SURVIVAL BAG
UNPACK AND INSPECT CONTENTS FIRST
THEN READ INSTRUCTIONS FOR ADVICE ON HOW TO USE
CONTENTS:
Bag: medium size High Sierra backpack
Food: 2 MREs (Meals Ready to Eat), 3 Mountain House dehydrated meals, 1 Datrex blue block of 72
hour food rations
Bucket: Home Depot “Homer” bucket #2 food grade storage bucket with lid
2 bottles: 1 stainless steel, 1 RubberMade (Mora sheath knife inside)
plastic sheet (for solar still or shelter)
1 survival book
Tools mesh bag:
folding knife, multi-tool in ziplock bag
2 LED flashlights, 1 headlamp in ziplock bag (may have plastic tabs protecting batteries)
2 light sticks
2 butane lighters, 1 box matches, 1 firesteel, 2 wet tinder cubes, 1 magnifying lens in ziplock
bag
1 compass
First Aid mesh bag:
1 SAM splint (orange foam w/aluminum core)
1 respiratory mask
1 large tube sunscreen
1 insect repellent (non-DEET)
1 lip balm chapstick
1 container 50 hand soap sheets
1 dry towel washcloth
First Aid tub:
moleskin, wound closure strips, bandaids, liquid bandage, stretchy sticky
bandage
Q-tips, ZipFizz drink powder, finger splint (a small piece of SAM splint to practice
with)
3 Bacitracin w/pain relief packets (anti-biotic cream), 3 alcohol cleaning packets
10 loperamide chloride (Immodium) green tablets in ziplock bag - anti-diarrhea
pill box:
aspirin (81 mg child strength coated) – pain relief and heart attack
10 extra strength acetaminophen (Tylenol) – pain relief
10 naproxen sodium (Aleve) – longer pain relief
10 diphenhydramine chloride (Benedryl) antihistamine – allergy/cold-flu
Camping mesh bag:
1 mess kit (w/small pot and cup inside)
1 eating utensil (with knife blade)
1 Platypus collapsible water bottle
1 Polar iodine (read instructions)
2 25' lengths of 550 paracord
1 pair gloves
1
2
1
1
1
2
1
1
space blanket
black garbage bags
wad of duct tape
dry towel
wet bandana (soak for several hours for cooling effect on neck)
small bundles of velcro straps
tin can w/roll of toilet paper, 2 tampons, several coffee filters, and 2 ZipFizz drink mix
fishing kit tub: 30' of 100 lb test line, hooks, lures, weights (need floats)
Add yourself:
Clothes: shoes, hat, warmth related clothes, complete change of underwear and outerwear
Maps, contact list, money, cell phone, more water...
INSTRUCTIONS: [become familiar with the survival book, know what's in it and
where to find it, but this may help also]
1: Know the rule of Threes - you can survive about three minutes without air, you can survive about three
hours without shelter (under extreme conditions, but this is highly variable depending on conditions and
protections), you can survive about three days without water, you can survive about three weeks without
food. Adapt this rule according to your situation, but it helps supply a good baseline of awareness for critical
needs. Air Shelter Water Food; is the general sequence, but it can change. Most of the time, we don't
think too much about air and shelter, just taking them for granted until that is challenged. Remember that
shelter includes the protection offered by clothing. That leaves us mostly concerned about water and food
until air or shelter needs change.
2: Water – is generally your top concern. Under extreme heat and exertion, water can become critical in
less than three days, but it WILL become critical in three days under normal conditions and as you approach
the critical level, your ability to function and reason and think clearly will drop off quickly, so it's important
to stay as far away from that edge as possible. Stay hydrated when possible. Water is more important than
food and you should not eat much if you don't have water. Always note where your possible water sources
are and remember them. You can find water in and under damp sand. You can find water in condensed dew
in the morning. You can extract water from plants or from impure water sources using a solar still if you
have some plastic sheet and know how to do it. Green plants show the presence of water and animal trails
usually lead to water.
Rapidly moving, cold water is usually the best, but pay attention to any obvious contaminants such as dead
animals or chemical sludge. Retrieve the best quality water you can. Use a coffee filter to remove rough
debris from the water. This is mostly cosmetic. It takes very fine filters (down to .2 microns) to remove
microbes like giardia and cryptosporidium. Boil the filtered water to kill biological pathogens and viruses, or
use the iodine disinfectant for the same purpose. You don't need to do both. If you have time, you can
disinfect water with ultraviolet light by exposing it to strong sunlight for 6-8 hours. Use a clear container,
no thicker than a 2L soda bottle. Any water that has been disinfected should be stored in a clean container
and care should be taken to not contaminate it by contact with dirty water. The tin can has holes drilled in
the side to use cord to suspend it over a fire. It can also be placed directly into a bed of coals. The
stainless steel bottle can be used the same way.
Finding water in extreme conditions - follow the greenness of vegetation to find water sources. Follow
animal trails to water sources. Collect impure water, vegetation, or anything that is damp and use a solar
still to extract clean water from it (see survival book). Put a bag over a branch of leaves to collect
condensation. Overnight, spread out a plastic bag or anything flat at an angle with a collector at the bottom
to gather condensed dew.
3: Fire - Fire is important for many reasons: it can offer warmth against cold when shelter is inadequate, it
can be used to boil water to purify it for drinking, it can be used to cook food, it can be used as a signal for
rescue, it can be used to make a variety of tools. Know what it takes to build a fire: a combustion source,
tinder for combustion, kindling, and then main fuel. Matches or a lighter are the easiest combustion sources,
but you can also use flint and steel, a fire bow and drill, sunlight magnified by a lens or mirror, a fire piston
compression device, electricity and steel wool, and some chemical reactions. But you need to know how to
perform these techniques and most likely will have to practice them before being capable of using them in a
survival situation. Some of them require specific tools and knowledge and most of them require a great deal
of patience (often several hours of effort, which may not be worthwhile).
Fire starters = matches and butane lighter. Wet tinder for extreme conditions. Try to save this until you
really need it. Swedish Firesteel - an easier to use version of flint and steel. Practice with this until you
have the hang of it. Collect your combustion tinder first, then place it where it can best catch and burn.
Point the firesteel rod down into the tinder, then begin scraping the rod with the steel striker, sending a
shower of sparks flying down
into the tinder, causing combustion. Don't strike at the rod, a slower scraping motion works best. If you
need extra help, scrape some magnesium filings off the rod onto your tinder, then spray sparks into it to
ignite.
The magnifying card may be used to focus light from the Sun to cause combustion and start a fire. Hold the
magnifier in the path of the sunlight so that it focuses the light on some target. Move the card toward and
away from the target and notice how the focal point shrinks and grows. When the focal point is smallest, the
heat will be most intense. It should be when the card is about 7 inches or so away from the target.
There are instructions on making a fire bow/drill in the survival book, and while this method is good to know
when you have nothing else, it takes a lot of practice to learn and persistence to accomplish even once you
know how to do it. Use all other means first or practice this a lot if you want to be able to use it.
4: Knife - Your knife may be your single most important tool (other than knowledge) because you can use it
to get everything else if you know how. Protect your knife with your life. The Mora sheath knife is the
primary knife for most jobs. It is not big, but is light and sharp and made from carbon steel. There is also a
folding knife and/or multi-tool with assorted cutting edges on it and another small knife blade in the fold out
eating utensil unit.
5: First Aid - Band aids, alcohol packets and stretchy/sticky tape are for wound protection. Steri-strips
are good for holding wounds closed. Mole skin gets attached directly to the area of skin that needs
protection from blistering. Tampons make excellent blood absorbers and also double as fire tinder. The
Bacitracin packets will help prevent or fight infection and contain pain relief medication.
Pill box: aspirin for pain relief and heart attack, acetaminophen (Tylenol) for pain relief, naproxen sodium
(Aleve) for longer pain relief, diphenhydramine chloride (Benedryl) is an antihistamine for flu/cold and allergy
relief, loperamide chloride (Immodium) is an anti-diarrhea medication, which is important to prevent because
of fluid loss when water is not available.
SAM splint: the splint is an aluminum core covered with orange foam padding. It bends easily, but becomes
quite strong when it is curved. Don't practice too much with it, because I don't know how often it can be
re-bent. I have cut off a small piece (using normal scissors) to create a finger splint that you can practice
with. Take it out of the little tub (bandaids) and bend it to surround an injured finger. You can pinch one
end closed if you like. Use the stretchy, sticky wrap to hold it on your finger. Remove it and straighten it
out.
6: Shelter – 550 para-cord is supposed to hold 550 pounds, but don't trust that number with your life. It
has an external sheath and 7 distinct cords inside. The sheath can be stripped away and the smaller cords
used for small tying jobs that require less strength. Every foot of whole para-cord supplies 7 feet of smaller
cord inside.
7: Fishing/Hunting - The fishing line is 100lb test and doubles as material for making snares for trapping
small animals.
GENERAL: Once you've gone through all the stuff, think about what you want to add (clothes, more water,
more food, maps...) and how you want to repack the bag and bucket. Everything I've included should fit into
the bag alone, or you could relocate food and water into the bucket and pack clothes in the bag. The two
water bottles fit in the mesh bags on the outside of the backpack.
Mostly, I hope you never need to use this bag and hope if there is an emergency that you can use the
“hunker down” at home option instead of bugging out. But I hope this helps you to think about you might
need to do and how to do it. This bag would also be helpful for staying at home in most emergencies but you
should think about more things you can do. [fill a bathtub with water, drain the water from a hot water
heater...]
GOOD LUCK!