If you find yourself lost and alone in the outdoors, the first thing to do is stop, admit you're lost, build a fire for company and comfort, and think about your situation. This will help avoid panic and allow you to formulate a plan.

In cold weather, the ability to make a fire could mean the difference in life or death. The Swedish Fire Steel by Light My Fire is used by military units and survival experts and will always work, even when wet. Don't depend on matches or lighters in a survival situation.

Unless you have a life-threatening injury, there's really not much to fear from being lost other than panic and loneliness. Finding water can be difficult, but seldom impossible. Even in a desert, water can be found in dry creek beds, plants, or springs. Look for green plants and dig below them to find water.

You can also catch rain water or make a solar still if you have a sheet of plastic. The biggest challenge may be finding safe drinking water. If in doubt, you can treat water chemically, use a treatment filter if you have one, or boil it. Water can be boiled directly in a fire in glass bottles if you're careful to avoid tipping them. Crystal clear water can contain some nasty organisms, so it's best to treat or boil any water if you can.

Although you won't starve for weeks, finding food can be comforting and give you a task to focus upon. Cattails are abundant in most of North America around water. The roots and lower stalks can be eaten raw, or cooked. The dried "tails" atop the plant can be ground up and substituted for flour. Many other plants can be gathered and eaten, but avoid mushrooms and unfamiliar plants and berries; some of which are quite poisonous.

If you have some wire and fish hooks in your survival kit, you'll find it easy to snare rabbits along their trails and catch fish from streams. In a pinch, you can also eat frogs, lizards, snakes, birds, eggs, and most anything else you can scrounge up for the pot.

Finding or making shelter isn't difficult. Make a wiki up by tying the tops of several short saplings together to form a dome about five feet high, then weaving vines, twigs, and branches horizontally through the saplings that form the perimeter. Cover the resulting framework with a tarp, long grasses or pine boughs. Make one for practice and you'll be amazed at how waterproof they can be. Other shelter options are a debris hut, lean-to, or tee-pee.

A signal mirror is an essential signaling device, but you can also signal with fires, or tromp messages in the snow/sand, or spell out "HELP" with logs, rocks, or other objects in letters large enough to be seen from the air. You may also summon help with a whistle, gunfire, radio, cell phone or an electronic locator device.

You can avoid being lost by learning to always know where you are, and how to use a map and compass. A GPS receiver is great, but it can fail. What then? The best insurance for survival is knowledge, not gadgets and gizmos; but it pays to have some useful items in a small survival kit. Study the terrain you're going into and assemble a pocket-sized kit suited for that area. More importantly, keep it with you at all times. Always let someone know where you will be and leave them a map of your location. Most of all let them know when you plan to return. This could speed up rescue efforts if needed. Modern man has lost some primitive survival skills, but those who study can be well prepared for any survival situation if they can keep a cool head in the wilds.

My survival kit includes;

• First aid supplies
• Fire starting items
• Signal equipment
• Shelter items
• Food and water procurement items

Examples of items are:

• Swedish Fire Steel by Light My Fire
• Small hand lens
• Snare wire
• Signal mirror
• Whistle
• Compass and topographic map
• Fishing line and small fishhooks
• Candle
• Water purification tablets
• Zip lock baggies
• Brine and Salt (preserve meat by soaking it in a saltwater solution)
• Snake bite kit
• Ox tetracycline tablets (diarrhea or infection)
• Bug spray
• Motrin
• Solar blanket
• Surgical blades
• Butterfly sutures
• Band aids. 1 x 3
• Condoms for water storage
• Chap Stick
• Needle and thread
• Hunting knife
• Painter's tarp. 9 x 7
• Duck tape

I always keep two, 2-gallon containers of water in my truck and my GPS Global Positioning System.