Showing posts with label making your own outdoor gear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label making your own outdoor gear. Show all posts

Survival in a Can- Contents List

When I go on adventures, I take my Survival Kit. Its evolved to include the following:
Inside one coffee can, with lid, place
*3 mil, contractors garbage bag, cut open so it lays flat. Roll this tightly and secure with elastic band which can withstand freezing.
*compass, on lanyard
*sheet of notepaper, folded, small pencil with electrical tape wound around it
*Jack knife, 3.5 inches, on elastic lanyard with binder clip
*cigarette lighter, hexamine tablet, book of matches, flint, petroleum jelly on cotton balls in plastic bag,
*Ziplock sandwhich bag to contain all firemaking tools
*safety pins
All of this easily fits into the can. There's just enough room to tuck in a few tea bags or boulion cubes. Orange strips of trail tape could be included, if desired.
The various cords are elastic bungee cords, which can be used to set up the plastic sheeting for shelter. The various redundant firestarters are important in winter and wet seasons. The knife enables me to build, protect and secure food. The can is for cooking, boiling water, and containing everything in a dry manner.
The compass, writing materials, trail tape are for self rescue and enabling rescue.
The electrical tape and safety pins are for repairs to body or gear.
Food, water, shelter, orientation, repair. This whole thing weighs just 13.5 ounces and was made with things on hand.

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Other Fuels for Soda Can Stove


After making my initial homemade fuel sticks, I've collected enough wood chips to make them using an ice cube tray. I'm really liking the results because they will be uniform in shape, be denser, and not need cutting to fit on the soda can stove bottom.
I was able to find paraffin at a thrift store, but old candles, dripped wax, or a combination of all three can be melted together as well.

I wrote the page about fuels which is linked to this blog. Of course, I didn't include the various things I burned to boost the cooking time of Esbit or hexamine tablets when supplies ran low. Once I'd get the tablet going, any peppermint candy wrappers or alcohol soaked cotton balls (used to wipe down body parts for hygiene) or maybe a pine cone would be added to give me just a little more heat. This really comes in handy when its cold out. But let me warn you. Some hiking partners object to smelling this or have "environmental issues".


To each their own.

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Packless System Conversion-Day One

Taking an external frame to an ultralight backpacking mode is very easy.

External frames last forever, even though the packs bound to them with Clevis pins may be worn out. Many times a pack has zippers, heavy pack cloth with holes, or simply way too much outdated metal hardware which is extremely heavy. The simple procedure of stripping all the old worn out equipment from the pack takes just a few minutes.

Once stripped, the external frame with shoulder straps and cushy hip belt weigh just under two pounds. The silnylon stuff sacks with gear are sacks normally used inside the pack. The method we will employ cinches these sacks directly to the frame. All can be covered with an ultralight silnylon pack cover, if desired, for rain protection.

My pack has a modern custom silnylon pack which I made to accommodate a Garcia Bear Canister for a long distance hike in Montana, grizzly country. Now I am in Appalachian Mountains and will use this pack for other adventures so a packless system is in order.

This week we'll be blogging about that process. Tomorrow, taking measurements and analyzing our stash of stuff sack, we'll begin assembling the system.

Check out http://www.brawnyview.blogspot.com/ for more details.

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