6 Reasons Why You Should Try Out Bushcrafting in your Next Family Camping Trip

It doesn’t have to be the end of the world to find yourself in a situation where you will need to use what you can find to survive.

Many people, just like you and me were sitting at home one day and later found themselves in difficult situations that they had to get through with little or no means. Those that knew — even a few survival skills — were able to get through these hard times with ease, where others may not have been so lucky and had to struggle to find their way out of a dilemma.

Things happen sometimes that we have no control over, but we can control what knowledge and skills we have that are required to survive.

What is Bushcraft?

According to Dictionary.com Bushcraft is Australian and means:

“skill in anything pertaining to bush country, as in finding one's way, hunting, or finding water”.

Bushcraft is about having the knowledge and skills needed to survive in the wilderness or live in a natural environment. The term was first made popular by Les Hiddins in the Southern Hemisphere, Mors Kochanski in the Northern Hemisphere, and more recently, by Ray Mears in the United Kingdom due to his survival and bushcraft television programs.

bushcrafting skills include: knowing how to hunt, fish, track, create fire, build a shelter, forage, source water, make use of wood, rope, and twine, use tools for survival, such as a bushcraft knife, axes, and hammers, construct useful items from natural materials, eat off the trail knowing what’s edible and what may be poisonous, navigate by means of nature, utilize herbs, plants, leaves, bark, twigs, and other elements found outdoors for a variety of purposes, and more.

Having bushcrafting skills means being creative and using what you have for what you need to thrive and survive not only in the wilderness but any location in the great outdoors. It can be used while hiking or camping in forests, climbing mountains, traveling on foot through deserts, exploring islands, or swamps, or other terrains, and the only tool you need most of the time is a trusty fixed blade survival knife.

No matter where you are in the world, it is important for you to have good bushcraft skills and knowledge as it can help you to survive in any location or environment.

5 Reasons to Try out Bushcrafting

1. It Helps You Better Set Up Your Camp

If you were driving down a road in the middle of the woods with your family in the car and suddenly get into a wreck or your car stalls and you haven’t seen anything or anyone for miles, what would you do? Staying in the car would be too dangerous as it’s so dark; someone driving down the road may not see you and crash right into you, even if you push the car to the side. Or how about if you decided to take the family on a hike and get lost deep in a forest somewhere, would you know what to do?

It’s times like these that your bushcraft skills will come in handy as you will need to set up camp for the night. You may think it’s easy now, but in a real situation, without bushcraft skills, you and your family would be totally left in the dark.

It doesn’t take much to learn about bushcraft and it can help you out of so many bad situations that can actually turn out to be fun if you know what you are doing.

2. You Can Start a Fire, Build a Shelter, Learn Rope and Knot Skills, etc.

It’s not easy to set up camp for a night. In order to do this, it would take some bushcraft knowledge. Not only would you need to know how to build a shelter, but also how to build a fire, and keep that fire going. This is another area where your bushcraft skills would come in very handy.

You can use bushcraft to…

• Choose a location: you want to find an area away from falling debris on a leveled ground.

• Collect materials needed: you will need materials to build a fire, make rope, and set up shelter. For fire and shelter, collect debris, twigs, leaves, and tree bark. For rope, you can use several things, such as bark from a tree or plants like Willow, Maple, Hemp, or other.

• Make rope using knots and lashing techniques: By using these bushcraft techniques you can create a strong rope to ensure your shelter is sturdy and won’t fall apart in the middle of the night.

• Make a fire to stay warm and a fire shelter to keep it burning: Knowing how to build a fire is great, but you will also need to know how to build a shelter to keep that fire going.

3. It Gives You a Great Sense of Self-Reliance

You owe it to yourself and your loved ones to know how to handle different situations. You can be the hero in your family and the one they look up to just by learning a few bushcraft skills that can help get you out of a pickle.

Once you know how to make use of the natural elements that surround you outdoors, you will be able to survive anywhere and will feel self-reliant and relieved. It especially helps to know that you will be able to keep your family safe and alive if you have to survive outdoors without the use of modern equipment that we have grown to depend on so much.

The cavemen did it and so can you just by taking some time out to learn about bushcraft and means of survival skills. You will never have to worry or fear anything once you know what to use to make your own tools if necessary, or what is safe to eat and what not, or as stated, how to set up camp and provide shelter for you and your loved ones to be safe.

4. You Will Enjoy Nature Much More

In addition, whether you are put in a bad situation to where you are forced to live outdoors for a certain period of time or choose to be occupied with natural surroundings because you enjoy the feeling of being one with nature, you will know how to fend for yourself with only the use of natural elements and materials with bushcraft.

People who depend too much on modern technology would be lost if everything was suddenly taken away and they were forced out of their homes and have to live outdoors, which can happen at any time.

Think about the times when the power went out during a storm, imagine what it would be like if weeks went by and the power still wasn’t turned back on. People would be going hysterical without the internet, the television, lights, water, air conditioning or a heater, and more.

However, it doesn’t have to be this way. This could also be a time of enjoyment for those who know how to get through without needing anything but their own two hands and what nature provides all around us.

5. If You Hit the Outdoors Often, It Will be Useful as Survival Skills

Some people have occupations or hobbies that make it necessary for them to travel far distances outdoors such as geologists, biologists, environmentalists, volcanologists, hikers, skiers, or even those who sail often.

It would be especially helpful for those with such hobbies or occupations to learn some bushcraft skills.

Even those who often go camping or exploring would find survival skills very useful. Thus, it doesn’t even have to cost a lot of money to learn about bushcraft. You can learn a lot right from the internet using google as your search tool to find what you think would be helpful in various situations as far as survival. There are several great websites, such as YouTube, that provide a lot of valuable information on survival skills and bushcraft.

6. You Will be Amazed at How Many Things You Can do Without all the Modern Conveniences

There are people who choose to live off the grid that has built their own houses just by using outdoor resources without any modern-day equipment and they live day to day without requiring any help as they learned to fend for themselves with the use of nature only.

The truth is anyone can do this with some knowledge. Did you know that you can access clean drinking water just by digging in some locations, and even if the water isn’t clean enough to drink, many times it can be purified just by boiling it? And, you don’t necessarily need a stove to cook. As long as you know how to make a fire, you can cook anything, anywhere. With very little effort, you can make your own barbeque pit. There are even ways to grow your own food, over and over again, starting with one plant. You just have to do a little bit of research to find out about all this and more.

Conclusion

We have grown too dependent on modern-day equipment and technology. If for some reason we were left to survive on our own without the use of all these utilities, what would we do? All it would take is learning about bushcraft and we can rest assured that we would be able to survive anything, anywhere.

bushcraft doesn’t only have to be used for survival; these are great skills that can be used while camping, hiking, mountain climbing, or other outdoor activities. Therefore, it would be great for everyone to brush up on their bushcraft skills and learn how to live on open land.

About Heather:

Heather Wright is an outdoor fanatic that enjoys hiking in the amazing state of Minnesota. When she has the time, she enjoys paying a visit to the Little Two Harbors Trail with her friends to explore the amazing natural beauty of the place, kayaking and cooking some delicious meals for a great campfire experience at the end of the day.