One of the best ways to test your survival skills is to spend some time outdoors, without electricity, running water, and flushable toilets.  This is not to say that every disruptive event will require you to live outdoors, but rather that such an event will require you to cope without modern conveniences.  As preppers, our hope is that such an event will be short-term in nature, but, as the saying goes, “hope for the best and prepare for the worst”.

About a year ago I was discussing this topic with Phil Cox, the CEO of Buy Emergency Foods.  For those of you that don’t know, BEF, as they are called, has been a sponsor of this website from the early days and is, what I like to call, a friend of Backdoor Survival.  At the time, we were chatting about their new line of cook-in-pouch meals, branded Bannock Foods.

We were talking about camping and how campers were embracing freeze dried foods and meal pouches in much the same way the backpackers have chosen FD meal pouches for years.  That got me thinking about camping and prepping and how one can beget the other.  To me, that makes perfect sense.  What better way to learn to prep and have a bit of fun at the same time?

So, with that in mind, here are a few of the things you can learn from camping that can make you a better prepper.

Nine Things You Can Learn from Camping That Will Make You a Better Prepper

1 – Doh! I Forgot to Bring Something

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Ever camped and forgot something important at home? Once you are there it’s usually too far to turn back. Take for example something as simple as mantles for your lantern. Not having these tiny replacement items handy can suddenly make many aspects of camping much more difficult. Often a quick trip to town can solve this oversight, but imagine simply not being able to get those replacements.

In a long term emergency situation not having important items can be dangerous. A challenging camping experience can help you re-evaluate your emergency supplies and maybe even get some backups for your backups.

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When most people camp, they leave modern conveniences and technology at home.  Living without these things for a few days is fine (even a welcome break), but imagine having to do without some modern conveniences on a long-term basis, like a refrigerator, for example.  Adequate sources of electrical power and fuel can make life much more pleasant in an emergency.

Camping teaches us how power dependent we all are for everything from telling time to food preservation to communicating to lighting. Re-evaluate your needs for fuel and electricity in an emergency, most people will find they are vastly underprepared in this area.

3 – Water Is More Important Than You Think

Water is heavy and bulky to carry. Camping is a great lesson in how much water we all use on a daily basis.  From drinking, washing hands, cooking, cleaning dishes, brushing teeth, etc. It adds up and you use water faster than you think. For short term emergencies, stored water can get you by.  However, camping vividly illustrates how you simply cannot store enough water for a long term emergency.

You must be able to find, transport, purify and store water on a long-term basis. This means having plenty of portable water storage containers, chemical purification, mechanical filtration, hoses, manual pumps and more.

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