Intro to the "Bug Out Bag"

A refugee bag is the physical system that accompanies your mindset, planning, and training for surviving and rebuilding during an event that requires fleeing from your home or home range devastation.  Building a one-kit option for your entire life can seem like an insurmountable task.  It is an exercise in efficiency and a journey into exploring your wants and needs.  The bug out is a full migration to greener pastures while depleted or sick areas recover.  Returning to your stores may not be an option so a refugee must include everything needed indefinitely.  Families during westward expansion carried so much stuff they needed an oxe and a cart.  Even with advances in technology, it seems like a nearly impossible undertaking to fit your entire life and life support systems into a backpack.  The bug out bag is distillation of life to survival simplicity, but true mastery begins with the realization that the life support system is not what is put in the pack, but it is what is all around living with nature and your ability to craft what you need from the wild.

“An animal is an instrument played by the landscape," is a favorite saying of survival expert, Tom Brown jr.  A desert traveler will carry more water than an eastern woodlands hiker.  But the common denominator is water and its essentiality to human life.  There are enumerable differences between individuals, but the end of the day our human necessities dictate that we all live the same.  Survival experts sight the “Rule of Three” when considering priorities of survival.  

The Rule of Three

                        Three quarts of blood

                        Three minutes without air

                        Three hours without proper shelter

                        Three days without water

                        Three weeks without food

The human body requires five quarts of blood to be happy.  When you only have three quarts left, that is when you loose consciousness and you die if no one helps you.  This is mentioned first because it corresponds to the importance of safety.  A good medical kit is secondary to practicing blade safety fundamentals most importantly is do not cut towards yourself.  At the time of writing the author has a particularly nasty axe wound at the base of my left pointer finger.  An expert in all things machinery and construction friend of the author will show off his less than full hand saying, “it took 40 years of practice before I cut my fingers off with a chainsaw.”  So it bears repeating that a good medical kit is secondary to safety and paying attention.  Accidents are accidents and trauma is trauma; a medical kit is essential in any expedition.  An acceptable medical kit covers minor cuts and scrapes and ailments to initial trauma stabilization.  Additionally the author’s medical kit is the conglomeration of several commercial available kits designed to limit critical blood loss, relieve a sucking chest wound, and create an unobstructed airway.  Once a person is stabilized chances of survival are much greater and exceeded the author’s level of experience other than calling for an ambulance and going to the hospital.  CPR classes are available through local organizations and regularly offered.  Further medical training and certification can be found through emergency medical services or fire department in your area.  The military’s rule of thumb is that your medical kit is for you.  So everyone has got to have one.  But if there are no medical services, you will have to rely on nature.  Milkweed can help seal a scrape, dried sphagnum moss becomes a gauze pad, yarrow powder a coagulant, and a boiling of acorns will create a wash high in germ fighting characteristics.  There is a plethora of medicinal plants available to the aware woods-person.  A firm understanding of medicinal plants is critical to be supplemented by the things you carry.  The example kit also includes a one handed fercerrium rod for fire starting incase one of my hands is damaged.  A well organized field guide to medicinal plants can point the way to learning about the healing properties of natural items.  Other equipment may be added based on medical training proficiency. 

Subsection two of the rule of three reminds us that three minutes without air will put a short end to the survival journey.  Thankfully the trees of the earth produce fresh air, but up until recently few would think it necessary to worry about polluted air.  Near apocalyptic images of Kiev covered in smoke, pepper spray, and tear-gas accompanied by the images of sorrowful faces coated in carcinogenic debris from New York City’s Twin Tower Buildings at minimum have highlighted the potential need for a gasmask in a bug out kit. 

Clothing is the first layer of shelter.  Gear for a tropical environment is not the same as gear for an Alaskan expedition, but both may need to be accounted for when packing a bug out bag.  This is dictated by the need to get out of the initial danger zone.  If we compare bugging out to the first second of a gunfight, the most critical thing is to get off the line of attack because your reaction will always be slower than someone that already attacking you.  So in a refugee situation being forced from your home you need to get off of the line of danger.  The tragedy at Fukashima highlighted this necessity.  If the large plooms of radiation force you to the north out of the danger zone but you have only packed for east to west travel, you may be colder terrain.

      
The key to keeping core body temperature up and happy is layers.  Wool has amazing thermal properties particularly when wet.  All of the layers with exception of raingear in the author’s bug out bag is wool.  It retains 80% of its ability to hold heat when wet.  On the other hand cotton holds none.

      
The next line of shelter is a sleeping system.  A debris hut will keep you warm well below sub zero temperatures, but a sleeping bag is a packable option for folks on the move.  When every calorie is valuable, it is a luxury to unroll your bedroll and be asleep in no time as opposed to building a hastily constructed natural shelter each evening if you are moving quickly.  The military sleep system is offered by the United States and can be found in great condition for note much money for the ALL weather capability and millions of dollars in research and development.  It utilizes three sleeping bags that nest inside each other for colder temperatures.  Many nights a full on tent or tarp are not required when sleeping outdoors.  The military sleep system also includes a gortex outer covering that acts like raingear for your sleeping bag.  Because the sleep system’s size compresses next to nothing, it is a really good option for warm sleeping on the move and a staple of the author’s bug out bag.  A really good rip stop camping tarp is included for additional shelter on rainy days, water collection, or debris hauling.

         
Most of your body heat is lost through the ground.  No sleeping system is complete without something to lift you off the ground.  Leaves and grass mats are a natural option.  The author choses an inflatable pad after putting away the OD green military standard issue pad passed down from my parents.  The inflatable pad stows away smaller than the roll up kind, but become inefficient when punctured.

         
Since we are warm and out of the elements, we now need to get something to drink.  Water is all around, but water isn’t created equally.  It is rare to find a place acceptable to drink directly from the surface.  The only way to be sure the water is safe to drink is to boil it.  Just bringing the water to a rolling boil is enough to kill any pathogens.   At least a 40oz stainless steel canteen makes a good water bottle because of its ability to boil water sitting next to a fire.  Even plastic containers can boil water, but it is difficult to outlast a stainless steel water bottle.  In addition to the steel water bottle, a water filter is a great addition.  The right water filter will allow you to drink or pump water into your container ready to drink saving you time and risk at the expense of very little weight.

In order to purify water or cook food, a reliable way to start a fire is not a bad addition to the bug out bag.  I really enjoy friction fire.  It is thrilling to see the coal jump to life from a pile of black dust.  After four solid years of practice the author has gotten to a point of competency with a hand drill friction fire method.  A lot of this skill requires proper material selection, which in field during a monsoon might be difficult.  A bug out bag will include several means of fire for when the elements overcome your friction fire proficiency.  My favorite next to a Bic lighter is the ferrocerrium rod.  When a piece of steel is scraped across, the oxidation causes the filings to spark lighting properly processed tinder on fire quickly.

A really nice fire is now crackling away at camp, but the pre prepared food in your kit isn’t going to last forever.  Peanut butter and tuna fish are staples of my backpacking kit.  In addition Duke 110 traps, 220 traps and snares provide long  term food procurement without a firearm which may be regulated or draw more suspicion to you as you travel through potentially hostile environments.  Trapping is a numbers game.  The more traps you put out the more things you will catch.  Skillful production of “primitive” traps is a great way to have more game getting potential, but it is hard to beat the ease and convenience of the Duke traps particularly because of the weight vs the calories they produce.  I don’t know anyone that would speak poorly of the Duke lines of traps.  Have-a-Heart live traps are a fantastic option as well, however, they don’t fit easily into a backpack.

In addition to meat sources, plants provide essential nutrients and don’t run away.  Pine needle tea is very tasty full of vitamin C.  Grass can provide calories through chewing and swallowing the juice produced.  An edible plants guide is a mandatory addition.

Rope is an essential tool in the wild.  Rootlets provide easy cordage and reverse wrap cordage techniques produce extremely strong cordage.  Rope is used to hold up a tarp or lash the frame of your structure together, to make baskets, or fishing lines.  I carry a small amount of paracord marked for bow drill fires and a much larger amount of 110 bank line usually used in fishing and net making.  Using the reverse wrap method I can make that 110 pound bank line hold substantially more weight if need be so there is little need to be carrying a heavy duty rope.

In any situation the right tools make all the difference.  Making a “cutting” tool with rocks doesn’t take too long, but the performance advantage from a saw is a 10,000 year advantage.  Nestled on the side of my backpack’s main pouch is a 30 inch folding bow saw with extra blade, which in addition a smaller folding Bahco saw, makes any wood cutting task extremely efficient.  A full tang fixed blade knife is pretty much a staple of anyone who spends time in the woods.  A knife with a full tang has one piece of metal running from the blade all the way through the handle.  This heavy construction allows for abuse that shatters other knives.  A small axe rounds out my tool kit for its ability to chop wood and handle large tasks quickly.

Don't forget to bring a towel.  Identification documents and sentimental items should be considered.

The very last item to consider is the bag itself.  The items that go inside need to actually fit your bag, and if you spend a lot of money on a primo backpack that doesn’t fit what you want to carry, you potentially have wasted some time and money.  There are lots of bags out there.  Some less flashy than others, a camo bag may be what you want in the woods, but a tote bag may make you look less like someone that has something to take.  Other than size a bag should be comfortable and offer padding at the shoulders, back, and hip straps.

At a long enough time in the bush your tools will become worn out, your clothing ripped, and your consumables gone.  Your bug out kit provided you the gear to quickly move out of a danger zone, but the time may come that you need to utilize the skills of our ancestors to produce a life for you and your family.  If you want to learn more about the skills and how to implement them to create abundant and healthy villages, visit www.SustainableHomestead.com or feel free to email me at Scott@SustainableHomestead.com.  Subscribe to our youtube channel to see the accompanying video when it is uploaded.