What is a BOB, GHB or EDC? What goes in one? And why the heck would I want one anyway?

Off-topic Chatter
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This weekend a group of us went out to test some bit of kits we have picked up, in my case it was a Coghlans Water Filter i got off ebay and a cold steel trail hawk again another ebay purchase. Both are cheap peices of kit but from reports on line and friends they work well or at least i hope they do.

Coghlans Water Filter has a filter pore size of 2 microns, so it is effective against waterborne protozoa most importantly giardia and cryptosporidium but will not filter any of the harmful bacteria. For those you will need to treat with chemicals or UV like the steripen or boiling for 10 minutes.

My idea for this filter is to use it as a pre-filter for my current main system the Sawyer Products Mini Water Filtration System which does filter out the harmful bacteria, the idea is to extend the life of my primary drink water filter, while using the Coghlans Water Filter for cooking water which i will be boiling anyway, the system weight in at 8.7oz with a spare filter. I made sure to test it with muddy water and it filtered it clear which will greatly extend the life of my Sawyer Products Mini Water Filtration System as muddy water blocks it’s finer filter pores rather quickly.

Over all i was pleased with the Coghlans Water Filter, it did what i wanted it to do and for the price is an excellent bit of kit combine it with some water treatment and it could be a compact affordable primary system. Several of my friends where impressed enough while using it to order there own.

The trail hawk got alittle use and worked well at splitting wood for the fire, hammering in tent pegs and cutting of some 6” logs. The handle needs stripping as the current finsh started to cause blisters when used without gloves. The paint on the head looks cheap and tacky and also seems to bind abit when spliting wood, at the moment the head it sitting in a jar of paint stripper and i plan to polish and gun blue it. The handle i have sanded down and stained when the stain has dried throughly i will vanish and sand it back. I think it will make an excellent light weight backup to my small forest axe. I’ll have to see if i can find abit of stainless steel pipe to make a band around the top of the handle so i can use it as a cudgel. I have bought a used Adze head off of ebay again that according to the seller will fit the trail hawk handle, i hope so as it will expand the tools i can carry for very little extra weight.

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My Sawyer mini filter came with two tubes that can be used as straws, as well as being screwed onto a standard size water bottle on either end. It also comes with a syringe to back wash it.

My sister the noted survivalist who has spent years in the farthest corners of the globe has a couple things to say about some of the info I’ve seen here, because we have been discussing it a lot:

1. Don’t use life straws — they are awful. I didn’t recognize her two-bag gravity-fed filter, but she looked at my Sawyer filter and said it was fine.

2. Water doesn’t need to be boiled for 10 minutes. Bringing it to a full boil and then taking the heat away and letting it sit with the residual heat is sufficient. That way you aren’t wasting valuable fuel. She said that boiling water should always be a last ditch backup in case your filter fails or some other problem.

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could this be your sister set Sawyer Products Two Bag Complete Water Filtration System ? I had a look at that before i went for the mini system. When i have the spare cash i want to get this larger 4lt version http://sawyer.com/products/sawyer-4-liter-water-filtration-system-2/ with afew spare filters should be a good backup for the family. Each fitler cart claims to be good for Cartridge Life: 1,000,000 US gallons (3.78lt to a US gallon) so a good family sized solution.

For any that are interested in these filter systems i will point out they do NOT filter out heavy metals, pesticides, so depending on your area or type of disaster you may need additional filtering with a charcoal based filter. Please research carefully to see if your bugout route or location has heavy metals, pesticides issues and adapted your systems to fit.

For example with the mining in my area some streams and rivers have arsenic in them all the time from old mine run off others only with heavy rain runoff some no issues at all. I have a water map with the rivers highlighted in green/yellow or red. This will also contaminates food sources in these rivers fish/shell fish / catkins etc, check with the EPA or relavent body in your region.

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I have several Sawyer products and they are top notch. Pretty much get out anything except chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides. You’d have to get a Berkey filter to actually purify the water to the point that chemicals are taken out (and it’s a great product by the way).

In regards to the lifestraws, I wouldn’t necessarily put them in the awful category but agree that their not on the same level as the Sawyer and certainly not on the level of the Berkey. However, what they do have in their favor is size and portability. They are something that can be easily tossed in an EDC or even just a pocket so that they’re there if/when you need something. They are good enough to get out giardia and cryptosperidium which are two of the nasty little things you don’t want to drink. Basically a $10 emergency insurance policy that can go a long way towards staying hydrated during a situation where you may not have a container that you can boil water in.

In regards to boiling, your sister is 100% spot on accurate. Boiling is the best way to kill all the pathogens in water, but won’t remove chemicals. Just bringing to a boil is sufficient to kill pathogens, however, it should be mentioned that if you are way above sea level you will need to boil for a bit longer due to the temperature of the water being less i.e water boils below 212 degrees as you gain elevation so you’ll need longer exposure time to the heat.

I started this thread awhile back:

Scenario - inconvenient to worse case

I’ve updated it due to the recent events in New York with people being snowed in on the highways, and in many cases found frozen to death in their vehicles. I think this is a huge wake up call for folks that really speaks to the need for the information in the OP link as well as any/all sound information they can get their hands on. In this day and age there is NO excuse for being unprepared for common and even uncommon situations. Doesn’t mean you’re going to survive an emergency but having the mindset and gear to give yourself (and your family) a much better chance to survive an emergency is the better choice.

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To back up a little, there still seem to be people who are a little unclear on the terminology.

BOB = Bug Out Bag. It’s stuff you have prepared, in case you need to evacuate your home due to some kind of unfortunate event. Like a wild fire, or a train derailment that releases toxic and/or flammable chemicals into your neighborhood, etc. (If there’s a disaster and you’re staying home to ride it out you’re bugging in, not out.)

GHB = Get Home Bag. Extra stuff you carry with you to help you get home, in the event something happens that might cause getting home to be difficult- freeway closure, train derailment, big fire, etc. With the assumption being that, if you can only manage to get home you’ll be fine. For instance, on 9/11 the many many thousands of people who work in Manhattan had quite an ordeal just attempting to get home from work.

EDC = Every Day Carry. The stuff you like to have with you every day, to make every day life smoother. And to help you be prepared for eventualities, everything from getting a splinter in your finger, cutting yourself accidentally, bug bite, light being out in the stairwell at work, etc etc

There are often different ‘levels’ of each, depending on the severity of what you’re preparing for and what type of transport you’re expecting to have available. If you’re on foot and can only have what you can carry, you would pack differently than if you expected to have access to a vehicle, etc.

There can be overlap. If you commute in a vehicle, and would expect to evacuate your home in the same vehicle in an emergency, having a kit of emergency supplies stashed beforehand in that vehicle would be able to serve as both a GHB and a BOB, depending only on what is actually happening. Very elaborate EDC setups could be considered to overlap both other categories.

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I have the paper version of this. A nice introduction to the topic called “Your Chance To Live”. Among other things, it tells you how to drink out of the toilet!

http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED154298.pdf

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AHAHAHAHAH im late to the party but this made me lol :smiley:

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Bingo :slight_smile:

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I would suggest looking into a bugout trailer, reverse up hook up and bugger off sharpish like.

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Got a trailer set up for my mountain bike. Tested it out last year. It’s functional if not loaded down with unnecessary stuff.

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I just wanted to say thank you again to the OP for this is a great thread. It has lots of good contributions by members and some great links. My favorites are:

http://s3.excoboard.com/sep/100162/1298389?page=1#8912564

http://www.theoutdoornerd.com/2014/07/my-72-hour-disaster-bag-aka-bugout-bag.html

I also really like chenko's sharing of a couple of his bags and his chisel idea.

After reading this thread the first time, I went around the house to gather up stuff to start a BOB. It became very evident that, unbeknownst to me, I have had an emergency preparedness mindset for a long time, but that I have never thought about it in a formal manner and seriously lack education. Here are some for instances:

  • Choose a house on 14 wooded acres with no other houses in sight (due to vegetation). Keep chickens, vegetable/herb gardens, and fruit trees.
  • I installed a wood burning stove in my house within the first year of purchase about 16 years ago. I always keep a wood pile reserved for extended power outages.
  • I have about 20 gallons of bottled drinking water stored in 3 different locations at home and some in every car. Another 105 gallons in pressurized tanks feed by my well.
  • "Space" blankets, lights, etc in all vehicles.

Most of what I noticed facilitate survival/comfort in a hunker down in place situation. I never thought about what if I have to leave my house or what if I find myself away from home in a survival situation. I have just joined the Survival and Emergency Preparedness forum.

What I have gathered for a BOB so far is way too heavy. My sleeping bags, tents, hatchets, cooking utensils etc are more for comfort camping and are too big and heavy to carry long distances. I also still have not purchased a good backpack to carry the stuff. I have made some purchases like water filtration, fixed blade knife, etc. I want to purchase a portable solar panel and to slowly downsized my individual pieces of equipment. I want to spend as little as possible though.

So, my biggest concern is staying dry. It can continuously for days on end down here. Doesn't matter the season. The ground gets very mushy and water puddles on the saturated ground. I haven't figured out how I could make a dry shelter without using high ground, pine needles, etc. If anyone is aware of anything (beyond a plastic sheet) that I could carry that could help, I would be appreciative.

Lastly, I have to say that although planning for emergencies is serious business, it's quite fun. I'm still way early on and have very little knowledge in the area. Keeping it low cost and dealing with the conflicting constraints makes it a challenging and rewarding hobby in itself.

EDIT: Love the bike trailer idea DeputyDave. You got a link to a picture of your set up?


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If you mean keeping dry while sleeping the best way is to stay off the ground totally using a hammock. Where i live it tends to rain alot as well and we use hammocks where ever possable.

It is best to use as large a covering tarp as possable, when the wind blow it whips the rain around the edge of the tarp, mine is 12’ x 12’ / 3.5m x 3.5m.

Of coarse you need to have trees of suitable size to support the hammock, where these are not available what you can do is use more cordage to spead the load across several smaller trees. Either from the ends of the hammock to several different trees directly, or by attaching the hammock to one tree and using cordage to transfer the load to enough others to carry the load. The method will depend on the cordage you have and distance between trees.

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Your very welcome :slight_smile:

Don’t feel bad about that, most everyone goes through the same thing. What I’ve found helpful was to start the SEP Gatherings. This is a group of folks that get together and go out to the deep woods and primitive camp i.e. all you have is what you bring. This gives us the opportunity to share-n-compare gear, see what we need and what we really don’t need. It shows the areas you need to be redundant in and you see other folks ideas on streamlining a pack.

I have both a medium ALICE pack w/frame and a Fieldline pack. I’ve been using the Fieldline lately as it has lots of pockets and MOLLE webbing etc, but to be honest I think I’m going back to the ALICE pack. I got the ALICE pack at the flea market and sometimes you can really hit a deal you can’t pass up. IIRC I paid $25.

I’ll second what Wolf said about a hammock. I have two set ups, the first is an EBNS one-man tent the second is a DIY hammock I made. The EBNS is detailed HERE and the DIY hammock is detailed HERE.

I got a deal on the EBNS on Ebay (IIRC around $150) I couldn’t pass up and the DIY hammock I made cost $17. Either will go a long way towards keeping you dry.

I might have a pic somewhere, if I can find it I’ll post it. Basically it is a moving dolly from HFT that I connected to the back of my bike rack with 550 paracord. Very basic and simple. As long as it isn’t loaded down it’s tolerable. I did it on one SEP trip to test it. So I know I ‘can’ use it if needed, but would rather not if other options are available. Bigger tires would be a plus.

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Thank you wolf359 and Deputydave. So funny how we limit our thinking. I was fixated on on-ground solutions. The idea of getting in the air did not even cross my mind. Hammock and EBNS look like great solutions.

Deputydave,

So much good info. It's really cool how you give budget minded suggestions and also your choices which are based on real world experience and hard won knowledge.

Although not sexy and probably not feature rich, I see Alice packs in my future. I have spoke to my wife about this concept and she is ok with an Alice pack solution for her too. Since we are not currently avid campers/hikers, it seems the best approach for now.

At first, I was thinking a bike trailer would be great idea for me. I have concluded its' not a viable option for me. We have so much vegetation here in South Carolina. An unpaved path will grow over is short order without active usage. I imagine I would need to ditch the trailer in short order around here. Even bike handle bars could be problematic out here. Also moving at any speed beyond a brisk wake around here is just begging to up an eye out. Trees grow like weeds out here.

I plan on doing a lot of research and planning before buying much more. I want to avoid making to many purchases I regret later. Thanks to all the knowledge you share here and especially on the S&EP forum, I don't think that will be a problem.

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IIRC, I bought a large ALICE and a medium ALICE on ebay a few years ago with the frame and straps for around $30ish. And I bought a Medium ALICE at a local flea market for $25. I see they’ve gone up in price a bit but I’m sure they’re deals floating around (flea market, garage sale, Craig’s list, Ebay etc). I like them with the frame as it seems to distribute the weight better. And when it’s on the frame it forms a small space between the small of your back and the pack. Good spot to put something like a tarp so it’s handy and easy to get to. Only draw back that I’ve seen really is that they don’t rest sitting up and you need to prop them against a tree or something. But really that’s a pretty minor complaint. They’re durable and for me the mediums have plenty of room for all of my gear. How you pack stuff in them will be personal preference and dictated on the stuff you pack and how easily accessible you need a particular item to be. A medium ALICE for example has the large inner compartment. It also has a compartment inside of this as well as a water proof compartment in the cover. It then has three outer pockets that cinch down. And it has plenty of webbing to attach stuff and you can use ALICE clips or any type of straps. Lots of YT videos on these to give you ideas. My son has the camo and I have the olive drab.

Lots of DIY stuff on the SEP forum. One of my favorite areas and quite a bit that can save you money. I was just talking with a guy on another forum about pack stoves. He favors Jet Boil and Dragon Fly and uses the DF. A DF is $140 plus shipping. The repair kit (which you should really have with you just in case) is another $38. And the special burner to make it quiet is $60. It is a very nice stove but, and this is just me, $240 to boil water is not something I’m willing to do. And that’s the biggest thing you’ll use a pack stove for anyway with occasional exceptions. And the fuel is limited to what you can put in the fuel bottle. I use an Esbit pocket stove ($4.95) and I either use my DIY fuel tabs (in the DIY section) that cost about 3 cents each or I’ll put an ounce or two of isoprophyl alcohol 91% in the bottom part of an Altoid tin can and use that for about 8 cents. Either way it is more than enough to bring 24+ ounces of water to a rolling boil. Not as fast as the JB or DF but the whole thing is smaller, quieter and can use multiple fuels including simply burning sticks. So my Esbit including whatever fuel I want to use for multiple days is running me about $5.

Micro-inferno fire starters are a great product but they’ll run you about $8 plus another $8 for shipping and you only get 8 in the tin. They are GREAT fire-starters but instead of spending at or over $2 for each wafer I make my own for around 3-4 cents each. And I store them in an old shoe shine tin or I have a few buddies that dip and give me there old tins. That’s also in the DIY section under DIY fire-starter wafers.

I’m very cheap….er, frugal :bigsmile:

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Yeah, I need to establish a daily Craigslist scan routine. Great way to find good stuff for very low cost. Also need to hit our SC surplus property office.

Definitely will be spending some time reading the DIY subforum on SEP. I just read about your diy fuel tab yesterday and absolutely loved the idea.

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Been slowly but steadily acquiring more stuff for the emergency packs. Water filtration, bank line, Amsteel Blue, good fixed blade and sheaths, whistles, etc. Looking at every thing a little differently. Gonna build a hammock soon. I get excited every time a stick something new in the backpacks. I think it will be more fun when I am able to simultaneously remove something (or better yet a coupled somethings) because it is no longer needed.

Any hammock builders here? How many yards of this would you buy to build 2 adult sized hammock bottoms?

Some day I'm going to ask what you all do about toilet paper.

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Quite a bit of the stuff for my bugout bagin my blog post mentioned above came from my sister's survival kits. She always sold them on eBay but I just built her a web site Red Collie Survival Kits where I have put some of her newer kits up. My bag recently added one of her fire kits and a titanium spork she gave me.

Basically I'm now the CEO of her survival company because she doesn't have the time to run it, and now suddenly I have several rooms full of the kind of stuff that goes into these kits, so definitely let me know if there's anything you guys need separately for your BOB bags, like mylar blankets, light sticks, bandanas, you name it. I keep finding plastic bins full of Victorinox knives, carabiners, whistles, ferro rods, paracord--it's a prepper's dream here.

The next thing I plan to get into on my blog is: Ok, now you have a good disaster bag, now let's work in points for style. Just about every component can be incrementally upgraded, with almost all upgrades for your bag lowering the weight. I also have a hanging luggage scale I use to measure mine, currently at 44 pounds.

Upgrades ideally start at your heavy items and work their way down, though not always. For example, my sister's bags all have expensive high end, lightweight, dehydrated food I'll be able to pilfer for mine, which currently has 2400 calorie food bars nobody would ever willingly eat. So, I never turn away the low hanging fruit so to speak to make mine better. And at the end of the world I'll be eating beef stroganoff instead of hideous lemon bars that would in all likelihood break a tooth off.

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My bag has several small travel packs of kleenex tissue. It used to have a full roll of Charmin but I’m now making full use of the space in the bag. You can also buy those little cutsie rolls of “camping toilet paper” but it seems like a waste to me. Just replace a roll early at your house and put that 1/5 roll in your disaster bag, maybe in a zip-lock bag. You could probably flatten it. I like the tissue because it’s dual use, as well as being more compact.