The last couple of days I've been putting together/revising get home bags/bugout bag to keep in all four of our vehicles, because of the state of the country and potential for post-election unrest.
The bags are more urban/suburban focused than "head for the hills." My wife works in the city, one daughter commutes about 30 miles to a suburban college, the other daughter works a couple miles away but sometimes goes on short road trips, and I work about 25 miles away. We are in SE Pennsylvania near Philadelphia.
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I already had the bags. Mine is a 5.11 Rush 12 (https://amzn.to/47SU17Q), one is a Maxpedition Falcon II (https://amzn.to/47QTUcR), one is an older REI Trail 25, and the last one is an older Nike daypack.
I already had a lot of the contents in my accumulation of camping gear. Some of these are on the way and should arrive in the next few days. The bag in my truck will have some variances but I wanted to ensure the girls all have some basic survival gear.
- Canteen / water bottle (2 Swiss surplus with cups, a French surplus canteen with cup, and a stainless 40 oz. Klean Kanteen with cup.) The bottles are filled halfway.
- Fire making kit (matches and a Bic lighter.)
- Coghlan's 36-hour Survival candle (https://amzn.to/3Y7oUSB) One of these can warm a small space like the inside of a car a few degrees to take the edge off. They come with a book of matches inside the tin.
- Bandana and/or USGI triangular bandage .
- Headlamp + spare batteries (https://amzn.to/4dC2o95)
- Mossy Oak Multitool (https://amzn.to/4dFd5rb) I'm impressed with these for the price.
- Silcock key for opening spigots on commercial buildings. (https://amzn.to/3TSPcpa)
- Flat pack duct tape. (https://amzn.to/3zIbXp5)
- About 50' #36 bank line (https://amzn.to/4823RUT) I prefer this to 550 cord because it's much thinner so you can pack a lot more for the same volume.
- AMK .3 Med Kit (https://amzn.to/4gLW8OR) (This is in addition to each car's FAK.)
- Water filter (https://amzn.to/3YcNXDG) These can thread onto a standard plastic water bottle or use the included dirty water bag.
- Long aluminum spoon (https://amzn.to/3zHNosl) (When I was in the Civil Air Patrol in the 80s, my WW2/Korea/Vietnam vet mentors beat it into to me to ALWAYS have a spoon. Also, sporks suck unless the spoon and fork are on opposite ends of the utensil.)
- Lifeboat rations (https://amzn.to/3BvNXGl)
- Work gloves
- Space blanket (https://amzn.to/3Ukmfmv)
- Mylar survival poncho (https://amzn.to/3XUndGR)
- Aluminum cookset (https://amzn.to/47V0qiM)
- Ziplock with instant coffee, chicken boullion, tea bags, and Gatorade powder
- Esbit stove and fuel (https://amzn.to/3zNDEwM).
- Hexamine fuel tablets for the Esbit stoves (https://amzn.to/4emGs2R). These also make GREAT fire starters.
- Socks in a Ziplock.
- We all wear glasses, so some Zeiss lens wipes in a Ziplock. (https://amzn.to/3XSpJgW)
Each vehicle has a blanket and a spare hoodie or coat, and a knit cap. I also want the girls to keep spare boots in their trunks. Each vehicle will also have a 6-pack of bottled water.
All vehicles have a Noco Boost Plus GB40 Jump Packs (https://amzn.to/3ZRJjw8) in case of a dead battery. The Nocos are in hard cases (https://amzn.to/3zMOgf8). They also provide USB out, so I'm including a multi-plug charger cable (https://amzn.to/4ePGv7d).
Is this a comprehensive, end-of-world survival kit? Of course not. The idea behind these is that if any of us are stuck away from home and need to hoof it we have some basic supplies for a day or two of walking.
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