Minimalist Camping Gear for Your Survival Adventure

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What is minimalist camping? Whatever the answer is, any camper needs to have a minimum of gear and tools to survive: a tent, a sleeping bag, cooking appliances, a not-so-heavy-weight backpack, water supply, and more. Learn about the essentials of minimalist camping from this article below.

Minimalist camping is striving to survive: it’s tied in with examining yourself and fighting with the environment around you, all along with a small amount of gear carried around. Can you just take your bag and go for three days straight in the natural environment, only having the contents of the backpack?

Indeed, you can. This review will discuss what one requires for camping and how to go for an adventure with a base of survival (and not only) stuff.

Minimalist Camping Implies Avoiding the Crowds

Comics joke that outdoor camping is something like “spending a big sum of money just to spend a weekend like a homeless person.” Well, they may actually be right in case we’re discussing RV camping or having a stay in a campsite, in other words, a busy campground. Do you really need THAT type of camping?

In such cases, you truly are spending some money just to stay in the forgotten car park. However, if you do outdoors camping right, you won’t have to listen to your tent-neighbor snoring the entire evening. Instead, you’ll be looking at stars that can’t be seen from the city. You’ll be hearing the elk bugle and hanging your food to keep it out of the sight of fearless bears.

So, overall, outdoors camping should distract you from the noisy full-of-things-to-do city to the peacefulness of nature. And all of its difficulties, of course.

Minimalist camping unexpectedly requires much more preparation and cautious packing than car camping. For example, in case you prepared all of the stuff you have on your back and climbed out 4 miles, just to understand that you forgot your tent in the automobile, you don’t simply run back to your auto and get it. Undoubtedly, you will have to make a tent yourself, out of things that you could find straight on the road!

Minimalist camping is also about confidence: everything you lack in items makes up with survival skills. So, the primary point one has to acknowledge is to get some information on minimalist camping and what one actually needs to have in minimalist camping gear.

What Minimalist Campers Truly Need To Survive in the Elements?

That is the basic question to ask oneself when one starts preparing for a minimalist camping trip: this isn’t only a discussion about backpacking yet in addition about hastening away from something dangerous in terms of survival conditions.

Recall that Maslow scientist? Abraham Maslow was a novel scholar who invented Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Maslows-Hiearchy-Of-Needs

In case you forgot him from a high school economy/psychology class, here’s a small overview.

The key idea is that you need the stuff at the bottom of the pyramid before you can get the stuff above the pyramid. Without air, food, water, and home, you won’t care about your sense of security since you’re worried only about surviving!

At that point, if those basics are dealt with, but you still don’t have a sense of security, you can’t focus on such needs as love and appreciation. On the off chance that you don’t feel loved, you can’t focus on your self-esteem. If you have no confidence, you can’t accomplish your maximum capacity or, in other words, self-actualization.

The Bottom line: your essential survival needs leading up to your satisfaction needs.

Alright, enough gushy stuff as of now. Sorry, but today we are not here for your self-actualization or confidence; in any case, we can get you ready with getting internal fulfillment by realizing you’re prepared for basically anything; we’ll leave your mental wellbeing in the hands of you and your psychologist.

The pyramid base is all the stuff that our website is about, and this article will be discussing the same thing. At the point when we talk about SHTF situations and start planning for them, we are basically getting ready to get the base of the pyramid items set up. Come what may.

Minimalist surviving is truly about figuring out how to approach your base Maslow needs out in the perfection of nature. So in case you’re discussing which electronic gadget to take with you, then you’re not talking about minimalist camping. A means of communication, like a radio set, just if something happens, is a must. That is sensible, but if you plan on playing Angry Birds or writing for a blog about your experiences, then your adventure is NOT about minimalist camping.

Instead, let’s model a case when your truck is on fire in the mountains on a camping trip. You snatch your get-home-bag and need to cross seven days of woods and mountains before you discover any city or village. THIS is the minimalist camping I’m discussing.

This kind of camping trip will help you with setting up an SHTF situation.

So, what do you need to have? To put it in a nutshell, the basics. The rule of threes applies here because you can survive:

  • 3 minutes without air
  • 3 hours without shelter in extraordinary conditions
  • Three days without water
  • Three weeks without food

Here are some tips for getting all of your essentials set up for your survival journey.

Air For Health Benefits

I’m not telling you that you should carry a gas mask on your minimalist camping trip, yet you have one, right?

Water

The average person can live three days without water, but that doesn’t imply a lot of movements, just simply living, barely walking, I suppose. But let’s get back to reality and think of the fact that this won’t work out in survival camping.

Iodine water purifying pills are your everything. It is a light and simple approach to make practically any water protected to drink.

Water filters are unbelievably advanced nowadays. The LifeStraw, for instance, says that it eliminates 99.[9]% microbes. Moreover, it’s more modest than a paper towel tube and weighs only 2 ounces.

You additionally need a basic stainless steel water jug to transfer your water from the water source.

Notice that one needs to be cautious in the SHTF world: the bad guys perfectly know that you need water, and they might be watching your water like crocodiles watch zebras.

Camper Needs Food

Make sure to acknowledge that all of the gear will be placed on your back. Food ought to be light and simple in preparation: MREs, trail mix, jerky. Survival pays no heed to the food pyramid. One needs calories, nutrients, and minerals. For hell’s sake, you can live off Ramen noodles and multivitamins for a long time.

I’m keen on dehydrated chili and split pea soup. A couple of full dishes that weigh just ounces on my back is a success. Here are the freeze-dried camping dishes our website highly suggests.

On the off chance that you can deal with the smell of patchouli, you can get these for a little price in your neighborhood community.

The skills to recharge your food supplies might not be crucial for your few days of minimalist camping, yet in situations of SHTF, it is of first importance.

A spool of solid fishing line, twelve hooks, and the capacity to get night crawlers adds almost no weight to your pack; it can likewise furnish you with a limitless inventory of food (in the right location).

In case you plan on cooking, you’ll need a pot, as well. For example, I convey a portable stove and pot stuffed in with my dehydrated soups and packed out with the trash. Get a convenient pot that likewise accompanies the bowl and utensil.

Warmth and Heat

A whole article on its own, yet the rule of threes can’t lie. You will pass out due to heat loss in cold weather rapidly if ill-equipped. There are five different ways in which your body loses warmth, and you will be prepared for them. We also present you with some tips to get rid of the negative consequences of the loss of warmth.

  1. Radiation. The warmth your body produces will remain yours only if you trap it: you can do this by wearing a coat or clothing that fits for the season. Think about this selfishly. Keep your warmth! You don’t leave the door open in your home with the goal that you heat the area around you and your neighbors. So zip up your coat! One other type of equipment you can use to trap heat is a mylar blanket: they are modest and lightweight. Extraordinary stuff to add to your minimalist camping gear list
  2. Evaporation. Wet clothing will slaughter you in cold weather. Try not to get wet or full of sweat! Bring rain gear. And in case you get wet, make a fire and remove your wet clothes before hypothermia sets in. Once more, get a decent raincoat with a hood: it weighs almost nothing, is very little, and will keep you dry.
  3. Convection. As air moves past you, it takes the heat. You forestall this by wearing a windbreaker of sorts. The right raincoat may pull double duty here and keep you dry and warm. Staying in your shelter prevents this as well.
  4. Conduction. The contact with cold things absorbs your body’s warmth and keeps on doing as such until your temperature and the temperature of the object become the same. In case you rest without a sleeping bag on the cool ground, you will lose, as your warmth is totally insufficient contrasted to the ground’s coldness. The earth is a heat sink, and during contact, it will continue to steal your entire heat all night long.
  5. Respiration. The best way to perfectly prevent heat loss through breath is to quit relaxing. At the point when you bring cold air into your body, you warm it before it hits your lungs. Doing so gives off your warmth to the cool air. Notwithstanding, using a neck gator will serve to minimize this in a freezing weather

Let’s now proceed to the actual things and tips you should acknowledge before going on an adventure.

Additional Camping Items

Pack for the weather you expect and even worse than expected. Gloves, a stocking cap, pants, another shirt, and an additional pair of socks at least, as a bare minimum! A cap to keep the sun off your moneymaker.

Waterproof matches, a lighter, kept in a waterproof container. This is a crossover class that serves your shelter needs just like your food needs. You need the capacity to make fire! On our camping tour, we can make it without an oven or a fire if everything goes right. If it’s MREs and jerky for lunch, no fire or oven is required.

In case one has a great sleeping bag and a little, lightweight tent, one may be heated without a fire.

A portable camp oven and a can of gas may be worth it to you: it surely simplifies the food prep part and is perfect camping gear. Yet, now we are discussing the minimalist camper’s gear, so I would confess you can achieve something very similar with the heaviness of a Bick lighter and some effort.

While we’re busy, you ought to have, at any rate, three different ways to make a fire. When you’re all out of 1) Bick lighters and 2) matches, will you actually have the option to make a fire?

Shelter

A tent is the best arrangement, with a tarp to go underneath it, so you don’t destroy the tent. In case you truly want to improvise, you can find or build a shelter. Rock outcroppings or caverns can shield you from external weather conditions. If you build a fire at the mouth, you’ll be warm and dry. That is probably as simple and easy as you can get with opposable thumbs!

Simply recall, this is your playground. In case that each John, Joe, and Kevin made a safe shelter on your property this Saturday and Sunday, that land would appear as a pine-scented tent city.

The tarp-tent city you endeavored to move away from.

Rain Gear

This is accompanied by the shelter. If you get wet and can’t get dry, you’re on a terrible ride toward hypothermia. A proper raincoat is one of those unforeseen things that you may never require, but to need and be without could prove miserable. Apparently even lethal.

A Camping bag

The more you play, the more adaptable you will be. You can get an extremely light sleeping bag that will keep you warm all the way into the winter months; nonetheless, it will cost you beyond a reasonable cost…

You can get by with an emergency blanket bound tight, yet it won’t be your most pleasant evening.

A perfect packing tip is a sleeping pad that seems like an extravagance yet is really a survival need with the advantage of giving you some comfort during your camping experience, as it preserves you to keep away from that heat-sucking conduction we discussed before. If you don’t have a sleeping pad, at that point, you can make an easy buffer connecting you and the earth with leaves and debris. Make a bed of leaves (the more, the better), and it will make a natural spending pad of all sorts. This isn’t for comfort (even though it very well may be more pleasant than the “chilly, hard ground”). It’s connected with shielding the earth from taking all your needed heat!

That carries me to a crucial point and returns to a previous paper I dedicated to sleep. If you can’t get great rest, you’re almost nothing, and you won’t make the most of your camping trip. The tarp tent, resting place, and camping bag will make up a great deal of your pack weight. Skimming on these essentials will make your journey hopeless and, let me say, even risky in cold weather circumstances.

The is minimalist camping, so portable camping toilets do not make sense.

Anyway, you can pack some toilet paper and a survival shovel. I won’t go into a ton of details here. However, we’ve all most likely experienced lazy shitter. You know, the one that lefts his turds and TP at the edge of the path for God and everyone. Try not to be that person, please!

Set aside the effort to dig a little cat hole; also, in case you’re able to utilize a smooth stone or some foliage for TP, bravo. You’re a better man than me.

Hygiene

Let’s bet you would not be able to stand your own smell? Well, at least I can’t stand my own unbrushed teeth, so I generally have toothpaste and something to brush my teeth with. Possibly your B.O. is unfriendly to you.

A First Aid Kit

At any rate, you will require something that would suit as a tourniquet, so a little injury kit is required. Remember not to go insane and purchase a thirty dollar bit of essentials. A bandana and a pen is a perfect way that would work if you know what to do with these: there are like 1000 utilizations for a bandana apart from the tourniquet.

A Multitool

A great packing tip is to purchase a multitool with tongs, at least, and a sharpened knife. You will require a decent survival knife eventually; anyway, you might pull off a credit card knife for a short journey if each ounce is important. Or then again, you may bargain between the latter ones with a survival neck knife.

Bring Antiperspirant

I can live with a river shower. Many people can not; however, one might have some soap, moistened towelettes, or a hand sanitizer. Do you recall the cathole you have to make? Now it isn’t an ideal opportunity to get Hepatitis C or some other infection that is fecal-borne.

A Headlamp

A tactical headlamp is a lot lighter than a lamp and just lights the area that is required to be seen; besides, it allows for both your hands to be free to play out each one of those minimalist campground things, or then again, you may get one of our favorites FireHawk LED Tactical Flashlights.

Moleskin, Bandaids, and Neosporin

Be ready to save your existence with a tourniquet and deal with little injuries and wounds that could become deadly infectious.

Duct Tape

I’m certain I’d lecture the whole story if I’d begin discussing how helpful duct tape is for endurance conditions, so have some in your backpack. I personally carry a half roll wrapped around a pencil to keep it smaller and prepared for use.

Here are 20 survival uses for duct tape gave by our friends-survivalists from the UrbanSurvivalSite.com.

A Pocket Pen and a Diary

Those are the things I bring with the goal that I can record the best minutes of my everyday survival life. I can peruse it later and tell myself why I once in a while bug out from society deliberately. It’s additionally an incredible spot to compose things like, “I truly wish I would have brought a game of cards or some other type of entertainment.”

Survival Card Games

At just around 3 oz, a deck of survival cards might keep one very engaged without overloading the weight of one’s backpack.

A Minimalist Survival Ax

An ax or a hatchet is very convenient for getting wood, making a tent, or any other things; so, that is an essential minimalist camper’s bit of gear you’ll require with a couple of contingency items. Obviously, you’ll need to adjust it to your trip and your current environment; for instance, if you are thinking of doing real fishing in the outback, get these freaking fish-rods with you!

Paracord

It’s another camping equipment item with limitless uses. Paracord, some trees, and a tarp could be used to make an easy-built survival shelter for one’s camping trips.

Some Firearm

The weight of a stacked gun isn’t something to sneeze at. My Glock 21 is 2.25 pounds of extra weight for my camping equipment. However, when one is camping, one needs to look out for bears and other dangerous animals. I need to be perfectly assured that I am ready to respond to any potential danger. This carries us to the question, “what do you NEED?” I need the peace of mind that I get from being able to address a danger, as for me, happiness is a  warm survival gun.

We, as a whole, have the things we can’t live without. One day I interrupted a great camping trip because I didn’t bring coffee. I felt I could make it without the sweet nectar. However, I wasn’t right.

Picture Jack Black in “Jungle Thunder,” crazy looking and frantic.

Jack-Black-Tropic-Thunder

By 11:00 AM, rather than catching fish with my child, I was resting in a side of the road cafe shamefaced and putting Folgers into my veins. Guess who holds several Nespresso sachets in his bug-out-bag? The key idea is that if you need nicotine, or, for example if you are not able to sleep without Benadryl, at that point, make it happen. It is what it is—plan for it.

Notice any connection between the list made for minimalist camping and the bug-out-bag guide?

That is what is the issue here. Would you be able to grasp your bag and make it three days with just its contents?

Do it, Simply do it

Test yourself! We’re all preparing for a situation that might not actually occur, right? Anyway, purchasing a lot of items that just stay on the bunker shelf isn’t the place where life is lived.

Test Yourself

There are such a large amount of tales about survivalists who wanted to test themselves and ended up being dead. To cut a long story short: try not to go over the edge.

Try not to cross the desert without proper preparation. Also, try not to put an emergency blanket in the backpack and run straightforwardly to the Rocky Mountains.

Try to go out and actually start your adventure: go for a few days only with the items of your bug-out-bag. You can also write something in your notebook in order to recall the important moments later on. Gain proficiency with some new camping hacks to improve things and make them better!

Take a look at your stuff and see what is dirty or broken, what is not in the condition to use it. What would you leave at home for later use? What did you truly need that was absent? Tell us what you found as the bare minimum of camping essentials.

Stay Clever and Sane During Your Camping Trip

And be ready. Survive through your trip, and make sure to have a backup plan and an exit route if something goes wrong. Tell your people when you leave and when you ought to be back.

There’s no shame in giving up everything if things go wrong.

Camping Gear Frequently Asked Question

What do I need for a 2-day camping trip?

For a 2-day backcountry experience, a camper will require:

  • Something for shelter
  • Sleeping bags
  • A pack of food
  • Can opener and other cooking items
  • Drinking bottle and a mess kit
  • Some kind of connection to the outer world, like a cell phone

For a more extended camping list, you could check out the article above!

Is it dangerous to go camping alone?

Solo camping experiences can be safe, satisfying, and a darn decent time! When you are the only one minimalist camper on your adventure, it allows you to overcome yourself, gather your thoughts, and figure out how to live without anyone else.

On the other hand, when you are camping with other campers – you may have more fun and feel more secure, and have more comfort. Moreover, you could carry more things with you as more campers imply more storage space. If everyone has several backpacks, then you can pack a lot more: from camp stove to solar panels, or a big amount of sleeping bags; not to mention, you may require a bigger camping area.

What is survival camping?

Survival camping is a way of living with the very nuts and bolts and wisely using the available resources.

What is camping without a tent called?

Many minimalist campers enjoy bivouacking. Bivouacking is a type of camping but out of the tent. Take the sleeping bag, the mat and then just put them in a thin waterproof shell, called a “bivy bag,” which should protect you from anything.

Author

A former USA Army sergeant and a highly educated survivalist and prepper with a degree and interest in Engineering and Electronics, Mike Millerson applies his extensive expertise in survivalism, homesteading, backpacking, hiking and hunting, spreading his deep knowledge about handling emergencies and prepping for them reasonably and effectively.

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