9 Must-Have Survival Gear Items For a LOST HIKER Scenario

Lost hikers die in the wilderness every year. Every year over 2,000 people get lost in the woods; some are rescued; some die. Many of them are hikers who only planned to be gone for a few hours or a day. Even experienced hikers can find themselves lost and disoriented as to their location and direction rather easily, especially if the terrain is heavily wooded and with vague or even non-existent trails. Of course what experienced hikers are likely to have that others may not is a pack with basic survival gear already handy. Always carry basic survival gear with you. We aren’t saying you need to lug 30 pounds of heavy gear with you every time you head out into the woods for a hike, but having at least some of the basics can mean the difference between life and death. Seriously. The odds are that you will have some water on you if you set off on a hike, but if you get lost you may go through it more quickly than you realize and you will need to find more once you run out. Not only that but you need to make sure it is safe to drink. The last thing you want is to be lost and suffering from illness from contaminated water or food. This makes having a stainless steel water bottle or container and a proper purification system, water purification tablets, or even a small pot so that you can boil your water in, a vital part of surviving if you happen to find yourself in such a situation. Don’t use a plastic bottle. It’s lighter, yes, and though you can boil water in a plastic container, it’s not advisable. The water tastes like shit when you boil it in a plastic container anyway. This is a good start towards survival but you should also have other basic survival gear. Basic Survival Gear Includes: (in no certain order; except for the knife, that’s your #1 tool) 1) A KNIFE! NEVER EVER EVER EVER GO ANYWHERE WITHOUT A GOOD QUALITY KNIFE! A knife is a must-have survival tool! Without a knife you may not survive. It can be used for defense, to cut cord or branches to secure and construct shelter, to help you dig, to mark trees to avoid walking in circles and to give rescue teams clues to your location, clean fish and other game and more. If you don’t have a knife, don’t go in the woods. Period. Don’t go hiking if you don’t have a good knife. Most people don’t know how important it is to have a good knife. If you get caught out in the wild without a knife, you just reduced your chances of survival drastically if you have to survive for any amount of time before being rescued. You want to increase your odds of survival, not decrease them. Get a knife! Keep it with you at all times. 2) CORDAGE Paracord is another universal survival tool. You must have cordage,