I usually use Survival and Knowledge(Nature) for when the party needs to travel in the wilderness. The situation works like;
Party going from A to B.
They need 3 successes (or 3 out of 5, or 2, any kind of threshold and cut off works).
DC15 (or whatever)
Every failure is an encounter. You can choose if it is a natural hazard (quicksand), debuff (fatigue), or a fight. Often I'll use Survival or Perception to determine how bad the situation they get into is.
You can use similar checks in dungeons (Dungeoneering) or other environments (Profession Miner if they are lost in mines, Sailor for boat/naval checks, etc.....)
