The juniper plant is one of the most widespread and hardiest that grows across the world. Ranging in shape from a tall tree to a low shrub, this versatile and adaptable species can be found anywhere from the frozen poles of the Arctic reaches all the way down through the blazing heat of Africa and Central America, and everywhere in between.
One standout feature of this remarkable plant is the juicy, luscious berries that grow alongside vibrant, green and decidedly slender leaves. Some sources claim these berries may be safely eaten. Others claim they are dangerous, so are juniper berries poisonous?
If you are dealing with a safe species of juniper, the berries are safe to eat. The toxicity varies greatly depending on the species. All juniper plants and their berries contain varying amounts of an oil, thujone, which is capable of causing significant stomach upset, diarrhea, vomiting, and kidney damage. Edible species of juniper berries contained very little of this toxic compound, while dangerous varieties contain much.
The juniper plant is not one you have to be afraid of, but you must know precisely what species you are dealing with.
Don’t worry, you are far from the first person to consider making use of those appealing looking, dark purple berries, as various cultures around the world have been doing just that for ages. Keep reading to learn more about this coniferous tree.
Characteristics
The juniper tree, or shrub, whatever you want to call it, is much like all other conifers in that it does not produce berries per se. It produces cones, and what we call a berry is actually a specially adapted cone that is grown by female examples of the species.
Unlike, say, a pine cone, the scales of the juniper cone remains soft and fleshy, growing together in such a way that they form a sphere and look for all the world like a juicy, delicious berry.
If you cut open or eat this berry, you will notice it has a peculiarly gritty texture but within you will find seeds very much like any other cone you would find growing on any other conifer.
Curiously, these specially adapted cones behave like genuine berries in other ways, particularly in their growth cycle.
Taking around a year and a half to reach maturity, even though they are fully grown before then, the berries of the juniper start out green and only near the end of their growth do they attain that richly purple or dark black coloring.
How do juniper berries taste? As you might expect these berries have a strong pine-like flavor, or resinous, gritty but have a decidedly citrus aroma and note.
Unfortunately, most folks do not eat the berries out of hand even when they are ripe as you might say they are definitely an acquired taste.
But be warned! You must not go out picking juniper berries willy-nilly even if you are in the middle of a desperate survival situation.
You might be able to get past the taste under the circumstances, but should you pick berries from the wrong species you’ll risk getting terribly sick or possibly even dying!
Identifying Toxic Species is Critical
The key absolute when dealing with junipers and especially when considering harvesting and eating the berries or incorporating them in another dish is identifying precisely and certainly what species of the plant you are working with.
Bottom line up front: some species of the plant are safe, or at least grow berries that are safe to eat, and other varieties are dangerously toxic, tearing your guts up badly at best and leaving you crippled with horrible diarrhea.
The following species in particular must never, ever be interacted with and especially eaten from. Even handling the leaves and branches is enough to cause contact irritation in most people:
❌ Juniperus sabina
❌ Juniperus oxycedrus
If you have any plans whatsoever of gathering or eating juniper berries, you must learn to positively identify both of the above species and avoid them at all costs.
Do not assume that they are not present in your region or in your local area: If one species of juniper is growing nearby others can also. It is also worth mentioning again that all parts of a juniper contain the hazardous oil thujone, berries, leaves, twigs, branches, and roots.
Common Non-Toxic Species
Lucky for us most species of juniper are not seriously toxic, and there are several which produce berries that are entirely safe, useful and even tasty when repurposed as an ingredient.
It should be noted though that since all juniper berries contain thujone gorging on them might be enough to give you an upset stomach or diarrhea, though it is unlikely anybody could eat enough in one sitting or regularly enough to cause serious illness.
Also, nursing mothers and women who are pregnant must avoid eating juniper berries of any kind. Studies suggest that the ingestion of juniper berries can lead to pregnancy complications including miscarriage, and nursing mothers may transmit harmful compounds to their babies through breast milk.
The following species of juniper produce berries that are safe to eat:
☑ Juniperus communis
☑ Juniperus deppeana
☑ Juniperus phoenicea
☑ Juniperus drupacea
☑ Juniperus californica
Out of these species, Juniperus communis is the most common, and produces the berry that is most commonly incorporated into various beverages and dishes.
Juniperus californica is another good option, and is somewhat renowned for yielding a berry that is notably sweeter and more pleasant to eat compared to its relatives. Either is an excellent choice if edible juniper berries are what you seek!
Modern and Historical Uses of Juniper Berries
Juniper berries have been used for ages in a variety of medicinal concoctions and cultural cuisine. Its most well known and arguably most famous use is in gin, a liquor which features juniper berries as the primary ingredient responsible for its distinctive, resinous and citrusy flavor.
Fun fact, it was originally first distilled in the middle of the 17th century by a Dutch physician who is trying to create a healing tonic. Unfortunately, the unwashed masses soon got a hold of it and found out they could get roaring drunk off of it. Gin has been ensconced in liquor cabinets across the world ever since.
Though the berries don’t taste very good by themselves when eating out of hand, the flavor tamps down when they are dried and they are often subsequently ground and incorporated in a variety of dishes. Throughout Europe, juniper berries are a popular cultural addition to various sauerkrauts, vinegars and other similar foods and the spice is also loved for its ability to cut through the overly gamey flavor of wild fare like boar, venison and various game birds.
The medicinal properties of juniper have been well known and utilized in various cultures around the world for a very long time. The berries in the form of a tea or tonic can be used to treat indigestion, sore throat, constipation and even to help stave off scurvy. Ground berries and their extractives are commonly used in cosmetics, ointments, saves and wound treatments along with the treatment of skin ailments.
We should perhaps give thanks to the common, misunderstood juniper for the useful berry it produces. Without it, regional cuisine wouldn’t be so distinctive and we also wouldn’t have gin, so there’s that.
Conclusion
Not all juniper berries are inherently toxic, though all juniper berries and plants contain varying amounts of the oil thujone which is capable of causing serious stomach problems, diarrhea and even damaging the kidneys in high amounts. It is essential that anyone considering gathering or eating juniper berries positively identifies what species of the tree they are dealing with so you can gather the berries with certainty that you will not poison yourself or someone else. Under all conditions, pregnant women and nursing mothers must avoid ingesting juniper berries so they do not harm their babies.
It is rare to encounter anybody who does not have a smartphone these days. Rich or poor, prince or pauper, the proliferation of smart devices is approaching “total saturation” in the West. Even the most devoutly Luddite prepper probably has a smartphone on or about their person at all times.
And let’s be honest, it is easy to see why! Far beyond making phone calls while on the go, which is technological marvel enough, smartphones give us unparalleled access to information and additional capabilities that make our lives easier, more convenient and more productive.
The cheapest smartphone of our day blows even the most powerful computers from a decade ago right out of the water. They may be expensive, and their effect on our society and our interactions may still not be fully understood, but gosh darn it these things are just too useful to pass up.
They are even useful in a survival context, such is their capability. Smartphones are capable of running all sorts of apps and storing vast amounts of data, both assets vital in a survival context.
If you use a smartphone day to day but haven’t taken just a little bit of extra time to equip it with the best in survival centric software, you are making a big mistake.
We will remedy that in this article and share with you 10 of the very best survival apps for preppers that are on the market today.
Wait, Smart Phones for Survival?!
I have little doubt that a few of our readers probably did a double take at my assertion. Before you go on, yes, I do mean to say you should plan on utilizing your smartphone in a survival context.
Don’t treat it like a liability, don’t treat it like a crutch or like a rotten floorboard waiting to give way underneath you and capsize your endeavor before you ever get started.
To do that is to both seriously underestimate its reliability and performance, and also assign to it too much power in the form of dependency. We will do neither. Let me explain.
Aside from it’s obvious utility as a communications device capable of transmitting and receiving data across multiple modes in the form of phone calls, emails and text messages your phone can also store and process a vast amount of data, and it will do so in a way that is accessible, useful and reliable, three major assets in any crisis.
From common survival manuals to intricate diagrams, expert photographs, cutting-edge information and detailed maps, survival apps cover everything from animals and edible plants to shelter creation and fire starting. Smartphones have the capability to radically shore up any gaps in your own mental library or practical expertise.
And if you are worried about the phone being a crutch or some eggshell-fragile device that you cannot count on, stop.
These phones are remarkably robust, and the addition of a bump case and screen protector plus a mobile recharging solution like a solar array means you will be able to keep your phone functional and fueled no matter where you go.
Even in the event that your phone does lose any and all signal capability it still functions as an ultra compact e-reader and personal data assistant- functionality you should not pass up.
Truly, folks, the time is now. Don’t treat your phone like some sort of albatross for your survival preparations.
Seek instead only to maximize its capability and what it can do for you while minimizing its vulnerabilities, the same as you would any other piece of equipment you have in your pocket or in your BOB.
A legendary and greatly loved survival handbook, John “Lofty” Wiseman’s SAS Survival Guide is now available in the form of an optimized app accessible on Android devices and iPhones.
Containing all of the expert wisdom, detailed photographs and step by step instructions that readers want, the app version of the SAS Survival Guide has been updated with information that is more relevant and useful in the technology-crammed era we live in today.
Even better, the app version of this guide contains several useful tools like a Morse code translator, and transmitter that functions by brightening and darkening your screen along with plenty of other functionality.
Always an invaluable reference tome, the SAS Survival Guide has truly made the leap to the digital realm in the 21st century and surpassed all expectations in the process. If you get only one survival guide app, make it this one.
The Offline Survival Manual app, long available for Android and iOS devices, has everything you need and nothing you don’t when it comes to surviving crises large and small in any setting.
With a spartan but easy to access and easy to reference layout, the Offline Survival Manual is perhaps most notable for allowing users to download the entirety of the app’s contents directly to their device so that they may utilize it even when their phone has no signal whatsoever.
Though it lacks in production values and certain categories compared to the SAS Survival Guide above the two work well in tandem, with the Offline Survival Manual living up to its name as a trusty backup to the former when you cannot get online. Anyone who enjoyed classic military manuals or the Boy Scout handbooks of old will love this app regardless. Easy to access and well worth the price!
Plenty of preppers plan on foraging for wild roughage, fruits, nuts and berries to supplement what food they carry with them when they are in the middle of a real life situation, but precious few actually have the experience in fieldcraft to determine whether or not the plant they are looking at is safe to eat, delicious and nutritious or an astoundingly deadly poison.
Are you sure? Are you really sure? Take a bite and we’ll find out together…
Or you could just whip out your phone, open up the Wild Edibles app and easily look up the plant in question by region, appearance or type and then compare the detailed photographs included against the plant you are looking at so that you may gather and dine with confidence.
The Wild Edibles app has been around a while for both Android and iOS devices, and is almost continuously improved year to year. This is one app that no prepper should be without, but especially preppers that plan on bugging out into the wilderness.
Most of us will admit to having a fascination with trackers since childhood, those seemingly gifted individuals who can take any, thoughtfully assess the prince they are looking at and then make a determination of what kind of animal made them, and what kind of state it was in.
You might not have any magical powers or attunement to nature, but using the Critter Trax app you’ll be able to easily compare drawings, photos and other information against what you are looking at to determine what kind of animal made what prints.
This can be extremely useful for preppers who are hunting or trapping, or engaged in other activity involving animals.
Knowing exactly what you are dealing with can let you better plan and prepare to achieve a positive outcome with the animal, and with the great variety of terrestrial life in North America alone this app serves as an invaluable reference work.
Cordage and rope of any kind will never be able to do its best work without a working knowledge of knots. Most of us weren’t Boy Scouts, and most of us aren’t even proper fishermen and so our knowledge of knots is likely lacking for the tasks ahead.
You can remedy this shortcoming and functional knowledge and practical experience by downloading the knots 3D app for your Android or iPhone.
This app classifies it’s not by category, allowing you to look up a useful not based on the application at hand and then follow step by step with intricate and crystal clear 3D models of how your cordage will interact with itself or with another object to achieve the desired outcome.
You’ll even have a good time with this app just sitting around practicing your knot tying.
Most of our readers are probably already familiar with Evernote even if they don’t use it, and you might be scratching your head wondering why it is included on a list of survival apps when it is not a survival-centric piece of software in any way. On the contrary, it surely is!
Evernote might “only” be a cloud-based note-taking and document saving app but considering it provides the ability to download documents with or without markup across all devices with Evernote installed on it you can reliably use this app to supercharge your device with any needed data you require.
From your own hand-drawn maps or personal notes to entire files of survival and emergency contact information Evernote can store it all and do it in a way that is easy to access.
The redundancy of having access to your data across multiple devices and on or offline is priceless, and out of all the many apps like it Evernote has the cleanest interface and the best reliability, making it the perfect choice for preppers.
The app is free, but access to all the features and additional installs requires a yearly subscription fee, and is well worth it
Cairn is an app that makes your outdoor travels and exploration safer by providing me with an interactive map crowdsourced for other users that overlays an area where they were able to get signal on their devices while off the beaten path.
You can use this information to help inform your own route or at worst select rally points along the way where you should be able to detour if you desperately need to get.
It also allows people that you provide with access to your device to monitor where you are along your route, and the app will additionally push notifications to people on your emergency contact list when you are overdue for arrival.
What’s more, Cairn also provides rescue advice to those emergency contacts to help them think clearly and get the ball moving on getting you found if it’s required. Easy to use, comprehensive and an excellent use of smartphone capability. Recommended!
ViewRanger is a comprehensive GPS-centric navigation app that will help you find, plot and track trails and paths wherever you happen to be.
Augmented reality, 3D topography fly-overs and unlimited access to offline maps are just some of the features that this incredibly comprehensive piece of software has to offer.
All of this is easy enough to access on the fly, but you can download maps with your trails and additional markup on it so you can use it even when you’re in the deep country and don’t have a prayer of getting any signal.
This is a subscription-based service but well worth the money considering what capability it can provide you, and even the free version has worthwhile features.
Life360 is best thought of as a family and group safety coordination app. All networked devices using the app can seamlessly communicate with and see each other on a map from within the app. This is terrific capability for tracking the locations of your family members or other members of your group in real time.
Even better, the built-in messaging utilities allow fast, real time and one touch communications to all networked devices, and a “panic button” mode can send a voicemail, email and text notifications from a variety of presets instantly. The app even lets you push out a meeting place or rendezvous point to all users painlessly. A terrific piece of software for increasing safety and situational awareness!
10) First-Aid: American Red Cross (Android and iOS)
When you or someone else needs correct first aid procedures, you need them right away in a streamlined and easy to follow format.
The First-Aid app from the American Red Cross is that app, and is so easy to use that virtually anyone can follow its instructions to affect a meaningful medical intervention when action is required. Guided, step-by-step instructions can make the difference in a stressful situation, and it is here that this app delivers in spades.
Whether you are a seasoned medical practitioner or a rank novice who can barely put on a band-aid there is plenty of value in the first aid app. Download it, review it, and be prepared so when the time comes you’ll be ready to be your own first responder, or someone else’s!
Most smartphone users are probably well acquainted by now with their device’s functionality as an impromptu flashlight. With a flick of the wrist or the click of a soft key on their phone’s banner, they can activate the LED that their camera uses to provide flash photography.
Though often not very bright and usually a battery hog this is a great convenience feature when you find yourself in need of a light source and don’t have a dedicated flashlight.
Most modern phones have featured this built-in functionality for some time, but prior to the factory inclusion of said function we had apps that provided a workaround allowing us to do the same thing.
If you have an older Android phone that lacks built-in flashlight functionality you can download a free app for the purpose, and the Flashlight Plus app is one of the best, being entirely devoid of any surplus and bulky code that will create an even bigger drain on your resources.
The ICE, or ‘In Case of Emergency’, app available on Android and iOS devices is an emergency information, contact and notification app that displays a readily accessible pull-down banner on your lock screen so long as you have the app enabled.
This will allow first responders or passers by who find your phone while you are in a bad situation to see your name, pertinent vital statistics, known drug allergies, emergency contacts and other info like whether or not you are an organ donor.
With the increased emphasis on personal and information security most people keep their phones pretty heavily locked down, with even app notifications minimized on the lock screen. This app acts as a smart, secure exception in case you wind up incapacitated or badly injured.
The popularity of ebooks and the associated e-readers in our current era needs no explanation, but for those who prefer to keep their libraries digital and therefore entirely portable you can sometimes be faced with a Hobson’s choice concerning the document files themselves.
Most ebook publishers have deliberately relied upon .epub files in order to keep their works more secure and pipelined to one of only a handful of devices.
That works great if you are benefiting from the distribution of that software on monolithic and nearly ubiquitous devices, but for those of us who desire redundancy and adaptability in our electronic media it is a decidedly lackluster setup.
There are app versions of these readers available for smartphones, but they all include tons of bloatware and are far from a model of efficiency.
The Litium app allows you to freely detect and read .epub files on your device and also mark them up with notes and highlights without all the associated bloat of the major publishers devices or app.
One of the most elementary and important life-saving skills that anyone can learn is CPR. Whether or not you have taken CPR training you should make it a point to download the Resuscitate app for your favorite device.
This streamlined and easy to use app provides guided, crystal-clear step-by-step instructions for the application of CPR under a variety of circumstances according to the physiology of the victim and also similarly detailed instructions for the deployment and use of an AED.
CPR might seem so simple that you may think you could not possibly get it wrong, but stress and high-pressure situations have a way of making even the easiest tasks complicated.
This is also an excellent companion app for family members who might only have a rudimentary knowledge or even a complete lack of training in CPR.
One of the most fundamental mandates of survival is avoiding exposure to hostile weather conditions. Bad weather and extreme temperatures will do more than just ruin your picnic, they can place you and anyone else with you in mortal danger.
It might sound hilariously mundane, but staying on top of the weather forecast and changing weather conditions is essential.
To that end, you can use one of the most popular, precise and feature packed weather apps available on your iPhone or Android device.
AccuWeather is a name that most preppers have at least heard before, and before you decide to rely on a stripped down, built-in weather app or navigating to Weather.com in order to get your forecast you need to see what AccuWeather can do. The quality of life features and customization options make it completely worthwhile.
Any prepper worth their salt will have a comprehensive medical kit on or about their person and in their bug-out bag so they are better prepared for injury and illness. But supplies of medicine don’t last forever, and one of the true hallmarks of a seasoned prepper is their ability to provide care using homeopathic methods and natural resources.
Luckily for us, nature furnishes all sorts of plants with viable medicinal properties. Unfortunately, learning to recognize and then make use of them is a skill unto itself.
Enter the Cures A-Z app. This app lets you look up any condition, injury, ailment or illness using a simple directory and it will then provide you with a variety of options and treatments for dealing with it using traditional methods.
This is an entertaining app to peruse, certainly, but it is an invaluable reference work for every prepper, especially those who already have established gardens or are planning on bugging out into the wilderness. Available for Android and iOS devices there is no reason to go without this one.
Sometimes the most common apps can provide surprising utility, and we would be remiss if we did not take advantage of them.
Google Earth is an increasingly ubiquitous mapping tool that most of us have packed into our phones and PCs already, but the sheer amount of data, overlays and options that we can access in conjunction with supremely detailed photographic maps of an area make this an excellent planning tool for preppers.
Google Earth offers so many tools and so much data it can be intimidating, and it’ll take a little practice until you’re able to implement it in a meaningful way.
Also keep an eye on your data and download the most useful maps and information that you can directly to your phone: it does have a reputation as a data hog. No longer confined to Android devices and PC’s, iOS users can get in on the goodness, too.
Most smartphones have built-in compasses for direction finding, just one of many sensors and onboard tools that they use to furnish data to you and also to our corporate overlords who are tracking our every movement. The accuracy of the most basic graphical compasses varies, but the Smart Compass app utilizes augmented reality technology to provide you a visual indicator or landmark on the horizon of your desired direction and bearing.
This makes it far easier for you to keep moving and maintain an accurate heading compared to the top down digitally simulated analog compass apps that are a dime a dozen. Another clever and useful implementation of the technology inherent in these devices, you can get the Smart Compass app for Android and iOS phones.
The Disaster Alert app simply furnishes up to date global information on all sorts of disasters, crises and various emergencies to users of Android and iOS phones.
If you want the latest info on a bad front of severe thunderstorms, wildfires or tsunamis the disaster alert app can provide it to you, and will also alert you to dangerous conditions in your area based on a variety of parameters that you can set within the app.
Every prepper knows that early warning of impending trouble is solid gold when it comes to keeping out of trouble and avoiding harm and the Disaster Alert app is one of the very best. Easy to use with a clean interface this is one app that is helpful wherever you go.
Another useful way to get the straight dope on bad situations and problems that may be brewing in your area is to use a scanner to eavesdrop on unencrypted radio channels and use by public servants and various agencies in your area.
You can get the same functionality while freeing yourself from the installation of a bulky set in your vehicle or at your home by using the scanner radio app.
The Scanner Radio app does exactly what it says, allowing you to search for and tune into various radio frequencies used by police and fire departments, EMS and various other agencies in and around your area, or elsewhere in the nation.
If you really want to stay on top of a developing situation or threat without being beholden to the spin or conspicuous lack of news provided by major media this is the app for you.
Conclusion
Your smartphone has far more capability than you are giving it credit for, so there is no reason why you shouldn’t maximize that capability to help you get through a survival situation alive and intact.
There are many survival specific apps and apps that are just generally useful that can help you out no matter what you are facing down. Download the 20 apps we have shared with you here today and you will turn your phone into a veritable command center for your prepping efforts.
Hiking is an enjoyable pastime that millions and millions of people partake of every year, all across the globe. There is just something about setting out down the trail in the middle of an otherwise pristine natural environment that recharges your mind and soul. It is good to get away from it all sometimes!
For preppers, hiking also takes on a special significance because it forms a cornerstone of our preparations, namely being our primary mode of locomotion when we are forced to bug out on foot.
However, in my experience it seems to me that the majority of preppers, of any experience level, aren’t really practicing this part of their plan. Sure, you can always grab your pack and take off but, if you haven’t been putting in the work ahead of time it is going to be a hell of a lot more grueling than it needs to be.
Some preppers have neglected hiking out of laziness, but others might be a little bit intimidated or just not know where to start. We will put an end to that today with this introductory guide to hiking. By the time you reach the end of this guide you’ll be ready to plan, prepare for and execute a hikeproperly.
Getting Started with Hiking
Before we get into the nuts and bolts of hiking, it is useful to define what hiking is. Or rather, what hiking means to us. It sounds simple, and at the end of the day I suppose it is, but the answers to complex questions are often found by doing the simple stuff well.
A hike is nothing more than an extended foray, jaunt, ramble or walk through a natural setting. A hike might be a there-and-back-again affair (round trip) or it might be a one-way passage (thru-hike) with a destination in mind, as it would be in the case of a typical bug out. That is all there is to it.
Now, the hike itself could be anything but simple, or easy. A pleasure hike could last as little as one or two hours, or it could be a grueling multi-day affair in the case of an overland hike or a legitimate bug out.
A hike of any intensity and any duration will mandate the carrying of supplies and provisions, both to take care of your body’s requirements and to take care of the risks attendant with being outdoors.
Short hikes will require fewer supplies, hopefully, while longer hikes will require proportionally more supplies. But there is no free lunch, hauling supplies means carrying extra weight and the more you carry the heavier your load will become.
Carrying even five or 10 additional pounds will definitely be noticeable over a distance, and you can imagine how difficult and exhausting it will be trying to haul a fully loaded bug-out bag that weighs dozens of pounds.
In short, you’re going to need to know a few things to get ready for executing your first hike. First you’ll need to equip yourself, both with appropriate clothing and additional gear.
Then you’ll need to know where you are going and how you’ll get there, and also what the terrain will be like under the current climate conditions. Lastly, you need to know how to conduct yourself out on the trail so you don’t get lost, get hurt or wind up with a bad outcome.
We will explore and examine all of these factors in detail in the following sections, but before we get down to the nitty-gritty allow me to share some advice with you, advice that I wished I would have been told as a beginner.
Words of Wisdom for Beginning Hikers
Everybody started somewhere, and though you might have big dreams about bushwhacking down remote trails and even more remote country all by your lonesome I can promise you that you’d be wise to listen to the following advice.
Hiking may not be especially perilous when you are sticking to the bunny trails, but there is always ample opportunity for injury and even death anywhere in the wilder parts of the world.
Keep Your Initial Outings Fast and Easy
If you are reading this article I’m assuming that you are a beginning hiker, or someone who has only a few minimally-directed outings under their belt. For that reason, it is imperative that you generally take it easy on your first few hikes.
You might be in good physical condition or you might not be, but believe me when I tell you that hiking, and especially hiking with a load on your back, is going to work muscles that you never knew you had.
Even if the trail is easy, the going is slow and the load is light you are likely going to notice peculiar soreness when the hike is over.
This is because all sorts of stabilizer muscles throughout your shoulders, core and legs are going to be put to work on terrain that is not perfectly flat and perfectly smooth laminate flooring or pavement.
You don’t want to risk a “blowout”, meaning a strain, sprain or break resulting from a trip and fall, even if you are only hiking along a popular and populated trail near your “neck of the woods”.
Overexerting yourself, even if it doesn’t lead to disaster, will only serve to slow down your training and other endeavors. Take it easy on easy trails until you have a few hikes under your belt and you have knocked the rust off otherwise unused muscles.
Minimize Unnecessary Risks
Staying safe on the trail is all about minimizing risks, not inflating them. There have probably been more unhappy outcomes for hikers because they “outran their headlights” or underestimated the effects that ambient conditions or other obstacles would have on their timetable or the difficulty of the hike.
Sure, you might have been down a particular trail a couple times already when the sun is shining and the birds are chirping, and so you think that a little bit of wet weather won’t make that big of a difference. You toss a lightweight parka in your pack and take off.
Unfortunately for you, a “light misting rain” is actually weatherman code-speak for “biblical deluge”, and now the trail is a muddy, washed-out bog and you are soaked to your britches, shivering and cold.
There are many other risk factors like this besides, and could include unfamiliarity with an otherwise easy and simple trail, reduced visibility, extreme heat and so forth. Going in too light or under-equipped is also an unnecessary risk.
Shaving weight out of your load is always a virtue unless you are removing absolutely necessary life support emergency equipment.
Be smart, be prudent and don’t take stupid risks when hiking.
Don’t Screw Around on the Trail!
Chalk it up to enthusiasm, excitement or a reignited sense of wonder but horseplay, goofing off, screwing around and general chicanery is quite commonly seen when out on the hiking trail.
It’s great to be pumped up about your newfound activity, even if it is a practice session for a decidedly serious real event, but one should not underestimate the circumstance.
There are many dangers scattered around on the trail, no matter where you are in the world or what season it is.
There are ample opportunities for a nasty slip, trip and fall, long drops off the edge of a hill or mountain, deep or quickly moving bodies of water, various dangerous or harmful life forms and more.
Let us not mention the ever-present and constantly lurking risk of exposure. More than anything else, exposure will threaten the careless and the foolhardy with death.
You might be out on a fun pleasure hike but the dangers that will await you are the same. Look at it another way: You aren’t in your home, on your street, in town or at work, you are out in the middle of nature with comparatively very few people around to help you if something goes wrong.
The farther out you get into less populated trails and areas, the more the danger increases.
Simple accidents that would otherwise make for humorous stories at the water cooler can take on terrifying and life-threatening significance in the remote corners of the world. Even when you are enjoying yourself, take the activity seriously.
Preparing for Your First Outing
Okay, I will climb down off my soapbox now, but I do sincerely hope you have taken the advice in the previous section to heart. Keeping all that in mind, now we get down to the nuts and bolts of planning and preparing for your first, proper hike.
There is plenty to do, but much of it is easy, and it shouldn’t take you more than a couple of days at most to get ready for your outing.
The following action items will get you ready to hit the trail in no time:
Locate and Investigate Appropriate Trails
First things first, we need to figure out where we are going and how we are going to get there, i.e. we need to pick out a trail to hike. You might already have a trail in mind, but even if that is the case there is yet more to do.
Thankfully, the information age has made connecting with fellow hikers and various resources to investigate and research good, potential trails extremely simple and easy.
Whatever resource you use you should be looking for trails that are rated as easy or beginner level and whatever climate you are currently living in.
If you come across a trail that is named or nicknamed something like “Dr. Dan’s Death-Defying Trail of Doom” or something similar, it goes without saying you should avoid it. Keep your ego where it belongs.
An ideal trail for a first or beginning hike is one that is about 5 mi. long, probably less, and should not feature any substantial or sustained elevation changes, either up or down. It should also be a trail that is easily navigable just by walking it, no scrambling, no tiptoeing, abseiling, belaying or anything like that.
Take your time, read reviews and reach out to fellow hikers on social media, enthusiast forums or other online resources to really get a feel for the trail before you head out.
If the trail is located in a park, preserve or other installation don’t be afraid to contact them to get the most up-to-date information, and to make sure the trail is open.
Choose Season- and Climate Appropriate Clothing
On a very short hike down an easy trail in nice weather, you can probably get away with wearing just about anything. For more intense and longer hikes, like the kind you’ll typically experience during an on-foot bug out, correct clothing choice is as critical as any other gear selection you make.
In fact, failing to dress properly according to the weather and the activity is one of the most common, and most serious, mistakes that beginning hikers will make.
Proper attire selection as well as assessing different garments and fabrics according to their qualities for the task at hand is an immense body of study in hiking circles but I’m not going to get into all that now, instead providing you with only a 30,000 foot view.
Broadly speaking, in hot or mild conditions you should be wearing lightweight, airy clothing that will dry quickly.
From sweat or water, going around soaking wet will generally grate on your nerves and can contribute to rashes and other skin ailments, but more importantly being wet will chill you rapidly in a stiff breeze or when the temperature falls, putting you at great risk of exposure.
Obviously, in colder climates or weather you’ll need to layer appropriately but your base layer should still be a lightweight, quick drying choice.
I like wearing long sleeves and pants when hiking unless I’m hiking in screaming hot weather. This will help protect you from bugs and also from incidental hazards like twigs and branches, thorny or spiny plants and various other obstacles.
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Also, you’ll save yourself a lot of pain by investing in a good, lightweight sturdy pair of hiking boots or trail shoes. Like your clothing, these should be designed to dry quickly and shed water easily.
If possible, avoidtraditional (but suboptimal) heavy boots or old fashioned military combat boots. More important than anything is to break in your boots ahead of time; firstly so you know how they treat your feet and second to ensure they do not unduly promote hotspots and blisters!
Also, it always, always pays to bring a piece of headgear, anything that will help keep the sun off your neck and face.
Also include a lightweight, warm jacket or other outer layer dependent on the coldest anticipated night time temperatures. Never, ever omit this piece of gear, as it might save your life if something goes badly wrong on your hike!
Load Up with the Right Supplies
A big part of hiking safely is bringing the right gear with you, things that will make your hike more enjoyable and also serve as a hedge against disaster if things go wrong.
From the easiest round trip trail to the lengthiest and most grueling path into the dark heart of the woods, don’t leave home without the right stuff.
Obviously, if you are hiking out as part of a legitimate bug out, you’ll be carrying this and a whole lot more but the following list serves as your basic first line gear for any outing:
Backpack – Any good, lightweight backpack that will hold up to a little abuse will serve here. Everyone has their preference, but bigger and heavier loads will mandate a better, stronger pack.
Map – Unless you are on a trail where you quite literally cannot get off of it and get lost, always bring a map of the area along with you. This can help orient you if you get lost.
Compass – A compass, used together with your map, can help you figure out where you are and how to get where you need to go to pick up your trail or affect self-rescue. Even used by itself, basic direction finding is an invaluable capability in deep country.
Flashlight (incl. spare batteries) – You might very well be hiking in an area with no lights whatsoever around, and when it gets dark it will get dark. If you are hiking in the woods it will get dark much faster than usual when beneath the canopy. A flashlight with a spare set of batteries is a mandatory inclusion in your hiking kit.
Water Bottle / Canteen – Hydration is essential, and even more important for working bodies. You can’t just head to a water fountain or throw open a tap when you are out on a hike, so make sure you bring a sizable water bottle full of fresh water with you.
Water Filter or Steri-Tabs – Include a compact emergency water filter like the LifeStraw with your water bottle. This will allow you to drink from even the grossest natural sources safely. As an alternative, you can stick with the tried and true steri-tabs which will chemically kill any nasty germs hiding in found water supplies.
First-Aid Kit – There are countless ways to get hurt while on the trail, and pokes, prods, stings, sunburns, scrapes and more will await you no matter how careful you are. A nicely equipped but compact first-aid kit should be your constant companion.
Lighter (incl. tinder) – The ability to create fire on demand is priceless capability in any survival situation. Fire will keep you warm, keep animals at bay and help you signal for help. Include a reliable lighter and a small quantity of tinder with your hiking kit.
Knife – Similar to fire, the knife is an implement that is one of mankind’s oldest and trustiest tools. You can use a knife to help you fashion shelter or as a self-defense weapon. A small fixed blade or sturdy folding knife is an essential part of your gear selection.
Snacks – Even for a very short hike taking along some snacks is a great idea, as this will help you keep your energy levels up and recharge your electrolytes over time. Everyone has a preference, but classic standbys like trail mix and beef jerky are always good options.
If there are any other small, lightweight inclusions that you want to toss in, feel free, but as always keep an eye on your overall weight. You don’t want to become a “kitchen sink” packer.
Also, your backpack doesn’t have to be waterproof if you carry a dry bag or even a large Ziploc freezer bag that you can store your items in to keep them safe and dry in case of a freak downpour or botched stream crossing.
File your “Flight Plan”
One of the simplest yet most crucial actions you can take prior to embarking on any hike is filing a “flight plan”.
No, that expression doesn’t mean you have to take a plane somewhere to get your hike underway, instead, a flight plan in this case is your itinerary- when you are departing, where you are going, along what path you’ll be traveling, and when you are expected to be back- that you can give to someone you trust who will care enough to look for you or summon help when you are overdue.
This, more than anything else, serves as your best possible hedge and protection against getting stranded or lost out in the wilderness.
Even if you don’t have anyone in your area that you would consider close there’s always something you can do, even if it is just checking in at a ranger station or leaving an envelope with instructions and pertinent details in your vehicle or in your home.
If no one knows where you have gone then they don’t even know where to begin looking, and that will waste precious time assuming that they pick up your trail at all. Help protect yourself against this unfortunate occurrence while you are out on a hike by leaving detailed instructions behind.
Check the Forecast
Last but certainly not least, before you embark on your hike, always check, double check and triple check the weather forecast for the area where you’ll be hiking. Even a mild turn in the weather could have serious consequences.
If the weather looks like it will turn bad but remain more or less navigable, dress and pack appropriately. If the weather is threatening to get really nasty, you should abort andrescheduleyour hike.
I get it, it is hard to believe that meteorologists can be so wrong so much of the time and keep their jobs, but checking the weather as forecasted is still the best tool we have for predicting the conditions that you will (or could) be facing.
Making Tracks and Keeping Safe on the Trail
All right! The day has come, and you have planned, dressed, packed and prepared accordingly. Time to go hiking! Now all you need to do is put one foot in front of the other, keep to the trail and enjoy yourself in The Great Outdoors.
This is all true, but there is a little bit more to it than that. How should you actually conduct yourself in this new and unfamiliar environment? What are the do’s and don’ts? What are the hazards and how do you identify them?
A little bit of knowledge will go a long way towards saving you learning (painfully) from experience!
Watch Where You Step and Grab
When out hiking it is imperative that you train yourself to look where you are placing your feet and watch where you are placing your hands. Why? Simple: Stepping in the wrong place could hurt or kill you.
You might slip on some loose rocks or stumble on a slick boulder and badly break a bone, or even dash your head open. An ill-timed trip might see you plummeting off of a high precipice. You could step in a sinkhole or animal burrow and reach a similar fate.
You have to watch where you’re placing your hands also, as grabbing a conveniently placed branch or handhold on a rock wall could see you bitten by a snake or stuck by an extremely thorny vine. You cannot afford to get badly injured when out in the wild, this means you must re-attune yourself to move through the environment with deliberation and caution.
Don’t Rush
Bad things happen when you get in a hurry out on a hike. Maybe you are eager to catch up to friends, or in a rush to get to your vehicle or get home before weather arrives or night falls. Maybe you just like to go fast. Whatever the case, rushing leads toaccidentsandmishapswhen hiking.
Rushing means you might miss an otherwise obvious trail marker and wind up irretrievably lost. You might fail to notice any one of the aforementioned hazards and run afoul of it. If nothing else you’ll just be burning energy at a drastically higher rate, and that will lead to exhaustion and more problems.
Take your time when out on the trail unless you are in a situation where speed is absolutely of the essence, and even then the goal had better be worth it.
Beware Common Hazards
Like I said, you won’t be in the city anymore, or even in town. Things that can hurt you will be in far greater profusion out on the trail then they will on the sidewalk, though this is by no means a reason to forgo hiking. Learn what common hazards are in your area and on your specific trail.
If you’re hiking alongside a river or stream it could very well be slippery rocks. If at high altitude, any trail which runs along a cliff edge or near any other steep drop off must be respected. Learn what animal life is in your area also, insect, reptile and mammal.
More than a few hikers have met a bad end on their hike by disturbing a conveniently placed nest of wasps for beets, and in the most remote parts of the country bears and other large, dangerous mammals can still be found.
Don’t Be Afraid to Abort
Let’s face it, sometimes we all get in over our heads. Maybe you are not in as good a shape as you thought. Maybe the trail turns out to be much harder than “hikernut420” promised on that forum.
Maybe the weather has turned dreadful. Maybe mosquitoes, wasps, bees and scorpions are all out seemingly intent on claiming a bounty that is on your head. Whatever the reason, whatever the situation, the hike has just turned terrible.
Don’t hesitate to pack it in. Abort, turn back, and try again another day or plan an entirely new hike on a more favorable trail and in more favorable conditions.
It is good in the end to force yourself to go through “the suck”, but we all had to start somewhere and you know the drill, crawl before you walk and walk before you run. If you aren’t a seasoned, hardcore hiker or a snake-eating outdoor survivalist don’t throw yourself in the deep end without your water wings.
Choose a Popular Trail or Get a Wingman
If you are worried about being in a remote area alone, for whatever reason, don’t despair of hiking entirely. There are many trails around the United States and the world that are perennially popular, and will quite literally have substantial amounts of foot traffic along them at pretty much any given time.
Alternately, start hitting up your friends and find out who among them is a seasoned hiker or who is an enthusiastic beginner, like yourself.
Hiking is always fun, solo or in a group, and though it is great to get out in nature alone for some high quality solitude, hiking is also a blast with a merry band of friends along.
Whatever the case, if you need more people around to feel safe or comfortable, don’t hesitate to enlist friends or family for the adventure.
Hard Mode: The Longest Hiking Trails in the U.S. and the World!
You ever wanted to try hiking a trail that will, quite literally, take you the better part of a year to complete? It is mildly ridiculous to consider when starting out, but still fun to have an enormous goal out there on the horizon as a neophyte hiker.
Below you’ll find a list of some of the longest and most intricate trails in the entire world, both here at home in the US and elsewhere. You have absolutely no chance of negotiating most of these trails in a day’s time, or even a month’s time, or even 3 month’s time!
Most hardcore hikers are content to hike several sections or a significant fraction of them, and only the most insanely dedicated and driven will manage to hike the entirety of their lengths.
If you take to hiking like a duck to water and need a bucket list item, look no further.
Great Western Loop, U.S.
This well-known and mammoth hiking trail is composed of five other long distance trails and passes through several Western states in the US.
Totaling in at a whopping 6,875 mi., the Great Western Loop stretches through Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, and even a little piece of Canada. Only two men have completed the entirety of the trail, with each completion taking the better part of a year.
American Discovery Trail, U.S.
The American Discovery Trail is another colossal one, clocking in slightly shorter than the Great Western Loop at 6,800 miles.
This trail is noteworthy for stretching from coast to coast across the U.S., bifurcating near the middle into a northern and southern route before merging together again on the stretch to either ocean.
This trail goes through Washington D.C. and 15 states, and also along its length cuts through 14 national parks, 16 national forests and connects to five other national scenic trails.
Appalachian Trail, U.S.
One of the most popular, most well-known and most traveled of the big national scenic trails, the Appalachian Trail (or A.T., as seasoned hikers call it, stretches for more than 2,200 miles through more than 14 states with the vast majority of its length in force or wild lands.
Hiking the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail and the Continental Divide Trail forms what is popularly called the “Triple Crown” for through hikers in the United States.
Grand Italian Trail, Italy
The Sentiero Italia, or Grand Italian Trail, is a huge, sweeping and beautiful 3,832 mi. hiking trail that covers virtually the entire territory of Italy. Along the way you’ll pass through dozens of other parks and nature reserves, 15 national parks and six UNESCO heritage sites.
Notable among trails of this size is that the Grand Italian Trail is divvied up into 368 comparatively bite-sized legs, making it easy to parcel out beautiful and invigorating sections to be completed at your leisure.
Tohoku Nature Trail, Japan
The Tohoku Nature Trail is 229 sections and 2,718 mi. of unparalleled beauty spread throughout several northern prefectures in Japan. The trail is especially noteworthy for its mild climate extremes throughout the year, making this trail accessible and completable no matter the season.
But, even though it is a shorter trail on this list of monsters and has mild weather many of its sections are particularly difficult. Bring your ‘A’ game!
Conclusion
Hiking is a rewarding pastime and an invaluable skill to develop for preppers. Although it is technically putting one foot in front of the other on a wilderness trail, failing to properly prepare, plan and equip yourself for a hike of any length could set you up for disaster.
But take heart, because even greenhorn hikers can quickly become seasoned trail dogs by following the advice in this guide.
If you have put off prepping until very recently, you might well be unprepared for events that follow. Just imagine it… That fateful day comes when the sky literally starts falling, the government implodes or society collapses. The power goes out, the seas roar and the mountains give up their dead, cats and dogs living together, total hysteria!
Boy, it sure would be nice if you would’ve prepared for this moment, huh?
You’ve read the articles, perhaps on this very site. Your friends and family members who are preppers begged you, pleaded with tears in their eyes to get ready, to get trained, to start stocking up.
But you didn’t do it… Through procrastination, a desire to invest in other things or just a bad bout of analysis paralysis you deferred buffing up your personal readiness, and now it appears that the grim reaper is walking up the driveway. You’re completely unprepared. Doomed…
Not so fast! As it turns out, you don’t necessarily need a giant shopping list full of state-of-the-art tactical and camping gear to be prepared. In fact, many survival essentials can be found readily in nearly every home across the nation, including your very own home.
Wood from an old barn. Lots of ideas come to mind on how to use it on the prepper homestead.
Whether or not you have put off prepping or you have just been caught flat-footed without any supplies on hand take heart because we are going to share with you a list of 15 survival items you can find in your (or someone else’s) home right this second.
#1. Canned Food
One essential survival supply that you’ll need in pretty much all situations is food. If you are like me and many other people chances are probably pretty good you have a little bit of extra fuel with you all the time in the form of body fat, but even though you can go for weeks, even more than a month without any food at all and not die this will take a terrible toll on your mind and body, not to mention your attitude.
You might have to engage in all kinds of strenuous activities and challenging tasks in order to survive or sustain in the aftermath of a SHTF event. Chances are also pretty good that you have a decent supply of canned food in your pantry right this second.
Canned food is a great survival staple because it is almost always ready to eat as soon as it is opened, requires minimal preparation and is easy to store for most people, and long-lasting. You might be facing a few mystery meal menus but that is far easier than going hungry!
#2. Coffee Filters / Tea Sachets
There is hardly a household in the world, at least the Western world, that does not drink coffee or make tea on a daily basis.
Though both of these are valuable sources of caffeine, and can do much to boost your mood and your alertness the supplies needed to make them have valuable survival purposes in addition to their advertised uses.
The fine, porous and gauze-like material that coffee filters and empty tea sachets are made of makes for a great “initial” filter for found water prior to boiling it.
These fine papers can easily filter out larger sediment, debris, and other things you don’t want to be drinking though they won’t do much about viruses, bacteria and other microorganisms.
But that is where the boiling comes in, after all. All you need to do is affix them to a container and pour your recovered water slowly through them.
#3. Water Bottle
Water is one of the most essential survival necessities and you can only go a couple of days at most without a drop of water to drink before you die. Chances are you’ll be incapacitated long before that.
Almost everybody has a water bottle or two rolling around their house that they use for road trips or forays to the gym, and now it can do double duty as your mobile source of drinking water in a disaster.
You would be wise to fill up every container you can with drinking water at the beginning of any disaster scenario. From your tap or another source, it makes no difference so long as you do it before it gets cut off or contaminated.
You can definitely use your water bottle for this purpose, or use it to collect found water supplies for later filtration and purification. A sturdy water bottle that won’t break is always useful in a survival situation.
#4. Dental Floss
It’s always important to take care of your teeth, and if you’re like most people, that means you’ll have a toothbrush, toothpaste and floss on hand. You should still take care of your teeth during a long-term disaster scenario, but that isn’t why we want floss in particular.
Sure, it will still do the job it was made to do, hell or high water so long as you have the time, but it can do so much more for a survivor than you might be expecting.
You might be surprised to learn that floss is actually a surprisingly tough cord. It works great as a lashing, a lanyard, for setting up snares, tripwires and other traps, and for countless other uses that call for a strong, thin and flexible cordage.
Anytime the situation calls for knots, lashings or wraps floss will probably work in a pinch. If you have a couple of rolls floating around in your house you will be all set.
#5. Basic First-Aid Kit
If there was one thing you’ll be able to count on during any sort of disaster scenario it is that injuries and illnesses will be all too common an occurrence.
To complicate matters, you probably won’t have easy access to typical medical professionals to include first responders, which means you need to become your own paramedic and doctor until such time as the patient can reach or gain access to higher level care.
Savvy preppers understand the importance of medical skills, and will take pains to assemble a comprehensive medical kit that includes trauma supplies, and then get training on how to put those supplies to use.
You might have neither, but chances are you have some useful medical supplies in your bathroom closet or medicine cabinet right now. This could be over the counter medications, bandages, gauze, medical or vet tape, ace wraps and so forth.
These are all helpful supplies that will definitely come in handy so don’t neglect them and make it a point to assemble them in one place in an easy to access container.
#6. Duct Tape
The versatility and usefulness of duct tape might be a meme but that does not mean that the meme isn’t true. Duct tape is one of the most useful and versatile preps that anybody could have in any kind of emergency or disaster scenario.
Duct tape is ideal for building and improvising, impromptu repairs or just about any other task you can think of. Most preppers won’t leave home without a quantity of duct tape on or about their person, and rarer still is the home in America that doesn’t have a roll in a junk drawer or garage workshop.
Consider the damage that could be inflicted on your home by one of several disasters. You might suddenly have a need to fix a hole in your roof, reinforce a cracked or broken window, patch a leaky container or desperately tape together two disparate objects in order to affect a hasty repair.
Don’t roll your eyes at the stupid jokes and DIY projects: duct tape is a survival superstar that you likely already have.
#7. Bleach
Bleach is likely to save your favorite white shirt from a spilled glass of cabernet, but it might save you in other ways during a survival scenario.
Bleach has all kinds of uses for the savvy prepper beyond laundry day, including its ability to sterilize surfaces, tools and skin. This is invaluable in all sorts of “gross” situations and is also vitally important in certain scenarios to cut down on the intrusion or infestation of germs.
But beyond keeping your home and possessions sparkling clean and utterly germ-free bleach has another, less known capability that is just as important.
Regular, scentless bleach is capable of sterilizing water supplies by killing pathogens within the water that you cannot see, ones that might be too small to be removed by even the best water filters.
There are no special tools and no special setups required for this capability; only knowledge of the proper ratios and a little time for the bleach to work.
#8. Flashlight
Disasters great and small are highly likely to inflict damage to our power grid or even destroy it entirely, plunging our technologically advanced society into utter darkness.
The lights in your home, on your street and around your town that flicker to incandescent life at the flip of a switch are dependent on an increasingly aged, tottering and highly vulnerable network of interconnected systems. It does not take much to bring the whole thing crashing to the ground.
As it turns out darkness, real darkness, conceals many dangers and will greatly complicate your efforts to survive. This is why the ability to banish the darkness at will with a personal lighting solution is so invaluable and the best tool for the job far and away is the humble flashlight.
Though a significant subset of preppers are borderline obsessed with personal lighting tools, looking for the next brightest, most efficient or most feature packed light around any flashlight will do when you are in a jam so long as it works and you have batteries to power it.
#9. Paint Bucket
What might be the most innocuous survival item on this list is one you should be grateful for! If you have a clean or relatively clean and usable 5-gallon, plastic paint bucket at your home, you are in luck.
I’m not talking about anything special or a super secret survival bucket, here: I am talking about the standard, plastic 5-gallon paint pail that you can get at any hardware store in the nation, and the bonus points if you have one that has the heavy duty gasketed lid to seal any of its contents.
These buckets are incredibly valuable especially when utilities and services start to fail. Aside from its most mundane use of carrying tools, gear or vital supplies in a pinch you could also employ this bucket as a dedicated indoor emergency toilet when water and sewage services are offline.
You can use a clean bucket (one that has not been used for toilet duty at any time) to carry a large quantity of found water. You can even use it as a simple stool or small step ladder.
#10. Freezer Bags
Heavy-duty plastic freezer bags or another useful multi-purpose item that you should already have in your home.
It will help you preserve left over portions of your grandma’s favorite casserole but they also work well in a pinch for compartmenting and carrying additional survival supplies, waterproofing sensitive documents or electronics, and even carrying water if you happen to have some with the conventional zipper lock and not that stupid slider that leaks no matter what you do.
You’ll find all kinds of uses for these modern, sturdy plastic bags in a survival situation and it is worth mentioning now that you definitely get what you pay for.
Ziploc brand in particular is notably superior to all competitors and almost never leak, even when filled to capacity and handled roughly.
This gives them an edge over lesser brands and are definitely worth the extra couple of dollars for insurance, not just for preventing messes in your fridge or freezer but also for ensuring they are up to the task of survival duty!
#11. Hand Sanitizer
Germs are always your enemy especially in a long term survival situation. As you probably already know clean water is one of the most precious resources on Earth and even more precious when you cannot depend on it appearing at the turn of a tap.
For that reason, you might not be washing your hands like normal with soap and water if you have any other option. That is where hand sanitizer comes in.
Hand sanitizer is utterly effective, portable, and very convenient compared to soap.It requires no water, and it dries away to nothing leaving no residue behind making it useful in any situation but most especially when you don’t have the water to spare or you’re just away from a reliable water source.
Chances are pretty good you have a hefty quantity of hand sanitizer in your home after the events of the past year, so be grateful for that. Don’t get caught flat-footed again and make sure you keep this vital prep on hand.
#12. Plastic Roll Sheeting
Those of us who work in construction or just have grand ambitions of repainting our living room probably have a roll of plastic sheeting stashed somewhere.
Often used as a drop cloth to protect floors and carpets or for masking off furniture, fixtures and possessions that we don’t want to get dusty plastic sheeting does double-duty as a useful survival resource.
Thicker mil plastic sheeting works beautifully for sealing out wind and rain, vital for repairing a home that has been damaged in a natural disaster. It also works well to provide us extra insulation when we need to beef up our shelter or provide insurance when dealing with anything nasty that could contaminate ourselves or our surroundings.
One great and convenient use of plastic sheeting is as a liner material for a container or other reservoir that can be used to catch mass quantities of rain to top off your water supply.
#13. Backpack
Everybody has a backpack of some kind somewhere…
Maybe you are a cubicle warrior and rely on it for surviving your daily commute. Maybe you use yours for hauling workout clothes and footwear to the gym and back again. Maybe you are already a hiker with a trusted and well-worn backpack always ready for an adventure.
Whatever the case, your backpack will probably become your new best friend in the middle of a survival scenario.
Preppers who have spent any amount of time in and around the survival-sphere are familiar with the concept of a “BOB”, or bug-out bag, which is a label that describes a backpack preloaded with all the things they will need to survive when the time comes to evacuate.
You might need your backpack for the same thing, and not just to carry all of the useful tools we have shared with you on this list but also valuables like cash, jewelry and critical personal documents. Having a pack that can easily be carried hands-free is essential in many survival situations.
#14. Superglue
Super glue is just the ticket when you need to fix that broken coffee cup or put that scale model of the Titanic together. It is both respected and somewhat feared for the speed and strength of its bond.
Everybody knows somebody who has super-glued themselves to a stationary object- or to another part of their body! And that is assuming they haven’t done it themselves!
Though it makes for an entertaining tale with the benefit of years gone by for anybody who has experienced that torturous situation they will come away with a whole new level of respect for common superglue.
The speed and strength of super glue that so recommends it for various repair tasks make it an ideal survival tool. The same qualities that perform at the workbench or the hobby desk work when speed is of the essence in a potentially life or death survival scenario.
You can easily fix your footwear, your equipment or a leaky tent with super glue and it even has some efficacy as a liquid stitch for small lacerations. That is a lot of capability in a little-bitty bottle!
#15. Axe or Hatchet
So long as you live in a household that has its own property and own trees to maintain chances are you will find an ax or a hatchet clanking around in the garage. These sturdy hand tools are ideal for chopping wood, and though you might not be getting your lumberjack on in a survival situation, well, actually you just might!
You can use an ax or a hatchet to process wood, living or dead, in order to render it into more convenient and useful sizes and shapes for use as kindling or proper firewood, critical for building an efficient, controllable and long lasting fire in an emergency.
They also have significant utility for extrication and light demolition and, if things really go pear-shaped out in the world, you might have to rely on this ancient tool (and weapon) for brutal up close combat against people who would hurt you or take what you have. It does not take much training to effectively wield an ax in battle.
Conclusion
You might be way behind the “power curve” when it comes to prepping or you might just be far away from your own survival stash.
Even though you have been caught flat-footed with disaster looming you can drastically improve your situation with common items that can be found in almost any household.
A trip to the kitchen, to the garage and to the bathroom closet will usually furnish you several important pieces of gear and other supplies they can give you a leg up on your survival challenges. Review this list, check it twice and then see what you can come up with in your own home.
Ok, so I am stuck at home because I came into contact with Covid, I have decided to use this time for lucid practicing!!! I have so many opportunities for this but I am just not having lucid dreams. I have only had like 6 since 2017, so they seem very hard for me to achieve. I feel like I am right there on the edge of being able to do this regularly but just can't get it! I bought apple juice and B6 to add to my nightly quest. I tried a nap chain today and actually remember a small piece of that dream while I am writing this and I didn't write it down in my journal. I know I need.to start writing them down, and I am trying to do a reality check but not often, mostly before I lay down. I have been filling my brain with lucid dreaming videos, Robert Wagoner mostly and think of lucid dreaming most of the day, SO WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!?!?!🤔
via Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views - Attaining Lucidity https://ift.tt/3zkkGZf
One of the foundational elements of prepping is ensuring that you have enough provisions on hand for yourself, your family and anyone else that you care about to last through the disruption of society that occurs as the result of disaster or crisis.
Food, naturally, is never far from people’s thoughts and most of us don’t have to miss too many meals before we start falling apart mentally and emotionally.
Though some preppers are quick to point out that one can go many weeks without starving, they usually omit to point out that you will be physically and mentally deteriorating the entire time, greatly hampering your efforts to survive.
The solution for this unhappy outcome is simple: simply keep food on hand to ensure an adequate influx of calories to fuel hard-working bodies.
Though seasoned preppers will make use of all manner of preservation techniques for all kinds of foods, beginning preppers or those who want to simplify their logistics are wise to go with pantry-kept staples for long-term storage, all foodstuffs that require no special care.
In the article below we’ll be sharing with you 15 of the best picks for your pantry survival stockpile.
For your consideration, I have grouped our 15 pantry essentials for preppers into three categories: Staples, superstars and luxuries.
In the staples category are basic ingredients or foods that are highly essential to a well-rounded survival menu, to say nothing of a diet, but generally either serve as an ingredient in a more complex dish, as a foundation for a rudimentary side item, or something similar.
Superstars are foods that every prepper should turn to first as a foundational element of their survival stash. These are items that are, as a rule, easy to prepare and extremely potent nutritionally. Their long-keeping nature also eases concerns about rotation and spoilage and they can all be had in great abundance very cheaply.
Lastly we have the luxuries, items which are not strictly necessary nutritionally or otherwise but will help you stretch your existing items into more interesting culinary territory. Some of these items also have additional uses beyond the kitchen, and most of them make for excellent trade fodder should that situation arise.
Now that you know what goes where and why, let us get on to our list.
The Staples
Flour
Flour is such a foundational ingredient it is hard to imagine life without it. A critical component of breads and other baked goods, flour also serves to help give body and a higher caloric payload to everything from sauces to fried foods.
Flour is one of those things that is available in tremendous abundance and quite cheaply right now, but when the wheels come off of society and the commercial mechanisms that produce flour from yearly crops break down you may yet discover just how difficult it is to create it yourself.
Flour will keep for a long time if it is kept in ideal conditions, so make sure you keep yours in an airtight container that can protect against pests and also keep it out of very warm areas and direct sunlight in particular.
Also keep in mind that even a little bit of moisture infiltration, even prolonged exposure to high humidity, can quickly mold and rot your flour.
Honey
Most preppers have been in the game any length of time are already aware of the bodacious survival staple that is honey.
Delicious, nutritious and possessing an extraordinary, unbelievable shelf life, it is no exaggeration to say that honey will last effectively forever barring any contamination from pests or other nastiness. In fact, archaeologists have unearthed honey from Egyptian ruins that remained completely edible even after thousands of years.
This is not to say that honey does not have any special storage requirements, however. Any amount of air that infiltrates the container of your honey will begin to slowly crystallize it, turning it into a solid.
You can still eat it this way, but it will make it far more difficult to dispense and use in recipes. Not to worry, as you can convert it back to its semi-liquid state by immersing the container in hot water.
Another fun fact for preppers: honey has antiseptic qualities, and is useful for treating small cuts and lacerations as well as burns.
Salt
Salt is another staple so ubiquitous that it is difficult to imagine modern life without it. Salt seasons food, making it delicious and palatable but more importantly it also works as a potent preservative, meaning you might employ salt to preserve or further preserve cuts of meat and other foods. For this reason, you should have quite a large quantity of salt on hand at all times.
Beyond its typical culinary applications, salt is also an important electrolyte for the body and critical for regulating cellular processes. You can drink all the water you want, but when your body runs too low on salt, you’ll start to feel janky pretty quickly.
It is also worth noting that salt also works as a mild abrasive, and can allow you to thoroughly clean dirty dishes and other surfaces in conjunction with a damp rag, all without any chemicals. Check out more uses for salt here.
Sugar
Oh, sugar. There is hardly a more contentious ingredient in all the land. This wonderful, sweet substance has won and lost fortunes for people over the years.
Capable of producing immense satisfaction, tooth decay and weight gain in equal measure it is nonetheless an invaluable source of quick energy and calories, to say nothing of its emotional and mental boost it provides for those who eat it.
Sugar, along with flour, is a critical ingredient in baked goods and confections in particular. That being said, it is added in lesser quantities to many other dishes.
Sugar is one of those things that you might not miss until it is gone, being present in high quantities in all kinds of packaged and processed foods. Whatever you might feel about its health effects it is still an invaluable part of any prepping pantry.
Rice
Rice is a wonderful survival commodity, able to serve ably as a side dish, a main dish and even as a dessert, and is a delicious, versatile and well-rounded staple for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
You might not be a big fan of rice but it is hard to count it out considering its nutritional value, stability and calorie payload. Was just a little bit of boiling water you are off to the races.
There are many kinds of rice out there, and most folks aren’t familiar with any variety in the US beyond what comes in a box out of some aisle in the middle of a supermarket.
Consider looking for large sacks or buckets of whole grain rice at Asian and health food supermarkets for best nutrition and shelf life.
Also, rice is one of those foods that rarely comes in a container that is best suited for long-term storage, so don’t be afraid to transfer it into a better vessel for the task.
The Superstars
Peanut Butter
I’ll tell you; anyone who doesn’t like peanut butter is cold, cruel and un-American! Okay, I might be laying it down on a little thick but the truth is that peanut butter has an awful lot to commend it as a survival food, both as a primary source of sustenance and as a condiment or ingredient.
It is long-lasting, completely shelf stable with no refrigeration and packed full of protein, vitamins, minerals and fats. It is not a truly complete meal replacement but it is getting awfully close, and you can survive for a very long time on little more than an extra large jug of peanut butter.
Even better, peanut butter is cheap and plentiful, so if you’re worried about raw calories and basic nutrition you could do a lot worse than leading the stuffing of your survival stash with a few large canisters of the stuff.
Not for nothing, peanut butter is also a primo ingredient for making various trail foods and other easy to transport, stable and calorie dense rations. No wonder so many survival experts think so highly of this delicious butter!
Beans, Dry
Beans are yet another survival provision that have earned their place among the very best foods that one can store for rough times. Beans are extremely filling, packed with nutrition and simple to prepare, though they do require a lot of water and a fair bit of time to do so.
Beans can be eaten as a meal by themselves, added to soups and stews or as a delicious side dish prepared in any number of ways for any kind of cuisine.
Budget-conscious preppers will be happy to hear that beans are among the very best “bang” for your nutritional buck, calories included.
Dry beans stored in ideal conditions can last for years and years, though old or stale beans can sort of “fossilize” and will have to be rigorously boiled to make them palatable again. Despite these few drawbacks beans should still be a prime mover for your survival rations.
Canned Goods
You don’t have to stock strictly staples to be prepared for rough times as a prepper. There is an awful lot to recommend conventional canned goods that you buy at the grocery store for the purpose.
Major advantages include an excellent selection of fruits, vegetables and meats that are ready to eat with minimal or no preparation and lengthy shelf lives that will minimize rotation requirements.
Disadvantages include size, weight, form factor and it cost-per-calorie but for comparatively short-term situations canned goods are just fine, and also have the advantage of being packed moist or wet to help keep you hydrated.
This is a broad category, obviously, and everyone has their favorites. Good options that you might consider are the usual stuff like fruits and vegetables, but definitely don’t skimp out on the canned meat, meats like chicken, tuna and Spam.
Spam is the butt of many jokes, but the joke is on you if you omit this protein packed favorite! You might consider including a few cans of soup or stew, but it is far less nutritionally dense than you might be thinking.
Consider this a comfort food option for morale boosting, and remember you can always make your own soups with a minimum of fuss so long as you have the prerequisite ingredients.
Pasta
Good pasta is truly one of life’s pleasures. There is hardly anything more satisfying or comforting than a big bowl of warm pasta brimming with all the delicious ingredients you want, all slathered in homemade sauce. But for survival purposes consider pasta as the equivalent of long-shelf life bread.
Supremely affordable, packed with calories and containing a reasonable assortment of minerals, pasta kept in ideal conditions can last for at least a year, easily.
Like many other goods included on this list, pasta takes a considerable amount of boiling water to prepare properly, and water might be at a premium depending on your circumstances and current level of preparation.
Also don’t forget you’ll need plenty of fuel to sustain boiling temperature while the pasta cooks, so if you are concerned about your ability to produce water or bring it to a boil in the aftermath of a major crisis, you might want to choose something else.
Wheat
Wheat, actual wheat berries, not wheat flour, is a commonly overlooked food stuff that is more than worthy of inclusion and your survival food plan.
Wheat berries can of course be dried and ground into flour, but they make for a delicious side dish or breakfast option when boiled and dressed up with some seasonings and spices.
Filling, calorie-dense and surprisingly tasty this is a good alternative for people who hate rice or are getting sick of oatmeal.
Naturally, finding wheat berries on the shelf at your local grocery is anything but a sure bet, so be prepared to procure some directly from the source or seek out a specialty retailer to get them in quantity.
The Luxuries
Oils
Dietary fats are necessary for survival, make no mistake, and more practically fats provide a boatload of calories in a very small package. They also greatly enhance the flavor of all kinds of foods.
In most modern kitchens fats are usually added to foods in the form of oils, particularly plant-based oils such as the ever-popular olive, canola and vegetable varieties.
Oil is an essential ingredient in many recipes, a helpful agent to prevent sticking when cooking and a great way to add a big shot of calories with a small amount of resources.
Oils that are kept out of direct sunlight, stored at room temperature and kept in a container that minimizes internal air volume will last for a very long time, easily a year or more. However, take care because oils can both evaporate and go rancid, spoiling them.
The latter occurrence is far more likely if you allow the oil to become contaminated by contact with your skin, direct contact with food or by allowing it exposure to direct sunlight. Take the care and time needed to pamper your supply of cooking oil and it will go the distance!
Vinegars
Vinegars might not provide much in the way of calories, but they can provide a big boost of flavor in a variety of dishes, and also have great utility for preserving fruits and veggies through pickling and also around the home as a disinfectant. Certain vinegars even work well for various medicinal purposes and relieving a variety of ailments.
Vinegars are another one of those items in your pantry that seemingly never expire, although they can degrade over a long period of time.
If you have a brand new bottle of vinegar that you keep sealed and, once again, keep out of direct sunlight and at approximately room temperature it will last for a very long time with no need to rotate even on a yearly basis.
Balsamic vinegar is a sure bet for cooking, but a prepper’s powerhouse pick is white vinegar; equally handy for various chores and also suitable for use in cooking and pickling.
Spices
It is morbidly funny to think that wars have been fought over spices in ages past- tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people laid low and brought to their deaths over these delectable little plants that we can buy by the ton in any grocery store. Alas.
Considering our survival pantry, spices are not strictly necessary since most of them have no caloric content whatsoever and may only provide tangential nutrition in the form of vitamins and minerals. However, their primary benefits still make them worthy of inclusion on our list.
Spices help give any dishes you prepare depth, texture, flavor and interest. Spicing up a mundane and simple offering might transport it into an entirely new realm of enjoyment, and since variety is, well, the spice of life this can be a great morale booster for people who would otherwise be stuck eating more or less the same few dishes every few days.
This boost to morale should not be underestimated, nor should the value of spices as a trade good during a long-term societal collapse situation.
Coffee
For a particular segment of the audience I probably did not even need to mention coffee for inclusion into the survival pantry.
For those that cannot get through their day with the rest of humanity without a little bit of “bean juice”, this was likely the first thing they stockpiled in quantity!
All jokes aside, coffee, particularly in whole bean form, has an excellent shelf life and is easy to keep like most of your other pantry goods.
The typical preparation of coffee does not provide any calories but what is does provide is precious, life-sustaining caffeine. When you need a little pick-me-up after a hard day on watch or a comforting warm drink after a harrowing experience.
Considering you’ll probably be dealing with lots of both, a reliable source of caffeine will be valuable and, like spices and other luxuries, is a great asset for bartering.
Tea
Tea, much like coffee, is not an essential good but it is a luxury, one with excellent practical benefits. Compared to “jitter liquid,” tea provides a much lighter payload of caffeine and also has components that promote relaxation and peace of mind.
Whatever you think about its mood altering chemicals, a hot cup of tea is always a great way to relax and relieve some stress.
Also like coffee, tea is easy to keep for a very long time when it is stored appropriately, and despite what tea snobs will say about the culture of cheap, low grade bagged tea it will keep for quite a long while in the plastic wrapped boxes you snag off the grocery store shelf. Again, like coffee, tea also makes for a good trade item if you don’t drink it yourself.
Storage Considerations
One thing every prepper should keep in mind when it comes to padding their pantry is that you don’t get a “free pass” on storage requirements just because the items you are storing are dry goods, or don’t require refrigeration.
Making that mistake means that the foodstuffs you have spent time and money accumulating could spoil or otherwise go bad far quicker than they would normally.
Depending on the configuration of your house, the quality of your insulation, the prevailing climate and other factors your pantry could get toasty inside, and that could accelerate the breakdown of certain items, particularly canned goods, flour and oils.
As a general rule, cool, dark and completely protected from direct sunlight is what you should be striving for.
Room temperature means different things to different people, so to remove any ambiguity or doubt on the matter install a small thermometer in your pantry so you know exactly what you are dealing with at different times of the day and in different seasons. This will allow you to make informed decisions, particularly when it comes to rotation intervals.
Another obstacle for long-term storage you must be aware of is pests. Rodents and insects in particular can infest dry goods like flour, rice, grains and beans, although any food that is in any packaging they can infiltrate or tear open is vulnerable.
Rodents in particular can be shockingly intrusive and persistent, and they’re extraordinary sense of smell means they will home in on your stash with unerring accuracy. Keeping them out of your food is usually a matter of perimeter control and elimination procedures, but don’t be afraid to put your items in metal containers if required.
Don’t Minimize the Emotional Value of a Varied Menu
One mistake I often see well-meaning preppers making when it comes to storing large amounts of food for long-term survival situations is an over-reliance on just a few items, staples or otherwise, with the notion that this will simplify logistics and that they are going to be roughing it for the duration, no matter what happens.
This harsh, almost ascetic method of preparation might be well intentioned, but I believe is misguided.
I believe as much because it completely omits one of the most important factors in the context of the event: the human factor. Like it or not, most people are not automatons or snake-eating hardasses that can do absolutely whatever is necessary for as long as necessary without mentally or emotionally breaking down. One surefire way to annoy, agitate and eventually enrage a person is to subject them to an unchanging, bland diet.
It doesn’t make sense to do that when you have all the time in the world to assemble a workable, sustainable and varied menu right now with just a little bit of extra effort.
Even though you might not always have the time or resources to put together, a proper three-course serving for every meal of the day, the ability to give people a menu that more or less mirrors what they would be having in kinder times will do much to ground them emotionally and improve their morale overall.
Before you brush this off as softness or butterfly chasing, remind yourself that the business of survival is a mental game first and foremost, and that anything you can do to improve the situation on that front is effort well spent.
Conclusion
Stockpiling food for a survival situation does not necessarily mean you’ll be eating bland, tasteless fare at every meal and also doesn’t mean you have to overinvest and complicated methods of preservation.
Your pantry alone is more than capable of holding a varied and nutritious assortment of foods for the purpose so long as you choose those items with care. Review the list above and you’ll find several items at the very least that warrant inclusion in your survival food plan.
