How To Find a Natural Water Source

Finding a natural water source is the most important thing you can do when you need to survive in the wilderness.

A person can live for several days without food and can survive without shelter, but water is essential to all life on Earth. It only takes a few days before a body becomes dehydrated, hysterical, and unable to function without water. With this in mind, it’s essential to understand how to find the water you need if you ever get stranded or lost and aren’t sure when help will arrive to rescue you from the wilderness.

Learning to Find Water Can be a Fun Family Activity

Please don’t wait until you’re faced with a crisis to find the water you need; make it an activity that hones your skills. Learning to locate water sources is a great skill to teach your family, especially if you and your family enjoy hiking and spending time outdoors. Passing this knowledge on to your children allows them to have a skill they might use if they get stuck in an area without water. If you’re part of an outdoor adventure group, this could be something you each to your whole organization.

More Natural Springs Than You Realize

There’s a website dedicated to the locations of natural springs n your area. If you’re looking for a natural water source and you want to enjoy some of the health benefits of this water, you can go to www.findaspring.com and search your local area. If you find a spring close by, you can put the coordinates into your GPS and head out to find its location. If you happen upon some other springs during your hike, you’ll want to add them to this site and share them with others in your area.

Why Should Drink from a Natural Spring

The water you find in a natural spring is cleaner and healthier than the water from your tap. It’s much better for you than bottled water as well. Most spring water continues beneficial minerals and adds to your overall health when you drink it. Most mineral-rich water has an appropriate alkaline level to make it enjoyable for you to drive. This type of water helps to reduce the acidity in your body, and the minerals add to your bone and teeth strength and density to give you a healthier feeling.

What If You’re Lost in the Wilderness?

If you’ve gone into the wilderness prepared with some food and water, and you happen to get lost, there are some things you need to do right away. Let’s review several wilderness survival tips that help you stay out of trouble and ensure you can survive until help arrives.

Become the Master of Your Attitude

A survival situation is the worst time to panic. Yes, you’re in a challenging situation without a plan for getting back to your group or civilization. This leaves you with a lot of unknowns. That said, you need to have a plan and stay calm. You might be living in the wilderness for a little while.

Find Clean Water

You are going to need water. This means finding the nearest natural water source. If you have your cell phone and service, you can use the website, but you might need to find other ways to locate water. The cleanest water you can collect right away will be from rain or snow, but if unavailable, you’ll need another way to get the water you need.

Turn to Alternative Water Sources

If you can’t locate a natural spring and no snow or rain is available, you must try the next best thing. This can be finding a nearby water source based on some of the plants in the area. Dig a hole where you find moisture and water and collect water from your home. This water will need to be boiled before drinking.

Vegetation is a Good Water Source

In the wilderness overnight, you might notice dew on various plants and grasses. Soak up the dough and put it in your water container. Another way to get water from vegetation is to tie a plastic bag around a leafy branch of a tree and allow the water from the tree to collect in your bag.

You’ll Need Shelter

Secondary to water in your survival is shelter. If it’s cold outside, you need an insulated cover to keep you warm at night. If you’re in an area where it will get hot, and the sun beat down on you all day, you need a shade shelter. Unless you bring a tent with you, you’d want to use the surrounding terrain and plants to help create the shelter protection you need.

Build a Fire for Light, Cooking, and Water Purification

You might not think you need fire if you’re hot, but you do. This is where you’ll purify the water if you had to collect it from an area that wasn’t a natural water source. You’ll also use a fire to provide light when it gets dark out and a place to cook food if you catch something to cook over your fire. Fire is one of the most important parts of survival in the wilderness, and it could be a signal to those looking for you.

Make Ways to Catch Food

Unless you’re familiar with edible plants, you’ll likely need to catch your food. You can try fishing with a makeshift spear created from a long stick if you’re near a lake. If not, you might need to set up a small trap to catch squirrels or rabbits in the area. This might not sound like an ideal situation, but it’s a great way to survive when you’re in the wilderness.

Use a Natural Water Source to Your Advantage

Hopefully, you never end up lost in the wilderness in need of survival tips. If you have a natural spring near your home, this can be a great source of the cleanest and freshest drinking water you’ll find for you and your family to enjoy.