Outdoor Survival Info

Water is a vital necessity. Without it, we won’t last beyond a few short days. Unfortunately, water is heavy, so putting a bunch in your bug out bag can hurt as much as it helps. If your bag is too heavy, you’ll move slowly, tire more easily, and use up more of the water in your body than you need to.

So how do you find some middle ground? How do you carry enough water so that you aren’t weighed down too much? The easy solution is to carry water and a water purification system. That way, you have some water to drink right away, and you have something to make most found water drinkable.

Natural water sources, such as lakes, streams, and rivers contain bacteria that you don’t want in your system. You know, the bottom fall out of your world and the world falling out of your bottom type of stuff — best to avoid that. Once you finish up the water you brought with you, you’ll need to sterilize or filter (or do both) water so you can drink it without making yourself sick.

I recommend carrying some type of water bottle (extra, beyond the couple of store-bought sealed bottles of water or Gatorade that you packed in your BOB). This can be a military canteen, a Naglene bottle, or anything similar. Then, have some type of purification process and supplies packed in your bag, too. I’m not going to go into the specifics of that here, but you can find a wide variety of camping-oriented water purification systems on the market. Any sporting goods store should have something you can use.

By carrying water or a sports drink that you can access right away, you won’t have to stop to purify water if you are in the middle of bugging out. Once you get to a safe place, you can collect and purify more water for drinking and cooking. Using this type of system, you’ll be able to keep your pack weight down while still addressing your basic survival needs.