Even More On Sharpening Your Camping and Survival Skills

Why does sharpening your skills deserve a second and even this third post?   Well, it is unlikely you can ever get too much practice for essential skills.  We tend to be creatures of habit and if the habits we develop bypass regular exercise of our camping skills, they'll wane and eventually disappear.  So we need to be ever vigilant in using and improving our camping skills.  Perhaps my own lack of opportunity to practice my skills during the "off season" makes me particularly sensitive to the need.
    
No matter what your preferences for camping or other recreational activities, you will get more pleasure out of your efforts as your skills develop and improve.  Regardless of how good you may be at a particular task, you can almost always find room for improvement and without regular practice and exercise, even the best experts begin to experience diminished ability.

Every camping, hunting, fishing, hiking, horseback riding, or OHV trip is an opportunity to hone your  existing skills and perhaps develop new ones.  Every trip requires pre- and post- trip activities  that, as you practice them, will improve.  Preparations will become easier and take less time as you refine your checklists and your procedures.   You'll get better and better at hooking up the trailer, loading up your tent gear, or getting the RV on the road.  Every trip is a chance to observe and refine your driving skills.  Driving a motorhome or pulling a trailer or even navigating unfamiliar roads to a campground takes skills most drivers don't experience in their daily lives.  The more you drive your rig, the more comfortable you will become and the more fun it will be.  If you only go once or twice a year, each trip will be an ordeal.  By the time you begin to get comfortable driving your rig again, your trip will probably be over.  Setting up camp, building campfires, and camp cooking are routine activities that also get easier with practice.  

Experienced campers may want to choose specific survival techniques to practice on each outing.  You may feel comfortable with routine camp tasks, but might benefit from practicing starting your campfire using flint and steel or perhaps even creating emergency shelters or hunting or foraging for food.  Be sure to check local rules and regulations before doing anything that might have an environmental impact, such as cutting trees for a shelter or hunting or fishing or gathering edible plants.  Hunting and fishing usually require a license and are governed by scheduled "seasons" for specific types of game.  Gathering edible plants and even picking wildflowers are often prohibited.

Just about every outdoor activity can benefit from regular practice.  Whether you're just camping or out hunting, fishing, hiking, dirt biking, or enjoying your personal watercraft, there are always skills you can improve upon.  Some skills you can practice during routine activities but others may require some special preparations.  The availability of online guides and instructional videos can provide answers to many questions and give you entertaining ways to learn new skills.  When I say "entertaining", I mean entertaining to YOU, rather than turn your novice attempts at new skills into unintended entertainment for your fellow campers and humiliation for you, which happens all too frequently when we jump into something without proper preparation.   Seek out fellow campers with interests similar to yours and take advantage of their experience and expertise to enhance your own.  Just because experienced riders make something look easy doesn't mean it is!

Just like sharpening our tools makes them safer and easier to use, sharpening our skills will make our activities safer and more more fun.  And don't be afraid to draw on the expertise of other more experience campers.  They're likely to have had their share of embarrassing moments and may be able to divert you away from potential disasters.  Of course you will probably want to avoid seeking help from the resident practical joker, who may be likely to take advantage of your naivety to amuse himself or entertain others at your expense.

Use it or lose it!