Outdoor survival is an ongoing education

This is the last part of a multi-part series about outdoor survival.

Would you be able to survive overnight if lost in a mountain setting? What if you were required to spend several nights in the wild?

The answers to these questions are critical, even when on a day trip, as people become lost in the simplest of situations when fishing, camping or hunting.

They are even more significant when aimed at our youth.

Be prepared is not just a Boy Scout motto, but words to follow throughout life. When stepping into the outdoors, make sure the members of your group have a whistle, as mentioned in last week's column.

This, accompanied by a rain suit of some type, (a large garbage bag is appropriate in a pinch) will keep a lost person dry and with the ability to make a noise, which is able to travel long distances.

The most important point to remember when becoming disoriented or lost is to stay put. The second is to not panic.

Imagine this scenario: A hunter realizes he is lost. He stops, looks around, and realizes the grove of trees with rock outcroppings located 100 yards distance, will be much cozier than the open ground where he is standing.

The hunter walks to the trees and begins to make camp. His plan is to gather firewood, prepare a shelter, walk back to the open ground to make an SOS signal out of available materials, and then build a fire. The fire should burn throughout this experience, so gathering wood will be a constant chore until seachers find you. If you found yourself in this situation, would you know how to start a fire without a match or other fire-starting tool? The solution is simple: be prepared and always have some sort of fire-starting materials along. There are many types of commercial fire starters available and easy-to-make homemade fire starters, which could become a family project.

A shelter can be made out of bits and pieces of available materials, such as sticks and branches from trees and bushes. If a basic structure is erected, leaves and pine needles could be placed on top to make a final cover.

Teaching our youth

Teaching our youth about outdoor survival is a bit different. If they are a Girl or Boy Scout, they most likely have participated in outdoor survival drills. They should know how to start a fire, prepare a shelter, and know to stay put when lost.

Younger hikers may not have been taught the outdoor skills needed to survive a night alone in the outdoors. They may be too young to teach fire building skills.

However, they can be taught how to use the whistle, and how to stay put when realizing they are lost.

The Hug-a-Tree Program teaches children to stop and hug a tree. Not only does this practice keep the youth in one spot, but it also makes them feel good because they are experiencing a hug.

The ultimate goal is to be prepared and not become lost in the first place. Adults may consider purchasing a GPS and learn how to use the instrument. It will give the position of the user, the path to their current location, and how to return to camp.

A relatively new sport is Geocaching. Simply put, this is where a person hides a cache and provides the coordinates to it for others to find. A trip to the website at geocaching.com will present a family with hundreds of geocaching sites. Not only is this fun for the entire family, but the children learn how to use a GPS unit.

Two-way radios

Every family that hikes in the mountains should carry two-way radios. When the children run ahead across a meadow and are about to disappear into the woods, a simple word or two into the radio should stop them.

If a member of the group rambles off a trail and become disoriented, he or she can communicate with the rest of the group on the radio. I carry Motorola radios. They have a long-range capability of up to 25 miles.

Outdoor survival is a matter of education. So it's essential to teach the members of your camping and hiking party, be they adults or children, how to survive in any situation.