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Put your bugout bag to the test.
Tonight, sleep outside for one night, even if it is on the back porch or your balcony. You don’t have to go to a campground – just outside.
Only use the supplies in your bugout it for this. If you really want to test things out, use your bug-out bag for supper, too. You can also do a campfire meal if you’re allowed to have a fire where you live.
Do you have the supplies you need if this was a necessity?
Here are some resources on bug-out bags.
- How I Built My Ultimate 25-Pound Bug Out Bag
- Lessons from an Urban Survival Course with Selco: Your Gear and How to Pack It
How good is your bug-out bag?
Is there anything you need to add to your bug-out bag after this test? Is your bag filled with the supplies you need? Share what changes, if any, you would make after this test.
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ooh this is really good
but, I have neither shelter or a sleeping bag/mat. Sleeping in the backyard in the tropics without either is asking for trouble; rats, possums, frogs, raccoons and the coral snakes.
So corsaire is out.
For me this has been the “how am I not prepared wake up call challenge”
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Oh, my…I’m already in trouble. I got my BOB out of the car where I keep it and began to go through it as if I were actually having to stay out overnight with only what is in the bag…Right off I can see I have NO water and NO food. Thirsty and hungry and it’s not yet dark. I had already planned to go through this bag but during the year of prepping I’ve been doing, that bag has been a sort of catchall for stuff I was buying for an emergency. Now I’ve really got to get serious about it. Can you believe: flashlights but no batteries; a change of underwear but no dry clothes; no SOCKS; nothing large enough to create any sort of shelter – the mylar emergency blanket might work but I don’t know.
Thanks for this challenge. I can very easily and safely sleep out on my deck tonight (a life-long camper person) but not sure I’m up to the discomfort. More importantly for me is becoming painfully aware of how inadequate my BOB is….bottles of water in the car and 72 hour emergency food bucket is no help if all I can grab is my BOB. New goal – get that bag ready for a real emergency!
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My GHB rides along while I’m trucking in a day cab, things go wrong often enough it gets used regularly, I’ll go through it tonight checking for expired stuff.
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Gotta work on my bag but not going to sleep out tonight. I caught a bad cold and its cold outside here at night.
I am used to camping though so sleeping outside isn’t a big deal- unless all I have is what is in the bag. I don’t plan to bug out because of DH disability but always have plan B in mind.
In a way, my car has been my bag. If we were in a nearby city during EMP though that wouldn’t be good.
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I can’t imagine a scenario where I would have to use my bag overnight. We are always local and if we arent, then that’s a different approach. We have zero plans to leave.
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No camping out in back yard for me either. The mosquitoes would carry us off. Getting very humid and suppose to rain tonight. Though I will be going through my bug out bag later this evening. But this does remind me that I do want to get a couple of really good sleeping bags and a tent that one person can put up. Have looked a a few but very much high priced. Will need to save a bit more for one. Though I do have a couple of tube tents but not very comfortable for a long stay.
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We had to get rid of the 70 year old boy scout tent and haven’t replaced it yet. yeah 70 yrs old , he inherited the BS tent when his dad passed and we used it regularly over the last 35+ years. Dad (and DH) kept it up and it served us well but it has gone to the big scout camp in the sky (TAPS playing in the background). Due to things with DIL’s father I cannot do the challenge tonight.The grands may have to come here overnight and without a tent, no camping for us. So far the FIL is stable, haven’t heard anything different right now . Thanks again for the prayers.
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Since Day Five of this Challenge, I’ve been sorting thru my main BOB, my GetHomeBag, and assorted auxiliary bags/containers. My tiny house has been an ever-changing MESS! I can’t seem to get one project completed before I’m immersed into the next three. NOT all of the projects are from these Challenges…normal life goes on too. And this isn’t a bad thing…cuz this IS how life is Before/During/After some crisis.
I have my BOB inventoried completely and the next step was to study the inventory and decide where my holes are in my categories: water/food/tools/light/business/sanity/etc. Also decide where I can trim things down for weight and/or volume. Hadn’t gotten that far with a whole brain working for analysis.
DING! Time’s up and we’re heading out the door to live with the BOB’s contents, huh? Hmmm… That IS how these catastrophes happen. Fair enough….
Um…there is a [for real] MAJOR WINTER STORM bearing down on the Rockies this weekend. Fortunately it seems to be still north of our location….we’ll see. My Doppler Radar seems to be NOT working today….a real let down for my personal weather forecasting. Hmph! My Altimeter-as-a-Barometer isn’t going low so I think we’ll be spared. Barometers do not work at high altitude. Ah, a different site is up…so I can keep an eye on that one as well at the Jet Stream site.
Also….it’s HUNGRY BEAR SEASON…they’re frantically consuming all the calories they can find.
So this OldMtWoman might decide to go THEORETICAL…leaning on lots of past real experience…for tonite’s challenge. I’ll report later on how I would or am doing it safely.
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Ditto for me 🙁 Pulled BOB and hadn’t put in a mosquito screen yet. I had necessity’s for this challenge but I will try and see how hungry the skeeters are tonight. Wish me luck and send calamine 🙂
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Sorry…this is long again. Spent a lot of time thinking:
Okay, if I’m REAL…. Bug Outs don’t wait for the bears to hibernate nor the SEVERE WINTER STORMS to go away. Truth Be Told…that’s exactly when our emergencies happen. Which is why I don’t want to merely say….oops! This isn’t a good day to test sleeping outside with contents of my BOB so I can’t do this challenge. The truth is, no day is fall/winter day will be safe for me anymore however:
I chose to theoretically run thru a couple of situations that could cause DH and I to be forced to sleep outside this cold night. I’ve honestly slept outside in the past, under ALL conditions …except “Marauding Green Aliens”….so I can theorize honestly. MGA = any hostiles
SITUATION ONE: The truck IS MY BOB. Situation that I can’t use house but can use vehicles tho not to drive such as: our roof caved-in from excessive snowfall, earthquake, fire, etc. Our vehicles are also shelter. We’ve slept in the back of the pickup while camping. Note: aluminum topper seems to draw in the cold! Winter-weight sleeping bags ‘live’ in the truck so we’d have those along with a bunch of other stuff. Snow here tonight would mean we’d be SAFE to start a warming fire outside to keep warm until curling up in the sleeping bags.
REALITY: Honestly, the last time we camped was in this exact weather….and I froze all night. In the back of covered truck…with DH….winter-weight bags. Toooo cold to sleep. Miserable! I was a decade younger then! I don’t figure that’s gotten any better.
IF we were staying on site but not in house, I’d have a better chance if we’d dig out the large, free-standing tent from the truck. Takes a while to set up, tho I’ve done it many times. THEN we would have room to safely use the Buddy Heater. Fuel canisters are in a special box outside, right next to the truck. We also have two cots, very low and small, but off the ground. Put down closed-cell foam winter mats before laying out the sleeping bag. Dog would have to be on duty cuz …..IT’S BEAR SEASON in the Rockies right now. Bears count as Marauding Green Aliens!
SITUATION TWO: Evac Without Vehicles. “Marauding Green Aliens” have us fleeing into the deeper woods.
REALITY: In our current autumn weather [let alone threatening Winter Storm], I could not stay warm enough in any SOL Mylar Ebag, tube tent, or even a nylon A-tent that I am capable of carrying in just a BOB. Even dry and out of wind….NOT warm enough at my age. Not even on our porch tonite.
REALITY: There is no way for me to CARRY our winter-capacity sleeping bag even by itself. However, might use our deep ice sled to drag [on snow or dry drag] or a horse carrying a pack. Either are options IF you weren’t hiding from those Marauding Green Aliens and had to use stealth. In that case, heavy snow falling would help.
REALITY: Best way for me not to freeze to death in fall/winter Bug Out would be to make a lean-to shelter frame and cover with lots of pine boughs. In our woods, these would be simple to make. In basic: lash a cross pole between two trees and 2 more poles go from cross pole to ground. Lean loads of pine branches on the poles and fill in the sides too for a triangular shelter. Shallow, open in front…facing the fire. Logs and Mylar sheet rigged behind fire to reflect heat. [don’t melt the mylar – it’s plastic] Pine boughs under you too. Trust me, a snow cave [with proper ventilation] is warm too, if snow conditions are right for that. Snow on top of the pine bough lean-to will be more insulation, but don’t melt the snow on top of you with that fire. Wake and feed fire all night.
I have folding saw and big knife in BOB but it’s easier for some wood to snap dead branches for firewood length. Lay one end of long branch so it’s propped up a foot or so on log/rock…and stamp down sharply. Less energy used but watch where the pieces fly up. [I need winter footwear in my BOB.]
Food: Because of BEAR potential all summer and double in Fall, no food is stored in the vehicles…except MREs. I think that packaging would thwart a bear’s nose…until you open it. Since my BOB lives in the truck, only food in there is 2 MREs. They are super heavy but I’ve seen with my own eyes what a bear did to my friends’ vehicle. One of the regional realities … like Corsaire’s coral snakes. [ Yikes…..I’ll take my bears!] Other food could be salvaged from my theoretically-collapsed house or energy bars from the GetHomeBag thrown over the railing as we fled the house. After that, we’re eating pine trees.
Bugging Out without vehicles ….we would try; what choice is there? Sit and die? But it’s always been pretty much a low survival options if we have Marauding Green Aliens.
OldMtWoman
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This reply was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by
OldMt Woman.
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For bears here mre work well as for getting them out of camp. If you are in vehicles canned food last a long time if not dented or wet… including labels…. mystery ca stew can be potent.
Like my visitor was using some gel bear spray or burning branch at end of walking staff…. bangers too noisy and if i have to go bang… it’s bear meat for next few meals….. I don’t mind it in sausages mixed with pork but bear kind of mushy for my taste. No worries about garbage bears as no neighbours or people dumps for a long long ways. We occationaly get grizzly at the offal site from farm but the dogs deter most.
We use Hennessey hammoc 1.25 lb per unit k only one for my corpulent size lol and then wrap in the mylar tarp closing bottom with metal clothes pins. It’s always dry and we have a ton of trees. Sets up.fast is super light aND you don’t have ground water issues Plus as I get older not as many aches from ground damp. You wi need to.modify two things all the zippers need monkey fist knots on them an on lines to hammock do they are easy to open with gloves and no water running wicking. In normal times glow in dark are best to help find when dark. Second go to wreckers and get seat belt sew so you can use caribeaner that can support you body and gear weight. to quick latch tight around tree. I have glow in dark strips on velcro to help find at night my hammok. I use an inflatable pillow and hammock bag as pillow.
In -30c you are out of snow and you build a pine bough shelter on 3 sides on 4th you place fire and reflective mylar car window so the hammock gets bulk of the heat. To stop.having to get up and feed fire you use settler trick of Y loading wood. https://youtu.be/ejfSv3raPDo
You can also string up around fires to use most of the heat. When cold we use a bubble wrap mylar window heat reflector as the under layer in hammock. I wrap mine in large pillow case like terry cloth towel bag it keeps noise down and stops you from sweating inyo/onto the bubble wrap which can cause issues in extreme cold.
For those of you who have a bunk buday they have two people hammocks
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This reply was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by
namelus.
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This reply was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by
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This reply was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by
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OldMtWoman, I always enjoy what you write.
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Ok, I have been very busy all day, and didn’t check what this challenge was until 11:44pm. We have been watching a portion of our ceiling with a crack in it get lower, crack get bigger, ceiling getting lower, etc, all summer long. Knew it was going to come down soon, but was hoping it would wait until it cooled off a bit before having to tackle that job of repair. Well, we were just sitting here this afternoon and NOTHING was vibrating the house when BOOM!! That crack gave way, and the first part came down. Then the second part came down. We lost half our ceiling. Had to leave the house for a bit because of all the dust, couldn’t breathe! We got all the broken drywall picked up and moved outside. Then we vaccuumed everything twice. So, now its an emergency and we will have to deal with it. However, my idea of DH bracing it up a bit would not have worked. All the nails / screws REMAINED in the ceiling. So, the next several days will be spent going to buy the necessary items to repair our ceiling. FUN!!! Point is, we do have bug out bags, but they need fresh supplies, and we will NOT be sleeping outside tonight, still too hot and humid here, and we will need a good night’s sleep to cope with everything for the next few days. The GOOD news is, neither of us were seriously hurt by falling ceiling! Always look for the bright side!!
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Thanks, Woodsrunner. Wow, FarmGirl! You had a mini BugOut yourself. Nasty business to get all that dust cleaned up. Wearing masks? Good luck with now extensive repairs. 🙁
Dala Barns….how did you fare? Hope you didn’t make too many mosquitoes happy.
Anyone looking for tents might check thrift stores. People get excited about camping, go a couple times, then donate the stuff to thrift store after ants get into the butter. {roll eyes} Look for good name brands cuz cheap tents won’t last but a few nights; usually not worth the energy of putting them up. In a real BO, that could be dangerous. When using a tube tent in emergency, check wind direction before setting it up….just sayin’. 😉
Corsaire…..can the aforementioned snakes get into vehicles? If something happened to your house [hope not!!] could you sleep safely in your vehicle? Ugh…I detest/fear snakes…especially those rude enough to be poisonous!
Hoping to read about more folks who camped rough last nite. Our temperatures went down to the upper 30s with a 40mph WIND roaring down our valley. WIND still here. Golden bits [aspen leaves] and dust flying wildly northeast. [weird jet stream right now] I woke up chilly in my bed at 7am. We turn furnace way down at night but wow. House is not tight and WIND makes a big difference in heating it. Still thinking on this Challenge. Wonder if drinking ginger tea would warm the innards enough to stay warm, if ever needed in extremes?
OldMtWoman …working around aging/disabilities ..hmph
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This reply was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by OldMt Woman.
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This reply was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by
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no issues we are transitioning to winter packs but used the summer one… got down to -15c. All gear was good managed to get a grouse with sling shot and a bunny buster arrow…. a rabbit in snare….
No more mosquitos now too cold… bear action from the smell of the cooking meat…. shoo shoo bear.
Water was fine even had some rum for the tea. Medicinal uses of course. Got to try the tarp mylar instead of cheap space blanket was much nicer and robust…. will have to add some more para cord as some was a bit frail
Lucked out for breakfast found some late much rooms wild onion and landed a fish. (Bull trout) used a line and pine cone bobber.
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Old Mountain Woman — No, did not even THINK of using masks!! Really SHOULD HAVE!!! The dust that had been accumulating, plus all the rat (and other animal excrement), that came falling down, it was not a good idea to be breathing it!!! But we both just started in trying to clean up the mess. My bad!!!
Namelus — WOW! Getting a grouse with just a slingshot!! I’m impressed! And catching a fish for breakfast! Sounds like you could be a real “wildman” living off anything you can find in the woods. Congratulations on your overnight succes!!!
We pulled out all the screws and nails from the ceiling. I have removed all the wall decorations and and things from the shelf units so the guys will have room to work and my “pretties” won’t get broken. Hubby will go buy supplies tomorrow, and son is off on Tuesday’s, so he will come help hubby screw the drywall into the ceiling. We WERE going to add insulation and really do this right, but that will have to wait. This is just the emergency fix. Will do the rest of the ceiling and hopefully add more insulation in the spring. Just need more money, time, and a helper. Hopefully son will be available to help again later on.
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Using a whisker biscuit and arrows greatly increases chances of getting small game with reusable ammo.
Way easier aiming using notch in the whisker biscuit. You can fold the whisker biscuit so you can use standard ammo.
Very few humans near here lots of wild life… takes more skill not to run over grouse when driving.
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I had to bow out on this one. I had to work yesterday and by the time I got back home it was so late that I went to bed. I will have to try this in the very near future.
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I had a house full of family for the weekend, so could not participate.
I did go through the BOB a week or so ago to update it for the seasonal changes. -
Ok. I was busy and couldn’t post yesterday. I had family obligations.
Yes, on Saturday night I slept outside in my neighbors lean to; I called and make sure it was available. My neighbor was sure no problem.
I trekked about 1/2 mile to it. I was in luck as someone had left some nice evergreen bows in for a nice cushion. I am glad I had the dogs with me as it was a little chilly. I need to adjust my bug out bag for the coming winter temperatures.
I used a small tarp to cover the open area of the lean to this maximizing warmth. The mosquitoes seem to be gone here, so no big issues here (no snakes either).
I did start a small fire in the fire pit. Someone was kind enough to have left wood. For dinner, I had a Mountain House chili Mac. On the water front, I must admit to cheating a tad as the lean to site has a well with a hand pump.
In the morning, I woke to find deer about 10 feet from the lean to. It was an amazing view with all the turning leaves. I had a hot tea and Mountain House breakfast skillet.
It was a great night of camping. The dogs and I enjoyed it.
I did identify a few shortfalls in my bug out bag. I definitely need more dog food. With the weight restrictions, I am looking into some freeze dried options that I can add water. I have a small tarp, but I could use a slightly bigger tarp. I also need to change over to winter items sooner. I also need to add more socks to my bag. Hopefully, I will never have to hike more than a few days with my bug out bag as my supplies won’t last more than a 5 days then I will be scrambling for food. On the food note, I did some edible plants.
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