A general rule of thumb is that a human being can survive three weeks without food. I often read and hear of people who cite this “three-week rule” as a reason to not include food, of some sort, in their GHB and short-term survival plan. If your emergency trek home is only a few hours on foot (let’s say 10 -15 miles), that may not be a problem. Anything more than that and you’ll really want to consider packing some snacks. Truthfully, even if you are looking at only a few hour trek, packing some snacks would still be advisable just in case you run into any delays; i.e. route blockages, weather delays, etc.
An often-overlooked part of short term survival when it comes to food is how your body reacts to stress and the fuel your body needs to go on. I go several hours at a time without eating and I am just fine. This of course is considering that I eat every several hours. Disasters never happen at opportune times. With my luck, right when I reach that several-hour mark without food is right when disaster will hit. Given the extra stress and calorie burn from having to be more active, I’m going to get hungry fast. Not only that, but my stamina declines also when I haven’t eaten in a while. Focus suffers, headaches are likely, strength dissipates. All are bad issues to deal with when your trying to survive.
Considering you will be much more active in a survival situation, pack a little extra. I wouldn’t go overboard though. Some people try to pack their entire kitchen pantry in their pack. That’s a bad idea. The more you pack, the heavier your pack will be. Find some calorie dense snack bars (i.e. Clif Bars, Kind bars, etc) and throw a few into your pack. My route would be in the 10-15 mile range. Given that it would only take me a few hours to make it home, 4 or 5 Clif bars is plenty. If you are looking at a 2-3 day trek, pack quite a few. Keep in mind, you’ll have to rotate them out. Take note of the expiration dates and change them out when necessary. It would definitely suck to find yourself in a survival situation and discover that your food is no good.
If you are in an area where convenience stores are plentiful, you could consider grabbing your snacks when the time comes. You will need to get ahead of the crowds and hit these stores as early as you can. It doesn’t take long to empty a small convenience store out, so don’t delay.
Don’t just prepare. Prepare to thrive.
Very good info here. In my bag I keep one mre, cliff bars, and some sample packs of PB (Walmart .75). I don’t carry water however. I carry a water filter, water tabs, and a container, but also a water key. I’m in town though, so it makes that part really easy
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