How mobile are you with that 22 pound pack for six weeks? You must be setting up a base camp and foraging.

I'll stay in one place for a couple of weeks then move around, but it's mostly in the same area. Only a few miles difference. It just depends on where feels good. I like spending time in the woods, it's like home for me. My house is basically like a staging area for me. I stay home long enough to take care of business then I'm gone again. A 22 lb pack isn't that big of a burden if you get used to it. I mostly go solo so I don't have to go at someone elses pace. I take lots of breaks and take time to smell the roses.

Ah! Difference in philosophy about BOB. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Where most people would probably bug out from home or office, I would bug out to home. Same philosophy just different direction.

We got to get a philosophy section here! To me, it's all about tools. Just as stated elsewhere, Your mind is the ultimit weapon.Your body dose the minds bidding. The tools you choose augment your bodies abillities. So, first is: Honesty, Respect, Courage, Love, Selfsacrifice, and Honor for these you need to reason well. Then is knowlege of woods craft ( and a whole bunch of other things ).Then comes your choice of tools. Man is a creature of tool. We need tools to protect us from those things in our environment that can kill us. Whether you buy your tools or create your own tools, chooes well, because if a tool fails it can have rather drastic repercussions. Nature is at best ambivillant about our efforts at wilderness( or any other) living. With enough knowlege and a large enough group of us with enough old ones to teach us the old sustainable ways, we can do very well. But at any point, equipment failure, poor descisions, or simply your body being unable to do somthing... There aren't any garantees. Tomorrow is not promissed and no one get out of this life alive. The best I can do is the best I can do. And when the end comes thats OK too. Respectfully; Jim

Gents, Ok, so what else? I think that having a BOB/Go-Bag is great and after the basics are covered some of us probably carry enough to get by for rather longer then what it probable with the contents of your average bob, I dont want to get tangeled in semantics, but I also thing that having access to and a reliable/ ergonomic method of moving about with this stuff is important. Thanks for your kind consideration Jim

Hi,

I've always had a ditch society pack. Fully loaded it's 43 lbs.
Does anyone else keep one?

I've spent untold thousands on survival training but even I wonder if I could survive long term. One never knows until they try and my work won't let me have a year or two off to try.

I hope I'll never have to use it but if there is a plague or something really bad I'll leave for a few years (or as long as I can hold out).

Ditch society packs-Does anyone else keep one?
Or am I a particular type of crazy?

-Nim

For a few years, you need skills. Can't put those in a pack. That's for tools and a well built redoubt are for. But that's getting into black 'copter land.

Still, if I ever become insanely, filthy rich, one of the things I want to do is buy an old missile silo, and make it utterly water tight. And inside, printed on something that won't degrade for a few thousand years, there would be books starting with C-A-T is cat with the picture above, and working on up from there until you are into 1960 or so level technology. Most of the advanced stuff would be on something like microfilm that can stand the age, probably some kind of optically pure glass with buckytubes to form the text (no, I don't think cheap), along with readers that will work on candles. (It can be done, you use mirrors to keep the soot off the lenses and film- still working the patent search for it.)

And seal it, walk away.

Then again, I am the guy who suspects in a past life he worked in the Library at Alexandria, and probably died trying to evacuate the more interesting parts of the collection. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I have a ditch society pack too, but I use mine. Mostly because I sometimes spend long periods of time in the wilderness. You really should use yours even if it's just for a weekend, even if all you do is check to make sure everything works. That way if you ever ditch society there won't be as many surprises. Experience really is the best teacher. I've been working on mine for years and still find things to add or take away.

How heavy is yours? Do you have a list of the contents?

I agree that they always change. Even if I'm not able to camp I go through it a couple of times a year.