Wilderness Equipment Survival Checklist

Essential:  

Axe and/or Knife

Fire and tinder

Important:

Pot or cup

Cordage (50-100 feet of para cord)

Drum liner(s), clear plastic

Whistle

Compass

Headlamp

Food

Water

Warm clothing (sweater, mittens, hat, neck gaiter)

Rain gear

Nice to have: 

Map

Sharpener

GPS

Sunglasses

Sunscreen

First aid kit

Water treatment

Insect repellent

Mosquito headnet 

Winter:

Headlamp

Shovel

Pot, large

Repair material for showshoes or skis

Desert: 

Water

Tropics: 

Machete

I'm a Dogist

There are lessons for living that we can learn from dogs. Our canine friends are always honest and open. They take pleasure in simple things. They don't waste time regretting the past. They don't worry about the future.

On the other hand, they enjoy drinking from toilets. I think the key here, as with most things in life, is taking the good and leaving the bad - and being able to differentiate between the two.

When I was in the military, I had "Dogist" stamped on my dog tags in the place where your religion is supposed to go. When I was questioned about it, I said "Sir, if I can't eat it or hump it, I piss on it". 

Some of those senior Marine officers have no sense of humor.

Interesting gear: The Zeltbahn shelter-quarter

I'm typing this from inside a Zeltbahn, an ingenious triangular shelter-quarter developed and issued by the Wehrmacht during WWII. The design was subsequently copied by the French, Russians, Swiss and probably others that I am unaware of. I ran across a good deal on some surplus French versions and decided to indulge my curiosity both historical (my college major) and personal (some of my great uncles spent many nights in them). (I'll spare you the stories, but note the Knight's Cross.)

Each soldier was issued one shelter-quarter, a section of tent pole, a peg, and some bits of rope. With those accoutrements, a zeltbahn weighs a total of 2 1/2 pounds. It can be pitched singly as a very minimal shelter, or buttoned together with others in configurations of 2, 3, 4, 8 or even 16. They also have head slits so that they can be worn as ponchos, and two can be buttoned together and combined with a couple poles to make a stretcher. How's that for versatile? 

I buttoned eight of them together. I'm glad I didn't do it the first time in the dark or with cold fingers. Efficient assembly requires a degree of familiarity I don't have, and there are a lot of buttons. I wore my fingers out, especially since I seem to have done everything wrong at least once.

Supposedly this would accommodate eight men, but it's difficult to see how unless half of them were off on guard and KP duties at any given time. It was roomy enough for me, a squirming, gassy six-year-old, and a squirming, gassy Great Dane. I was like the roast beef in a squirmy, gassy sandwich. 

Here's a view from the rear, and the poncho head slits are visible. (If it's pouring rain, do you wear your zeltbahn or make a tent out of it?) 

Gratuitous squirming, gassy Great Dane pic:

Gear that works: Bushbuddy woodburning cookstove

The "Bushbuddy" stove is a lightweight stainless-steel camping stove made by Fritz Handel in Canada. I don't know anything about him except that his workmanship is excellent, and that when I emailed him to say so, I got a nice personal reply. His stove fits neatly inside a Snowpeak titanium pot. Stove, pot and a matching titanium spork weigh a total of one pound. It will boil a liter of water in about ten minutes using twigs, pinecones, trash or even dried dung for fuel. No moving parts to wear out or break, no fuel to buy, carry, spill or smell. The only downside is that it makes pots sootier than a gas or alcohol stove would. Walking into the camp pictured above, I picked up one arm-length, finger-thick oak branch with some twigs still attached. That's more than I needed to fry eggs and potatoes and boil tea. 

Obama

Obama is a lawyer. He's never been anything but a lawyer. He married a lawyer. He chose a lawyer with bad hair plugs as a running mate. He sees the world through lawyer eyes. He processes what he sees with his lawyer eyes through a lawyer brain. He's never had his courage tested, either voluntarily or involuntarily. We don't know what he's made of, and neither does he. He's never been in the military, but he "thought about it once", so he feels qualified to jump into the middle of a war as commander-in-chief. He's promised everything to everybody, with no way to pay for any of it. Since he became a senator, he's literally done nothing but run for president while we pay his salary. Credit where credit is due, though: He reads a teleprompter more charismatically than McCain. This is the best America can do? We've gone from George Washington to this? A president who led from the front, armed and mounted, to one who sues people for discrimination and plans to negotiate with zealots?

Rubbing sticks together to make fire

There's a primal satisfaction to starting a fire with stone-age equipment. There are plenty of videos and how-to articles about bow drills available on line, but I'll throw out these few tips: Technique is critical. Kneel, step on the hearth board, brace your spindle arm against your leg for stability, and concentrate in long, level strokes with your bow hand. Start slowly to warm things up and develop a smooth rythm. Don't bear down hard until you've already filled the cut-out with dust. Sometimes the bearing surfaces polish each other and they stop producing dust. A pinch of dry sand will help. Once you get a coal (you'll know you have one if your little pile of dust keeps smoking after you've stopped drilling), don't be in a hurry to transfer it to your tinder bundle and start blowing. Giving it thirty seconds or so to coalesce will be beneficial.

Behold the fisherman:

Behold the fisherman:

He riseth early in the morning

And disturbeth the whole household,

For mighty are his preparations.

He goeth forth full of hope,

And returneth smelling of strong drink,

And the truth is not in him.