Wilderness Survival
Rule of Three's

No matter what kind of camping you plan to do, you may one day find yourself in a wilderness survival situation - lost in the middle of nowhere with no food and no gear. "But I am always prepared, and I always camp in designated sites near a road," you may be thinking. Well, that's great, but what about those short day hikes that turn into all-nighters if you get lost or hurt? Would you know what to do?

So what is the Rule of Three's? Well, here we go.

A person can survive for:

It seems pretty obvious what your priorities should be in a wilderness survival situation once it is spelled out like this. However a lot of beginners think that finding food is the first thing they should do. So they spend all of their energy trying to find some berries, and before they know it the sun is setting. It's getting cold. Clouds are rolling in, and it starts raining. They still have no food, and now they don't have any shelter. That is not a situation we would want to be in. How 'bout you?

Your first goal should be to make sure you are sheltered from the elements. Even at 50 degrees you could still get hypothermia - especially if you are wet and the wind is blowing. So you should seek shelter as soon as possible. And in warmer climates, you should seek shelter from the sun as well. There is a wonderful book, Wilderness Survival by Gregory Davenport (Stackpole Books, April 1998), that explains how to build a shelter in a ton of different situations.

Next you should find water to drink. Now you can't just drink water from a stream (except in the most dire situations) or you may get sick. In extreme situations I would chance getting sick over dying. There are many ways to get potable water. Again, I recommend reading Davenport's >Wilderness Survival. It covers the best and easiest ways to get water with simple step-by-step directions.

Now, another thing about water. You should also conserve water. By that I mean you should avoid sweating and breathing heavily since both will cause your body to lose water more quickly. So don't work feverishly if you can avoid it. Just go at a nice steady pace.

Lastly, you need to worry about food. Hopefully, you will be rescued before needing to seriously worry about food. I know you might feel like you are starving to death after only a few hours, but trust me. You can make it without food a lot longer than you may think. If you are interested, Wilderness Survival covers how to find food as well.

So there you have it. The Rule of Three's is really quite simple, and it probably seems like common sense. But in an emergency survival situation, a person might not be thinking clearly, and the Rule of Three's makes it easy to remember.