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ReWildU Issue Survival Pack Contents

Description

Here is what is contained in the ReWildU survival packs issued to students. I hope this can inspire some ideas about "light" camping, and would love to hear what else you think should be in a pack like this!

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Tags: Kenton Whitman,ReWild University,Human Rewilding,personal rewilding,mindfulness,how to,bushcraft,survival,wilderness survival skills,how to survive in the woods,survival pack

Video Transcription

they I would like to share a little piece of adventure input that I started to give to every student who comes out to revalue hey and this is an overnight survival and the concept with this is every time I'm going to go out for an adventure whether it's a three-hour hike or it's an overnight I'm just going to strap this onto my back and what I've tried to do is design something that is really light and functional yeah we can throw on a backpack and have everything we would need but I've tried to design something that meets kind of bare-bones requirements and don't even feel it on your back and that's real important because I want students to be able to run around in the woods have adventures jump around I want to show you what's in here and my pod here is that you can get an idea of a package you could make for yourself to wear out on adventures and also in the end I'll try to remember to ask again tell me what you would add to this pack to make it even more effective trying to think light but super functional and super useful well I'll certain the middle here and when I bring the first item out it's it's a reminder that wearing a pack like this can be a disadvantage because it can lead us to a false sense of security if I think I've got my survival back now I can go and get myself lost still if you get lost it's a problem most of us haven't had the mental emotional training to deal with what some people call wood shock which is when our brains internal compass its internal map becomes disoriented we don't know where we are on our internal map most of us suffer from the state of panic when that happens that's not good and even if you should have to spend a night out with your packing you can do it just fine if there are friends or family that are worried about you they're not going to get a very good night's sleep

they're going to be thinking should we be calling the rescue personnel - you're calling the police and you don't want search and rescue to have to be coming out in combing the woods for you when you're just out of having a good time so remembering like any time if you're going out for an adventure tell people where you're going when you expect to get back and I always just say hey I've got my adventuring pack with me or I'm prepared for an overnight should I have to do it so don't worry about me until say noon the next day then you give people a time line when they should start thinking about you go out in the middle of this pack I brought a compass and you know I had an old orienteering compass it worked really really well for me and then I started trying to order and buy some new ones oh my gosh either you're paying tons of money or you're paying a little bit of money and they were junk so I settled on a silver Polaris to be honest I haven't tested this a whole lot in the field but it feels firm it feels well-made and so I'm going to be giving this a try with myself with all my students over here is fire because then I want to be redundant with fire so I've got a light my fire are me magnesium fire starter and this one has a whistle on it so the advantage there is that if someone is lost and they think they see somebody over there they can start whistling and if you have companions it's good to have you know whistle pulses that means certain things that can be useful in a lot of situations where you want to tell somebody with your whistles or your boots or whatever it is that you're in trouble or come over here or whatever you want to signal and then these are um you see Oh storm-proof matches and from Industrial Revolution calm these I've used and enjoyed they work really well and they burn hot and long even if they're wet there's a striker on the outside and then there's an additional striker on the inside and so far the compass is going to hopefully prevent me from having to use this pack number two I know that I can get fire fire is good for signaling it's good for keeping warm most of all it's good for morale and so two ways to start fire over on this side I have redundant whistle I don't put this in the students it's just my little blown whistle like made out antler actually flashlight and a real simple little LED flashlight lightweight not meant to light up your camp but if you're caught out in the dark and we need a little bit of light to help you start a fire you know as you know probably from watching my videos I'm going to advocate learning to start fires blindfolded in the dark so that you you have those abilities should you need them having that little light to fall back on it's really good and for signaling in a really dark wood it's awesome in the middle pack I'm thinking about three things I'm thinking about water so obviously important until they come up with the dehydrated water pills we're going to have to use something like a filter and something the boil water would be be awesome but the LifeStraw I've used it works really well you put it into puddles you put it into a lake stream swamp water and you've got yourself a good clean source of water a little more a nice and these are really good little knives you know one of the things I love about these more knife and they're made a good carbon steel that the tips are so sharp on there that if I have a splinter I can like so you can see you know you can kind of catch right underneath a splinter and bring it out so it doubles up as a as a needle but great for small carving tasks or self-defense if you're going to have to fight bears or dragons and I even put a little bit of food in these packs

these are Larabars and you know people don't get much sweet out here so if they get lost in the woods they get this real morale boost coconut chocolate chip Larabars

lot of ours are just fruit and nuts and so they have a pretty good density and doesn't have it on here I don't think yeah you know 200 calories and in a 45 gram bar and so there's a fair amount of energy in each of these bars and that being said food is not something that we need if we're in an overnight survival situation but it's a great morale booster and if you're in a real overnight survival situation you know the fact of the matter is that usually we can make it through almost anything physically you know we're going to be alive the next morning unless conditions are really really stacked against us but the biggest thing that we have to worry about is our morale is the most dangerous thing that's going to happen to us so we're going to fall into panic going to be the middle of the night my morale has hit rock bottom and I decided I'm just going to start moving through the woods I get really lost and then I'm unable to find my way back the next day or search-and-rescue can't find me because I'm in a panic running through the woods I include too little hand warmers because you know I'm out today it's pretty nice spring in Wisconsin but you know it's probably 45 degrees Fahrenheit or so right now and autumn is too long especially with this winds start to lose dexterity and when I'm when I'm trying to start a fire or otherwise attend to tasks survival type tasks

come losing dexterity that can be a real hindrance so having those little hand warmers allows me to get dexterity back into my hand and I have my main tools back which are fingers and then sometimes I'm going to do a video on this survival item which is a heavy duty I think like a 55 gallon plastic bag and these things are like and small and they function as tarps as a rain poncho as a ground cover and collecting bag there's so much you can do with these and in general

it's there so that people can use it as an emergency shelter and you know when we're thinking of shelter I'm not thinking of building a beautiful hot I'm thinking of a convective weight loss conductive heat loss thinking of how I can keep my heat in my body instead of having it radiant heat loss going out into the environment and so that plastic bag serves as windbreak a rain break and you know it's been nice and I just got a hunker it over me and you can punch a couple holes for for breathing and it's going to keep you a lot warmer and drier especially if it's if it's pouring up so that is it that's what I've got in here is is the compass the two redundant starter fire starters with a whistle the flashlights the water purifier the knife the two Larabars the hand warmers in the plastic bag here I'm accounting for shelter I'm accounting for being able to start fire for water for some food for morale to finding my way back for signaling and it's I don't know how much this weighs what is probably you know two or three pounds and when I strap that onto my back I can go run do woods parkour I don't even notice it's there so that is the issue reweld university survival pack that I'm giving to students right now and make your own if you want and if you do is what I do with students is at some point during your training you go out and you spend a night with only this start your first night when the conditions are awesome you know where you are everything super comfortable if you make it through that you can spend a second night still knowing where you are so you have a good escape route but when conditions are not so great kind of windy kind of drizzly then you get to use your pack in real-life conditions and what happens then is that you think you're going to go backpacking for a few days you start to think differently about do I have to wear a 55 you know sixty five pound pack or can I get by with a ten 15 pound pack it really helps you to prioritize what is necessary item wise and just start to think a little bit differently about not going through the woods like an astronaut with all your gear or going through with a much lighter pack alternately send your suggestions what else should be in this pack remember keep it light I don't want to have a heavy pack for people but what one two three items would you add into here that would really make a difference to you and you may have noticed that this pack is plenty big enough so that there's extra room in there for students to add their own items whether it's a little bit of airport or food item whatever it's going to be what would you add to the stack thanks for watching

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About the Author

ReWildUniversity

ReWildUniversity

To aid and inspire you on your personal re-wilding journey, ReWild University brings you videos on edible wild plants, tree climbing, natural movement, ancestral skills, and much much more!

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