry bar, whistle, and seat-belt cutter. This is just a small selection of components, but it is a highly versatile tool that would be a perfect addition to any survival kit.
First Aid Kit
The MYFAK First Aid Kit is one of our top recommendations for a first aid kit. It contains a wide range of medical and survival supplies that could prove essential not just on camping trips but for other activities.
It also comes in a durable protective case that can be carried around or clipped to a backpack.
Emergency Radio
One of our top picks for an emergency radio is the Kaito Voyager KA500. This incredibly handy device has 4 different charging options, including a built-in solar panel. It can also access NOAA emergency weather bands and has a built-in flashlight.
A radio such as this one can be incredibly useful for keeping up to date with emergency weather broadcasts that ensure you’re one step ahead of any dire conditions.
