Safety Equipment to Bring Camping

Tim MacWelch: Hi, I am Tim MacWelch of Earth Connection School of Wilderness Survival and Ancient Skills, near Fredericksburg, Virginia. This is our video series on how to go camping. We've just had some fun, talked about campsite entertainment. Now we are going to talk about some more serious safety issues. Any time we go out camping, we need a minimal assortment of safety equipment, more or less a survival kit. First off, we want to consider shelter, as part of emergency gear. Mylar emergency bag is a space blanket, which is already shaped into a sleeping bag design. We'd crawl inside and would help to keep us warm.

We need a fire source; we have a backup lighter in addition to all the other lighters and matches that we have, scattered throughout our equipment and a fire starter cube. This is a petroleum based product that we can use to help light a fire, all we need to do is, strike this, apply the flame to a little piece of this petroleum wax broken out of the package and placed on the ground, apply the flame to it and it will light on fire. We have some simple floss, this is some of the strongest string in a very small package, we have garbage bags. Garbage bags can be cut open and used for many different survival purposes. A very large garbage bag can even make backup sleeping bag, once it s filled with leaves.

We've got an assortment, a first-aid gear, we have fishing gear, we have a whistle that we can blow to signal for help. We have a backup compass, in case all other compass fails. We have just a little bit of emergency food, just some high sugar, high calorie food source and we have water purification tablets. If we ran out of water purification tablets or something happen to them, if we have a metal cup, we can boil water and make it safe to drink.

Flash lights and other lights and reflective equipment are good to help us get spotted, day or night. It's hard to see in the daylight, but there is a small red light blinking in the center of this reflector. You can other safety gear tucked away in your pockets, in your clothing, in your jackets. Here's my knife again, it's a knife, the spark rod, makes fire and there is a built-in whistle, to whistle for help.

Also the cell phone to call if we have a medical emergency or some other type of accident. This belt pack can be worn around your waist and then your backpack is separate from this. So if you had to drop your backpack and run, for example, a bear was after you, hopefully they're going go for the food that they smell in the backpack and not for you and you are not stranded with no equipment to help you out. So this is a separate set of survival gear the more stuff you have, the more options you have. The more you prepare, the safer you will be. So please take as much gears you can and have it scattered throughout your clothing, your backpack, your belt pack, and have some tucked away in the car, in case you lose every thing else. So that some safety items that you need to take with you. Now we're going to talk about, how to leave no trace. k_dcampbell_tmcwelch_camping_