Does the thrill of a new adventure keep you traveling the world — planning your next expedition to far-flung locales?
Do you plan for months for your big adventures only to find something goes wrong while scaling that mountain or hiking that trail? If you’ve encountered a mishap while out in the wild, you’re certainly not alone.
When you traverse remote terrain, it’s almost inevitable that something will go wrong at some point — and that’s why you need to be as prepared as possible to take on the challenge and to improvise when it really counts.
One way you can immediately change your current wilderness obstacles around is to know how to improve your survival food supply. With a little creative thinking and a little research ahead of your trip, you will be able to live off the land until you can make it out of the proverbial and literal woods.
If we want to learn how to survive in the wild, we need only look back to the very first survivalists — our ancestors made it through life eating the plants of the forest and later fishing and hunting animals. You can do the same with a little practice.
Follow our guide of “10 Ways to Immediately Improve Your Survival Food Supply,” and you’ll be prepared to take on any food insecurity challenge during your next big adventure.
Let’s start hunting and gathering:
1. Make High-Energy Trail Mix
Because of the strenuous exercise, you’ll endure during your expedition, you always need to be eating and hydrating. One of the easiest ways to supplement your food supply is to make a batch of high-energy trail mix.
Not only is trail mix healthy and boosts your energy levels, it’s fairly cheap. Make a big batch using unsalted nuts of your living, dried fruit and karob chips. Pack the high-energy trail mix in small bags and pack them in your backpack. Whenever you need a little boost, grab a bag and eat.
2. Pack Energy Bars
Pack energy bars to ensure that you always have access to a healthy snack. The best feature of energy bars is that they are lightweight and packable.
You can slip them into the nooks and crannies of your backpack so that you always have something to satiate your hunger until you can get to your campsite to start the fire and cook dinner.
3. Study Edible Plants
At some point, you may find yourself in a remote forest without an animal in sight. This is where your gathering instincts will need to come in. You can forage any forest for delicious mushrooms and green plants.
The key is knowing which ones you can safely digest. If you’re going solo on your trip, you especially don’t want to get sick and poisoned by eating a plant that is not edible. So study the forest plants in the area where you will be traveling.
Read this guide on 19 Common Edible Plants
Consider purchasing a pocket guide that identifies the plants that are safe to eat. When your food supply is getting low, you literally can live off the bounty of the forest.
4. Pack Fishing Line and Hooks
As your travel, you are likely to happen upon a river or body of water with fish. This is where a rudimentary fishing pole can really help you out. So pack a small fishing kit that includes a few hooks and fishing line.
You can attach the line to a sturdy stick, tie it to a large branch stretching over the water, or use just the fishing line to catch a fish or two for your campsite dinner.
A beginner’s tip: You’ll want to make sure these items are in a hard plastic case instead of a flimsy plastic bag. You don’t want an injury from hooks poking out of your pack.
5. Prepare a Mini Chef’s Kit
Once you’ve caught your fish for dinner, you’ll need to be able to prepare them for the open-fire skillet. So make sure you’ve prepared a mini chef’s kit. This can be very simple — a hunting knife, some aluminum foil or parchment paper, and a meat/fish thermometer.
Of course, not all of these items are essential. You probably can cook fish without a thermometer. But it’s also nice to be safer than sorry when cooking fish and meat, so bring it along if you can make room. A mini chef’s kit sounds luxurious, and it will feel that way if you get the opportunity to eat something other than trail mix and forest mushrooms.
6. Pack Water Purification Supplies
Your survival food supply is not complete without an endless amount of clean water. You need water to stay hydrated so you can continue on with your expedition, and that’s why this is one component of your food supply that you really have to pay attention to and prepare for, as you don’t know what kinds of conditions you ultimately will meet out on the trail. Food will only go so far.
Without water, you can get very sick. Dehydration sneaks up on you quickly, so prepare ahead of time to be able to transform any freshwater into safe drinking water by investing in some kind of packable water purification solution — such as a wand or purification tablets.
7. Purchase Flavored Water Tablets
Every now and then, it will feel good to drink something other than water. Packing a few flavored water tablets that you can just add to your bottled water will feel like a treat.
In addition, many flavored water tablets also can be good for you. Look for tablets that include a dose of Vitamin C, for example. You probably can’t drink OJ on the trail, but this solution is a good second option.
8. Invest in a Multi-Vitamin
When you are eating a limited amount of food — and a limited kind of food — your body may not be getting all of the vitamins and nutrients it needs to stay healthy. Your iron levels, for example, can drop very low if you are eating mostly vegetables and plants, and low iron can lead to all kinds of health problems including depression.
To mitigate this risk, consider investing in a multi-vitamin. It will boost your food supply by giving your body the vitamins you are missing in your daily trail diet.
9. Pack a Lighter
Have a lighter on hand at all times. This is important because you always want access to fire. When you have the option to cook a meal you’ve collected from the wild, you’ll want to take it.
Forest mushrooms can be delicious — but even more so when cooked on an open fire. If you catch a fish but can’t cook it, you may be in trouble if you eat it raw. So prepare ahead by packing a lighter. You’ll diversify your food supply in innumerable ways with this simple gadget.
10. Throw in a Bottle of All Spice
After a while, all trail food can taste a little bland. If you’ve got the room, throw in a bottle of allspice. This works well on everything you might gather from the forest — from making a salad of forest plants and flowers to seasoning fish.
It’s a small luxury that will make reaching the campsite each night even sweeter.
