A Sophomore BOB

Joined
Oct 8, 2006
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2,097
A friend’s daughter was leaving for college. I wrote this for her. The goal was a kit she could keep in her book bag and always have with her. It’s all about doing much with little.

I’d already given both sisters things like Vic Farmers, paracord, surplus ponchos, and Guyot bottles. Neither is a survival enthusiast. Both understand about just-in-case. They occasionally carried some of those presents.

After a week of rain they used found materials and started a fire. They sawed a branch in half with the Farmer, banged and split it, and used the dry wood. It took them half an hour, but by golly they started a fire.



OPEROR NON EGO INSECTUM
Don’t Bug Me

Dorm is on fire! Get Out Now! Chemical spill on the highway! Get Out Now! Hurricane! Explosion in the pesticide factory! Terrorist attack! Earthquake! Book of Revelation! Get Out Now!
Dress for the outdoors. The more you can carry on your person, the better. Grab your credit card, checkbook, cell phone, pocket knife, Ritter Pocket Pack, the stuff you normally have with you. They should already be in the pockets of the clothes you plan to wear tomorrow. You’re not a morning person. Get everything arranged while you’re still awake. Thumb drive with your documents and copies of anything you’d hate to lose; family pictures, passport, birth certificate, driver’s license, student ID, Piled Higher and Deeper thesis. Stick them in your pockets.
Forget school books. Forget your teddy bear. Grab your bug out bag and

Stop.

Just stop.

Gear is important, but it’s not primary. The most important thing you need is skill. Can you tie a bowline and a trucker’s hitch? A ferro rod is small, tough, reliable. Starting a fire with one isn’t intuitive. Neither is laying a fire. Can you build a debris hit? Can you rig a tarp shelter? How about if the tarp has no grommets? Learn what doesn’t work when failure costs you nothing. Reading isn’t the same. Watching YouTube isn’t the same. You need dirt time. You need muscle memory. You need trained hands. Knowledge weighs nothing and makes a huge difference. Skill weighs nothing and makes a huge difference. The more you know, the less you need. Stranded man. Dead in car. Emergency kit unused. (True story.)

When the balloon goes up, attitude is vital. Attitude is everything. Expect to die and you will die. A positive attitude drastically improves your chances. You never give up. You are determined to survive. No matter what. Obstacles don’t stop you. You deal with obstacles and keep going. Middle aged man, out of shape, no emergency kit, no training. “What kept you alive through this terrible ordeal?” “I’m in the middle of a divorce. I wasn’t going to let her walk away with everything.” (True story.) Determination helps you survive. Intention helps you survive. I cannot overstate the importance of positive attitude.

A word about your bag. Small.
The original BOB was military. You’re separated from your patrol. You parachute from a dying plain. You’re gathering information never-mind-where. You must be ready to move now. Get the hell out of Dodge. Get back to your buddies. Make a run for the border. Whatever else you are carrying, you want stuff to get you back home. That means a kit you always have with you. In your book bag. In your briefcase. In your backpack. In your pockets. Murphy might goose you in class, at work, riding the Greyhound, in your dorm, at an away game, driving to town. A bulky kit gets left behind. A heavy kit gets left behind. If the Book of Revelation strikes, you’ll wish you owned a smaller kit.
When John Muir hit the wilderness trail, "I rolled up some bread and tea in a pair of blankets with some sugar and a tin cup and set off." A sailor carried a knife, tarred cord, silver coin. He was prepared to cut, bind, and buy. Hobos wore packs that let them run flat out. My father was a hobo during the depression. He carried a blanket or two. Always a pocket knife. Sometimes a water bottle, “Especially out West”. Nothing else worth mentioning. I asked. “I'm glad you didn't call me a bum.” He wouldn’t know a Bugout Bag if it Bit him on the Bindlestiff. Somehow he got by.
This extravagant kit weighs five pounds.




BE PREPARED
That’s the Girl Scout’s Marching Song

Be the grey man. Nothing special. Attract no attention. You can’t be a better gray man than a student in a college town. This kit should fit your book bag, leaving room for books, laptop, lunch. Emergencies lead to chaos. Think Katrina. It doesn’t take much for the human predator to come out. Your bag should fit and function well, but be ratty looking. Not worth stealing. Check Goodwill and yard sales. Military looking is bad. Do you want the National Guardsman to think you a terrorist? Empty your bag on the street? Watch the crowd collect your stuff? I didn’t think so.

Make an emergency number list. Not just 911. Phone and email numbers for family and friends. People who will come get you when you’re stuck but good. You may have those numbers memorized. That doesn’t matter. When you are drunk, sick, under arrest, wounded, beaten up, panicked, the most obvious stuff flies out of your head. “I have all that stuff on my phone.” How many times have you checked Facebook and discovered your phone was dead? You don’t have a portable phone charger? Oh.
Make a laminated cheat sheet. Read it while leaving a message. Without the essential information, Uncle Clarence can’t help you. You know how easily Clarence gets confused. Which information is essential? It depends. Don’t waste the message. Tell the nice robot:

Who you are.
Where you are.
If it’s Walk and Don’t Walk you’ll have a long wait.
Try, "Downtown Boston, corner of Fifth and Franklin, Safeway parking lot."
Date and time.
The situation.
What you need them to do.
Phone number to return your call. Especially at a public phone.
Pay phones are scarcer than they used to be. If you can find one you will need:
Quarters. If you reach Uncle Clarence, give him a quick update, give your phone number, have him call you back. Does he think you’re made of quarters?
Phone card. Does Clarence think you’re made of plastic?
Please don’t answer that.
If the emergency has the cell system clogged, a text message may get through.

“Dear Daddy, Gone hiking. It’s the Chico Marx trail in the Dakota Badlands. Back Sunday night.” Leave a hiking map with Chico’s trail marked, for Search and Rescue. “Chico Marx trail? Never heard of it. Let’s see that map. Oh! She meant the Shaka Zulu trail!” You just gave SAR a smaller universe.
Some girls only offer their boyfriend the moon.
Have a pixelated survival book. In your phone, not downloaded. It’s expert advice that weighs nothing—as long as your battery holds out. Too bad they don’t make something that can charge your phone outdoors. John Wiseman's SAS Survival Guide is a decent all-climate manual.
You’re skiing cross country and your roommate breaks a leg. Good thing you left a note. Call for help if you have coverage. Text for help, sometimes that works. Wear your red coat. Spread out your orange poncho. Pitch your turquoise tent. Stomp XXX in a field of snow. Make them big enough to see from the air. Don’t bother with SOS. Recognizable and artificial catch attention. XXX is easy all around. Spread ashes or greenery in the bottom of each trench.
Don’t be so literal. If you’re skiing in Death Valley lay the X pattern with rocks and plants.
The Kims took a wrong turn. Stuck on a logging road. No cell coverage. Daddy went for help and died. The family stayed with the car and lived. The lesson is an exercise for the student. (True story.)
Practice with the signal mirror in your Ritter Pack. Signal with your flashlight. Man stuck in a gully, out of public sight. Strobed his flashlight against a nearby building. Someone noticed and investigated. (True story.) Don’t make a signal fire. Make three. Three fires in a row, or in a triangle, will draw a pilot’s attention. To hell with Leave No Trace. Have the fires ready to go. When you hear an airplane, light them up. Throw damp boughs or pieces of tire into the fires to make smoke. No, that Jumbo Jet doesn’t count.
Remember searches on the ground. Fire and smoke are still good. Leave surveyor tape dangling where it will be spotted from any direction. If you have chemical light sticks, tie some paracord to the end of one. Swing it in a circle. After dark, dummy! Don’t forget the Ritter Pack’s whistle.
Satellite phones get coverage where cell systems fail. Personal locator beacons and satellite messengers seem good.
 
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Have singles and fives for small purchases. In a big emergency, venders and storekeepers get reluctant to make change. Some raise their prices. Think about what you might need and what you can afford. Have enough for eating money. Enough to pay a cab. Enough to rent a room until things are normal. Or your mom comes. You should pardon the tautology.
Keep cash unobtrusive. Have more than one stash. If someone cleans out one location, you still have a reserve. Inside a rolled up sock. In your cargo pocket. In a spy capsule on your keychain. Under your merkin. In a money belt. In plastic, in an Ace bandage, wrapped around your knee. In your hat.
When you go down by the river, keep your money in your shoe. Where are the dead when I need them? Stoned out of their gourds and grateful as hell.
“Stand and deliver, missy!” Show a money clip. Throw it as far as you can. Run in the other direction. Playing ducks and drakes with your money might save your life.
On 9/11 plastic was worthless. Checks were worthless. Cash on the barrelhead ruled.

Have the number of three local cab companies. Call each ahead of time. Find out what they would charge to get you from the edge of your turf back home. “Girl, put out or walk home!” (All too true a story.) Have enough cash to cover the fare. Car, bus, subway, hitchhike fail, and dump you into a bad section of town? Don’t wait for your mugger. Enter a store, bar, hotel, gas station, strip club. Someplace public. Call AAA. Taxis are cheaper than emergency rooms.
Learn to drive. Automatic and stick shift. It’s easier to get a ride with someone if you can trade off behind the wheel. One sleeps, the other drives. That gets you farther, faster, safer. Mind you, in a big emergency the roads may be parking lots. Know the routes out of town, on foot, by car, by bike. If it’s something like a big chemical spill, you may need a long bug out to be safe.
Be cautious about public emergency shelters. Custodians steal knives and stuff. “Can’t have weapons….We need your food…Any goodies is that bag?” People are beaten and robbed by their neighbors. In a hobo jungle my dad wore his shoes overnight. Stinky feet are better than bare feet.
If your college offers shelter, that may be a different thing. I don’t know.



PERSONAL GEAR
You’re going to wear that out in public?


Wear a pair of comfortable walking shoes or hiking boots, with waffle stomper soles. Stompers were invented by a climber after a buddy’s fatal fall. Hob nailed boots fell asleep at the switch. (True story. Except about the switch.) Boots high enough to support your ankles are good. Be sure they are broken in. Socks matter. “A hole in the sock means a hole in the foot.” In your closet, keep clean socks stuffed in your boots. You have socks on hand when you need those shoes right now. A lie can travel around the world while the truth is putting on his shoes. (Very true story.)

Wear a long sleeved, sun blocking, comfortable shirt. It should have large breast pockets
with button flaps. Put some pennies in a flap-free shirt pocket. Turn a cartwheel. Case closed.

Wear tough pants with closable cargo pockets.

Hat with wide, all around brim. Keep the sun and rain off. It should have a chin strap. It should squish flat for packing. Did you think I wore such a hat by accident? Tilly hats really do have secret compartments. Don’t tell anyone.

Windbreaker. Thigh length, water repellant, large closable pockets, hooded, bright color, small and light.
Change of underwear, change of socks. Wash at night. One set wearing. One set drying.
Don’t trust a winter coat. Wear heavy clothes underneath. Clothing is your primary layer of shelter. Have warm hat and gloves available. Two thinner coats are better than one thick one. Who died and made Thoreau king? Two sweaters have space between them for insulation. Layers let you fine tune thermal protection. In deep cold, sweating is dangerous.
Cotton kills. In the tropics loose and light cotton clothing is great. Shivering in the snow? Wet cotton steals your heat. Yes, even blue jeans. Wet from precipitation, wet from perspiration, cotton kills.
Clawing through brambles, pawing through broken glass, cutting firewood, building a shelter, shivering in the snow, scavenging in the ruins, gloves save your hands. I like unlined deerskin. It protects well and leaves fingers nimble. Mechanics Gloves and their ilk? Synthetics melt.

A big piece of cloth is the original multi-tool. Food sharing helped proto humans evolve into humans. Leather or woven carryalls made a collective foraging life possible. In many cultures, even today, people carry a big cloth. In the Indian subcontinent the gamucha is towel, head scarf, loincloth, carry bag. Tie a rock in one corner and it’s a flail. Beware leopards, dogs, dacoits, wolves. The national symbol of Cambodia is the krama. It’s a scarf, hat, face veil, carry bag, garment. Large ones are hung as hammocks. In Thailand a similar cloth with similar uses is called a pha khao ma. The Malay version is the genggang—from which English gets the word gingham. Sarongs are around three feet by ten feet. They’re worn from Madagascar to Easter Island. Besides being a waist wrap they are shawls, rain covers, sleeping wraps. In the Slavic world scarf is a babushka. So is the old woman wearing one. Jewish women wear the tichel, men wear the tallit. Muslim women wear the hijab, men wear the keffiyeh. Boys in the sandbox call it a shemagh. Good in a sandstorm it is. The Tuareg wear the tagelmust and are “The people of the veil”. Indigo veil is indigo skin for the Blue Men of the Desert. The Japanese furoshiki started life in a bath-house; a bather wrapped his clothing in one, for easy recognition later. They morphed into merchant’s wrappings, then to a system of knots that gives the furoshiki so many uses. Wrap in a long cloth into a turban. Soak your head. You’ll walk with mad Englishmen. The Welsh nursing shawl transports babies. The Scotch kilt transports adults. The great kilt is skirt, match coat, blanket.
A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost." What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with. (Not a true story.)
The cowboy wild rag is the American version. The common size is 38” X 38”. You can find them larger. Larger is better. Use as a towel. Make a triangle bandage to support a broken arm. Strain junk out of water before you purify it. Wipe your sweat when it’s hot. Use it as a tourniquet. Turn it into a hat. Drape it under your hat to keep the sun off your neck. Tie it over your hat to keep the wind from picking your pocket. Use as a washcloth. Wet it in the heat and let evaporation cool you. Hide your face when you’re robbing the train—didn’t you ever watch Westerns? Spread under a picnic. Use as a foraging bag. Tie a gauze pad over a wound. Signal for help—pick a bright color. Lift a pot out of the fire. Blindfold your spooked horse, or hobble him. Tie a padlock in one corner. Cover your face when it’s freezing, dusty, smoky. Make it a sweat band. Use it—big finish folks—as a scarf. There’s a reason the wild rag is the Flag of the West.
Silk is strong, light, breathes. Wicks moisture away. Keeps you warm. Keeps you cool. Resists mildew. When Teddy Roosevelt bought a Montana ranch, he found the cowboys used silk rags. A cowboy’s pay didn’t go far. They picked expensive silk for a reason. If silk is too rich for your blood, go with cotton. Many cowboys did. During the French and Indian wars Rogers’ Rangers carried, along with tomahawk and powder horn, a silk or linen scarf. (True story.)
Don’t use a shemagh. Ask the gray man. Don’t use synthetics either. Do you want to dress in burning napalm? That’s why you only wear clothing made of a natural material onto an airplane.
Remember Bilbo Baggins! Cowboy wild rags are multi-tools. You also want something to sneeze into, and to wipe drool off your chin. Put your knife in your pocket, along with the standard clutter. Crumple the handkerchief, add it to the same pocket. The handkerchief keeps your stuff in your pocket. Serving sentry-go is the job of your clean handkerchief. The one you use to stop the bleeding. The one you offer when your boyfriend breaks into tears. Your drool-dripping handkerchief lives in another pocket.

Repair kit? You know what you need. Sewing stuff? Patches and waterproofing for tarp or clothing? Zipper repair? Stove repair? Electronics repair? Truck repair? Don’t expect me to do all the work.
Oh, all right. Duck tape, safety pins, large paper clips, Chap Stick never go amiss.
The Patagonia Expedition Sewing Kit is great. I default to black upholstery thread. As long as I fix the problem, who cares how it looks? Add a curved upholstery needle. Work from one face of the fabric. Buttons, safety pins, seam ripper. You multitool has scissors. Thread your sewing needles. Beeswax the thread. Wrap around the needle.
Um…you do know how to sew, don’t you?

Toilet kit. Toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, deodorant, whatever. Nobody told you to pack your hair dryer. Antibacterial waterless soap cleans hands and wounds, socks and rocks and cooking pots. Your handkerchief is a washcloth. Save your Wild Rag! Oh, shut up about your damned towel! Washing with soap and cold water beats not washing. Presenting a decent face to the world makes dealing with cops and merchants easier.
Bag liquids for luck. One zip lock bag. Drinking straw to suck out the air and seal. Rinse and repeat. Leave the straw in the bags.
Collapse the tube from a used up roll of toilet paper. Fold in half lengthwise. Wrap TP around it. Give yourself as much as you need. Think of the consequences. Double it. TP isn’t waterproof. Have you heard of zip lock bags?

I like a Roson Jet Lite for fire. It gives a jet of butane which is hard to blow out. That’s more than I can say for Bic lighters. Not to run down the Bic. They are cheap enough to spread around. They are tough as nails. Scatter them wherever you might need a light. When I need fire in the windy wet, I use the Ronson.
Butane lighters don’t do well in the cold, or at high altitude. Keep them in a pocket inside your coat. If you’re winter camping in the High Sierras, bring a Zippo. Better yet, bring an IMCO Triplex. It holds fluid better than the Zippo, and features a removable cylinder lamp. You can hold the cold end and stick the flame right into your tinder. No lid to get in your way. You can stand it as a candle. “It sounds like an innovative design.” “Actually they’ve been selling the same lighter since WWI.” (True story.) IMCO folded a few years ago. But you can find them on Flea-Bay. The peanut lighter holds fluid for months. It has a screw on lid with an O ring. The bad news is, it lacks a windscreen; a puff will blow it out. Zippo makes a decent vial for extra lighter fluid.
 
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Read To Build a Fire. Can you light a fire in your sleep? In any weather? With found materials? Fire is basic to everything. Fire matters. Skid on black ice. Car in the creek. You’re wet in the wind. Dead phone. No buildings. No traffic. Trees and snow as far as the eye can see. Would you like a fire? (Not a true story.) In winter the urban homeless gather around a fiery fifty-five gallon drum.

The P-52 is a longer version of the P-38. Not to be confused with the P-52 Mustang. Nor the P-38 Lightning. Those fighters helped win WWII. So did these can openers. They fed C rations to the troops.
You over there! Stop giggling about troop followers.

Open can
Open blister packs
Open letter
Open box
Open bottle
Open paint can
Open skin
Women carried them to discourage muggers.
Marines used them in bar fights.
Can openers are legal in every state.
Clean fingernails
Remove splinter—fie on those tweezers!
Chisel
Stir stick
Rip seams
Cut fishing line
Free painted windows.
Who is Painted Windows?
Why is he in prison?
Scrape pans
Scrape floor corners when scrubbing
Down on your knees
It was good enough for your grandmother.
It’s good enough for you.
Move dirt
Clean Tupperware
Clean waffle stompers
Gut fish
Scale fish
Toothpick
There’s this thing called a pocket knife.
There are these things called sticks.
What won’t they think of next?
Test for doneness when baking
Pry key on flip top cans
Open tub of spackle
Widen cracks
Strip wire
Mark
Measure
Measure Mark
Who is Mark and why—no, we did that.
Adjust a car’s flow valve
Sparkplug gap gauge
Deflate tires
Repair carburetor
Before fuel injection they had these things called…oh, never mind.
With Washington controlling injections, carburetors may make a comeback.
Rip off rank for on-the-spot-promotion
Scrape ferro rod
Puncture plastic coating
Punctuate your exclamation
Knock on doors
In Morse code
Remove bee sting
Sharpen knife
Barter
Souvenir
Christmas tree ornament
Scratch emergency message
Kilroy Was Here.

Your Victorinox Farmer is as much knife as you need. It’s the Boy Scout Knife plus a good saw. The scout pattern served the international Scouts and military for a century. It must have done something right.
The can opener earns its keep. The screwdriver on the end handles straight and small Phillips screws. It pries staples from paper. It a bail and lift a pot. What does jumping bail even mean, officer?
Of course you hate microbrews! The useless bottle opener is a large screwdriver and light pry bar. You can strip electrical wire with that notch.
Location, Location, Location! Most Vic patterns mount an awl on the middle back. It opens in T formation. Fail! The Farmer’s awl is great for scraping a ferro rod. It drills wood, leather, plastic. It cleans burs from cut pipe—copper or ABS or PVC. (But this isn’t a do-it-yourself paper.) Cut a pilot hole in a fireboard before bow and spindle burn in your friction hole. Use blade and/or saw to notch the edge. (But this isn’t a bushcraft paper.) Drill a hole in your belt and bind a fardel of wood. Lay the end of a thread in the hollow under the awl’s spine. Poke it through as you sew. Clean paint out of a screw head. Strip wire insulation. It’s a scratch-all. It can release a painted window. And make pilot holes before starting a screw. Spin the awl in the other direction and it’s a marlinspike, helping you untie a knot.
Free Painted Windows! Free Painted Windows!
Oh yeah. There’s also a knife blade. The spear point is a useful general purpose pattern. Slice bread. Open envelopes. Open blister packs. Cut stuff for a hobo stew. Unfasten zip ties. Carve fuzz sticks. Spread peanut butter. Cut paracord. Skin game. (But this isn’t a hunting paper.) Remember cross-contamination. After you’ve cut flesh, clean the joints. If you might drop your knife overboard, tie a lanyard to that annoying ring.
The saw is gravy. Thin enough to add little bulk. Great for cutting firewood or making a debris shelter. You can split wood with a saw, right? I’ve used it to cut PVC pipe. It also shoots trap-triggers. I mean cuts trap-triggers. (But this isn’t a bushcraft paper.);
The Farmer is small and light for pocket carry. Have I praised small and light?
Cut away from yourself, not towards. When slicing into wood, lead with the little finger. If the knife stops, your hand will slide away from the edge.
Harvesting wood? A stout branch can knock low limbs from standing trees. Wood close to the trunk may be dry. If you want to break or splinter a branch, wedge between two adjacent trees and push. Bang it against a rock. Lean on a log, step on it. Leave firewood long, slide into fire.
Put a bend on a branch or sapling. Angle your knife towards the root, slice into the bulge. Keep bending the branch and making new cuts. You can harvest surprisingly large saplings that way. Yes, it matters. You might have a knife but no saw-axe-machete. (This is an emergency-survival paper.)
Two is one and one is none. I always have a Jr. Stockman in my pocket. The main blade is general purpose. The pen is my scalpel and splinter picking blade. The sheepfoot blade cleans junk from boot soles, opens blister packs, handles the tough jobs. I’ve started cars with a small Stockman and a pair of pliers. Small knives don’t arouse hoplophobia.

I don’t know how many times I’ve dropped an incandescent-bulb flashlight and been stuck in the dark. Use LED flashlights. That’s flashlights, plural. Do you want to find your spare batteries, somewhere in your pack, and replace the ones in your flashlight, all in the dark? You do? Really? The people they send me…. Have at least two flashlights.
My workhorse is the Fenix E01. Small, light, tough, reliable, inexpensive. Worth owning just to find that earring in a dark closet. A single AAA battery gives you 21 hours of light. Buy bright colors. The better to find you with, my dear. Hang a swivel-hook on the butt end. Hook to your shirt pocket when your hands are full. Hang from the hood while you skin your knuckles. Help locate light it your purse.
A headlamp is a Pearl of Great Price.
I used to go with those quarter sized flashlights. It’s too easy to butt-switch them on. There’s nothing like a dead battery when you need it. Now that you do...does that gas station carry quarter-sized batteries? Hell no. Does it carry AAA batteries? “Right on that shelf, lady.”
Lithium batteries will last for 10 years unused. Sure I store dead batteries in my flashlight. What else is it for? Lithium isn't cheap. If you use your light every day, stay with alkaline.
Save your flashlight! Save your flashlight!
You think I’m kidding, don’t you?

Medical gear is too unpredictable. Do you need nitroglycerin tablets? Asthma inhalers? Diabetic supplies? Trauma kit? Professional snake bite kit? Bottled oxygen? The first aid kit goes into the personal gear list. You did notice that talk about skills, right? Have you taken a Wilderness Emergency First Aid Course? Consider:

Personal medications

Latex Gloves

The Cinch Tight is the best single-package bandage I know. . It’s a multipurpose trauma kit. Soldiers use them in the sandbox. It can be applied—even as a tourniquet—with a single hand. They come shrink-wrap-compact. After the earthquake, your Cinch Tight saves a life. Then an aftershock lays your arm open. Too bad you didn’t pack a spare.
As many gauze bandages as you have room for. First Aid kits never have enough. Don't change them, leave the bottom layer in place to aid blood clotting. If it bleeds through, tape or tie one pad atop another.
One EMT keeps a hemostat clipped to her jacket. Yes, inside, she’s no idiot. It might not be sterile. When stating an artery, she doesn’t care.
Hemostats stat more than arteries. Don’t tell the AMA.

Leukotape is the duck tape of the first aid world. Strapping tape, adhesive tape, butterfly bandage, moleskin. Splint a finger. Wrap a spool around a pencil or stick of fatwood. Store in a zip lock bag.

Citronella-based bug repellant is better than DEET. It won’t dissolve plastics, and isn’t toxic to children. DEET repels mosquitoes. Citronella repels mosquitoes, flies, vampires.

Permethrin based tick repellant. If you’re ticks give you Lyme disease, or turn you vegetarian, carry a tick remover. Vegetarian? Say what? Look up the Lone Star Tick. Don’t tell me God doesn’t have a sense of humor.

Broad-spectrum high SPF sunscreen.

Chap Stick greases chapped lips and skin. Rub it on cotton balls, cloth, twigs, to supercharge tinder. Waterproof a leaky area on your windbreaker. Rustproof your knife. It’s food safe.

Antihistamine for anaphylactic shock.

Tylenol treats headaches, sunburn, muscle aches, general soreness, coughs, insomnia, and diarrhea. A change in diet and circumstance can upset your GI tract. Do you want to deal with that in the woods, or a public shelter?

Uncle Bill’s tweezers are compact, precise tools. Pull splinters. Handle small machine parts. Force termites to confess. To dislodge a tick, grab the periphery not the body.
Don’t use tweezers on bee stings. The exposed end is a bulb full of painful poison. Squeeze it, and guess where it goes. Hold a knife blade almost vertical to the skin, spine tilted slightly away from sting. Scrape the stinger out. Warn your buddy before drawing naked steel on her.
 
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Doug Ritter Pocket Survival Pack is the best pocket kit I know. I don’t understand not having one with you.

1 - Pocket Survival Pak Container,
Carry water, bait, nuts.
Hold the parts you removed, trying to fix your reel.
Store the contents of the Ritter kit.

1 - Aluminum Foil, Heavy Duty, 3 Sq. Ft.
Heat reflector, light roasting/frying pan, windscreen for a stove, tie to a hook and hoodwink fish, windscreen or pot lid, collect fatwood curls/magnesium dust/fire drill char, roast grasshoppers. Use your imagination. Brazilians are above popcorn. They eat roasted ants at the cinema. You do speak Spanish, don’t you?
Doug thinks the foil makes a cooking pot. Nope. After long residence in the pocket pack, the folds give out as quickly as the water runs out.

1 - Compass, Button, Liquid Filled,
20 mm, that-a-way compass. Easily lost. Grooved to accept thread-lanyard

1 - Duct Tape, 2" x 26",
See duck tape, infra.
But not infra dig.

1 - Scalpel Blade, #22, Sterile, Disposable.
Light duty, very sharp, batons poorly.
More useful than a single-edged razor blade.
Roadside accident. Physician passing by. His Case pocketknife performed a tracheotomy. The doctor may have helped. (True story.)

1 - Sewing Needle, #18, heavy duty
Large eye for easy threading, large shaft for easy holding,
When you get the kit, remove the needle. Run Button & Carpet Thread through the eye. Hit the thread with beeswax. Coil it around the needle. Replace in pack.
Use your pliers to help the needle penetrate heavy materials.

50 ft - Sewing Thread, Nylon, 10.5 lb test.
Sewing repairs. Fishing line. Make lanyard for that little compass. Bind small items.

6 ft - Safety Wire, Stainless Steel, 0.020.
Stronger than brass, mill-spec grade, not brittle in cold, many uses.
You have wire. You have a multitool. Look up how rodbusters fasten rebar with tie wire.

10 ft - Nylon Cord, #18, Braided, 100 lb. test
Many uses, all involving knots. Know the ropes.

1 - Signal Mirror
2” X 3” polycarbonate, mill-spec aiming aid, one hand use, instructions on back.
Examine that bug bite on your face.
Or to pluck your eyebrows.
Whichever comes first.

1 - Pencil,
Keep notes.
Leave note.
Scrape lead for a dry graphite lubricant.

1 - Waterproof Paper,

1 - Pocket Survival Pak Contents List.

1 - Waterproof Survival Instructions.
Kit specific.

1 - Fresnel Magnifier
Read Doug’s miniscule survival instructions.
Thread a needle.
See what part of the tick you’re grabbing. Not the body!
Start a fire in the sun.
Read fine print.
Who knew your warranty was void?

1 - Rescue Howler Whistle,
Pealess, triple frequency, exceeds US Coast Guard specifications.
Shouting is self-limiting.
As long as you can breathe, you can blow a whistle.
If you can’t breathe, you have bigger problems.

2 - Split Shot, Lead B,

4 - Fish Hook, #10,
Sewing thread + split shot sinkers + twig bobber + hook + worm = dinner.
Or at least = an activity to fill the vacant hours.

4 - Safety Pins,
Pin dummy cord to gloves.
Pin dummy cord to dummy.
Pin chin strap to hat.
Pin lace before the next waltz.

1 - Spark-Lite Fire Starter.
US Military issue.
One hand operation,
Waterproof.
Good for a thousand sparks.

4 - Tinder Quick.
Fray one end to help catch a spark.
Cut in half and double your fires.

Have I mentioned that smaller kits are better? Forget food. Three days hungry will do you no harm. Maybe you can scrounge a meal, or buy one. If you have your lunch in your book bag, or a few power bars, so much the better.



TOO BIG UNTIL YOU NEED IT BAG
Dum de dah, dum. Ah, dum de dah, dum.



Multitool. You never can tell when a pocket toolkit might help. Scissors and pliers are useful in class and in the field. It should be compact, light, and have no extra pieces. If you drop a multitool, it’s easy to find. That changeable bit you have to have? Lost forever.

Meet the credit card sized DMT diamond sharpener. I’ve carried one for years, it’s never let me down. You can always have it with you. Use the old grind-your-knife-in-a-circle, one-minute-from-kick-to-tip method. Coarse grit sharpens quickly and leaves a toothy edge. Which helps cutting smooth stuff like synthetic rope and zip-ties.
Stuck without? Housewives sharpened kitchen knives on their front stoops. Use the bottom of a ceramic mug. The top edge of a car window. The underside of a toilet lid. Hell, you can steal a pebble from that stream.
Your knife is some modern super steel? Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.

Guyot Water bottle. Single layer stainless steel. Wide mouth accepts ice cubes. Fill with snow, fire turns it to water. Fill it with water, fire turns it potable. Screw a water filter onto it. Cook in it. It’s far from an ideal bush pot. It beats cooking in your hat. Unless it’s a Stetson.
I’m basing this kit on your school bag. You carry some kind of water bottle. It might as well be a multitasker. The Guyot better with the Humangear Cap Cap. The big opening fits the Guyot. The small opening lets you drink without soaking your shirt.
The bad news? The Guyot brand is gone. The good news? Stainless bottles breed like flies. How does a fly do it? Can I watch? Just this once?
There are no safe streams North America. Drink and risk Salmonella, Guardia, Cryptosporidium, other nasties. I use Katadyn’s Micropur MP1. It comes on a card with individual blister wraps, so you can use one and leave the rest sealed. Doesn’t have much aftertaste. One pill is calibrated for 32 ounces/1 liter. A card of pills is small and light.
Have I mentioned small and light?
Start with clean water. Strain through a bandanna. Clear, room temperature water is safe to in half an hour. Using cold, cloudy, dirty water with leaves in it? Four hours.
In the real world, that when you wet your bandanna. If necessary let junk settle and decant.
Katadyn tablets kill Guardia. They do not fix everything. If that stream is full of pesticide runoff, you really should distill it.
When will your pocket still be ready?
Comes the crunch? Drink what you have. Tell your doctor about the bugs you’ve consumed. If you die of dehydration—not a fun way to go—no doctor can help you.
For a compact kit, collapsible plastic water bottles weight little and pack small. They are worth the few ounces. Do stick one into your Ritter Pack. Add a few Katadyns.
I like the Snow Peak Hybrid Summit. You boil water, pour it into your Guyot. It comes with a 10 oz. silicone coozie/cup. And a silicone lid/pot holder.
Save your wild rag! If you’re getting a hand out at a soup kitchen, the pot can hold stirabout while the mug holds coffee. During the Quake of '89: “This is not your usual soup kitchen. Today we’re serving crab stuffed mushrooms.” (True story. Only in San Francisco.) Have a spork with you. You wouldn’t want to miss those crab stuffed mushrooms. I like the Light My Fire Titanium. A Chinese stainless steel spoon is a multi-curve and multi-use. It’s a mortar and/or pestle. Put the bowl under a fireboard, catch the ember, Place it where you want it. Scrape magnesium into the bowl, pour it into a pile. Steal a coal from the fire. Scoop with the bowl end. Probe with the handle end. Sharpen the edge to carve a bowl—what? Who's bright idea was that? It digs cat holes. Within reason. There’s ground I wouldn’t dig without a pickaxe. Is it a great cat-hole trowel? For the cost of sixty spoons I will sell you a superb titanium trowel. Worse come to worse, eat your mulligan with it.

Mylar emergency blankets are noisy, insulate poorly, tear at a harsh look. The AMK Two Person Survival Blanket is a civilian version of the UN standard. They are distributed to survivors of earthquake, tsunami, Godzilla. Bright colored for signaling. Shiny on the far side. Duck tape keep things tucked. AMK recently wised up. They morphed the Heat Sheet into the Survive Outdoors Longer Survival Poncho. Both are great. Army surplus ponchos are heavy, strong, bulky, inconspicuous. Strong is good. Heavy, bulky, camouflaged? Not so much. Modern ponchos, are lighter, pack smaller, catch the eye. Tough? Not so much. Cheap? Not so much. Good? So much. Sew loops along the edges and center. Seal the seams. Your poncho keeps you dry without making you sweat. Not as dry as a real rain suit—except the part about sweating. It’s not great in high winds or heavy brush. But the poncho has virtues. It is versatile, keeps your pack dry, collects rainwater, cheats the wind. “You’re dealing from the bottom of the deck again!” Hang as a rain fly, rig as a stretcher, use as a ground cloth, hang as a hooch, soften the bleacher seat during the Big Game. There are different set-ups for different conditions. Mate it with another poncho. Poncho and Poncho, sitting in a tree… Improvising with a Visqueen, Tyvek building wrap, cut open yard, plastic drop cloth? Remember that pebble? Combine Visqueen with the blanket’s shiny side. Make a super shelter. You do know how to…Look the damn thing up. A debris hut is a lot of work. It may be worth it, depending. A fallen tree, an overhanging rock, a cave, can half-build your shelter for you. Search for one before you start. Save time, effort, calories. Make your shelter small. Less work to make. Less space to heat. It’s still lot of work. Hugger mugger under a tree may serve you better.
Stuck in the snow without a car? Travel light, freeze at night. Sit down on something that won’t drain your body heat. Lean against a tree. Coat on. AMK poncho and real poncho around you. Perhaps a yard bag. These can get you through the night. If you’re dangerously cold, a candle helps. In frontier America they called it a scout fire. You won’t have comfort. You won’t have sleep. You might get some rest. You might avoid frostbite. You might keep your hair.
What? Wait! That’s a different emergency.
Stretch a tarp over a pit. A pebble weighs the tarp above a cup. That’s your still? Dig the pit with your spoon, will you? Exactly how is that coil of copper tubing going to help? The people they send me....
 
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The best stove for our BOB is the Emberlit. It’s light. It’s compact. It’s efficient. You burn trail found chips. No need to remove the pot to feed the stove. It burns hot, makes little smoke, leaves few cinders. An assembled Emberlit can hold a cast iron pan and its contents. Crossbars on top support your Guyot. It cools quickly. It packs flat. It comes with a storage sleeve. You can use it legally use it during the fire ban. You can carry the Emberlit Fire Ant in your shirt pocket. The smaller fire needs more tending. That comes with the territory. But…fits in your pocket!
A windscreen shortens boil times. Take heavy weight aluminum foil. Fold double and shape into a windscreen. Experiment until you get the most screen with the least foil. Fold the foil, pack with your stove. The Emberlit doesn’t need wood. Use Trioxane, Coleman fire sticks, buddy burner, Diethylene Glycol, Sterno, Esbit cubes, penny stove
I like the Trangia Stove. It can be filled with alcohol and sealed. Uncap and light a match. Instant fire is mana from heaven. Yes, the Israelites followed the fire and ate the mana. Are you done? Buy denatured alcohol from a hardware store. Or Heet from an auto supply store. Don’t use rubbing alcohol, it’s a sooty burn. The Trangia with an Emberlit lets you make coffee at home when the lights go out. That’s an emergency, right? In dorm: “I’d kill for a cup of coffee…Oh.” (True story)
Coil a strip of aluminum foil into a pedestal. Put Trangia on her pedestal. Now is the time for chivalry. (True but irrelevant story) Assemble the Emberlit without the bottom plate. Light the Trangia. Set the Emberlit around the stove. Cook your mana. Remove the hot Emberlit with your multitool.
You are stuck in the snow. With careful ventilation and the simmer ring, the Trangia can keep car and passengers warm…um, less cold. In winter have a bottle of alcohol. Not that kind of alcohol, dummy!
They also serve who make candles. They look like a can of shoe polish. Have one per vehicle.

A Write in the Rain notebook is small, waterproof, spiral bound, fits a shirt pocket. A Fisher space pen writes in most conditions. So does a pencil.
Write a poem, describe your medical symptoms, predict your Famous Last Words, keep a diary of your adventure, write your last will and testament, start a fire. Leave a note for SAR. “Where has That Idiot gone now?”

Surveyor Tape: Vibrant colors, designed to be seen. Thirty feet is compact and weighs little. Catch SAR’s eye.

Yard bags. Heavy construction grade is best. Turn into a tarp. Stuff with leaves or grass to make a sleeping pad. Tear—don’t cut, a tear is less likely to keep splitting—a hole in the middle bottom to put your head through. It’s a rain cloak. Tear flitches. “Can I touch you now?” Shut up. It’s always politically correct to mock advertisements.
Feet in one bag, head in another, breathing hole, vent hole at your feet, it’s a bivy. Tear a face hole on the side just below the bottom. Put it over you, face to the hole to breath. Squat inside for shelter. I never said you’d be comfortable, Scout.
Tie a yard bag around a tree branch to gather transpired water. Hope springs eternal.
In the Zombie Apocalypse, you’ll want to hide. You want clothes to match the ruins. Yard bags are mostly black and hide you well. Fie on the Zombie Apocalypse! If you’re lost, you want to be found. Wrap’s Storage Bags to the rescue! Heavy-duty bright yellow bags. See-from-a-distance bags. SAR friendly bags. You don’t like that shade of yellow? Shut up. Heavy-duty means bulkier when folded. Have one Wrap’s bag. Trust a contractor for the rest.
Zip lock plastic bags. Quart size, gallon size, two gallon size. Small, light, food safe, multiple uses. Gather water, berries, dry tinder, acorns, bait, crawdads, fish. You do know how to leach acorns…forget it.

Paracord AKA 550 cord AKA parachute cord ties parachutist to parachute. WWII and Cold War airmen used them from tundra to jungle. When you’re bugged out of troubled airplanes, ride your chute on down. They don’t write songs like that today.
Improvising cord is tricky and environment specific. BYOC Only buy military grade. It should say MIL-C-5040 Type III on the package. It’s kernmantle line that can be taken apart to produce seven 50 lb. test strands—the kern. Fishing line, sewing thread, walk your cricket, floss your teeth… Plus the 200 lb. test woven shell—the mantle. Pick a bright color. A bright line tangles no feet. Have cord in your pocket, your bag, your car. I use a coil of red paracord as a hat band. You don’t think that’s ornamental, did you? You have better taste than that. When you cut a length, use your lighter to melt the end so it doesn’t ravel. Knots weaken a rope. Tie a bowline in 550 cord. Instant 275 cord. I wouldn’t use paracord for a trucker’s hitch unless I had no choice.

There are five fundamental forces. Gravity, electromagnetism, strong nuclear, weak nuclear, and duck tape. Yeah, I used to think it was duct tape. Nope. It doesn’t do ducts.
It says here duck tape was invented in WWII. To drive amphibious ducks. What? Oh. Amphibious trucks. Waterproof ammo boxes? None of this is about ducks. Who wrote this book? Few items are as versatile: Fix a leak in your windbreaker. Splint your broken paddle. Seal a line so you can drive back to town. Splint broken finger to its neighbor. Cover a baby blister. Turn cardboard into sheath, box, vat of malmsey. Close cut. Fother the hole in your canoe. Tape a magazine around a broken arm. Tape cardboard over that broken window. Haven’t you heard of the broken-windows theory? Seal a sucking chest wound. You use a magnesium-ferro rod? Duck tape on the ground, sticky side up. Scrape your magnesium over it. Scrape ferro rod.
What? You haven’t thought of another twelve uses for duck tape?

Your car is sinking. Grab your ResQMe Car Escape Tool. Cut the jammed seatbelt. Break the side window. Down at one corner. Bug out! Might save more lives than your own.
The thing about a crash is that it’s a crash. The ResQMe is in your right pants pocket. Your right arm is broken. The car is sinking. I don’t like this picture. Just for luck I keep the tool in a shirt pocket. Right next to my whistle. When I can reach either tool with either hand, I feel really lucky.

Silva invented the baseplate compass. When they make their own instruments in Scandinavia, Silva set the world standard. Now Silva compasses are China made. The quality isn’t the same.
Suunto compasses are still made in Finland, to the original excellent standards. I like the mirrored Suunto Global. They call it the Global because when you’re hiking the Andes, it still works. Such a world traveler you are. The Global is more forgiving of amateur compass handling. Finding your way Jackson’s Hole, that may make a teeny difference.
Buy two maps. Remember to mark Chico’s trail.
Even experienced woodsmen get lost. So lost that they know better than their compass. It must be lying to them. “Nine men out of ten, on finding themselves lost in the woods, fly into a panic and quarrel with the compass. Never do that. The compass is always right, or nearly so. It is not many years since an able-bodied man—sportsman of course—lost his way in the North Woods and took fright, as might be expected. He was well armed and well found for a week in the woods. What ought to have been only an interesting adventure, became a tragedy. He tore through thickets and swamps in his senseless panic, until he dropped and died through fright, hunger and exhaustion.” (True story. Just ask Nessmuk.)
That could never happen today. But just in case…have a second compass. Hold one in each hand. Whatever is failing here, it isn’t the compass.
What’s the first thing to do when you realize you are lost? Make a cup of tea. Say what? You heard me. Make a cup of tea. By the time you light a fire, heat some water, steep the tea, drink a cuppa, you’ve calmed down. You can assess your situation. Stop blaming the damn compass.
Things look different going than they do coming. Walking a new trail, stop frequently. Turn round and examine the path. Learn the territory in both directions. When returning, the whole way should look familiar.
Once it doesn’t? Stop and brew some tea.

This should be a small kit. Have I mentioned? Except for skill. Except for attitude. You can pack as much of them as you want.

A kitchen scale clarifies the mind.
My guru clarifies my mind. He doesn’t need a scale.
Will someone please shut her up?

Guyot bottle with Cap Cap 11.2 oz
Snow Peak 6.1 oz
Light My Fire Spork 0.7 oz
Chinese sspoon 0.8 oz
Emberlit Stove 13.0 oz
Trangia with alcohol 7.1 oz
50 feet Paracord 3.7 oz
4 Yard Bags, 12 Plastic Bags 6.0 oz
Gloves 2.5 oz
AMK Emergency Blanket 3.3 oz
Army Surplus Poncho 13.8 oz
Compass 2.6 oz
Multitool 7.3 oz

Total 4 lb. 13.8 oz
 
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I have read a lot of this, great information! Thank you very much for typing this out
 
An Educated BOB contains the same kit. People were all over me about it. Format matters. Who knew?

Actually, I did. I also knew format is hard work.
 
I have not found doing anything for college girls (or boys) is of much value. They live in a different world, and while they may pay lip service to your effors, they won't really listen, carry what you think they should carry, or do what you think they should do.
They are, at least in their own minds, adults. I let them set their own agenda, make their own plans.
 
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