A section in Chapter 2 of the book:
Prep Lists for Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking

To replace or supplement the fresh water that you brought with you, here are some ideas for finding water in the wilderness.

Remember that all water found in nature should be purified before drinking.

On the Move

• Go downhill into valleys to find streams and ponds
• Stop and listen for running water from distant rapids or falls
• Follow the beds of seasonal streams to find water pools
• Follow rocky canyons to find pools of rainwater
• Follow merging game trails & tracks that may lead to waterholes
• In dry or rocky areas, look for green plants to find water
• In a dry riverbed, look for green plants to locate damp earth
• In a dry riverbed, look for drinking holes dug by thirsty animals

When possible, take water from a moving stream or waterfall
rather than a standing pool or pond, which is much more likely to have contaminants.

Characteristics

For the best quality—or least contaminated water, look for these characteristics.

• Moving or flowing rather than standing or stagnating—this makes it less hospitable to pathogens.
• Bubbling, gurgling, or ripping rather than smooth flowing—this oxygenation helps to purify it.
• Passed through vegetation like reeds, grass, and moss—this does extensive filtering of phosphorous, nitrates, and foreign matter.
• Near the top of standing water—this layer is the most exposed to the ultraviolet rays of sunlight, which kills germs.

Extraction

• Use a string and a water bottle to collect a slow drip from a cliff.
• Create a straw to suck water out of cracks and crevices.
• Dig a small well in a dry stream bed to find a lower water table; often when a stream is dry, water continues to flow beneath the surface.
• Soak a cotton cloth or t-shirt with morning dew on grass, trees, and other plants; then squeeze the water from the cloth into your mouth (or container) and repeat. You can use your hands or tie to your ankles and simply walk through wet
• Tightly wrap a large plastic bag over a green, leafy tree branch or any leafy vegetation to trap moisture as it evaporates, and then condenses on the inside of the plastic bag.

Vegetation: If your purpose for looking for water is to drink it,
remember that many fruits, berries, and vegetables have water in them.

Collection

Collect rain water by redirecting from a large surface to a narrow collection point.

• Spread or hang a tarp, raincoat, jacket, blanket, tent, or other material with a valley in the middle (A “V” shape) to direct rain water into a container (remember to account for wind direction).
• If you don’t have a container to store the rain water, tie ends of your collector sheeting up so that it holds water in the middle
• Find a location under the trees where rain water is drizzling the most and place your container under it.
• Construct a large “roof” of wood, leaves, and grass to capture and direct rain water into a container (or your mouth).
• Hang large, absorbent material (blanket, clothing, bed sheets, etc.) to soak up falling rain and wring into a container—repeating as needed.
• Gather snow and ice that will melt by the fire—ideally in a cloth sack like a pillowcase, which can be suspended over a container to collect the dripping water as it melts.

A 10’ × 12’ tarp can collect over 50 gallons of water from one inch of rain.

} } }  This information is in the book “Prep Lists for Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking.” { { {

A section in Chapter 1 of the book:
Prep Lists for Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking

Fire Building Methods

Before you start building your fire, you should decide which type of fire lay you need, given your conditions and use of the fire.

• Teepee (or Tipi): Quick, easy, flexible, focused heat
• Log Cabin: Stable, burns more slowly, provides better coals
• Top-Down Log Cabin (Council Fire, Top-Lighter): Burns very slowly with minimal maintenance
• Lean-To: Best accommodating for wind and awkward fuel
• Hunter’s: Built between two parallel logs provides better wind control and an easy platform for pots & pans
• Dakota Fire Pit: Built underground in one end of a U-shaped tunnel, the controlled air flow make this very hot, well-contained, and easy to arrange a pot or pan.
• Hybrid: Combining variations of any of the above
• Finnish: Stacked logs for very long burns
• Keyhole: Combining a larger/circular area for the fire, and a smaller/rectangular area for dragging hot coals for cooking
• Star (Indian): Burning the ends or middles of long logs (like the spokes of a wheel) and rearranging them as they burn through—into shorter logs

A One-Stick Fire

After a heavy rain, most natural materials will be too wet to make a fire—unless you expose the dry wood inside logs and branches. Learn how to use a knife and a baton to create your own tinder (shavings), kindling (feather or fuzz sticks), and fuel (split wood) from a single stick of wood. Using this method eliminates the need for a heavy axe, a big saw, or any other equipment.

} } }  This information is in the book “Prep Lists for Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking.” { { {

A section in Chapter 1 of the book:
Prep Lists for Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking

Fuel provides the long-term combustion in your campfire.

• Softwood: minimum three to five square feet per hour
• Hardwood: minimum one to two square feet per hour

TIP: Break up all of your fuel into one to two-foot lengths BEFORE you light your campfire. Wedging branches between two tree trunks that are a few inches apart gives you the leverage to do this quickly and easily—without any additional tools.

Medium Fuel

This includes branches and split wood about an inch thick.

• Produces quick cooking coals
• Perks up a fire that is waning
• Dries out larger, damper fuel

Large Fuel

This is wrist to arm-sized wood—especially hardwoods.

• Burns slowly
• Throws lots of heat
• Produces long-lasting coals

Huge Fuel

Big logs—more than a few inches thick—burn or smolder for many hours, rarely burn up completely, and are difficult to fully extinguish. Most experts recommend not using these unless you will be at the same site for multiple days—or when needed for survival.

} } }  This information is in the book “Prep Lists for Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking.” { { {

A section in Chapter 1 of the book:
Prep Lists for Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking

The kindling stage adds or maintains heat from burning tinder to light your primary fuel—transitioning into a full campfire. Most kindling fuel will be small sticks or split wood—about the size of pencils.

Collect an armful of kindling BEFORE lighting your campfire. If high-quality kindling and fuel are available, less may be needed. If you think some time and effort will be required to get the fire going (like after a heavy rain), it is better to collect too much kindling than to not have enough on hand. Have enough kindling prepared to avoid needing to start over.

Identification

All kindling wood is:

• Dead: No green leaves or green bark on it
• Hard: Not mushy, soggy, or rotten
• Loud: Produces a sharp crack sound when broken
• Light: Weighs less than wet or rotten wood of similar size

Sources

Consider these kindling sources.

• Bark: from birch, cherry, or other smooth-barked trees
• Branches: ¼” to ½” thick, up to one foot long
• Pine Cones: large, dry, brown, open (these will be smoky)
• Split: split from blocks of wood into the size of pencils

This list of ideas is just to get you started. Learn more by searching the Internet for articles and demonstrations using search terms from these lists.

} } }  This information is in the book “Prep Lists for Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking.” { { {