Be sure to do some test runs with the blanket roll and shoulder bag.

Dave

1st My sincere thanks for everybody's feedback on this idea!!!

2nd I've adjusted my list of "necessities" thanks to y'alls feedback (suppressing my pack-rat instincts), for the better!!!

3rd Please look at this list and notice where I've made changes, thanks to y'all. Please find the weaknesses.
No, I'm not going to leave my Buck 110 or my Leatherman, or 8" Crescent Wrench behind.
I am going to stop carrying the redundant medical items (some I never realized were redundant) and I'm getting smaller bottles to meet my actual needs, to reduce weight and bulk.
IRT water bottles, the water tanks on a towboat are "supposed" to be good, but after many fast trips to the head (or the nearest trashcan), we only drink the bottled water. That's why I will carry the bottled water with me and refill them as I go.
1 safe water supply = drain the hot water heaters in those homes that are not currently occupied by their owners, as I might come across them.
The camera won't work (if I have to Bug Out) but it is part of the small binoculars and yes, I prefer binoculars.
The condiments just came out that way when I grabbed them, but I'll be adjusting the salt N pepper counts.

4th I made a very successful military career by being the "Unit Scrounger" (among other things). I also tend to think outside
of the box, finding new options to achieve my goals.

This has led me to reducing my load to the following:

A) Blanket, Towel, and Baja Jacket rolled up around the Food Tube (4”x2’ PVC sealed) with the following:
1) 6 pkg-Swiss Miss Instant Chocolate
2) 1 pkg-Mixed Nuts
3) 7 pks-Instant Grits
4) 5 bx-Raisins
5) 8 ea-Slim Jims
6) ½ lb-Buffalo Jerky
7) 5 ea-Beef Bouillion cubes
8) 5 ea-Chicken Bouillion cubes
9) 20 ea-dark chocolate mini’s
10) 10 ea-Tea Bags
11) 3 ea-Granola Bars
12) 2 ea-Chocolate Brownies

B) My Israeli Parachute Messenger Bag with my:
1) Log Book/Licenses,
2) 5 water bottles (16oz),
3) Signal mirror,
4) Medicine Bag,
5) Paracord/pigeon string,
6) Poncho,
7) 55gal garbage bag,
8) 3 bandannas,
9) Bic lighters,
10) 1 pr-Eyeglasses
11) 1 pr-Sunglasses

D) A very small rucksack with:
1) 4 MRE’s,
2) 1 rl-duct tape
3) 2 ea-space blankets
4) 1 pkg-baby wipes
5) Zip ties
6) 5 pk-Raman Noodles (assorted)
7) 1 ea-Coughlin Survival Kit in a Can
8) Toilet Paper
9) Messkit
a) 6 ea-Triox tablets
b) 1 bt-strike anywhere matches
c) 3 ea-SOS pads
d) 1 ea-metal spoon
e) Combo-knife, corkscrew, bottle opener
10) Condiments:
a) 19 pks-Sugar
b) 9 pks-salt
c) 9 pks-pepper
11) Coffee Filters

E) Hanging on shoulder sling:
1) Brown Bag (FAK):
a) 1 bx-Tylenol Cold Medicine
b) 1 bx-Amodium A-D
c) 1 bt-Vitamin C
d) 1 bt-Prescription Alegra
e) 1 bt-Multi Vitamins
f) 1 bt-Desinex Foot Powder
g) 1 bt-Fish Oil Capsules (1000mg)
h) 1 bt-Glucosomine Chondroitin
i) 1 bt-Baby Aspirin
j) 1 pkg-assorted Bandaids
k) 18 doses-Amodium A-D
l) 2 pkg-Theraflu
m) 1 pkg-Q-Tips
n) 24 tablets-Water Purification
o) 1 ea-Ace Bandage
p) 2 ea-OB pads
r) 1 bt-Tylenol PM
s) 1 bt-Prescription-Augmentin (1,000mg)
t) 1 bt-Aleve
2) Black Bag
a) 2 ea-spare Halogen Bulbs
b) 2 spools-brown/white thread
c) 1 pk-sewing needles
d) 1 ea-eyeglass repair kit
e) 1 ea-spare button
f) 2 pkg-Ear Plugs
g) 1 cn-Mosquito repellant (spray)
h) Coins ($)
i) clip on hat brim light/laser
j) Written Bug Out Plan
k) BOB inventory
l) Maps
3) Black Shaving Kit: Toiletries

F) Hat

G) Belt with:
1) Survival knife,
2) Buck 110 and Leatherman in 1 pouch,
3) Mini Mag flashlight,
4) Radio Pouch
a) Spare batteries (C, AA, AAA),
b) 8” crescent wrench,
c) flashlight w/spare bulb,
d) 1 ea-Magnesium Fire Starter
e) 1 ea-spare halogen bulb
5) 1 pr-Binoculars/camara w/belt pouch

H) Necklace:
1) 1 ea-Magnetic Compass
2) P-38 & handcuff key

There is a problem with bladders vs bottles. If you soft sided, flexible bladder bursts and you have no back up, you are out of luck. And I wouldn't trust duct tape.

The problem I've seen with coming from a backpacking background is tainted by my observations of backpackers, so please don't take this as anything but a generality. Their plan, if things go bad, is to get off the trail and get help or a place to hole up. If TSHTF, you frequently don't have that option. Most of them have no flexibility in their gear, they plan for X days and Y conditions, and they they have XY gear.

Now are the black and brown bags on the shoulder sling for the messenger bag? Your food tube?

It also looks like you've got layers here, the same why I look at it. Which bag goes off first?

No, those are on a separate shoulder sling. I'll have to put this together and go for a dayhike to see how it will all ride on my body. In fact,an overnighter would be better.

Some of these may ride better being higher with another being lower (if on the same sides).

The food tube would definitely be slung like a rifle, while I "think" the messenger bag would ride at hip level on one side.

The 3 other bags (on one sling) would ride on the other side. I "think" these bags would ride best if they would stay in a position running from the side and then to the rear, under the small rucksack.

The rucksack is a VERY small pack and will ride high. I will probably try putting the pack on first, followed by the messenger bag (crossways),and then the 3 bag sling (crossways), followed by the food tube (vertically). Weight of the crossover bags will be critical irt to chaffing (especially concerning the collar bones).

The final solution will be a result of trial and error, and I will probably have to drop some more items (weight) during the process.

Thanks for the food for thought. I will try it out and post my thoughts for all to review.

If by "5 water bottles" you mean 5 bottles of store bought water, I'd be careful. That's probably a decent amount of water to carry, but the bottles themselves tend to be very flimsy. They might leak if squashed. Their skinny mouth makes them difficult to refill. You might want to carry an empty 1 liter Nalgene bottle. You can always put "stuff" in it to save space.

You can survive for a long while without supplemental vitamins. I'd ditch the vitamin C and the multi vitamin. Probably the fish oil, too. I'd repackage the other meds in smaller containers than the bottles and boxes they come in.

In a survival situation you probably don't care what color thread you do repairs with. I'd pick one. Actually, I'd carry dental floss and a large needle. You can repair large things as well as small things, plus dental floss is all-around useful.

As little as it saves, I'd sub a heavy duty polycarbonate spoon for the metal one.

I like the bug repellant that comes in little squeeze bottles over the spray cans. Something with a fair amount of DEET. A little bit goes a long way, and it takes up a lot less room. Look at all those pics from Vietnam with the soldiers and their bug juice bottles in their helmet bands.

I'd sub a modern, lightweight LED flashlight for the Mini Mag. The flashlight itself is smaller, lighter, and probably brighter. The batteries will last much, much longer. And you don't have to carry spare bulbs.

I know you love them, but I'd put all your knives, multitools and wrenches on the scale and pick at least one to leave behind. A survival knife, Buck 110, combo knife (SAK?) and Leatherman weigh a lot and overlap a lot. You probably don't need to carry both a SAK and a P38. You probably don't need both a SAK and a Leatherman, either.

When I was serious about this I weighed everything and punched it into an Excel spreadsheet. It was eye-opening. I took the Sierra Club Mountaineering course, and they're big on being prepared. Well, that and navigation. But you also learn to make things do double duty, and you realize you can't travel very far if you're overloaded.

This is a fun exercise. It's made me go back over my own checklists with a critical eye.

Kevin B.

See of you can get the three small packs off thier own sling and onto either the messenger bag's or the food tube's. Right now I see a ruck, a mussette cross body, your food tube off one shoulder and the little bags like Chewbacca's bandoleer of whatever was in those little boxes. Getting complicated.

"...soldiers and their bug juice bottles in their helmet bands..."

Not to try to hijack this thread, but some of those bottles were not bug juice, they were gun oil, Dri-Slide if you were lucky..

I was thinking of how to reply to this for a day, and to look to see if Wildman did.

It seems you are operating on the assumption that when he's on the boat, he's got this thing we call "storage space". Every working boat I've ever seen was mighty short on that- could be worse, could be hotbunking but that probably wouldn't fly on civilian vessel. Odds are, what he's taking is his every day gear.

You might also want to reread his post where said he was not leaving his tools behind. A long range bug out is not like hiking the AT or PT. I wouldn't think of bugging out 50 miles without carrying a decent bit driver, real wire cutters, and maybe a pair of small channel locks along with my Leatherman, pocket bar and pocket knife, if for nothing other than scrounging. It isn't stealing if it's abandoned.

You are thinking about a hiking trip, that is planned and if the variables change, you have a way out. He's thinking of something where there is no way out but with what he has on him. I'd hate to see what you think of my gear.

I second what someone said about ditching the vitamins and nutritional supplements. Maybe you can run down to a pharmacy and talk to someone on which pain-killers you'd really need. You've got several types, all overlapping. Think about it... roughly 250 miles, figure 15 miles/day (conservatively). 17 days. 1 Aleve is supposedly good for a day, so you only need 17 of them. Or, if you prefer Tylenol, 2 500-gram doses, every 6 hours is 8 daily, so you only need to pack 136 pills. I'm willing to bet you've got close to 1000 pills packed!

I see at least 3 flashlights, with 3 spare bulbs. Can you drop one or 2, and maybe arrange things so you don't need to pack so many different types of batteries?