First pass at building a GHB

[Aceman]

A couple of comments:

Is this really a "14 mile" GHB? That's either a lot of gear for 14 miles, or not enough for further....For example; Only one MRE and no shelter (a long afternoon?). Yet two sources of fire (3 days?). How many fires are you going to need if you aren't doing overnight? Just saying a little focus might help.

I always like to organize around easy/max days: 1 day easy / 3 days max, or 3 days easy / 7 days max.

Overall, however, I think it's a pretty great bag.

I will mention this, also; I always try to have triple on key elements: Water, Fire, Knife, FA (and whatever else you consider super important!)

And another key strategy is that I keep a survival pouch with my bag. The pouch has the barest minimum survival tools (Swiss knife, flint, filter straw, mini compass, paracord bracelet, etc...)

The pouch is part of my pack, but upon grabbing the pack, the pouch goes on my person. That way if I lose/abandon the pack, I'm not screwed!

[jnathan]

I'm going to sound like a dick for posting this, and that's fine... I expect some to see it that way. I did indeed post this to get feedback, but I've also been noticing that seem to be missing some of the details. I think there are two possibilities:

1) There's a lack of reading comprehension of posters
2) I'm doing a piss poor job of explaining things

So I thought I'd clarify a few things. First, I keep this bag in my car whenever I'm driving in case I come across some people who need help or I myself need some help. "just in case".

I also have my EDC on me all the time. Between my EDC and what's in the GHB, that's a lot of crap to lug around every day. It's multiple lights, batteries, two leathermen, two fixed blades, a bunch of small useful tools, first aid items, fire starting widgets, compasses, etc. Now, obviously, in building our GHBs we're assuming that we won't be able to use our cars and that our bags will help us get home without our cars. And there are plenty of situations in which I am more than 14 miles from my home. After all, we us our cars to go places that are too far to get to by foot or on a bicycle in a reasonable amount of time.

In terms of comprehension, I see posts that indicate people haven't read all that carefully (they're overlooking some of the contents I've listed)In addition to a 1500 - 1800 calorie MRE, I have a 2400 calories worth of Mainstay ration bars. Short of keeping my BOB in my car, there's only so much food and other stuff I'm going to keep in a GHB. Part of the reason is that the entire pack is only 2100 Cubic inches... not terribly big to begin with and it's already got a decent bit of its total space already used up.

Perhaps a conversation that might come out of this thread would examine our recommendations on preparedness topics. Conclusions alone are hard to discuss. It's the information and reasoning that contribute to those conclusions that's worth discussing.

-Jeff