Basic Survival Kit in the Desert

Video Transcript

"I'm Mike Meyers with Zion Wilderness Survival School for Expert Village. Earlier we talked about your gear, being prepared for your outings. And, what I've done here is I've laid out some of the key items that you should always take with you on any sort of a desert excursion whether it's two or three miles or whether it's twenty miles. It doesn't really matter. I carry almost all of this in this small bag about the size of a medium woman's handbag. I have a first aid kit which includes a Sawyer extractor for snake bites. It's inside the first aid kit. I have a water filter used for filtering water in streams or lakes. I have an emergency compass. I carry one in my pocket at all times, but this is a backup. In this waterproof bag, I have an emergency blanket, solar blanket, it's a reflective blanket that can be used to keep the sun off of you or to cover you in the wintertime for heat, an emergency whistle, waterproof matches, and in the back, an emergency poncho. Water tablets for treating water. They're, not again, the best thing to use, but they're better than nothing. I say not the best because a filter is better and boiling your water is the best thing to do. I have all sorts of rope, cord, shoe laces, extra boot laces that can also be used for lashing, tying of any sort. Some bug spray which I always carry. I have some electrolyte replacement. This is like Gatorade or other electrolyte replacements that you add to your water and some little gel packets of energy drink, little energy gels. Bicyclists use this. And, in this kit which is basically a mess kit, and the reason I carry this is, I can boil water in this. And, inside it I have some Band-Aids, I have a condom here which is used to carry water. You fill it up with water. It's an emergency container. Some spare matches. Some aspirin. A rope saw which could be used to cut limbs. The flint and magnesium for starting fires. And, some fishing, fishing line, bobs and weights. And, a drink tube. This tube can be used to put down into a crack or a small amount of water and suck it out off of rock and so forth. All this is carried in this little case here and, basically, makes up my emergency survival kit. "