Blog/Tutorial 2 - Get Home Bag

Description: Get Home Bag - A light, "high speed" bag equipped with only the needed equipment to get you home.

Author's disclaimer: Every get home bag is going to be unique. Each individual has a unique set of skills and a unique situation. Some of you may be less then five blocks away from work or school from home. Where some of us may need to travel 2 days on foot to cover the normal 90 minute long commute. Because of this, the list below is going to be rather generic and more of a guideline for your situation. at this point its more important you put on together. Go through it twice a year to change for the seasons and you're far more prepared than the average citizen.

Backpack choice.

Stay away from military surplus backpacks. You're trying to blend in with everyday clothing around you. You don't want to be targeted as a individual who has valuable survival items.

This backpack needs to be lightweight (under 15 lb 6.5Kg) but big enough to carry the supplies below. 15 to 30 liters with external pockets.

Author's personal choice: canvas backpacks with wide shoulder straps for comfort, without a waste belt, so you can lose the bag quickly. Most canvas backpacks can't be treated to be water resistant, due to the nature of canvas material, we will address that. check the stitching and you may want to buy a hand sewing awl. After you find something you like, there are several canvas wax treatment you can do, overall canvas usually makes a pretty rugged backpack for the work it should be doing.

Unless you're the kind of person that wears survival gear every day, it's recommended for convenient, you have clothing appropriate for the weather in your car, locker or desk.

Lock your backpack and gear with in a hard box, either bolted down inside your daily vehicle or at the very least a lockable bin.

The following gear list is excluding what's in your pack and should either be on you or in the lock bin. also (recommendations to start with)

• Hiking boots (keens)

• Two pairs of regular socks and one pair of antifungal socks like smart wool or hemp. (darn tough socks)

• Hiking or cargo pants or shorts depending on the climate. (5.11)

• Sturdy belt.

• Multi-tool (Gerber, Leathermen...)

• Rechargeable LED flashlight (streamlight strion)

• Rechargeable LED Headlamp

• Pocket knife

• Underlayer, needs to be a moisture wicking material and preferably anti-fungal.

• One warm sweatshirt with hoodie

• Rain jacket that is more similar to a windbreaker.

• Baseball hat

• Depending on your local laws, a concealed weapon. Author's note: It's important you spend more money on training than the actual weapon itself. Seek training or don't bother. You're looking to run away from threats, not provoke a firefight ending in death.

The pack list and info.

1. H2o - Due to the nature of things, I can't tell you exactly how much water to pack, instead I can tell you the rule of thumb for hikers. Hikers typically plan for .5L of water for every hour of hiking. Plus 1L for every 1,000 ft elevation game. Children are expected the drink .25 or 1 cup, to 2 cups or 1L of water per hour. Take in the fact that most of American are living in a continuous borderline dehydrated state, you should pounding water before you start walking and refill asap from a clean sources.

A backpack water bladder with a straw coming forward would normally be recommended for a rigorous hike like the one you may need to undergo but you're trying not to advertise your prepared for something like this. Stick with at least two containers of water. Both should be in the later or larger size. One of these two containers needs to be a insulated, stainless steel or similar construction container to keep your water cool or in some cases from freezing.

On top of the two full containers of water, I recommend you pack a collapsible water bladder that you can pull water from later and fill as you find clean water. Some water filter systems include this and the squeeze style water filter bladders are recommend.

To aid in gathering clean water, consider packing a water filter straw, a bladder squeeze filtration system and iodine tablets.

2. Food - the rule for this is simple. You should not be cooking food. All of your meals should be high in calories, lower in sugar and ready to eat directly out of the package. Now is not the time to stop and heat water for meals.

This will cut down on your weight and decrease your overall time to get home.

You don't even have to eat healthy here. Snickers protein pre-workout bars and maybe some trail mix will give you the fuel to keep going hard.

3. Shelter - You're trying to get home fast, your not going to need much. If you have a long distance, the following should suffice.

• Military grade poncho designed to go over you and your backpack with eyelets in the corners to be used as a tent.

• Paracord

4. iFAK- emergency first aid kit.

3 major rules of thumb for your iFAK.

1. you're most likely have to use the items in this kit on yourself so spend the money here.

2. if you don't know or you have never used the item listed below, Refer to YouTube for the manufacturers instructional video.

3. Look for a first aid class or wilderness survival class to assist you in Building your own emergency kit piece by piece.

There are free classes out there like Stop The Bleed and C.E.R.T. through your local fire department here in the United States.

• chest seal

• tourniquets: The tourniquid should resemble a 2-in wide long strap with a stick soned into it, to tighten it up. All the tourniquets with the exception of the israelian tourniquet have been proven to be less effective and more damaging during use.

• Israeli tourniquet

• Medical shears

• Celox Z-Fold Gauze

• Celox 4x4 gauze

• 10qty 4x4 square gauze

• Ace wrap

• Butterfly bandage

• Alcohol or antiseptidip wipes

• Anti-infection jelly

• Ibuprofen and anti-acid

• Moleskin

• Band-Aids

4. Let talk maps and GPS equipment...

Bottom line printer your map off, then either know your route or have your route drawn on the map. But just like your GPS, It is highly recommended you do not put your bug out location on the map with the exception of maybe some check-in points and code words you may not remember.

This is considered sensitive information.

The following items are recommended for short range under 14 mi. Get home bags.

• Laminated or water resistant paper maps to get home. It's more than likely your main commute path will have to be detoured. Check out the website https://caltopo.com/ to print off maps for lamination.

• Lensatic compass - if you don't know how to use this particular style of compass, it's recommended you take a class.

• Pencil, sharpie and notepad. Note keep the successible on an outside pocket

• Gloves

• Chargers and extra batteries for all electronics you plan to carry with you.

• Glow sticks (2)

• Have two-way radio, or ham, radio if your licensed.

• Bick later

The following add-on items are for distances greater than 14. Mi.

• Small binoculars

• Extra socks, shirt and pants

• Extra magazines for your concealed weapon

• Sealcock's key for turning on water

• Small 4x 8 ft tarp for sleeping on in conjunction with your poncho.

• Extra hat to help you change up your image.

• Sunglasses

• An extra 2L water container

The Truth, there is more we could add to this list but we're just trying to get you home in one piece to either help or protect your family. As I said before, I recommend you keep your pack lighter than 15 lb (6.5 kg). Sacrifice some of your comforts for speed.

Know your path

For the next step of this journey, you will have to walk your path home and alternative paths if you suspect bridges will be washed out.

This may take some time as some of us have a long commute and even if you walk this path in stages, it needs to be done.

If you're like me, you're looking at old railroad tracks and some of them don't connect anymore or were washed out never to be repaired.

Good luck! And Keep preparing.