Re-doing my E-bag - Part 1

An E-bag, a.k.a. B.O.B, G.H.B, GTHOOD Bag, GTH Bag and many others, is a bag or pack that has enough materials and supplies to last you a minimum of 72 hours, to get you either out of your neck of the woods or BACK to your home where you can shelter in place during an emergency.

Before the transmission in my Suburban went out, I had a plastic footlocker in the back which I called the "Truck Box", which contained a portable 1 burner butane stove and 3 extra butane cylinders, over 5 lbs of raisins in small boxes and large, cans of Armor Canned Ham, cans of chili, Ramen Noodles both in the individual packets plus the cup style, a gallon of water in the 1 quart/liter bottle (the thick plastic kind not the thin crinkly ones that leak if yo look at them wrong).  A first aid kit, 3 cans of sterno fuel, a sterno stove, cooking utensils and pots/pans.  and other assorted implements of cookery and food preparation.

That box was all well and good for the many times at the range the kids and I stopped shooting, opened up the truck box and made ourselves something to eat before resuming shooting.

However.  For a disabled 49 year old man, with multiple spinal fusions and 6 further herniated and bulging spinal discs, torn ligaments in my knee and damage to my hip.  I can't CARRY the dang thing in an emergency if I have to.

When I've gone on trips, I've always packed up a quick E-bag to take with me in addition to my other luggage and stuff.

Now I'm slowly going through all the gear I have here at the house and putting together a bag that will ALWAYS be available.  Not something I unload at the end of a trip until next time.

First is the size pack I'm planning on using.

30L Assault ruck I already have one of these, however the boys and the dogs have messed it up pretty bad and destroyed many of the buckles and straps.  So I will get a new one.  I already know that I will have to replace the hip and sternum belts and their buckles with something sturdier, but the seamstress I use in town says she can do it just fine as long as I don't mind paying for the heavier needles and thread her machine will need.  My plan is basically replacing ALL of the buckles with heavier ones, and having her sew additional padding from a yoga mat into the shoulder straps and inside of the hip belt.

Then for water,  I already have 10 AquaMira filter Straws, so I'll add 2 of them plus my one of my Sawyer water filter's.  I got a good deal on the 3 packs of the Sawyer filters, so I bought 4 of them.  I will also add, just for triple redundancy, my chinese military water filter and spare filter/pre-filter.  I'm not finding the link for the pre-filters on E-bay, but you can make your own with some stainless steel window screen, a coffee filter, a prescription bottle and an aquarium airline jag fitting with some super glue or J.B. Weld, in about 6 minutes.  Add in some spare tubing from the aquarium section and you're good to go.

I'll also need a way to carry extra water so this Stansport 2 gallon water carrier will fit the bill.  I even have a small nylon string pack that it would fit in just right, making it easier to carry when it's full.  I've purchased a dozen of those style packs from a party supply website, but mine are all black.  By buying a dozen of them I got them for under $1.00 a piece.  Just do NOT overload them as the bags tear if you try to cram a weeks worth of wet dirty laundry in them, as my youngest daughter found out.  But I've carried a Spam Can of 9mm ammo in one easily.  My intention is to use it to hold/carry the 2 gallon water back so I don't tear up my fingers trying to carry the plain bag.

For cooking and eating I've got one of my Serbian mess kits with canteen, which will be attached to the waist belt after I get done modifying it.

For sleeping, I already have a "Sleeping Envelope", a Mylar "Sleeping Bag" and a Fleece Sleeping bag liner.  Those three are actually quite comfortable.  Put the fleece in the envelope and then put the both of them inside the mylar sleeping bag.  As long as I'm not sleeping directly on the ground, the bag keeps me quite comfortable.  To KEEP me off the ground I usually stuff leaves and other ground litter inside a 55 gallon heavy duty contractor trash bag.  Leaves, grass clipping etc.  Get it filled with about 4 inches of material, and even when it packs down from my weight, I'm still insulated.

My meds are kicking in right now, so I'm going to schedule this to post at 0400 and go to bed.

If you have any ideas or suggestion, please feel free to leave a comment.  I use comment moderation, so your comment won't make the front page until after I approve it.  But never fear, unless you are rude or trying to spam my comment section it will get posted.

Getting Home

Kenny has posted a link to a few articles about getting home safely.  He then expanded on that with some of his kit.


Getting Home Essentials

Be sure to read the articles he links to and read what he writes.  Since I moved down here to Texas back in '04, my GHB has been changed many times.  Basically because of the deterioration of my spine and general physical condition.

My KIDS on the other hand.  Ohhhh have I embarassed them to no end.

We are no in the process of reorganizing their GHB's, I've ordered new gear for them, instead of water purification tablets and coffee filters, I've found brand new still in the packaging Aquamira Filter Straws for under $9.00 with free shipping, so each of the boys and I got new filters.  Be sure to follow the instructions unless you want to get a mouthful of activated charcoal and water.  That filter plus a space blanket sleeping bag, Sleeping Envelope, and a 55 gallon contractor trash bag go into a 1 liter sports bottle with the built in straw. (NOTE THAT IS NOT THE BOTTLE I BOUGHT) I got the bottles for the boys at the Academy Sports in Corpus for $4.99 each, and just grabbed two similar but with a softer more flexible plastic but no straw at the Walmart in town for $1.00 each.  Then each boy got an inexpensive pair of Winchester multi-pliers from Walmart for $5.00 each, a little unique camping tool, a compass, signal mirror, light, fire starter and such.They also each got a Serbian Mess Kit, That isn't where I got them, I got them from BudK, but they are sold out, although Sportsmans Guide has them 2 for $20.00. then they have a mix of Belgian, East German, Swiss and US Web gear, including, helmets. Yes I'm going to make them wear an Israeli steel pot I got from Numrich. They are going to look very weird when I'm done, Swiss Alpenflage shirts and ponchos, East German field packs, Belgian pistol belts and suspenders, West German buttpacks, US Canteens and carriers, and LC-1 Clips.

Oh a few more things of gear, P-38's can openers, Chem lights, 2 bandannas, a pair of cheap $1.50 a piar stretch gloves, 3 pairs of wool blend boot socks, and there are other things I won't put in now.  Once the boys and I flesh out their gear fully, we will write it up and post it here, probably with a video to show how it's packed.

One thing I got to try out though, because I intend to test it against my Katadyn Pocket Filter is a Chinese "Soldier Water Filter" with an extra filter.  I've cleaned out both filters, but I keep forgetting to get the food coloring at the store to do the first part of the test.

My Katadyn will filter out the smell of bleached water, it won't filter out the taste, but it filters out the smell.  The Katadyn also filters out any of the food coloring I put in.  I know the Aquamira will do neither.  It won't filter out the bleach smell nor the food coloring.  So as soon as I get some food coloring I will test this small filter.  I would still use bleach or calcium hypochlorite afterwards though just for peace of mind.

I also picked up a pocket Chain Saw, which if it works good I will buy 5 more for the kids.  Plus some other tricks I've picked up over the years.

Notice I don't list anything about food or cooking in this.  That will come when we get the boys full kits together.  I've found, that young men like to break into their GHB's and eat all the snacks.  Before I'm done they will learn the folly of that.

A Challenge for the Mythbusters

With emergency preparedness becoming more and more common in these trying times and Les Stroud coming back with more episodes of Survivorman, I thought up a challenge for Adam, Jamie, Kari, Tori and Grant on Mythbusters.

I'll tell you now, Jamie would probably win the challenge.  If you don't know why, read up about him.

The challenge:  Each Mythbuster is challenged to put together their own emergency Bug Out or Get Back Home Bag.  Their limitations are the bag can weigh no more than 25 lbs, contain no prohibited or illegal items and must be contained in 1 duffel bag or backpack.

After they make their bags, they would put them to the test.  Going out for 5 days, where they must each use the bag and it's contents to get back to civilization.

To make it fair, I think Les Stroud could show up and give them pointers on things they might want to carry and things they should definitely carry.

I thought about this after rewatching Jamie and Adam's Island Duct tape special again.  There were a few things which just bugged me about it as to why wouldn't they have a few items to help themselves.  An example, was why didn't they use the lenses from glasses they both normally wear to start a fire.  I know on that episode they both didn't have their glasses on but there are other items they can use. 

I keep in my wallet, a small fresnel lens because my detail close up vision requires it at times, if you have sun and a fresnel lens, you have fire.  Also in my wallet there are several debit/plastic cards which can cut if handled properly.  I should know I cut my hand on my health insurance card trying to get my library card out the other day, .  Are they saying that they couldn't have had something like that one themselves?  It might have made it easier to cut all that tape instead of ripping it and tearing up their fingers.  In my pocket whenever I leave the house, I have a Swiss Army Knife and a liner lock, lockblade knife.  One in the left pocket the other on it's pocket clip in the right pocket.  I also have my keychain, which has one of my KTD Drives, a handcuff key, a P-38 Can Opener, one of my old dogtags from when I was in the army, keys (of course), a small LED photon light and a clip to clip the whole ring to a belt loop or other item.  And I have several wire key rings.  Each set of keys has it's own ring.  The truck key has one, the suburban keys have one, the house key has one, etc.  It makes it much easier to remove a key from the main ring that way.  Then in my wallet I have the aforementioned plastic cards, my cross, several 1 dollar coins, 3 quarters, 2 dimes, 3 nickles and 4 pennies.  My money clip uses a strong magnet and a steel plate sewn into the wallet to hold my cash.  Add in my aluminum cigar/cigarette case and my zippo lighter to round out everything I don't ever leave the house without.

What say you?

Would you like to see an episode of Mythbusters like that?

With the limitation of nothing illegal/prohibited and under 25 lbs.  What would you put in your bag?