Prepping is a lifestyle that allows you to prepare for the worst of times. Still, surviving doesn’t always equal living. Humans can only exist for so long without having any fun.
Fortunately, plenty of outdoor activities can improve your survival skills while allowing you to enjoy life and fight boredom. They allow you to enjoy the prepping experience.
Let’s look at some of the best outdoor activities for preppers hoping for a good time. They allow you to be one with nature, bond with your buddies and even contribute to your survival.
Best Outdoor Activities for Survivalists
Here are some of the best outdoor activities for preppers looking to make the most of your time in the great outdoors. They give you the skills to survive and memorable experiences with the people you love.
Hunting
Hunting should be a prepping staple because it gives you a personal source of meat while enhancing your marksmanship. It allows you to have a connection with your food source.
Hunting allows you to apply loads of practical skills, from those used in bushcraft and camping to those used in target shooting. It gives you a sense of achievement when you catch your prey.
Sometimes though, the thrill of the hunt is its own reward. Hunting is an intense activity that provides you with just enough time to clear your mind off from day-to-day life.
Target Shooting
Owning a bunch of guns is useless if you aren’t capable of using them in a crisis. Your aptitude depends on how well and often you shoot with your preferred weapons.
Fortunately, many accessories like handy gun mounts, lights, lasers, and optics improve your ability to make the shots that count and have fun doing it.
Taking range and practical shooting seriously prepares you for physical threats to your loved ones and property. It puts you on equal footing with potential enemies.
Bushcraft
Nature is rough, nasty, and wild. A prepper who knows his stuff respects mother nature and knows how to harness its blessings. A good prepper appreciates nature for what it is and what it offers.
Bushcraft is important for survivalists because you may be caught off-guard when you’re far from your go-bag or well-stocked house. You will need to rely on your knowledge of nature in those situations.
Bushcraft enthusiasts have the skills to make everything from water bottles to tomahawks. They can make knives out of stone and adopt a can-do attitude in the wild.
Go for a Hike
The phrase “take a hike” may be an insult, but the joke’s on people who don’t do it. Hiking builds physical endurance and mental fortitude. It even relaxes you and calms you down.
Hiking is valuable because it allows you to breathe fresh air. You get to pump blood back into your legs. It allows you to feel the trees and touch the grass.
It allows you, for a moment, to forget about the hustle and bustle of urban life. It gives you an adventure without any danger beyond flies and snapped twigs.
Climb a Mountain
The best outdoorsman is one that is comfortable with being uncomfortable. Nothing creates this rough and ready mindset quite like scaling a steep mountainside.
Mountain climbing tests a prepper’s ability to choose essential gear and pack enough of it to ensure they can reach the peak before climbing back down. It pushes them physically and mentally.
Mountain climbing allows survivalists to look at tall mountains or natural rock formations and see opportunities where others see obstacles. They’ll live to climb another day.
Bouldering/Wall Climbing
Not everyone is physically fit or mentally capable of climbing a mountain. For the rest of us, however, there is still hope. Bouldering is a good practice route and hobby in itself.
This 3-dimensional version of wall climbing builds an enthusiast’s spatial awareness while increasing their flexibility, grip strength, and survival instinct—all necessary skills in a doomsday scenario.
Bouldering makes people physically strong and mentally resilient. Time flies as you swing from colored rock to colored rock, and before you know it, you’ll be all the better for it.
Gardening
An excellent survivalist doesn’t just cultivate “hard skills” but also practices soft skills necessary for long-term survival. Gardening calms the mind and gives you a great source of vegetables.
Gardening is vital for any prepping settlement because it ensures you have vegetables and herbal medicine to keep your fellow community members alive and well.
Gardening is also extremely therapeutic. It allows you to take your mind off what stresses you while breathing life into whatever plants you’re working with.
Camping
Camping is a great way to introduce your kids to survival skills like making a fire, building a shelter, and knowing how to use a knife. It gives them an appreciation of modern comforts.
Camping is a fun activity for every age group. It builds character in children and prepares them in case you will need to go from “camping” to living in the wild.
Preppers who take camping seriously will be able to know which equipment to keep and which are junk. They’ll know more about plants, trees, rivers, and foliage than people who don’t appreciate nature.
Foraging
Our ancestors were hunters AND gatherers. They scavenged for wild fruits and edible plants that ensured the survival of our species. These skills are wired into our DNA.
Foraging for berries that are safe to eat and looking for water in bamboo chutes is a useful skill to have if you ever get stuck in the wild with no sources of food.
Outdoor Barbeques
Being outdoors doesn’t have to be all pain and suffering and flies. It can also be a relaxing experience with all your friends sharing beers while you flip steaks.
Barbeques are a wholesome, great way to build your community. You can tell stories, have a few hotdogs and burgers, and even swap survival tips with like-minded people.
Stargazing
The night sky is a wonderful sight to behold. It’s a sight denied to those in the cities, surrounded by large skyscrapers. You’ve got some room overhead. Best appreciate the view.
Stargazing allows you to appreciate how great being alive is while also getting familiar with the constellations and guiding lights that can help you navigate the pitch dark.
If you pay attention to the stars you see, you’ll begin to visualize directions and be able to go from one place to another using the heavenly bodies the way seamen do.
Geocaching
Geocaches have exploded in popularity in recent years. This global treasure hunt is a unique way to train people to pay attention to their surroundings while giving them goodies.
Geocaching is particularly useful for preppers because it allows the prepper community to stock medical supplies, ammo, and other useful items in the most unlikely places.
Fishing
Fishing is the most stereotypical outdoor activity, but it will never go out of style. “Teach a man to fish” and whatnot. Fishing gives survivalists a sustainable source of food.
Fishing is a useful skill for anyone to have because it teaches people patience. It gives them upper body strength and requires preppers to have basic boating skills.
Spelunking
Cave exploration is an underrated yet effective way of giving preppers an emergency exit in case they need to bug out and hide.
After all, men have won revolutions by hiding in caves they know like the backs of their hands. Having a cave system you’re familiar with helps increase your ability to run and hide.
ATV-ing or Horse Riding
Owning a compound, ranch or farmland makes it possible to indulge in riding activities like ATV-ing and galloping on horseback. You have a wide stretch of land. Why not explore it?
ATV-ing allows you another means of getting away in case the situation becomes untenable. Mud, shallow water, rocks, and tree branches stand no chance against your suspension system.
As for horses, they don’t require fuel. They run as long as you feed them. They’re loyal, intelligent creatures that will get you home if it’s the last thing they do. You’d be a fool not to have them.
Drone Flying
While preppers try to stay off the grid as much as possible, you can’t deny the tactical value drones have when observing intruders on your property or disrupting their plans.
It allows them to patrol their property without leaving their control point. Crafty preppers can even mount counter-measures on their drones for maximum impact.
Drone flying is also wonderful for preppers who have always wanted to be pilots, allowing them to zoom and zip across the sky without ever leaving the ground.
Conclusion
Being a survivalist doesn’t have to mean being a downer. It’s possible to do things that better prepare you for disaster while still having fun doing them.
These are just some activities you can do to keep boredom at bay. They give you happy memories, help foster friendship, and help make you the best prepper you can be.