Sample Backpack
Before venturing into the unknown, you must make sure that you are prepared. Here are some things that you should pack on your trip into the wilderness:
- Large, durable, waterproof backpack: to keep all your supplies in and keep them dry
- Water treatment device: to purify or filter water before drinking
- Water purification tablets: to purify water before drinking
- Waterproof matches or magnifying glass: to help start fires
- Metal water bottle: to keep water with you at all times
- Plastic bag: to hold items or to collect water (such as from plants)
- Fishing line and hooks: to catch fish
- Ropes, wire, or string: to tie things together or to set traps and snares
- Salt: an essential mineral for your body, and hard to find in the wild
- Compass: to avoid getting lost
- Small waterproof flashlight: to help you see better in the dark
- Swiss army knife: provides many useful tools in one
- Knife: to cut vegetation or to kill and skin animals for food
- Wire saw: to cut branches and trees
- First aid kit (adhesive bandages, gauze bandages, antibiotic tablets, antiseptic, painkillers, scissors, tweezers, safety pins): to provide first aid supplies in case you are injured
- Potassium permanganate: to purify water, or to make antiseptic to treat fungal infections
- Sunglasses: to keep the sun out of your eyes
- Lip balm: to prevent lips from getting chapped
- Canned salmon: to eat in case you run out of food and cannot find another food source; provides lots of energy in one small portion; other high-energy snack foods (nuts, sunflower seeds) also work
- Plates, dishes, and utensils: to prevent mouth burns that could occur if you eat directly out of the fire
- Extra sets of clothes (shirts, pants, hats, socks, underwear): to wear while the others are drying after being washed, or if the originals are lost or damaged
- Waterproof clothes: to keep dry in case it rains
- Sleeping bag: to make sleeping more comfortable, as well as to minimize body heat loss
- Foil blanket: to minimize body heat loss