Emergency Kit. Hiking and Travel Emergency Kits. Survival Kits. GPS devices.

Most travellers should carry emergency or survival kits which can provide food and save lives. 4 reasons below explain the need for 2 emergency kits. A bag provides storage for vehicle based emergency kits. And some people may use vehicle storage compartments.

Folks traveling in forests or remote areas should have second emergency kits in a daypack stored in the vehicle. Many people who hike already have backpack emergency kits: Video: Backpack Survival Kit. The benefits of 2 kits, is one remaining with the vehicle and the other immediately ready for walking if the vehicle must be abandoned.

A good advice is to stay with your vehicle. That helps IF you told somebody where you went. Odds are that rescuers will find your location, often within 24 hours. IF you did not tell somebody where you went, you may be on your own, and staying with the vehicle may not be good.

Some experts say that you should not always stay with a vehicle, but that sometimes you should stay. So, why carry a portable daypack second emergency kit? For 4 reasons:

3. If your vehicle crashes, it may not be visible from the road and may be useless for shelter.

4. In case you are assaulted, attacked or stalked, it may be imperative to leave your vehicle and flee in a matter of seconds.

Due to those reasons, you should have 2 travel kits. One in the car and another in a backpack. If you need to leave your vehicle, how can you carry all your stuff if you don't have a daypack? The emergency backpack kit should not have it's needs scattered in the vehicle.

If you need the emergency backpack kit, you may not have time to pack. And don't be skimpy on food. You may have a passenger. If you enjoy hiking, survival kit items may become more useful than you expected. I use my mini stove to make hot meals for trips to the beach, and on even my shortest hikes.

Aside from the vehicle kit - keep preserved food sources like energy bars and a bottle of water within reach of your seat in case you are in an accident that immobilizes you.

On a hike to Cook and Green trail once, after starting a fire with my kit contents, the idea came to mind that a wood HIKING STICK is an excellent winter emergency tool. This was on a Christmas day hike when everything around was damp from rain and snow. Even better than a synthetic trekking pole. A wooden hiking stick provides balance and can be used as a defensive weapon. In addition, it can be whittled, sawed or broken into small tinder and kindling: and dry tinder and kindling at that. It's basically ready-to-use fire material convenient to carry. If you want to build your own hiking stick of wood, visit my page: Making Hiking Sticks.

One handy item is a GPS device. Maybe you can't be found with a GPS device, but you can prevent becoming lost with one: or prevent becoming lost even more. If you buy a GPS device that makes a tracklog, you can record your route if you leave for help or escape. If you made a mistake, or need to return, GPS devices can provide coordinates to return to your starting point, or to where you parted company with an injured companion.

The items below, don't take up much room when neatly stored and packed. You can usually compile a better emergency kit than you can buy. You can purchase and pack all the items in one day. Is your life worth one day of shopping and the minor expense of these small items?

If you keep both kits, there may be no need to keep an item in the vehicle kit which is already in the backpack kit, such as a whistle or flashlight for example. The backpack kit can complete the vehicle kit, but the backpack kit must remain complete with everything shown on that list - don't break-up the backpack emergency kit. The vehicle kit should not complete the daypack kit.

Lars Larson, Pacific NW talk show host, emailed the idea to add Gorilla Tape - 50% more adhesive and strong than duct tape: temporarily bind wounds and repair things; even canoe leaks.

Flashlights - some bulbs like LEDs may offer more battery life
Batteries - rechargeable may not keep charge near as long as Lithium or Alkaline
First aid kit
Pocketknife
Blankets or sleeping bags
Mittens, socks and a wool cap
Waterproof covering like a tarp or poncho
Metal coffee can which can be used to heat water: can store part of vehicle kit too
Sack of sand or cat litter - in winter - for generating traction under stuck tires, or adding weight
Small shovel: even a folding one
Bottled water - it may freeze so allow expansion room in container: don't use glass
Booster battery cables
Energy bars or high-energy food like raisins or nuts: these store for months
Bright color scarf to attract attention
Waterproof matches / waterproof case, cigarette lighter: possibly both (don't forget match striker)
Candles: a blanket over your head, body heat and a single candle can prevent freezing
Tool kit with pliers, screwdrivers, adjustable wrench, tape, string and wire
Paper towel or toilet tissue for their designed use or fire starter
Spare tire
Rope, tow chain or a strap
Extra oil
Map of the area where you plan to travel: get a national forest map from a ranger station too
Small book to keep the mind occupied
Small hand-held CB radio and it's batteries: channel 9 is one of the important channels
Pen or pencil and paper
Whistle in case a horn or other devices don't work: mirrors don't work at night either
Signaling devices such as flares or a mirror: music CDs have one reflective surface

Vehicle parts can help to save people:

A hubcap or sun visor can be uses as a shovel
Seat covers can be used as blankets
Floor mats can be used to shut out the wind
Engine oil burned in a hubcap provides a smoke signal visible for miles
A car horn can be heard up to almost 1 mile away. 3 long blasts, 10 seconds apart, every 30 minutes, is considered a distress signal
A rear-view mirror can be removed to serve as a signaling device
Burn a tire for signal or warmth. Release air pressure and use gasoline or oil to ignite it
Tire irons or jack turning rods can be used to gouge and dig in soil
The seat's interior padding can be used to stuff clothes for insulation or improvise as toilet tissue
In desparation, the headliner fabrics can be cut into pieces for head cover, scarves and gloves
If you need an outside windbreak, auto hoods often come off easy if you have a wrench

There are many more items that you can add to your vehicle to tailor it for your area and climate, such as de-icer, tire chains for snow, etc.. But for now, this page is focusing specifically on emergency survival kits for people to stay fed, stay warm, find help and survive.

Mountaineers often call the first 10 items "the essentials". For our purposes, almost all of the items below are essentials and are easy to pack because many are so small.

It's evident from the tips and items on this page, that one item may depend on another.

If you buy compact sizes and pack right, everything below can fit into a daypack with a few pockets: easy to tuck-away in a vehicle. Don't skip the gloves!

Gloves keep hands warm, but also can prevent injuries like cuts if you need to move through thorned plants or grasp rocks.

Stores like McKenzie Outfitters, and REI in Oregon, may have heat reflective body bags. These are similar to the "space blankets" except that the bags can enclose your entire body. The packages are almost as small as those for the space blankets.

Within these kits, should be something for personal protection. If you have a concealed weapons permit, your options may be numerous.

Some people may choose pepper spray, or a Kubaton, which is a small hand-held stick, small enough to fit on a key ring. Other folks carry a cane or hiking stick which are culturally acceptible in almost any area.

Personal strobe lights are available; slightly bigger than an egg and operating on a D cell battery or similar power source - very inexpensive: less bright than flares, and must be in view in the dark.

Most items above are inexpensive. At a price, feel free to acquire a personal emergency locator; a hand held emergency device that can send out an emergency beacon with you location information.

Whatever pet you have, keep emergency food if you travel in remote areas. In winter, some canned foods may freeze. Your best choice may be dry food for dogs, and seeds and dry snacks for parrots. If you brought water or a means to melt snow, that should suffice for your animals also..

If your daypack has room, freeze-dried meals and a tiny camp stove are nice additions. Small mini campstoves are very tiny (shown in image above). The fuel bottle is about the size of a big mug. All you may need for it, is a small stainless steel cup to heat snow or water. The mini - camp stove provides a way to drink warm water instead of cold snow or stream water that can lower the body temperature.

In my pack, I prefer a single battery AAA flashlight and keep an extra battery. I keep a bigger one in the vehicle. A pack needs to be compact with a lot of esential items. I prefer a compact sharp folding pruning saw over a heavy hatchet or machete'. By saving space with compact items, I can stuff several freeze-dried meals in the pack. Using old pine shelving, I cut short pieces and split them into kindling the size of match sticks; sealing those in a zip lock bag.

Fire starter sticks are included also. The campfire to the right, was an experiment using the fire starter sticks on one of my winter hikes. My son and I did not need a fire. But while we waited for our freeze-dried chicken meal to soak in hot water, we wanted to see if we could make a campfire with our daypack contents, even though everything around us was wet.

Since my daypack doubles as an emergency kit and regular hiking pack, it has a few items that are treats on the trail, which would also be nice during an emergency. It has a few packets of tea and hot cocoa, and mints occassionally. An added benefit of the mini campstove, is the ability to make hot drinks that come in lightweight packages.

Some of these tips were found on mountaineering websites. Some tips about uses for car parts wer from the Idaho State Department of Transportation website.

Hiking, travel: emergency kits, survival