Bare-bones Camping?

Never done it to the degree you are talking about but I try to do a 24 hour camp once a month with my daily carry gear (knife and Light) and practice making primitive shelters,making traps and basic stuff.
 
Yes I have bare-bones camped for hundreds of nights. It was called the USMC plan. When I was over 40 and one night sleeping in a hole, cold, wet and eating cold rations, I said to myself this is a bunch of crap, I'm too old for this!!!! You are given all the equipment to camp with, shelter half, down sleeping bag, pad and more. You add the weight of your protective gear, ammo, machine gun ammo, 60mm mortar shells and everything you have to carry and you can guess what you leave behind. You used your poncho to make a hootch and your poncho liner for a blanket. That is bare-bones. You heat your rations with fuel tabs in your canteen cup. I now have a 30 foot travel trailer with heat and AC and that is about as bare bones as I get these days.
 
This is an interesting scenario. Now extend it to the urban/suburban jungle and see how far you get.

In the recent fires in San Diego, some people reported having 4 minutes to get out of their homes. That is, from the point when the firefighters told them to evacuate to the time their homes went up in flames was less than 4 minutes.

So, in 4 minutes you have to grab whatever you need to get by, get out of the house, and you don't get to come back for more gear ever again. What are you going to do?

In most of the west coast, an earthquake can toss you out of the house and into homelessness in less than 45 seconds -- and that 45 seconds includes being tossed around by the earthquake.

Tell you what, try this. One minute from finishing reading this post you have to walk out of your house with whatever you need to get by in the world. Come back and tell us what you grabbed in your 1 minute dash out the door.

I hope you aren't reading this in your bathrobe, having just climbed out of the shower.

Go.
 
My interest in trying this would be directly related to the weather. I wouldn't have a problem camping out in San Diego (where I once lived for a few years) in the early Fall - would mostly miss a pillow, I guess. Chicago (where I now live) in the Fall could be downright dangerous. As an earlier poster wrote, I really like my fluffy down sleeping bag!
 
too far north. if people tried this in Minnesota, they would die. however, it would work in two months of the year!
 
bulgron said:
This is an interesting scenario. Now extend it to the urban/suburban jungle and see how far you get.

In the recent fires in San Diego, some people reported having 4 minutes to get out of their homes. That is, from the point when the firefighters told them to evacuate to the time their homes went up in flames was less than 4 minutes.

So, in 4 minutes you have to grab whatever you need to get by, get out of the house, and you don't get to come back for more gear ever again. What are you going to do?

In most of the west coast, an earthquake can toss you out of the house and into homelessness in less than 45 seconds -- and that 45 seconds includes being tossed around by the earthquake.

Tell you what, try this. One minute from finishing reading this post you have to walk out of your house with whatever you need to get by in the world. Come back and tell us what you grabbed in your 1 minute dash out the door.

I hope you aren't reading this in your bathrobe, having just climbed out of the shower.

Go.
Click to expand...

So, is a well equipped vehicle cheating in this scenario? I really don't need to grab a whole lot if a can take my SUV. Living in MN I'm always prepared for an unplanned outing:D stuck in my vehicle.
 
XMP said:
So, is a well equipped vehicle cheating in this scenario? I really don't need to grab a whole lot if a can take my SUV. Living in MN I'm always prepared for an unplanned outing:D stuck in my vehicle.
Click to expand...

Well I don't know. Living in Minnesota, can you guarantee me that your truck will survive the tornado that flattens your house? :D
 
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