An Educated BOB

[Raymond1000]

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.

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.

Once, 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.

I welcome suggestions. But any improvements have to end up under the 5 pound weight limit.



DE-BUGGING YOUR BUG OUT BAG


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!

Get up. Dress for the outdoors. The more you can carry securely 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, the night before.) Thumb drive with your documents and copies of anything you’d hate to lose; family pictures, passport, birth certificate, driver’s license, student ID, etc. Stick them in your pockets. Forget school books. Forget your teddy bear. Grab your Bug Out Bag and….

Stop a minute.

Just stop.

A gear bag 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 prepping and laying a fire. Can you rig a tarp shelter, or build a debris hit? 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 improves your chances. Improves them drastically. 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 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 Bug Out Bag. Small. One origin-story of the BOB is military. You’re separated from your patrol. You parachute from a dying plain. You’re across no man’s land, gathering information. 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 first rode the rails at sixteen. 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 Bug Out Bag if it Bit him on the Bindlestiff. Somehow he got by. This kit—exclusive of your personal gear and your book bag—weighs five pounds.

Be The Grey Man. Nothing special. Attract no attention. You can’t be a better gray man than dressing like a student in a college town. This kit should fit your book bag, leaving room for books, laptop, lunch.
Emergencies lead to chaos. Think hurricane Katrina. It doesn’t take much for the human predators 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? I didn’t think so.



BE PREPARED


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.)
Besides the numbers you want a reminder sheet. Especially if you leave a message on an answering machine. Without the essential information, Uncle Clarence can’t help you. Which information is essential? It depends. Don’t waste the message.
Use your cheat sheet.
Tell the nice robot:
Who you are.
Where you are. If they must look for you at 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 you’re calling.
What the situation is.
What you need them to do.
Phone number to return your call. Especially important if it’s not your personal phone.
Public phones are scarcer than they used to be. If you can find one you will need.....…
Quarters, Some take coins. If you reach Uncle Clarence, give him a quick update, give your pay phone number, have him call you back. Does he think you’re made of quarters?
Phone card Some take plastic. See Uncle Clarence, above.
If the emergency has the cell system clogged, a text message may still get through.
I don’t ask you to carry a survival manual. Not with this weight limit. But the new copy of John “Lofty” Wiseman's SAS Survival Guide comes with an I-Phone app. If you can get a copy on your I-Phone or Kindle, do so. It’s not a perfect manual. But it’s expert advice at hand. Best of all, there’s no weight penalty.

 

[Raymond1000]

While we’re discussing communication, notes are good. Before you leave: “Dear Daddy, Gone hiking. It’s the Chico Marx trail in the Dakota Badlands. Back by 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.

Signaling. You’re skiing cross country and your roommate breaks a leg. You can’t leave her, so…You did leave a note at home, didn’t you? “If I’m not back by Monday morning, I’m in trouble.” Call for help if you have coverage. Text for help, sometimes that works. Make yourself visible. Have a bright colored coat. Spread out your bright orange AMK blanket and your bright colored wild rag. If you have a bright colored tent and poncho, display them. 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 it’s Death Valley, lay the X pattern with rocks and plants on sand. You will stay with your car, won’t you? The Kims were driving from one place to another and took some wrong turns. They got stuck on a logging road with no cell phone coverage. Daddy went for help and died. The family stayed with the car and lived. (True story.) The moral is; it’s easier for SAR to find a car than a man.

Practice with the signal mirror in your Ritter Pack. Signal with your flashlight. Don’t make a signal fire. Make three. Three fires in a row, or in a triangle, will draw a pilot’s attention. Have the fires ready to go. When you hear a small aircraft, light them up. Throw damp boughs or pieces of tire into the fires to make smoke.

Remember searches on the ground. Fire and smoke are still good. So is a signal flashlight. String paracord at head height with branches and lengths of surveyor tape, paracord, AMK blanket, bandana, dangling. Or just dangle them from branches. If you have chemical light sticks, tie some paracord to the end of one. Swing it in a circle. Don’t forget the Ritter Pack’s whistle. You can blow a whistle long after you’ve shouted yourself hoarse.

Satellite phones get coverage where cell systems fail. Personal Locator Beacons and Satellite Messengers seem good. I have no experience with any of them.

Paper money. Have singles and fives for small purchases. In a big emergency, venders and storekeepers become reluctant to make change. Some raise their prices. Have tens and twenties for larger purchases. Enough to rent a cheap room until things are normal again, or until your Mom can come and get you. Enough for eating money. Enough to pay a cab. Think about what you might need and what you can afford.

Keep cash somewhere 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. Sew a trick panel in your book bag. Under your wig. In a zippered money belt. In travelers cash-cashes that dangle inside your pants. In plastic, then 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 Grateful Dead when I need them? Probably still stoned.)

Money clip. Holding a stack of one dollar bills. You should be able to see the cash in the clip. It should have enough heft that you can throw it. If threatened by a mugger (“Stand and deliver, missy!” or the modern equivalent) show him the greenback-laden clip. Throw it as far as you can. Run in the other direction. Playing ducks and drakes you’re your money might save your life.

Think you can get by with checks or plastic? Don’t bet on it. On 9/11, plastic was worthless. Checks were worthless. The only thing New York stores accepted that day was cash on the barrelhead.

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!) Have enough cash to cover the fare.

Car, bus, subway, hitchhike fail, and dump you into a bad section of town. Don’t wait to be mugged. Enter a store, bar, hotel, gas station, strip club. Someplace public. Call AAA. Call a cab. It’s cheaper than an emergency room.

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.

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.

Be cautious about public emergency shelters. The ones running such places have stolen knives, hand guns, and useful stuff when they let you in. “Can’t have weapons….We need your food…Got any other goodies in that pack?” People in shelters have been beaten and robbed by other refugees. Much depends on how widespread the disaster is, but…best avoided.

In a hobo jungle my dad wore his shoes overnight. That was better than going barefoot in the morning. Air your feet out in private.

If your college offers shelter, that may be a different thing. I don’t know.


PERSONAL GEAR


Wear a pair of comfortable walking shoes or hiking boots, with waffle stomper soles.(Invented by a climber, after a buddy’s fatal fall. Hob nailed boots failed to do their job. True story.) Boots high enough to support your ankles are good. Be sure they are broken in. Wear your heavy socks when you try them on, so the boots will fit. “A hole in the sock means a hole in the foot.”

In your closet, keep clean socks stuffed in your boots. That’s a good practice with all shoes and boots. That way you have socks on hand when you need those shoes right now. (“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”)

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?

Have a windbreaker. Thigh length, water repellant, large closable pockets, hooded, bright color. It should pack small and light.

Dress for the weather. If the snow is deep, don’t wear light clothes under a coat. Your primary layer of clothing is your primary layer of shelter. Have warm hat and gloves available. Two thinner coats are better than one thick one. Two sweaters have the space between them for insulation. Two layers of fleece lets you fine tune thermal protection. In deep cold, sweating is dangerous.

Cotton kills. In tropical heat, loose and light-colored cotton clothing is good. Shivering in the snow? Wet cotton steals your heat. Yes, even blue jeans. Wet from precipitation, wet from perspiration, cotton kills.

Change of underwear, change of socks. Wash at night, wear the spares while the clean ones dry. Cold weather clothes should include insulated underwear.

Gloves. If you’re clawing through brambles; or pawing through broken glass; if you’re cutting and hauling firewood; or building a shelter; if you’re shivering in the snow; or scavenging in the ruins; gloves can save your hands. I like unlined deerskin. It protects well and leaves fingers nimble. Many like Mechanics Gloves and their ilk. Trouble is, synthetics melt. You will have to deal with fire. Leather gloves are safer.

Handkerchiefs. Remember Bilbo Baggins! Cowboy wild rags are milti-tools. You also want something to sneeze into, and to wipe drool off your chin.
Breathing smoke? Fold a wet handkerchief and tie it over your mouth with your wild rag.
Keep a clean spare for first aid, or when your boyfriend breaks down in tears.

Repair kit. You know what you need. Sewing stuff? Patches and waterproofing for tarp or clothing? Zipper repair? Stove repair? Electronics repair? Don’t expect me to do all the work.
Oh, all right...Duck tape, safety pins, large paper clips, these never go amiss. A curved upholstery needle, for when you can only work from one face of the fabric. Two identical heavy needles for the saddle stitch.

You’ve got to love Yvon Chouinard. Climber, surfer, environmentalist, manufactures outdoor gear, runs an ethical company. (His first book, a survival manual for working at Chouinard Equipment Ltd., was Let My People Go—Surfing. True story.) Chouinard developed the Chouinard Expedition Sewing Kit. When Chouinard Equipment folded, so did their sewing kits. Exped Expedition Equipment reproduced them as the Exped Expedition Sewing Kit. That’s when I discovered the kit, and scored a few. Not long afterwards Exped stopped making them. Eventually Yvon’s next company, Patagonia, filled the gap. With stunning originality they call it the Patagonia Expedition Sewing Kit. http://www.patagonia.com/us/product/expedition-sewing-kit?p=12000-0-130

The key to the kit is a miniature collet chuck, known as a pin vice. With a sewing machine needle and a cotter pin it becomes a pocket sized sewing awl. http://www.amazon.com/Stewart-Manufacturing-Company-Speedy-Stitcher/dp/B00194DF2Q/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1413122958&sr=8-4&keywords=sewing+awl Here’s how you use it. http://samh.net/backpacking/media/chouinard_sewing_kit_instructions.pdf During the dry spell people figured out how to reproduce the kits. http://salestime.com/EmergencyPrepardness/ChouinardColletChuckReplacement.html and http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=76028

For field use I use black upholstery thread. As long as I fix the problem, who cares how it looks? I include a few buttons that match those on my shirt and coat. Plus needles and extra safety pins. I toss in a Vic Classic in for the scissors. The blade acts as a seam ripper. If your kit is EDC and you’re mending a frock, looks matter. Chose thread colors and replacement buttons carefully. You also want some thinner sewing needles and maybe a real seam ripper.

Toilet kit. Toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, deodorant, whatever. (Nobody told you to pack your hair dryer.) Hand soap is okay, but…Antibacterial waterless soap is your best cleaning option. ABS shines when cleaning your hands, before cleaning a wound, before the first bandage. You can use it for cleaning hands-socks-cook pots. Put liquid soap on a bandanna for kitchen duty.
Bag liquids: Reliable container. One zip lock bag. Drinking straw to suck out the air. Seal bag. Rinse and repeat. Double bag anything that might leak. Leave the straw in the bags.
Washing with soap and cold water beats not washing.
Presenting a decent face to the world makes dealing with cops and merchants easier.

Toilet paper. Collapse the tube from a used up roll. Fold in half lengthwise. Wrap TP around it. Give yourself as much as you think you need. Double it. Then add some more. Think of the consequences if you run short. Rinse and repeat.
TP isn’t waterproof. Store each in double zip lock bags. (See toilet kit.)

Lighter. I like a Rosnon JetLite for fire. It gives a jet of butane which is hard to blow out. That’s more than I can say about 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. But for personal carry, when I might light a 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 also 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 tea-bay. Don’t expect fluid to last in a lighter. Carry a vial of lighter fluid. Zippo makes a decent one.

The one lighter that will hold fluid for months is the peanut lighter with a screw on lid. The bad news is, it lacks a windscreen; a puff will blow it out.

There are good lighters that keep lighter fluid long term. They don’t come cheap. I haven’t tested any.

You have read To Build a Fire, right? You can light a fire in your sleep? In any weather? With found materials? You can carve a feather stick? 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 you can see. Would you like a fire? Not a true story.) You don’t need fire just in the woods. In winter the urban homeless gather around a fiery fifty-five gallon drum.

 

[Raymond1000]

Redundancy matters. Two is one and one is none. Ronson lighter? Yes. Ferrocerium Rod? One in my pocket. K & M Matchcase? (Great tool, especially when hands are cold. I keep a turn of waxed paper around the matches; instant tinder. Wrapped inside the waxed paper are two striker strips, for luck. Love the compass in the lid.) Bic Lighter? It’s a superstar. Spark Light? Bet your ass. Tinder-quick? Yes. See the Ritter Pocket Pack list. Vaseline/cotton balls? Worth it. Fatwood? I keep a stick in my pocket. (I’ve soaked a fatwood stick in water overnight. Shook it dry, prepped it, and light the tinder with a ferro rod. Hint: Scrape the stick with the edge of your knife. That makes shavings fine enough to catch the spark. True story.)

I'm not saying you should carry all this ballast. Do have fire making backup in good depth.

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 multinational militaries for a century. It must have done something right.

Not all cans come with pop tops. The can opener still earns its keep. The screwdriver on the end handles straight and small Phillips screws. It pries staples from paper. You can use it to hook a bail and lift a pot from the fire.

There are still crown cork caps, requiring real bottle openers. Especially if you like microbrews. The opener blade is a large screwdriver and light pry bar. You can strip electrical wire with that notch;

The awl sticks out the end. (Location, Location, Location! Most Vic patterns mount an awl on the middle back. It opens T formation. Fail!) The Farmer’s awl is great for scraping a ferro rod. It can drill a hole in wood, leather, plastic. It can clean burs from cut pipe—copper or ABS or PVC. (But this isn’t a do-it-yourself paper.) Use the awl to 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.) It can add a new hole to your belt. (Not just because you’ve lost weight. Drill a hole in the right place and use your belt to bind a fardel of wood.) Lay the end of a thread or light cord in the hollow under the awl’s spine and you can poke it through fabric or leather you need to sew. Use it to clean paint out of a screw head. Use it to strip insulation off wires. It’s a scratch-all to mark sheet metal or wood for a cut. It can de-stick a painted-shut 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.

Oh yeah. There’s also a knife blade. The spear point is a useful general purpose pattern. Slice bread. Open envelopes. Open plastic blister packs. Cut ingredients for a hobo stew. Unfasten zip ties. Carve fuzz sticks. Spread peanut butter. Cut paracord. Skin game. (But this isn’t a hunting paper.) Clean the joints, especially after you’ve cut flesh. Remember cross-contamination.

Cut away from yourself, not towards. When slicing into wood, lead with the little finger side of your hand. If you hit a knot and the knife stops, your had will slide away from the edge.

If there is danger of dropping your knife overboard or down a canyon, tie a lanyard to that annoying ring;

The saw is gravy. Thin enough to add little bulk in pocket. Great for cutting firewood or making a debris shelter. I’ve used it to cut PVC pipe when installing a sink drain. You do know how to split wood with a saw, right? It also notches trap-triggers. (But this isn’t a bushcraft paper.);

Best of all, the Farmer is small and light for pocket carry. Have I praised the virtues of small and light?

Harvesting wood? A stout branch can knock low limbs from standing trees. Wood close to the trunk has a better chance of being dry.

If you want to break or splinter a branch, wedge it between two adjacent trees and push. Or bang the wood against a rock. Or lean it against a log and step on it.

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 this way. Yes, it matters. You might have a knife but no saw-axe-machete. (This is an emergency-survival paper.)

With something as important as a knife, redundancy matters. Two is one and one is none. I always have a Jr. Stockman in my pocket. The main blade is general purpose. The pen (I always get a pen, not a spay) is my scalpel and splinter picking blade. The sheepsfoot blade is sharpened obtuse because it cleans junk from my boot treads, opens blister packs, and handles the rough work. I’ve gotten many cars started with the Small Stockman and a pair of pliers. The sheepsfoot blade is just right for cleaning battery terminals and connections. The Jr. Stockman isn’t what I’d pick as a survival blade. It’s what I’d pick compared to no knife at all. You can do a hell of a lot with an inch of blade. Think Stanley Utility Knives. There are many small patterns from which you can chose.

I don’t know how many times I’ve dropped an incandescent-bulb flashlight and been stuck in the dark. Incandescents should walk the Dodo road. Go with 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? Have at least two flashlights. My workhorse is the Fenix E01. Small, light, tough, reliable, inexpensive. Worth owning just to find that lost earring in a dark closet. A single AAA battery gives you 21 hours of light. Buy bright colored versions. If I’m dressed I’m carrying two of them. Have extras for coat, car, bike, bed stand, book bag. Hang a swivel-hook on the butt end. Hook to your shirt pocket when your hands are full. At least you can see the ground. Hang from the hood of your car while you skin your knuckles. Most often and most important; the hook helps you identify your flashlight in pocket or purse.

I used to go with those quarter sized flashlights. But it’s too easy to butt-switch them on. By the time you need light, dead battery. Besides...You are on your way to hunting camp. You realize you need new batteries. Does that gas station carry quarter-sized batteries? Hell no. Does it carry AA and AAA batteries? “Right on that shelf, lady.”

Lithium batteries will last for 10 years unused. That saves your flashlight from becoming a storage case for dead/corroded batteries. Lithiums aren’t cheap. If you use your light every day, stay with Alkaline.

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:
Any medications you take.
The Cinch Tight is the best single-package bandage I know. . It’s a multipurpose trauma kit. It can be applied with one hand. It’s the civilian version of what soldiers use in the sandbox. It comes shrink-wrap-compact. Buy an extra to practice with.
Leukotape. The duck tape of the first aid world. Strapping tape, adhesive tape, butterfly bandage, moleskin. Tape-splint a broken finger to its larger neighbor. Wrap a spool around a pencil or stick of fatwood. Store in a zip lock bag.
Gauze Lots of bandages for stopping blood. First Aid Kits never have enough gauze pads. 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.
Bug repellant Citronella-based is better than DEET based. It won’t dissolve plastics, and isn’t toxic to children. Most important, DEET just repels mosquitoes. Citronella-based repels mosquitoes, flies, and other biting insects.
Tick repellant Permethren based, on your clothing. If you’re in an area where deer ticks give you Lyme Disease, or Lone Star ticks turn you vegetarian, carry a Tick Remover.
Antihistamine In case of anaphylactic shock.
Sunscreen. Broad-spectrum, high SPF.
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?)
Chap Stick Grease chapped lips and skin. Rub on cotton balls or cloth or twigs to supercharge tinder. Waterproof a leaky area on your windbreaker. Rustproof a carbon steel knife—it’s food safe.
Uncle Bill’s Tweezers Compact, precise tools. Pull splinters. Handle small machine parts. Force termites to confess.
Don’t use tweezers on bee stings. The exposed end is a bulb full of painful poison. Squeeze it, and guess where it goes. To remove, hold a knife blade almost vertical to the skin. Spine tilted slightly away from sting. Scrape the stinger out.
Dislodging a tick with tweezers? Grab the periphery, not the body. If you have a tick remover, use that instead.
Hemostat I know an EMT who always has a small one clipped inside her jacket. It might not be sterile. But when she has to stat a pumping artery, it’s right there. A hemostat is more often useful as a small clamp and pliers.

 

[Raymond1000]

Doug Ritter Pocket Survival Pack. It’s the best pocket kit I know. It’s so small and so useful, I don’t understand not having one with you. The kit I carry is the original. Here’s what it gives you and why:

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, lid for a cooking pot, collect fatwood curls/magnesium dust/fire drill char, plate for roasted grasshoppers. Use your imagination.
Dough thinks it makes a pot for boiling water. Nope. After long residence in the pocket pack, the folds give out as quickly as the water leaks out. If you want to use it that way, replace the foil frequently.
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
1 - Scalpel Blade, #22, Sterile, Disposable.
Light duty, very sharp, batons poorly.
More useful than a single-edged razor blade.
If you have to perform a tracheotomy—heaven forefend—it’s a sterile blade. Stay away from the carotids. (A passing MD at a roadside accident did a tracheotomy with his Case pocket knife, and saved a life. True story.)
1 - Sewing Needle, #18, heavy duty
Large eye for easy threading, large shaft for easy holding,
Use your pliers to help needle penetrate heavy materials.
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.
Um…you do know how to sew, don’t you?
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 pliers. Look up how rodbusters fasten rebar with tie wire. Practice it beforehand.
10 ft - Nylon Cord, #18, Braided, 100 lb. test
Many uses, all involving knots
1 - Signal Mirror, protective cover.
2” X 3”, polycarbonate, mill-spec aiming aid, one hand use, instructions on back.
Can be used to examine that bug bite on your face.
Or to pluck your eyebrows. Whichever comes first.
1 - Pencil,
Keep notes. Leave note.
Scrape pencil lead for a dry graphite lubricant.
1 - Waterproof Paper, See Write in the Rain
1 - Pocket Survival Pak Contents List.
1 - Waterproof Survival Instructions.
Kit specific. We can all use helpful hints. Especially when it matters. See the Emergency Number List
1 - Fresnel Magnifier, with protective cover.
Read Doug’s miniscule survival instructions. Help thread a needle. See what part of the tick you’re grabbing during extraction. Not the body! Use with sunlight to start a fire. Read fine print and learn why your warranty is void.
1 - Rescue Howler Whistle,
Pealess, triple frequency, exceeds US Coast Guard specifications.
Shouting is self limiting. As long as you can breath, 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. Boredom can be a challenge. See the comments on keeping a positive attitude.
4 - Safety Pins,
Pin dummy cord to gloves.
Pin chin strap to hat.
Pin lace back on your hem before the next waltz.
Many other uses.
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 it catch a spark. Cut one length in half before using.
Depending on conditions and your fire craft, cut one length into quarters.

I have not examined the Doug Ritter Pocket Survival Pack Plus version. But Doug did well with the basic kit. I provisionally recommend the upgrade. Even the flashlight is worth checking out.

1 - CRKT RSK-MK5 knife.
Fixed blade skeleton knife.
Fits in an Altoids tin.
Pedestrian steel for low price.
Better than a scalpel if the kit is all you have.
6- Katadyn Micropur MP1 water purification tablets.
1 – 1 liter collapsible water bag.
Bag and Katadyn pills: Great combination.
1 - E-Gear PICO LED Flashlight.
Three hours of light.
Harder to butt switch on.
Batteries expensive and hard to find.
Better than nothing if this kit is all you have.

I priced out the additional contents. Buying the Pocket Pack is a few bucks cheaper than buying the basic PSP and buying the extra items yourself.


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. Maybe not. 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


Silk Cowboy Wild Rag. A big piece of cloth is the original multi-tool. Food sharing helped proto humans evolve into humans. Leather carryalls made a collective foraging life possible. In many cultures, even today, people regularly carry a big cloth. 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. 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. 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 your hat to your head. Cover your face when it’s freezing, dusty, or smoky. Tie around your head as a sweat band. Use as—big finish folks—a scarf! There’s a reason the wild rag is the Flag of the West. Why silk? 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. The best cotton wild rag I know is the Hobo Hankie.

You could use a shemagh instead. Don’t. The wild rag doesn’t scream terrorist during a crisis. See Be The Grey Man, above. Don’t use synthetics either. A hot pad that melts, a melting shield against flash fire, is a bad plan. Do you want to wear burning napalm? That’s why you only wear clothing made of a natural material onto an airplane.

Small Multitool, You never can tell when a pocket toolkit might help. Scissors and pliers are surprisingly useful in the field or in school. It should be compact, light, and have no extra pieces. If you drop a multitool, it’s easy to find. Drop the one changeable bit you need? Lost forever. For a good weight-usefulness ratio, I recommend the Victorinox Swiss Tool Spirit.

You can hand sharpen, right? The DMT credit card coarse diamond sharpener fits in a wallet. You can always have it with you. I’ve carried one for years, it’s never let me down. Use the old grind-your-knife-in-a-circle method. It’s easier on a small surface. It’s easier to maintain a consistent angle. Coarse grit sharpens quickly and leaves a slightly toothy edge. Which helps when cutting smooth stuff like synthetic rope and zip-ties. (I look for something around 325 grit. That’s what Ed Fowler recommends for his knives.) You can sharpen a knife on the bottom of a ceramic mug. On the top edge of a car window. On the underside of a toilet lid. On on a carefully chosen rock. Housewives used to sharpen kitchen knives on the stone steps of their building’s stoop. If your blade is of some modern super steel, you might need a diamond surface

Guyot Water bottle. Single layer stainless steel. Wide mouth accepts ice cubes. Fill it with snow, let the fire turn it to water. Screw a water filter onto it. Cook in it. (It’s far from an ideal bush pot. It beats making soup in your hat.) 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. But I’m basing this kit on the school bag you normally have with you. You probably carry a water bottle of some kind. You might as well carry a multipurpose one. Your bottle will be better with the Humangear Cap Cap. The big opening fits the Guyot. The small opening lets you drink without dribbling water down your shirt.

A nesting cup is good. If your funds are low get GSI mug. I prefer a Snow Peak Hybrid Summit titanium kit. The GSI holds 18 fluid oz. The Snow Peak holds 28 oz. That makes boiling water in batches easier. It comes with a silicone coozie/cup holding 10 oz. And with 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 spoon or spork with you. You wouldn’t want to miss those crab stuffed mushrooms. I like the Light My Fire Titanium Spork.

Go to an oriental grocery, or on line. Buy a twelve pack of Jaguar Jumbo stainless steel Chinese spoons. I recommend this in addition to your spork. It’s a multi-curve, multi-use scraper. It’s a mortar and/or pestle. It digs cat holes. (Within reason. There’s ground I wouldn’t dig without a pickaxe. A digging stick helps. Sharpen the end, harden in fire.) Put the bowl under a fireboard, catch the ember, place it where you want it. Sharpen the edge to carve a bowl—expect to sharpen often. (“No, you don’t want to ruin a spoon so you can carve a spoon. Mutter, mutter….The people they send me….Mutter mutter.”) Steal a coal from the fire. Scrape magnesium into the bowl, pour it into a pile. Worse come to worse, eat your Mulligan with it. There are smaller, cheaper Chinese metal spoons available. The Jaguar Jumbo larger and sturdier. You can use the handle end as a pick-probe. Scoop with the bowl end. Is it a great digging trowel? Not a chance. On the other hand, one spoon cost me $1.84, and serves many ends. For the cost of twenty spoons I can get a nice titanium trowel.

When it comes to potable water, there are no safe streams or lakes in North America. Drink it untreated and you risk Salmonella, Guardia, Cryptosporidium, and other nasties. I use Katadyn’s Micropur MP1. It comes on a card with individual bubble 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 the importance of small and light? Start with clean water. Strain through a bandanna. Clear, room temperature water is safe to drink in half an hour. Using cold, cloudy, dirty water with leaves in it? That’s when you’re supposed to allow the Katadyn four hours. (In the real world, that’s when you strain and filter the water. Maybe let the junk settle, then carefully decant.)

If it comes to the crunch and you have no way to purify water, drink what you have. Once things are back to normal, you can see the doctor about the bugs you’ve consumed. If you die of dehydration—not a fun way to go—no doctor can help you.
Katadyn tablets kill Guardia and stuff. They do not clean up other things. If that stream is full of pesticide runoff, you should distill the water. If you figure out how to fit a still in your school bag, please let me know.

The best stove for our BOB is the Emberlit. It’s light. It’s compact. It’s efficient. You can burn wood found along the trail. You don’t have to remove the pot to feed the stove. Once it’s burning, just stick thumb sized sticks into that loading hole. As they burn down, slide more stick into the stove. It burns hot, makes little smoke, leaves few cinders. Crossbars on top will support your Guyot. An assembled Emberlit can hold a big cast iron pan and its contents. It cools quickly. It packs flat. It comes with a storage sleeve to keep your pack clean. With the sleeve it weighs 13 oz. The titanium version weighs 7 oz. You can—sometimes—use it safely when dry weather forces a ban on open fires.

A windscreen around a twig stove shortens boil times. Take heavy weight aluminum foil. Cut to fold double lengthwise. Shape into a windscreen. Experiment until you get the most screen with the least foil. Fold the foil to fit and pack with the Emberlit’s parts.

You can use the Emberlit itself as a windscreen. Leave one end unlatched. Open into a U shape with the stove in the middle. Lean the bottom against the feeding face.

You can use your Emberlit Stove when there is no wood available. It can be used with Trioxane. With Coleman fire sticks. With a buddy burner. With Diethylene Glycol. With a penny stove. With Sterno. With Esbit cubes.

I like the compact Trangia Stove. The Trangia can be filled with alcohol and sealed. When you need a fire, uncap and feed it a match. There will be times when instant fire is mana from heaven. 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? (This happened, in dorm. “I’d kill for a cup of coffee…Oh.”) Suppose you are stuck in the snow. With careful ventilation and the simmer ring, the Trangia can keep car and passengers warm…um, less cold. (They also make candles for that. Usually shaped like a can of shoe polish. Have one per vehicle.) When the weather is cold, carry a bottle of fuel alcohol. Stuck in the snow without a car? Sit down on something that won’t drain your body heat. Lean against a tree. Coat on. AMK blanked and poncho around you. That can often get you through the night. If you’re dangerously cold put the burner, with simmer ring, where it won’t burn you or the poncho. You won’t have comfort. You won’t have sleep. You might get some rest. You might avoid frostbite. In frontier America they called it a scout fire.

 

[Grateful]

Good information and a good read.

Jim

 

[Raymond1000]

Times I’ve used the Emberlit with the Trangia stove, I cut a branch two to three inches long. Set it on the ground, with the Trangia on the pedestal. Assembled the Emberlit without the bottom plate. Lit the Trangia, set the emberlit around the stove, and covered the feed hole with the bottom plate. It worked well enough. A couple of sticks help you remove the hot Emberlit. Now you can reach in with the simmer ring and extinguish the stove.

The most interesting of the new generation of twig stoves are the Core 4 and the Emberlit Fire Ant. The Core 4 is the better stove. It has the rocket loading system. It burns multiple fuels. It’s a wood gasification stove. The flip side is, it’s heavy and fiddly. It has more pieces than the Fire Ant. More pieces to assemble. More pieces to lose. More time taking more steps with more stuff. There is nothing wrong with that. Say it’s your chosen stove. You can assemble it in your sleep, and frequently have. More power to you.

This paper is about emergencies. I assume a user who is badly trained and not at her best. Simple is better. Light is better. Versatile is better. The Fire Ant is a multi fuel set up. It’s designed to handle all the options I’ve listed. No more improvising necessary! It weighs three ounces. It fits in a shirt pocket. It’s smaller than the Emberlit, so a burn demands more attention. Field reports are promising. The Fire Ant has some kinks to iron out. Once they do, I’ll recommend it.

Write in the Rain notebook. We’re back to notes. Small, spiral bound, fits in 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 so they know in which direction That Idiot has wandered now.

AMK Two Person Survival Blanket. Mylar emergency blankets are noisy, insulate poorly, tear at a harsh look. The AMK blanket is a commercial version of what the UN hands out at earthquakes and tsunamis. Duck tape helps keep things tucked. Bright colored for signaling. See poncho, below. AMK recently wised up. They morphed their Heat Sheet into the Survive Outdoors Longer Survival Poncho. Buy that instead.

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

Your poncho can keep you dry without making you sweat. Not as dry as a real rain suit—except the part about sweating. Not great in high winds or heavy brush. But the poncho has virtues. It is versatile; keeps your pack dry, collects rainwater, wraps around you as a blanket—with AMC blanket underneath. It’s not much, but two layers are better than one. Can be hung as a rain fly, rigged as a stretcher, used as a ground cloth, hung as a hooch, soften the bleacher seat during the Big Game, mate with another poncho to make a baby tent. Army surplus ponchos are heavy, strong, bulky, inconspicuous, increasingly hard to find. Strong is good. Heavy, bulky, and Camouflaged aren’t. Modern ponchos have bright colors, are lighter, pack smaller. Tough? Not so much. Cheap? Not so much. Sew loops along the edges and center, to substitute for army poncho grommets. Seal your seam work. Go modern if you can. A light compact poncho is better.
Have I mentioned small and light? This kit uses the Travel Light, Freeze at Night system. Dress for the weather.

You do know how to rig a shelter with tarp and cord? There are different set-ups for different conditions.

Make your shelter small. Less work to make. Less space to heat.

Do you know how to build a debris shelter? Compared to rigging a tarp, a debris hut is a lot of work. Depending on circumstances, it might be better than nothing. A fallen tree, an overhanging rock, a cave, can half build your shelter for you. Search for one before you start. In the long haul that can save time, effort, calories.

You do know how to use a pebble to secure line to tarp? Maybe the grommets on your tarp tear loose. Maybe you improvise with a found tarp: a sheet of Visqueen, a yard bag cut open, a plastic drop cloth, Tyvek building wrap. Combine some Visqueen with the AMK blanket’s shiny side to make a super shelter.

You do know how to turn a blanket into a match coat, right? You can do the same with some tarps. With Visqueen? Probably not.

Digging a pit covered by a tarp, with a pebble weighting the tarp just above an underlying cup, is only sometimes worth the calories and work. Especially when excavating with a digging stick and a spoon. (A shovel changes the calculation. So does a backhoe.) Pit and tarp act as that packable still I was sighing over. Will it distill enough water to justify the project? If the only available water is polluted enough, and the dirt cooperates, and the weather helps, it might. You can increase yield by pissing in the pit, and adding fresh cut branches. Any liquid they exude ends up distilled in your cup. If the water contains petroleum distillates, pay attention to the name. You might end up with a cup of distilled kerosene.

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 openings for arms and/or hands so you can reach out and grab stuff. Feet in one bag, head in another, breathing hole, vent hole at your feet, it’s a bivy sack. 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.

In the Zombie Apocalypse, you’ll want to hide. You want clothes to match the ruins. Fie on the Zombie Apocalypse! If you’re lost, you want to be found. Yard bags are mostly black.
Then there are Wrap’s Storage Bags. Heavy-duty, bright yellow bags. See-from-a-distance bags. The yard bags on my shelf are 33” X 39”. The smallest Wrap’s bag I can find is 36” X 60”. I can think of advantages for that extra size. And it’s SAR friendly.
Heavy-duty means heavier and bulkier when folded. Have one Wrap’s bag. For the rest, cary contractor’s bags.

Have 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, whatever. (Forget the acorns unless you are prepared to leach them.)
Put the big one over a tree branch. Zip it almost shut. It gathers transpired water. Don’t expect a big harvest. It’s more cost effective to do the same thing with yard bags.

Paracord AKA 550 cord AKA parachute cord. They call it paracord for a reason. It’s the line that ties a parachutist to parachute. WWII and Cold War airmen bugged out of troubled airplanes from tundra to jungle. They soon learned what handy stuff paracord is. (Improvising cord and rope is tricky, and environment dependent. Better to bring it with you.) By now the secret is out.
Paracord is a 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. That versatility is one reason it’s so useful. Only buy real military grade. It should say MIL-C-5040 Type III on the package.

My hat has 40 feet of red paracord wrapped as a hat band. The two ends meet in back and are united by several cord-locks. You didn’t think that was ornamental, did you? You have better taste than that.

Buy paracord in a bright color. A guy line on your tarp shelter should be too visible to trip over. Have paracord in your pocket. Have paracord in your bag. Have paracord in your car. When you cut a length, use your lighter to melt the end so it doesn’t ravel.
Remember skills? You know a bunch of useful knots, right? Knots weaken a rope. Tie a bowline in 550 cord. Treat it as 275 cord. I wouldn’t use paracord for a trucker’s hitch unless I had no other choice.

There are five fundamental forces. Gravity, electromagnetism, strong nuclear, weak nuclear, and duck tape. The tape is the most useful in an emergency. (Yeah, I also used to think it was duct tape. Trouble is, it’s no good for wrapping ducts. Furnace men won’t use it. Duck tape was invented in WWII, to waterproof ammo boxes. Rain ran off it like…)

Few items are as versatile: Fix a leak in your windbreaker. Splint your broken fishing rod or paddle. Seal that squirting water line so you can drive back to town. Splint your broken finger. Feel a rub ambitious to be a blister? No moleskin? No Leukotape? Wrap that area of your foot with duck tape. Use with cardboard to make a knife sheath—or many other things. Hold a cut closed. Fother the hole in your canoe with tarp and tape. Help make an arm sling and splint. (Curve a magazine around a broken forearm, tape in place.) Tape cardboard over the broken window in your car. Tape tarp in place to seal a sucking chest wound. If you’re using one of those magnesium-ferro rods, put a piece of duck tape on the ground, sticky side up. Scrape the magnesium onto it. The tape keeps the magnesium from blowing away. They sell duck tape in for-the-pocket cards and rolls. Your Ritter Pack contains a roll of it. What? You haven’t thought of another twelve uses for duck tape?

ResQMe Car Escape Tool. Your car is sinking. Cut the jammed seatbelt. Break the side window—down at one corner. Bug out! Might save more lives than your own.

Compass. A simple that-a-way compass will do until you know better. Have I mentioned learning map and compass? Learn map and compass.
Don’t trust your life to an electronic compass. Don’t trust your life to GPS. (“Damn! If my batteries hadn’t died I could find my way out of this mess!”)
At the least you want a base plate compass with declination settings. I like the mirrored Suunto Global.
Don’t forget the map.
Two maps. One to leave with your backup team. Don’t forget to mark the Chico Marx 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.” Nessmuk, Woodcraft, 1884) Have a second compass. Hold one in each hand. Whatever is failing here, it isn’t the compass.

(“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.” Nessmuk, Woodcraft, 1884) Right. That could never happen today…But just in case…

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.

About getting lost…Things look different between coming and going. 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.

SUMMATION

I’m not listing stuff already on your person: Pocket Survival Pack, Vic Farmer, lighter, sharpening card, handkerchief, locket with your sweetie’s hair. Nor weights for personalized kit: Windbreaker, toilet kit, first aid kit. No weight for the bag itself.

A kitchen scale clarifies the mind.


Here’s the BOB:

Guyot bottle with Cap Cap 11.2 oz
Snow Peak Titanium set 6.1 oz
Light My Fire Spork 0.7 oz
Titanium Emberlit Stove 7.0 oz
Chinese steel spoon 0.8 oz
Trangia, with alcohol 7.1 oz
50 feet Paracord 3.7 oz
2 Yard Bags, 3 Plastic Bags 4.0 oz
Gloves 2. 5 oz
Cowboy Wild Rag 3.8 oz
AMK Emergency Blanket 3.3 oz
Army Surplus Poncho 13.8 oz
Suntu Global Compass 2.6 oz
Leatherman Juice 6.9 oz

Total 4 lb. 13.8 oz

 

[ROCK6]

That's a lot of info Ray...and it's a good read; some excellent info in there. I'm actually going to combine it on a work document to go over again. My daughter is in-between schools and my son has a few more years. So far, it looks spot on for a primer aimed at older teens/younger college age kids.

I personally love the large silk, cowboy bandanas and carry two in all my backpacking or BOB kits.

Leather gloves are really the best, but anything is better than nothing (unless you're escaping a fire). We have always referred to it as PPE: Personal Protective Equipment. The military's version is different, but I've adapted to more civilian-oriented applications:

Eyewear - even ballistic sunglasses will do, but having clear lenses help when dark and protect eyes from falling or floating debris
Gloves - you already mentioned their value with good leather being the best choice
Dust/smoke mask - these can be packed flat and stuffed in very small kits and vital to escaping areas with a lot of smoke which is more dangerous than fires
Hat - although not a hardhat, you could keep your bicycle helmet close but at least a wide-brim hat for sun protection is helpful; when cold a fleece or wool watch cap

The only consideration is something about signaling. Having a whistle, choosing an LED flashlight with a strobe, discussing the use of text over voice during emergencies that may tie up more mobile bandwidth, having a few bright colored signal items (like a bright bandana), etc. are prudent for signaling rescue under a number of conditions. Another consideration is basics of self-defense, staying aware of your surroundings and possibly consider a self-defense class (just about every college has several choices for physical education credit) and maybe even pepper spray use. My daughter has and still carries that Kimber two-shot pepper spray pistol; we also did some training with a few practice ones. She's only 20, so no CCW and even when you can, some campuses are have prohibited concealed carry. That topic may be over the top, but I highly recommend it for college age girls.

Still, an excellent primer.

ROCK6

 

[neeman]

"A hundred and seventy views and only one comment? "

very comprehensive
but a dump of stuff

too much information
not concise or organized


who are you talking to
us or a 19 year old girl

presenting strategy or lists for
what scenarios ?

educated implies giving thinking skills to figure out what is needed for changing situations

again a huge amount of information
present it as an education

 

[Raymond1000]

That's a lot of info Ray...and it's a good read; some excellent info in there. I'm actually going to combine it on a work document to go over again. My daughter is in-between schools and my son has a few more years. So far, it looks spot on for a primer aimed at older teens/younger college age kids.

I personally love the large silk, cowboy bandanas and carry two in all my backpacking or BOB kits.

Leather gloves are really the best, but anything is better than nothing (unless you're escaping a fire). We have always referred to it as PPE: Personal Protective Equipment. The military's version is different, but I've adapted to more civilian-oriented applications:

Eyewear - even ballistic sunglasses will do, but having clear lenses help when dark and protect eyes from falling or floating debris
Gloves - you already mentioned their value with good leather being the best choice
Dust/smoke mask - these can be packed flat and stuffed in very small kits and vital to escaping areas with a lot of smoke which is more dangerous than fires
Hat - although not a hardhat, you could keep your bicycle helmet close but at least a wide-brim hat for sun protection is helpful; when cold a fleece or wool watch cap

The only consideration is something about signaling. Having a whistle, choosing an LED flashlight with a strobe, discussing the use of text over voice during emergencies that may tie up more mobile bandwidth, having a few bright colored signal items (like a bright bandana), etc. are prudent for signaling rescue under a number of conditions. Another consideration is basics of self-defense, staying aware of your surroundings and possibly consider a self-defense class (just about every college has several choices for physical education credit) and maybe even pepper spray use. My daughter has and still carries that Kimber two-shot pepper spray pistol; we also did some training with a few practice ones. She's only 20, so no CCW and even when you can, some campuses are have prohibited concealed carry. That topic may be over the top, but I highly recommend it for college age girls.

Still, an excellent primer.

ROCK6

Thanks, Rock.

Making a small, portable kit meant some hard choices. Using a bandana rather than a dedicated dust mask was just one of them. It’s far too easy to let what-if-creep swell a kit until it’s too big to carry.

About signaling. I did mention bright colored wild rags and the advantages of texting. The Ritter Pocket Survival Pack contains a good whistle.

Protective eyewear—that’s worth considering. Bicycle helmet—good idea. The closest you can come to a polite-in-public hard hat is the Bowler. My chance of getting a college girl to wear a bowler is zero.

I originally included a wool watch cap. I trimmed it because—what-if-creep. You can’t carry everything. Come winter I trust them to wear winter clothing.

Both sisters have studied martial arts. I have talked about self defense with them. Not here, though. There was enough else to cover in this paper.

 

[Raymond1000]

"A hundred and seventy views and only one comment? "

very comprehensive
but a dump of stuff

too much information
not concise or organized


who are you talking to
us or a 19 year old girl

presenting strategy or lists for
what scenarios ?

educated implies giving thinking skills to figure out what is needed for changing situations

again a huge amount of information
present it as an education

Neeman,

I do wonder about the wall of text problem. I grew up reading books, so I don’t understand the issue.

The paper is written for the girl. That doesn’t mean adults can’t evaluate it.

For what scenario? That’s kind of the point. You never can tell.

Calling it An Educated BOB was tongue in cheek. I don’t really think this kit can study physics or discuss the Petrarchan sonnet better than other kits.

 

[neeman]

Raymond

My work is a Technical Communicator
I take highly complex information and break it down into edible chunks

The first questions are always

Who is your audience
What do you want to tell them
What do you want to them to walk away with

then format your text in to readable bites

 

[Klutz]

Great information that I will use to simplify my emergency bags. I will be looking for a cowboy wild rag or something similar. I use a Buff for sun protection and carry a small bandana. I like the size of the Shermagh but I always felt I would attract attention wearing one of those during an emergency. The cowboy wild rag sounds like a great addition.

 

[Raymond1000]

Raymond

My work is a Technical Communicator
I take highly complex information and break it down into edible chunks

The first questions are always


then format your text in to readable bites

Neeman,

Thanks.

With a word processor I know better. The original paper is better formatted and spotted with pictures. It’s a friendly read.

I once visited a friend at her Russian River cabin. Her current sweetie had work to do. Building a set of stairs for the back porch. He brought rough lumber. He brought his tools. His tools included a single bit axe. I thought he was joking. He wasn’t joking. It was painful for a carpenter to watch. My friend kindly kept me distracted during the carnage.

When it come to computers, I’m that guy. “Hello. My name is Raymond, and I’m a techno-moron.” This is the first time I’ve tried to post something like this. I can’t figure out how to make things work. Importing pictures, and the formatting I’m used to. I’ll have to experiment and find a system of formatting I can use on Bladeforums.

Raymond

 

[Shotgun]

Tldnr

 

[taldesta]

Raymond, when I find such a vein of solid information, WHOA! all in one place, I am simply grateful. This is one way I like to incorporate knowledge for me to assess for my personal applications and for others I care for.

The Wall of Words issue, well, I trust my use of solid information in whatever form and I thank you profusely for your detailed and thoroughly thought-out recommendations.

Your considerable work in posting this information here is so appreciated.

 

[neeman]

Raymond
please don't get me wrong
you wrote a gold mine

 

[Revolverrodger]

Excellent
I would probably add a mora fixed blade in there

 

[sideways]

19 year old girl eh? They are unlikely to carry half that stuff. Most of the time they refuse to even wear comfortable shoes.

- A fully charged spare cellphone with emergency contact numbers programmed into it. Keep this phone turned off for when you need it and have enough cash for a taxi tucked under the back cover of the phone (get one of those extra gel covers).
- Full waterbottle (tell them drinking lots of water is good for their skin)
- Bonus points if you can convince them to keep a pair of broken in shoes in their car or in a locker nearby.
- Impress on them the importance of not doing stupid things with stupid people at stupid times of day.
- Impress on them the importance of practicing safe sex and responsible drinking.

We can game out all kinds of scenarios and thoughtful gear but it will not do any good if they refuse to carry it. A 5lb kit will not be carried.

 

[panzertroop]

We can game out all kinds of scenarios and thoughtful gear but it will not do any good if they refuse to carry it. A 5lb kit will not be carried.

Yep, teenagers do what they want most of the time. lol

 

[Raymond1000]

Excellent
I would probably add a mora fixed blade in there

My first bug out bag was a full back pack, fit for seeking the Northwest Passage. I gradually figured out that I was missing the point. Finding the point took longer.

When I was growing up I was taught to carry a pocket knife that would help in emergencies. I might have a hunting knife with me when I was hunting or hiking or fishing.

But when I had my pants on, I had pockets. When I had pockets, I had a pocket knife.

Would I prefer a Mora? Sure. But…what-if-creep. Every little, “That would be handy” gets farther away from the lean mean BOB concept.