– – – Part 3 in the Survival Gear Series – – –

Referring to our safety and survival gear list, let’s have a look at these two items:
– survival rations or protein bars
– extra water purification tablets

Let’s jump down to the food and water components: “survival rations or protein bars.” Basically, you should have food with you to provide needed calories while you wait to be found or facilitate your own rescue in some other way (such as walk out). Good survival food
– keeps for a long time
– provides lots of calories
– doesn’t take up too much space
– doesn’t create a lot of garbage (a good principal for all food for trips)
– isn’t overly smelly

This last one might not be obvious, but around here, if you were stuck in the bush overnight and cracked open a can of tuna or sardines to snack on, you’d likely become a snack for the wolves (or in summer, the bears)! Take something that isn’t quite so appealing to the wildlife. A good source of calories, although not particularly tasty, is bacon grease or butter. After all, the Voyageurs lived on pemmican, which is 50% fat and 50% dried meat and berries (when they didn’t have fresh meat or berries to eat).

As for water, it is very important not to become dehydrated while waiting for help to arrive. If you’re on a canoe or kayak trip, there’s bound to be water nearby, but do not drink untreated water from anywhere beavers or ducks swim. Beaver fever, properly known as giardia, is very serious — it will feel like the worst flu you’ve ever had. There is a slight risk of salmonella from water ducks swim in. For these reasons, make sure to bring some water treatment capsules in a waterproof container with you. We like Aquatabs) from MEC. They are super-easy to use. Simply add one tablet to a 1-litre water bottle (double it for particularly dirty/cloudy water) and let it sit for a half hour. If you have a mechanical water filter, it must be rated down to one micron in size and be properly maintained. You can also boil water to kill giardia — one minute of a full, rolling boil (2 minutes at altitudes above 2,000 m) — and then let the water cool.

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