I originally wanted to have everything in one bag; gear, food, essentials, and protection. But I've run into a problem, I created the bag to have enough supplies for me and my wife to survive for 76 hours in whatever situation you can imagine and I'm limiting the size of my bag to one large day pack. (See previous posts) I want to ensure that one person remains unencumbered so that we can take turns carrying the pack, scouting ahead, or engaging obstacles. I also want to ensure that the pack is small/light enough that mobility is not hindered if we need to move fast through rough terrain. This leaves me with a quite stuffed pack that has no extra room for 76 hours of meals.
Note: I am not advocating leaving the food behind in a Bug Out scenario, I am only stressing that it may be one of the less important items during a hasty departure. If you have time and space to pack food, by all means bring it along.
Here is my thought process behind having no meal type food in the pack; when and if I bug out, I may have only seconds to leave the house. If I have only seconds to depart, I wont have time to pack a suitcase or weigh decisions on what I want to bring, if I don't have time to decide, then when I grab my Bug Out Bag, it has be the one stop shop (and still be able to carry it) to cover most of the scenarios I can realistically plan for.
It must cover the following necessities for life (and in this order):
Safety -
- Personal Safety, such as the need for a firearm. Like Clint Eastwood says in "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly", "You see, in this world there's two kinds of people, my friend: Those with loaded guns and those who dig. You dig."
Shelter -
- If you don't have shelter in many situations, you will die. Shelter is a lot of things, from your shoes and coat, to a tarp and a warm fire. Exposed you won't last very long. (Some might say, water should be before shelter, to those people I say, tonight at midnight jump out of bed wearing only your underwear, run (not walk) out of your house all the way to your mailbox or the end of your street, no shoes, no clothes, and tell me which you would rather have next time you depart in a hurry, a gallon of water in a jug, or shoes and a coat.) I can get water most anywhere here in the pacific northwest, but if you have hypothermia and no shelter, all the fresh water in the world won't help you.
Water -
- Water is specific to your region, get some as soon as you can, purify if you're able, and stay hydrated. Water is heavy and you need to weigh (pun intended) the pro's and con's of carrying 8lbs of water (1 Gallon) or 8lbs of gear.
Food -
- You will need food eventually, but unless you have a medical condition, you can go for three days without food (many more if absolutely necessary). You will be hungry, but most of us can stand to loose a little weight. A big bag of food alone will not keep you safe or warm.
So, If you carry food, it can be in a separate bag, grab it if you have time and space to carry it, but the first priority needs to be the immediate future.
This is why I have recently purchased some emergency rations for the BOB, they aren't anything that you would want to eat for regular meals, and even in a Bug Out situation I would want a supply of real food to sustain me. They fit in the pack, don't take up much room and give me an easy 7200 calories (2 Rations at 3600 cal each)
MAINSTAY 3600 and 1200 Calorie Emergency Food Ration (Energy Bars)
Here is a close up of the 3600 and 1200 ration bar.
So I wanted to test these bars out. I'd like to know before I need them in an emergency if they taste like condensed sea-gull poop, or cause kidney failure.....
On test day I went to visit a gun show about 3 hours away, I awoke early in the morning (around 05:30AM) and ate only the energy bar until about 02:00PM (Lots of water), the day consisted of standing in the cold for hours and walking for a few hours once inside the show. The bar did its job, it was a pretty tasty lemon sugar cookie texture and I didn't have any adverse reactions from eating it. Its no cheeseburger, but it's not too hard to consume.
Make sure you have some water, I can't see myself eating a serving of this without at least a mouthful of water. It tastes good enough that my mouth watered while I ate it, but around 02:00PM I wouldn't have gone so far as to say that I would relish eating this for two or three days straight. In a bug out scenario hopefully you can use this to supplement what food you have brought along or scavenged along the way.
These bars are a good addition to a BOB, and they beat "air sandwiches" any day of the week, order some, keep them in your car and BOB. With a five year shelf life they are a solid stable ration if you ever need them.
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