Myth: Your first priority in an outdoors survival situation is food.
Fact: The average person can survive for three weeks without food using the energy already stored in their bodies. Since most people lost in the woods are rescued within 48 hours, food is less about survival and more about comfort. Eat what you have on hand already, but a survival scenario is not the time to test out your foraging skills. If something you forage makes you sick, your situation becomes much more dangerous.
Shelter is the first priority, followed by fire and then water. One flows seamlessly into the next.
Myth: It's essential for survival to know how to make fire without matches or lighters.
Fact: In the 21st Century, there is no reason not to carry extra matches and lighters. There's no need for parlor tricks when you enter the outdoors prepared. Rudimentary fire-starting skills are nice to have and can enrich your appreciation of the outdoors, but calorie-for-calorie they can't match the efficiency of modern matches and lighters.
Myth: There's no need to worry about hypothermia in warm seasons.
Fact: Hypothermia can take place in any season, in any climate. Sweat that cools the body during the hot day doesn't have an off switch when the temperature lowers in the evening. Staying dry is part of staying warm.
Keep reading! Pick up a copy of Outdoor Survival: A Guide to Staying Safe Outside, published by Adventure Publications, at your favorite book retailer. It's a short, 28-page guide that condenses only the most important information into a portable resource.
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Outdoor Survival: A Guide to Staying Safe Outside
Non-Fiction***Available now at all U.S. book retailers from Adventure Publications*** This survival guide condenses the best of what I learned during my time as an editor with "Living Ready," an award-winning survival/preparedness magazine. It's only 28 pages...
