Wilderness survival isn’t all bow-drilled fires, rabbit snares, and no-holds-barred cougar wrestling. Generally speaking, survival skills are just a set of techniques you can use to not die.

For no-nonsense pointers on how to come home in one piece, we turned to Steve Dessinger, who directs programs for the famously spartan Boulder Outdoor Survival School. They’re not all that sexy, but they might save your life.

1. Always share your plan

No one will look for you if no one knows you’re missing. Whether your trip is a day hike or a two-week backpacking trip, always share your itinerary and expected time of return with a friend or family member before you go.

Depending on the length of the trip, this can be as easy as sending a text or updating your Facebook status. On longer trips, be careful not to change your itinerary mid-trip unless you can call someone to let them know.

And as an added bonus, you’ll get a chance to boast about your outdoor adventures without looking like a total jerk.

2. Stay where you got lost

It’s not easy to admit when you’re lost – as a general rule, if you don’t know where you are, you’re lost. And when you’re lost, probably the very worst thing you can do is keep moving.

“There are 360 degrees on a compass,” says Dessinger. “So you have about a 359:1 chance of picking the right direction” if you move without the right information. If there are no immediate dangers in your area, just stay put and don’t risk it.

Even if your spot isn’t a soft campsite next to a babbling brook, chances are it’s good enough. For folks who wait, rescue usually comes within 72 hours.

3. Keep your priorities straight

Your body needs a lot of things to survive, but fortunately it doesn’t need them all at once. Knowing where to focus your energy in a survival situation can keep you from making a fatal mistake.

First and foremost, says Dessinger, address your mental state and ensure that you are calm enough to make sound decisions. Then address any life-threatening injuries as quickly as possible.

Only once you are calm and not mortally wounded should you address your circumstances. And even though you may be hungry and thirsty, remember: you can survive three weeks without food and three days without water, but can die in just three hours if exposed to the elements.

4. Hole up and settle in

Once you’ve made the decision to stay in place and await rescue, you’ll want to set yourself to work building a shelter. This will not only provide you protection from the elements, it will occupy your mind and keep you from panic.

For a simple sleeping shelter, Dessigner suggests using logs rocks to create a bed frame of sorts – something the length of your body and about three feet deep. Fill this frame with natural materials like leaves or pine needles, and burrow in the mix. This should shield you from cold, wind, and even light rain.

Resist the temptation to seek out food or water unless your hunger or thirst become immediate threats to your survival. Never risk injury by seeking water in difficult terrain, or risk illness by eating plants you don’t know to be edible.

5. Come armed with a skill set

The four tips above make a solid rubric for most survival situations, but wilderness mishaps don’t come prepackaged. Be it injury, changing conditions, or just the passage of time, some factor is bound to force you to make tough decisions.

And those decisions just might require some of those “sexier” survival skills – but we can’t properly teach you how to bow-drill a fire, trap game, or navigate with a map and compass through an email newsletter. To add those skills to your toolkit, you’re better off signing up for a course with B.O.S.S. or a similar outfit.

Based on a Brigham Young University wilderness program, B.O.S.S. has been in the survival business for 45 years. The school offers field courses that range in length from seven to 28 days.

We usually avoid ribbon cuttings - mostly because of a bad childhood experience with a pair of jumbo scissors. But when the event opens a new 3,828-acre playground for hikers, bikers, and climbers, we’re willing to make an exception.

This weekend (May 18-19), the state will drop the ropes at Staunton State Park, a swath of once-private land just southwest of Evergreen. The grand opening celebration will take two days, and will include music, guided nature hikes, children’s activities, and more. 

The park is full of traditional rock climbing, as well as hiking and biking trails that roll through the area’s rolling hills and pine forest. In the western end of the park, hikers can walk to the base of the 100-foot Elk Falls. 
Getting there: For this weekend’s grand opening, the park will shuttle visitors from the Mountain View RTD Park-and-Ride and Elk Creek Elementary School , which are 10 and 15 miles southwest of Evergreen on Highway 285, respectively. Though dogs and bikes will be allowed in the park, they will not be allowed on the shuttles this coming weekend. After the opening, entry to the park will cost $7 per vehicle per day. 

Visitors interested in a guided hike should email the park in advance.

The American South gets snubbed all too often by the G.O.R.P.-munching crowd. And while it’s true that the land of Dixie isn’t blessed with much powder skiing or rock climbing, one of hiking’s best-kept secrets is south of the Mason-Dixon.

Named for one of the visionaries behind the impossibly popular Appalachian Trail, the 288-mile Benton MacKaye Trail is probably America’s youngest long trail. The trail is almost entirely singletrack, and visits eight wilderness areas as it winds through Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

Officially completed in 2009, the trail provides a wilder, more secluded experience than its brother to the North. For this reason, it’s often described be hardcores as the trail the AT “should have been” (whatever that means). 

Want to try it? Benton MacKaye is best hiked in the spring or fall, when temperatures are mild. The full hike is typically done from south to north, and can take six weeks or more. Many hikers choose to tackle its 25 sections individually.

And as with any long trail, you’ll always be well-served by bringing the guidebook.

The Paint Mines

Everyone likes the hiking photos you keep posting to Facebook. Really – we do. But maybe… just maybe… it’s time to add some photos with a little something different in them? Something other than trees and the hindparts of mule deer?

We’d love to see photos of something like the Paint Mines Interpretive Park, where four miles of trail wind through a cluster of technicolor hoodoos and spires. The park is one of the best-kept secrets of Colorado Eastern Plains, and provides a perfect day trip for Southern Colorado families.

Getting there: From Colorado Springs, take Highway 24 about 35 miles east to the town of Calhan. Turn right on Yoder Road, and follow signs to the park. Entrance is free - dogs, bikes, and climbing are prohibited.

Vermillion Basin/Canyon

The 80,000-acre Vermillion Basin Roadless Area is just one of many swaths of public land in the state’s upper left corner. Many miles from both the Front Range and the I-70 corridor, the semi-arid network of canyons and valleys is easily one of the wildest places in Colorado. 

The basin offers enough hiking and camping to keep even devoted locals busy for years. But for the one-time visitor we recommend a short hike just outside the roadless area: the 1.7-mile tour of the petroglyph-decorated Vermillion Canyon.

Getting there: From Maybell, take Highway 318 about 43 miles west, to the junction with County Road 10. Drive north on this road (follow a sign to Rock Springs) for about 3 miles, then take another right onto County Road 167. Follow this for another mile to a fork in the road, and take a jeep track to the left. Take a left at another fork (almost immediately), and follow this a mile to the trailhead. High-clearance vehicles are must.

We told you it was wild.

We’re only certain of two things - life is better outside, and beer tastes better from a can. And if its anywhere near as fun as it was last year, we’re pretty sure the second annual Lyons Outdoor Games will be the best way to kick off a summer of sun and suds.

The festival is scheduled for May 31-June 2 in Lyons’ Bohn Park, where tent camping is virtually limitless and completely free. That means it’s easy to (responsibly) indulge at Saturday’s Oskar Blues Burning Can - a beer party that brings together 35 craft breweries to celebrate aluminum-encased booze.

We’re excited about the suds. But the festival also features classics like a fun run, kayak races, BMX big air shows, dock jumping competitions for dogs, and free live music from Dumpstaphunk.
Our favorite (sober) event? Sunday’s Pedal the Pond, where competitors test their balance by biking a narrow, 100-foot plank over the water of the Bohn Park Pond. 

Barefoot running is everywhere  – even the shoe store. Americans spent an estimated $59 million on “minimalist” footwear last year, and that number appears to be on the rise in 2013.

But eager as we are to fit in, we weren’t ready to bare our soles without getting answers to a few questions. So here it is – our introduction to the barefoot running trend in less than 550 words starting… now.

Why is this a “thing” all of a sudden?

People have run barefoot since prehistory, but the recent fad is largely credited to Christopher McDougall’s 2009 best-seller, Born to Run. The book follows members of the Tarahumara tribe – known for running marathons in just sandals.

McDougall’s book claims running in an altered style with minimal footwear can reduce injury and increase speed. A 2010 Harvard University study largely supported these claims, and the craze was on.

Altered stride? What does that mean?

Barefoot running advocates say running unshod encourages a running style that generates less impact, resulting in less injury.

Traditional running shoes are padded in the heel, causing most runners wearing them to land with their heel first. This “heel strike” generates a major impact, even when cushioned by running shoes.

Study of traditionally barefoot runners in Kenya found they preferred a different style of running. These runners used shorter strides and landed first on the ball of their foot, generating less impact.

Not everyone agrees on this – a 2013 study of a different group of Kenyan barefoot runners found them heel striking, just like runners using running shoes. What everyone can agree on is that running with a forefoot strike generates less impact than heel striking.

But does heel-striking really cause injury?

That’s the $64,000 question. The Harvard study doesn’t directly tie heel striking to injury. But other studies have tied running shoes and orthotics to knee pain, shin splints, and a host of other common running injuries.

At least one recent study has presented another side of the story, though. A Brigham Young University study published in February found increases in Bone Marrow Edema (caused by stress fractures) in the feet of runners who switched to barefoot running.

This study is not widely considered a verdict against barefoot running, but rather evidence that a transition in running styles or shoes should be done very gradually. Experts recommend spending a month or so practicing the barefoot stride on short walks or jogs before incorporating it into your running.

I have flat feet/high arches. Don’t you need perfect feet?

Advocates for orthotics and stabilizing shoes often compare bad feet to bad eyes; you can’t train away pronation or supination any more than you can squint away near-sightedness, they say.

But barefoot running discussion boards are full of runners with”bad” feet who have fixed their stride with minimalist shoes or none at all. Podiatrists on this side of the debate invoke Wolff’s Law, which states that bones change structure and shape depending on how they are used. 

What the heck are “barefoot shoes”?

Sounds like “jumbo shrimp”, right? But “minimalist” shoes are popular among runners who want to break into to barefoot without stepping on hypodermic needles. Exactly how much support a shoe can offer and still be considered “minimalist” is very much a matter of debate, but what all these shoes have in common is a zero-drop sole: a sole that pads evenly from heel to toe.

The biggest sellers in the minimalist shoe market are the iconic Vibram Five Fingers - more commonly known as those goofy “toe shoes”. Popular as they are, it’s worth mentioning that Vibram is in the midst of a class-action lawsuit, alleging the company made false claims about the benefits of going unshod.

That’s it – we’re out of words. Check the links below to learn more.

 The Harvard running study

Outside Online – You don’t know how to run

The New York Times – Myths of Running

Chris McDougall – The Barefoot Running Debate

We’re experiencing an identity crisis. Not the Bootprints team, mind you – the state we live and play in is having a hard time making up her mind about just what time of year it is.

But mother nature’s mood swings won’t have much bearing on the CB3P, a sort of mountain town triathlon race coming to Crested Butte Sunday, April 28.

Officially called the Crested Butte Pole, Pedal, Paddle, the race combines events from all seasons: ski mountaineering on Crested Butte mountain, 26 miles of road cycling, and five miles of moderate whitewater kayaking on the Gunnison River.

The event will be divided into “Race” and “Fun” divisions, and is designed to be friendly to mountain athletes of all abilities. Bikes and ski gear will be available to rent locally from the Alpineer shop.

Participants can register as individuals for $50 or in teams of two or three for $90 (per team). All entrants are required to attend a competitor’s meeting in Crested Butte the night before the race.

Get course and registration details