by Ron Foster
There were a couple dirt roads leading to the county road he needed to access to get to the highway they probably wouldn’t mess with but if it was just a small tree and not some big timber he was ready to clear it out of the way himself.
He had a 48v electric Oregon chain saw that would make short work of clearing his path he hoped. If need be, he could even recharge it with an inverter off his car battery in about an hour. Hell for that matter he had his long handled Silky Saw Katana boy saw that he could also cut most anything with albeit that was doing it manually.
These were his solutions to big firewood gathering if need be that required the least effort on his part to get the task done. He shrugged off having to leave his big axes, bow saws, splitting maul and wedges behind. Cutting and stacking up a few cords of wood to put by for winter to burn in his iron woodstove would soon be a thing of the past for now.
So was mowing his garden with a manual or power motor he thought with a smile. Wow all the stuff he was leaving behind! He could have written a whole book on what he had, what he was working on and the expense of all that now unnecessary stuff he was leaving behind.
He would sure miss having some of his garden tools someday, he had his favorites, but hopefully he would be able to scrounge something; meantime he would make do with an entrenching tool and a bucket like he read about in a book called ‘The Bug Out Gardening Guide”. The bucket contained his vegetable seeds and the very basics of fertilizer and insecticide utilizing mostly do it yourself kitchen sink concoctions the author had researched and tried out over time under various gardening conditions.
It was the only book Sam had seen on this particular subject and it was valuable enough to him for him to have packed it away in a zip lock bag with the rest of his gear to be soon dependent on during the growing season for some answers. That book and a survival trapping manual called the Rural Ranger was the only library they were taking besides the Doom and Bloom Survival Medicine Handbook. This was their health and food library now that the internet appeared to be down for good.
They had both read many books of the prepper/homesteading/survivalist genre between them and had some pretty sound knowledge of survival tips and tricks but they were not confident that memory would serve and it wasn’t like they could get on the internet to ask a question anymore. No those three volumes were all they had besides their own food-stressed and work weary brains to try to keep their body fed and mended and found out early on the time for practice versus theory was upon them. Knowledge however was still priceless and they considered the weight of carrying them negligible on the boat.
Sam and Lori had enjoyed great long late night discussions on what was practical, just what was tactical and just what was going to be most needed or missed if the poo hit the fan. Over the years they had concluded that the best tools for a task were the ones you used in your everyday survival to insure success. Simple things like garden tools and knowledge and practice of their use put them light years ahead of people just now trying out a can of those survival seeds they had put back. Sam and Lori also occasionally hunted and fished.
Hunters and Fishermen do have a big jump on most preppers in both skills and gear. Sam and Lori already had many of the tools and skills that are needed for survival and sportspeople like them tend to be clear-thinking, problem-solving people. The No. 1 tool for survival is a brain that can deal with problems and find solutions, something every successful hunter or fisherman uses constantly in the field. Hunters, fisherman and campers also have many of the other items needed for survival: warm clothing and boots, sleeping bags, knives, guns, camping gear and more as well as practical field experience using such. In their opinion a good rod and reel was indispensable for their survival and having a large selection of fishing gear was more important than a bug out bag.
First, not every emergency situation is an “end of the world as we know it” scenario. In fact, most aren’t. There are always different levels of disaster though to contend with and plan accordingly for. Most disasters are over quickly. The lights come back on, the roads are cleared and the stores are stocked again. But you need to be ready in the event that doesn’t happen and the cavalry doesn’t arrive.
Sam liked to think in terms of threes: three days, three weeks, three months and three years. He had tried to make some sort of plan for each of them. None of them had worked out like he planned but if he hadn’t of had some kind of plan he wouldn’t have made it through some bumpy periods in the past. There will be overlap between needs and desires of course but because his sole focus was not on prepping his recreational gear also served to fill in gaps or overlap and balance in survival function and fun lifestyle also.
This was not always the case though, although bug out gear and camping gear over lapped a lot, the way Sam and Lori kept theirs handy and ready for an event was quite different. A boat bag on a river trip or a going ashore bag on the beach was as different as an overboard bag kept by the captain if they were riding a friends saltwater cruiser boat. Different needs and gear for different scenarios and expectations. Just like their hiking gear could be scaled for an ultra light hike they could scale up for an extended car trip to a weekend campsite deal and if it was a extended state park stay then the big tent, sleeping mattresses, cast iron cookware, rocket stoves, etc. just got loaded up with a bazillion other loose things and got thrown in the trailer or in back of the van and off they went. Different loads required different prior planning.
They kept a different set of gear with them at all times for their own personal vehicles and use however because that’s where it was needed as variations of bug home or out bags. Trailers can get stolen, houses can burn down, they were often separated from each other a 100 miles or more apart from one another seeing about elderly parents etc. so where the van went, the bug out packs went. Sam didn’t have everything in his bug out bag sometimes because he was scared that somebody might break into his van. A Henry Survival rifle is not an AK but it’s still a firearm and reporting such stolen can be a pain. Other times he loaded it in if he was worried about a space weather report or something, sometimes he just forgot to unload it, he hated arguing with himself over such petty things. Lots of preppers carried truck rifles, law permitting, a Henry survival rifle was ideal for this because you didn’t have that the weapon was available and ready to fire crap when it was broken down and you were just safely transporting it. Hell that rifle and the Henry survival kit was a basic foundation of survival by themselves. Sam carried his Henry survival kit in a butt pack on his web gear along with a poncho, that and his rifle he was good to go and highly mobile as well.
He and Lori both had sets of the old nylon H pattern web gear that Sam preferred. They had one canteen pouch full of Survival Tabs and one canteen of water along with a stainless steel canteen cup riding underneath of it. Technically speaking that was supposedly carrying two weeks of food and “rural rangering “it but it was an adaptable setup. This was their base gear. The minimal essential elements they needed for short term survival. They usually wore their knives on their pants belts for easy access. That web gear can get hot or uncomfortable after awhile so you tend to remove it every chance you get and just lay it over a branch or on the ground etc.
This is a Y pattern, totally acceptable just depends on your tastes and build and if you are using a butt pack or not.
Your knife is more useful attached to your pants and you can also rest the web belt on the sheath if you want. You can put a flashlight on the web gear but small lights that fit into cargo pants pouches are better. You can drop your gear and still have light, fire, knife etc. on you at all times. This is a good thing for convenience but it is also a priority if you have to run from your gear or get cut off from it somehow and can’t get back to retrieve it. This is also how you wander around state park campsites etc. no web gear, well a pistol belt with canteen maybe.
The bug out bag itself goes over these two layers of preparedness so you got your backpack your web gear and yo
u’re EDC (Every day or personal carry.)
Sam had gone the easy route of replacement gear the last time his car bug out bag got stolen. Lots of thieving kids getting initiated into gangs or just plain criminals were constantly breaking into cars in short spurts of time after everything was quiet for a long while and he lost his bug out gear while visiting his moms. Luckily it was not one of the times that he had his Henry survival rifle in it but it did contain some ammo for it and his pistols. Anyway Sam had to replace his gear and flinched at what it would now cost him for each individual thing that he had formerly in there. Then he heard about this company selling premade bug out bags that offered you a savings because you were basically buying your complete kit gear in bulk. Sam was pretty skeptical of such notions. Most everything he had seen available on the market to date had either cost the moon and the sun or had been filled with cheap quality materials and was still pricy for what you got. Lots of times when he had looked at other people’s efforts to sell a premade bag they didn’t have the mix right or had forgotten some key component.
Not so the offering by http://ultimatebugoutbags.com/
This bag would serve all his needs and the quality in functional field tools he was seeking was there. The manufacturer had designed it for intermediate 7 - 10 day missions in sub-urban or wilderness terrains. This pack plus his web gear gave Sam roughly a months’ worth of food if it was in for some serous push comes to shove hard living. He found the Zulu pack to be easily adapted for longer missions in harsher climates by selecting the appropriate shelter & ration upgrades. Sam’s biggest upgrade was his Explorer Deluxe Asym Classic Hennessey hammock that weighs 3 lb 3 oz that’s not bad at all for a shelter of this caliber and after carrying all that weight in his backpack, it was the best way not to stiffen up his shoulders and back sleeping.
The bug out bag itself without the hammock weighs in at roughly 34.8 lbs . Now Sam could have lightened his load by taking out the Bivy Bag for the sleeping bag and the Tex Sport Tarp Camouflage 6' x 8’ and maybe another item but chose not to. This could be an extra sleep system for another person or could be used for any number of other uses that he decided he could be comfortable and happy carrying the extra weight for. I know lots of preppers are always dying to know what’s in whose bug out bags so you can go to Ultimate Bug Out Bags website now or you can go look in the back of this book for the lengthy list of stuff this backpack has in it. I won’t anguish or subject the readers who don’t like that sort of thing to looking at a couple pages at the moment and want to get back to the storyline.
Sam didn’t want to have to worry about packing his bag all over again, all he wanted to be able to do is grab that well thought out bag and Go! But he was very weight conscious; at 38.1 lbs he was balanced and could still adjust the Zulu packs contents up or down. Weights on this boat or on his back soon became Sam’s obsession to overcome the most proactive way he could. His switch to Lithium batteries on the boat allowed him and Lori to carry two whole other long term survival bug out bags containing conibear traps and dozens of snares. These were weighty but welcome additions and not something that could be easily replaced in these dark days. Modern trapping and snaring is the most effective means to take game and it would be crazy for them to try to rely on primitive methods when they didn’t have to. With the floating 120 foot trotline w/ 120 hooks that came prepackaged with that pack and that Tetra Pod boat if Sam was lucky enough to have that kind of bait and a good moonlight night he probably could feed a community with catfish. If he had his modern traps and snares nobody would get stuck eating an all fish diet for long.
5
SHIPPING OUT AND DROPPING OUT
Sam drove the lead vehicle out of the driveway and Lori followed closely behind with her van with the boat trailer in tow. They didn’t see anyone hanging out in front of their houses which was a good thing and Sam commented strongly to himself not to mention to Lori the lack of pets that they normally saw laying around in the yards of the houses they had passed. Their fates were likely to have been the stew pot but this was something she couldn’t bear to discuss, however like Sam she was super leery if they did occasionally see a dog because it was likely starving and possibly feral with an entire pack behind it somewhere ready to savage something. There were Feral dogs in the area before the grid went down, now with probably millions of dogs in this country being turned loose by the owners; it was dangerous times indeed to be afoot and unarmed.
Turning slowly onto the main county road before picking up speed, Sam couldn’t but help himself to cautiously hunch down some in his seat to make himself a little bit smaller and glance around a whole lot at the side of the road. He was thinking maybe he needed to be hiding himself from some pissed off neighbor or could be a possible opportunist’s bullet that he didn’t even know that might notice him leaving.
He didn’t think anyone would be out here taking any random pot shots at passing traffic these days but you damn sure couldn’t be a hundred percent. Now a days it was a true fact of life that you looked to see what nutty people might have in mind when they saw you. Now looking out for so called zombies was something to think about more than ever considering there were even more whacked out crazy people to worry about wandering around these days with everything from sticks to guns in their hands. Don’t let it be said crazy people don’t make good survivors, a hell of a lot of them do and being crazy helps them survive because lots of times they just don’t care. If they were out doing stupid things these days to be concerned with Sam wanted to see them before they saw him hopefully.
He had his window rolled down and his 9 mm pistol lying on the seat next to him while his AR rifle was sort of wedged between the seat and floorboard with his pack, handy but a bit awkward to get to.
The idea of leaving behind them any of what he started to refer to as his ‘quasi-friends’ these days behind without a word upset him as well as Lori to leave to just bug out of here like that. They had had a serious discussion right before getting into the cars and finally driving off, that they should go ahead regardless of any imagined danger or fears they had and somehow tell one of their more favorite neighbors that their place was empty and that they could loot the house and outbuildings all they wanted to before the thieves from next door closed in.
“Well, I guess you’re right, Lori on all counts. I don’t think some of that stuff needs to fall into the wrong hands anyway like the extra ammo. I don’t think I could live with myself too good if I allowed that to happen.” Sam had replied.
“How do you think we should tell them?” Sam had questioned after a bit of a pause.
Lori had remembered that Sam was pretty adamant about not wanting to stop at anyone’s house as they were bugging out. He did not see such a meeting ending up with lots of hugs and best of luck wishes all around. Not by a long shot in his opinion. Times were not such that he was really willing to take that risk.
What was more likely to be in the cards for them in Sam’s opinion would be more problems he didn’t want. Those people would still be just as unjustly resentful of Him and Lori and their carefully assembled preps as they had been to date. Emotions that had gone from just petty jealousy to now starving unreasoning need that boiled down to basically Lori and Sam had prepackaged food and they didn’t had caused the big rift. Sam had helped them some with some extra trapping gear so yes he had fed them in a way, but hunger plays with your brain in funny ways and wild game was scarce.
Oh the folks he was talking about had behaved pretty well so far, that’s why Sam called them quasi friends. When the crap hit the fan after the solar event he saw them off and on kind of regular for awhile every few days. He and they had had discussions over the years about what they would do in a disaster and they did talk off and on about what they would do to survive during a long term disaster. That was the reason why Sam even knew that part of their apocalypse now scenario planning included cutting road access possibly to their location.
Talking before the disaster about
preparedness though was kind of a double edged sword now as they knew Sam had put back some food reserves of some sort at the beginning of this mess. In turn Sam knew they did not and had handed them some beans, rice, and a few traps and snares and told them have at it. He also admonished them well that handout was the only one that they would ever get from him and it wasn’t taken well.
These were mostly kids as Sam called them, in their early twenties and them and their friends who grew up around here were mostly children of single mothers. They usually had too much time on their hands and tended to get up to mischief but they were good boys and girls mostly. Not that they didn’t have their dark sides mind you, they just didn’t tend to show their worst traits too much around Sam or brag about their bigger transgressions in his presence.
Things were different now. He could easily see that the wolf pack living not far from him was thinking about other people in the area as more likely targets that they needed to consider possibly robbing for food in order to feed their parents or themselves. These were not the kind of people that would just sit idly by waiting to die or go down to the church thinking that food for the soul was the same as food for their bellies.