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Dart Frog Wilderness Survival

I have another site you should also check out called Capybara Adventure. It covers more general adventuring. I you can find it here: https://capybara-adventure.com/ ( copy and paste the link since we can’t actually link to it from here.

Wilderness Survival

This is a site built around providing the best possible information about wilderness survival. Our primary focus is on real survival skills. We deal with topics like how to build a fire without matches and how to build a shelter to stay alive. Our dream is to one day become almost an encyclopedia of information on the topic.

Our primary focus is NOT about preping, homesteading, urban survival, or zombies. We are more focused on wilderness survival. Yes there is some overlap with these topics and we will cover things common to both. We are also open to covering some of these related topics. We will have SEPARATE sections of the site meant to cover preping, homesteading, and urban survival specifically (not zombies though, we aren’t doing zombies). The idea is that we want the main focus of the site to be on real wilderness survival without getting too far off track. This site is meant to be more about what to do if you are lost in the woods without food or water NOT about how to stock your basement for the upcoming economic collapse.

Exciting

This may be the understatement of the year but wilderness survival is exciting. Getting outside and experiencing the great outdoors is exciting enough by itself but this goes beyond this. This is about actually doing things for yourself and surviving out doors without the support most people are used to. Learning and practicing skills that will keep you alive means the difference between life and death. Modern life has led most people to become reliant on modern conveniences. Most people don’t have the knowledge or skills to keep themselves alive in a natural environment. Learning and implementing these skills is both incredibly exciting and rewarding.

Coolness Factor

There is a major coolness factor to wilderness survival. You might be someone who likes to be dropped off in the middle of the jungle for a week with nothing but a pocket knife and a your wits. On the other hand you might be someone who just likes to go on lite hiking or camping trips. Either way, its really cool to be able to show your friends how you can start a fire without matches or catch a fish with your hands. Think of how awsome it is to be able to spear a fish with a hand crafed spear made from a tree branch. Its even cooler when you know how to cook that fish. Imagine you’re on a hike and nobody remembered to bring tail mix but you have been learning about edible plants so you can say, “Hey guys, these berries are a great source of nutrition.” If you are one of those hardcore survivalists who likes to be surviving out doors, things are that much cooler. In either case though, the coolness factor is a major element of wilderness survival.

Super Useful - Could Save Your Life

Besides just being cool and fun, there is a practical element to wilderness survival. Really, that is kind of what its about, being practical and staying alive. Whether or not you like wilderness survival or even being outside, survival skills could save your life. By definition, it is all about staying alive and avoiding harm. These skills are useful and important for almost everyone but the more time you spend out doors, the more usefull they become. They are handy and will provide a great deal of protection if you like to spend time outdoors. For some people though, these skills are absolutly critical. If you are the type of person who likes to put yourself in situations where you need to survive on purpose, you must have wilderness survival skills. These skills become not just good to have “just in case” but absolutely critical. If you really like to get out there, for example, taking month long trips into the rain forest with minimal supplies, survival skills kind of become the main focus of what you are doing. In these situations, without the right skills, you are not going to make it.

Getting Back to Nature

For some of us, we like the idea of getting back to nature. Self reliance and knowing how to do things without using something that someone else built is part of it too. Getting out there and getting closer to the natural world can be a really exciting thing. It can also help you appriciate your place in the world. As a human you will have to use you mind to survive. Knowing how to construct, build, and manipulate things in the environment around you is part of it.

Survival Topics

There are many different topics and subtopics all containing vitally important life saving information.

Fire Building

Fire is important for a variety of reasons. The most obvious is staying warm. It is also important to be able to cook food and purify water. It doesn't hurt that it will generally scare away any potentially dangerous animals. It also gives a great psychological advantage. There are many different ways to start a fire and we will cover them all in our firebuilding section.

Finding or Building Shelter

Building a shelter is one of the core competencies of wilderness survival. Whether long term or temporary, it is important to know how to construct a place to live. This will serve the purpose of keeping you warm and dry. It also may serve the purpose of keeping you safe from predators. If nothing else, it will make you feel safer than you would if you were to just sleep on the ground.

Finding Food and Clean Water

Without water, you will die relatively quickly. You can last a bit longer without food but eventually you will starve if you don't eat. The rule of them that is always mentioned is that you can only survive for three days without water and three weeks without food. This is actually part of the "rule of three" and there are more parts to it which we will cover later. Also, remember that food and water are important for your body to perform normally. When deprived of them you won't necessarily be performing optimally.

Finding clean drinking water isn't as easy as just finding the nearest body of water. It needs to be purified or in the case of sea water, distilled. Drinking dirty water can be really dangerous.

You can forage for food or hunt for food. It is important to know what plants are edible. It is also really good to be able to hunt for food. Hunting isn't the only way to aquire meat. Setting traps is another great option to be familiar with. Failing these things, don't forget, many insects are edible. It is also important to know how to cook food. Once you've caught it, what do you do with it?

Tools

The tools you have at your disposal will have a huge impact on what you can do. Carrying the right tools will make things a whole lot easier. Just having tools ins't enough. You need to know how to properly use them in order to get the most effective use out of them. Being able to make tools or improvise also goes a long way too.

Types of Wilderness

The specifics of most skills and techniques are heavily dependent on the specific environmental setting. Things can change dramatically depending on the context. It is easy to forget how wildly different things can be just by changing location. For example, consider the following different environments and how your needs will change for each.

You care going to have very different challenges in each of these places but the goal of survival will still be the same. Your acheivable comfort may vary a bit though.