- Medical: Fungicide, antiseptic, antibiotic, duct tape as bandage(It stays on better than band aid and is just as sterile, and water proof). Use alcohol as a disinfectant, if needed.
- Indefinite Water supply: Find water along the way, and then use "Chlor Floc" developed by the military as a foolproof way to make fresh water cheaply out of any water source other than salt water. Or you could just boil the water, and use a coffee strainer to filter out contaminates. This is good when free wood is available. It's also possible to boil water by dropping fire heated rocks in water 1 at a time.
- Indefinite Light source: Get a "Solar Powered Folding Battery Charger" with a voltmeter feature and auto shut down function when fully charged. You can get this at a reputable online science catalog retailer. Look to This other posting of mine, for more info. Then put some freshly recharged nickel metal hydride batteries into a head lamp and a table lantern. Batteries won't work in extreme cold, so for that use wind up flashlights because they use capacitors(which can't freeze) instead of batteries. Or use a self made invention that is at this link.
- Indefinite Fire supply: A "ferrocerium, firesteel " and scraper(works the same way as flint but better)is the best way to start a fire and won't run out for 30 years at 1 fire/day. And bring a small tin to hold dry tinder in, or to make charred cloth in, because you need very combustible tinder with firesteel. And if you economize by relighting left over embers whenever you can in the mornings after a fire, the flint set could last a lifetime.(Specs) LATER ADDED: I just got my firesteel in the mail from Amazon.com. And it can set cotton on fire or lighter fluid, and also palm bark hairs. I plan on making some charred cloth or charred paper with an altoids tin and a hole poked in the top. The hole being there to let you know that it's done smoking, and is now char cloth. But only with great effort can you start fire with friction.
- Indefinitely sharp knife: Bring a small diamond embedded course grain sharpener, and fine grain polisher, all in 1.
- LATER ADDED: I just got a small (5in.x5in.) carbide(coarse grain) and ceramic (fine grain) knife sharpener for $5 @ Walmart, in the camping section. And it makes my previously dull knife sharper than a razor blade and sharp enough to cut thin layers of skin off of my fingers with hardly any pressure. And I'd estimate that it will keep knives sharp for me for maybe 50 years.
- Keep organized: I have all of my survival epuipment on one "keychain caribeener" that I bought at a dollar store. So I can easilly get the particular item off of the caribeener. It includes a small rechargable flashlight that uses a lithium ion battery, firesteel, knife sharpener, multi-tool, all on separate rings attached to the caribeener. This doesn't include big items like a good knife, or large lights, or a gps, or charcloth tin(may get a better tin that can attach to a ring).
- Food: Guide book on edible plants and animals of the area.
- Cooking equipment: Metal meal sized bowl(held by a handle over fire), and utensils collapsible water jug, cast iron portable grill, and cover to bake. I once made designs for a super camp stove (LATER ADDED:It's not useful enough to bother making, I'd now rather just have a mini coal burning BBQ. You can also make your own wood coals); An interesting novelty is a pop can alcohol burner (see link: "cool little stove") with dollar store, or homemade, alcohol. But old fashioned fire and wood coals in a dirt pit, work just fine out in the wild, for cooking.
- Perfect Clothes & Washing: Look to How stuff works(use this link), to see what they say about what to wear, and to do in the cold. To wash clothes with soap, use a water bucket, soap, and a clean plunger to agitate the conventionally washed clothes. Otherwise clean nonabsorbent material clothes with an alcohol soaked rag, over a sturdy platform/frame.
- Shelter: A good hammock with a mosquito net add-on. And a slanted aluminized heat reflective tarp over it, to be a radiant heat reflector for a fire that is on the other side of the hammock, for warmth at night, and to shield you from rain, but also has a rain catch to collect fresh water. Hammocks are above the ground to not conduct away your body heat as fast, but it helps to also have very warm clothes or a good sleeping bag in the hammock. But make sure that the hammock is made to be easily tied to a tree, either with straps that use the principle of friction around the trees to hold you up, or have a nail in the tree to stop the string from slipping, or a self tightening knot like a "snare knot",which is also easilly untied when done(called "breaking the knot"). This is the lightest weight shelter. But be sure to place your shoes upside down over 2 sticks in the ground to avoid scorpions getting into your shoes at night, when you get into your hammock.
- Knots: It's good to know how to tie knots for camping, look to "Youtube" under "Camping knots".It's good read up on most knots because you never know when they'll come in handy. The knots that will be used regularly are the snare knot, and a truckers knot and a falconer's knot for the tarp, half hitch(Useful in many ways, easilly remembered by"around and through"), anchor bend or the two half, constrictor knot(a variation of the clove hitch exept you make one of the free ends of rope go through one of the 2 half hitches that the clovehitch is comprized of), prussik knot(fot climbing), sheet bend(for tieing 2 ropes of differing diameter's together, clove hitch, tension/taughtline hitch, Bowline(one of the most useful, and easilly remembered by first making a bite in the rope, and then:"The rabbit goes out the hole, around the tree, and then back into the hole"). Feel free to improvise when making knots, and even to invent your own knots. And the clinch knot for fishing.
- LATER ADDED: I was recently notified of hammocks being uncomfortable to sleep in, because of not being able to roll over and also sparks may fly from the fire and catch you on fire, and also smoke can get in the hammock. But in reality when the fire is burned down into red coals there isn't smoke or sparks, and it only gets safer as you sleep, so I doubt that those are very big problems, and to fix them just sleep further from the fire and tie the hammock lower to the ground. Also some people don't mind sleeping in one place, and the best hammocks are impossible to fall out of because they wrap around you, so you are still able to roll over during sleep. Or just put heated up rocks in the hammock instead of being close to the fire, or be in tent and have a hanging alcohol candle holder on a hook on the top of the tent. And really warm clothes may be needed to equal the warmth of a well made sleeping bag if you don't have a fire. Also you need to tend to the fire at night, which gets easier with bigger fires because they last longer and give more heat from further away. And the smoke rises faster to not get into the hammock. See: Hammocks on Wiki.
- Transportation: A van can act as a warm shelter for inclement weather. Have a paddle boat on top of van for water excursions.
- Safety equipment: Gun: AR-15(Or try: Survival weapon), or a .357 magnum revolver, weather radio, sattelite cell phone, GPS, LED headlamp, (Charge it's batteries with solar powered battery charger : Look to this for a good place to buy one).You can make your own bow also for spear fishing. Epinephrine can be used to save you from anaphylactic shock by acting as artificial adrenalin.
- Tools: Twine/rope, or tree roots, your shoelaces should be able to double as cordage. Sewing kit, Multi tool (w/scissors, knife, tweezer, pliers, needle pick, screw drivers, file, magnifying glass and light, find for sale at the store "Ross"). Also bring manuals on edible foods and medical techniques. And always bring a good, all purpose, sharp knife along with sharpening tools. Foil is good for making standing structures to collect water, or anything else. And bring a supply of small chlorine tablets(AKA: "Chlor. Floc.")/and a water jug(to fill up with water as you go, so that you don't carry too much). May get a crank or solar powered power supply/lamp, that can charge a cell phone in a pinch, or other things too.
- Ultimate Navigation: GPS military grade for durability, and is rechargable, See: consumer reports ; Or make a map as you travel by the time of travel/and direction/and landmarks/in a field notepad. For being rescued, leave a line of rocks, or personal items, or spray paint, to indicate your direction of travel to others. To find true north, point the hour hand of your watch at the sun and half way between that and 12:00 is south(if you're in the northern hemisphere).
- Entertainment: Camera, video games, music, E-Books on a PDA. LATER ADDED: I recently tried putting Roms of games onto my Games'n'Music cart for the DS. But the games and music device isn't reliable because the micro SD card malfunctions, and now won't work properly. So the best way to have games and comics and videos in a tiny device is with just a conventional PDA or Iphone, or laptop, because PDA's are being replaced by cell phones w/ screens. And to have infinite free comics you should buy one by one or in bulk at a comic sale, and then sell in bulk on ebay(so that you get the most profit from low shipping costs to buyers) after you have scanned their pages and put them onto portable media. To have a complete collection to read anywhere in compact form. But this requires too much effort to be worth doing.
- Personal Hygiene: Either use TP or do the arm rub test on different types of leaves to choose one that doesn't create rash. It is possible to use homemade alcohol/lemon scented soaked rag that doubles as shower and clothes washer : This is in essence the same as a "Wet nap" or "Wet wipe" or "Moist towelette"(Put the clothes on a frame and then scrub them with the homemade "Handiwipe"rag).The alcohol rag is also self cleaning, because of it being antibacterial, and a solvent. Or just use the regular warm soapy water and rag for showering. And reserve the alcohol for your water proof material clothing cleaning, or medical disinfection. But for conventionally washed clothing use a bucket, and soapy water, and a clean plunger for agitation. Also bring: razor, comb, shampoo, and toothpaste.
But in the end if you ever actually feel like you are ruffing it, then that just means that you're doing things wrong. When camping or hiking or surviving, it is a choice to be cold, or wet or uncomfortable at all, because with knowledge you can avoid all of that out in the wilderness anywhere.
Research:"Bush craft" on youtube. Or research: "SERE training" on youtube.
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LATER ADDED: The absolute essentials: Knife/sharpener,firesteel, good cordage for shoelaces, appropriate clothing that is water resistant, knowledge of edible plants and animals, alcohol, duct tape, metal water container,wrist watch.
With those few items, and some knowledge, you can make: Fire, potable water, food(and it's preservation by smoking it), tools, shelter, navigation, weapon, medical, and the same hygiene as most animals.
When surviving basic instinct should take over. It eat or be eaten. And you're only in it to survive and do anything to get there. This is a different mindset than just saying over and over again"I want to just go home please". In survival you should never think about family and friends because they are on the very bottom of your priorities of things to think about. And if you hear a noise in the woods this should never be scary if you have the survival mentality, and logic, and don't let emotional hangups about the city get in your way. The survival instinct should say to be prepared and follow the "please remember what's first rule". (P)rotection, (R)escue, (W)ater, (F)ood. Keeping busy is also a good trick to keeping up your moral.
Sometimes it's the greatest feeling to be in the middle of nowhere, with no way for anyone to ever be able to help you, just to test your own abilities and independece. But only if you're not scared of the actual universe.
The one thing that you will always be able to trust, and rely on 100% of the time, for the rest of eternity, is... the universe. Because it can never malfunction, or lie to you, or be incorrect like humans have the potential to be.
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