David, one of the first principles in survival is the STOP acronymn. I'm going to make you find it on the site here. It is also usefull for people newly interested in this subject. It's real easy to read about and see all this stuff and need it now- You don't. I want you to go r-e-a-l s-l-o-w, like your hiking a new trail with map and compass. Otherwise, you wind up with alot of stuff you may not need or not of the best quality. Farley Mowat's NEVER CRY WOLF gives a hilarious example of being over equipped. There is a '10 essentials' list ( and 10,000 variations on that.) I'd look it over. I bet you allready have most of it in one form or another. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />