What is practical to carry every day in summer when you don't have bulky winter coats with big cargo pockets? I carry my leatherman wave in my pocket, but what else should be carried when you don't have a lot of pockets or want to look like an apprentice shoplifter with bulky pockets?

Most of us can get our stuff into a playing card sized box -- easy to carry & remember. Look at some of the "EDC" threads.

tro

My every day attire in the summer is shorts and a golf shirt or shorts and a tshirt with tennis shoe, sandals or bare feet. When I am dressed this way all I carry is a light weight full size folder (BM-RSK, BM-ACFK or Spyderco Salt), a mini bic lighter, a modified (shortened) Inova microlight, my wallet, keys and cell phone. Inside my wallet is also an oven bag, a bit of duct tape and a couple katadyn MP-1 tabs. The only thing I really do differently is if I am wearing jeans or sturdy shorts then I may carry a fixed blade CRK shadow III and/or a multitool in place of the above mentioned knives.

Eagle Creek makes a dandy little padded fanny pack sized to carry a smallish camera. I have no idea what model it is or what it's called; but it holds my wallet, a SAK, a mini Witz container with minimalistic 1st Aid items, a Photon Freedom with clip, an emergency poncho and a mini PSK or Doug's PSK with a tad of room left to spare. Even in gym shorts and a t-shirt, it rides comfortably and securely without looking out of place...

M

I am in your situation almost year round here in Phoenix.

Here is what you have to do to survive 3 days: thermo-regulate, hydrate, and communicate.

I would have to be up north to get cold. I carry a LeatherMan Charge Ti clipped in my pocket; it has a saw. I have 10’ of thin braided nylon cord in my watch pocket. If there were trees around I could build some kind of shelter. I have an Altoids strips metal tin that holds two squished Coghlan’s Emergency Tinder I also have a Boy Scout Hot Spark. The back of the LeatherMan saw works great to make sparks. I also have a Bic-mini lighter. It is great for burning the ends of rope and cord. When I go hiking I always take a water bottle or wear my CamelBack. The CamelBack has my Cody Lundin, 98.6, type survival kit. To communicate I always have a Fox-40 in my pocket and a cut down REI featherweight mirror in my wallet. A cell phone is good if it works where you happen to be.

For comfort: I have Chapstick, two Band-Aids (in my wallet), an Ultra Infinity LED (AA), and a Suunto Comet compass with a glow-in-the-dark face. If I were a real survival nut I would keep a folded up square of heavy-duty aluminum foil in my back pocket. Because I am a self-defense nut; I carry a SureFire C2 clipped to my belt and a canister of pepper spray in my pocket. A Glock .40 S&W is seldom far away.

Someone else’s survival may depend on a 3 day supply of prescription medication, if needed.

I’ve listened to Cody Lundin talk. You are most likely to need your PSK when you go day hiking. He said that is when most people get lost and die from lack of thermo-regulation. Think about the rule of 3s only up to 3 days: you can do something stupid and die in 3 seconds, you can die in 3 hours from lack of thermo-regulation, or you can die in 3 days from dehydration. After 3 days they will probably stop looking for you. Then it is time for plan B: get yourself out.

Remember: the best source of water is the water you carry with you. If you had a backpack full of the world’s best camping gear but no water you could still die. I think that if you had a fire starter and a jug of water you could survive the 3 days.

Ooops! Forgot to add the 3-minute rule of 3s. You can die in three minutes from lack of oxygen to the brain from bleeding or breathing problems. Clear the airway and stop the bleeding.

Or 3 weeks from starvation. That's the normal 3s- 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, or 3 weeks without food.

I find it practical to carry a key-ring kit. At minimum, an LED torch (eg Photon 3), a whistle (eg Fox 40), and a small swiss army knife (eg a Vic Rambler). Add a spy-capsule with tinder and either a min-Bic lighter (or any lighter which makes a spark) or a flint rod. A small compass is good too. And some parachord plaited into a key-fob.

I also carry a wallet with money and some "flat" things: a mirror, a Space Pen refill and some water proof paper, a fresnel lens.

I have a watch and a mobile phone. Since I am carrying them anyway, it makes sense to select them with an eye for survival.

Use a waist pack or a back pack if you think you might need more gear. Anything big enough to carry water and a spare water-proof fleece will have room for a PSK.

Bragdon,
Good thought about the watch and mobile phone, picked with an eye for survival--so which watch and mobile phone do you use??? And what are your reasons??

Oops, sorry about misspelling your name, Brangdon

I've just this week started experimenting with a watch that has a digital compass and is solar-powered. It's a Casio SPF-70. Solar-powered is a good idea but I'm not sure about the compass part yet. It makes the watch physically big. I imagine it would be knocked out by an EMP, so an ordinary magnetic compass is more reliable and much cheaper. It also has a barometer, which could help with weather prediction, and a thermometer, which I've found mostly useless.

My phone is a SE P900 with a 128 Meg card. It can get and display information off the internet, including maps and wotnot, as long as it has signal. I keep a lot of electronic books on it; it's surprisingly pleasant for reading. I don't store prepared survival info on it, but I should - I should take my own advice. In a pinch the backlight is a better torch than nothing at all. I found room for a half a hacksaw blade in the battery compartment.

That would be past the 3 days.

I talked to an SAR guy tonight. He said if they don't find you in the first 3 days they will stop looking for you. You then are on your own and need to get yourself out. Then you have 3 weeks before you starve to death.

<img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

And lets not forget 3 months without internet.

3 months !!??!! arrghh!!!
Could you ??? <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

believe it or not i actually went over 6 months with no internet..be afrain be very afraid...

I don't kow, Craig : "I talked to an SAR guy tonight. He said if they don't find you in the first 3 days they will stop looking for you. You then are on your own and need to get yourself out. Then you have 3 weeks before you starve to death."

Sorry, I don't buy this. I'd like to hear from some of the active SAR folks who hang out on this forum, but I think the conclusion that after 3 days they're not looking for you is apt to get someone killed. This depends on too many things, and we've all read about SAR actions going on longer than 3 days.

If you're lost.. stay put unless you're in a dangerous spot. You ALREADY don't know where you are... how's it going to get better? Actually, IMHO, for a true lost-in-the-wilds experience (and I've had one!) I worry more about signaling than a compass. Moving around burns calories, increases need for water, and probably increases the liklihood of an injury. I'm going to 1)talk myself out of scurring around the countryside making a moving target of myself for the SAR folks, 2)stay calm, 3)stay put, and 4)signal any way I can.

This is the watch I wear. I like it because it's "stylish" enough for the office but still has a very descrete digital compass in it.

Why do you need a digital compass? A real watch can be used for way finding if you can find the sun, and if you can't find the sun, you might want to dig in. :P

ya as long as its daytime and not overcast .. if the sun is out I can find north with a twig and dont need a watch at all <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

My phone can also be used for astronavigation. It has the Solun' planitarium software, which can display the azimuth of the Sun or Moon. The azimuth is just the bearing from north, so if the Moon is at 270 then it is due west. Of course if you can see the pole star than you don't need the Moon for navigation, but the UK is often too overcast for stars. And with the sun, it'll be more accurate than the "point the hourhand at the sun" method, especially if you don't have an analogue watch.

You can get the same information from some GPS units, and so get a rough bearing even if there is no signal. Mine has a screen which shows the relative positions of Sun and Moon on a compass rose. For example, stick a twig vertically into the ground so it casts a shadow. Switch the gps to Sun & Moon screen, and place it flat so that the shadow falls onto the screen. Rotate until the shadow falls on the line connecting the Sun and the Earth. Then the compass rose is correctly aligned and north means north.