What amount of water is recommended for a trip? This is a typical first question new adventurers ask when the topic of an adequate water supply is brought up. The average human needs two quarts for drinking, food preparation, and cooking. Several gallons per person can easily be used when you consider bathing and washing out clothing while on the trail.

There are five kinds of desert wilderness: the desert mountains, the rocky plateau, the sand dunes, the salt marshes, and the broken or deserted terrain known as the gebel or wadi. Each type of desert terrain has its own characteristics and each hinders easy travel or transport over the desert area. Navigation, the actual planning of a trip across the desert, is difficult because there are few landmarks plus intense heat causes optical illusions to the distant horizon.

For most people, a trip into the wilderness is not a solitary experience. Safety experts recommend that you travel in groups with a minimum size of two to four. The individual wilderness education of the travelers can be different, there should always be an expert or experienced person to serve as a leader. If you travel alone, you increase the risk of injury or death in the wilderness.

If you venture into the wilderness and want to survive, you need to plan for a rescue team to assist in your return to civilization. There are a lot of high technology choices for signaling your position in the event of an emergency, bad weather conditions, illness, or unexpected injury. The latest assistance devices center around cellular telephone and satellite technology.

One of the biggest mistakes day hikers make is assuming they don't need to plan for wilderness survival. After all, a hiker usually reasons, "I only plan to be out for a few hours. I'll be back long before sunset. There's no reason to carry more stuff than I have to." Unfortunately, hundreds of hikers die or become seriously injured every year by relying on this faulty reasoning.

The key to a peaceful and fulfilling trip into the wilderness is having appropriate shelter to protect members of the party from the elements. You do not want to be too cold or wet in winter, nor too hot and humid in the summer. If you are traveling far away from civilization, it is important to keep your shelter to a minimum weight, and, therefore, easy to carry.

When planning a trip into the wilderness most think that there will be little need for rescue, or knowledge of how to draw attention to a signal fire. The fact is that you must always plan for the worst case scenarios. In a wilderness trip there could be injuries of one or more from a group. This injury may require leaving the person behind. For those who remain, attempt to send up a signal fire.

Our psychological reaction in the survival setting is related to our stress level. Stress is not a condition or disease that we can cure, or eliminate. Stress is our reaction to the pressures of our surroundings. Any given physical, mental, or emotional event may give rise to stress which can be our friend. Stress is one of the natural defenses we have to living with danger in our society.