​Justin asked;
What is everyone’s opinion on a long term scenario grab & go bag?
If you’re trying to retain the ability to stay Mobile
Avoiding access gear & gadgets weighing you down and getting snagged on debris while traveling. What do you have packed & why?
Newer synthetic or wool clothing
Sleeping bag, bivi sack, woobie or wool blankets
Plastic, nylon, canvas or other tarp
My answers, not complete answer to every question here, but some Highlights!
( Apologise in advance… Not spell checked or edited, I merely copied my answer from my phone fb post. Takes a lot of data to use phone as wifi hub with laptop.)
…Also.. stock images as my laptop fried and I am transferring stuff. Will update later…
Winter.
Spring and fall.
Summertime would need a different bag, depending on location. Eg. Northern Canada forest and hill environment, or Mountain areas. Vs Southern California.
Knowledge is the lightest and best of burdens to Cary.
Water, fire, shelter, footwear, food.
Skills, trapper, hunter gatherer mixed with Ultra Lightweight hiking.
Take courses, get good reference books, learn learn learn and above all get out and practice.
Water. Get two purification methods. Tablets and a Saywer Water Filter system.
Water, learn where and how to gather. Eg, trapper and hunter style, dig down beside running water source, about a foot away. This water will be mostly safe. Can be collected and lightly filtered, using charcoal, sand system, your sawyer water filter, or boiling or both.
Learning how to do the basics, attend classes, take courses.
But. All the skills in the world won’t keep you alive for too too long without a place to go.
When I was younger and had food health, I would ultra light weight hike and camp for up to 3 months at a time.
. Water Filter
Light weight rain proof muslin sheet (just slightly heavier than ripstop but much more durable.
Bivie Bag, with netting.
Two sleeping pads, one dens foam the other was the self inflating Thermarest, wrapped up in a small waterproof canvas sheet, bound with two nylon straps.
Note, if you are better than me with knots, anyone really, use hemp rope.
Small alcohol stove, inside a larger Hobo stove, and bottle of pure alcohol, along with cook set.
Boots for hiking, best you can buy heavy hiking boots. Light ones do not last.
Two pairs of clothes, 3 pairs of socks and underwear. Clean every couple of days.
Sleeping bag with liner. Even in summertime temps drop, especially in Mountains.
I have gone to bed in a T-shirt and woken up pushing the bivie bog off of me due to unexpected and sudden snowfall. More than once.
My bag liner which was normally used in winter or summer as a stand alone, was either a polypropylene sac or a cotton sheet, sown as a sleeping bag itself.
Some only use thick wool blankets, others don’t. Some carry more some less.
A good six inch blade along with a smaller camp knife will do.
Some carry; axes, tomahawks, hatchets, machetes. Up to you. I have since the 90’s carried a Kurkri Machete, instead of an axe.
Food.
Learn to forage, hunt and fish.
In a bug out scenario, get ahead of the golden hord, or no food. The will trample everything underfoot, piss on it or shit on it. They will kill everything that they see, not know how to harvest properly and leave 50% or more to rot.
Dehydrated foods including meat, grains, mix of beans with rice, supplemented with foraging, fishing and hunting. That is how I went in for up to 3 months at a time.
An old cooking skill is to heat and boil in morning, pit into insulated container and eat at lunch and supper.
Small sealed bags of spices are your friend. Along with foraging to pop in the rice and beans, keeps the taste buds happy happy.
Also very light.
I carried everything in a medium sized Alice Pack or a larger Canadian Forces Cargo Pack.
Larger one in winter.
Weight was about 25-35 pounds summer, not including blades.
Winter was about 45 ish.
Not including blades, snowshoes and or skis.
Fire… I go way overboard here. And. I suggest all do the same.
Lots of extras, on or in pants pocket, on or in jacket, inside and on pack. All inside multiple plastic bags or rubber bags, water proof.
.. two or three differnt types of strikers, two different lighters, small plastic, BBQ and flip open (keep in airtight container as they slowly loose fuel)
Matches, regular, wind proof, waterproof lots.
Keep picking up fluff tinder as you walk or move, put in tinder pouch, when full, put in jacket pocket.
Now I also carry cotton balls in plastic bags, some try, others soaked in veg oil and or petroleum jelly. Lots of bags. Overkill, just wait till after fall into the water or ice when it is close of below 0 deg, frozen fingers hurt and are very hard to use. You only have minutes and you destroy or scatter a lot of the tinter trying to get it going. Lots.
Packs
Hikers like internal frames, hunters trappers like the external ones. Normally there are exceptions.
External frames make hauling game, wood easier as well as hauling extra large bags of long term foods. Basically, human pack mules.
Cooking,
Learn how to create tripods or swings, Hobo stoves and similar stoves….
Learn Dakota cook holes, Algonquin kitchen setups and basic campfires setups.
Learn to make and use alcohol stoves, I had a very expensive and extremely well made MSR Mountain stove. Ex wife got rid of half of it, $120 just to replace that part. So, now I use cat can, liver can stoves, one pot stoves, see other blog posts with directions in blog.
Also, other tech
Walking hiking stick. I use a solid oak quarter staff, I used to Cary a walking stick, but, now a quarter staff. There are reasons, yes.
Shovel, spade, garden tool for digging small pits. .., Replaced with roofing hammer with almost straight claws. It can be used in winter, rocky ground, to assist in shelter building or in defence. Weighs more than a garden spade but so much more versatile.
I will keep updating as I remember or am able. This will be a work in progress.
wild_E 