Tag Archives: hiking

Momma Bear: Getting Out of Dodge B.Y.O.B.O.B.

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Bring Your Own Bug Out Bag – How Our Family Did It
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For most preppers, the first baby step we take is to create a bug out bag (BOB). For our family, living outside of Washington DC and very close to the interstate (which is sure to be packed instantly); with the potential bug-out being done without my active-duty husband, we took this step very seriously. Although my husband likes to travel light in the field (with the military), the BOB has to encompass a plethora of unknowns; with a 72-hour usage as the goal for packing. How much water should we take and how much water purification? How much gear should we plan for sleeping rough? How much food do we want to carry? What if it’s cold? What might we need along the route? The list pretty much goes on and on. And with everything, as we practice our drills, we tweak and adjust the items in the BOBs.

But once you accumulate all that STUFF, how do you divide it up between your family members? How do you ensure that each pack is sufficient should you become separated from the rest of the family? With my husband included, we have two men in the family. But us girls… we are kind of wimpy backpackers. Our daughter may be 5’7” tall, but she only weighs 100 pounds on a good day. So we have had to keep the girls’ gear lighter, packs smaller, but still able to meet our needs. We opted not to carry sleeping bags, but instead have military poncho liners and also the foil emergency bevy sack. The heavier items, that were not quite as essential, were distributed between my husband and my son. For instance, do we need a tent on the go? Not really, but life is a heck of a lot nicer in a rainstorm when you have more than a poncho for cover. And my husband can certainly shoulder that extra weight a lot easier than one of us girls can.

Other things that we customized in our bags were the first aid kits, the food items (curse those picky eaters who refuse to eat tuna!), and the quanity of fire making materials for each family member. For instance, our daughter suffers terrible migraines so her kit has special meds in it, plus sunglasses. Our son is allergic to insect bites so he has insect repellent, Benadryl, and cortisone cream. With the meds, I broke them down into tiny little baggies and wrote the directions on the outside with sharpie marker, including how often they should take the meds. And because our kids have only recently begun practicing fire making, they both carry lots of matches, lighters, a magnesium starter, as well as a ton of lint and other light-weight combustibles.

Having a Marine for a husband has assuredly made the BOBs an easier task. Some things I had never considered, or would not have considered as a huge necessity, such as laminating our maps. In case the SHTF, we are looking to move south, away from D.C. We have maps of both Virginia and North Carolina, that we got for free at the visitor centers on the main interstate, and each of us has one in their BOB (kids included). The other thing that the military training helped with was packing the packs. The military utilizes packs with lots of pockets and my husband was positively insistent that certain things go in those easy access pockets: first aid, water, food, weapons/tools. Other things, especially stuff you have multiples of, is removed from the BOB and carried on your person: identification, weapon, fire making items, any item that you could not do without (like migraine meds). Our family utilizes three different types of packs, so when we loaded them up everyone was responsible for their own; that way everyone knows where there things are. And, of course, we regularly break them down and repack them to keep familiar with the gear.

Our household also has pets, which we have not been taking into consideration for bugging out. Unless we are driving out, the cats will pretty much be left to their own devices, but the dogs will go. It is pretty unrealistic to think that we can carry enough food and water for them too, so we are looking to put them to work for us. All of our dogs are pretty good walkers (we have Jack Russells and Weimaraners), and we are looking to train the big dogs in both pack carrying and carting. But I will post about that another time.

Like all our prepping, creating your BOB. requires good planning. Again, a good BOB is designed for 72 hours of mobile usage – getting you away from a SHTF scenario. Focus on who, what and why. Who is the bag for? What do they need? And why do they need that particular item? Last of all, practice walking with your pack and readjust your items/bag as necessary. You want to be well prepared to survive, but you don’t want to break your back because you brought the kitchen sink with you. Happy prepping!

(Friday: What We Did This Week To Prep)

A Walk In The Woods

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How Quickly The Familiar Can Become The Unfamiliar

Not long ago–on an overcast and potentially stormy afternoon–Sarah, Kate (our Border Collie), and I went for a walk in the woods behind our neighborhood. Several years ago (during the housing boom) that area had been cleared and intended for another subdivision, but it never was built. Since then it has overgrown, but a few dirt roads/trails, still used by hikers or four-wheel drive vehicles, remain.

We had walked back there before, always following familiar trails. This day we had plenty of time so we decided to do some exploring. Instead of our normal route, we decided to see where the dirt roads went figuring that they would eventually connect back to our neighborhood. As we followed the overgrown road, it would end into what would have been a cul-de-sac or just a dead-end; we’d backtrack to the main “road” and continue on, and the same would happen on the next branch. After a couple of hours of this–as we were enjoying the day, the exercise, and the time together–what had begun as an overcast day with some drizzle developed into rain showers. No big deal, it was Western Washington in the winter and we were dressed appropriately. After following another promising branch of the road we, again, hit another dead-end surrounded by thick trees (we really thought that one would go through). At this point we thought we were well past our neighborhood; we figured we could cut through the forest to get back–and save significant distance–or, of course, we had the option to go back the way we had come (a distance of about three or four miles).

We had no extra equipment, just rain coats, warm clothes, good boots, and my phone. We pulled up the mapping app on my phone and determined where we were (hoping that our pinpointed location was accurate); we were surprised how far we had gone. We needed to go north, and the phone’s compass app showed us which way that was. Once determined, we started through the forest; the undergrowth was heavy, but fortunately there weren’t any blackberry bushes. I went first, with Sarah a little behind me to avoid getting snapped by branches, and Kate (who was only a few months old) jumping over fallen branches and undergrowth going back and forth to “check” on us (she slept very well when we got home). We had to navigate around several areas either too thick to pass or low spots full of water. I had to depend completely on the compass (even though the phone battery was getting low) because between the rainy day and thick woods, there was no way to see landmarks to keep us on course. The experience was reminiscent of Camp McCall when I was in the Army.

Close to an hour later, we finally made it to the edge of our subdivision – because of the rain, low clouds, and trees we weren’t able to even see the houses until we were almost to them. From there only another half mile and we were home. Soaking wet and tired, but fine.

Later I reflected how quickly a “normal”, “routine”, or “ordinary” outing can turn into something more than planned. Fortunately we were dressed appropriately, physically fit enough, and disaster didn’t strike. But, it would have only taken an injury–fall, stick in the eye, twisted ankle–a dead phone, or a worse storm and suddenly “just a walk” would have been something much more serious.

We can’t choose our disaster, when it will happen, or where we’ll be. It’s been said to avoid danger, “… don’t go to stupid places, with stupid people, and do stupid things.” That’s good advice, but frequently things don’t start off that way. On a daily basis it’s worth remembering we’re not just planning for “the big one”, but that common things happen commonly and we need to be prepared for the likely things that happen.

Now, when I go for a walk in the woods, I carry a pack. It’s mostly full of rocks (really) because carrying the heavy pack on my walks with Kate is part of my workout. BUT it also contains: a first-aid kit, warm gloves and hat, a small tarp, water, food, a compass, a flashlight, a fire starting kit, and other items; I also plant to get an external phone backup battery. Do I need all that? No. Am I recommending all that? No. I’ve just decided if I’m carrying a pack for a workout I might as well carry useful things. I also looked at that area on Google Maps and now I know where the trails go and where they don’t. So I’ve thought about what happened, planned how to avoid duplicating it, am more prepared if something does go wrong, and learned from the experience.

For any activity you’re involved in: Think. Plan. Prepare. Learn.

(Wednesday: Momma Bear)