Survival and Camping Essentials

If you just want to go camping or the whole world ends or just your personal world ends, this is a guide. You can be independent, and self reliant, and self sustaining, although with limited luxuries. Bums would do well to know this. But in the end this is ultimate reality. If you don't know this then you're an alien to your own planet. You can transcend reality and experience oneness with the earth at high enough levels of survival. Blackbelts are nothing compared to ultimate knowledge of survival. See: Tom Brown jr.

Water: Have a metal canteen with a metal cap so that you can put it on coals to boil and sanitize any water and the canteen. Only use coals and not flames, so that it doesn't oxidize.

Meat: Have a gun for animals, and a Hawaiian sling for fish, and a net for small things(birds drag their beaks through the water while in flight for tiny fish). In certain areas and times of year, you can have all the birds you can eat, for free, if you have a gun. Not to mention bigger animals. And get a book on animal tracking to be a better hunter.

Fruit and veggies: Native plants that grow and seed and water themselves. This is if you have lots of land to pick from and the plants and trees are already existent on the property. Get books in the nature section of the bookstore on "edible and medicinal plants" "mushrooms" "edible marine life"

Fire: Hardwood for long lasting huge fire, and soft wood in small pieces, as kindling to get it started. Also have alcohol and tinder(char cloth, or tree sap, cut a tree and wait for the sap to run) and a firesteel to start it, or a lighter to start out with, until it runs out of fuel. Page size fresnel lens for fire starting on sunny days. Have fresnel lens for daytime and firesteel for nighttime and a lighter for emergencies.

Alcohol: Good for antibacterial wound treatment along with cloth or tape bandage. Good for cleaning clothes. Good for washing hands. Good for lighter fluid and candles. Just distill the alcohol from rotten fruit juice, and a simple solar distiller.

Shelter: Stone walls, wood roof, and tarp to water proof it.

Air conditioning: Wet shirt, wind, shade

Heating: fire, proper clothing.

Light: Have 2 crank rechargeable flashlights(1 for backup) and velcro it to a .50 cent baseball hat to become a head lamp. Until the battery goes bad and you need to buy a new one.

Vehicle: Powered by ultra capacitor for any environment, and no maintenance, won't break. But remember: If you don't have a schedule to keep anymore, and you don't need to travel long distances, you don't need a vehicle. Just use legs and a paddle.

Clothes: Get artificial fibers like nylon, polyester, acrylic, so that it is non absorbant of water for easier cleaning. Then put the clothes in a bucket of soapy water and agitate it with a plunger. When you run out of soap you may need to make alcohol and just wipe down your clothes with an alcohol soaked rag, to clean them.

Cooking: On the fire or coal BBQ, or a rocket stove. Smoke your meat to preserve it, so that you don't require a fridge.

Bathroom: On a big piece of land just go outside and bury it to not smell it. Or go in a different spot every day. Grow your own TP tree of the right kinds of leaves for the job.

Shower: Use alcohol and rag.

Weather: Have an all in one barometer/hygrometer/thermometer. Or if you have a boat you need a weather radio that lets you know when to move.

Communication: If you don't feel safe without communication, get a ham radio and you'll never have to pay a phone bill and be able to talk long distance, hopefully to family or friends. This is what the police use.

Navigation: GPS is good for now, just turn it on whenever you're unsure where you are. Don't get it wet though.

Protection: Have a gun if you live in an area with large dangerous animals.

Rope tying knowledge: 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 hitch 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. Also the clinch knot for fishing, or the uni knot for tying the tippet onto the leader for fly fishing, have a different leader for each type of fish. The figure 8. And the figure 8 on a bite.

Survival clip carabeener contents: File and sharpening stone, crank rechargeable flashlight, lighter with keychain holder, firesteel, good multitool/swiss army knife.
Survival backpack contents: Rope, knife, char cloth/paper(or cotton) holder and maker, backup flashlight, hat, canteen, tarp, hammock tent and straps, sleeping bag, TP, GPS, notebook, gel pen, gun, spear. And whatever extra fun devices you want.
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Extra info for if you don't have the above equipment.

Remember the sacred order:

1. Shelter (sometimes can only survive hours without shelter)
   
2. Water (brain damage occurs after only a day without water)
   
3. Fire (contributes to all 3 other priorities)
   
4. Food (can easily survive 2 weeks without any food)
   

Start fire using the bow drill method. Then boil water in a log that you burned out the center of, with coals from the fire, inch by inch by burning then scraping.(should only take 2 hours). Then heat up some rocks in the fire and put them in the hollowed out log filled with water to boil the water. Also when wood is damp make feather sticks with a knife to use the dry inside.

When animals attack they go for what's in front of them first. So stick something out in front of you that you don't care if it gets bitten. For a weapon have a stick with a knife on it. But if you don't have a knife then sharpen the stick on a rock or in the fire. This will put some distance between you and the animal, and if they lunge at you then put the stick between the ground and their heart and hopefully their weight will make them impale themselves.

For shelter use the debris shelter method. The thicker you pile on the debris onto the shelter the more insulated it will be. 4 foot thick can keep you comfortable at 40 below temperatures. And 2 foot thick can keep you warm at 32 degree temps.

You can make a chair out of a cloth bag and 3 sticks.

Always dry off your clothes right away if they ever get wet. Do this with a fire and the clothes or shoes suspended above the fire with twigs or rope. You can freeze to death at 50 degree temps in the wind, if you're wet.

Learn survival navigation. Finding south with a watch between the hour hand and 12:00 in the northern hemisphere, when you have the hour hand pointing at the sun. Also if you don't have a watch you can find the east and west line on a sunny day by just putting a stick in the ground for 20 minutes or so, marking the top of the shadow with a stone at the beginning and end of the 20 minutes(This has to be done on a flat surface). Useful Layman Fact: The sun is always in the southern part of the sky, if you're in the northern hemisphere.

For rope when you have none. You can dig up the roots of trees which are everywhere. Just use a hook like tool and drag it through the ground until you run into a thick enough root then pull it out of the ground carefully to not break it. Or you can make rope out of nettle stem skins or the fiber of plants that have been crushed and pounded with a stone or stick, and then left to dry in the sun, or scrape away the mushy stuff(this is how hemp fiber is made). Some other plants are the dog bean or castor bean plants(being the strongest and doesn't decompose) or milk weed being good for cordage. But some plants are poisonous so if they make a rash then avoid them or know more about them to know how to utilize safely. You can also peal the bark off of some small trees after getting it started with a knife. To make these plant fibers into cord you want to do the twist away pull back method. But the leg roll method is faster. You can use any type of fiber or cordage and as long as it's thick enough you can hang from it.

TP: Do the arm rub test on different types of leaves to choose one that doesn't create rash.

Washing self and clothing and antibacterial ointment is all found with knowledge of medicinal plants.

Catching food can be done many ways. By making your own fish net given enough time. hobo fishing is done with just a stick or can with string around it and a fishing lure. A bow and arrow can be made quickly with a sharpened stick as the arrow and feathering on the back and a notch on the back. And a bow stick bent between the legs and string tied to each end with a simple half hitch. Refining it can come later. You can also make a Hawaiian sling if you have any kind of elastic and put a fish gig on the end. Or you can set snare traps with your animal tracking skills for squirrels or rabbits. Or deadfalls, or other traps for bugs or big animals. or trigger traps with bait for squirrels or mice. Or just have a stick to hit things or stab things with. But you may just gather food with your knowledge of edible plants and mushrooms and nuts(roast them or boil them for taste). Make a fishing lure in the shape of an oval and put bait around it.

Making a knife: Use flint knapping using a deer antler or rough thinner rock for pressure flaking and a stone for percussion flaking. And a rough stone for abrading to flatten edges.

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. Our greatest strength is our knowledge.

Direction of your new life

If you have 10,000$ you can start a hole new life for yourself leaving all liabilities and obligations behind and live your life the way you've always wanted to.
You can either buy a camper van for $10,000, or a boat or a piece of land in alaska or somewhere else.
Here's my Boating lifestyle link.
Here's my RVing lifestyle link.
If you bought a piece of land in Alaska then you could build a house for free from logs and then grow or pick food for free and fish and hunt for free and store food for the winter in the natural outside refrigerator, and smoke them in the summer. But there are almost no rules in Alaska and the land is cheap, and you can go on all the nature walks you want, and you get paid to own the land each year by the permanent distribution fund. The only problem with owning property is that you have to pay taxes and you may have to pay a mortgage for 30 years if you're stupid enough to get that big of a loan which you'll never pay off. Also it may get very boring after a while of staying on the same property forever and not going to work or doing anything for fun outside of your property.
The positive side of buying a peice of land and living on it is that it is the correct financial decision. Lets say you were to buy it for 10,000$ and live in a mobile home or a van or even a car for a year. You would be saving 500$ a month on rent payments which at the end of the year is 60% return on investment of 10,000$, assuming you have a job. If I buy a 10,000$ piece of land in Florida the first thing I would do after buying it would be to install free water, free food, and free electricity. After that you could live indefinitely.
Free water: Dig a storm water retention pond the same way they do at every walmart. all it is is a topological low point that had been dug out of the earth and which water naturally flows into being the lowest point around. The nice added benefit of this is that somehow fish appear after a short period of time in these places. Don't ask me how(maybe birds bring them). These manmade ponds are filled with water year round which is interesting why the utilities don't use this principle when supplying the water to the city. Why is there always a drought supposedly when this is easy enough to do? Are they really smart or really stupid? Maybe I missed something.
Free food: Most plants grow themselves, so just capitalize on this fact. Have tomatoes hanging from a fence so there is no weeding needed but need watering. Onions grow like grass. strawberries also grow like weeds but need watering. potatoe plants are easy once they're started just cut into pieces with the eyes facing upward in the ground. And to water these plants have a drip irrigation system with water pressure supplied by water pumped from the man made pond. (I have a new invention with no moving parts that uses aerodynamic pumping using the chimney effect)
Free elec: Solar panels payed by the money saved on not paying rent.
But if you want to get rich, another of my plans was to become rich by becoming an electrician and then moving to Alaska and buying all the land I wanted and doing with that land whatever I wanted, and having plenty of money left over every month to live the good life. That's only as long as you have no kids and no huge mortgage though. The best land to buy would be an island because it's not landlocked(you can get to it on boat, and therefor not in the middle of nowhere). For more on this go to the how to make your own country post.
It's always good to live outside the system and not under other peoples rules or competing with others that are all doing the same thing. Namely all the throngs that go to school, work for most of their waking lives, buy a house and have kids, and live in the city, and pay taxes and are generally poor and c average education.

Way of life 2

Way of life 2

Go RVing

Or how to go on camper trips. I myself would buy a nice traveling van for $10,000, and sleep in Walmart parking lots at night(See:Freeparkingovernight.com), or at truck stops(See:Truckstopinfoplus.com), or rest stops, or at campsites on other nights. So 15$/night is 450$/month in lodging(go to priceline.com). You can take showers at campsites or hotels, or truck stops, and wash clothes at a laundromat at truck stops or in town, or with a plunger and bucket filled with either reusable alcohol(redistill it) or soapy water. When it's cold just turn on the car heater, or travel south for the winter like the birds do. And when you're bored just turn on a your wireless mobile broadband internet card connected laptop, or show up at an internet hotspot like subway for free wifi access(See AT&T wifi hotspots in yellowpages.com), or have an Iphone or android phone with wifi internet, which probably have a built in wifi reception indicator. For any mail you may need a P.O.Box. and pay bills over the internet. Also I want to get a storage shed for toys that will use once in a while like a bike or a kayak, or anything else that you want to bring along for a trip. But when move to another state just put all of your stuff in a new storage shed. But it would be better if all that stuff was with you all the time and you had a full sized RV.
All you need is enough money per month to pay for the following:

• Food
• Lodging
• Gas
• Maintenance
• And tickets to events that you want to go to.

• Food: $300/mo or less
  
• Camping fees: $300/mo
• Gas/insurance: $300$/mo or less
• Maintenance: $300/mo or less
• Medicine: free
• Emergency money: $1000 in the bank
• Storage shed: $15/mo
• Long distance towing: Paragon $100/year
  

Total: $1,200/mo or less. But it would be even less if you shared the cost between more than one person.

Go to you pick farms for cheap food, go restaurantouring, go to casinos if you have tons of money to blow, go to concert tours, go to national parks, go to tourist attractions, go to all of the amusement parks and try every ride in the nation, go to car shows, go to fancy locations like NY or LA or Vegas, go hiking around the country, go fishing and catch salmon during spawning season, go on bike rides on all the different bike trails around the US. Find a piece of land or apartment for cheap in the friendliest town in the US(Anchorage?) and finally settle down and build a home out of stone or wood and garden there, building net worth off of sweat equity alone.

Instant Cold Drink, No Refridgeration Needed

This idea has already been invented so just use this info for fun reading. And for technical reasons it has never been cost effective to produce.

This idea I recently submitted onto "Whynot.net":

This idea would work on non-carbonated beverages.
I think that if you were to pressurize a canned beverage, with air of the same amount of pressure as any other pressurized canned product, and then you released the pressurized air in the can, then it would immediately be a cold drink, and it would never have required refrigeration.

This is easily shown by buying one of those cheap "canned air" cans that are used for cleaning computer keyboards, which get very cold if you release the air all at once. Different initial pressures, equal different end temperatures once pressure is released.

This would be a good gimmick for marketing a product and may even be the way that all non-carbonated beverages are packaged one day.

And they should only be packaged in small sized containers so that you can drink the whole can before it gets warm.

This would also save energy used on vending machines, which currently use lots of energy to cool down water and other sports drinks, at gyms all the time.For maybe a little extra production cost(which people would be willing to pay), and a little more aluminum used per can for sturdiness, you could probably save as much energy in refrigerator operation, as is saved by using compact fluorescent bulbs.

Of course special design considerations are necessary for safety and ease of drinking. Maybe a solution is, a small hole to release the air and then another cap or opening, to open after the pressure is released. But a good engineer could easily figure out how to make it work.

If nothing else this would be a great novelty to see this one day.

Permanent Fortification, or Camp, or Shelter

Or to be more accurate, a structure that can instantly be assembled, and instantly disassembled, and is a shelter that lasts indefinitely, and in which all modern conveniences can be included, and can be built in any climate.

What is needed is a geodesic dome, some kind of thin plastic material to be shingled with the use of "grip clips", and then dirt is put on top of that, for heat retention, and to keep the plastic from creating a greenhouse inside.

Geodesic dome: The most primitive version is to use sticks, of exactly the same length that have the ends carved flat with a knife, and then a hole is drilled into the flat end. Then they are assembled with standard nuts and bolts at the intersections.
The second better way of construction is just substituting metal electrical conduit for the sticks. The ends are flattened with a hammer and then a hole is drilled into the flattened part. Then connect them with standard nuts and bolts. This should only cost around 50$, if you already have tools. See: This video.

Thin plastic material: The most primitive version is standard garbage bags. The thicker the bag, the better, so that it will support heavy dirt. These are shingled onto the geodesic dome with "Grip clips".
The other material that may be used is ordinary camping tarps, of any color or type.

Mound of dirt: First you need a piece of land. Then you pile dirt over the geodesic dome, if you live in an environment that has dirt. If you were to put a layer of foliage over top of the dirt, or plant living plants(Such as moss or grass) into the mound of dirt then you wouldn’t have the problem of erosion of the mound. If that does become a problem.

Theoretically this camp can be constructed in less than a day. And has a wide range of environments that it can be adapted to. Such as in temperate climates you wouldn’t need a mound of dirt, but instead the plastic layer would act as a greenhouse. Or in extremely cold climates you would have the dirt on top of one geodesic dome, and then you would have a second geodesic dome and plastic over top of everything, to act as a greenhouse that would also store heat during the night.
And if you don’t like cold or hot climates then migrate south for the winter every year, to your second property.

Modern Conveniences: First you need a solar panel and a battery and an inverter. Watts= Amps(x) Volts. With the money saved on rent or a mortgage you can buy at least 500$/mo of new modern conveniences every month.
Warmth: An electric space heater.
Air conditioning: Wear a wet shirt, when it's windy it's like being in a fridge. Or have a thermo electric "solid state" air conditioner(Solar panels are the key to marketing this device, because solid state is less efficient that standard mechanical AC).
Furniture: Foldable or inflatable furniture.
Food: Either live off the land, or go to the store.
Refrigeration: A "solid state" portable cooler, that is solar powered. And it makes its own ice that lasts through the night. Or just have backup stored solar power. Or an ice box with a tank of water next to it that is frozen with the thermo electric effect during the day and melts during the night(Yet to be invented, because no market for it yet). Which would mean no need for a battery to store daytime energy that would be used to run the fridge at night.
Clothes washing: Either have synthetic water proof clothing(100%nylon/acrylic) that you wash with alcohol and lemon soaked rags. Or a bucket of soapy water and a clean plunger to agitate cotton clothes with.
Shower: Soapy water, and a rag, and shampoo.
Entertainment: Depends on you tastes. Have satellite internet on a laptop (AT&T laptop connect card), and watch shows on their network site. Have DVD’s on laptop. Have video game ROMS and emulators all on 1 flash memory card, and a USB controller(10$new, or thrift store).
Lighting: Florescent, or lots of super bright LED's, or flat/flexible OLED ceiling light(Yet to be invented until around 2010).
Flooring: Plaster, or adobe bricks that are put down and then soaked with water to bind them and to strengthen them. Or your own personal preference of flooring over top of that.
Cooking: A rocket stove made out of adobe. Smoke meat, on racks over a smoky fire.
Fresh water: Boil rain water, or put into a simple distiller, or chlorinate and let the chlorine evaporate from the container, before drinking.
Transportation: Have GPS to find your land locked property or deserted island. Then get there or anywhere with an AC induction motor, and super capacitor powered vehicle(Yet to be invented until late 2009).
Communication: Cell phone.
Bathroom: Either a bucket with a bag in it that you burn later, or the less smelly and easier version of having a bucket with water and a chlorine tablet in it and also CLR septic system acid. and you bury it in a hole nearby when disinfected. Then reuse bucket. This is either in a wooden structure or open air with tarps for privacy and rain. But if there is hardly any smell, because of complete disinfection, then just have it in the house, and chlorine off-gassing won't be a problem with only one pool tablet, or a lid put on the bucket.

Complete Wilderness Survival Supply List : For Camping (updated 4 times)

To survive for extended periods you may want triple redundancy of each one of the essentials, so that there is always a backup plan if something fails. You may also want to be prepared for all eventualities, and not take unneeded risks.

• 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.
  

Also, it's good to learn to make things out of nothing. You can make an ax or wedge or a knife out of certain types of glass like stones, called "flint knapping" (paleontologists say that we evolved our hands by doing that). Or you can make rope out of the roots of small trees, or nettle stems skin. Or make a hammer out of a log or a stone. Or tent pegs out of sticks cut to shape. Or you can make an oven out of the ground, and hot rocks, and leaves(or soil) on top. Or boil water with hot rocks added to the water(It's good to drink hot water in extremely cold weather). And make bug repellent out of wood ash or just dirt/mud.
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.