Top 8 Ways to Prepare for Your Next Adventure Trip

Top 8 Ways to Prepare for Your Next Adventure Trip  

How do you prepare for a safer adventure trip? A classic question indeed! And one you must answer before you take your next winter, spring, summer and/or fall adventure trip.

And having planned many trips – from day hikes with kids to 10-day white water canoeing trips - I know the importance of adopting a prevention mindset and following a preparation approach. Doing so meant I brought everybody back healthy, wellthy and wise from the adventures I organized.

Because of these adventures, one thing I know for sure … the possibility of an emergency happening is ever present for you whether it’s of your own making or because of someone else you meet along the way. The degree to which that emergency becomes bigger is up to your prevention mindset and preparation approach.

Yes, a skinned knee hurts; however it hurts worse if it gets infected.

If a rainy and windy morning on the lake means staying at your camp rather than testing your skills on open water, then do so until it is safer to move.

Reflection

Take a moment here and think about the stories you’ve read in newspapers and heard on TV of the people who have died in the outdoors. Most were killed because they did not follow ‘prevent and prepare’ practices.

Of those reporting traumatic experiences, like an unwanted overnight stay in the bush or walking miles with a broken foot, most were not prepared for the conditions and activities.

And now – think about all of the people whose experiences were wonderful. Why was that? Because they took the necessary steps -- planning, following the plan, altering the plan in safer ways as necessary, and following their return procedures.

Granted there are some who are lucky. As ill-prepared as they are, they still make it back. However, if they continue to push their involvement with a lack of preparation approach and prevention mindset they will become the ones you read about.

Today you can decide the outcome of your next adventure story … will it be a traumatic story for the newspapers or a gratitude story for your family and friends?

To help you share a gratitude story, here are the Top 8 Ways to Prepare for Your Next Adventure Trip:

1) Need to ask important prevention and preparation questions – and the more questions you ask the more insights you will have to prepare. Who, what, where, why, when and how are great starts.

2) Need to practice before you travel – it might’ve been a full year since your last seasonal adventure. How rusty are you at your first aid and survival skills?

3) Need to recognize your level of activity fitness – decide if you are physically ready and able for the upcoming adventure.

4) Need to ask yourself and others what first aid is and what basic survival is – and depending on the answers prepare yourself accordingly.

5) Need to prepare a wilderness first aid/outdoor survival guide of your own making – while wilderness first aid and outdoor survival books are great resources, it is the guide you write that will save you.

6) Need to be clear for yourself and those who travel with you – what is the intention of the adventure? Don’t take a step into the outdoors without a clear answer in everyone’s mind.    

7) Need to hold a meeting with travel companions to review what it means to travel together before, during and after the adventure trip. Leave no loose ends untied. 

8) Need to recognize “it’s not the first aid course or survival workshop that makes you safer; it’s that you choose to invest in taking a first aid course or survival workshop.”

Remember à Prevention is Queen, Preparation is King!

Copyright © Stephen Hobbs

Stephen Hobbs is the author of the eBook 103 Simple and Practical First Aid and Survival Tips, Tools and Techniques for Surviving the Wilderness. http://www.suriving-the-wilderness.com Visit the website to receive the free report 9+1 Brilliant Ideas for Not Having to Do First Aid and Use Your Survival Skills.

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